Chapter 1 - Going Isekai with a Cat's Paw
May 27th, 202X, a card shop in China.
Luo Bai was tired, so he stretched out his legs under the table. At the age of 18, he seemed a little tired as he gazed at the ceiling.
"Ugh..."
His card store is going out of business.
Everyone's playing Tearlaments, the other decks have been pushed back and nerfed, and the business can't make ends meet.
It's not like he really wants to earn a lot with it, wanting just to earn enough for the electricity used for the place, but he also has to catch up with his college entrance exams and would soon go to university, so he doesn't have time to run it.
As for his parents?
Congenital Analgesia. Lou Bai had never been able to feel pain since the day he was born, and perhaps for this reason, he was abandoned as a baby.
Because he had been wearing a broken crystal blank card since he was a child, with the word "Bai" written on it, Nanyang Gong, the old store manager who adopted him, casually named him Luo Bai.
"Let's not think about that anymore..."
Shaking the thought out of his head, Luo Bai forced a cheerful smile before taking out two decks from his pockets.
They were
"First turn's mine, Teacher Tony!"
Taking the
Afterwards, one person silently shuffles the two decks and deals the cards.
"I summon
[Image here]
Luo Bai said with a sharp gaze.
Teacher Tony: "Meow?"
"Since Teacher Tony has spoken, let me help you take a look." Saying that to himself, Luo Bai walked to the opposite table and looked at the big fat cat's hand. "You don't have any Impermanence, Therizia's effect passes..."
After that, he walked to his table again, showed a card to the big fat cat and spoke.
"In that case, I'll set
[Image here]
With the store deserted...
He must learn to play cards by himself!
Luo Bai is already a mature store manager.
He does wish he can be more mature, but who doesn't want their own store to be more lively?
Looking at the empty card shop, Luo Bai couldn't help but think of the bustle of the past, and of those cute and friendly clerks quitting one by one. His brows couldn't help but turn into a frown, and his voice was choked with sobs.
"I set four, my turn is over..."
After saying that, he was no longer in the mood to run to the other table and continue playing cards by himself.
He just laid on the table, burying his face in exhaustion, not wanting others to see his mood.
"Meow?"
Teacher Tony, the big fat cat, seemed to understand his emotions. He walked over slowly, raised his soft little paw, and patted his head gently, seemingly comforting him.
"Pak!"
And with the strike of the cat's paw, Luo Bai was knocked unconscious.
........
[Tabletop Program implanting...]
He was confused and didn't know how much time had passed. It wasn't until the broken blank card around his neck integrated into his body that Luo Bai finally regained some consciousness.
[Hm? This place is...]
Opening his hazy eyes, he found himself in a dark and damp... garbage dump?
Abandoned parts, old tires, broken glass bottles, rusty steel bars, rancid animal skins and piles of animal innards.
Above are pendant lights suspended by reinforced steel frames and wire mesh, and under the dim lighting, the brownish-black cave walls replace the sky, and all around are large and small glowing iron forges.
A mine? Or perhaps, a dungeon?
"I wake up... here? Did I isekai or something?"
Luo Bai said with a confused look.
The dim light fell on the body, revealing a sturdy pair of trousers, torn white clothes, covered in whip marks, with hands bruised and bloody. Something dripped down from his hair, landing on his pants.
"Oh, it's blood... Then, it's not bad."
Luo Bai felt relieved, glad that what was on his body wasn't some sort of weird liquid.
He touched his forehead. There was indeed a wound, but still, he felt no pain.
"I should have just cleaned up the shop..."
People always like to use pain to determine whether they're dreaming or not, but what would a person who has never experienced pain do?
[Ding]
A cold mechanical sound resounded, making Luo Bai narrowed his eyes, knowing that someone should be here.
Then, he remembered something. This must be the must-have gift every time someone gets isekai'd!
However, what he was met wasn't any "system", "newbie gift package" or "cute girls" that he had imagined.
Only three monochrome crystal cards fell down on his hands out of nowhere, one yellow, one green and one purple.
Then, a single word is projected above:
[Survive]
There's nothing else.
? ? ?
Wait, that's it? What does that mean?
Luo Bai's mind was filled with question marks for a moment.
"Hey, hey, hey, System! You there, System!?"
"What about the Quest Process? The Quest Prompts? At the very least, shouldn't there be a Character Attribute Panel?"
All he knew now was that this body he has now was the body he was familiar with, but one that seemed to have been beaten, his clothes were stained with blood from a wound on his head.
Not knowing anything else, he wasn't even given a map.
"What are these cards? There's no pictures on it..."
Letting out a sigh, Luo Bai was about to stand up... when he heard growls resounding around him.
Thereupon, three strange wolf dogs slowly walked out, a grin visible on their faces.
Each of these strange wolves is more than a meter tall. One is blind in one eye, while the other is lame in one leg. The missing parts of these two are growing in the third one.
"So this is what that survive meant."
Luo Bai took a deep breath and picked up a rusty steel bar next to him.
"Pfu!"
A wolf swooped over!
With his rich experience in VR-RPG, Luo Bai accurately hit it on the head with his steel bar, causing a nice whine.
However, after a few minutes of roundabout fight, he found it difficult to inflict fatal damage with any of the tools around him.
Suddenly remembering something, Luo Bai glanced at the three cards tied to his pants from the corner of his eyes. There, an image was finally depicted on the green card, showing an axe.
The card's name is
Axe of Despair
(1) The equipped monster gains 1000 ATK.
(2) When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can Tribute 1 monster, place this card on the top of your Deck.
[Image here]
"D*mn, it's my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh!"
The hungry wolves once again pounced together, and this time, Luo Bai reflexively crushed the
With a cleave, the three-eyed wolf's head was chopped off.
With a backhanded chop, he killed another wolf, but just as he was about to pull out the axe, he found that it was stuck in the wolf's neck.
At this time, the third wolf took the opportunity to pounce on Luo Bai, bit his shoulder, and tore off a piece of flesh.
Without giving him a chance to breathe though, the wolf pounced again after landing on its feet.
However, the bite didn't seem to bother Luo Bai. After a piece of flesh was bitten off him, Luo Bai seemed to awaken something, as his eyes became bloodshot, and disregarding the axe, he blocked his arm in front of his eyes, letting the hungry wolf bite on his arm instead.
"Ohh, so that's it huh..."
Luo Bai sneered and looked coldly at the hungry wolf biting his arm. Not feeling the pain he was expecting, he became a little uninterested.
He indifferently pinches the wolf to its mouth, his fingernails tearing at its wound, and then bit it to death.
Afterwards, he spat out a mouthful of blood as if nothing had happened, and then threw the wolf's corpse in his hand to the ground.
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