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Su Jinyan hadn't lied; once the game began, each Aeon would act based on their own will and fate path, uninfluenced by him.
The Joyful Game Spinner whirled, assigning roles and character abilities to the present Aeons while simultaneously introducing the game rules.
Card Introduction: Based on content and function, cards are divided into three categories: Basic Cards, Special Action Cards, and Equipment Cards.
Basic Cards: Kill, Dodge, Peach, Wine, Poison
Kill: Includes Fire Kill, Lightning Kill, and Regular Kill. During your turn's play phase, you can actively use one Kill card; alternatively, when responding to certain effects (such as from Special Action cards "Borrowed Blade Assassination," "Duel," or "Southern Barbarian Invasion"), you may also play a Kill card.
Dodge: Can be used or played in response to a Kill, Special Action card "Hail of Arrows," or character abilities (e.g., Cao Cao's "Imperial Guard").
Peach: May be played during your play phase or when a character is at the brink of death, restoring one Health Point.
Wine: This card can only be used on yourself. When not near death, using Wine increases damage dealt by one point; when near death, using Wine restores one Health Point instead.
Poison: Not an active-use card. Losing a face-up Poison from your hand (due to conversion into another card, discarding, or using for comparison, etc.) results in losing one Health Point. Upon obtaining a Poison from the deck, it can be revealed and passed to another player without suffering any loss of Health Points.
[Special Action Cards]: Special Action cards represent various ingenious strategies at your disposal.
[Duel]: During your turn, use this card against another character. Starting with them, you both take turns playing a [Kill] until one party fails to play one. The player who cannot continue taking actions receives 1 point of damage from the other.
[Bridge-Burning]: During your turn, use this card against any other character with cards in their zones. You may discard one card from their zones.
[Pilfer]: During your turn, use this card against another character within distance 1 and possessing cards in their zones. You can obtain one card from their zones.
[Creating Something from Nothing]: During your turn, upon using this card, draw two additional cards.
[Southern Barbarian Invasion]: During your turn, all characters except yourself must play a [Kill], or they will sustain 1 point of damage.
[Hail of Arrows]: During your turn, all characters except yourself must play a [Dodge], or they will sustain 1 point of damage.
[Oath of the Peach Garden]: During your turn, every character may recover 1 Health Point; those already at maximum health do not gain additional points.
Assassinate with Another's Blade: During your turn, use this on Character A who has a weapon equipped and is within range to attack Character B, whom you can target with [Kill]. Character A must then use [Kill] against Character B; otherwise, you obtain the weapon card from Character A.
Nullification: Before a Special Action card takes effect, negate its impact on any character or another instance of Nullification.
Harvest Bounty: During your turn, reveal a number of cards equal to the number of characters from the top of the draw pile. Each player, in order, chooses one (remaining) card from these revealed cards.
Lightning (Delayed-type Special Action): During your turn, use this targeting yourself first (the target may change subsequently). If the outcome reveals a Spade 2-9, the targeted character receives three lightning damage points. Otherwise, move it to the Judgment Zone of the next player clockwise.
Hedonistic Indulgence (Delayed-type Special Action): During your turn, use this on another character. If the outcome does not reveal a Heart suit, they skip their turn during which they play cards.
Equipment Cards can be Weapons, Steeds, or Armor.
Weapon Cards:
[Wooden Crossbow]: During your turn, you may play unlimited [Kill]s.
[Qinggang Sword]: When playing a [Kill], ignore any defensive equipment on the target character.
[Yin-Yang Double Swords]: Whenever you designate a player of the opposite gender as the target of a [Kill], they must choose one option: 1) Discard a card from their hand; 2) Allow you to draw a card.
[Stone Piercing Axe]: Whenever your [Kill] is negated by the target's use of [Dodge], you may discard two cards to force the target to lose health regardless.
