The next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.
A white lab coat. Protective goggles pushed up on his forehead. A multi-functional scanner mounted on his head. A welding torch in one hand, a wrench in the other. A utility belt loaded with screwdrivers, pliers, and a multimeter.
For the background: a cluttered workbench piled high with mechanical parts and scattered blueprints. Half-finished schematics tacked to the wall behind him. Organized chaos.
One look at this card and you'd know exactly what this character was for, even without reading the description.
Now for the story.
What was Big Big Wolf's core identity?
A wolf who lost every single fight he ever picked — yet never, ever stopped trying. A wolf who loved his wife Red Wolf and his son Wilie more than anything in the world, and would do absolutely anything for them. A wolf who chose brains over brawn when every other member of his species relied on teeth and claws.
Most importantly: a genius inventor.
Ethan mentally cataloged Big Big Wolf's greatest hits. The endless sheep-catching schemes. Building rockets out of scrap. Weather controllers. Shrink lamps. Time machines. The absolutely unhinged tech from the movies.
But a Tier 1 card couldn't carry all of that. The System had limits on story density at lower tiers. He needed to distill the character down to his most essential elements.
After about half an hour, he had his story outline:
Big Big Wolf — inventor of Green Green Grassland, outcast of the wolf tribe. While other wolves relied on brute force to hunt, he believed in the power of science. To catch sheep for his beloved wife Red Wolf, he poured himself into technology, creating invention after impossible invention. He failed to catch sheep every single time — but his genius was undeniable. Given enough materials and parts, he could build technology that defied the limits of his era.
For specific combat abilities, Ethan deliberately left things vague. The System would auto-generate traits based on the story.
"That'll do."
He walked back to the bedroom, pulled a Tier 1 blank card base from the drawer, and set it on the desk.
He dipped the Spirit Pen into the ink. The tip made its first stroke.
Twenty minutes later, the illustration was done.
Big Big Wolf stared up from the card — wearing his white lab coat and goggles, welding torch in hand, focused intently on a half-assembled mechanical component. The workbench behind him was a beautiful mess: gears, wires, circuit boards, and hastily drawn blueprints.
It was pure anime style. Not a trace of the photorealism that dominated this world's card art. The character had expressive, oversized eyes. Clean, bold outlines. The kind of energy that only animation could capture.
Ethan had no idea whether the summon would appear in anime style or get auto-converted to realism by the System. He'd find out later.
For now, he was satisfied. This was some of his best work.
Time for the story injection.
He pressed both palms against the card's edges, closed his eyes, and channeled everything — the outline, the character's backstory, his personality, his motivations, his core abilities — directly into the card through mental energy.
The card began to glow.
White light... then blue. The blue deepened.
Ethan held his breath.
The blue shifted. Warped. And then — purple. Deep, rich, unmistakable purple.
[Card Name]: Big Big Wolf (Research Form)
[Quality]: Purple (Epic)
[Rank]: Tier 1
[Type]: Summoning Card
[Story System]: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf
[Cost]: 100 Psionic Energy
[Effect]: Summons Big Big Wolf in Research Form.
[Trait]:I'll Definitely Be Back! — Upon being killed for the first time, shouts "I'll definitely be back!" and returns to the field at full status after five minutes.
[Evaluation]:"If you want to marry, marry Big Big Wolf~"
[Note]: The beginning of a brand-new story. First certification. Card Maker Ethan Cole has obtained primary copyright for this system. Success rate for creating cards with over 70% similarity is halved for all other users.
[Alert]: This card has entered this month's Tier 1 Card Making Leaderboard. The leaderboard refreshes daily at midnight.
"Yes!"
Ethan's fist clenched involuntarily. Purple. First try.
Sure, Big Big Wolf wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests. But in terms of logistics? Manufacturing? Battlefield support? He was going to be an absolute nightmare for opponents who didn't see it coming.
Ethan had already sketched out a lineup in his head. If everything went according to plan, he could end matches before the opponent even reached Tier 3 psionic thresholds.
The anime world was just broken. There was no other word for it.
He picked up the purple-bordered card and turned it over in his hands, admiring it. Under the faint purple glow, Big Big Wolf looked simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant — part cartoon comedian, part mad genius.
"Now I just need to get you a parts supplier," Ethan murmured.
Big Big Wolf needed raw materials to build things. If he paired the wolf with a card that could provide those materials, the two would chain together into something far greater than either alone.
Which character would work?
He ran through candidates.
Doraemon was an option — the robotic cat from the future with an infinite pocket of gadgets. But at Tier 1, the System would probably cap his inventory hard. The good stuff wouldn't come through.
Franky from One Piece — a cyborg shipwright with solid combat stats and engineering skills. But fitting his full character arc into a Tier 1 card was a stretch.
Or... should he skip characters entirely and just make a pure resource card? A field card designed to supply materials?
Ethan turned the idea over for a while. He was starting to see the shape of something.
But then reality intervened. He attempted two more cards after Big Big Wolf — and both failed.
The first crumbled mid-injection, the story structure collapsing before it could crystallize. The second simply didn't take — the card base flashed white and went dark.
Even with a transmigrator's knowledge, a hundred percent success rate was a fantasy.
Ethan set down the pen and stretched his neck, feeling the familiar ache of creative burnout settling into his shoulders.
Two failures in a row was a momentum killer. He'd pick it back up after a break.
But the plan was solid. He could feel it.
PLZ THROW POWERSTONES
WORD COUNT HERE DONT READ
Chapter 3: Big Big Wolf
he next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.
A white lab coat. Protective goggles pushed up on his forehead. A multi-functional scanner mounted on his head. A welding torch in one hand, a wrench in the other. A utility belt loaded with screwdrivers, pliers, and a multimeter.
For the background: a cluttered workbench piled high with mechanical parts and scattered blueprints. Half-finished schematics tacked to the wall behind him. Organized chaos.
