Chapter 114: Chapter 113: Cards + Illusions = Money-Printing Machine

’A card that can trigger an Illusion... what does that mean?’

It meant, of course, a trading card game that played just like it did in the anime.

It was almost impossible to imagine how euphoric it would be to slap on a Dueling Disc, passionately yell "Blue-Eyes Dragon," and have a real Blue-Eyes White Dragon actually fly out of the card.

Once upon a time, in the original story, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, a symbol of a powerful Monster Card, truly was a powerful Monster Card.

But as new versions were released, one Monster Card after another started having entire essays written for their effects.

The Blue-Eyes White Dragon, whose only defining feature was its high Attack Power (which wasn’t even that high later on), became nothing special.

But power levels are temporary; looking cool is forever.

Besides, a version of Yu-Gi-Oh! that could summon Illusions wouldn’t just make every duelist lose their minds; collectors would be powerless to resist either.

Who wouldn’t want to see a life-sized Black Mage Girl?

Who wouldn’t want to see a life-sized Black Mage Girl whose clothes get shredded in her damage animation when she’s destroyed?

And then there were the different rarities—shiny ones, prismatic ones. The distinctions wouldn’t just be in the card art, but in their triggered Illusion effects too.

Who could look at that and not get hooked?

Back when he ran the Yo-Yo lottery, Zog had realized his mistake in designing the prize-drawing rules.

He shouldn’t have included a pity system!

It wasn’t that Zog was black-hearted.

It was mainly because the wealth gap here was just too vast. Getting rid of the pity system wouldn’t really make it much harder for the rich to pull the cards they wanted.

But it would definitely make them spend more money.

At the same time, by lowering the price of a single draw, even players with lower incomes could afford to build their own decks.

When wealthy players pulled cards in bulk hunting for rares, a huge number of duplicate ordinary cards would flood the secondhand market at extremely low prices.

Whether it’s a competitive game or a collector’s hobby, you need a critical mass of participants to make it fun.

A low price per unit would help attract new players.

Emotional value was also a crucial part of the consumer experience.

’It’s perfectly reasonable,’ Zog convinced himself.

When you’re about to do something unsavory, you need to find plenty of reasons to justify it to yourself.

As for how to avoid the high tax rates on gambling, he would have to pull out another "genius" invention from the world of mobile gaming companies.

Zog planned to put a small figurine in every card box. This item would be fixed, pictured right on the packaging.

So when they were sold, they would officially be selling the figurine, with the cards as a mere free gift.

’The free gift doesn’t have a price tag, so you can’t call it a gambling den, can you?’

Time to show the natives the kind of loophole-exploiting skills forged in a hyper-competitive market.

「Beneath the giant tree.」

"What do you need this kind of Illusion Technique for? In terms of magical complexity, its potential is far lower than illusions constructed with a magic model. Of course, you don’t have to answer if it’s inconvenient," the old woman asked, a little curious.

She was right. Although her Illusion Technique was good enough to fool War Axe, the gap between it and what Furin could achieve was undeniable.

The only remarkable thing about it was that, out of hatred for the Magic Goddess, she had eschewed the method of Casting using magic models from the Magic Net, opting instead for the most primitive approach.

"For fun," Zog said, having nothing to hide.

"Fun?"

"If you want it to sound more high-end, you could call it ’for entertainment.’ You’ve been in the deep mountains for too long. You should find some time to see the outside world. You’ll discover a lot has changed."

This was Zog’s sincere advice. In an era of rapid change, even a Mage couldn’t afford to be disconnected from the world.

"You created these magical effects with the help of the Deer Spirit Body, didn’t you?" Zog continued to ask.

"Yes," the old crone nodded.

’That makes sense,’ Zog thought. ’If she had comprehended the Elements to this degree on her own, without the help of the Divine Remains, I’d have to call her a human supercomputer.’

’If she were a long-lived species, she’d become a Magic God sooner or later.’ 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

This was also why Zog needed the old crone’s technique.

With a magical effect you created yourself, you could define the syllables of the chanted Spell yourself.

But for Magic released through the authority of the Magic Goddess, the number of usable syllable combinations was limited.

It was for this very reason that Zog Group, despite being established for nearly two years, had yet to release its Illusion Cards.

They had been in the plan for a long time.

The Feilin Continent had a long tradition of playing card games, with things similar to both poker and tarot cards.

Therefore, a game based on a card medium should have been even easier for people to accept than a game console.

At first glance, binding an Illusion to a card didn’t seem very difficult, not much different from the Yo-Yo.

But during the actual design process, he discovered it was completely different from what he’d imagined.

The whole project was stuck at the activation method.

First, chanting didn’t work. The number of available syllable combinations was nowhere near enough for so many cards.

You couldn’t just shout, "I activate my Trap Card!" and then spend two minutes chanting a Spell.

Later, he tried an activation method based on motion-tracking, like with the Yo-Yo. But simple motions were too easily triggered by mistake, and complex motions had the same problem as a long Spell.

He also considered having them activate only on a Dueling Disc, but what about face-down cards?

If you wanted to be able to distinguish between face-up and face-down, the cards themselves would need to be made of a material that could block Magic Power.

In that case, the cards would be very expensive, making it impossible to market them to the masses.

It perfectly demonstrated the huge gap between a PowerPoint presentation and actual project implementation.

Until today, when he met this group of people who had, by sheer accident, managed to worship an intelligent program into existence from a set of Divine Remains.

He finally had a chance to achieve the effect of activating a card just by calling its name.

Under the witness of the Deer Spirit Body, the man and the Dragon signed a Contract.

For a period of one year, the Deer Spirit Divine Remains would be connected to the Red Middle Network. If they could gain tens of thousands of believers, the old crone would give this set of Card Spells to Zog.

According to Zog’s requirements, the magic couldn’t be taught through the traditional master-apprentice method.

She had to write an instructional manual, like a textbook, so that anyone who understood Magic could learn to imitate it just by reading.

It came back to the point the Zog Group had always emphasized: everything had to be standardized.

If it took less than a year, the contract would conclude as soon as they reached ten thousand believers.

"Are you sure about ten thousand?" Zog asked.

"If you wish to gain the tribe’s trust, you must demonstrate sufficient ability."

"That might be a bit of a hassle."

"That number cannot be any lower..."

The old crone thought Zog wanted to lower the requirement.

"It’ll be a hassle for you to write that textbook quickly."

"What?"

"What’s the fastest you can write it?"

"A month?" the old crone estimated.

"Alright, a month it is. In one month, the Beastman who fell for your Illusion Technique will come to pick up the textbook," Zog said with great ease.

"But that’s ten thousand...!"

"I know. I’m taking the Little Deer with me."

’This is why Mages need to get out and see the world more often. What era is this? Still using traditional missionary methods.’

Zog planned to set up Weibo, Tieba, forums, and chat functions all within the Deer Spirit’s remains.

The age of online social networking was about to begin.

’The Rune can be a deer’s head. I can just tweak the logo of that coffee company and use it.’

"One last question. How many years did you worship it before it was born?" Zog asked, referring to the Deer Spirit Body.

"Six hundred years."

Zog did a rough calculation. If the amount of faith required for each set of bones wasn’t too different, then Red Middle should also be close to birthing a Spirit Body.

’I wonder what it will turn out to be.’