[Dragon Crescent Blade]: Whenever your [Kill] is negated by the target's use of [Dodge], you may immediately follow up with another [Kill] (without distance restriction). In theory, if both players have enough [Dodge] and [Kill] cards, this could continue indefinitely.
[Twin Snakes Spear]: You may treat two cards from your hand as [Kill]s.
[Vermilion Bird Feather Fan]: You may treat an ordinary [Kill] as a [Fire Kill].
[Frost Blade]: Whenever you deal damage with a [Kill] to a target who has cards in their hand, you may prevent that damage and instead discard two cards from them sequentially.
[Painted Halberd]: If the [Kill] you played was your last card in hand, you may select up to two additional targets for attack.
Qilin Bow: When you deal damage to a target with [Kill], you may discard one mount card from their Equipment Area.
Gu Ding Dao (Ancient Heavy Blade): When your [Kill] deals damage, if the designated target has no cards in hand, increase the damage dealt by 1 point.
Mount Cards:
Defensive Mounts: After equipping this card, all other characters' distances to you increase by 1; it can be understood as providing defensive advantages. Different +1 mounts share identical effects regardless of name.
Clawed Flying Steed (♥ K) Lu Horse (♣ 5) Shadowless Horse (♠ 5)
Offensive Mounts: After equipping this card, your distance to all other characters decreases by 1; it can be understood as providing offensive advantages. Different -1 mounts share identical effects regardless of name.
Red Hare (♥ 5) Purple Stallion (♦ K) Great Yan Horse (♠ K)
Armor Cards:
Eight Trigrams Formation: Whenever you need to play a [Dodge], perform a Judgment phase. If the result is red, treat it as playing a [Dodge].
White Lion: Whenever you suffer more than 1 point of damage, prevent any excess damage. Lockdown Skill: Whenever you lose the White Lion from your Equipment Area, recover 1 Health Point.
Vine Armor: Immune to Southern Barbarian Invasion, Hail of Arrows, and regular [Kill] attacks. Lockdown Skill: Whenever you take fire damage, increase the damage taken by 1 point.
Divine Shield: Lockdown Skill: Black-colored [Kill] attacks cannot hit you. Divine Shield does not trigger during Duels.
Aha (Rebel) (3 Health Points) (Seat 1)
Sowing Discord: Once during your turn, you may discard one card to force any character to initiate a [Duel] against another.
Charm: Once during your turn, you may discard one card and flip your character face down, then gain all hand cards from a male character. At the end of your turn, give X cards back to that character (where X equals their current health).
Lan (Loyalist) (4 Health Points) (Seat 2)
Rainbow Shift: You can interchange [Kill] and [Dodge] cards in your hand when using or discarding them.
Moon Hunt: After activating Rainbow Shift to use or discard a card, you may immediately obtain one of the opponent's hand cards.
Yaoshi (Ruler) (4 Health Points) (Seat 3)
Medicinal Potions: Outside your turn, you may treat a red card as a Peach.
Universal Cure: Once during your turn, you may discard a card to allow a character to recover 1 Health Point.
If the discarded card is red, this skill can be activated again but not on a character chosen earlier this turn.
[Guard (Ruler Skill)] Other players may use or play [Dodge] on your behalf when needed.
Su Jinyan (Spy) (4 Health Points) (Seat 4)
[Driving Tiger Away]: During your turn, you can challenge another player to a card comparison.
If you win, the target character must deal one damage to another character within their attack range of your choice (excluding themselves).
If you lose, they deal one damage to you. Limited to once per turn.
[Exile]: After sustaining damage, you can flip over any other character face-down, then draw X cards from them (where X equals your lost health points).
Qlipoth (Rebel) (4 Health Points) (Seat 5)
[Self-Restraint]: If you did not use or play [Kill] during your turn phase, you may skip discarding cards.
[Fortify]: When another character within your attack range becomes the target of [Kill], you may take one of their hand cards and redirect the [Kill] to yourself instead.