One look at this card and you'd know exactly what this character was for, even without reading the description.
Now for the story.
What was Big Big Wolf's core identity?
A wolf who lost every single fight he ever picked — yet never, ever stopped trying. A wolf who loved his wife Red Wolf and his son Wilie more than anything in the world, and would do absolutely anything for them. A wolf who chose brains over brawn when every other member of his species relied on teeth and claws.
Most importantly: a genius inventor.
Ethan mentally cataloged Big Big Wolf's greatest hits. The endless sheep-catching schemes. Building rockets out of scrap. Weather controllers. Shrink lamps. Time machines. The absolutely unhinged tech from the movies.
But a Tier 1 card couldn't carry all of that. The System had limits on story density at lower tiers. He needed to distill the character down to his most essential elements.
After about half an hour, he had his story outline:
Big Big Wolf — inventor of Green Green Grassland, outcast of the wolf tribe. While other wolves relied on brute force to hunt, he believed in the power of science. To catch sheep for his beloved wife Red Wolf, he poured himself into technology, creating invention after impossible invention. He failed to catch sheep every single time — but his genius was undeniable. Given enough materials and parts, he could build technology that defied the limits of his era.
For specific combat abilities, Ethan deliberately left things vague. The System would auto-generate traits based on the story.
"That'll do."
He walked back to the bedroom, pulled a Tier 1 blank card base from the drawer, and set it on the desk.
He dipped the Spirit Pen into the ink. The tip made its first stroke.
Twenty minutes later, the illustration was done.
Big Big Wolf stared up from the card — wearing his white lab coat and goggles, welding torch in hand, focused intently on a half-assembled mechanical component. The workbench behind him was a beautiful mess: gears, wires, circuit boards, and hastily drawn blueprints.
It was pure anime style. Not a trace of the photorealism that dominated this world's card art. The character had expressive, oversized eyes. Clean, bold outlines. The kind of energy that only animation could capture.
Ethan had no idea whether the summon would appear in anime style or get auto-converted to realism by the System. He'd find out later.
For now, he was satisfied. This was some of his best work.
Time for the story injection.
He pressed both palms against the card's edges, closed his eyes, and channeled everything — the outline, the character's backstory, his personality, his motivations, his core abilities — directly into the card through mental energy.
The card began to glow.
White light... then blue. The blue deepened.
Ethan held his breath.
The blue shifted. Warped. And then — purple. Deep, rich, unmistakable purple.
[Card Name]: Big Big Wolf (Research Form)
[Quality]: Purple (Epic)
[Rank]: Tier 1
[Type]: Summoning Card
[Story System]: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf
[Cost]: 100 Psionic Energy
[Effect]: Summons Big Big Wolf in Research Form.
[Trait]:I'll Definitely Be Back! — Upon being killed for the first time, shouts "I'll definitely be back!" and returns to the field at full status after five minutes.
[Evaluation]:"If you want to marry, marry Big Big Wolf~"
[Note]: The beginning of a brand-new story. First certification. Card Maker Ethan Cole has obtained primary copyright for this system. Success rate for creating cards with over 70% similarity is halved for all other users.
[Alert]: This card has entered this month's Tier 1 Card Making Leaderboard. The leaderboard refreshes daily at midnight.
"Yes!"
Ethan's fist clenched involuntarily. Purple. First try.
Sure, Big Big Wolf wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests. But in terms of logistics? Manufacturing? Battlefield support? He was going to be an absolute nightmare for opponents who didn't see it coming.
Ethan had already sketched out a lineup in his head. If everything went according to plan, he could end matches before the opponent even reached Tier 3 psionic thresholds.
The anime world was just broken. There was no other word for it.
He picked up the purple-bordered card and turned it over in his hands, admiring it. Under the faint purple glow, Big Big Wolf looked simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant — part cartoon comedian, part mad genius.
"Now I just need to get you a parts supplier," Ethan murmured.
Big Big Wolf needed raw materials to build things. If he paired the wolf with a card that could provide those materials, the two would chain together into something far greater than either alone.
Which character would work?
He ran through candidates.
Doraemon was an option — the robotic cat from the future with an infinite pocket of gadgets. But at Tier 1, the System would probably cap his inventory hard. The good stuff wouldn't come through.
Franky from One Piece — a cyborg shipwright with solid combat stats and engineering skills. But fitting his full character arc into a Tier 1 card was a stretch.
Or... should he skip characters entirely and just make a pure resource card? A field card designed to supply materials?
Ethan turned the idea over for a while. He was starting to see the shape of something.
But then reality intervened. He attempted two more cards after Big Big Wolf — and both failed.
The first crumbled mid-injection, the story structure collapsing before it could crystallize. The second simply didn't take — the card base flashed white and went dark.
Even with a transmigrator's knowledge, a hundred percent success rate was a fantasy.
Ethan set down the pen and stretched his neck, feeling the familiar ache of creative burnout settling into his shoulders.
Two failures in a row was a momentum killer. He'd pick it back up after a break.
But the plan was solid. He
he next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.
A white lab coat. Protective goggles pushed up on his forehead. A multi-functional scanner mounted on his head. A welding torch in one hand, a wrench in the other. A utility belt loaded with screwdrivers, pliers, and a multimeter.
For the background: a cluttered workbench piled high with mechanical parts and scattered blueprints. Half-finished schematics tacked to the wall behind him. Organized chaos.
One look at this card and you'd know exactly what this character was for, even without reading the description.
Now for the story.
What was Big Big Wolf's core identity?
A wolf who lost every single fight he ever picked — yet never, ever stopped trying. A wolf who loved his wife Red Wolf and his son Wilie more than anything in the world, and would do absolutely anything for them. A wolf who chose brains over brawn when every other member of his species relied on teeth and claws.
Most importantly: a genius inventor.
