Chapter 22 Preliminary

"Okay, I'll go over now."

Shi Li muttered to himself, put on his work clothes and walked out the door.

"Greet him well, he's the big money sponsor of our card room!"

I heard the supervisor’s reminder from behind, and gave him a thumbs up: “Remember not to leave get out of class early. Many members have complained that your classes are too short.”

In his part of the world, giving a thumbs up is a derogatory term because it is short.

"I know, I know."

Shi Li closed the door impatiently.

He walked slowly along the long corridor leading to the box.

About half of the members who come to the card room to find a partner to practice with are non-card players, and half are card players.

Those who are not card players are usually newcomers who have just traveled through time, or they are indigenous people or second or third generation people who are not yet old enough to awaken their card player talents.

As for poker players looking for sparring partners, most of them do so to improve their poker skills.

Miss Shi is a typical example of this.

When I arrived at the box and opened the door, I saw a girl standing in front of the physical simulated card table.

Her whole body is translucent green, a bit similar to the Youyou clan and also a bit similar to the energy body race.

From the perspective of human or quasi-human aesthetics, this girl's face and figure are both 100 points out of 100.

If this kind of appearance were placed on the Blue Star before he traveled through time, he would definitely be a stunningly beautiful superstar.

“You’re here.”

Seeing Shi Li enter the room, the girl smiled.

This smile made her look even more beautiful.

"Stop playing and get to the table."

However, Shi Li walked straight over and sat down at the card table.

Didn't even take a second look.

Because he knew that the guy in front of him was just a paper man.

It really looks like a paper man. It looks human-shaped from the front, but just a thin layer of membrane from the side.

"Master, you are so boring."

The girl curled her lips, and then her figure began to change.

Like a candle encountering high temperature, it gradually melts.

Finally, it turned into a lump.

It’s a round lump, like a big green jelly.

Its name is Slime, and it is a slime.

"Don't call me Master. The card room doesn't allow sparring partners to have relationships with members."

Shi Li pointed to the card table.

"Um, this isn't the kind of emotion that's forbidden in the card room, right?"

"Besides, after following my master, my skills have improved a lot, Bobo~"

The Slime jumped onto the seat with a duangduangduang sound.

"Hey, if you say that, it's easier for others to misunderstand you."

Shi Li turned on the switch of the simulated card table.

"Master, I heard you became a card player. I want to use your deck!"

The Slime extended a jelly tentacle and tapped the touch screen.

"My deck isn't in here."

Shi Li shook his head.

The cards on the simulated poker table are not made up out of thin air.

The sources of these simulated cards are all real.

The card room will look for some good players, sign agreements with them and give them some compensation, and regularly copy part of their decks into the simulation table for members to use.

The decks of cards produced by the card hall staff are generally given priority in the hall.

However, Shi Li might have some mental obsession with cleanliness in this regard. He didn't want his deck to be used on the simulated poker table.

So when his supervisor suggested it, he gave him the middle finger.

This made the supervisor confused: Why are you praising me for no reason?

"Okay Master, what game are we going to practice today?"

"Hmm... let's practice how to deal with a vertical 3+1 opening attack deck."

"Okay, Bobo~"

Both sides match their decks, and the game begins after 5 minutes.

"Master, you are lying! This is not a strong attack at the beginning!"

"This is to teach you never to trust your opponent at the poker table."

"Damn it, Bo Bo Bo!"

"It's okay. I'll go for the strong attack next round."

"Really?"

"It's fake. You've been fooled again."

"55555~"

After 2 hours of playing, Slime went from 3+1 to 6+1 and then to 9+1, but still didn't win a single game.

Everyone’s cards are from a virtual deck in the card hall, and the starting line is the same, but why can’t I win?

It was very puzzled.

So I raised my hand and wrapped it for another 2 hours.

In fact, Shi Li was also quite puzzled by its behavior.

Why is this guy so rich? He is just a level 6 poker player, but he acts like a wealthy woman.

After another two hours, Slime was exhausted.

It became soft, even though it was soft to begin with.

He collapsed on the ground, like a piece of jelly that would melt at any moment.

