Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Screw Playing Without a Pity System

GU-MU! GU-MU!

The plump, seven-colored mushroom bounced and hopped in place, twisting and turning like a flamboyant show-off. Its entire body pulsed with a dazzling light!

It was incredibly eye-catching.

"This is a ’Maze Card Pool’?!"

It was Wang Xi’s first time seeing a Card Pool in person, and he couldn’t help but be surprised.

"Mhm." Xiao Yuzhe nodded with a smile. "Whether it’s a Maze Card Pool or a Disaster Card Pool, they don’t have a fixed form... but generally speaking, emitting a rainbow-colored light is their unique characteristic."

With that, he pulled out a dagger and called out to the others.

"Let’s collect the Magic Stones from the goblins first and divide them up. Then we can start drawing Cards."

Hearing this, the others also took out their own daggers and got to work.

After the corrupted Goblin Warriors died, their bodies quickly shriveled and withered, turning into black mushrooms. One had to slice open the cap with a dagger to retrieve the Magic Stone inside.

Wang Xi checked one. These black mushrooms weren’t Goblin Mushrooms and didn’t possess any Energy... or rather, all their Energy was contained within the Magic Stone.

A short while later.

The group pooled all the Magic Stones they had collected, totaling 4.5kg. The stone from the Demon King Goblin was the size of a fist, perfectly round, and weighed a full 1kg.

The loot from this final boss was the most bountiful of their entire Maze expedition. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that goblins as a species simply contained an exceptional amount of Magic Stones.

Thanks to Carl’s precise cutting, everyone received nearly 450g of Magic Stones.

Wang Xi also made a point to empty out all the Magic Stones from his backpack, scan them with his Monitoring Wristwatch, and get a detailed reading: "2155g".

If converted to Credit Points, this was worth over two hundred thousand. It was a small fortune.

Wang Xi was absolutely thrilled.

He also quietly asked Xiao Yuzhe and learned that both types of Card Pools consumed the same amount of Magic Stones: each draw required 100g.

That was basically ten thousand for a single draw.

Damn it...

How could an ordinary person possibly afford this!

This also explained why original Universal Cards were generally more valuable than Artificial Universal Cards. After all, the cost to draw them was right there.

’I just didn’t expect the draw cost for a Main World Card Pool to be the same as the Energy cost in Kaos...’

Wang Xi thought to himself.

’If that’s the case, then it’s clearly more worthwhile to capture Cards of powerful individuals in the Otherworld through Kaos.’

’Still, I can’t just not draw at all. That would raise suspicion. I’ll just put on a show later.’

While he was lost in thought, Yu Jiali, who was standing nearby, scanned their surroundings with her Monitoring Wristwatch.

BEEP BEEP.

"After eliminating the Maze Demon King, the reality distortion level has dropped by 5 points, just as expected. It’s now at a relatively stable 35.9%."

Yu Jiali looked at the group and smiled.

"On this trip, we’ve probably reduced this Maze’s reality distortion by about 9 points."

"Only clearing the whole thing can drastically reduce the reality distortion..."

Xiao Yuzhe nodded, then said in a serious tone:

"But in most cases, Heroes can’t clear it. They just explore and hunt Maze monsters as much as possible, collect some supernatural resources, and then pull out midway."

Zhong Shuang and the others nodded in understanding.

After all, powerful Professional Warriors were few and far between. Most Heroes who entered Mazes had varying skill levels, with the majority being amateurs.

Better safe than sorry. They usually wouldn’t venture too deep, remaining extremely cautious throughout the entire process.

"Alright." Xiao Yuzhe beckoned with a smile. "Now for the main event—drawing Cards!"

He strode purposefully toward the large, seven-colored mushroom.

The mushroom, a head taller than Xiao Yuzhe, sensed his approach and stopped its little jig. A dark, gaping hole, as large as a big wok, suddenly opened on its plump stalk, which was so thick it would take two people to wrap their arms around it.

You could easily fit three of Jiang Tianjie’s heads in there with room to spare.

A faint, colorful light emanated from within.

It seemed to hold some kind of treasure.

"I’ll go first and test the waters for you."

Xiao Yuzhe said jokingly.

He took out a 100g Magic Stone and tossed it into the large hole in the stalk.

GU-MU!

The seven-colored mushroom swayed from side to side, and the light in the large hole on its "belly" flickered.

BLING BLING...

Amidst a magical, crisp sound.

With a HUM.

A seven-colored light swirled and erupted from the hole like a pillar of light, so bright that everyone had to raise their hands to shield their eyes.

Did he get a good pull?!

This thought flashed through the minds of everyone present, both on-site and watching remotely.

However, the rainbow light quickly converged.

It transformed into a ghastly white glow that shot out of the hole, traced an arc through the air, and came to a steady hover in front of Xiao Yuzhe.

"Too bad." Xiao Yuzhe shrugged, grabbed the White Card, and turned back with a smile. "It’s a White Card."

He scanned it with his Monitoring Wristwatch, let out a breath, and added:

"And a trash White Card at that."

Ge Tian curiously asked what it was, and Xiao Yuzhe didn’t hide it, casually explaining.

It was a Disposable Artifact Card called "Delicious Mushroom." It could be used as a high-quality ingredient but had no other buffs or effects.

It was purely for satisfying one’s appetite.

There were generally two ways to deal with such a trash White Card.

First, list it for sale on the "Flying Hat" platform. A specific buyer might be interested—for example, some wealthy gourmand who didn’t care about money and just wanted a taste.

