bookbashuk Chapter 569 What deck do you have? What deck do I have?
Chapter 569 What deck do you have? What deck do I have?
"Speaking of which, why play cards while racing?"
Looking at the red snow and dark shadows speeding ahead, Su Tianqing asked the people in the car.
After a brief silence, Hellcat was the first to shake its head.
"I don't know. Marigold and the others probably just mixed in some racing game."
"Actually, playing cards while driving is quite fun. Although it seems a bit strange at first glance, once you get used to the concept, the card battles become incredibly exciting—"
The cat gestured with its hands as if it were driving a car while simultaneously drawing cards and playing cards, and Su Tianqing pondered for a long time but still couldn't figure it out.
But what I'm best at is accepting reality. Since this mental image has been manipulated into a form that even I can't immediately understand, Garuda will probably need to spend more time figuring out the underlying logic here and launching its twisted invasion. In a way, that's a good thing.
The fox girl squeezed into the middle of the front row and looked through the windshield at the two race cars that were locked in a tight chase ahead.
The speedometer showed that the speed had reached 150, but it was only enough to keep up with the speed of the car driven by Crimson Snow and Dark Shadow ahead.
"They're really hot on your heels... huh?"
Chi Xue glanced back expressionlessly, then suddenly noticed a car following An Ying. Looking through the windshield, she could see several familiar figures, and her eyes widened slightly.
[Buzz buzz buzz... Akashi, calling Akashi, can you hear me?]
The vehicle radio received the communication signal, and Chi Xue quickly answered it, replying:
"It's me. Are you Heartmoon Fox? Have you found Hellcat and the others yet?"
Yes, we're following you and that shadow.
Hearing the voice coming from the radio, Chi Xue finally breathed a sigh of relief, but she didn't have time to think about it further. She looked at the card table mounted on the race car in front of her, feeling at a loss.
There was even a deck of cards already laid out in the card box, and the screen was filled with colorful lights, displaying the words "Battle Begins," leaving everyone completely baffled.
"I can't stop this car right now, and the guy behind me just keeps following me for some reason, without any intention of attacking me."
That's because...
Over the radio, the four people in the car explained to Chi Xue in detail the combat system that had been explored so far in this mental world: playing cards.
First there was the action-packed Fox Gate, then the space battleship Foxkov, neither of which has much to do with the kind of combat that magical girls excel at.
This caused Akayuki to feel slightly confused when she first heard that "racing and playing cards might save the world," but she quickly accepted this seemingly unreliable premise.
Bai Lili, however, became interested in the first two. When Chi Xue officially began her card game with Qi Hei An Ying, she asked a few more questions about the situation of Fox Gate and Fox Kov.
"From unparalleled magic to combined arms warfare, and even racing and card games, you have quite a diverse world of imagination, huh?"
Bai Lili heard about the experiences of the first two groups of victims for the first time, and immediately burst out laughing after hearing Su Tianqing's brief description.
But she was soon displeased—when Chi Xue summoned the main monster, the surrounding area was instantly surrounded by a magical barrier. After a flash of light, a large flying monster appeared out of thin air, which startled Bai Lili so much that she almost slammed on the brakes.
"Whoa!"
"I told you to focus on the road while driving, don't make a fuss," the catgirl muttered sarcastically.
"You hapless cat, you try driving it yourself! That huge monster suddenly appeared in the sky and startled me!"
"I don't have a driver's license, or I'll drive you into a ditch."
Before the shouting had even finished, the giant monster on Chi Xue's head suddenly turned towards the dark shadow and spat out a fireball, completely engulfing the shadow and its black race car!
"Crack!!!"
"Wow!"
Startled by the sudden explosion, Bai Lili's hands remained firmly on the steering wheel. She braked, slowed down, and slightly adjusted the steering wheel to avoid the heat wave, accelerating to catch up with the two people ahead.
"Akayuki has activated the effect of the monster she summoned, and currently has the advantage in health points." The bunny girl sitting in the passenger seat brought up a magic screen, displaying the status of both sides in the battle.
Red Snow takes the initiative, summoning a powerful monster with 3000 ATK and a small monster with an ambiguous defense position on the field. It then uses its effect to deal 800 damage to Dark Shadow first.
I set two cards face down to end my turn.
Chi Xue's voice came through the radio, sounding confident and in complete control of the situation.
"You actually know how to play this card game?" Hellcat exclaimed in surprise, and quickly joined the golden fox girl in the passenger seat, peering at the light screen in Cheshire Rabbit's hand.
I've played with others before, but I haven't paid much attention lately. At least I still understand the rules.
Chi Xue laughed on the other end of the radio, her tone slightly unrestrained.
