Print the card! Then summon the Shura Field.

As Shen Yi listened to Nangong Ai's words, his expression grew increasingly strange.

"Wh...what's wrong?" Nangong Ai asked softly.

Shen Yi stroked his chin, pondering, and said, "Pawn yourself? What an obscure term."

"This...this is actually quite common. Many people I know have done similar things, but my results were so bad that no organization was willing to accept my collateral," Nangong Ai hurriedly explained. "Compared to that, 'dad' and 'mom' are much more niche terms..."

At this point, Nangong Ai immediately realized that she had blurted out her true feelings in her haste, and her face turned deathly pale.

In this world, the word "parents" is a niche term for many people.

Even for the children of capitalists, they generally only have one parent, either their father or mother. It's extremely rare for both parents to exist, let alone for an ordinary family like Nangong Ai's.

Nangong Ai's parents are an extremely rare couple in this world.

In an era where companion robot services can be customized or even rented at any time, compared to robots that are perfect in appearance, figure, and even personality, romantic relationships between humans seem to have no need to exist.

But humans are such amazing creatures.

Love, in many cases, has nothing to do with any external or internal factors; it's simply because "he is him, and she is her."

In short, it was under these circumstances that Nangong Ai's parents fell in love.

They met in a deck of cards, fell in love at first sight, and eventually had a child, Nangong Ai.

However, in this era, such behavior comes at a price.

Education, as an important part of "parenting loans," is naturally firmly controlled by major companies. However, Nangong Ai's parents are not capitalists with countless assets and are simply unable to afford those expensive private education courses.

Left with no other choice, they had to spend exorbitant tuition fees to send Nangong Ai to an educational institution under the Propagation Company, which allowed Nangong Ai to receive an education of the average standard of the time.

However, because she was born naturally, Nangong Ai was an outcast among her classmates and was always excluded from the group, which led to her timid personality.

"And what about your parents?" Vera asked curiously after listening to Nangong Ai's story.

"They were sent to the Soul Card World to mine," Nangong Ai said. "To support me, they took on a lot of debt, and to earn more money to pay it off, they had no choice but to accept this dangerous work. They also have to work as follower cards and fight for their boss in the dueling arena."

"Then your parents must have been very effective, otherwise they would have been taken into custody long ago," Shen Yi said thoughtfully.

As soon as Shen Yi finished speaking, he felt a heavy blow to his thigh. When he turned around, he found Vera looking at him speechlessly.

It's one thing to lack empathy at a time like this, but to comment on the effectiveness of the other person's parents' actions is another.

Vera felt that even her doll-like self was more human than Shen Yi.

As she was internally complaining, she heard Nangong Ai say with considerable pride, "That's right! My dad is the ace in his boss's deck!"

"???"

No! Why are you getting all proud too?

Seeing Vera's shocked expression, Shen Yi patted her shoulder earnestly and said, "You haven't been in this world long enough; it seems you don't know its rules. Powerful effects are the foundation of a follower card's survival!"

"Hey, hey, hey, you're not much better off than me, are you? Don't act like you've lived here for decades!" Vera said, her lips twitching slightly.

Nangong Ai's eyes lit up upon hearing Shen Yi's words. She looked at Vera with curiosity and anticipation, asking, "Miss Vera, your category is [Doll]. How did you meet Yi?"

Vera's slot is [Doll], which is definitely a rare and special slot in this world. This kind of slot is usually only carried by followers recruited from other worlds.

After Nangong Ai joined Shen Yi's deck, she also gained a certain understanding of the composition of his deck.

Since her boss was clearly not from a prominent family, Nangong Ai naturally became interested in how Vera and Shen Yi met.

She even began to fantasize that Vera was a Soul Card follower who possessed the key to unlock the Soul Card world, which would make this deck destined to become a remarkable and powerful deck.

However, Nangong Ai dismissed such a thought as soon as it appeared in her mind.

That's a Soul Card! It represents the resources and support of the entire world, making it a target for major corporations. How could I have stumbled upon it by chance?

Nangong Ai's question directly touched on Vera's pain, leaving her completely at a loss for words.

Nangong Ai noticed that Vera seemed reluctant to answer the question, so she tactfully changed the subject and started talking to Vera about the entrance exam for the Duel Academy, which was to be held in three days.

Yuezhou Duel Academy can be said to be one of the most powerful dueling academies in the entire Star Glory World. Many duelists who graduate from here go directly into top-tier clubs and become their main players.

Of the nine universally acknowledged kings of the Starry World, three are graduates of Yuezhou Duel Academy.

What's rather strange is that, in this world's dueling matches, the audience includes not only other duelists but also extraordinary individuals from various Soul Card worlds. Some are there to scout out suitable followers, while others are there to assess whether the companies they're partnering with have the ability to protect their assets.

Don't be fooled by the fact that duelists can only play cards in the Starry World. When they actually enter the Soul Card World, they can release the followers from their decks, pull out another set of combat spell cards filled with numerical values, and instantly become terrifying demon kings. In the early days, it was common for one person to destroy an entire country.

It is precisely because of the formidable achievements of the duelists in the Soul Card World in the early years that the natives of the Soul Card World have now learned to determine the strength of duelists by watching duel matches. As they have watched more, many people have also begun to enjoy these duel matches.

As for ordinary people in the Starry World? Watching games is a form of entertainment that is destined to be out of their reach. They are either fighting against other minion cards on the field or working as tools for their respective companies to mine in this other world.

"I also took the dueling exam there last year." Speaking of this, Nangong Ai's face was full of regret. "The opponents in the exam were all duelists who were at the bottom of the academy's lower grades, but even so, it was still too difficult to duel them with the initial deck provided by the mainframe."

Nangong Ai didn't even get to see her second round back then.

Shen Yi also had the initial deck she mentioned.

In fact, apart from Vera, Nangong Ai, and [Blood Price], Shen Yi's current deck composition is still the initial deck given by the mainframe.

Since it's the initial deck, its strength is naturally not high, and it's even a bit weak.

The followers in the follower deck are all monsters captured from various Soul Card worlds. They are ordinary monsters without any effects. In fact, because all cards in Star Duel are limited to one per player, these cat and dog cards that look exactly the same even have their own codes in their names.

When Shen Yi first saw a follower card like [Silver Moon Wolf No. 985567], he was excited, thinking that this world also had cards with a [No.] slot.

As for the spell deck, it is mostly composed of direct damage spell cards that deal 300 points of effect damage to the opponent. It can't be said that they are useless, but they are really quite weak in the entrance exam.

Those bottom-ranked students who would be forced to withdraw from the academy if they lost to the entrance exam candidates, how could they not guard against direct damage when they knew that most candidates had this kind of deck?