Ethan mentally cataloged Big Big Wolf's greatest hits. The endless sheep-catching schemes. Building rockets out of scrap. Weather controllers. Shrink lamps. Time machines. The absolutely unhinged tech from the movies.
But a Tier 1 card couldn't carry all of that. The System had limits on story density at lower tiers. He needed to distill the character down to his most essential elements.
After about half an hour, he had his story outline:
Big Big Wolf — inventor of Green Green Grassland, outcast of the wolf tribe. While other wolves relied on brute force to hunt, he believed in the power of science. To catch sheep for his beloved wife Red Wolf, he poured himself into technology, creating invention after impossible invention. He failed to catch sheep every single time — but his genius was undeniable. Given enough materials and parts, he could build technology that defied the limits of his era.
For specific combat abilities, Ethan deliberately left things vague. The System would auto-generate traits based on the story.
"That'll do."
He walked back to the bedroom, pulled a Tier 1 blank card base from the drawer, and set it on the desk.
He dipped the Spirit Pen into the ink. The tip made its first stroke.
Twenty minutes later, the illustration was done.
Big Big Wolf stared up from the card — wearing his white lab coat and goggles, welding torch in hand, focused intently on a half-assembled mechanical component. The workbench behind him was a beautiful mess: gears, wires, circuit boards, and hastily drawn blueprints.
It was pure anime style. Not a trace of the photorealism that dominated this world's card art. The character had expressive, oversized eyes. Clean, bold outlines. The kind of energy that only animation could capture.
Ethan had no idea whether the summon would appear in anime style or get auto-converted to realism by the System. He'd find out later.
For now, he was satisfied. This was some of his best work.
Time for the story injection.
He pressed both palms against the card's edges, closed his eyes, and channeled everything — the outline, the character's backstory, his personality, his motivations, his core abilities — directly into the card through mental energy.
The card began to glow.
White light... then blue. The blue deepened.
Ethan held his breath.
The blue shifted. Warped. And then — purple. Deep, rich, unmistakable purple.
[Card Name]: Big Big Wolf (Research Form)
[Quality]: Purple (Epic)
[Rank]: Tier 1
[Type]: Summoning Card
[Story System]: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf
[Cost]: 100 Psionic Energy
[Effect]: Summons Big Big Wolf in Research Form.
[Trait]:I'll Definitely Be Back! — Upon being killed for the first time, shouts "I'll definitely be back!" and returns to the field at full status after five minutes.
[Evaluation]:"If you want to marry, marry Big Big Wolf~"
[Note]: The beginning of a brand-new story. First certification. Card Maker Ethan Cole has obtained primary copyright for this system. Success rate for creating cards with over 70% similarity is halved for all other users.
[Alert]: This card has entered this month's Tier 1 Card Making Leaderboard. The leaderboard refreshes daily at midnight.
"Yes!"
Ethan's fist clenched involuntarily. Purple. First try.
Sure, Big Big Wolf wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests. But in terms of logistics? Manufacturing? Battlefield support? He was going to be an absolute nightmare for opponents who didn't see it coming.
Ethan had already sketched out a lineup in his head. If everything went according to plan, he could end matches before the opponent even reached Tier 3 psionic thresholds.
The anime world was just broken. There was no other word for it.
He picked up the purple-bordered card and turned it over in his hands, admiring it. Under the faint purple glow, Big Big Wolf looked simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant — part cartoon comedian, part mad genius.
"Now I just need to get you a parts supplier," Ethan murmured.
Big Big Wolf needed raw materials to build things. If he paired the wolf with a card that could provide those materials, the two would chain together into something far greater than either alone.
Which character would work?
He ran through candidates.
Doraemon was an option — the robotic cat from the future with an infinite pocket of gadgets. But at Tier 1, the System would probably cap his inventory hard. The good stuff wouldn't come through.
Franky from One Piece — a cyborg shipwright with solid combat stats and engineering skills. But fitting his full character arc into a Tier 1 card was a stretch.
Or... should he skip characters entirely and just make a pure resource card? A field card designed to supply materials?
Ethan turned the idea over for a while. He was starting to see the shape of something.
But then reality intervened. He attempted two more cards after Big Big Wolf — and both failed.
The first crumbled mid-injection, the story structure collapsing before it could crystallize. The second simply didn't take — the card base flashed white and went dark.
Even with a transmigrator's knowledge, a hundred percent success rate was a fantasy.
Ethan set down the pen and stretched his neck, feeling the familiar ache of creative burnout settling into his shoulders.
Two failures in a row was a momentum killer. He'd pick it back up after a break.
But the plan was solid. He
he next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.
A white lab coat. Protective goggles pushed up on his forehead. A multi-functional scanner mounted on his head. A welding torch in one hand, a wrench in the other. A utility belt loaded with screwdrivers, pliers, and a multimeter.
For the background: a cluttered workbench piled high with mechanical parts and scattered blueprints. Half-finished schematics tacked to the wall behind him. Organized chaos.
One look at this card and you'd know exactly what this character was for, even without reading the description.
Now for the story.
What was Big Big Wolf's core identity?
A wolf who lost every single fight he ever picked — yet never, ever stopped trying. A wolf who loved his wife Red Wolf and his son Wilie more than anything in the world, and would do absolutely anything for them. A wolf who chose brains over brawn when every other member of his species relied on teeth and claws.
Most importantly: a genius inventor.
Ethan mentally cataloged Big Big Wolf's greatest hits. The endless sheep-catching schemes. Building rockets out of scrap. Weather controllers. Shrink lamps. Time machines. The absolutely unhinged tech from the movies.
But a Tier 1 card couldn't carry all of that. The System had limits on story density at lower tiers. He needed to distill the character down to his most essential elements.
