Chapter 37: Coach Shi is a Talent

« Prev

≡ Table of Contents

The upgrade of [Kung Fu Sheep and Rabbit] made Shi Li fall asleep contentedly.

After a good day's rest, fatigue is basically gone.

On the day of the competition, he arrived at the scene in the morning.

Although the 8-to-4 match only starts in the afternoon, it is still worth watching the 16-to-8 match in the morning.

Knowing more about your opponent will help you prepare in advance.

Of course, he has full confidence in the afternoon game.

“Master, Master, this way!”

Slime greeted him from a distance in her seat.

Originally, Shi Li could watch from the contestant seats, but he couldn't resist its enthusiasm to watch the game together, so he had to come to the audience seats.

"Master, this is the morning match schedule."

As soon as he sat down, Slime handed him a poster.

“The organizers understand traffic.”

As a contestant, Shi Li of course already knew the match schedule the day before yesterday.

There are a total of 4 games in the morning, with a 4+1 format, and each game is scheduled to last about 15 to 30 minutes.

The reason why the time fluctuation is so large is mainly because it depends on whether there will be a bladder game with defensive cards and healing cards on both sides, and also whether there are any players who are talkative.

There are quite a lot of talkative people at the Cube card table.

Some people even like to explain the origin of each card from beginning to end clearly every time they reveal it.

This is actually a tactic called feinting.

Overwhelming the other party with your momentum may cause them to be timid or make mistakes.

However, Shi Li felt that this kind of chatterbox situation belonged to high-end games and would not appear in the Rising Star Comprehensive Competition.

After all, these small card players only have a few small cards coming and going, so where does the background story come from?

The duration of a 4+1 card game is short to begin with, with only 4 rounds in a whole morning. What should we do if we can’t make up enough time?

It’s very simple, just insert some performances and advertisements in between.

Especially advertising, which is a big part of the association's income.

Don’t think that the association is a charity organization; they also need funds to operate.

Without funding, where would the venues and copies for the competition come from?

As for why the organizers understand traffic, it is because the most watched player of this session, oh no, the most watched player of this session before the dungeon competition, Black Smoke’s match was placed in the last game.

Soon after each person and historian took their seats, the process officially began.

The first person to come on stage was a singer.

Yes, there was a song and dance program before the first show.

The singer is of a strange race and looks like a pillar of flesh.

There were many mouths growing on the pillar, and when they opened their mouths, they actually sang like a chorus.

Moreover, the timbre and voice part produced by each mouth are different.

The appearance of this guy is enough to make people want to lose their SAN value.

But in the end, its singing is very healing and can help people regain their SAN value.

The most important thing is that the organizer is really good at taking advantage of the popularity.

The song that the singer sang was "Orchid Grass".

Anyone who has participated in or watched a dungeon competition will be impressed by this song.

Some of the eliminated contestants even seemed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. They screamed and fled the venue when they heard the melody.

After the 10-minute performance , there is a 3-minute commercial.

I have to say that the advertisements here are really well done. Both the creativity and design are very attractive.

If you don’t watch it to the last second, you won’t even know what kind of ad this is.

Compared with singing and dancing, Shi Li prefers watching commercials.

If he had a job where he got paid to watch this kind of commercial, he would definitely not work in a card room.

After the program + advertisement went through several cycles, it was finally time for the main competition to begin.

He actually had some impression of one of the two players who played in the first game .

He was the boy with blade-like hair number 45 who was defeated by a single punch from the wolf-head guard officer that James and he witnessed on the first day in the dungeon.

If it weren't for the copy mechanism's protection, he estimated that that punch would have directly smashed the knife-haired man into a meat patty.

"Master, who do you think will win?"

"The cards haven't been revealed yet, how can I answer your question?"

Shi Li rolled his eyes at Slime.

The opponent of the knife-haired man is an iron-headed man.

He was wearing a neat suit, but his head was that of a metal robot.

It's a bit like Gundam, an animated character he liked when he was a child.

"This knife-haired man looks miserable and seems not very powerful."

Slime expressed his opinion.

