Chapter 3157: "Romantic" Wedding Season (41)

Card players are all a little crazy.

No matter what kind of cards you play, eventually, you'll go nuts because there are more downs than ups in this world, and the wheel of fortune never stops turning. Every cause has its effect; you reap what you sow...

Stark was all set to rampage with Iron Man's original form, but who would have thought he'd draw a perfect Magic Card deck?

Thinking about losing soon made him sad, but thinking about winning with this deck made him even sadder.

Shiller saw Stark's chances of winning as quite high because his hand was genuinely excellent. He had drawn several of Kamar-Taj's renowned Mages, and he had even drawn Loki's Scepter, a key item for Illusion Flow.

The next hand was a real struggle for Stark to play.

The easiest play for Stark's hand was the orthodox Mage stream, also known as the Academy School, which mainly involved transforming the attack action cards in hand into Spell Cards and the defense cards into Array Cards.

There were many types of Spell Cards, but the best one for Stark to play this round was Illusion Flow because the scepter could roll dice and provide mana. After the hero actions were transformed into Spell Cards, he could then use the dice to draw a specific number and pull Illusion Cards, inducing hallucinations across the entire field.

After the swap, he could corrupt, and after corruption, he could turn into white bones. Stark followed Shiller's hero, which was Death, whose hero skill allowed for the revival of white bones.

That meant other players' characters would turn into white bones after a couple of turns, whereas Stark could keep reviving characters for use.

Moreover, this type of hallucination also worked on the enemies in events; it could induce illusions and corruption. With the Death Skill, even when reviving, he could turn enemies into allies, directly converting the enemies from the events to his own side.

What kind of luck is this! Shiller was green with envy, gritting his teeth. How could someone draw a complete Illusion Flow deck?!

Then there was Stark, hemming and hawing, cursing Strange one moment, complaining about how troublesome this stream was the next, having to roll dice every round and think about the numbers, which was simply too tiring to play.

Shiller really wanted to slap him.

And who knows if Stark did it on purpose, but he messed up the dice numbers several times, breaking the cycle and giving others a chance to breathe. His hero skill was lethargic; even though Strange should have been revived first, he just dragged his feet.

As a result, the Pikachu S.H.I.E.L.D. deck was able to score points to hire Jean Grey, ignite the Dark Phoenix with the Infinity Gem, and burn 80% of the cards on the field in a single stroke, turning the tables and securing victory.

Stark was taken aback; although he had been playing rather carelessly, he had not expected to lose, especially not to a rat!

Shiller was so annoyed by him that he didn't even feel like going out for air anymore and directly shoved him aside to take over. But when he played, he was no better. His luck was terrible. He couldn't draw a coherent team of characters at all; everything was scattered and disorganized, and nurturing any of them felt wrong.

Stark simply grabbed a Hero Card and joined the battle himself; the returning Ultron also joined in. But the more people there were, the more chaotic it became. The table wasn't big enough, there was no place to arrange the various slots, and everyone felt the game was not satisfying enough.

Meanwhile, Stark also managed to get his own deck once, and then he fully understood Shiller's predicament. His Mechas were simply too expensive, managing to piece one together after two events was already good, but they were also the mediocre kind. His cool Nano Armor just wouldn't come out.

By the end, Stark couldn't help but complain, "Although developing Mechas in reality is also expensive, I have Stark Group after all. I should inherently come with points when I appear!"

"What are you complaining about? I haven't even started," said Scarlet Witch from the side. "I'm supposed to be the master of the power of Scarlet, yet I have to defeat Big Shadow in an event before I can evolve. Where's the justice in that?"

"I'm going to call Xeseon and ask what he's doing invading Earth for no good reason!" Wanda angrily stated. "He killed my perfect starting hand of Captain America and Black Widow!"

Jarvis tried to console her, "I've been saving up my Band Card for a long time, and it was also killed by the Magneto you summoned. It's just a game, don't get mad..."

"I think there are a lot of unreasonable elements to this card game," said Peter. "Please, my Spider Silk is biodegradable. It's ridiculous to lose prestige for using too much. How is that fair?"

Harry shrugged and said, "After all, the creators of these cards aren't Americans. Probably their impression of superheroes comes from documentaries and movies, so it's normal for them to not understand your skills."

"You guys still had it good," Eddie sighed. "My Symbiont actually requires chocolate balls to activate. Where do I even begin to explain that?"

"Isn't that how it's supposed to be?!" Venom yelled at him. "You want me to work without eating? You're such a stingy boss!"

