Outside the exam space, the eliminated students were losing their minds.
Not over the exam itself. They'd already made their peace with that particular failure. No, the real war was being fought in the livestream comments, and it was getting ugly.
"First place this year is obviously Marcus Ward. Don't even bother arguing."
"I specifically checked. He built a Four-Star Legacy Inferno Knight. That's literally the same tier as last year's top scorer in the college entrance exam."
"This is Crestfall's year. We're taking it back."
"Oh, please." The Ironvale students hit back immediately. "Hailey North built a Four-Star card too, and hers is Collectible quality. Water Azure Beast. Higher tier than your precious Inferno Knight."
"First place is Ironvale's. Cope."
"Hey, hey. Don't forget about Westbridge." A flood of messages from Westbridge students muscled their way into the feed. Their school might've been the underdog, but their trash-talk game was fully operational. If they couldn't win on stats, they'd at least win the comment section.
The three fanbases went at each other's throats, nobody willing to give an inch.
And then, cutting through the noise like a knife:
"Oh my god, look at Westbridge's Luke Mercer. I'm in love."
Everyone stopped.
What the hell? This was a unified exam. What do you mean, "in love"? And that was a guy's name. Were they seriously...
But curiosity was curiosity, and the students who'd been happily brawling in the comments couldn't resist clicking over to Luke's feed.
The collective reaction was instantaneous.
"HOLY... what is that?! Is this what first love feels like?!"
"Mom! I'm in love! Why does a Card Spirit this beautiful even EXIST?!"
"Back off, she's my goddess. I called dibs."
"How many drinks did you people have? It's two in the afternoon."
The comment section imploded. The students who'd clicked over expecting gossip found themselves blindsided by a Card Spirit so devastatingly cute that it physically short-circuited their ability to care about rankings.
Wide emerald eyes. Golden hair that caught light from nowhere. A pink-and-blue outfit that walked the razor's edge between adorable and dangerous. And a smile so pure it made people feel personally attacked.
"Someone get over here. A goddess just dropped into Westbridge's stream." Word spread like wildfire. Ten students became fifty. Fifty became two hundred. Within minutes, Luke's feed had more viewers than Marcus's and Hailey's combined.
Meanwhile, on screen, the second wave of fierce beasts had just materialized.
Three Rare-quality Forest Wolves burst into existence and immediately fell into formation. A tight triangular pattern, shoulders low, moving as one. Pack tactics. The standard playbook for group predators.
They were fast. The exam space wasn't large, and in the time it took to blink, the three wolves had closed to within thirty feet of Mana. The lead wolf let out a roar, not just noise, but a skill activation. The aura of all three wolves spiked, their speed and aggression kicking up a gear.
Roar. Attack power increased.
The two flanking wolves raised their claws simultaneously, Wind Rend Claw tearing through the air from both sides. The slashes converged on Mana's position, sealing off every angle of retreat.
Smooth. Practiced. The kind of coordinated assault that would've overwhelmed most One or Two-Star Card Spirits without breaking a sweat.
Mana didn't move.
She raised her staff with the casual ease of someone swatting a fly.
"Dark Magic Attack."
A ripple of dark-attribute energy pulsed from the staff's tip, expanding outward in a wave that passed through all three wolves simultaneously. It wasn't fast. It didn't need to be.
The wolves disintegrated. Not defeated. Erased. Their bodies came apart like sand sculptures hit by a gust of wind, crumbling into particles that scattered and vanished before they touched the ground.
Three wolves. One spell. Zero contest.
A handful of materials clattered to the floor where the pack had stood, the only evidence they'd ever existed.
"Wow!" The comment section erupted again.
"She's beautiful AND she hits like a truck?! How is that fair?!"
"The wolf pack combo was strong enough to match a Two-Star beast and she just... did she even try? She didn't even try!"
"That Card Spirit has GOT to be above Two-Star. There's no way she's anything less."
"This might actually be it. Westbridge might have a dark horse this year. I've been sick of Crestfall and Ironvale's trash talk for years."
Only two rounds in, and Mana had already turned heads. Two fights, two instant kills, zero effort. The Westbridge students were buzzing.
"Don't get cocky!" Crestfall's students fired back. "It's only been two rounds. Wait until the real threats show up. Your girl's getting sent home."
"Marcus also one-shot the second round wolves. He's not worse than your Luke."
"Same with Hailey. She's already in Round Three. Sit down, Westbridge."
