"He actually defeated the robot in the first three rounds."

"I wonder what kind of first victory reward he'll get?"

He seemed very curious about the first victory reward he couldn't claim himself.

What Li Pu did next left Ah Yajun dumbfounded on the spot.

Instead of continuing to control the cards, he raised his hand and pressed the "Surrender" button.

Buzz...

As surrender was confirmed, the energy shield slowly faded away.

"Huh?"

Ah Yajun swiftly jumped to Li Pu's left, tilting his head to stare at him.

"Huh?"

Then he jumped to the right, continuing to tilt his head.

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

He jumped all around to express his confusion.

Why surrender when everything was going well!

A once-in-a-lifetime chance, the first victory reward! 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

At this moment, Ah Yajun was truly baffled.

"Are you out of your mind?"

He couldn't help asking this question.

"You know, they say the better you perform in your first victory, the better the reward you'll get."

Li Pu pointed to the card-playing robot.

[That's true]

[Factors like the number of rounds used, remaining cards, and card health in the first victory match]

[All influence the first victory reward]

The card-playing robot provided an explanation in a timely manner.

"But you have to win first!"

"Now you only have one chance left, how can you make sure you'll win!"

"Do you happen to have an even stronger deck?!"

Ah Yajun was almost frantically ready to grab Li Pu by the collar.

"Well..."

Li Pu first turned to look at the card-playing robot, then murmured, "Of course not."

"…are you trying to fool even the robot? That's ridiculous."

Ah Yajun called him out speechlessly.

"Shush, I'm not, don't say that."

Li Pu said, looking serious.

"Well then, I want to see how you win this round."

Ah Yajun grumpily pulled out a chair to sit down.

"Alright, let me give it another try."

Li Pu waved his hand and walked over to the card-playing robot again.

With that, he clicked start.

Buzz...

The energy shield spread out again.

"You really have a big heart, choosing to surrender when you were about to win."

"I just don't get it, I don't get it."

Watching Li Pu standing at the card table again, Ah Yajun shook his head repeatedly.

This time, the robot revealed the first card.

[All mushrooms must die!]

With a roar, a dark purple glow erupted on the card surface.

The air above the card table filled with fragmented light, like an eerie snowfall.

The light particles seemed to attract each other, slowly merging as they floated down.

Finally, when they landed, they fused into a glowing mass.

It looked extremely blurry, appearing from a distance as nothing more than a pure light mass.

But upon closer inspection, a vague outline could be seen within it.

It seemed this light mass encased a large skull.

Ah Yajun glanced at the card surface and was stunned.

"There's actually such a card?!"

"And it's... S-rank too?!"

[Mushroom Element King]

Balanced, 10 points, S

Attack 10, 100/100

[Mushroom Initiative - Passive]: Mushroom cards revealed with Mushroom Element King take 30 damage

[Mushroom Vigor - Passive]: If there are revealed mushroom cards on the field, the health limit of Mushroom Element King increases by 100

[Mushroom Strike - Passive]: Mushroom Element King deals an additional 30 damage when attacking mushroom cards

[Mushroom Domain - Passive]: When Mushroom Element King is on the field, all mushroom cards gain the [Weary] effect

([Weary]: Energy gain is halved when acquiring energy)

To be honest, while playing against the robot, he never encountered such a situation.

The opposing robot was actually using a counter card?!

"As expected, this robot, or rather the association, isn't being straightforward..."

"And what the hell is Mushroom Element? Does such a beast really exist?"

Seeing the [Mushroom Element King], Li Pu was not too surprised.

He roughly understood the situation.

The reason Ah Yajun hadn't encountered any particularly targeted cards was that he was never a threat to win the first victory reward.

But his case was different, as he had essentially won during the second round.

It seems obtaining the first victory reward is really not that easy.

"It's over, how can I win now!"

Ah Yajun stared at the [Mushroom Element King], his face looking quite grim.

A pure S-rank counter card, its targeting is incredibly strong.

He felt that just this one [Mushroom Element King] could easily take on Li Pu's three mushroom cards.

"Luckily, luckily."

At this moment, Li Pu placed his hand on one of his first cards.

Fortunately, he had been wary of this robot from the very start.

The previous two rounds of mushroom deck were merely to test the strength of this robot.

This round, he hadn't planned on using mushroom cards at all.

[Roar!!!]

With a mighty roar and a burst of red light, a giant figure slowly emerged on the card table.

"Another S-rank card!!!"

"And it's a dragon card!!!"

Ah Yajun outside the energy shield was dumbfounded.

He didn't expect that besides [Dragon Lady], this guy actually had another S-rank card!

His feelings were suddenly a mix of emotions.

He didn't even have half a corner of an S-rank card, while his nemesis (?) already owned a full set of two.

The gap was only widening and widening.

...

20 minutes later, the energy shield disappeared.

Li Pu walked out looking relaxed, having lost only three cards while completely crushing the robot's 4A1S deck.

It could almost be considered a perfect victory, and the first victory reward would likely yield a good card.

As for Ah Yajun, who watched, he was simply left speechless.

It turned out that this guy's S-rank cards weren't two, but three!

And it was actually a deck centered around dragon cards!

How in the world did he manage to collect these?

Originally, he thought Li Pu's card pool depth was already strong among their peers, arguably even better than those upper-year students.

Now, with this dragon card deck revealed, it completely surpassed his imagination, far exceeding his expectations!

"Shush, remember to keep it a secret for me."

Li Pu smiled at Ah Yajun, placing his index finger on his lips.

This dragon deck actually wasn't complete.

There were only 6 dragon cards, and they weren't all S-rank, falling far short of his desired vision.

Therefore, he hadn't used it before, intending to perfect it with [Cardmaking] before using it against Li Fan or Hideo Takashi.

He didn't expect to unveil it today due to the robot predicament.

However, the outcome was quite satisfying.

At least the victory was beautiful.

"Too ruthless, you really are fooling even the robot..."

Ah Yajun, snapping out of it, looked at him with a complex expression.

If it weren't for the robot's initial card being an utterly useless [Mushroom Element King], it wouldn't have lost so miserably.

"You said it was honest, but I guess this guy's database has a record of my Western Star Cup history."

"Otherwise, how could it have drawn the Mushroom card just from two rounds."

"This guy must have calculated the probability of me using mushroom cards carefully."

Li Pu knocked on the iron head.

He didn't feel he had intentionally tried to fool this robot; rather, he almost got fooled by Ah Yajun, the naïve honest guy.

The appearance of [Mushroom Element King] indicated that this guy definitely wasn't randomly drawing card sets, at least not in the first three rounds limited to first victory.

Just then, the robot's voice sounded.

[Congratulations to the card player for successfully completing the first victory challenge]

[Next, please choose your card reward]

"Here comes the most anticipated moment!"

Ah Yajun's eyes lit up as if he were the one receiving the reward.

"Let's see what good cards there are."

Li Pu walked back to the robot, equally interested.

Buzz!

Suddenly, the display on the robot's platform shifted from the card table to the card library.

Their eyes were instantly drawn in.

...

...