"Remember, don't judge a book by its cover at the poker table."

“Even if your opponent is a piece of shit, don’t take it lightly.”

Shi Li taught it the Tao.

"..., I suspect you are talking about me."

There were black lines on Slime's face.

Soon, the two people at the table began to reveal their cards.

[Blow~Blow~Blow up a big balloon~]

【Boom! 】

The first row of cards that the knife-haired man revealed were a [Goblin Blowing Up Balloons] and a [Exploding Stone].

【Defense! Defense! 】

【Charge forward! 】

The first row of cards that Gundam Head revealed were a [Shield Warrior] and a [Spear Warrior].

In the first action round, the knife-wielding man chose full [defense].

Gundam Head attacked with two cards, knocking down 32.5 of the opponent's health.

"This time, the knife-haired man wins."

The round had just ended when Shi Li suddenly spoke.

"Little brother, it's too early for you to draw such a conclusion."

However, before Slime could ask a question, a blonde female audience member wearing sunglasses at the back spoke up.

This is none other than Director Xiu.

Because she saw Shi Li, she changed seats with others and sat over there.

I want to take a closer look at the coach in my own card room.

"Yes, Master. It's obvious that the two warrior cards are stronger, and now they have the advantage of leading health points."

Slime didn't know the curator.

Shi Li looked at Director Xiu, then at Slime.

While the players on both sides were chatting and thinking about making substitutions, he began to explain.

"Knifehead man, 2 E-level cards, 45 points in total, 105 points left with the remaining three covered cards."

"Gundam head, 1E+1D, total 65 points, three covered cards left, 85 points left."

"Players who can make it to the top 16 will basically have a few D-level cards."

"Why do you think the knife-head man put up two E-level cards as the first reveal?"

This question was thrown to Slime.

"Because he wants to feign weakness?"

Slime guessed.

"Well, there may be reasons for this."

"But it's probably because E-level cards are more likely to have low-scoring cards below average, so he probably wants to fold the cards in the second row before starting to exert his strength."

Shi Li supplements it.

Director Xiu secretly agreed with what she said, she also thought so.

However, this kind of judgment is still at a relatively early stage.

"But how can you guarantee that the opponent doesn't have a strong card in the second row?"

"I still think that you draw conclusions too early."

So she asked again.

This kind of question is actually a test.

She wanted to see what insights this coach would have.

“…”

Originally, Shi Li didn't want to answer the other party since he didn't know him anyway.

But seeing the inquiring look from the Slime, he could only sigh.

"35-point D-rank card [Shield Warrior], a defensive card."

"This means that the opponent should take the steady route of defense + healing."

Shi Li said so.

Director Xiu directly refuted.

"Defensive cards may also go for a defensive counterattack."

"Plus, putting a defensive card in the first row is a very common all-purpose play, and it cannot be used as a basis for judgment."

"So I think your thinking has been wrong from the beginning."

Her words made the Slime look in agreement.

"If you don't believe me, just watch it."

Shi Li spread his hands indifferently.

"There's a high probability that the knife-head man will reveal an output card in the next round."

"And the Gundam head will reveal the healing card."

He made a prediction directly.

After saying this, both sides started to unveil the plaques.

【roar!!】

Just as Shi Li predicted, the knife-headed man revealed a [Mutated Wild Boar].

Its projection was an unusually tall wild boar, and its body standing on four legs was a head taller than the two warriors opposite.

There were still some broken weapons stuck on its body, like medals proving its bravery.

The most important thing is that this is a 40-point D-level output card.

[Namo Amitabha, you Buddha]

What was revealed by the Gundam head was a 30-point D-level healing card, [Fake Monk].

"It's really a healing card!"

It is obvious that Director Xiu is more concerned about what card the Gundam head revealed.

"How did you guess that?"

She looked at Shi Li curiously.

"Yes, Master, you are amazing. You actually guessed it right!"

"What's guessing? This is called prediction."

Shi Li curled his lips.

“When playing cards, you need to have a broad view.”

“You can’t just look at what’s on the table.”