"That's all for today."

"I'm a little tired of you."

Shi Li pounded his waist.

"By the way, Master , have you signed up for the Rising Star Comprehensive Competition?"

The Slime recovered for a long time before it remembered something.

"Of course I signed up."

"Wow, then we have a chance to compete on the same stage~!"

Its spirits were immediately lifted.

"Oh, I forgot you can join in."

"Master, I will go to the preliminaries to cheer for you, bobobo~"

"All right."

After seeing off the Slime, Shi Li received a few more guests.

It was not until nightfall that he took off his work clothes and went off work with Mushroom and Straw Man.

I'm exhausted after this day.

Only earned 5 cubic coins.

"I really want to live a life of taking a break from the internet for two days and then taking a break from the internet for three days."

Sitting on the bus on the way back, he held his chin and looked out the window.

"..., then wouldn't that just mean we'd just hang out on the Internet every day?"

"Resign, resign, damn it!"

"You think I don't want to."

Shi Li glanced at the straw man.

It is impossible to work forever, but at least I can't quit for now.

The social welfare here is very good and the cost of living is low.

But that is based on certain conditions.

The condition for enjoying this benefit is that you must have a proper job.

If he resigns, his rent and other expenses will increase dozens or even hundreds of times.

…

Two days later, Shi Li arrived at the association on time.

After signing in, he got his own number plate.

The association prepared a circular arena for the preliminaries.

There is a large screen hanging on the top, which is used to broadcast live events, but now it is only used to show promotional videos.

The venue has now been divided into many small areas, and multiple games will be held at the same time later.

“It’s even less popular than I thought.”

Shi Li looked around and found that there were almost no people in the audience.

Some of them are players with numbers on their chests, just like me.

"After all, this is just the preliminary round, Master."

Slime came specially to cheer him up.

"Look at the big screen. That's the prize for this championship."

At this time, it motioned Shi Li to look up.

In that promotional video, several strange-looking figures flashed by.

The surrounding scenery was rapidly receding, crossing the mountains and forests, and crossing the rivers.

Finally, I stood on a cliff.

Below the cliff, there is a scene of bright lights just coming on.

The camera then swoops down, showing the intuitive appearance of the town.

Ancient Chinese-style buildings, bustling streets, and people laughing and talking.

The next moment, a strong wind suddenly blew up.

Those ghostly figures had already stood on a roof somewhere without anyone noticing.

They are looking down from above.

The people on the street were in panic.

At this time, several figures rushed out from the crowd and fought with the guys on top.

"The replica specified by the prize key is this world."

Shi Li became interested.

Just by watching this short film, I feel that this dungeon is very grand and there must be good cards in the card pool.

"Yes, I don't know what technology the association used to extract the scenes in the dungeon to make a promotional video."

"It looks like the theme is about monsters threatening the safety of the people."

Slime exclaimed.

"Is this a reward that only the champion can get? Looks like I'll have to work hard to get it."

Monster cards, or demon cards, often have good quality.

Shi Li knew that there were a few S-level monster cards with great reputations.

After waiting for a while, the competition officially began.

It was not his turn yet, so he stayed in the audience with Slime and waited.

There are 6 rounds in total in the preliminaries, namely 2+1, 3+1, and 4+1, and the mode changes every 2 rounds.

Opponents are randomly selected, and the 100 winners advance to the final round.

What we are doing collectively now is the first round.

He took a general look at the overall level of the scene.

Since all the pre-selected players are LV1 to LV5, the strength of their decks is quite low.

So far, I haven't seen a single C-level card, and there aren't many D-level cards.

Looking at their card skills, it can only be described as a mess.

After watching the game for about 2 hours, the number plate in Shi Li's hand vibrated, and it was his turn to play.

"I'll be back soon."

He glanced around, found the corresponding card table, and walked down to the audience seats.

15 minutes later, he returned to his seat with a depressed look on his face.

"Master is awesome! We have won the first battle!"

The Slime cheered for him.

"It's OK, that's all."

The reason why he was depressed was not because he met a strong opponent.