Upon taking damage this way, you may draw a card, then the source of the damage may choose to draw a card and reduce the damage by 1.
Fuli (Rebel) (3 Health Points) (Seat 6)
[Benevolence: During your turn, you may give any number of cards from your hand to other characters. When giving out a second card this way during the same phase, recover 1 Health Point.]
[Empty Fort: Lockdown Ability—If you have no cards in hand, you cannot be targeted by [Kill] or [Duel].]
Nanook (Loyalist) (5 Health Points) (Seat 7)
[Destruction: Lockdown Ability—When designating a target for [Kill], that character must use two consecutive [Dodge]s to negate the effect.]
[After specifying a target with [Duel], either when using it yourself or becoming its target, the designated character must respond with two consecutive [Kills] each time they engage in the duel.]
[Raging Fury: After your [Kill] deals damage to another character, that character can grant you one of their cards, and then you are considered to have used [Duel] against another character of their choice.]
Xipe (Spectator Mode)
After all Aeons confirmed the rules without objections, the game officially began with each player starting with four cards.
Yaoshi's hand: Pilfer, Lightning, Kill, Hedonistic Indulgence.
Su Jinyan's hand: Eight Trigrams Formation, Kill, Dodge, Peach.
Qlipoth's hand: Kill, Twin Snakes Spear, Dodge, Dodge.
Fuli's hand: Qilin Bow, Dodge, Dodge, Creating Something from Nothing.
Nanook's hand: Duel, Kill, Dodge, Painted Halberd.
Lan's hand: Kill, Dodge, Creating Something from Nothing, Qinggang Sword.
Aha's hand: Peach, Nullification, Creating Something from Nothing, Red Hare horse.
As the Ruler, Yaoshi started first from position three.
At the beginning of Yaoshi's turn, they drew two cards: Dodge and Nullification.
"Lightning!"
Yaoshi played [Lightning].
"Pilfer!"
Using [Pilfer], Yaoshi targeted Lan.
No player used Nullification.
Yaoshi obtained a [Kill] card from Lan.
Yaoshi then played [Hedonistic Indulgence] on Lan.
Lan triggered a pre-set voice line: "Do you even know how to play? Are you kidding me? I'm a loyalist!"
Yaoshi did not respond, immediately ending their turn with four hand cards: Kill, Nullification, Dodge, Kill.
[Unfeeling Divination Machine: Does the Plagues Author even know what they're doing, targeting a loyalist right off the bat?]
[Killing Until Rivers Run Red: Who knows if Lan is truly a loyalist? Maybe Lan's actually the spy, just pretending to be one?]
[Lady Herta: Given the Aeons' intellect, I doubt any of them would struggle with such a simple game.]
[Mechanical Gumo: Logic dictates that Su Jinyan, as stated at the outset, follows his own will and fate path.]
At position four, it was the turn of the spy Su Jinyan.
Su Jinyan received two cards: Southern Barbarian Invasion (King of Spades) and Kill (Two of Clubs).
Now his hand contained: Southern Barbarian Invasion, Kill, Eight Trigrams Formation, Dodge, Kill, Peach.
Su Jinyan equips "Eight Trigrams Formation" and uses the Special Action card "Southern Barbarian Invasion."
Qlipoth plays a "Kill," Nanook plays a "Kill," and Yaoshi plays a "Kill."
Fuli and Aha do not have any "Kills" in their hands, resulting in each losing one Hit Point; both players now have 2 Hit Points remaining.
Lan activates skill "Flying Rainbow," which allows using "Kill" as if it were "Dodge" and vice versa.
Lan plays a "Dodge" from their hand as a "Kill" to respond to Southern Barbarian Invasion.
"I am Zhao Yun of Changshan!"
After triggering "Flying Rainbow," Lan can subsequently activate skill "Hunting Moon."
"Unhindered movement, swift as a blade through butter!"
Without hesitation, Lan immediately uses "Hunting Moon" to draw a card from Su Jinyan's hand.