After about half an hour, he had his story outline:
Big Big Wolf — inventor of Green Green Grassland, outcast of the wolf tribe. While other wolves relied on brute force to hunt, he believed in the power of science. To catch sheep for his beloved wife Red Wolf, he poured himself into technology, creating invention after impossible invention. He failed to catch sheep every single time — but his genius was undeniable. Given enough materials and parts, he could build technology that defied the limits of his era.
For specific combat abilities, Ethan deliberately left things vague. The System would auto-generate traits based on the story.
"That'll do."
He walked back to the bedroom, pulled a Tier 1 blank card base from the drawer, and set it on the desk.
He dipped the Spirit Pen into the ink. The tip made its first stroke.
Twenty minutes later, the illustration was done.
Big Big Wolf stared up from the card — wearing his white lab coat and goggles, welding torch in hand, focused intently on a half-assembled mechanical component. The workbench behind him was a beautiful mess: gears, wires, circuit boards, and hastily drawn blueprints.
It was pure anime style. Not a trace of the photorealism that dominated this world's card art. The character had expressive, oversized eyes. Clean, bold outlines. The kind of energy that only animation could capture.
Ethan had no idea whether the summon would appear in anime style or get auto-converted to realism by the System. He'd find out later.
For now, he was satisfied. This was some of his best work.
Time for the story injection.
He pressed both palms against the card's edges, closed his eyes, and channeled everything — the outline, the character's backstory, his personality, his motivations, his core abilities — directly into the card through mental energy.
The card began to glow.
White light... then blue. The blue deepened.
Ethan held his breath.
The blue shifted. Warped. And then — purple. Deep, rich, unmistakable purple.
[Card Name]: Big Big Wolf (Research Form)
[Quality]: Purple (Epic)
[Rank]: Tier 1
[Type]: Summoning Card
[Story System]: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf
[Cost]: 100 Psionic Energy
[Effect]: Summons Big Big Wolf in Research Form.
[Trait]:I'll Definitely Be Back! — Upon being killed for the first time, shouts "I'll definitely be back!" and returns to the field at full status after five minutes.
[Evaluation]:"If you want to marry, marry Big Big Wolf~"
[Note]: The beginning of a brand-new story. First certification. Card Maker Ethan Cole has obtained primary copyright for this system. Success rate for creating cards with over 70% similarity is halved for all other users.
[Alert]: This card has entered this month's Tier 1 Card Making Leaderboard. The leaderboard refreshes daily at midnight.
"Yes!"
Ethan's fist clenched involuntarily. Purple. First try.
Sure, Big Big Wolf wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests. But in terms of logistics? Manufacturing? Battlefield support? He was going to be an absolute nightmare for opponents who didn't see it coming.
Ethan had already sketched out a lineup in his head. If everything went according to plan, he could end matches before the opponent even reached Tier 3 psionic thresholds.
The anime world was just broken. There was no other word for it.
He picked up the purple-bordered card and turned it over in his hands, admiring it. Under the faint purple glow, Big Big Wolf looked simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant — part cartoon comedian, part mad genius.
"Now I just need to get you a parts supplier," Ethan murmured.
Big Big Wolf needed raw materials to build things. If he paired the wolf with a card that could provide those materials, the two would chain together into something far greater than either alone.
Which character would work?
He ran through candidates.
Doraemon was an option — the robotic cat from the future with an infinite pocket of gadgets. But at Tier 1, the System would probably cap his inventory hard. The good stuff wouldn't come through.
Franky from One Piece — a cyborg shipwright with solid combat stats and engineering skills. But fitting his full character arc into a Tier 1 card was a stretch.
Or... should he skip characters entirely and just make a pure resource card? A field card designed to supply materials?
Ethan turned the idea over for a while. He was starting to see the shape of something.
But then reality intervened. He attempted two more cards after Big Big Wolf — and both failed.
The first crumbled mid-injection, the story structure collapsing before it could crystallize. The second simply didn't take — the card base flashed white and went dark.
Even with a transmigrator's knowledge, a hundred percent success rate was a fantasy.
Ethan set down the pen and stretched his neck, feeling the familiar ache of creative burnout settling into his shoulders.
Two failures in a row was a momentum killer. He'd pick it back up after a break.
But the plan was solid. He
he next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.
A white lab coat. Protective goggles pushed up on his forehead. A multi-functional scanner mounted on his head. A welding torch in one hand, a wrench in the other. A utility belt loaded with screwdrivers, pliers, and a multimeter.
For the background: a cluttered workbench piled high with mechanical parts and scattered blueprints. Half-finished schematics tacked to the wall behind him. Organized chaos.
One look at this card and you'd know exactly what this character was for, even without reading the description.
Now for the story.
What was Big Big Wolf's core identity?
A wolf who lost every single fight he ever picked — yet never, ever stopped trying. A wolf who loved his wife Red Wolf and his son Wilie more than anything in the world, and would do absolutely anything for them. A wolf who chose brains over brawn when every other member of his species relied on teeth and claws.
Most importantly: a genius inventor.
Ethan mentally cataloged Big Big Wolf's greatest hits. The endless sheep-catching schemes. Building rockets out of scrap. Weather controllers. Shrink lamps. Time machines. The absolutely unhinged tech from the movies.
But a Tier 1 card couldn't carry all of that. The System had limits on story density at lower tiers. He needed to distill the character down to his most essential elements.
After about half an hour, he had his story outline:
Big Big Wolf — inventor of Green Green Grassland, outcast of the wolf tribe. While other wolves relied on brute force to hunt, he believed in the power of science. To catch sheep for his beloved wife Red Wolf, he poured himself into technology, creating invention after impossible invention. He failed to catch sheep every single time — but his genius was undeniable. Given enough materials and parts, he could build technology that defied the limits of his era.
For specific combat abilities, Ethan deliberately left things vague. The System would auto-generate traits based on the story.
"That'll do."
He walked back to the bedroom, pulled a Tier 1 blank card base from the drawer, and set it on the desk.