On the contrary, the opponent just now was weak.

But he thinks very slowly and hesitantly in every round.

He originally thought that the game would be settled in a few rounds, but it took more than ten minutes.

Such promotion does not bring any sense of accomplishment.

After the first round, everything was fine for the day, so Shi Li left the association and went home.

The situation was similar on the second, third, and fourth days.

A total of 2 rounds of 2+1 and 2 rounds of 3+1, Shi Li defeated the opponent without even revealing his trump card.

Until the fifth day of the preliminaries, after the first four rounds of eliminations, the number of players finally reached 400.

The competition system has also changed to a 4+1 game.

After two rounds today, the final list will be released.

Shi Li's opponent in the fifth round is a girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pair of small white feather wings.

At this moment, I was standing opposite him across the blue light card table.

If angels were seen on Blue Star, people would definitely think they were gods descending.

But here, to Shi Li, the other party was just a person with wings.

On the other hand, the blonde girl looked at Shi Li with a cautious look.

This person's trump card was not revealed in the first four rounds, and his performance of using a D-level card as soon as he made a move has attracted the attention of some people, and she is one of them.

"The opponent in this round is not easy to deal with. We can no longer hide it."

"I have to give it my all."

Seeing the other party's indifferent expression, she pondered secretly.

In fact, Shi Li had similar thoughts.

It is a taboo to underestimate the opponent at the card table. At this moment, he is carefully arranging the game, even though he does not have many cards in his hand.

When it comes to the 4+1 mode, the game adds a lot of variables.

First, there are two ace positions.

【Fold】【Fold】

【Trump】【Trump】

You have to choose between two trump positions to place the trump card.

There is a 50% chance that whichever side finds the trump card first will have the advantage.

In addition, there is a very important mechanism.

That is actually the real steps of the Cube Card Game, which is divided into 5 stages.

[Replacement] - [Reveal] - [Settlement] - [Action] - [Settlement]

Based on the previous stage, there is an additional [Substitution] stage.

【Substitute card】, as the name suggests.

It means placing substitute cards for your main cards.

There are 3 substitute cards for each position, which means that one position can have 4 variations.

But the scores of the 3 substitute cards can only be equal to or less than the main cards.

Cards can only be replaced during the [Replacement] phase with the cards covered.

Once a card is revealed, it cannot be replaced.

And when the replacement is completed, the score limit cannot be exceeded.

I had few cards in my hand before, so I didn't have much capital to replace them.

It’s different now. He has 9 cards in his hand and can do some operations.

It took some time for both sides to match their respective decks.

Buzz!

As the two people pressed the confirmation button respectively, the game officially began.

The card-replacing phase in the first round is meaningless, so both sides enter the card-revealing phase by default.

In this round, both players need to reveal two first-row cards.

At this time, Shi Li had his hands behind his back, still looking confident of victory.

Even if you don't have confidence, you have to pretend to be confident. This is his philosophy at the poker table.

If you show your cowardice, you lose your momentum.

If you lose your momentum, even if you win, it won’t be a satisfying victory.

"please."

He even took the initiative to make a gesture to the other party to unveil the sign.

“…”

It was obvious that the blonde girl was affected by this momentum.

She looked at Shi Li, then at her first card.

Then, he carefully opened one.

【Huhahaha! 】

A projection of a masked man leapt out from the card.

Its body, including its head, is a mask.

The mask has indigenous graffiti-style face patterns painted on it, and the limbs sticking out of the mask have bronze skin and are holding a simple spear.

【Mask Hunter】

Chasing the Wind, 35 points, D

Attack 35, 130/130, 0/3

[Hunting Constitution - Passive]: When the Masked Hunter and the Animal Card are revealed together, HP +30

"D-level card, not bad."

Shi Li raised his eyebrows.

The attack power is quite high, plus the extra health points, it can be said to be both tough and has good output.

Then, the blonde girl revealed the second card.

[Hiss, hiss, hiss…]

A line of skin with patterns like a python woven from vines emerged from the card.

There are rows of sharp thorns on the thick vines.

"Another D-level card."