[A simple person like me], is of course Li Pu.

Contrary to Wu Dong's guess, he wasn't an old hand; he was very new.

First-time-playing kind of new.

As for his first trial match, he didn't have any special plans.

He just placed and revealed cards randomly, so he did it quickly.

"Your Minotaur is quite impressive."

He was even generous with compliments to his opponent.

"You're too kind, you're quite good too, for someone as simple as me."

Wu Dong felt a bit embarrassed by the praise and again thought the opponent's ID was too long and a mouthful to say.

While they were conversing, the action phase arrived.

Since each only revealed one card, there was no choice.

Li Pu initiated an attack on the [Goblin Minion] with the [Red-Head Mushroom].

Meanwhile, Wu Dong attacked two face-down cards in the front row surrounding the [Red-Head Mushroom].

When face-down, most of the card's skills are inactive.

They aren't proactive, only their health and Defense take effect.

Wu Dong adopted a common probing strategy.

By attacking face-down cards, he could learn their Defense and get some insight from the side.

So in this round, since the Defense of [Goblin Minion] was higher than the attack power of [Red-Head Mushroom], it only took 1 point of mandatory damage.

And Li Pu's two face-down cards each took 3 points of damage.

[Goblin Minion]'s attack power drops to 3 when attacking two targets at once.

Which means the Defense of the two face-down cards is 0.

(Looks like his front-row cards aren't very strong.)

Wu Dong was secretly pleased with this result.

The first round's battle clearly saw him gaining the upper hand.

After the round's information settlement, the next round approached.

This time, Wu Dong chose the middle row card behind the [Goblin Minion] rather than a front-row card.

[Moo-Moo!]

A projection of another burly Minotaur leaped out from the card's face.

This Minotaur looked almost identical to the [Goblin Minion], except it held a fist-sized stone in its hand, suggesting a long-range attack card.

"Another Minotaur?"

Li Pu slightly raised an eyebrow at the situation.

[Bull Bully]-6 points

10/10

Attack 4, Defense 2, Range 2

[Bully Toss]: Every third stone thrown by Bull Bully causes 1 turn of "stun" to the target on the fourth throw.

[Bully Nature]: When there are no friendly cards in front of Bull Bully, Attack -2 Defense -2

Range 2, on the table, means a range formed of 2 spaces centered around the card itself.

This means [Bull Bully] can attack any front-row card of his, even with [Goblin Minion] in between.

Seems like at the end of this round, some of his cards will surely exit play.

"Another Mushroom creature?"

In reality, Wu Dong's reaction was similar to Li Pu's.

[Mushroom Goodness!]

On his left side, the face of a front-row card revealed a gray-capped mushroom figure jumping out.

It was a size bigger than the Red-Head Mushroom.

[Big Head Mushroom]-4 points

7/10

Attack 4, Defense 0, Range 1

[Mushroom Goodness]: Big Head Mushroom is immune to mushroom poison attacks

[Mushroom Wonder]: Damage taken by Big Head Mushroom is reduced by 2 when hit by mushroom attacks

[Big to Small]: Revealing Big Head Mushroom reveals Small Head Mushroom simultaneously

"Hm?"

Wu Dong's expression tensed upon seeing the card's information.

[Mushroom Wonder!]

A second later, the front-row card on the right revealed itself as well.

[Small Head Mushroom]-4 points

7/10

Attack 4, Defense 0, Range 1

[Mushroom Goodness]: Small Head Mushroom is immune to mushroom poison attacks

[Mushroom Wonder]: Damage taken by Small Head Mushroom is reduced by 2 when hit by mushroom attacks

[Small to Big]: Revealing Small Head Mushroom reveals Big Head Mushroom simultaneously

"Two linked cards!"

Faced with this, Wu Dong's expression changed slightly.

Linked cards are those that when one is revealed, another is revealed in the same turn.

In a game where only one card can be revealed per round, the advantage of linked cards is plainly visible.

"Fortunately, both of his mushroom cards are weak."

But after examining their attributes, Wu Dong exhaled in relief.

Together, these three cards couldn't beat his one [Goblin Minion], not to mention the [Bull Bully] backing it up.

"The action phase is about to start, quickly choose an attack target."

Thinking this, he reached out and pointed to the table.

"Huh?"

The result was unexpected; the game got stuck.

After playing cards for over a year, he never heard of a game getting stuck.

"What's going on?"

While Wu Dong was puzzled, he suddenly saw the three mushroom projections across him start to dance wildly.

[Mushroom Goodness!]

[Mushroom Wonder!]

[Mushroom Best!]

Each one danced a strange dance on their respective cards.

Following this, a huge, slightly blurred mushroom phantom appeared on the table.

"This, this is... a synergy effect!"

Upon realizing it, Wu Dong exclaimed.

A synergy effect is a powerful feature in the Cube cards.

Unlike real-world monsters, cards aren't attributed with elements like Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

But when cards with similar traits are revealed, a synergy effect might be triggered.

For example, some of the most common types:

3 Earth cards: All Earth Attribute revealed cards' Defense +1.

5 Wood cards: All Wood Attribute revealed cards recover 1 health each turn.

Similarly, there are racial synergy effects.

But racial synergies usually require many reveals to fulfill.

Just like the Minotaur cards in Wu Dong's hand, he needs to reveal 7 total to trigger a synergy effect.

Unfortunately, he only managed to collect 5 Minotaurs in his whole card pool.

For strong and rare racial cards, the number of reveals required might be fewer, and some even have multi-layered synergies.

But the problem now is that mushroom creatures are clearly not a strong or rare race.

Which is why Wu Dong was so shocked.

How could just 3 mushroom cards trigger a synergy?

It seems like for such weak creatures, it would take at least 9 or 10 to achieve a racial synergy, right?

"Did I encounter a bug?"

Wu Dong's mouth hung open, expressing his total confusion.

[Mush...room...best...!]

The giant mushroom phantom, like the God of Mushrooms, spoke with aged and mysterious tones.

As the words faded, it began disintegrating into light particles.

Finally, it coalesced into a line of text on Li Pu's side of the table.

Wu Dong knew this was the synergy effect's explanation, so he craned his neck to see.

[Mushroom Unity (8)]: All mushroom cards' Defense +1, Health +1, and can reveal an additional mushroom card immediately this reveal phase.

"Does that mean another card will be revealed?"

With that, he understood why the game was stuck.

Turns out the reveal phase wasn't finished yet.

[Mushroom-Mushroom!]x5

A chaotic clamor quickly drew his attention.

Hastily directing his gaze to the newly revealed card, Wu Dong was dumbfounded.

"What the heck card is that?!"

...

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