Forge a path to success.

Chapter 303 Enjoying It (6)

"Demon Lord!" "Entertainment Lord!!" "Encore! Encore!"

The audience waved their light sticks wildly, showering the stage with handfuls of green branches. Gutaf chuckled strangely; though fat and grotesque, he possessed a powerful baritone voice.

"A once-in-a-lifetime encounter, brimming with serendipitous encounters. The Demon Lords' concert is coming to an end, and the next show is about to begin!" Gutaf waved the microphone, "The monthly ultimate battle! Who dares to challenge the authority of the Entertainment Lord this time!"

A circular stage split open in the middle, and a bald man in a long robe—the Demon of Addiction—rose from the ground. His bald head was covered in black tattoos, and he made lewd gestures to the audience while beginning to rap.

"Someone wants to challenge the aura of the entertainment industry!"
But they don't yet know how powerful the Demon deck is!

Entertainment swayed its obese body in the back:
"Let our good friends hurt him a little."

Let's make tonight's atmosphere even more exhilarating!

Immersion and Entertainment high-fived, and a giant screen on the stage projected close-ups of their faces in real time, eliciting cheers from the audience. It was all a show, intentionally staged; even if the conflict were resolved through underground boxing matches and duels, the power struggles involving profit should be kept as secret as possible. Yet, both Immersion and Entertainment loved this kind of spectacle, where seriousness was dissolved, and the surface-level entertainment outweighed any deeper meaning. A refreshing emotional energy floated in the air—this was their most captivating environment, their perfect stage.

Entertainment cackled wickedly: "Where did you go? Where did you go! Where is the challenger? Get your trash up on stage and replace this shameful thing called Ambition!"

"—Let's begin."

A cluster of blue flames ignited opposite the stage, and the silver-armed man emerged from the flames. He somewhat clumsily equipped his Duel Disk and inserted it into his deck. Upon seeing that it was Chu Hengkong, who had blocked his path earlier, Entertainment immediately sneered.

"This time it's a greenhorn! A fool who doesn't even understand the situation!"
Three matches in total to provide you with plenty of talking points! Hope you bring more fun tonight!

Gutaf and the Indulgence Demon leaped back into the stands, their minions, the Tenacious Demon with a skull-like head and long braids, took their place. The Tenacious Demon was a tough, combative type; although it was a fantasy demon, it possessed combat power equivalent to a point mass of 4.

Both fighters drew their bone dueling disks, and a countdown of 3, 2, 1 flashed across the stage. "Duel!"

"I'll go first." Chu Hengkong drew a card first, "Summon Level 2, Longquan Township Martial Cultivator - Zhengxuan Talisman Master".

A valiant cultivator wielding a talisman appeared, his sword energy creating a howling wind within the dueling arena. Unlike ordinary card duels, the demons' game imbues the fighter cards with genuine power—the materialization ability of information possessed by the particles within the Floating Light Path.

“When the Zhengxuan Talisman Master is successfully summoned, any 'Dragon Spring Village Martial Arts Master' card can be added to your hand from your deck,” Chu Hengkong said. “I choose 'Dragon Spring Village Martial Arts Master - Chenjun Swordsman'.”

This is an ideal opening for the Wu Xiu deck. The Zhengxuan Rune Master has the effect of precisely searching for and destroying spell cards on the field, making it a very good lower-level fighter. However, Guli Bo in the audience frowned.

"I made a mistake. Adding Chenjun Swordsman to the hand card now won't do any good..."

One of Chenjun Swordsman's effects is that it can be Special Summoned when you only have this one card in your hand, but adding it to your hand now is obviously useless. After all, Chu Hengkong didn't study the deck much at all; he just bought a Longquanxiang competitive deck and played it straight into the game.

Vande shook his head: "I told you he didn't understand cards!"

"Ah Kong went first to scout out the opponent's deck, anyway, I didn't expect him to win..." Ji Huaisu gritted his teeth, "Look, it's starting!"

Just as Chu Hengkong finished summoning and was preparing to expand further, the Tenacious Demon coldly played a card. "Wait! At this moment, I activate the effect of 'Entertainment Demon - Bottle Holder' in my hand. This card can be Special Summoned from the hand when the opponent successfully summons a Fighter."

The tenacious demon played a card, and a chibi-style demon clutching a suspicious message in a bottle was chain-summoned. (Level 2, Attack 1000). The players in the audience suddenly exclaimed. "It's coming!" "That's what we've been waiting for!" "The demon is about to put on a show!"

