Card simulation, starting with the Goblin Deserter

Hayes: ?

? ? ? ? ? !

Wasn't it supposed to be easy? What on earth is this information on the panel?

Does the core rule disable decks?

In a world where card masters are supreme, how can these few words form a sentence!

Seeing that Soraka had already stood at the mouth of the whirlpool and was about to step in, Hayes hurriedly stopped her.

"Wait, wait, wait! Can you please give me a proper explanation of this secret realm?"

"I have a bad feeling about this. Is it really that easy...?"

Bob glanced at him sideways: "You think I'm lying to you, and you don't believe me?"

The two staff members maintaining order in the secret realm smiled and said, "Don't worry, students, the secret realms opened by the academy are different from those encountered in the wild."

"They're all supervised by our professionals; any high-risk secret locations will be passed over by us..."

They were all thinking to themselves, "This boy is such a coward, he's not even as brave as Soraka."

Upon hearing this, Hayes said no more and silently walked to Soraka's side, waiting for instructions from the staff.

Just then, Soraka leaned closer and whispered, "Don't worry, Hayes, what they said is true. The academy's beginner-level secret realm is very easy. Even a first-tier card master won't be in any danger!"

"Besides, I'm really strong! My dad gave me a lot of powerful cards so I could be safe once I enter the secret realm. If there's any danger inside, I'll protect you!"

As she spoke, Soraka gave Hayes a thumbs-up, indicating "absolutely no problem!"

Hayes nodded in agreement, but inwardly he was both amused and exasperated.

Even if Bob gives you a full set of thirty epic cards, it won't help. This dungeon is a "banned deck" dungeon. No matter how strong your cards are, they're just decorations!

At this moment, the two staff members kept operating the screen on the test bench. After a few minutes, they looked up and signaled to Hayes and his colleague to get ready.

The next moment, the emerald green magic within the vortex gate surged and intertwined. Soraka took Hayes' hand to ensure they would be assigned to the same secret realm.

The two stepped into the vortex gate at the same time, while the staff monitored the secret realm's data.

"Spatial parameters are normal, temporal parameters are normal..."

"Drawing data from a secret world... Wait, what's this?"

At the testing station, a staff member suddenly cried out in surprise.

Bob immediately came over, frowning, and said, "What's wrong... what is this thing?!"

In the corner of the screen on the test console, a pixelated cartoon figure had appeared out of nowhere, jumping around on the screen.

Every time he skipped a place, the data that was originally displayed there changed to an error code!

The two staff members were frantically trying to operate the machine, but this machine, which had never made a mistake before, was now acting as if it had been infected with a virus and was completely unresponsive!

Shocked Bob suddenly sprang to his feet, grabbing the collar of the staff member next to him like an enraged beast.

"Get this machine fixed right now, my daughter's still inside!"

"Stop! Stop the teleportation to the secret realm immediately!"

"...It's too late, the secret world has already appeared..."

-

Welcome to the Secret Realm – Goblin Detective

The voice flashed through his mind, and Hayes opened his eyes and immediately looked around at his surroundings.

The rusty fence, the rough, blackened walls, and the faint footsteps approaching from afar...

Hayes looked down at himself—his right ankle was firmly chained to the ground.

This looks like a prison?

As Hayes was thinking this, he turned around and found Soraka not far behind him, also observing the cell environment.

"Judging from this, we should probably escape from prison first, right?"

Soraka looked excited: "I never expected the secret realm they arranged for us to be so exciting! I thought it would be boring and pointless!"

As she spoke, she took out a card from her pocket, intending to cut off the shackles.

No matter how she tried to activate her magic, the card remained completely still, showing no sign of being activated.

"Huh? How could this be?"

Soraka was stunned. Before she could try again with a different card, Hayes covered her mouth and pushed her onto the only small bed in the corner of the cell.

"Shut up." With his overwhelming physical superiority, Hayes easily subdued Soraka.

Ignoring her feeble struggles, he simply pressed himself against her, listening quietly to the sounds outside the cell.

A few seconds passed, and Soraka seemed to realize something. She stopped struggling and, mimicking Hayes's actions, listened to the sounds outside.

Pat pat...

Was that footsteps? But they didn't sound like human footsteps.

A few seconds later, a goblin guard reeking of a foul stench and carrying a wooden club walked past the two of them.

It glanced at Hayes and his companion's cell, and seeing that they were both asleep in bed, it continued walking forward.

Hayes listened as the footsteps faded into the distance until they disappeared completely before getting off Soraka.

"It's alright, you can continue."

Hayes casually remarked that he suddenly remembered the protagonists in his previous life's novels who were exceptionally intelligent and seemed to use the frequency of their pulse to keep track of time!

In the current situation, using pulse rate to calculate the goblin guard's patrol time seems to be the most appropriate method!

So Hayes rolled up his sleeves, placed his right hand on his left wrist to feel his pulse, closed his eyes, and carefully felt it—

Yes, my pulse is beating!

The jumping is quite rhythmic...

...

So what should I do?

After trying for nearly ten seconds, Hayes realized that not everyone could become an "intelligent male protagonist," and reluctantly lowered his right hand. Only then did he notice that Soraka was still lying on the bed, with her head tilted to the side, her back facing him.

Hayes asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Did I hurt you just now?

Upon hearing this, Soraka immediately sat up in bed and stammered, "No, no, you're amazing!"

"You spotted the goblin guard so quickly... Thank you, Hayes!"

"You're too kind," Hayes said as he inspected every corner of the cell.

"I apologize for any offense caused by the emergency just now. I hope you don't mind."

"I don't mind... By the way, were you just calculating the guard patrol time using your pulse rate?"

Hayes's expression changed, and after hesitating for two seconds, he said, "Yes."

"Wow, you're amazing!" Soraka exclaimed, looking at Hayes with admiration. "I saw this timing method in a book when I was a kid, but I practiced for ages and just couldn't get the hang of it. I could never reduce the error to within three seconds..."

"Uh, what's wrong, Hayes?"

At that moment, Soraka sensed that Hayes's gaze towards her had changed.

From the moment we met until just now, he had been giving me the same polite look he gave to an "unfamiliar classmate."

But now, he looks at himself as if he's looking at a very useful "tool"...