Chapter 595: Chapter 445: First Match Against a King (Part 2)

Within each group, a single round-robin will be played, and the two players with the most wins in that group will earn spots to enter the Cube Card Metaverse.

In other words, the three groups won’t play against each other, and they won’t affect each other’s records.

This grouping method is also something most shops agree with.

Because this time there are a total of three King-rank players participating.

If luck comes into play and two or all three Kings get put into the same group, then the pressure on players in the other groups gets much lighter, while those who get grouped with multiple Kings can only curse their bad luck.

As it turned out, the Kings did indeed end up unevenly distributed.

Two of the Kings drew into the same group.

The others in that group, of course, could only sigh and groan.

The group without any Kings, on the other hand, was over the moon.

Li Pu’s luck with group drawing could only be called so-so.

He ended up in the group that had a single King-rank player.

[Alright, everyone’s fate is set, please quiet down.]

[Next, we’ll draw lots for the pairings within each group.]

The room host motioned for everyone to stop chatting and moved on to the next round of drawing.

This round, Li Pu’s luck was downright terrible.

He actually drew the very first match of his group, and his opponent was that King-rank player.

"With luck like that, you’re screwed."

Ah Yajun was already starting to feel depressed on Li Pu’s behalf.

"You silly kid, you don’t get it."

Li Fan, however, didn’t take it seriously at all.

"With your current level, this is actually the situation where you have the best chance to beat a King-rank."

"You know that yourself, right?"

He looked at Li Pu.

"Teacher’s right."

Li Pu thought about it and realized that really was the logic.

Even though they were playing a variant blind-card mode, as more matches were played, parts of his foundations would definitely get figured out.

Especially when you have 16 opponents and need to play 16 matches.

He wasn’t like those Masters and Kings, with card pools so deep they could pull out 16 different powerful decks.

Climbing over the biggest mountain before he got figured out would be very beneficial to him.

"Besides, the out-of-game factors are really important too."

At this point Li Fan continued his coaching.

"So what I’m saying is..."

Li Pu felt like he could roughly guess what the other wanted to say.

"We’re all from the same street circle, of course I know that King on the other side."

"And I’ve got a particularly bad relationship with him, we’ve got some history at the card table."

Sure enough, Li Fan was about to start dumping intel.

"...Do you have a good relationship with anyone?"

Li Pu was not surprised.

He had already experienced at the table how infuriating Li Fan could be—he was the kind of guy that made your teeth itch.

He would deliberately mess with your mentality out in the open, forcing you into making mistakes.

And thinking back to how this guy used to "take back plays," he was probably several levels more hateable back then.

"That’s all in the past, no need to bring it up."

"Anyway, his favorite deck is a Rock Golem deck."

"But the strongest one, and the one that’s lost to me the most, is his Orc Tribe deck."

"From a probability perspective, those are the two decks he’s most likely to bring out later."

"Considering you’re playing under the banner of Fan’s Card House, the odds of him using Orc Tribe might be even higher, since he’ll want to save face against you."

"Forget it, hang on a second."

Saying this, Li Fan suddenly cut himself off and walked over toward that King.

The two of them exchanged a string of words that sounded like crackling firecrackers, and then he quickly came back.

"Done, I’ve already laid the trap."

"He’s definitely going to use that Orc Tribe deck later."

Li Fan spoke with absolute confidence and pride.

"...You can do that too? That’s so you, alright."

Li Pu hadn’t expected this guy to be able to manipulate a fellow King so easily.

"Cut the nonsense. While we still have a bit of time, I’ll introduce you to that Orc Tribe deck of his."

Li Fan waved his hand, signaling for Li Pu to lean in.

"That deck has a total of 21 cards, namely [Orc Chieftain], [Orc Hero], [Orc High Priest]..."

Next, he quickly went through every card in the opponent’s deck, explaining the details one by one.

Li Pu stayed silent the whole time, just listening, memorizing, and nodding repeatedly.

