Third Floor Vertex, the Great Beast Chamber.
Zhong Yi glanced at the three of them.
Along the way, everyone had developed smoothly.
Zhou Qiaoling went without saying—as the wealthiest member of the team, she had an endless stream of overpowered artifacts, capable of dealing damage even with random plays.
With Zhong Yi’s help, Mu Yawen had built her deck around the classic fully automatic combo of 【Hell Raider】 and 【Panic Escape】; her health was solid, and she often helped the others set up defenses.
As for Zhou Yue...
"What are you staring at... I’m booting up! I’ll be up and running any second now!!"
Zhou Yue glared back with a dark expression.
"Haha, okay, okay, okay!"
Zhong Yi couldn’t stop laughing. After another round of the experiment subject’s frenzied attacks, it was their turn again.
When he saw the new hand of cards, Zhong Yi’s pupils contracted and his breath quickened.
The key card 【Add Fuel】 was there, while the rest were just transitional cards!
Without a second thought, Zhong Yi played 【Add Fuel】.
The upgraded 【Add Fuel】 didn’t consume spiritual energy, but instead "consumed" all the cards in his hand and drew an equal number of new ones.
This move instantly stunned the others.
"Damn... Old Zhong, are you out of your mind? Those are all great cards!!"
Zhou Yue was utterly baffled.
Consumed cards wouldn’t return to the deck, meaning they were gone for the entire game.
And the cards Zhong Yi had just burned were the very power cards that had carried the team through the first two floors!
Burning one or two was one thing—Zhong Yi had been burning cards with 【Brand】 all along—but torching four at once was truly shocking.
"Heh heh, you’ll understand soon enough..."
Zhong Yi chuckled, his grin widening as he saw the newly drawn 【Brand】 in his hand.
"Heaven is helping me!"
With that, he tossed out 【Brand】, burning another card.
Now his deck had only eight cards left.
Burning two more would perfect his "Infinite Loop" strategy.
Imagining the scene of unlimited card plays and the shocked expressions of his teammates, Zhong Yi couldn’t help but feel like striking a proud pose.
"You’re about to witness the—uh?"
Mid-sentence, Zhong Yi froze as a card suddenly appeared in his hand: 【Sovereign’s Sword】. His mind stalled for a moment.
He glanced sideways and saw Zhou Qiaoling just play an ability card, 【Hammer Time】.
Its effect was to hand out swords to teammates.
Zhong Yi’s mouth twitched violently.
Alright, looks like he’d need to burn three more cards instead of two...
"Junior Sister Qiaoling, please don’t—"
Before he could finish, another brand-new card was played.
【Generous Donation】.
As a special card in team mode, Zhong Yi had a vague memory of it.
It seemed to give cards to teammates...
Oh no!
Zhong Yi’s face fell in panic. He tried to shout, "Don’t give it to me—"
But it was too late.
The target of that 【Generous Donation】 was none other than Zhong Yi himself.
Zhong Yi could only weep in frustration.
He’d thought burning two cards would do it, but first it became three, and now it was four...
That was what he assumed.
But when a full six colorless cards came flying toward him, Zhong Yi felt as if the sky were falling.
"Why SIX?!!!!!"
Zhong Yi nearly spat blood.
He looked closely and saw a buff beneath that 【Generous Donation】:
【Replay x6】
"Huh?"
Zhou Qiaoling blinked, looking utterly innocent.
"I don’t know... The replay from those two 【Unmined Gems】 might have landed on it?"
Zhong Yi tore at his hair in despair:
"Ah!!!"
"Just kill me now!!!!"
...
...
Zhong Yi went silent.
Zhou Yue was thoroughly amused.
Though he had no idea what strategy Zhong Yi was cooking up, it was clearly taking too long to pull off.
Watching the growing number of orbs hovering above his head, Zhou Yue felt a surge of smugness.
He’d already unlocked eight orb slots, and once he filled them all, he’d be a one-man army capable of soloing the boss!
Just then, it was the experiment subject’s third-phase defensive turn.
With the intangible buff in effect, every attack it took dealt only 1 point of damage!
Invincibility, in a way.
"Hahaha, Old Zhong... I’ll be booting up next turn, you know? Let me show you the power of my Faulty Spirit Puppet!"
Zhou Yue was brimming with pride.
The experiment subject currently had a full 900 health—more than enough to showcase his damage output!
"Oh? You say you’re about to boot up?"
Zhong Yi suddenly smiled.
After relentless card removal, his own strategy was now perfected.
"Then wait until we fight the Architect to boot up... haha!"
With that, his mentor and commentator persona instantly took over.
"I’ve been telling you all along, card removal trumps everything, card removal trumps everything..."
"But have you ever wondered..."
"What kind of marvel can you achieve if your deck is trimmed to the extreme?"
At these words, the other three suddenly noticed that Zhong Yi was holding five cards in his hand.
The discard pile was empty, and the draw pile had only one card left.
In other words...
He only had six cards in total!
"You’re cycling back and forth with those few cards?"
Zhou Yue blurted out.
"That’s right."
Zhong Yi smiled as he played a hand card, 【Resentment】.
Its effect was to deal 9 damage; if he had lost any health during the turn, it also granted a card draw.
And Zhong Yi wore a 【Scarlet Cloak】 above his head, which automatically drained 1 health each turn to gain block.
This meant the card draw effect of 【Resentment】 triggered 100% of the time!
"Normally, this kind of play needs 2 draw cards and 1 energy recovery card..."
"But this time, I don’t even need energy recovery to make it work."
Zhong Yi narrated with a grin, simultaneously drawing the last card from his deck—
Another 【Resentment】.
The first 【Resentment】 entered the discard pile, while the second entered his hand.
Zhou Yue suddenly grasped Zhong Yi’s intention.
"When your deck is streamlined to the limit, you can achieve this—"
"Draw, regain energy, draw again, regain energy..."
"Repeat the cycle, endless and infinite."
Zhong Yi straightened his back, unconsciously placing his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest.
His arrogance was unmistakable.
"I call this—"
"The Infinite Loop!!"
With that, he played another 【Resentment】, and another 【Resentment】 entered his hand.
He played yet another 【Resentment】, and yet another found its way back to his hand...
...
On the experiment subject’s forehead, a steady stream of 【-1】 appeared.
At first, the other three watched in awe, but as time dragged on, their expressions gradually shifted.
"Damn!! Stop for a second—let me take a turn first, will you?!"
【-1】
【-1】...
"This thing has 900 health—by the time you’re done, it’ll be dark!!"
【-1】
【-1】...
"Stop, just stop!"
【-1】
【-1】...
"Senior brother, I’m getting sleepy..."
【-1】
【-1】...
"SON OF A BITCH!! IF YOU KEEP PLAYING THOSE LITTLE COMBOS, I’LL COME OVER AND BEAT YOU RIGHT NOW!!!!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
