chapter 15
015. Buff 2 Stacks
Clank-! Clank-!
The wooden carriage ran violently on the rough road.
The carriage was made temporarily, so the ride was not comfortable and my stomach was churning, but I was barely enduring it.
“Master, please bear with it a little longer. The village will appear soon!”
“Uh, ugh…!”
After having a rich breakfast, we were preparing to leave for the village, which was our original destination.
In the midst of that, we happened to encounter a goblin merchant who was driving a carriage.
He asked us our destination and offered us a deal as a merchant. He said he would take us to the village if we paid him a small amount of DP.
At first, I was going to refuse, but when I heard that it would take half a day to get to the village, I reluctantly agreed to the deal.
And that’s how we ended up in this situation.
‘Ugh…! Does the store sell motion sickness medicine?’
I couldn’t bear it any longer.
My butt was sore, my stomach was churning, my vision was shaking and dizzy, it was hard to endure with a clear mind.
The carriage journey was full of drawbacks.
I decided to solve one of them and opened the store.
I was about to go straight to the medical items to buy motion sickness medicine.
That’s when I suddenly noticed the huge banner hanging in the store.
[Super Sale! Buy card packs in bulk now and get 10% off!]
The store was having a limited purchase event like a common gacha game.
It was so trivial. Was there really a fool who would fall for this trick?
[Product ‘5,000 DP Card Pack’ X 10, do you really want to buy it?]
That fool was me.
I didn’t buy the motion sickness medicine I was going to buy and bought the card packs instead.
But how could I resist opening the card packs?
Let’s go for the card coin spike!!
I forgot about the motion sickness I had just before and summoned the card packs I bought.
Rustle-! Rustle-!
The sound of the plastic wrapping the cards makes my heart calm down.
Yeah, this is the cure for motion sickness.
If there is a best therapy for humans, it might be financial therapy.
With that concept, if I spend money as much as I want, I can cure even the hard-to-treat diseases.
Just like me right now.
“Did you buy the cards?”
“Yeah, they were selling cheaply for a limited time, so I grabbed them right away!”
“Hmm……”
Phineas starts to look at the card pack with a displeased expression.
He stares at it intently, swallowing his saliva.
“Did I do something stupid?”
“It’s not that you did anything wrong, Master! It’s just that I have some concerns.”
“What are they?”
“After thinking about it carefully, it didn’t seem like a big deal. Just think of it as a needless worry and move on!”
“Well, if you say so……”
There’s no need to pry into it.
I decide to focus on the new card pack I bought.
“I wonder what cards are in here~?”
It wasn’t the card I wanted, but the [Mind Control] I pulled on the first day showed a great performance.
Now that I have bought five packs of cards, after witnessing the miracle of a single pack.
Maybe I will get a card like Patrap, which has high versatility.
With a heightened sense of anticipation, I carefully opened the packs.
Some people prefer to check the cards as they open each pack, but I liked to open them all at once and check them together.
So I tore open all five packs and made a pile of cards, then gently lifted it up.
Half nervous, half excited, I looked at the result.
Sigh, sigh.
In the rattling carriage, I slowly flipped through the cards and memorized them.
So far, only unsatisfying cards had come out.
When I checked the fifth card, my hand trembled.
It was like throwing away 5000 DP.
But didn’t they say that hope always follows despair?
When a bright light burst out from the eighth card, a smile formed on my lips.
I put on the anti-eye strain sunglasses that I had bought in advance.
With a thrilled heart, I turned the card over completely and checked the content.
[Mind Control, Mind Control]
Crack-!
The sunglasses cracked.
***
“Wha-a-a-a-a-t!!”
Right after checking the card draw results.
It felt like the buff time was over and the gastric acid refluxed.
Especially when I saw the cards I drew, my stomach got even worse.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m not okay!!”
I was being patted on the back by Phineas in real time, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
Card draw results.
Universal cards 0, useless cards 23, somewhat useful cards 5, shiny cards 2.
