The magic cards I made are absolutely flawless!

It seemed to have become very quiet here, except for Dekan's own breathing.

All other sounds seemed to be blocked out.

Soon, the surroundings lit up, and he felt as if he were in an alternate dimension, like a time tunnel.

A prompt appeared in front of me.

Welcome to the artificial world of "Phantom Canyon".

This assessment will be a simulated duel; there will be no danger to life.

[Random terrain, pain sensation is 1/4 of real pain.]

If you are killed or become completely unconscious and cannot recover in Phantom Canyon, you will be teleported out of Phantom Canyon.

[Candidates may choose to voluntarily withdraw from the film world.]

The examiners are the "hunters," and the examinees are the "prey." The examiners' strength will be limited to Tier 4, and they will be equipped with uniform Tier 4 white common equipment cards.

The initial distance between the candidate and the examiner is 500 meters.

[Candidates who can survive in the canyon for more than 10 minutes will pass. Exiting the game at that time will automatically settle the score.]

[Persisting longer or causing harm to the examiner will be considered as additional points.]

[The duration is capped at 30 minutes; the Shadow World will then close.]

[The above are the standard settings for this exam.]

The examiner for this session is: Arno Sylret.

Your exam will officially begin in 30 seconds. Please be prepared.

As the last prompt ends, the surrounding scenery changes accordingly.

He felt like he had entered a completely new world!

This must be what it means to enter the world of shadows!

Dekan looked around.

The surrounding area is an endless grassland.

"Is someone setting me up?"

Dekan scratched his head.

Random terrain? Give me a random plain.

The examiner happened to be the vice dean.

I can even see his figure in the distance!

Oh well, it's not that different.

"Non-turn-based card games are indeed quite terrifying."

Dekan sighed, took out two equipment cards, infused them with magic, and equipped them to himself.

In Dekan's past life, playing cards might be life-threatening, but it should at least be a turn-based game.

The people in this world use magic cards as weapons, scrolls, and summoned beasts, which is extremely dangerous.

The two cards transformed into streams of light, coalesced, and landed on Dekan.

A crown that, like a woven shimmering iron thorn, radiates a dark, eerie light.

And then there's the Gothic Lolita doll glove puppet, which looks cute but is filled with an ominous aura.

......

Outside the arena, it seems that quite a few spectators have already noticed what's happening on Dekan's side.

"That kid's so unlucky! Everyone else's terrain is valleys, jungles, or islands! How come his is all plains?"

"How am I supposed to hide on the plains? Play a straight-line race with a fourth-level examiner? Hahaha!"

"And none of the previous candidates had ever been personally examined by Professor Arnold!"

"It's all because of that accident last year... It's pretty obvious that the Knights Academy doesn't want this kind of person to pass this year."

"To put it bluntly, I just want to teach these arrogant guys a lesson. No matter how talented they are, if they act recklessly, they will still die in the Shadow World and ruin their teammates."

"Holy crap, this kid just casually pulled out two purple equipment cards?"

Seemingly because many people have started paying attention to Dekan, the director switched the main screen content to Dekan's side and thoughtfully posted Dekan's equipment card identification information on the screen.

【Cursed Doll】

[Category: Equipment Card]

[Grade: Purple Rare]

[Class: 2]

Attack bonus 0

[Effect: Returns 0.5% of the damage received to the opponent, and transmits 200% of the true pain sensation to the opponent.]

[Note: I really like the card maker!]

......

【Crown of Pain】

[Category: Equipment Card]

[Grade: Purple Rare]

[Class: 2]

[Defense Bonus 0]

[Effect: When equipped, your pain threshold is multiplied by 300%, granting you one instance of invulnerability. Cooldown: 720 hours.]

[Note: Oh shi hee te yo, shi hee te yo.]

Is this some kind of martial artist?

It looks exactly like a cult ritual that just popped up out of nowhere!

However, the audience is used to it; it's common for a few oddballs to appear every year.

If you say he violated the rules, he did indeed follow the requirements strictly.

The registration information shows that he only configured two equipment cards and one summon card.

"Is he a martial artist who focuses on counter-damage tanking? But why isn't he carrying any armor or shield?"

"His physique doesn't look like that of a heavily armored soldier..."

"So it's this kind of uncommon equipment card. It's probably not much more expensive than a blue card."

"The advantage of purple cards is that they can be allocated to a total performance with stronger special effects. Both of his cards sacrificed commonly used attributes and concentrated their performance in strange places."

"Indeed, the first piece of equipment is like the craftsman has something wrong with his brain. He focused all his performance on the pain feedback when the damage reflection rate was clearly more important."

"The second piece of equipment is extremely useful for locking health, but the cooldown is too long and the negative effects are too severe. Who wants to wear something that triples pain and get hit until they're locked health? ... They'd probably faint from the pain before they even got locked health, and it's an accessory that doesn't even provide any defense bonus..."

"Wait, how exactly are pain attribute modifiers constructed...? Does anyone know how to do this?"

Several students from the Alchemy Institute were analyzing the situation.

"But look at how these two pieces of equipment he put together. In actual combat, they can give the opponent six times the pain. He must have done it on purpose."

"Disgusting! I definitely don't want to fight him!"

"It's a pity that there's only a quarter of the pain in Phantom Canyon, so he can't disgust the examiner at all."

Theresa was also watching Dekan's exam from the Alchemy Institute's broadcasting studio.

When she saw Dekan's equipment, her eyes twitched involuntarily.

You're just thinking about making your opponent miserable, aren't you?

At this moment, she finally understood what Dekan meant by the words "underworld" and "world of the living."

But, keep it up, Dekan!

I'm counting on you to make the card for me!

007 The Soul Card of Dekan

In the shadow world where Dekan resides.

Professor Arnold had already sprinted to Dekan at top speed.

But he noticed that Dekan didn't move at all, just stood there with his hands behind his back, his expression indifferent.

He has the air of a peerless master.

This actually made Arnold a little confused.

Why not run away?

Could it be that they found the difficulty had increased and wanted to protest through their actions, so they just started setting things up?

Arnold admitted that it did add a little bit of difficulty to Dekan.

However, it is still within the scope of the rules.

Therefore, it is not considered a violation.

Where are your weapons?

Feeling somewhat guilty, Arno didn't rush to make a move and asked instead.

Dekan didn't answer, but simply raised his right hand and shook the Gothic Lolita doll on his wrist.

It seems they have no intention of abstaining.

Professor Arnold's brow began to furrow.

He looked at Dekan's outfit and his posture.

He had seen unconventional martial artists before, but never one this unconventional.