He dipped the Spirit Pen into the ink. The tip made its first stroke.
Twenty minutes later, the illustration was done.
Big Big Wolf stared up from the card — wearing his white lab coat and goggles, welding torch in hand, focused intently on a half-assembled mechanical component. The workbench behind him was a beautiful mess: gears, wires, circuit boards, and hastily drawn blueprints.
It was pure anime style. Not a trace of the photorealism that dominated this world's card art. The character had expressive, oversized eyes. Clean, bold outlines. The kind of energy that only animation could capture.
Ethan had no idea whether the summon would appear in anime style or get auto-converted to realism by the System. He'd find out later.
For now, he was satisfied. This was some of his best work.
Time for the story injection.
He pressed both palms against the card's edges, closed his eyes, and channeled everything — the outline, the character's backstory, his personality, his motivations, his core abilities — directly into the card through mental energy.
The card began to glow.
White light... then blue. The blue deepened.
Ethan held his breath.
The blue shifted. Warped. And then — purple. Deep, rich, unmistakable purple.
[Card Name]: Big Big Wolf (Research Form)
[Quality]: Purple (Epic)
[Rank]: Tier 1
[Type]: Summoning Card
[Story System]: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf
[Cost]: 100 Psionic Energy
[Effect]: Summons Big Big Wolf in Research Form.
[Trait]:I'll Definitely Be Back! — Upon being killed for the first time, shouts "I'll definitely be back!" and returns to the field at full status after five minutes.
[Evaluation]:"If you want to marry, marry Big Big Wolf~"
[Note]: The beginning of a brand-new story. First certification. Card Maker Ethan Cole has obtained primary copyright for this system. Success rate for creating cards with over 70% similarity is halved for all other users.
[Alert]: This card has entered this month's Tier 1 Card Making Leaderboard. The leaderboard refreshes daily at midnight.
"Yes!"
Ethan's fist clenched involuntarily. Purple. First try.
Sure, Big Big Wolf wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests. But in terms of logistics? Manufacturing? Battlefield support? He was going to be an absolute nightmare for opponents who didn't see it coming.
Ethan had already sketched out a lineup in his head. If everything went according to plan, he could end matches before the opponent even reached Tier 3 psionic thresholds.
The anime world was just broken. There was no other word for it.
He picked up the purple-bordered card and turned it over in his hands, admiring it. Under the faint purple glow, Big Big Wolf looked simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant — part cartoon comedian, part mad genius.
"Now I just need to get you a parts supplier," Ethan murmured.
Big Big Wolf needed raw materials to build things. If he paired the wolf with a card that could provide those materials, the two would chain together into something far greater than either alone.
Which character would work?
He ran through candidates.
Doraemon was an option — the robotic cat from the future with an infinite pocket of gadgets. But at Tier 1, the System would probably cap his inventory hard. The good stuff wouldn't come through.
Franky from One Piece — a cyborg shipwright with solid combat stats and engineering skills. But fitting his full character arc into a Tier 1 card was a stretch.
Or... should he skip characters entirely and just make a pure resource card? A field card designed to supply materials?
Ethan turned the idea over for a while. He was starting to see the shape of something.
But then reality intervened. He attempted two more cards after Big Big Wolf — and both failed.
The first crumbled mid-injection, the story structure collapsing before it could crystallize. The second simply didn't take — the card base flashed white and went dark.
Even with a transmigrator's knowledge, a hundred percent success rate was a fantasy.
Ethan set down the pen and stretched his neck, feeling the familiar ache of creative burnout settling into his shoulders.
Two failures in a row was a momentum killer. He'd pick it back up after a break.
But the plan was solid. He
he next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.
A white lab coat. Protective goggles pushed up on his forehead. A multi-functional scanner mounted on his head. A welding torch in one hand, a wrench in the other. A utility belt loaded with screwdrivers, pliers, and a multimeter.
For the background: a cluttered workbench piled high with mechanical parts and scattered blueprints. Half-finished schematics tacked to the wall behind him. Organized chaos.
One look at this card and you'd know exactly what this character was for, even without reading the description.
Now for the story.
What was Big Big Wolf's core identity?
A wolf who lost every single fight he ever picked — yet never, ever stopped trying. A wolf who loved his wife Red Wolf and his son Wilie more than anything in the world, and would do absolutely anything for them. A wolf who chose brains over brawn when every other member of his species relied on teeth and claws.
Most importantly: a genius inventor.
Ethan mentally cataloged Big Big Wolf's greatest hits. The endless sheep-catching schemes. Building rockets out of scrap. Weather controllers. Shrink lamps. Time machines. The absolutely unhinged tech from the movies.
But a Tier 1 card couldn't carry all of that. The System had limits on story density at lower tiers. He needed to distill the character down to his most essential elements.
After about half an hour, he had his story outline:
Big Big Wolf — inventor of Green Green Grassland, outcast of the wolf tribe. While other wolves relied on brute force to hunt, he believed in the power of science. To catch sheep for his beloved wife Red Wolf, he poured himself into technology, creating invention after impossible invention. He failed to catch sheep every single time — but his genius was undeniable. Given enough materials and parts, he could build technology that defied the limits of his era.
For specific combat abilities, Ethan deliberately left things vague. The System would auto-generate traits based on the story.
"That'll do."
He walked back to the bedroom, pulled a Tier 1 blank card base from the drawer, and set it on the desk.
He dipped the Spirit Pen into the ink. The tip made its first stroke.
Twenty minutes later, the illustration was done.
Big Big Wolf stared up from the card — wearing his white lab coat and goggles, welding torch in hand, focused intently on a half-assembled mechanical component. The workbench behind him was a beautiful mess: gears, wires, circuit boards, and hastily drawn blueprints.
It was pure anime style. Not a trace of the photorealism that dominated this world's card art. The character had expressive, oversized eyes. Clean, bold outlines. The kind of energy that only animation could capture.
