Chapter 1 The True Gambler

“Hmph… truly a ‘real gambler’.” Before the round began, Snow remarked, “Even when playing card games, it’s this style…”

“‘Card games’?” Feng Bujue repeated those words upon hearing them, then his face and tone became very gloomy, “You… are you looking down on ‘duels’?”

“Heh… duel or whatever, it’s just a name, right?” Snow chuckled. “Frankly, isn’t this just a collectible card game? Playing cards is playing cards, to give it the name ‘duel’… don’t you think that’s a bit too chuuni?”

After the words fell, Feng Bujue was silent for a moment… then, his expression became solemn, and he spoke again, “I see… so that’s what you think…”

“Is there something wrong with that?” Snow asked.

“When you’ve lost miserably, you’ll naturally understand where you went wrong.” Feng Bujue said, pointing his arm at the other party and shouting loudly, “As a ‘duelist,’ crushing scum like you who don’t even understand what a duel is, yet still dare to spout nonsense… is my duty, obligation, and destiny!”

“He actually… called me scum…” At that moment, Snow’s expression… also changed.

Those two words seemed to have touched a raw nerve, igniting anger in his heart.

“Did,” Feng Bujue’s tone rose, “What about it?”

“Hmph… ignorance is bliss.” Snow sneered, “From the act of ‘using up all your hand cards in the first round,’ one can see that you’re an amateur; anyone who knows a bit about card games knows that an opening like that… is like saying ‘I’m ready to be slaughtered’.” He spread his hands, provoking, “Forgive me for speaking frankly, with your level of skill that will be wiped out in five or six rounds, you dare to spout nonsense, it’s truly laughable.”

“A guy who isn’t even a ‘duelist’… dares to mock my level?” Feng Bujue also laughed when he heard the other party dare to retort, “Listening to your tone, you actually think you play pretty well?”

“Still talking about ‘duelists’…” Snow shook his head, replying with a helpless expression, “Alright, let me explain some basic concepts to you, you chuuni…” He paused, then continued, “The dueling techniques of card games are nothing more than some simple calculations and a little bit of luck; the real factors that determine the strength of a player are the ‘depth of their card pool’ and their ‘ability to build decks,’ frankly… at the time the deck is composed, before your so-called ‘duel’ even begins… the outcome is already seventy percent decided; the remaining thirty percent… is twenty percent of on-the-spot performance and ten percent of luck.”

At this point, he paused, and then said, "This… is reality, in reality, it is extremely difficult for those who do not even have all the cards to win against those who have powerful card sets, and the more complete the rules of the card game, the less likely this will happen.

“As for the term ‘duel’… in my opinion, it’s like calling ‘playing mahjong’ ‘tile fighting’, or calling ‘cucumber salad’ ‘cuisine’… it’s simply laughable!”

“Hmph…” Feng Bujue snorted coldly, then continued, “It seems… our philosophies are worlds apart.”

“I also know that it is difficult to change other people’s views with words alone.” Snow replied, also snorting coldly, “Hmph… I will use victory to make you understand!”

Having said that, he also raised his duel disk and drew a card.

“My turn, draw.” Snow picked up the card he had just drawn, glanced at it, and then… played it directly, “Activate Field Magic – [Oxygen Deprivation Zone]!”

As he placed that card into the trap magic zone of the duel disk, the system’s animation began…

It could be seen that the center of the arena was instantly shrouded in a dark, invisible force field, and after a few seconds, Feng Bujue’s [Sword-Wielding Trickster] grunted and knelt on one knee.

“When [Oxygen Deprivation Zone] is on the field, all humanoid, semi-humanoid, and animal-type monsters cannot be used as shields by players during the battle phase,” Snow continued.

“Oh… you want to bypass the monsters and directly reduce my LP…” Feng Bujue said calmly, “It’s okay, go ahead, blood exists to be cut.”

Snow didn’t respond to his words, but continued, “Enter the Battle Phase, [Lamp Imp], direct attack on the player!”

