Chapter 174: 174 Downgraded Card_1
In the System’s concept, individuals possessing such abilities were Hearts of the World, endowed with System items.
However, Wen Jiang managed to accomplish such a terrifying feat without relying on any System items.
"Zero Egg," Wen Jiang spoke languidly, "the universe is vast beyond your imagination, not to mention you hail from another world."
"In your world, the Heart of the World exists. How can you be sure that there isn’t a stronger existence above you all?"
Zero Egg: "..."
Zero Egg swore that, as a high-tech System, its computational and extrapolation abilities were unmatched.
But faced with Wen Jiang’s counter-question, it actually—found itself somewhat crashing.
Right, what if there’s an even stronger existence beyond the Heart of the World?
The small System couldn’t comprehend such a terrifying existence and shivered subconsciously.
Now, through the cards, Wen Jiang’s emotion Points were approaching ten thousand.
Passing ten thousand seemed to unlock an S-Rank Card Set, and Wen Jiang herself could draw SSR Cards from the System’s repository, as long as she was lucky enough.
But did Wen Jiang, who could create powerful cards on her own, truly need this ability?
Zero Egg was perplexed.
Zero Egg carefully inquired, "Then Host, what exactly are you? What is your purpose?"
"I don’t have any specific purpose." Wen Jiang initially hadn’t had a goal. After all, she had lived for so long, and her aim was to ascend to godhood. However, failing the Tribulation shattered her beautiful dream. She was fortuitously saved by the Heart of the World and was now saddled with a debt. "Well, my current purpose might be to save some handsome rogue."
"Handsome rogue?" Zero Egg was stunned. "Where did this handsome rogue come from? When did you start messing around with some handsome rogue without my knowledge? Wow, Host, you’re not so innocent after all!"
Wen Jiang: "..."
If Zero Egg had a physical form, she really would have wanted to pull it out and give it a beating.
This incident happened too quickly. Aside from Huo Lin and Bai Lang, who were taken away, it didn’t disturb the other team members; this was Tang Qian’s intention.
As the coach, Tang Qian naturally had to be informed of any unusual activities in the hotel. She wasn’t so worried after hearing from Wen Jiang that everything was fine and knowing Lady Hua was managing the aftermath.
However, following this incident, Mount Flower should be due for a personnel review.
If it weren’t for me being like a player using cheats, any one of them, including Shi Qi, would have been fooled this time.
Wen Jiang’s and their teammates’ rooms underwent another inspection. Shi Qi still vaguely sensed something amiss. After all, his assistant, Huo Lin, had disappeared. Tang Qian explained that nothing was wrong and advised Shi Qi not to ask further questions, so Shi Qi could only suppress the doubts in his heart.
With the competition at a critical juncture, it was essential for the team members to maintain a good mindset. If they were to learn that there had been an actual assassination attempt, Tang Qian wasn’t sure if they could psychologically withstand such news.
They resolved Bai Lang’s matter in one night. On the surface, all seemed calm, but the turbulence caused by the International Card Association was far from over.
The next day, the International Card Association publicly announced the expulsion of the person in charge from Country Beiwu. This instantly sparked an online feud between the netizens of Yunxia and Country Beiwu.
Of course, everyone knew that Sanctuary might be behind this scheme, yet there was no concrete evidence; one couldn’t just openly accuse Sanctuary of being shameless. However, they still went on to attack the entire International Card Association.
Netizens from overseas were displeased.
Sanctuary: "Have the people of Yunxia lost their minds? There are people from Yunxia within the International Association as well. Isn’t it possible that someone from Yunxia also wanted to embezzle cards?"
Yunxia: "What kind of nonsense is this? Didn’t you see what the spokesperson said? The person in charge from Country Beiwu acted on his own; the Card Association internally never had such intentions."
Yunxia: "Not to mention anything else, I’m just so thrilled to see the Card Association lose face this time! HAHAHAHAHAHA. They should’ve known better than to mess with a tough nut."
Yunxia: "Are the people at the International Card Association nuts or something? Why on earth would they mess with Mount Flower? Haven’t they seen the news reports of Jiang Shen scolding a reporter?"
Beiwu: "This is too funny. It’s clearly the Yunxia players who lack manners. They directly publicized internal Card Association communications, causing the person in charge to be implicated. Aren’t they afraid Mount Flower will be targeted by the Association in the future?"
Frost Moon: "Ah... Indeed, it seems Yunxia has made a mountain out of a molehill. It really wasn’t such a big deal."
Yunxia: "Can you idiots stop being biased? It’s the Beiwu representative who’s shameless, coveting other people’s cards. How could they dare to do that?"
Frost Moon: "Ah, speaking of which, didn’t Mountain Ghost from Yunxia suffer a similar setback in the past? I didn’t expect Mount Flower to be so tough. I actually quite admire Mount Flower."
Yunxia: "Wait a minute, don’t run away, Frost Moon netizens. What’s this about Mountain Ghost suffering a loss? Tell me more..."
Perhaps because no one had seen a player personally stir up trouble like this before, the incident should have gradually settled down after the Association’s person in charge from Country Beiwu was dismissed. However, someone from Frost Moon inadvertently revealed that the Mountain Ghost Association had also suffered a similar loss in the past. Additionally, an ’insider’ who couldn’t stand it any longer came forward with a revelation: Mountain Ghost Association once had a potent SSR Card, "Snake Tortoise," which ran into issues after being submitted to the Association, resulting in "Snake Tortoise" being banned from competitions thereafter.
This card had a fleeting moment of glory before vanishing. The only explanation given was that it involved copyright issues, leaving even the fans unaware as to why the Mountain Ghost Association no longer used it.
The Mount Flower incident prompted a revisiting of old matters, and more and more people began to dig into past secrets.
The Mountain Ghost Association fans exploded upon learning this.
So, this wasn’t the first time! It turns out that after their association was used as cannon fodder, it emboldened certain people to get improper ideas!
The fans of professional players have the strongest fighting spirit. At first, it was just Wen Jiang’s fans enjoying the show, but now that the Mountain Ghost Association’s past had been dredged up, their fans immediately dug up the old reports.
No wonder the International Association also inexplicably dismissed a bunch of people that year, citing incompetence as the reason. It turns out there was such a major incident behind it all.
The stance of the Mountain Ghost Association members became somewhat nuanced after realizing Wen Jiang had directly challenged the Association.
They never expected their own past issue to be logically exposed as well.
Suddenly, Yunxia’s reporters swarmed to the Mountain Ghost Association, hoping to uncover more secrets from them.
Meanwhile, in another hotel, the Mountain Ghost Association was also in turmoil.
Tan Heming and others looked at each other and went to ask their coach what this was all about.
As insiders, they knew the Snake Tortoise card had issues and was no longer used, but they had no idea there was such a significant secret behind it.
After all, they weren’t the same batch of professional players as before.
The longest-serving Mountain Ghost S-Rank Coach, looking so world-weary he wished he could light a cigarette, lamented, "Actually, this has little to do with the International Card Association in the grand scheme of things. The fact that year’s Frost Moon Association chairman was forced into early retirement was also due to this incident; that was the explanation given to us. The problem with Snake Tortoise wasn’t caused by them; rather, the card had serious issues right from its creation."