Chapter 86: Chapter 86: The Reward from the Bottommost Drawer, All Game Cartridges?

She carefully placed the medal of Chilling Middle School’s Chairman of the Board into her pocket.

Yun Zhenyue was just about to teleport inside.

But then she heard Gu Yuan remind her, "Don’t be in such a hurry."

"I haven’t given you your gift for the last mission yet."

’Another gift?’

Yun Zhenyue blinked, shaking her head. "This medal is enough."

’I’m not that greedy!’

’Treating my husband like an ATM... only a bad woman would do something like that!’

"The medal?" Gu Yuan didn’t even turn his head, his voice dripping with disdain. "How is a worthless piece of metal a reward?"

"Weren’t you always curious about what’s in the third drawer?"

"It’s not as amazing as you think, though. That drawer is full of stuff I don’t want. Just pick one."

’Stuff he doesn’t want?’

Yun Zhenyue had built up a resistance to Gu Yuan’s casual flexing.

He’d previously called a stack of instance property deeds "a few little notebooks."

He’d called a terrifying creature like the panda doll "a little toy."

Perhaps Gu Yuan truly didn’t care for these things.

But for an ordinary supernatural, let alone a normal person like her,

any of those things would be considered a priceless treasure!

...

「At the same time.」

The Dragon Country audience exploded with excitement!

’This is the bottom drawer!’

Don’t people usually keep their most valuable possessions in there?

Things like gold and silver jewelry, bank cards, passbooks, and so on.

’Who knows what kind of treasures are hidden inside?’

[Forget about that medal, whose authenticity is questionable anyway. I’m way more interested in Gu Yuan’s drawer!]

[Sigh~ The odds of that medal being a fake are too high, especially since he treats it with so little care.]

[Exactly. If it were really the chairman’s medal, even an Evil Star-level supernatural would treasure it. Who would be like Gu Yuan, just fiddling with it and not caring if he lost it?]

[What do you guys know? Boss Gu Yuan is just humoring his wife. He even hinted that she shouldn’t take it out.]

[That bottom drawer has to have some Ghost Artifacts in it!]

[I have a bad feeling about this. Given how obsessed Boss Gu Yuan is with games, don’t tell me it’s full of game cartridges?]

...

「Soon.」

Under the tense gaze of the global audience, Yun Zhenyue

slowly walked into the bedroom.

She first pulled open the second drawer and saw that it was completely empty.

The animal dolls were all placed in various corners of the house.

Perhaps they weren’t used to it, or maybe they didn’t dare act up right under Gu Yuan’s nose.

Most of the animal dolls remained still, feigning lifelessness.

Yun Zhenyue took a deep breath, her palms slightly sweaty, and slowly pulled open the bottom drawer.

In an instant!

The moment she saw what was inside,

she froze completely.

"Huh?"

Yun Zhenyue murmured, pulling the drawer all the way open.

The bottom drawer was filled with all sorts of small cards.

It was stuffed to the brim, without a single gap to be seen!

A quick glance suggested there were probably several hundred cards in total!

The cards were blood-red, like dried bloodstains, and their edges had an eerie metallic sheen. Each card was marked with a number in the top-left corner.

The first card was numbered 0001.

Not only that,

the artwork on each card was also different.

One card had an upside-down eye drawn in dark gold; looking closely, you could see the eye seeming to blink faintly.

Another card had the ink-black outline of a pierced human figure. Viewed from the left, the figure’s mouth was turned up in a smile; from the right, it transformed into a grotesque, weeping face.

All the illustrations were exquisite, like famous paintings meticulously crafted by a master artist.

But the images they depicted were all rather frightening, enough to make one’s skin crawl.

...

The Dragon Country audience was dumbfounded by this scene.

’Holy crap!’

’They really are game cards!’

[Damn, I really didn’t see this coming. Boss Gu Yuan’s obsession with games is this intense!]

[No way, this whole stack of cards... they’re all game cards?]

[How could that be? What kind of person do you take Boss Gu Yuan for? These cards must have some great purpose.]

[Something’s not right. I feel like I’ve seen this style of card somewhere before...]

[Are you talking about the S-rank instance, the Illusion Death Card Shop? I watched that matchmaking broadcast too. Was it the first season?]

[The owner of that card shop could strip the abilities from dead supernaturals and turn them into skill cards, but the user would suffer from the corrosion of resentment. It wasn’t worth the cost.]

The Dragon Country audience began to discuss among themselves.

Different supernaturals possessed vastly different styles of abilities.

A supernatural could teach its abilities to a human player, but not to another supernatural.

Even so,

most abilities were useless to humans.

Furthermore, the teaching process would diminish the supernatural’s own power.

But the Illusion Death Card Shop was an exception.

It could strip abilities from supernaturals and sell them to other supernaturals for use.

But the cards were incredibly expensive to create; each one was a priceless treasure.

The side effects of using them were also immense. A moment of carelessness could lead to one’s body being taken over by the residual resentment within the card.

The card shop’s practices drew public outrage. The owner was killed, and all those cards vanished.

...

「Just then.」

Yun Zhenyue hesitated.

She felt these cards were like something from a cartoon she’d watched as a child, like the cards a magical girl would collect. ’Could they be sealing some kind of mysterious entity?’

Yun Zhenyue gently picked one up, and the matchmaking system immediately sent a notification!

[DING! Skill card belonging to your matchmaking partner has been detected!]

[Would you like to learn this skill?]

There was no skill description.

Yun Zhenyue slowly put the card down.

Her almond-shaped eyes widened, her heart filled with a shock that bordered on utter disbelief.

’There are several hundred of these cards... and they’re all skill cards?’

They were similar to things like Mrs. Yan’s research notes.

But these skill cards were obviously much more convenient!

’You don’t even need to study them? You can use them just by holding them?’

’This is way too precious!’

Gu Yuan had told her to pick any one she wanted.

But Yun Zhenyue couldn’t bring herself to decide.

Having waited for a long time without seeing Yun Zhenyue return, Gu Yuan walked in.

He happened to see Yun Zhenyue crouching in front of the drawer.

"Why haven’t you taken one?"

Gu Yuan asked casually.

These cards were all skills he didn’t want.

Because every time he killed a supernatural, he would acquire its ability.

Over many long years, the number of skills he possessed had grown to an astronomical figure!

The problem was that some of the skills were too useless. Not only were they unhelpful, but they could sometimes be a hindrance!

For example, one skill was purely for showing off.

Whenever he appeared, any supernatural that faced him would involuntarily kneel!

And it was a fucking passive skill!

He couldn’t even choose not to use it!

Gu Yuan found this very vexing.

But he was quite lucky. He had happened to pass by a card shop before.

The owner had tried to make a move on him, so Gu Yuan casually killed him and unexpectedly obtained the ability to strip skills.

So, he stripped all of his useless abilities and sealed them in these cards.

Each skill corresponds to one card!

Because he stripped them voluntarily, the cards contained no residual resentment!

If Yun Zhenyue wanted to learn one, all she had to do was give it a little squeeze.