"Respect."

Watching the two of them like this, Ah Yajun could only sincerely say one word: respect.

Look at other people’s teacher—so shameless, oh wait, I mean, so responsible.

Already helping with strategy, plotting how a Diamond can beat a King.

And then look at his own teacher—so honest, oh wait, I mean, so lacking in ambition.

Still teaching him how to play Platinum vs Platinum.

Even after finishing his breakdown of the Orc Tribe deck, Li Fan was still a bit uneasy, so just in case, he introduced a few of the opponent’s other decks as well.

Only when the match was about to officially begin did he finally stop, mouth dry and parched.

He patted his thigh out of habit, then remembered this was the Cube Card World and there were no cigarettes, which made him feel a bit regretful.

"Teacher, I’m going up then."

Li Pu could tell that this time his teacher really had put his heart into it.

He didn’t know if it was out of teacher-student affection, wanting to bring him along to the Cube Card Metaverse...

Or out of some twisted desire to make an old loser of his lose to his student again.

Either way, he really was putting in the work.

When he got to the table, all he could see across the enlarged projection surface was a silhouette of light and shadow.

The ID was [A Gen Cools Again], and other than that there were no features to see, so he’d just call him A Genliang for now.

"That scammer actually didn’t lie to me..."

"He really didn’t enter."

Each table had audio pickup, so Li Pu could clearly hear what the other side was saying.

"Please place your cards."

Li Pu didn’t plan to say much.

While the two sides were setting up their cards, some other players and spectators from their group had already started paying attention.

"Someone as plain as that? Do we even have this guy on Seven-Star Street?"

"Never heard of him. But as King of Genliang’s first opponent, he probably doesn’t stand much of a chance, right?"

"Not necessarily. Do you know which shop he’s representing? Fan’s Card House."

"What? He’s with that bas—oh wait, that esteemed Lord Fan?"

"Heh, you must have bought cards from him."

"But to be fair, this Plain Guy’s probably doomed this round."

"All the better then, King of Genliang can scout the path for us, see what kind of style this newbie plays."

Amid the chatter, both sides finished placing their cards.

"Hmph, since you’re from Fan’s Card House, I won’t be holding back."

A Genliang didn’t seem inclined to talk much with Li Pu either.

He simply raised his hand and dropped a card, flipping his first card face-up.

Because it was blind-card mode, that flip wouldn’t show the physical card, only its projection.

And since this was a full-reveal opening round, it didn’t matter who flipped first or last, or which card was flipped before which.

A Genliang chose to flip his trump card first.

He wanted to hit the opponent with a show of force right out the gate.

[Orcs will never be slaves!!!]

With a sky-shaking roar, a pillar of light shot up from the card.

A green-skinned Orc wearing a long feathered crown stepped out of the beam.

Hanging from its neck was a dazzling Golden Tassel Necklace, looking heavy and expensive.

Its towering, muscle-packed body was only wrapped in a Withered Grass Skirt.

In both hands it gripped a pair of unknown beast skulls, looking a bit savage.

The roar was so loud that even the two neighboring groups were affected and all turned to look.

"Holy shit, A Genliang dropped that card!"

"So it’s the Orc Tribe deck?"

"Honestly, this full-reveal first turn mode is a pretty big buff for that deck of his."

"Yeah, that’s the trump slot [Orc Chieftain]. Flipping it right off the bat..."

"Well yeah, S-rank cards really are on another level."

"Man, I’m jealous. When will I ever have an S-rank card that strong?"

"That Plain Guy is in danger."

The people who knew A Genliang’s deck well all nodded when they saw that card.

And to follow card table etiquette, Li Pu also flipped one of his cards.

It wasn’t his trump card, though, just a card from his front row that he flipped at random.

The projection that lit up was far less imposing than [Orc Chieftain].

Or rather, this card basically had no imposing aura at all.

But everyone who saw it froze for a moment.

"What the hell kind of card is that??"

...

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