Ethan had no idea whether the summon would appear in anime style or get auto-converted to realism by the System. He'd find out later.
For now, he was satisfied. This was some of his best work.
Time for the story injection.
He pressed both palms against the card's edges, closed his eyes, and channeled everything — the outline, the character's backstory, his personality, his motivations, his core abilities — directly into the card through mental energy.
The card began to glow.
White light... then blue. The blue deepened.
Ethan held his breath.
The blue shifted. Warped. And then — purple. Deep, rich, unmistakable purple.
[Card Name]: Big Big Wolf (Research Form)
[Quality]: Purple (Epic)
[Rank]: Tier 1
[Type]: Summoning Card
[Story System]: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf
[Cost]: 100 Psionic Energy
[Effect]: Summons Big Big Wolf in Research Form.
[Trait]:I'll Definitely Be Back! — Upon being killed for the first time, shouts "I'll definitely be back!" and returns to the field at full status after five minutes.
[Evaluation]:"If you want to marry, marry Big Big Wolf~"
[Note]: The beginning of a brand-new story. First certification. Card Maker Ethan Cole has obtained primary copyright for this system. Success rate for creating cards with over 70% similarity is halved for all other users.
[Alert]: This card has entered this month's Tier 1 Card Making Leaderboard. The leaderboard refreshes daily at midnight.
"Yes!"
Ethan's fist clenched involuntarily. Purple. First try.
Sure, Big Big Wolf wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests. But in terms of logistics? Manufacturing? Battlefield support? He was going to be an absolute nightmare for opponents who didn't see it coming.
Ethan had already sketched out a lineup in his head. If everything went according to plan, he could end matches before the opponent even reached Tier 3 psionic thresholds.
The anime world was just broken. There was no other word for it.
He picked up the purple-bordered card and turned it over in his hands, admiring it. Under the faint purple glow, Big Big Wolf looked simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant — part cartoon comedian, part mad genius.
"Now I just need to get you a parts supplier," Ethan murmured.
Big Big Wolf needed raw materials to build things. If he paired the wolf with a card that could provide those materials, the two would chain together into something far greater than either alone.
Which character would work?
He ran through candidates.
Doraemon was an option — the robotic cat from the future with an infinite pocket of gadgets. But at Tier 1, the System would probably cap his inventory hard. The good stuff wouldn't come through.
Franky from One Piece — a cyborg shipwright with solid combat stats and engineering skills. But fitting his full character arc into a Tier 1 card was a stretch.
Or... should he skip characters entirely and just make a pure resource card? A field card designed to supply materials?
Ethan turned the idea over for a while. He was starting to see the shape of something.
But then reality intervened. He attempted two more cards after Big Big Wolf — and both failed.
The first crumbled mid-injection, the story structure collapsing before it could crystallize. The second simply didn't take — the card base flashed white and went dark.
Even with a transmigrator's knowledge, a hundred percent success rate was a fantasy.
Ethan set down the pen and stretched his neck, feeling the familiar ache of creative burnout settling into his shoulders.
Two failures in a row was a momentum killer. He'd pick it back up after a break.
But the plan was solid. He
he next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.
A white lab coat. Protective goggles pushed up on his forehead. A multi-functional scanner mounted on his head. A welding torch in one hand, a wrench in the other. A utility belt loaded with screwdrivers, pliers, and a multimeter.
For the background: a cluttered workbench piled high with mechanical parts and scattered blueprints. Half-finished schematics tacked to the wall behind him. Organized chaos.
One look at this card and you'd know exactly what this character was for, even without reading the description.
Now for the story.
What was Big Big Wolf's core identity?
A wolf who lost every single fight he ever picked — yet never, ever stopped trying. A wolf who loved his wife Red Wolf and his son Wilie more than anything in the world, and would do absolutely anything for them. A wolf who chose brains over brawn when every other member of his species relied on teeth and claws.
Most importantly: a genius inventor.
Ethan mentally cataloged Big Big Wolf's greatest hits. The endless sheep-catching schemes. Building rockets out of scrap. Weather controllers. Shrink lamps. Time machines. The absolutely unhinged tech from the movies.
But a Tier 1 card couldn't carry all of that. The System had limits on story density at lower tiers. He needed to distill the character down to his most essential elements.
After about half an hour, he had his story outline:
Big Big Wolf — inventor of Green Green Grassland, outcast of the wolf tribe. While other wolves relied on brute force to hunt, he believed in the power of science. To catch sheep for his beloved wife Red Wolf, he poured himself into technology, creating invention after impossible invention. He failed to catch sheep every single time — but his genius was undeniable. Given enough materials and parts, he could build technology that defied the limits of his era.
For specific combat abilities, Ethan deliberately left things vague. The System would auto-generate traits based on the story.
"That'll do."
He walked back to the bedroom, pulled a Tier 1 blank card base from the drawer, and set it on the desk.
He dipped the Spirit Pen into the ink. The tip made its first stroke.
Twenty minutes later, the illustration was done.
Big Big Wolf stared up from the card — wearing his white lab coat and goggles, welding torch in hand, focused intently on a half-assembled mechanical component. The workbench behind him was a beautiful mess: gears, wires, circuit boards, and hastily drawn blueprints.
It was pure anime style. Not a trace of the photorealism that dominated this world's card art. The character had expressive, oversized eyes. Clean, bold outlines. The kind of energy that only animation could capture.
Ethan had no idea whether the summon would appear in anime style or get auto-converted to realism by the System. He'd find out later.
For now, he was satisfied. This was some of his best work.
Time for the story injection.
He pressed both palms against the card's edges, closed his eyes, and channeled everything — the outline, the character's backstory, his personality, his motivations, his core abilities — directly into the card through mental energy.
The card began to glow.
White light... then blue. The blue deepened.