As soon as the declaration came out, the Lamp Imp moved, bypassing Jue-Ge’s [Sword-Wielding Trickster] and pounced directly at the player…

(Here, let me explain that in [Madness Thinking], players will also experience pain when attacked, the degree of pain varying depending on the degree and form of blood loss; of course, the pain limit in [Madness Thinking] is very low, and there will not be too many bloody scenes, after all, this is a game for all ages, and it is still very harmonious compared to [Terror Paradise].)

Bang—

Before he could finish speaking, the [Lamp Imp] quickly launched an impact on Feng Bujue, and Jue-Ge just stood there, raising his duel disk to block it slightly.

After blocking, he also recited with a disdainful tone: “Tsk tsk tsk… so painless… it seems, because you look down on ‘duels’, even the monsters you control can’t muster any enthusiasm.”

“Hmph… I really don’t understand the mood of that holographic image.” Snow replied with a sarcastic tone, “However, I can explain why you don’t feel any pain… because the pain limit in this game is just this level.”

At the same time as their conversation, the LP damage calculation for Feng Bujue (displayed above the card slot of the duel disk) was also completed, after deducting the 1500 points from the battle just now, there were still 6500 points remaining.

“Then… finally, I’ll set two cards…” After the battle phase, it was the secondary phase, Snow said as he covered two of the four cards in his hand to the trap magic zone, “… end this turn.”

“This daddy’s turn!” Before the other party could finish speaking, Feng Bujue had already impatiently shouted out, full of vigor, “Draw!”

His draw… was not an ordinary draw, but a step forward, a slight inclination of the body, two fingers pinched… and when he drew the card, he exaggeratedly flung his entire arm to his side.

This chuuni performance of "I have the pose, I'm proud" really startled Snow.

“What are you doing?” Snow couldn’t help but ask.

“Drawing a card,” Feng Bujue replied.

“I’m asking you… why do you have to draw cards like that?” Snow said again, “Can’t you draw in a normal way?”

“A normal way… are you referring to your method that’s as lame as a [beep]?” Feng Bujue’s words were censored by the system because of a sensitive word.

“Let’s not talk about how ‘drawing a card from the top of the deck’ is lame…” Snow replied, “Let’s just talk about your posture that you think is very cool… can it even control what card you draw?”

“Not necessarily,” Feng Bujue replied.

“Not necessarily?” Snow seemed surprised by Jue-Ge’s answer, “Ha!” He chuckled dryly, then continued, “In other words, you actually believe that ‘there is a certain possibility’?”

“Of course I believe it,” Feng Bujue didn’t laugh, he replied very seriously, “As a ‘duelist,’ you must believe in your deck, so that the deck will respond to you… and help you win!”

Speaking of which, he didn’t wait for the other party to respond, just glanced at the card he had drawn, and then put it on the duel disk.

“At the cost of ‘discarding all other hand cards’, I special summon… [Sakamoto-kun]!”

After Feng Bujue finished his declaration, a super handsome young man wearing a black high school uniform, black-framed glasses, tall, good-looking, and with a beauty mark at the corner of his eye appeared in the arena.

“What?” Facing Jue-Ge’s god-like draw, Snow was shocked again, “He just happened to draw a special summoning monster that costs all his hand cards when he had zero cards in hand?”

“There’s nothing strange about it.” Feng Bujue replied with a matter-of-course tone, “For duelists, every card is a soul-infused partner, isn’t it normal for partners to stand up at the appropriate time?” Saying that, he took a step forward, raised his head and ordered, “Enter the battle phase! [Sakamoto-kun]… attack [Lamp Imp]!”

“Trap card activate!” When Jue-Ge shouted out the attack declaration, Snow also acted, “[Demon’s Awakening]!”

When that trap card was activated, [Sakamoto-kun] just happened to slide up to [Lamp Imp] in a dashing posture, just as the former was about to make an attacking action, the latter took the lead… and disappeared into white light.