At this moment, Su Jinyan's hand consists of: Diamond 3 "Dodge", Heart 7 "Peach", Club 2 "Kill".
Unfortunately, Lan doesn't draw a "Peach" but instead gets the Diamond 3 "Dodge".
Su Jinyan activates skill "Driving Tiger Away".
[Please select the target player for Driving Tiger Away.]
Su Jinyan chooses Lan.
[Please select the target to receive damage from Driving Tiger Away.]
Su Jinyan chose Yaoshi.
[Please play a card for the face-off.]
Su Jinyan played a Spades 2 Kill, his lowest-valued card.
After brief consideration, Lan played the Clubs 3 Dodge, which he had just obtained from Su Jinyan—it was also the smallest value card in Lan's hand.
Losing the face-off, Lan dealt one point of damage to Su Jinyan, reducing his Hit Points to 3.
Lan still held three cards in hand: Kill, Creating Something from Nothing, and Qinggang Sword.
Immediately following this, Su Jinyan activated the skill "Exile" on Nanook.
The effect of the "Exile" skill is:
"After you suffer damage, you can flip over another character face-down, then that character draws X cards (where X equals the amount of Hit Points you have lost)."
Having only lost one Hit Point, Su Jinyan made Nanook draw a single card.
Nanook drew a Kill, at the cost of being flipped face-down; when Nanook's turn came next, it would be skipped directly.
We haven't even revealed our roles yet, and you're already exiling me? Just how deep is your grudge against me?
Using a preset taunt, Nanook responded with, ["Could you play any worse?"]
Nejian Su Jinyan's turn ended.
In his hand, he only had one remaining card: Peach.
Among the players present, there were two loyalists, three rebels, and one Overlord—all marked Su Jinyan as a "rebel."
Forcing Lan, suspected to be a loyalist, to compete with Overlord Yaoshi and choosing for Yaoshi to take damage was clearly indicative of rebel behavior, without a doubt.
Only Xipe, who had activated spectator mode, understood everything, but he couldn't reveal anything.
[Diting + Howling Friend: Jumping to claim rebellion right at the start—looks like Su Jinyan is indeed a rebel.]
[Invincible Swordsman 123: Nanook said Teacher plays terribly; does that mean Nanook is also a rebel?]
[Shangshang's Sole Account: Breaking news, we've finally discovered Emperor's Bow Bill of Life's true name!]
[Turns out, Imperial Bow Bill of Life's real name isn't Lan, but Zhao Zilong—how fascinating!]
[Little Gui Guinevere: Shangshang, please stop talking.]
[Dr. Ratio: ...]
[Playing on the Edge: Is it possible that was just a skill voiceover...]
[Posting Under Real Name: Miss Sushang, why don't we change our username already? It might save us from being recognized.]
It was now the turn of Player Five, the rebel Qlipoth.
Qlipoth drew two cards: Repeating Crossbow and Creating Something from Nothing.
Using [Creating Something from Nothing], Qlipoth obtained two more cards: Creating Something from Nothing, Kill.
Continuing with [Creating Something from Nothing], Qlipoth received another pair: Creating Something from Nothing, Kill.
Scratching his head, Qlipoth used [Creating Something from Nothing] once more, obtaining two cards: Pilfer, Wine.
"Where there is life, there is hope."
Qlipoth equipped the Twin Snakes Spear, increasing their attack range to 3, then triggered the skill [Self-Restraint] by choosing to end their turn.
Now, Qlipoth held a total of six cards: Repeating Crossbow, Wine, Dodge, Dodge, Kill, Kill, and Pilfer.
The distance between the rebel Qlipoth and Overlord Yaoshi was only one player, Su Jinyan.
As long as Qlipoth accumulated enough [Kill] cards, equipped the Red Hare horse and the Repeating Crossbow, they could undoubtedly take out Yaoshi in a single burst.