"Then why don't you complain about your skill being Split? Where do you even plan to split off to?" Eddie replied with dissatisfaction.

"They just don't understand us," Shiller lamented.

When everyone was leaving, they realized it was almost time for dinner, so they split off in small groups to start preparing the meal.

Shiller had been in a foul mood all afternoon. Playing the game not only failed to relax him but also ruined the good mood he had built up over the past few days of vacation.

He had actually drawn his own card, which sounded decent enough in terms of skills and indeed played a disruptive role in the game. However, its stats were too weak, and it barely lasted two rounds on the field before being taken out.

Gray Mist was also dissatisfied. He rarely made public appearances, and even when he did, many people were unaware that he was Shiller's Symbiont. True, he was a Summon Card, but his stats couldn't be added to Shiller's.

And speaking of his own stats, they were pathetically weak, purely a figment of the creator's imagination based on his form. Gray Mist's skill was to envelop a person, granting them two rounds of invisibility, making them immune to attacks, but that's all there was to it.

Ignoring the capabilities of The Nameless Fog, he was nowhere near as weak as the card suggested— at the very least, he should have had a Teleportation Illusion or maybe even an extra Summoning Position or Equipment Slot.

While cooking, everyone expressed their dissatisfaction with the design of the card. As a game, it was not bad, and if it weren't being played by the superheroes themselves, it would probably be quite enjoyable.

But having the superheroes experience the game spotlighted so many shortcomings. Many of the skills were just made up, with overly strict limitations; it was like not distinguishing between the face cards and the numbers.

Moreover, many familiar entities were not included. Helen wasn't in the deck, nor were Pikachu and Rocket Raccoon. The Guardians of the Galaxy were missing, and only a few of the well-known X-Men were present—even Level 8 Agent Coulson was nowhere to be found. This made the game very frustrating to play.

Moreover, it was manageable to play alone, but the game became chaotic with more people—having a game master would have been better.

Shiller thought the deck had great potential since the Battleworld's preparation space was rather dull aside from chatting and browsing the marketplace. Conversation was awkward among not-so-familiar faces, and the store had only so much to offer, making for a bland experience.

To strengthen interpersonal connections and foster quick camaraderie among strangers, board games were indeed a great method.

Ordinary board games might not appeal to those chasing efficiency, who might prefer to keep checking their gear rather than waste time on such pursuits.

But in the case of superhero card games, not only could they be played for fun, but they could also serve as a way to understand the superheroes.

Battleworld had been running for a while now, and the well-known heroes had mostly met each other. However, there were still many lesser-known ones with few appearances, and some not even featured in the cosmos. Accidentally encountering them in the game could leave players puzzled about what's going on.

Shiller had considered creating a game atlas, but compiling information on paper might offend many people, as it touched on personal privacy. A card game, however, could be less troublesome.

Furthermore, Battleworld allowed for far greater creative freedom than the real world. They could use virtual reality technology to have players battle with the cards directly, which would be much more entertaining than just rolling dice.

However, designing a card game that included so many superheroes was no easy task. The more cards there were, the harder it was to balance them. It was challenging to design abilities that were both accurate and useful, without creating a bunch of model cards along with a heap of useless ones. It required a long-term strategy.

Even though it might not be possible to create them immediately, modifying the existing Super Hero Kill game was relatively easy.

During dinner, Shiller made a point of sitting next to Wanda and whispered to her, "Could you possibly make The power of Scarlet real?"

"Sure, what's up?" she replied.

"How about we create a new deck of cards? Like the ones from Super Hero Kill, but with content that we re-edit based on our actual abilities."

Wanda's eyes lit up instantly. "You mean with our true strengths?"

"Something like that, but make it more balanced. You could talk to Jarvis," Shiller suggested. For balancing tasks, artificial intelligence like Jarvis had the upper hand since they could calculate probabilities. With enough computational power, any scenario could be simulated, making it easy to assess the overall level of a card.

After dinner, several young couples began filming a 'Couples' Night' video. At first, there were other activities, but the final, prime segment was the highlight.

Peter was arguably the best player among them, boasting the highest win rate, with Harry and Pikachu following. Jarvis had the most impressive skills, but he was always preoccupied with protecting Wanda and didn't pay much attention to constructing his deck, resulting in a lower win rate.

But then again, since it was Couples' Night, winning or losing didn't matter—what counted was showing affection. Jarvis and Wanda's display of love was quite successful, and the next morning, Shiller saw that their names had hit the trending searches.

To everyone's surprise, Wanda had whipped up the new deck overnight. Knowing her ability to create things was simple, but this was incredibly fast. How addicted was she?