Creative Forcing

As these lines appeared on the screen, Umino Ikkaku fell on his chair helplessly, facing the grinning demon lord Nobunaga. He felt an utter sense of defeat.

Did I lose again?

And not just once, but five times in a row. This thought revolved around his mind.

How was this tutorial designed? It was unreasonable!

The opponents he faced just moments ago were so easy to deal with, but suddenly the difficulty increased so much.

A novice with an ordinary deck couldn't defeat these opponents.

There was only one way to defeat this demon lord Nobunaga.

Umino Ikkaku instinctively glanced at the coin slot on the table...

No!

He vigorously shook his head, well aware that this was what Natsuhiko intended.

To force everyone to buy card packs by setting unreasonable difficulty levels.

This guy was too devious!

But Natsuhiko underestimated the patience of us shinobis.

Since he had already completed most of the tutorial and obtained almost all the card packs, he might as well end it here.

Such thoughts arose in Umino Ikkaku's mind.

However, just then, perhaps because he had been silent for too long, the demon lord Nobunaga sitting across from him suddenly had a distorted face and acquired the semblance of Nobunaga's previous appearance and looked at him with a pained expression.

"Tonikoshita... Toni, save me..."

"Nobunaga-sama!" x2

Not only the phantom of Toshigoro but even Umino Ikkaku couldn't help but stand up and shout.

Natsuhiko and his group looked at them with a bit of surprise.

Natsuhiko still had a wry smile on his face though.

...

Umino Ikkaku couldn't help but feel embarrassed, but in his heart, he cursed Natsuhiko for being too shameless.

What kind of new form of extortion was this?

If you don't spend money, I'll prevent your favourite characters from being reincarnated.

Was all that focus on Nobunaga earlier for this purpose?

I spent money, isn't that enough?

Tears welled up in Umino Ikkaku's eyes as he looked at the pained phantom of Nobunaga across from him and reluctantly gave in.

He felt so aggrieved.

He took out the wallet from his pocket, hesitated for a moment, and took out four fifty-taels coins, each one causing a pang as he dropped them one by one into the coin slot.

He had heard Natsuhiko say earlier that ten consecutive draws would guarantee a rare card.

Although he hadn't figured out the difference in rarity levels of cards, "rare" sounded powerful.

With each coin he inserted, Umino Ikkaku heard the crisp sound of coins colliding in the game machine, and the number next to the gold coin icon in the upper right corner of the interface kept increasing.

"Two hundred taels, enough for three bowls of ramen..." Umino Ikkaku muttered quietly.

If Kohari found out that I'm spending money so recklessly, she would beat my ass.

He shook his head helplessly, thinking of it as a way to please Natsuhiko.

Anyway, with five cards per pack and fifty cards in ten draws, he should be able to get some good stuff. Plus, with the guaranteed rare card, he should be able to defeat that demon lord Nobunaga.

With his plan set, he clicked on the "Ten Draw" option on the store interface with a deep breath.

...

After a moment, when Umino Ikkaku came back to his senses, he realised that his wallet had deflated.

Opening it, he found it empty.

Where was the money?

Although he remembered how he had put all his money into the machine, even exchanging bills for coins at the bar when he ran out, Umino Ikkaku felt a lack of reality.

How did his months of pocket money disappear?

It felt like his wallet had been directly attacked, emptied all at once.

Seeing Natsuhiko approaching again, afraid that he would demand a refund, Umino Ikkaku said bitterly:

"Teacher, look at it positively. Your money isn't really spent, but rather stays with you in a different form."

"And these cards can be traded with others, so if you drew valuable cards just now, you might even make a profit."

Indeed, to reduce the resistance of the residents of the Shinobi World to virtual cards, Natsuhiko did not adopt the annoying setting of card trading being impossible in games but instead followed the model of physical collectable card games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, allowing players to freely trade their cards.

This way, newcomers to the game wouldn't feel like they bought a bunch of dogs. And players with limited funds could still put together a decent deck.

The Geki-nin could also reach a larger audience.

Of course, because card trading required the Geki-nin machine, the tavern also made considerable profits through commissions...

Natsuhiko thought he could comfort his teacher by saying this.

But to his surprise, after hearing it, Umino Ikkaku showed a bitter smile, reached out, and opened the card library to show Natsuhiko.

A blue sky and white clouds.

Unfortunately, this scene in the card library was hardly refreshing.

"Hehe, I read the instructions later and found out that the rare cards given in the ten draws aren't really rare. There are still epic and legendary rarities above them."

"If I had known, I would have just bought a bundle."

"I always thought I'd stop when I got something good, but ended up spending more money and getting nothing."

Natsuhiko couldn't help but take two steps back and keep his distance from his teacher.

How unlucky could this guy be?

Although Natsuhiko lowered the probability of epic and legendary cards, he didn't introduce the mechanism of at least one orange in 40 packs, like in Hearthstone.

But to not even get one purple card? Wasn't that too pitiful?

Teacher, are you sure you didn't step on some bad luck when you went out today?

Fortunately, for players with such bad luck, Natsuhiko was prepared.

He clicked on a recharge reward activity option in the corner of the store interface for his teacher.

In the pop-up window, it showed that starting from a six-tael recharge, the game would give corresponding rewards for each recharge amount, such as limited cards, card backs, and even special skins later on.

When Umino Ikkaku saw that Natsuhiko had claimed a purple card frame for him as a reward for reaching 1,000 taels, his eyes finally lit up again.

It wasn't easy; he finally saw what an epic card looked like!

"But there's only one epic card. Can I still beat that demon lord Nobunaga?" Umino Ikkaku was still a little worried.

"Teacher, the strength of a card doesn't solely depend on its rarity but also on its specific effect and how the player uses it."

Pointing to the card, Natsuhiko said:

"For example, this card allows the cards in the opponent's graveyard to return to their deck, which is useless most of the time. But against Nobunaga, who uses his graveyard cards as resources for his demon cards, it can be extremely effective."

Umino Ikkaku suddenly understood.

This card countered Nobunaga perfectly!

That may not be the strongest card, but the strongest duelists are the ones who persevere!

However, he faintly realised that Natsuhiko made it so difficult to beat Nobunaga and put a card that counters Nobunaga in the 1,000-tael reward for a reason.

Before he could think more about it, he added the card to his deck and challenged Nobunaga once again with the help of Asahime.

Sure enough, with Asahime's help, Umino Ikkaku easily defeated Nobunaga.

"The Anti-Demon Ninja is amazing!"

The teacher praised in delight for a moment.

However, his joy didn't last long.

Instead of disappearing like other enemies, Nobunaga, who fell, began to emit an even stronger aura.

Then he resurrected, stood up, and after a cool transformation animation, his appearance became even more ferocious and terrifying.

Not only that, the resurrected Nobunaga grinned and uttered words that filled Umino Ikkaku with despair:

"Hehehe, Tonikoshita, with transformations like these, I can do it three more times..."

Next to him, Natsuhiko added at the right moment:

"Teacher, with just this second form of Nobunaga, you can't defeat him with just Asahime alone. But as long as you collect the 2,500-tael reward for 'Igawa Sakura' and the 5,000-ryo reward for 'Mizuki Snow', and activate the special effect of the three anti-demon ninjas, there's still a chance to win..."

But before he could finish, Umino Ikkaku turned his head expressionlessly to Natsuhiko and spat out a word:

"Scram!"

"Got it!"

Seeing that he couldn't squeeze any more money out of his teacher for the time being, Natsuhiko left smoothly from Umino's side.

Anyway, new customers were coming...

(End of this chapter)

Chapters 85 and 86 are up on my Patreon, do support me there -_-.

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