After the 10% commission, you could barely break even, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Second, sell it directly to the three major conglomerates. They had dedicated acquisition channels and would buy anything. The problem was, they severely lowballed the price, offering a uniform rate of a few thousand Credit Points, never exceeding five thousand.

Rumor had it that they possessed a special technology to break down original Universal Cards to obtain some kind of energy, which was then used as a base material for Artificial Universal Cards.

But there was no concrete evidence for this claim.

It was mostly an internet rumor, hard to verify.

"Primed the pump. I have a feeling this next one will be good."

Xiao Yuzhe rubbed his hands together, his eyes full of anticipation.

Wang Xi glanced at him.

He hadn’t expected people in this new world to also believe in gacha rituals, especially one as old-school as the "sacrificial pull" method.

Whether it worked or not, it at least eased the anxiety and offered some psychological comfort...

PLINK, PLONK.

This time, Xiao Yuzhe tossed several Magic Stones into the mushroom hole all at once, enough to total 1kg in weight.

The livestream’s bullet comments scrolled by:

"Whoa! A ten-pull!"

"I love watching Brother Fu pull Cards!"

"If he gets something good, I’m out. Life is hard enough, I don’t need to see other people being happier than me!"

"Listen to your big bro, one sacrifice is useless, you need to do a few more!"

"Everyone knows ten-pulls get you trash, single pulls work miracles. So the next act is: Garbage Collision!"

"Garbage Connect!"

"Garbage Crush!"

"..."

BLING! BLING!—

The large, seven-colored mushroom began to sway violently, as if it were doing its jig again.

The mushroom hole shone brilliantly.

With a few HUMS.

Pillars of light shot out one after another.

Ghastly white, pure white, pristine white, bright white...

A vast expanse of white. Such a refreshing and uplifting sight.

Xiao Yuzhe froze in place as if struck by lightning, his entire face illuminated a ghastly white.

Ten White Cards hovered before him.

It took him several seconds to recover. Even though he had mentally prepared for the worst, how could one not hold onto a sliver of hope before drawing?

No matter how low the drop rate, it was still a probability.

What if he got lucky?

He wasn’t even asking for a Blue Card or a deep Green Card, just a Green Card would have been fine... but instead, he got a straight flush of white. It was like a game of spot-the-difference for children.

Truly tragic.

Xiao Yuzhe forced a smile, cradled his ten "treasures," and walked back. Refusing to accept his fate, he scanned them one by one, as if trying to sift through shit for gold and find some reason to console himself.

In the end, there was no end result to speak of.

The others only heard a few faint chuckles and mutters like "lots of mushrooms" and "not too much of a loss."

Perhaps because he had paved the way with eleven trash pulls, the rest of the group eagerly stepped forward to the seven-colored mushroom and began drawing their own Cards.

The BLING! BLING! sound was incessant.

The big mushroom spat out brilliant lights, did its jig, and sent off one quiet, shy man and woman after another.

A total of 68 draws, all of them White Cards!

"Xiao Yuzhe, this..."

Wang Xi witnessed this scene of hope being repeatedly shattered and gradually realized something was wrong. He turned to the young man with medium-length hair and asked.

"Doesn’t the Card Pool have a pity system?"

"A pity system?"

Xiao Yuzhe looked confused.

"What’s that?"

"..."

Wang Xi opened his mouth, but no words came out.

No way!

The Main World’s Card Pools don’t have a pity system?!

What the hell is the point of playing without a pity system!

In his past life, he had been a product manager for a card game company, so he knew very well that the so-called "pity system" was merely a concession those companies made to comply with regulations.

Otherwise, without a pity system, it would be classified as gambling, subject to fines and jail time.

If they could, those capitalists—who deserved to be hanged from a lamppost a hundred times over—would never implement a pity system. Whether or not players got the cards they wanted meant nothing to them. Those heartless bastards wished they could squeeze every last Gold Coin from the players’ pockets.

But in the new era of the Main World, a Card Pool without a pity system meant that getting a good pull was purely down to luck, and the cost of investment was extremely high.

Theoretically, if your luck was bad enough...

You could spend your entire life seeing only the myriad shades of white.

Wang Xi couldn’t help but darkly speculate that if there was a creator behind the Main World’s Card Pools, it must be an ugly rooster with sores on its head and pus leaking from its feet!

"Ah! I got something!"

Just then, he suddenly heard a cry of surprise.

Turning his head, he saw Zhong Shuang pulling Ge Tian’s hand. The two of them were overcome with surprise and delight, stomping their feet in excitement.

In Zhong Shuang’s hand, she tightly gripped a brilliant green Universal Card.

She got a good pull!

So far, this was the very first one.

After scanning and inspecting it, they found that the Green Card Zhong Shuang had drawn was an Artifact Card called "Mushroom Medicine Powder Recipe." The powder made from the recipe could effectively treat external wounds, provide a small, short-term boost in strength, and reduce pain.

After some evaluation, Xiao Yuzhe and Carl determined that this card’s value far exceeded that of an ordinary Green Card. It was worth over five hundred thousand Credit Points, and the conglomerates would be very happy to acquire it.

At once, Zhong Shuang’s face lit up with joy.

Her family background was average, and she said outright that selling this card would be enough to pay off the installment loan for her Technique Card...

Yes, as far as Wang Xi knew, most of the trainees bought their Technique Cards with loans from the conglomerates. And they were the cheapest kind, far inferior to even the "Defense Team Basic Body Refining Technique."

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