The Bottle Keeper smashed the bottle in his hand. "Then I activate the Bottle Keeper's second effect: When this card is successfully summoned, you can send 3 random cards from your Deck to the Graveyard."

Three cards were sent to the graveyard in succession, and the tenacious demon flipped them over with a sinister grin. "Come on, let's see what cards we've sent this time..." There were two Spell cards, and... a Demon Fighter card!

"Very good. Among the cards I sent to the Graveyard is Entertainment Demon - Contractor. When this card is sent to the Graveyard by an effect, you can return this card and its remaining materials from the Graveyard to the Deck, and then Upgrade and Summon a Fighter that used this card as material!"

"Come forth, you entertainment demon - daydreamer!"

A half-human, half-demon phantom emerged from the graveyard area, creating a strange magic circle on the ground. The phantom gradually solidified, forming a mermaid fighter clad in blue leather. Her level is 4, and her attack power is 3200!
"If this card is Special Summoned, you can send 1 card from your opponent's field back to their deck." The Tenacious Demon pointed at the Mystic Runemaster, "Say goodbye to your Fighter cards!"

Chu Hengkong's Fighter card was swept back into the deck by the transparent wave, and at the same time, his opponent suddenly had another face-down card on the field!

"Also, I sent a 'Demon's Laughter' to the graveyard earlier. This card can be set to face on your field when it's sent to the graveyard, and because of this effect, your opponent cannot Special Summon it this turn." The Tenacious Demon chuckled. "That's enough for now... Come on, let's continue, it's still your turn!"

Chu Hengkong almost burst out laughing.

continue?

What's the point of continuing this?
From start to finish, he only summoned one Fighter card, while his opponent immediately played a powerful terminal card, a lower-level card, and a face-down card... Judging from the implication of the tenacious demon, this was not even the optimal board position, and at the same time, Chu Hengkong's board was already empty! And this was before it was even the opponent's turn!
How can we even play like this? There's no room for maneuver left!

Even with Chu Heng's vast experience and knowledge, he couldn't help but shake his head. Excited shouts filled the air. "This is what we've been waiting for!" "The Demon Lord is too strong!" "Your turn or my turn!"

"No, I don't think this is a matter of card skills," Vande said, his eyes wide. "What kind of lousy cards are these?!"

Even Gulibo's expression turned serious: "A fast-expansion deck that uses graveyard dumping as a resource management method... that's a very difficult deck to deal with..."

"The only way to counter this is to include cards that permanently banish enemies, but I don't have that effect in my deck." Ji Huaisu frowned. "What about you, Gulibo?"

“My Rotten Wood Warrior can banish cards from the graveyard, but that’s a Level 6 Fighter, which can’t usually be played properly,” Gulibo started to panic. “To be honest, there’s never been a deck like this before, and it’s hard to find a counter card in the current environment!” The support players who knew how to play were at a loss for what to do, and Chu Hengkong himself didn’t know what to do either. After thinking it over, he had no choice but to face down three cards: “End of turn.”

"Heh, but this level is nothing." The tenacious demon sneered. "My turn! I usually summon 'Entertainment Demon - Multi-Eyed Monster' and then enter the battle phase."

多眼怪的等级是2，攻击力也有1000点。加上3200点的空想沉迷者与1000点的怀瓶者，此刻能造成的伤害已经远远超出4000点了！

"The multi-eyed monster and the bottle-holder launch a direct attack!"

Two demons roared and charged forward, delivering a heavy blow to Chu Hengkong with their claws—damage that directly affected his ghostly body. Chu Hengkong's life points decreased by 1000-1000, becoming 2000. He immediately raised his hand and activated a face-down card: "Activate Strategic Spell, Ghostly Pardon. This can be activated when I take damage, turning one of my opponent's monsters face-down—"

"Don't even think about activating the effect of Multi-Eyed Monster. Once per turn, if you control two or more 'Gutaf' Fighters, you can send this card to the Graveyard to negate the activation of your opponent's Spell Cards."

Gulibo cried out in alarm, "How could this be! There's also his subordinate Kangbo!"

The multi-eyed monster returned to the graveyard, and the tenacious demon once again commanded: "That's it. Daydreamers, attack directly!"

Seeing that 3200 points of damage was about to hit, Chu Hengkong opened his second face-down card: "Strategic Spell, Ancient City Wall of Longquan Township. Discard one card to reduce the damage of a battle by half."