"The players who survived the last round of the dungeon competition were either lucky (?) or cautious."

"When the dungeon was settled, this Gundam head ranked very low, 11th."

"He was probably imprisoned again after only going out to collect a wave of spells. He never came out again."

"It means he is the type who prefers stability."

"And the fact that he let the defensive card [Shield Warrior] attack in the first round shows two problems."

"1. His deck lacks output, so he needs to seize the opportunity to output."

“2. He is not afraid of his deck losing health, because there will be treatment later.”

After hearing his explanation, Director Xiu suddenly understood.

At the same time, there was a flash of appreciation in his eyes.

Predicting the direction of the table is something every poker player will do.

And how well it is done basically represents the level of this poker player.

As the director of a card room, she is also a good predictor.

But let’s take the current game, which is a simple 4+1.

She doesn't have the confidence to give such a specific prediction.

After all, people's hearts are hidden and the cards are covered. Who can guarantee that they can say the truth about such things?

But the tone of the coach was steady and calm throughout, and he seemed so determined and confident.

Especially the sentence "Don't just look at the table when playing cards", which made her feel that the other party was indeed a talent.

Good at thinking and good at observation.

The key is to know how to use external factors as a basis for judgment.

No wonder Secretary He always speaks highly of Coach Shi’s card-playing skills.

It's simply that he has both card skills and driving skills.

(It seems that our card room may have hope this year...)

Thinking of this, her mood suddenly improved.

However, the fact that only Shi Li himself knew was that things were not that mysterious at all.

Even if he could predict it, it was not 100% certain that he would succeed.

There is actually another reason why I am so confident.

This guy with a big head came from the preliminaries just like me.

Because of his appearance, he paid a little more attention to him.

This guy used the exact same deck in all the 4+1 games in the 5th and 6th rounds of the preliminaries and the first two rounds of the dungeon tournament.

To put it bluntly, Gundam Head is just a rookie.

If you can't predict the outcome of a game like this, then you've got no use for it.

The final result was just as he said, the two output cards in the second row of the sword-haired man were played at the same time, and Gundam's deck was full of E-level cards except for [Shield Warrior] and [Fake Monk].

He lost the game without even revealing his opponent's trump card.

After the first show, there was another nearly one-hour long program + commercials.

Taking advantage of this period, Director Xiu started to get close to the man and the historian.

"My dear little brother, I think you seem to have a pretty good understanding of the game."

"Are you working in a related field? I wonder where you can get a good job?"

"My master is the coach of the Show Card Hall. Have you heard of the Show Card Hall?"

Before Shi Li could reply, Slime took the initiative to report it for him.

"Card gym coach? That's really impressive."

Director Xiu pretended to be surprised.

"Nothing, it's not a very good job actually. I'm planning to quit recently."

Shi Li shook his head as if modestly.

"What's wrong? Are you dissatisfied with your work?"

Director Xiu felt a tightness in his heart.

If the other party really had some dissatisfaction with the card hall, she would take the opportunity to find out.

Don’t wait until such a talent is really lost, it will be a huge loss!

“Hmm…”

However, when Shi Li faced this question, he became silent.

“Is it because you are not satisfied with the salary and benefits?”

So Director Xiu asked further.

The operating conditions of their card hall are indeed not very good, so the salary is lower than those of the big chain card halls.

"no."

Shi Li shook his head again, causing Director Xiu to frown slightly.

She saw that the other person was not very old, so it was not impossible that he might be shy or socially anxious.

Moreover, she also knows the coaching staff's supervisor's personalities, for example, the guy who always gives the middle finger won't change no matter how many times he is told.

So she asked again.

"Is that a workplace problem? Are you being ostracized by your colleagues?"

"no."

"The card room is too far from home, and commuting is inconvenient?"

"no."

“Can’t see any future development prospects?”

“No.”

"Did another card room offer you better conditions?"

“Neither.”

Shi Li's repeated denials left Director Xiu confused.

Generally speaking, there are two reasons why employees want to resign.

Either they complain that the pay is too little, or they are just unhappy with their job.