Chapter 593: Chapter 444: Advent of the Deity (Part 2)

"From now on, this is our base camp for playing cards."

Li Fan didn’t explain much.

"Ah, this..."

But Ah Yajun, watching from the side, felt this was really something else.

This cripple’s teacher is actually the owner of a Seven-Star Street card shop?

You had to know, every shop owner here had some kind of background in the card circle.

Besides background, their own card skills also had to be pretty damn solid.

Only then could they get the street committee’s approval to open a shop here.

There were even rumors that a few owners were in the King rank.

And someone like that is actually the teacher who taught Li Pu to play cards?

Then thinking about his own side of things, he suddenly felt like his homeroom teacher was so low.

Just some dry, plain Master-rank player, that’s all.

"I knew you’d need this sooner or later. Here, take it."

They had just sat down when Li Fan tossed over a lump of Crystal Coins.

"Holy shit! What the hell is this?!"

Ah Yajun clapped a hand over his eyes, feeling like that intense glow was about to blind him.

He had never seen Crystal Coins with such a concentrated glow.

"Look at you. It’s just 1,000,000, okay."

Li Pu caught the Crystal Coins steady and gave him a contemptuous jab.

"W-what?! One mil?!"

Ah Yajun turned sour again.

Thinking about his own side again, he suddenly felt like his homeroom teacher was so poor.

Just some dry, plain university lecturer, that’s all.

Homeroom teacher: That’s enough out of you.

With this 1,000,000, Li Pu felt like his HP bar had been refilled.

But at his current spending speed, this 1,000,000 probably wouldn’t last long.

So he greeted Li Fan and asked him to loosen up a bit more on selling cards.

"Sure, no problem."

Li Fan waved it off, looking like he didn’t care.

"The reason I called you over today is actually something pretty important."

What he was going to say next was the real main course.

The clerk had long since been sent away, and he got up to close the shop door.

"Remember the Cube Card Metaverse? I’ve got news about that place."

That line immediately caught Li Pu and Ah Yajun’s attention.

"Seems like the last few patch notes all mentioned they were preparing things to build that thing."

Especially for Ah Yajun, who was currently just Platinum rank; normally he wouldn’t even be allowed through the door.

Now he could actually hear what sounded like top-secret info, and he couldn’t help feeling a little excited.

"Yeah, those card-playing gods are about to pull a big move."

Li Fan glanced at Ah Yajun and nodded.

"I heard they’re going to build a brand-new world that’s purely about playing cards. When the time comes, card players from all kinds of other worlds will flood in."

"Playing cards will be the only rule there."

"Any conflict, any grudge, all gets settled at the card table." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"You could call it a world where card skill is supreme."

Even Li Fan’s eyes showed a faint longing when he said that.

"Ah, this..."

Ah Yajun was just as entranced.

If it really was like that, then those so‑called gods were genuinely doing something big.

Relatively speaking, Li Pu wasn’t that hyped.

As he played more and more matches, he had gradually come to like this stuff too, but he still wasn’t as fanatical as those hardcore fans.

But a new world did sound pretty interesting.

It felt like it would be a world more advanced and more complete than straight-up Cube Card.

The so‑called Cube Card World they played in at the card room was basically just a virtual platform for card games.

"And now, we have a chance to enter that new world."

After the simple intro to the Cube Card Metaverse, this line from Li Fan was the real bombshell.

"!!!"

Even though Ah Yajun had sort of guessed it, hearing him actually say it still left him speechless in shock.

"Didn’t they say it was still in preparation?"

Li Pu voiced his doubt.

Preparation meant it wasn’t finished yet.

"That’s true, but right now it’s in the testing phase."

"So the Association got a few test slots to go to the Cube Card Metaverse and has already picked quite a few Kings to head over."

Li Fan explained.

"Teacher, then you..."

Li Pu asked again.

"Of course I’ve got a spot too."

Li Fan flicked off some ash.

So he really was King rank!

No wonder his presence felt so out of the ordinary!

Hearing Li Fan personally admit it, Ah Yajun was secretly stunned.

"But since it’s a test, it can’t be all top‑tier King ranks."

"They need some lower-ranked players too."

"Only then can they properly tune the Cube Card Metaverse’s compatibility from all angles."

"So a few of those slots trickled down to Seven-Star Street."

Li Fan continued.

"Ah!"

Ah Yajun’s expression went straight into full hype.

"So that’s how it is."

Li Pu had already had a feeling.

Given how much Li Fan had been building this up, there was no way it had nothing to do with them.

"No, wait."

But he immediately thought of something.

"Didn’t you say this new world is made by gods? How does the Association have that much authority and pull?"

This obviously exceeded the Association’s pay grade. Unless...

"Yeah, you guessed right."

"The gods have already descended."

Li Fan nodded in confirmation.

For other players, this might be big news but didn’t really affect them.

But for players at King rank like them, it was a very real bombshell.

Because every King rank player had a chance of being the final challenger to play against the gods.

So when he first found out, Li Fan had been plenty shocked too.

"But this time the god only descended briefly, and it didn’t come to play cards."

"It was purely to handle Metaverse arrangements, so apparently only one god came."

"What was that god’s name again, the God of Fairness?"

He’d only heard about all this afterward himself.

"Mr. Li, then what do we actually have to do to get one of Seven-Star Street’s slots?"

What Ah Yajun cared about most was still this question.

"Card players settle things by playing cards, obviously."

Li Fan lit another cigarette.

"Tonight Seven-Star Street will hold a card tournament to decide the Metaverse slots."

"Every shop owner on Seven-Star Street can, in theory, either enter themselves or nominate at least one person ranked Diamond or above."

"I already have a slot, so naturally I don’t need to participate."

He looked over at Li Pu again, making his meaning very obvious.

"Tonight, huh? No problem."

Li Pu nodded.

In contrast, Ah Yajun looked a bit disappointed.

He wasn’t Diamond rank, and no one was going to nominate him.

But when he thought of the high‑quality matches he could watch tonight, he got a little excited again.

"In that case, stay here for dinner tonight."

Li Fan reopened the shop.

"Okay, I’ll cook myself."

Li Pu rolled up his sleeves.

"No, no need."

"Let’s order takeout."

Li Fan and Ah Yajun objected in unison.

The two exchanged a look, clearly seeing in each other’s eyes that they’d both been through something.

Li Pu couldn’t help feeling a bit regretful. He’d recently developed a few new dishes with his mind power and was just worrying about not having any test subjects—no, tasters.

After dinner, Li Fan opened the secret door to the back room of the shop.

Inside, three high‑end cube pods were lying there. Back then, he’d spent a lot to get these toys.

The Seven-Star Street tournament this time was an online event.

The arena was set up directly in the Cube Card World, making it convenient for everyone to join remotely.

With one pod per person, the number was just right.

So Li Pu stepped in, closed the hatch, and powered it on.

The special liquid began to slowly submerge his body, and drowsiness quickly washed over him.

Once he arrived in his own pure white space, Li Pu immediately entered the room code Li Fan had given him earlier.

Buzz...

The space around him started to collapse, and as it collapsed, it reassembled.

A brand‑new, larger space appeared around him.

There were only three big card platforms here, each with a table on either side, and the rest was all spectator seating.

Looked like this was a projection‑style arena, but in the Cube Card World those projections would feel much more real.

"Quite a crowd already."

Li Pu had no idea if he was early or late, but at least there were already plenty of figures sitting in the stands.

As always with Cube Card’s style, everyone was just a light-and-shadow silhouette without details, himself included.

Soon after, more people started coming in.

...

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