[Invincible Swordsman 123: The Amber King didn't kill Teacher, so could He be a rebel?]
[Fengyu Caihong 7854: Not necessarily. It's also possible that it's the Nejian stockpiling cards. With such skills, being the Nejian would indeed be too fitting.]
[Heart for the Amber King: Please watch your language; kindly add the word "portraying." Otherwise, it might lead to misunderstandings.]
It was now Fuli's turn, occupying the sixth position as a rebel.
Fuli's initial four cards were: Qilin Bow, Dodge, Dodge, and Creating Something from Nothing.
After drawing two more cards, Fuli obtained [Kill] and [Peach].
"Kill!"
Equipping the Qilin Bow, Fuli's attack range increased to 5, and they played a [Kill] targeting Su Jinyan, marked as a rebel.
Su Jinyan neither utilized the effect of [Eight Trigrams Formation] nor had a [Dodge], intentionally taking the hit. As a result, their Hit Points decreased to two.
"May you journey alone through eternity!"
Using [Exile], Su Jinyan replenished Fuli with two cards: [Peach] and [Wine].
At this point, Fuli's cards consisted of: Peach, Wine, Dodge, Dodge, Creating Something from Nothing, Kill, Peach.
Fuli's character card flipped face-down, indicating that their next turn would be skipped directly.
"A benevolent ruler shall overcome all obstacles!"
Fuli activated the skill [Benevolence], handing all their hand cards to Su Jinyan, while recovering their own Hit Points from 2 to 3.
The graceful sound of a pipa resonated.
Having lost all hand cards, Fuli activated the skill "Empty Fort," making them immune to being targeted by "Kill" or "Duel."
[Lady Herta: Now we can be certain of one thing—Fuli is definitely playing as a rebel.]
[Zhao Xiangji: So you're saying Little Su and Fuli are both rebels?]
[Cold Crow: The first round isn't even over yet; it's too early to draw conclusions. But Heavenly Monarch Liuli is undoubtedly a rebel.]
[Did You Scavenge Today?: It's easy to guess most others' roles, but I can't quite figure out Aha's identity.]
[Snowy Coat: I agree, for amusement, Joyseeker would do anything.]
[Gentle Breeze and Early Spring: We still cannot discern Elation's purpose behind organizing this card game.]
[If Elation loses, it could bring about profound changes across the entire universe.]
[Lady Herta: Losing to The Hunt might be manageable, but losing to Abundance is truly terrifying.]
[I think Su Jinyan rivals Zandar now. Just imagining countless planets becoming havens for Abundant Evil Creatures sends chills down my spine.]
At position seven, Nanook, now revealed as a loyalist, grumbled and skipped his turn.
[Punklorde's Silver Wolf: Nanook passed their turn; could they be a rebel?]
[Mechanical Gum: Known roles include Overlord Yaoshi, one Nejian, three rebels, and two loyalists.]
[In this game, "Abundance" is the Overlord, and "Memory" is a rebel.]
[Su Jinyan and Nanook are suspected to be rebels, while Lan is likely a loyalist.]
[Conclusion: More data is needed for confirmation.]
[Punklorde's Silver Wolf: How does that clarify anything?]
[Gui Guinevere: Your words enlighten me... just like any other words.]
[Vagabond of the Floating World: We only need to wait until the next round. If Su Jinyan attacks Abundance again or targets The Hunt, we'll know for sure if he's truly a rebel.]
[Did You Forage Today?: If Little Su isn't a rebel, won't Fuli take a massive hit?]
[Zhao Xiangji: I'd literally faint from tears then.]
[Tail's Sidekick: Tail Master says: He must be a rebel, no loyalist would aim to deal damage to the Overlord right off the bat, nor unleash group harm so early!]
It was now Aha's turn, occupying Position 1 as a rebel.
Aha's initial hand: Peach, Impenetrable Defense, Creating Something from Nothing, Red Hare horse.
