Chapter 345: Carboniferous Period 17
Take Perry Yates’s Water Lotus, for example. Although it wasn’t a pure Water Attribute card, The Merman King could never reclaim the water it absorbed.
This was the absolute dominance of a five-star card.
…
When Sage Bishop came to, the first thing she felt was a sharp pain in the back of her neck.
Her eyes snapped open, and she realized she had been moved to a different location.
She bolted upright. She remembered—she’d been ambushed before passing out. She started to turn, looking for Perry Yates, but stopped when she saw her. Perry was holding a stack of cards that radiated black energy, fanned out like a peacock’s tail. It looked as if she were playing a hand of poker, with another similar pile sitting in front of her.
It, too, was radiating black energy.
“How do you have so many cards?”
Sage Bishop scrambled over to Perry Yates’s side. Looking at the cards in Perry’s hand and the pile in front of her, she estimated there had to be dozens, maybe even a hundred of them.
‘Still, these cards radiating black energy… they can’t be anything good.’
Perry Yates had no intention of hiding anything. After all, as fellow Croupiers, she and Sage Bishop were more or less on the same side.
“These are the cards that The Merman King dropped.”
After saying that, Perry Yates realized she had knocked Sage Bishop out before The Merman King had even appeared. She quickly added, “The one that was inside the lake before.”
“Inside the lake? But wasn’t there only one card in there?” Sage Bishop asked in surprise.
‘This isn’t what I expected at all.’
“You can think of the card from the lake as a kind of fusion monster. While its appearance and displayed power were on par with a five-star card, it was actually formed by forcibly fusing ninety-nine Water Attribute cards.”
After hearing Perry Yates’s explanation, Sage Bishop nodded. She then asked, “So what’s with all this black smoke? The cards aren’t ruined, are they?”
“This black smoke is Dark Energy. It can make a card more powerful without changing its level. The fusion earlier was a result of this Dark Energy’s influence.”
Hearing that Dark Energy could make things more powerful, Sage Bishop’s eyes lit up. To think such a thing existed!
However, her excitement quickly faded as she calmed herself down.
She was no fool, after all. She had managed to distinguish herself from all the players on her planet to become one of its four Croupiers.
Dark Energy might make cards stronger, but with the word “Dark” right there in the name, it was impossible for there to be no side effects. So…
“What are the side effects?”
At her question, Perry Yates glanced up. “The side effect is that the cards develop their own consciousness. They become rebellious, even hateful toward players—especially their own masters. Of course, if you have enough power to suppress them, it’s not a problem.”
“And if you can’t suppress them?” Sage Bishop asked.
“They might become disobedient, or you might not be able to use their abilities. A more rebellious one could even defect or try to kill its master. Ultimately, it all depends on the card’s individual personality.”
Dark Energy was a double-edged sword. Wielded correctly, it could deliver a fatal blow to an enemy. Wielded poorly, it could become the very blade that killed you.
After hearing Perry’s words, Sage Bishop immediately abandoned any thought of using Dark Energy. After all, she was the last Croupier on her planet.
The game rules stated that a regular player who killed a Croupier would inherit all their possessions, but “all” did not include the actual title of Croupier.
In truth, Croupiers were vital to a planet. They acted as an anchor, simultaneously protecting their own world while fending off the predatory ambitions of Croupiers from other planets.
Planets that lost their Croupiers were like lone boats cut adrift from the outside world. While they wouldn’t face immediate crisis, they would lose all agency in responding to one when it arrived.
This wasn’t an empty threat; it was a truth proven by precedent.
Among the countless planets touched by the survival games, a great many had lost all their Croupier Players.
They would either fade into obscurity, struggling through endless game cycles until their eventual demise, or they would be discovered by another Croupier and be conquered by or forced into a “cooperation” with that Croupier’s planet.
And that “cooperation” was tantamount to being conquered.
Ever since learning this from Reina Quinn, Sage Bishop had become exceptionally cautious in the game world. She did not want her planet to suffer such a fate.
After putting all the cards away, Perry Yates suddenly stood up.
“Where are you going?” Sage Bishop asked hurriedly.
“To the next area, of course,” Perry Yates replied, as if it were obvious. She then gave Sage Bishop a puzzled look. ‘I didn’t knock her silly, did I? No, I didn’t even hit her head. There’s no way that would happen.’
Hearing this, Sage Bishop finally remembered. But…
Just then, Sage Bishop’s stomach suddenly rumbled loudly.
Sage Bishop blushed and said sheepishly, “Can we eat first?”
At this, Perry Yates nodded. She casually took a piece of candy from her pocket, tossed it into her mouth, and then walked over to sit beside Sage Bishop.
She watched as Sage Bishop pulled something that looked like beef jerky from her pocket and began to gnaw on it with great effort.
The jerky seemed incredibly tough. Sage Bishop struggled to eat it, taking a full half-hour just to finish one piece.
Watching this, Perry Yates couldn’t help but think, ‘She’s probably burning more calories eating that thing than she’s getting from it.’
After she finished eating, Sage Bishop realized Perry Yates hadn’t had anything but that piece of candy.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
Perry Yates shook her head. “I don’t need to eat.”
Hearing Perry Yates say she didn’t need to eat, Sage Bishop’s eyes went wide. “You don’t need to eat? Is that one of your Skills? You used a Wood Attribute Skill earlier… Your ability isn’t photosynthesis, is it?”
Faced with Sage Bishop’s barrage of questions, Perry Yates answered vaguely, “Something like that.”
‘While she didn’t rely on photosynthesis to replenish her energy, that didn’t mean she was incapable of it.’
‘It was just that, compared to directly absorbing sunlight and Moonlight, photosynthesis was far too slow a method.’
Hearing Perry say that, Sage Bishop grew excited all over again. “I never knew a Wood Attribute Card could have an effect like that!”
“Can you do me a favor? I can reward you afterward!” Sage Bishop said, suddenly grabbing Perry Yates’s arm.
Before Sage Bishop could even say what the favor was, Perry Yates cut in, “Not all Wood Attribute Cards gain the ability to photosynthesize after fusion.”
“Even two identical cards can turn out differently during the Ascension process.”