I don’t know if it was above average or not, since I lack data.
But at least by my standards, it was a result that could be called trash.
The two cards that emitted light were both mind control.
With this, I completed the unwanted mind control 3.
If only it was ‘breeding bugs’ 3, I would have been satisfied….
“Master, are these cards that bad?”
“One is okay, but three is crossing the line. The activation cost alone requires you to sacrifice a total of 3 cards.”
Of course, discarding cards from the deck is good.
People call the card that dumps cards from the deck, ‘foolish tombstone’, a wise tombstone.
But the problem is that you also have to give up one card each from your hand and field.
Even if you get control by doing that, it returns to the opponent’s field at the end phase.
The only advantage is that the card’s effect activation cannot be negated, since the cost is high.
Anyway, it was clear that it was difficult to use.
Especially when mind control came out in three chapters in the first attack, the mind became faint.
“But I think it’s not bad.”
“…Can you explain to me what’s good about it?”
“First of all, you can use any card you want, right?”
“There are quite a few cards that I’ve never used before, but there are hardly any themes that I can’t use.”
“That means you have a high chance of using your opponent’s cards in various ways!”
“That’s not wrong, but it seems like this world doesn’t look kindly on stealing and using other people’s cards.”
“It’s not stealing, it’s borrowing! It’s just a matter of whether you use it nicely and return it or squeeze it out like a rag and return it.”
Phineas, are you a golden sun?
But as I listened to her words, I nodded my head as if they made sense.
Opening a card pack that went bankrupt.
If I can’t get a good card anyway, I’ll just borrow the good cards from the other side.
It felt like the theme of the deck I wanted to go for was decided.
“So don’t be discouraged. You can use these cards very well.”
“…Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
It seemed to end warmly, but it was a trashy conversation that suggested trying out an NTR deck.
The evidence was that the merchant who was being pushed around had a rotten expression.
But still, ‘your card was awesome’ was a kind of romance for those who enjoyed card games.
The game is not about winning, it’s about making the other person angry.
“`
There was a saying in the world that went like this.
“Everyone, get off now that we’ve arrived.”
“Wow…!”
As I was chatting with Phineas and building my deck, we had arrived at our first destination, a village.
‘Justice’ was the name of the village, written in huge letters on the checkpoint.
The gatekeeper who guarded the checkpoint was a monster of the Justice Apostle theme, which suited the name very well.
The theme of Justice Apostle, which gained a huge advantage by discarding cards from the deck.
If enough graveyard resources were accumulated, they could summon a high-level monster called ‘Executor of Justice’ and finish the game.
It was a theme that had fallen behind in the current meta, but still had great destructive power and was loved by many people.
“Please show your ID.”
“Huh?”
As I was waiting and admiring the Justice Apostle, it was my turn.
I thought they would let me pass after searching my body, but the gatekeeper demanded that I show him my ID.
ID? Did this world have such a thing?
I hurriedly rummaged through the bag that Anubis had given me, but there was nothing that could prove my identity, let alone an ID.
“Um, what do I do if I don’t have an ID?”
“You have to pay 10,000 DP and get a temporary ID that will let you stay in the village for three days. You can get your ID issued at the guild.”
“…I see.”
I was screwed.
My balance was only 7,000 DP left after spending DP to draw cards.
“`
I couldn’t even buy a temporary ID.
Did Phineas look at me with displeasure earlier because he knew something like this would happen?
“What do I do if I don’t have enough DP?”
“In that case, we can’t let you into the village until you earn more DP.”
“Ugh!”
I was about to feel depressed at the thought of having to sleep outside again.
Then I felt a tap on my shoulder from behind.
I turned my head and saw Phineas, wearing black sunglasses, smiling broadly with his back bent.
“Aha!”
His behavior was incomprehensible, but I understood what he meant by that.
“If you’re done with your business, please leave now…”
“Hey, let’s duel.”
Declare the start of the duel. Phineas!