Ethan held his breath.
The blue shifted. Warped. And then — purple. Deep, rich, unmistakable purple.
[Card Name]: Big Big Wolf (Research Form)
[Quality]: Purple (Epic)
[Rank]: Tier 1
[Type]: Summoning Card
[Story System]: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf
[Cost]: 100 Psionic Energy
[Effect]: Summons Big Big Wolf in Research Form.
[Trait]:I'll Definitely Be Back! — Upon being killed for the first time, shouts "I'll definitely be back!" and returns to the field at full status after five minutes.
[Evaluation]:"If you want to marry, marry Big Big Wolf~"
[Note]: The beginning of a brand-new story. First certification. Card Maker Ethan Cole has obtained primary copyright for this system. Success rate for creating cards with over 70% similarity is halved for all other users.
[Alert]: This card has entered this month's Tier 1 Card Making Leaderboard. The leaderboard refreshes daily at midnight.
"Yes!"
Ethan's fist clenched involuntarily. Purple. First try.
Sure, Big Big Wolf wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests. But in terms of logistics? Manufacturing? Battlefield support? He was going to be an absolute nightmare for opponents who didn't see it coming.
Ethan had already sketched out a lineup in his head. If everything went according to plan, he could end matches before the opponent even reached Tier 3 psionic thresholds.
The anime world was just broken. There was no other word for it.
He picked up the purple-bordered card and turned it over in his hands, admiring it. Under the faint purple glow, Big Big Wolf looked simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant — part cartoon comedian, part mad genius.
"Now I just need to get you a parts supplier," Ethan murmured.
Big Big Wolf needed raw materials to build things. If he paired the wolf with a card that could provide those materials, the two would chain together into something far greater than either alone.
Which character would work?
He ran through candidates.
Doraemon was an option — the robotic cat from the future with an infinite pocket of gadgets. But at Tier 1, the System would probably cap his inventory hard. The good stuff wouldn't come through.
Franky from One Piece — a cyborg shipwright with solid combat stats and engineering skills. But fitting his full character arc into a Tier 1 card was a stretch.
Or... should he skip characters entirely and just make a pure resource card? A field card designed to supply materials?
Ethan turned the idea over for a while. He was starting to see the shape of something.
But then reality intervened. He attempted two more cards after Big Big Wolf — and both failed.
The first crumbled mid-injection, the story structure collapsing before it could crystallize. The second simply didn't take — the card base flashed white and went dark.
Even with a transmigrator's knowledge, a hundred percent success rate was a fantasy.
Ethan set down the pen and stretched his neck, feeling the familiar ache of creative burnout settling into his shoulders.
Two failures in a row was a momentum killer. He'd pick it back up after a break.
But the plan was solid. He
he next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.
A white lab coat. Protective goggles pushed up on his forehead. A multi-functional scanner mounted on his head. A welding torch in one hand, a wrench in the other. A utility belt loaded with screwdrivers, pliers, and a multimeter.
For the background: a cluttered workbench piled high with mechanical parts and scattered blueprints. Half-finished schematics tacked to the wall behind him. Organized chaos.
One look at this card and you'd know exactly what this character was for, even without reading the description.
Now for the story.
What was Big Big Wolf's core identity?
A wolf who lost every single fight he ever picked — yet never, ever stopped trying. A wolf who loved his wife Red Wolf and his son Wilie more than anything in the world, and would do absolutely anything for them. A wolf who chose brains over brawn when every other member of his species relied on teeth and claws.
Most importantly: a genius inventor.
Ethan mentally cataloged Big Big Wolf's greatest hits. The endless sheep-catching schemes. Building rockets out of scrap. Weather controllers. Shrink lamps. Time machines. The absolutely unhinged tech from the movies.
But a Tier 1 card couldn't carry all of that. The System had limits on story density at lower tiers. He needed to distill the character down to his most essential elements.
After about half an hour, he had his story outline:
Big Big Wolf — inventor of Green Green Grassland, outcast of the wolf tribe. While other wolves relied on brute force to hunt, he believed in the power of science. To catch sheep for his beloved wife Red Wolf, he poured himself into technology, creating invention after impossible invention. He failed to catch sheep every single time — but his genius was undeniable. Given enough materials and parts, he could build technology that defied the limits of his era.
For specific combat abilities, Ethan deliberately left things vague. The System would auto-generate traits based on the story.
"That'll do."
He walked back to the bedroom, pulled a Tier 1 blank card base from the drawer, and set it on the desk.
He dipped the Spirit Pen into the ink. The tip made its first stroke.
Twenty minutes later, the illustration was done.
Big Big Wolf stared up from the card — wearing his white lab coat and goggles, welding torch in hand, focused intently on a half-assembled mechanical component. The workbench behind him was a beautiful mess: gears, wires, circuit boards, and hastily drawn blueprints.
It was pure anime style. Not a trace of the photorealism that dominated this world's card art. The character had expressive, oversized eyes. Clean, bold outlines. The kind of energy that only animation could capture.
Ethan had no idea whether the summon would appear in anime style or get auto-converted to realism by the System. He'd find out later.
For now, he was satisfied. This was some of his best work.
Time for the story injection.
He pressed both palms against the card's edges, closed his eyes, and channeled everything — the outline, the character's backstory, his personality, his motivations, his core abilities — directly into the card through mental energy.
The card began to glow.
White light... then blue. The blue deepened.
Ethan held his breath.
The blue shifted. Warped. And then — purple. Deep, rich, unmistakable purple.
[Card Name]: Big Big Wolf (Research Form)
[Quality]: Purple (Epic)
[Rank]: Tier 1
[Type]: Summoning Card
[Story System]: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf
[Cost]: 100 Psionic Energy
[Effect]: Summons Big Big Wolf in Research Form.