Ironvale jumped in to back Crestfall against the common enemy. The rivalry between the top two schools was real, but the idea of Westbridge leapfrogging both of them was offensive enough to form a temporary alliance.
Nobody was budging. But without realizing it, all three school fanbases had gravitated toward the same three streams: Luke, Marcus, and Hailey. The sense that the top spot would come from one of these three was universal, even if nobody would admit it out loud.
Round Three hit simultaneously for all of them.
"Still One-Star? Legacy quality this time, but against my Inferno Knight?" Marcus's lip curled as the beasts materialized in his space. "Trash is trash."
The Inferno Knight carved through the wave without slowing down.
Across the divide, Hailey's Water Azure Beast dispatched its opponents with equal efficiency. Hailey stood behind it, arms crossed, expression carved from ice. She didn't talk to herself the way Marcus did. She didn't need to. The look in her eyes said everything.
First place. Mine.
"Master, what were you thinking about just now?"
Back in Luke's space, the third round had come and gone. Another set of beasts reduced to materials in the time it took to yawn. With a few minutes before the next wave spawned, Mana seized the downtime.
She hooked her arm through Luke's, leaning in slightly, her head tilted at an angle that was either curious or calculated to be as disarming as humanly possible.
Knowing Mana, probably both.
Outside the exam space, the livestream audience collectively lost its composure.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW."
"She's holding his arm. She's holding his arm. I can't do this."
"I know she's his Card Spirit but I am in actual physical pain watching this."
Gender didn't matter. Orientation didn't matter. Luke's Card Spirit radiated the kind of pure-hearted charm that was a universal solvent, dissolving every defense mechanism in its path. Pair that with a figure that could only be described as aggressively perfect, and the result was a comment section in full meltdown.
Watching their goddess be that affectionate with someone, even her own creator, was more than some people could handle.
Luke, meanwhile, had noticed the softness pressing against his arm and needed a second to reboot.
"Equipment," he said, once his brain came back online. "I was thinking about whether I could add some equipment for you."
Mana's outfit enhanced her attack speed, but it didn't provide any direct stat bonuses. For a card as strong as her, that felt like leaving power on the table.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh worldview, Monster Cards were only one piece of the puzzle. Spell Cards and Trap Cards were equally essential, the support infrastructure that turned a strong monster into an unstoppable one.
Mana was already dominant. But Luke didn't do "good enough." He wanted her ceiling, not her floor.
Especially with Dark Magic Inheritance in play. Mana could function as Dark Magician, which meant any equipment or support card designed for Dark Magician was also fair game for her. The versatility that opened up was enormous.
"Equipment?" Mana glanced down at her outfit, then back at Luke with wide, curious eyes. "What kind of equipment did you have in mind?"
"I've got the general concept worked out," Luke said. "But I need to test whether it's actually buildable. The framework might need some tweaking."
He was thinking about Simulated Crafting, the hidden ability he'd unlocked from the Achievement Package. If he could use it to dry-run a Spell Card construction without spending real materials, he'd know whether the concept was viable before committing anything.
The thing was, Spell Cards and Trap Cards didn't exist in this world. Not yet. In all his time living in Magic Card Civilization, Luke had never heard anyone even mention them as a concept.
But "never heard of it" didn't mean "can't be done."
This world's Card Masters had been building Monster Cards, and only Monster Cards, for so long that the idea of other card types had apparently never occurred to anyone. To Luke, that wasn't a limitation. It was an opportunity.
The Yu-Gi-Oh worldview included Spell Cards and Trap Cards as fundamental components. If the worldview had already been recognized by Magic Card Civilization... then cards built within that worldview should be constructible too.
Should be.
There was only one way to find out.
"Sounds exciting!" Mana's eyes sparkled, her interest visibly piqued. Whatever Luke was cooking up, she wanted in.
"For the next few rounds," Luke said, "I'm going to leave the combat calls to you. Handle things however you see fit."
He'd seen enough of Mana's performance to trust her judgment completely. At the current rate of difficulty scaling, it'd be a long time before anything in this exam could genuinely threaten a Six-Star Collectible.
"Got it, Master." Mana released his arm and thumped her chest with one fist, staff planted beside her like a soldier accepting orders. "Nothing's getting past me."
"Good girl." Luke flicked her lightly on the forehead, then closed his eyes.
Time to find out if this world was ready for Spell Cards.
Plz Throw Powerstones.