Aha drew two cards: another Impenetrable Defense and Pilfer.
Examining their hand and character abilities, Aha fell deep into thought.
Nanook used a preset message: "Hurry up, I've been waiting forever!"
First, Aha played [Peach] to restore their Hit Points fully, then used [Creating Something from Nothing], obtaining the cards: Kill, Gu Ding Blade.
Aha equipped the [Red Hare horse], reducing the distance to other characters by 1.
Next, they equipped the [Gu Ding Blade], granting an attack range of 2. Additionally, whenever the [Kill] card causes damage, if the designated target has no hand cards, the damage is increased by 1.
"Kill!"
Aha directly targeted Yaoshi with [Kill].
Coincidentally, Yaoshi at Position 3 also fell within the attack range of Qlipoth at Position 5.
"Fortify, fortify—!" Rebel Qlipoth activated skill [Fortify]. Its effect: When any character within your attack range becomes the target of a [Kill], you may take one of their hand cards and redirect the [Kill] to yourself.
If this results in you taking damage, you can draw a card, and the source of the damage may choose to draw a card and reduce the damage by 1.
Qlipoth, the rebel, obtained a card from Overlord Yaoshi: a "Kill."
At this moment, Yaoshi's hand only contained: Kill, Impenetrable Defense, and Dodge.
As expected, Qlipoth became the new target of the "Kill," but instead of playing a Dodge, the secondary effect of skill "Masonry" triggered.
Aha received a prompt: "Do you wish to draw a card and reduce the damage by 1?"
Being pragmatic, Aha chose to draw for mutual benefit and received a "Peach Garden Oath" card.
Consequently, Qlipoth also avoided taking any damage and drew a "Hail of Arrows."
Now, Qlipoth held nine cards in their hand: Repeating Crossbow, Wine, Dodge, Dodge, Kill, Kill, Pilfer, Kill, and Hail of Arrows.
Unfortunately, "Peach Garden Oath" was utterly useless to Aha as a rebel.
Aha promptly discarded the "Peach Garden Oath" and activated the skill "Parting Shots."
The effect of skill "Parting Shots" is:
"You may discard one card to force one character to initiate a Duel against another character, limited to once per turn."
"My dear husband, please stand up for me~" Aha's pleading voice echoed, immediately prompting Nanook to challenge Su Jinyan to a Duel.
Nanook's fighting spirit surged as he declared, "Duel!"
[Nanook has used [Duel] against you. Each time you respond to this [Duel], you must consecutively play two [Kill] cards.]
Remaining remarkably composed, Su Jinyan immediately forfeited the duel, leaving him with only one remaining Health Point.
"The crime does not warrant death; instead, exile shall be granted!"
Su Jinyan chose to flip Aha's character card face down and replenished his hand with three new cards.
Aha drew all three cards as Kills.
"Using charm skillfully, I entice my foes twice."
Aha discarded one Kill and used the Charm ability on Qlipoth. This skill could be employed only once per turn, with the effect being:
One can discard a card and flip their character card face down, then obtain all hand cards from a male character. At the end of the turn, X cards (where X equals the target's current Health Points) must be returned to that character.
Qlipoth stared, bewildered.
As a result, Aha's already flipped-over general card was turned back upright.
Now, Aha held the following cards: Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Peach, Impenetrable Defense, Creating Something from Nothing, Red Hare, Impenetrable Defense, Pilfer, Repeating Crossbow, Wine, Dodge, Dodge, Pilfer, Volley of Arrows.
Sweat poured profusely down Nanook's back.
Being at position seven while Aha occupied position one meant there was virtually no distance between them.
Su Jinyan displayed a sinister smile.
The configuration of their martial general skills was also fair and unbiased, without any favoritism.
Nanook knew Aha well; relying on him to adhere strictly to his game role would be a grave mistake. Aha always played for maximum advantage.
So while Nanook wasn't cheating outright, the issue lay in the fact that he had never fought alone.