Magic Card Era: Infinite Deck Enhancement — Chapter 101

Chapter 101: The College Entrance Exam Begins! Let’s Make a Splash!

Over the past few days, Luke had reaped an unexpected harvest. He discovered that magic power crystals did not require summoning a Magic Card Elf to undergo fusion; they could be integrated directly into the Magic Card itself.

This little secret had been casually dropped by Mana, his resident little glutton, while he was feeding her a mountain of snacks. Since Luke wasn’t a Magic Card Spirit himself, and this was his first time wielding a specialized skill card like the Crystallization Technique, the insight was very useful. Thanks to this unexpected windfall, he successfully reinforced both his Red-Eyes Meteor Dragon and Eye of Timaeus Magic Cards, pushing their latent power to new heights.

“Luke, you’re finally here!” Zhang Ming had been pacing at the school gates since the crack of dawn. The moment he spotted Luke’s leisurely stroll, he lunged forward, grabbing his friend by the sleeve and dragging him toward the school plaza. “Hurry up! The College Entrance Exam is about to start!”

“Uh,” Luke muttered, shooting Zhang Ming a look of utter speechlessness as he was hauled along the pavement. “Old Zhang, if my memory serves me right, we still have an entire hour before the exam officially kicks off.”

While he wasn’t the first student to arrive, he certainly wasn’t late. Anyone watching Zhang Ming’s frantic sprinting would assume they had mere seconds to spare.

“You brat, do you have any idea how close the principal and vice-principal were to losing their minds?” Seeing Luke’s relaxed demeanor, Zhang Ming rolled his eyes so hard they nearly stuck facing backward. He grumbled in exasperation, leaving Luke shaking his head in silent amusement.

They soon arrived at the Third High School Plaza. A massive sea of teachers and students had already gathered, their nervous chatter filling the morning air. The moment Luke stepped into view, the crowd’s volume dipped into hushed, urgent whispers.

Although some time had passed since the unified exam and the exchange competition, the legend of Luke’s overwhelming performance had not faded. The frenzy had cooled slightly, taking a backseat only to the life-altering weight of the College Entrance Exam itself. No matter how much gossip Luke generated, the impending trials held the absolute attention of every senior.

In the distance, Principal Gu and Zhou Rong stood near the center of the plaza. The moment they spotted Luke, a collective sigh of relief escaped their lips. With the exam drawing so close, if he hadn’t shown up in the next ten minutes, they had fully intended to send Zhang Ming to kick down his front door and drag him out of bed.

The tension was not isolated to Third High School. At this exact moment, every high school across the Cang Capital, the sprawling East Region, and the entirety of the Ancient Kingdom held its breath.

Dong dong dong!

Ancient, resonant bell chimes echoed across the skies of the Ancient Kingdom. These chimes were reserved exclusively for monumental events that shaped the nation’s future, and the annual College Entrance Exam was precisely such an event.

As the final chime vibrated through the air, the thousands of examinees gathered in the plaza dissolved into streaks of brilliant white light. In the blink of an eye, they were swept away, teleported directly into the isolated College Entrance Exam space.

“Now, let’s see just how far they can climb,” Principal Gu murmured, his gaze sweeping over the suddenly empty plaza. He turned to Zhou Rong. “I’ll leave the school’s affairs to you. I need to head to the City Lord’s Mansion.”

Luke’s vision cleared to reveal a vast, blank expanse. “Similar to the unified exam space,” he muttered, his eyes scanning the featureless horizon. “I suppose it’s no surprise that the first trial revolves around crafting Magic Cards.”

For a Magic Card Master, creation was the absolute foundation of their path. It was the most fundamental, mandatory subject for any serious examination.

All around him, the other examinees materialized, their faces painted with a mix of curiosity and fierce determination. Many puffed out their chests, brimming with absolute confidence that their prepared formulas would carry them through whatever challenge lay ahead.

A sudden stream of digital information flooded their consciousness. The rules for the exam materialized in glowing text before their eyes.

[This College Entrance Exam is divided into two stages!]

[First Stage: Card Crafting!]

[In this stage, all examinees must successfully craft a Magic Card within the specified time limit. Successful crafting grants entry into the next stage; failure results in immediate disqualification.]

[The first stage will begin in ten minutes. All examinees, please prepare yourselves!]

Whispers immediately broke out across the white expanse.

“Just as expected, it’s Magic Card crafting. The classic mandatory opener.”

“I’ve been practicing non-stop! I’m definitely crafting a three-star Magic Card this time to secure a massive score!”

“Hah, I’ve been refining a four-star Magic Card blueprint for months. I’m taking a top rank for sure.”

“Crafting isn’t the real issue,” another student muttered, frowning in deep thought. “The real question is whether the card we make in the first stage will be locked in for the second stage.”

“Exactly. If the combat phase forces us to use what we just made, we need to choose our blueprints extremely carefully.”

Amidst the nervous strategizing, Luke stroked his chin, analyzing the parameters. ‘There’s no minimum grade requirement for the Magic Card?’he thought, doing the math.’The first stage lasts for twelve hours. Half a day. If the goal is just to craft a single Magic Card, that’s more than enough time.’A daring smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.’However, if I want to bring all my current ideas to life, the clock might be a bit tight. But it’s far from impossible.’

Pushing the mystery of the second stage to the back of his mind, Luke’s eyes gleamed with raw anticipation. He wasn’t going to settle for crafting just one or two standard cards. He intended to manifest every single concept he had been brewing and completely shatter the scale of this exam.

The ten-minute preparation window vanished in a flash. High above the endless white space, a colossal golden clock materialized from the ether, its heavy hands ticking forward with a heavy, mechanical finality. The first stage had officially begun.

Around Luke, examinees instantly sprang into action, summoning their materials as their hands glowed with spiritual energy. Crafting Magic Cards was a volatile process; a single lapse in concentration could shatter the structural matrix, turning expensive materials into worthless ash. For normal students, a failure meant losing precious hours. Twelve hours seemed generous, but a single catastrophic failure usually shattered a student’s mental state, effectively eliminating them from the running.

Luke, however, did not immediately reach for physical materials. He closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness deep into his spiritual sea. Unlike the others scrambling to assemble pre-memorized blueprints, Luke began to weave the foundational laws of an entirely new universe: the Digital World.

[The Digital World: A planetary spherical realm existing within a specialized, alternate network dimension.]

[Inhabited by unique, data-based lifeforms known as Digimon.]

[Digimon possess the absolute characteristic of Evolution, possessing the ability to rapidly mutate and adapt to shifting environments, thereby ascending to higher tiers of power.]

Because he had already used his system’s simulated construction to push his original worldview’s completion progress to a flawless one hundred percent, Luke manipulated the conceptual data with terrifying speed. He moved with the fluid grace of a master conductor leading an orchestra.

Just as it had happened when he forged the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe, his rapid input of the Digital World’s lore triggered a cosmic reaction. Countless golden incantations bled into the empty exam space around him. The runes swirled and condensed, forming miniature, holographic worlds that interacted, clashed, and evolved in real-time.

The Magic Card Civilization had sensed the birth of a new, logically sound universe. And just like before, it was granting the Digital World its absolute recognition.