CHIRP... CHIRP...
Song Zhe expertly pedaled his bicycle, riding along in the shade of the trees on the right side of the street. Every so often, he would turn his head so Duan Fei could pass him the snowman-shaped ice cream bar for a bite.
Even in this instance, the snowman ice cream bar tasted just like he remembered—super milky. Sixty cents for one, or two for a dollar.
Duan Fei had bought the ice cream. It was to repay a debt of gratitude for a bag of shrimp crackers and, conveniently, to hire Song Zhe as his ride to the other schools to defeat the other champions.
He didn’t know how many people were in this instance, but according to Song Zhe, there were seven elementary schools in total. That meant there should be six more champions waiting for him to defeat.
Heading east, the two of them rode out of town and arrived before a vast wheat field.
The wheat had already been harvested, and the grain was laid out to dry on the country road. Song Zhe rode straight over it without a care in the world, earning a "greeting" from a farmer who was drying his grain nearby:
"You little brat!"
"You old brat!"
"Such simple, honest folk," Duan Fei remarked with a sigh.
A few minutes later, the bicycle stopped at the gates of a school called Zexiang Primary School. Song Zhe, drenched in sweat, finished off the now-melted snowman ice cream bar, then started chewing on the stick, sucking out every last bit of residue.
Finally, he tossed the stick under a nearby willow tree and pointed at the school. "This is where the next champion is. But be careful. The champion here is surprisingly strong. You’ve gotta watch out, Xiao Lizi."
This school was also hosting so-called "dark duels," but no one was guarding the gate.
A group of students was playing cards in a shady spot on the playground. Every one of them was completely focused, looking exceptionally serious.
All except for one person.
Though they looked to be only about twelve years old, their stubborn posture, cold and arrogant eyes, and unparalleled, domineering aura immediately tipped Duan Fei off to their identity.
It was Cuihua!
Seeing Cuihua, Duan Fei didn’t even need to ask to know how things had turned out for her.
Still, holding onto the slim, sarcastic hope that her social anxiety might have been cured, he walked over and asked, "Cuihua, what’s the verdict?"
Cuihua turned her head and stared blankly at Duan Fei.
Before she could even speak, tears started streaming down her face.
"G-Gone."
"Your virtue or your dignity?"
"B-Both are gone."
"Wow, that’s rough."
"My cards... they’re all gone!"
"...Even rougher."
Only then did Duan Fei notice that Cuihua’s hands were completely empty.
In other words, Cuihua had been absolutely demolished by a bunch of elementary schoolers.
Even though a large part of it was due to her social anxiety, the thought of Cuihua getting bullied by a bunch of kids filled him with a sense of sorrow.
Just then, a short, scrawny kid approached with a sinister smirk. He looked at Song Zhe, who was standing beside Duan Fei, and said, "Knight of the Dark Night, what brings you here? Have you come to challenge me?"
Despite being addressed with the incredibly cringey title "Knight of the Dark Night"—it was probably an online handle—Song Zhe coolly replied, "No. This is our new champion. He’s here to challenge you. His moniker is... the Crimson King!"
’I’m going to kill you, Song Zhe! I’m definitely going to kill you today!’
The shorty squinted, sizing up Duan Fei. Then he let out a few "JIEH HEH HEH" laughs, probably imitating a villain from the cartoon that aired at six every evening.
"So, you’re the new champion? To be able to beat the Knight of the Dark Night, you must be quite the powerful duelist yourself, Crimson King. Let us..."
"Please, less talk. Let’s just duel. I’m in a hurry to get home for dinner."
The shorty was instantly mortified, but he managed to maintain a champion’s dignity, pointing at Duan Fei and declaring, "Fine! Let the duel begin!"
But then, his eyes darted to the side. He pulled Song Zhe over and said, "Since your friend is here, let’s make it a 2v2 duel."
"Whoa, 2v2!"
"It’s a new game mode!"
"I hear it’s super intense!"
The surrounding elementary schoolers grew excited over this co-op mode they had never heard of before.
They swarmed over, looking at the shorty with excitement. "Is it really 2v2? This is the first time I’ve ever seen this kind of game mode!"
"As expected of someone who owns the complete Monster King series! He even knows about this game mode!"
The shorty puffed out his chest and tilted his head back, smugly soaking in everyone’s admiring gazes.
This piece of information, overheard from the bystanders, put Duan Fei on alert.
He was just an elementary schooler, someone Duan Fei could easily talk circles around, but the kid had an extremely powerful buff.
He owned the complete animated series!
In this era, there was a world of difference between owning the anime and not. A duelist who owned the anime held the right to interpret the rules and make up effects as they saw fit.
After all, no matter how ridiculous the effect, it could be justified with a single sentence: "It was in the anime."
You could say the anime was the bible in the hearts of these children. The one who owned the anime was the supreme Priest, the absolute referee among the class’s card players.
’Does this crappy, bootleg Monster King really have an anime?’
But some of the other kids had apparently seen a few episodes, so it wasn’t something he could lie about.
Duan Fei couldn’t just pull out his phone and look up the plot online, so he had no choice but to ask, "So, what are the rules for 2v2?"
"We each get a number. The first-turn players are odd numbers, the second-turn players are even. Then we just play in order. Other than the fact that you can attack your own partner and Magic Cards affect everyone simultaneously, the rest of the rules are the same as a solo duel."
The rules sounded plausible enough, but they concealed a huge trap.
He was being saddled with Cuihua.
With her social anxiety, Cuihua was less capable than an elementary schooler. She had probably seen that the instance had PvP elements and rushed in excitedly, not realizing it was a test of verbal dexterity, not martial prowess.
Just as he was trying to figure out how to get the rules changed back to 1v1, Cuihua spoke up shyly, "Duan... Duan Someone, I... I should probably just quit."
Duan Fei fell silent.
Cuihua scratched her head, trying her best to string a sentence together. "I... can’t... I’ll quit... You..."
Watching the embarrassed Cuihua get ready to quit the game, Duan Fei smacked himself hard on the head.
’I don’t have many friends to begin with. A simple, tough kid like Cuihua is a rare find. Wouldn’t it be cold-hearted to let her quit?’
’Using people when they’re useful and thinking about tossing them aside when they’re not... How is that any different from Nemo?’
Snapping out of it, Duan Fei said to Cuihua, "It’s fine. When the time comes, just play whatever. I’ll handle the bullshitting."
"B... But..."
"No buts. It’s happily decided. By the way, you know the rules, right?"
"Ye..."
"That’s enough."
"My cards..."
"Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it."
He felt his pocket. He still had four yuan left.
It was his allowance for the next few days. Once it was gone, it was gone.
Taking out a coin, Duan Fei asked, "Who’s willing to lend me their deck? I’ll pay one yuan."
The one-yuan coin gleamed in the sunlight. The "1" on the front and the chrysanthemum on the back were, in this moment, a symbol of purity, the pure temptation of money.
Gazing at the coin, the elementary schoolers’ breathing quickened.
One yuan. That was half the price of a comic book, two bags of shrimp crackers, a small bottle of Coke you could finish on the spot, two endlessly fun bouncy balls...
Therefore, without much effort, Duan Fei managed to recruit several players and inspect their decks.
After looking through one player’s deck, Duan Fei smiled.
’So there is some good stuff here after all.’
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