[Trait]:I'll Definitely Be Back! — Upon being killed for the first time, shouts "I'll definitely be back!" and returns to the field at full status after five minutes.
[Evaluation]:"If you want to marry, marry Big Big Wolf~"
[Note]: The beginning of a brand-new story. First certification. Card Maker Ethan Cole has obtained primary copyright for this system. Success rate for creating cards with over 70% similarity is halved for all other users.
[Alert]: This card has entered this month's Tier 1 Card Making Leaderboard. The leaderboard refreshes daily at midnight.
"Yes!"
Ethan's fist clenched involuntarily. Purple. First try.
Sure, Big Big Wolf wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests. But in terms of logistics? Manufacturing? Battlefield support? He was going to be an absolute nightmare for opponents who didn't see it coming.
Ethan had already sketched out a lineup in his head. If everything went according to plan, he could end matches before the opponent even reached Tier 3 psionic thresholds.
The anime world was just broken. There was no other word for it.
He picked up the purple-bordered card and turned it over in his hands, admiring it. Under the faint purple glow, Big Big Wolf looked simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant — part cartoon comedian, part mad genius.
"Now I just need to get you a parts supplier," Ethan murmured.
Big Big Wolf needed raw materials to build things. If he paired the wolf with a card that could provide those materials, the two would chain together into something far greater than either alone.
Which character would work?
He ran through candidates.
Doraemon was an option — the robotic cat from the future with an infinite pocket of gadgets. But at Tier 1, the System would probably cap his inventory hard. The good stuff wouldn't come through.
Franky from One Piece — a cyborg shipwright with solid combat stats and engineering skills. But fitting his full character arc into a Tier 1 card was a stretch.
Or... should he skip characters entirely and just make a pure resource card? A field card designed to supply materials?
Ethan turned the idea over for a while. He was starting to see the shape of something.
But then reality intervened. He attempted two more cards after Big Big Wolf — and both failed.
The first crumbled mid-injection, the story structure collapsing before it could crystallize. The second simply didn't take — the card base flashed white and went dark.
Even with a transmigrator's knowledge, a hundred percent success rate was a fantasy.
Ethan set down the pen and stretched his neck, feeling the familiar ache of creative burnout settling into his shoulders.
Two failures in a row was a momentum killer. He'd pick it back up after a break.
But the plan was solid. He
he next morning, 6:00 AM.
Ethan woke up feeling like a new person.
His head was clear, his mental energy had fully recovered, and for the first time since arriving in this body, the persistent fog behind his eyes was completely gone.
He had two days before he needed to head back to campus. Two days to prepare for the tournament. Card-making at school was doable but inconvenient — shared spaces, nosy classmates, limited privacy. He wanted to get as much done as possible while he still had the apartment to himself.
He sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and started running the numbers.
Ideally, he needed at least ten cards at each tier level — Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Even though his very first attempt with Naruto had succeeded, he couldn't bank on that kind of luck for everything. Some cards would fail. He needed margin.
Conservatively, he'd need to buy ten Tier 1 blank card bases and ten Tier 2s.
Ten Tier 1s at 1 Spirit Crystal each: 10 crystals. Ten Tier 2s at 5 crystals each: 50 crystals. That was already 60.
Add in Spirit Ink refills and he was looking at close to 70 Spirit Crystals. And that wasn't even touching Tier 3 bases, which ran 20 crystals each.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Gonna have to sell something."
Cards were his only revenue stream. But what could he part with?
Naruto was off the table — that was his ace in the hole for the tournament. And if he started selling Naruto-system cards on the open market, it would draw attention to the new story system. People would start asking questions.
Questions like who made this?
Ethan frowned. He wasn't the type who wanted a spotlight. He just wanted to build a killer deck and compete.
His eyes drifted to the small stack of cards sitting at the corner of the desk.
Right. The original Ethan had cards too.
He'd been preparing for the tournament in his own way. The kid had accumulated a modest collection over the years.
Ethan spread them across the table and sorted through them. Most were Arthurian-themed — basic knights, squires, a couple of low-tier paladins. A handful of fairy tale cards. One equipment card.
Nothing he wanted. Nothing that fit his vision.
He swept the entire lot into the System's marketplace exchange without a second thought. The platform only took a five percent cut, which was fair enough.
When the transactions settled, his Spirit Crystal balance read: 117.
Ethan's mood improved considerably.
Now — what to make?
A Tier 1 card had limited energy capacity. If he went the combat route, the character's fighting power would be mediocre at best. You could make a decent knight or a half-decent warrior, but they'd get steamrolled by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 summon.
So why chase combat power at all?
What if he went functional instead?
The thought hit him like a spark, and his eyes lit up.
In his past life, there were dozens of anime characters who weren't strong fighters but had wildly broken utility abilities. Characters who didn't need to punch harder — they needed to build things, create things, think their way through problems.
For example: Big Big Wolf.
Ethan almost laughed out loud.
Honestly, the wolf's combat power was embarrassing. The guy couldn't even catch a sheep. He was literally a predator who got outsmarted by livestock on a daily basis.
But his engineering ability? Absolutely insane.
Give him parts and materials, and Big Big Wolf could build anything. Rockets. Weather machines. Shrink rays. Time machines. The wolf was basically a mad scientist trapped in a slapstick comedy.
"If I make a Research Mode Big Big Wolf..."
The more Ethan thought about it, the more it made sense. As a Tier 1 card, the wolf probably couldn't construct full-scale mechs or anything — the System would restrict that. But small mechs? Custom weapons? Utility gadgets? Functional props?
That was absolutely on the table.
And if he paired Big Big Wolf with an auxiliary card that supplied parts and materials...
"Yeah. I can work with this."
He closed his eyes and started conceptualizing.
In the show, Big Big Wolf's default look was pretty rough — tattered shorts, a patched-up hat, a generally underfed vibe. But for a research mode variant, the design needed to sell the concept instantly.