The Card Apprentice - Chapter 26: The First Card Play (1)

Japan – National News BroadcastThe polished news anchor sat upright, her gaze sharp as she adjusted the stack of papers before her. The newsroom behind her hummed with quiet urgency, the weight of the moment settling over the broadcast.“Authorities are baffled by a sudden and unexplained surge in sleep-related deaths across Japan,” she began, her voice steady yet tense. “More and more citizens are passing away in their sleep without any prior health concerns. Experts are working tirelessly to determine the cause, but no clear explanation has emerged. Authorities urge the public to remain vigilant and report any unusual symptoms before bedtime.”A graphic appeared, displaying the spike in fatalities over the past month. Behind her, unsettling photographs flickered across the screen—blurred images of individuals found in their beds, their faces frozen in expressions of terror.The anchor’s tone shifted. “Health officials recommend citizens avoid excessive fatigue and maintain healthy sleep habits. More updates will follow as investigations continue.”---United States – Paranormal PodcastIn a dimly lit podcast studio, the host leaned forward, his eyes wide with curiosity. Across from him, a rugged man in a worn flannel shirt, gripping a faded photograph in one hand and a beer can in the other, leaned back in his chair.“So, you're telling me you saw this creature firsthand?” the host asked, clearly intrigued.The man scoffed, shaking his head. “Damn right, I did. Ugly thing had wings bigger than my body—slow but sneaky. Thought it could steal my pigs again, but I was ready this time—camera in one hand, shotgun in the other.”He slammed the table for emphasis, then shoved the blurry image toward the host. The photograph depicted a small, red-skinned humanoid figure with large, bat-like wings, its eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.“Spit, the thing didn’t know what hit it when I fired!” the man chuckled, his voice full of excitement.The host held up the picture to the live chat. “Alright, what do you think? Mothman? Demon? Or is our friend here just seeing things?”The chat exploded with theories—some skeptical, others eager for the investigation to continue.---China – Liangyuan Street MarketSurveillance footage from a bustling night market in China captured a chilling scene. A woman in a red qipao walked gracefully through the crowd, her figure striking in the soft glow of lanterns.Suddenly, she paused. Her body flickered—like a glitch in a video—before vanishing completely, as though she had never existed.The footage zoomed in, replaying in slow motion. In the final frame before she disappeared, her face distorted unnaturally, her eyes hollow and empty.The screen cut abruptly to black.

All she ever desired was a better life, to be recognized and accepted. Was she wrong to ask for that?What was the point of working hard when she couldn’t even see the results or the happiness, she wanted couldn’t even be grasped by her pinky finger?Even until the day she died and left her world as a lonely spirit, she had no idea what she had done wrong or what had gone wrong.A glimmer of hope returned when she found herself in a nameless body in a completely other universe. She understood what had occurred to her because she was from the modern world.She was hoping for a startling golden finger or a celestial ability as a transmigrated person, but the heavens abandoned her yet again. She was not only a waste, but she was bound to a sad and cruel life.She accepted her fate because she couldn't resist the gods for the second time, and her cowardice cost her everything. A ray of hope flashed on her just as she feared she was about to leave this second realm as a lonely ghost.Accepting to live the remainder of her life as a regular person, she faced difficulty after obstacle until her world was broken for the third time.After two decades of being homeless and living by the rules of the day, the gods finally showed mercy and bestowed upon her the golden finger she had been dying for.Alayna, bound by a hypermarket system (supermarket), will begin her journey with one objective in mind: “TO BRING JOY TO THE WORLD.”As for how? Let us join her as she transforms from a frail middle-aged woman to a strong, cheerful, and confident woman who will spread her wings and open hypermarkets all over the world.

In this world, a cataclysm has caused the appearance of monsters and other disasters, emerging from dimensional rifts and gradually pushing the world toward its destruction. To face it, some humans having awakened various magical powers are fighting against this apocalypse.

Dora, one of them, has a special “Avatar” class which gives her access to all the other classes, at the cost of great difficulty to level them up. Despite his enormous potential, he chose to appear incompetent to get his team kicked, just so he could live a lazy life with his family, but his habit of fighting and beating the woman's brother the strongest in the Kingdom reveals her talents and she decides to enroll her in the royal academy.

Reluctant at first, his mother gives him the motivation he needs to pursue this past, but little did they know what kind of monster they threw to the world. Dora is not a hero wishing for peace, but a monster getting addicted to the taste of power, wealth, and freedom.

With his strange condition of being not one but many people inside one body, each with a different personality, but the same thirst for more, “they” use a strange system giving them a new vision of the world around them.

Dora pursues an unknown goal until he meets someone who knows more about his true nature than himself and sets him on a path that will nourish his eternal first, to the cost of his humanity, but in a world collapsing, isn't a monster the greatest weapon?

With many personalities in one body, each having a different relationship with different people, a system taking them further and further away from their humanity, and an increasingly hostile world where humans kill each other while monsters slaughter them, could the situation be worse?

Well, it looks like Dora isn't the only one with a system.

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Third Miss Luo relies on her father’s power to create chaos everywhere and is notorious for bullying the weak. When she had nothing to do, she led a group of servants to the streets to flirt with beautiful and handsome boys. For Princess Qingyang, if this kind of person dared to behave wildly in front of her, she would just kill her with a single finger—until she opened her eyes again and found that she became Third Miss Luo, Luo Sheng.

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