The phantom of the ancient city wall appeared, blocking half of the attack for Chu Hengkong. His health points were now only a pitiful 400, while the Tenacious Demon was still at full strength.

"You really know how to struggle, huh? I never thought that the minions of ambition would only have this much strength." The tenacious demon sneered. "Just sit there and quietly savor your despair, you little brat who's about to become a card... I activate the second effect of the daydreamer: Skip your opponent's draw phase the next turn after this card's battle."

"Set one more card over the wall, and the turn ends."

At the end of the turn, the Multi-Eyed Monster, which had been sent to the graveyard, returned to the field due to the effect of another card, and its attack power was increased to 2000. Now it was finally Chu Hengkong's turn, but he couldn't even draw a card... All he had left in his hand was the Chenjun Swordsman he had drawn at the beginning.

There was indeed no need for a fight now, and they had information about the opponent's deck. Admittedly, card games weren't his forte. He'd leave the rest to Gulibo and Huaisu; he'd just sacrifice himself here to see what this so-called "turning into a card" technique was all about…

The assassin unconsciously narrowed his eyes.

"Good!" "Kill him like that!" "Long live the Demon Lord!" "Hurry up and go down to watch the next match." The audience below the stage was still shouting, their eyes clouded with entertainment. The demons' mocking laughter. The loud music in the arena. The swaying spotlights. Vand was yelling that they should forfeit first to avoid falling into a trap.

After all, the opponent is also a delusional being of mass 5; the proper course of action now is to gather intelligence and then surrender. Surrender…

lose……

"No," Chu Hengkong said.

"Huh?" The stubborn demon didn't hear clearly.

“It’s just a game, and my card skills aren’t that great. It would be better to gather intelligence and then hand it over to a partner who knows how to play.” The assassin muttered to himself, his fingers gripping the cards tighter and tighter. “But no. What’s the point of giving up?”

"I don't care what game you play or what deck you use, but I don't like losing..."

"—I don't want to lose!"

He slammed the last card in his hand onto the duel disk, and a blood-red aura surged up, flowing into his deck along with his fighting spirit!

"I Special Summon Dragon Village Martial Arts Master - Chen Jun Swordsman from my hand. If this is the only card in my hand, I can Special Summon this card from my hand. When I successfully Summon this card by this effect, I can draw one card from my Deck."

He summoned a level one Chenjun Swordsman, whose attack power was a mere 500 points. Then, Chu Hengkong drew cards from his deck, which was infused with his fighting spirit, and his cards traced a blood-red path!

"Open the third face-down card. War Magic, Blood Burning Qi Talisman, pay 300 health points to increase the attack power of the Dragon Village Martial Arts Warrior on the field by 1000 points."

Chen Jun Swordsman's attack power increased to 1500 points, and the Tenacious Demon made no attempt to hide his disdain: "A mere martial artist with 1500 attack points! You don't think you're still playing a game of comparing sizes, do you? We've long since moved beyond that era—"

"You haven't seen the card I drew yet."

The tenacious demon scoffed: "What kind of game-changing cards could that Dragon Village Martial Arts deck, which only focuses on attack power, possibly have?"

“Yes, this is the Dragon Realm Martial Arts Cultivation Deck.” Chu Hengkong slowly turned the cards around. “All the cards in this deck come from the real-world path of martial arts cultivation; in other words, they are materialized martial arts. What cards I can draw… depends on the martial arts I control!”

The card depicted a martial artist covered in blood, his eyes blazing with fierce determination. The card's name was—

Warfare tactics, a single breath that lasts a thousand years!
Chu Hengkong played his last card: "This card can only be activated when your health is below 500. It increases your attack power based on your remaining health and the level of the fighter card!"

"Ridiculous. At most, the Qi of a Thousand Autumns can only double your attack power. Your swordsman skill has a maximum of 3000 attack power..."

The demon's voice suddenly weakened as it saw an almost tangible aura swirling around Chen Jun the Swordsman, causing the warrior's momentum to surge at an incredible speed. The card's attack power increased to 3000 points… 4500 points… 6000 points…

It's still improving, still rising, and its attack power has broken through five digits at an unbelievable speed, finally reaching 19500 points!
“You’re wrong,” Chu Hengkong said. “A martial artist with a particle level of 1 can increase their strength to… 13 times their original level when using the One Qi A Thousand Autumns technique!”

(End of this chapter)