Chapter Seventy-One: A Private Exchange

Liu Zong withdrew from the grand wheel with his three freshly acquired undead attendants. Just then, a player appeared behind him, whispering furtively as if selling illicit goods, “What did you pull? Want to come take a look?”

Noticing the gleam in the player’s eyes that hinted at something valuable, Liu Zong smiled and followed him. They soon arrived in another room, where several mana-affinity, shadow-aligned students were exchanging ideas.

When the player led Liu Zong inside, one of the others called out loudly, “Brother Xu, do you have any good stuff this time?”

Liu Zong glanced at this Brother Xu, who hurried to explain, “Don’t mind them, their luck is abysmal. Seven draws, all white cards, none of them even form a set. They’re just waiting here to be rescued.”

Brother Xu then signaled with his eyes toward the only seated player among them. “See that little guy? He’s a freshman who joined three years ago, a genius on the mana-affinity side. He’s got a knack for forcibly combining ordinary cards into sets.”

“Of course, such combinations are irreversible and single-use. Normally, it wouldn’t matter much, but right now, it’s giving those unlucky folks a glimmer of hope.”

Liu Zong smiled at that; he’d heard of this mana-affinity prodigy before. Though not particularly gifted in games, he possessed unique abilities regarding undead troops. He could merge ordinary undead soldiers into small squads or even larger units, boosting their strength and rank.

Naturally, aside from the aforementioned limitations, another issue with this merging process was positional count: the number of units combined determined their occupied slots. There were no leftover slots after merging; each soldier took up their place regardless. Moreover, the combinations had to be logical—no merging a skeleton and a zombie to create something like a two-headed zombie.

All the mana-affinity players here had drawn seven white cards—unlucky, to say the least. If they entered the battlefield with only those, they’d gain little, so they sought ways to combine their cards.

Generally, three white cards could form one green, and three greens formed one blue. Combining all seven white cards at once gave a substantial chance for a blue card, which was the gamble they were taking.

Still, that wasn’t why these mana-affinity players were swarming around Liu Zong. He sensed their gazes on him—hungry, almost predatory.

Upon hearing Liu Zong had a Ten-Year Coffin, a Ghostfire, and a Lolita card, one of them eagerly began to introduce some effective “recipes” they’d discovered.

“Brother, your luck is superb! With these three cards, you have many possible combinations. The Ten-Year Coffin can be merged into a Corpse-Hidden Coffin, a Demonic Morgue, or a Vampire Carriage. Ghostfire is even more impressive—seven Ghostfires create a Ghostfire Train, and it can also form Nether Lanterns or Guiding Spirits, strong combinations indeed.

“But your Lolita card is the most crucial. It’s a tool Lolita card—there are seven types, but only three have surfaced so far. Rumor has it that with all seven, you can merge a purple Lolita Legion. There are generic recipes for all Lolitas and special recipes for particular ones. Yours is the Bear-Hug Lolita—of the recipes I know, there are three…”

“No need for all three. You mentioned a unique recipe; let’s focus on that one,” Liu Zong interrupted directly.

The player didn’t answer, but the mana-affinity prodigy, who had been handling cards, looked up at Liu Zong.

“You can keep your Ten-Year Coffin. Ghostfire is useless—replace it with Black Chain, Wooden Wheel, or Vampire Claw.”

Hearing this, the player talking to Liu Zong cried out, “Boss Wu, let us earn a little too—don’t spill all the secrets at once!”

But the prodigy surnamed Wu didn’t care. “Two out of three of his cards work together. I won’t let him stray and trade away the useful ones.”

“Alright, Boss Wu, you have a point. So, fellow student, you heard him—just swap out Ghostfire for any of the three options. I’d recommend Vampire Claw, as it’s the easiest to get a green card from.”

As they spoke, the player who brought Liu Zong in led another newcomer into the room. “Everyone, check this out—I brought in a lucky draw champion! This senior drew seven cards: one blue and six green. Even his coffin card is a green Hundred-Year Coffin. That’s a big haul.”

The newcomer beamed with pride, smiling at everyone present. “I want to try merging three greens into a blue; the cards may not match perfectly, so I hope you can help.”

The prodigy Wu stepped forward, scanning the cards in his hand, then said, “There are two options. Using your blue card as the core, merge all seven at once for a thirty percent chance at a purple card, but four of the green cards need to be swapped out. The other option is to merge three greens into a blue; that would give you two blue cards, but these cannot be merged further into purple—at least, I can’t do it now.”

“How many cards need swapping for three greens into a blue?” the player pondered.

“The Phantom Chain and Soul Lantern won’t work. Replace them with Undying Bone, Ghoul Fang, or Crawling Ground.”

Upon hearing this, the player turned to the others in the room, “Can anyone help? If you have any of these, I’m willing to trade cards.”

Liu Zong glanced at the Phantom Chain, hesitated, and finally contacted Liu Chun to see if he had any stock. Unfortunately, Liu Chun, being a Lv1 player, only had cards that matched his class. The school had given him three undead attendant cards, all soul-type, lacking Undying Bone or Ghoul Fang. Even if Liu Chun wanted to help, he couldn’t.

In the end, Liu Zong watched as the Phantom Chain was traded to another player. Fortunately, there was someone in the room seeking to collect Ghostfires. He traded a Black Chain card with Liu Zong, ensuring Liu Zong wouldn’t miss out on the right combination.

[Black Chain (White)]
[Race: Undead]
[Level: Lv0 (2 stars)]
[Attributes: Strength 2, Agility 2, Constitution 3, Spirit 0]
[Description: Chains used to bind evil spirits. Over years of suppressing them, the chains have been stained black by the blood of the spirits.]