“[Demon’s Awakening] effect is…” Snow said at this time, “When one of our demon-type monsters in face-up attack position is attacked, it can be used as a sacrifice to special summon a six-star demon-type monster from the deck, also placing it in face-up attack position on the field.”

Just as Snow was speaking, the holographic projection of his deck had already appeared in front of him, of course… this group of projections was vertical to the ground and faced away from Feng Bujue, so Jue-Ge definitely couldn’t peek at it.

“I choose…” Snow stared at the group of projections that were scrolling slowly upwards like subtitles for a while, and soon stretched out his finger to point at one of them, “[Eight-Armed Snake Demon].”

After saying that, a card instantly teleported from his deck to his duel disk.

On the field, white light also burst out, and a rather large monster broke out of the light, standing in the position where [Lamp Imp] had stood just now.

As expected of a monster that requires a sacrifice, the appearance of the [Eight-Armed Snake Demon] was much stronger than the previous Lamp Imp - the huge snake tail, the upper half of a human body, and eight thick arms… made its 2200 attack power seem very convincing.

Moreover, [Eight-Armed Snake Demon] also has the special effect of “summoning a [Python Monster] in face-up attack position after being destroyed”, although the latter is only a two-star monster, it can at least be used as a sacrifice.

“Two thousand two huh… hmph… small fry.” Feng Bujue didn’t panic when he saw the other party special summon a big monster, but since [Sakamoto-kun]'s attack power was two thousand, not enough to take down the Eight-Armed Snake Demon, so… here he could only gamble, “Just now your trap made Sakamoto-kun’s attack target disappear, so the attack was interrupted, but his right to attack this round is still retained; now, as long as I use Trickster to kill your snake demon, and then use Sakamoto-kun to kill the Python Monster, I can still make you bleed.”

“Hmph… that kind of assumption, needs to be established on the condition that you roll an attack point of ‘3 or more’ for [Sword-Wielding Trickster].” Snow laughed, “But what if… you roll a 1 or 2, the result is that your Trickster is killed, and you have to further lose LP points, this situation will be ugly.”

“Nonsense, why don’t you say I’ll roll a 6 and directly kill you half to death?” At this moment, Feng Bujue could be said to be strong and domineering in terms of momentum.

I don’t know why, but when he put on the duel disk and stood on this arena, he seemed to have become a different person… his every word and deed revealed a kind of "desperate, unwavering" spirit; his every move was showing - he had completely plunged into "chuuni", throwing all the things like "calm calculation, layout" behind him.

“[Sword-Wielding Trickster], attack [Eight-Armed Snake Demon]! Phantom Sword Bloom!” After refuting Snow’s words, Feng Bujue quickly issued an attack declaration.

He not only said the attack declaration, but also gave the name of the move used by the monster when attacking…

In fact, he was not just making it up, in the official [Madness Thinking] database, there is a detailed background introduction of each card, and the most detailed settings are… basically monster cards.

There is enough content to read as a novel, and it also clearly indicates the name of the “move” used by each monster when attacking…

Feng Bujue, this reading addict, naturally wouldn’t miss those contents, he had already read all the card information before [Madness Thinking] was launched, so the term he reported at this moment… was indeed the name of the monster’s move.

It’s just… technically speaking, there is actually no difference whether he reports it or not. The attack power, judgment, result, etc… will not change because he reports the name of the move.

Chi chi chi chi—

Instantly, [Sword-Wielding Trickster] drew the sword from his waist, and just rushed up like that, while he danced out bursts of sword bloom, a holographic image of a die, the size of a basketball, also floated in the air above the arena.

Di di di… the image changed rapidly, making a rapid beep, and finally, stopped at… the number “3”.

“Drink!” At the moment when the number stopped, the Sword-Wielding Trickster shouted lightly, picking up the sword and stabbing straight.

Obviously, after the system’s calculation was completed, a real-time CG of “a monster with an attack power of 3000 killing a monster with an attack power of 2200” was about to be staged.

However…

“Equip trap… activate!” Snow’s declaration interrupted this scene.