Come on! You cowardly Shadow!
……
The battle was almost entirely one-sided.
The rules of the card game are actually quite simple—summon monsters, reduce the opponent's life points, use various spells and monster effects to create combos, and the player whose life points reach zero loses.
Red Snow started with a strong attack and continued to activate its effects even during Dark Shadow's turn. It used its back row face-down cards to hinder Dark Shadow's attacks and summoning, and successfully launched a fierce attack on the third turn to defeat it.
The black race car and the shadows turned into magical particles and scattered. The overpass road was also reopened after the battle, allowing both sides to smoothly turn into the city and drive into an empty repair shop following the navigation.
With this temporary base, the group of five set up a makeshift meeting table and prepared to discuss countermeasures.
"So..."
Walking to the makeshift conference table and sitting down, Chi Xue carefully reviewed Cheshire Rabbit's impromptu shorthand notes on "Rules of the Mental World," then looked up at the pure white figure across the table.
Her face immediately filled with confusion and bewilderment.
"...Bai Lili, why were you also captured by Garuda?"
"I can't reach it."
Bai Lili shrugged, feigning ignorance.
"I was sleeping peacefully at home when that little Garuda... ah, sorry. Anyway, I don't know why it dragged me in."
Even the most quintessential dialect phrases couldn't help but slip out; Su Tianqing could sense just how overflowing Bai Lili's resentment was.
Imagine you're a veteran magical girl who, after a long day, is about to go to sleep when some astral behemoth suddenly slaps you out of bed and throws you into a strange mental world, making you do this and that. You'd probably start reciting your local dialect, just like Lily.
Despite the complaints, since they had been dragged into the world of mental images, everyone agreed on one point: to conduct a comprehensive investigation as much as possible to find decisive evidence of where Garuda exists, in order to help in the subsequent confrontation.
"Currently, it seems that each mental image has its own combat rules, but in general, they are quite consistent with everyone's style in reality," Chi Xue added.
"For example, the Fox Gate that Iris entered, she retained the TRPG mage class in that mental image, and could only fight in a way that conformed to the rules of the mental image."
"The place where Hyacinth and Marigold went last time, Foxkov, is a place where magic is forbidden, so we can only fight with rifles and tanks."
"Speaking of this..." Bai Lili continued, saying:
"I already thought the presence of tanks was outrageous enough, but then you encountered a space battleship and a bizarre photo corridor. This is just too... too outrageous."
"This is what an invaded dream image looks like; no one knows how Garuda will twist it."
Chi Xue shrugged and answered helplessly.
The illusionary mind invaded by Garuda is indeed like that. Su Tianqing strongly agrees with Chi Xue's view - that kind of distortion is carried out from the fundamental basis, such as turning turn-based games into action-musou games, turning small-team indoor CQB into tank and plane free-for-all battles, and focusing on being as rebellious as possible.
As for the current mindset I'm in while playing cards, it hasn't yet shown any particularly outrageous or illogical distortions. Or rather, this mindset has already been completely muddied by Sasha and Marigold's "creative thinking." Will Garuda need more time to infiltrate it? That's probably it.
Wait a minute, thinking about it carefully, something feels a bit strange.
Could it be that Inari's real idea was to have the two newlyweds disrupt the mental imagery beforehand, making Garuda mistakenly believe that it had already disturbed the mental imagery, thus spending more time judging whether the mental imagery had actually been disturbed, thereby delaying the process...?
The atmosphere suddenly became quiet.
The fox and rabbit were deep in thought, the cat was stroking the fox's tail, Bai Lili was showing off a can of cola that she had somehow pulled out, and Chi Xue was carefully looking through the intelligence that the rabbit had compiled. Everyone had their own things to do.
"Since we have some free time right now, let's share our decks. I think a thorough understanding of your deck's combat style and synergy effects will be a great help later on."
After finishing his thought, Cheshire Rabbit spoke up, offering a suggestion that sounded quite good.
Su Tianqing also snapped out of her reverie, wiggled her fox tail twice, and nodded in agreement.
"Bunny's right, I think that's a good idea," the fox girl chimed in. "Since playing cards in this mental image is a form of combat, how about we first analyze the characteristics of our respective decks?"
Without further ado, with nothing much to do before the next phase of the investigation was finalized, five boxes of cards were placed on the conference table, and the girls began to check their own decks.
Soon, everyone had figured out the characteristics of their own decks and started discussing them, except for Su Tianqing, who stared blankly at the stack of cards in her hand.
What is meant by "Tears of Elegy, Narcissus, Mermaid"? What is "Pot of Greed"? And what is "Super Magical Dragon Knight"?
Hmm... these cards of mine feel completely different in style from the cards of the cats.