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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 610: Searching For Entertainment At the Cost of Money, But Is There Anything Like That Out There? Part 2

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That is precisely why I came to the so-called “Tower”, an area around the third layer that was supposedly considered to be special in its own right. Why is that? Well, apparently the nature of this place is somewhat similar to all other attractions around here, but at the same time slightly different.

Now, what’s happening here…… “Fa”…… “Fa”? No, that’s not it…… I’m sure it reads “Fieldwork Genesis”……?」

「Fieldwork Genesis?」

「IT READS “PHILOGENETIC GEOGLYPH”. IT IS A TRADING CARD GAME RELEASED ON BOARD OF THE LEVIATHAN FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED TO TRY IT. OF COURSE, PLAYERS’ DISCRETION IS HIGHLY ADVISED.」

Yes, that’s right. What is happening in here is the place where you can play a Trading Card Games, or TCGs for short.

Trading card games are actually a relatively out-of-the-box category. Unlike consumer games that are sold out, money must be used as a cost to keep up with changes in the environment of the game and the meta, but that is because it is classified as a tabletop game. Above all, it’s difficult to be noticeably stronger because the player skill is based solely on logic and strategic thinking rather than through action and battle stats.

Ad with the development of Full Dive System, you can actually call in monsters under your command and replicate their attacks, causing natural disasters and environmental destruction. So of course that Trading Card Games are a valid part of the Virtual Reality family of games, but……

「Normally it would be done by the Full Dive system scanning the deck that you have made in real life and generating the cards inside of the game.

Oh well, I’m not a big fan of TGS, but I know for a fact that Taked-san really loves them…… And some of his gaming friends are also pretty active in that field as well. But overall, TCGs are games for people with a whole bunch of money on the side to be spent, so if you are not one of those people, then you won’t be able to get that far in them.

That’s actually part of the reason why I’m not all that into TCGs, but also the reson why I specifically chose this place is…… This is probably the only place in the whole third layer in which you can use something other than pure dumb luck in order to get the desired results. Because Trading Card Games actually follow a different set of rules. Other than that, it is your plain old and regular gambling, which is bound to screw you over more often than not.

So this place right here is at the very least worth investigating. That is the only reason why I decided to step in here in the first place…… Well, of course I realized that I wouldn’t be able to do much in here without a proper deck. So it would do me good to do something about that.

「IN THIS GAME, IF IT IS GOING TO BE YOUR FIRST TIME EVER PLAYING, A PRE-CONSTRUCTED DECK IS GOING TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO THE PLAYER FOR FREE……」

「Yeah, makes sense. Without that, it would be difficult to play and rack up wins.」

What is required in here is a deck that can easily overpower my opponents and rack me up some much needed wins. So of course, it needs to be top tier. And is this game an environmental Trading Card Game? It would be nice if it was. Anyways, I need here a good or the best environment possible and top tier cards to compliment that.

「Alright! Brave Fish! Buy me five packs of those “Your Experience” boosters! Let’s help the economy of this place thrive!」

「CERTAINLY, AS YOU WISH. THIS BOOSTER PACK CONTAINS THE MONSTER CARDS THAT ARE DERIVED FROM MANY ENCOUNTERS THAT THE PARTICULAR PLAYER HAVE EXPERIENCED. IN SHORT, YOU CAN BUILD YOUR OWN UNIQUE DECK BASED ON THE UNIQUE EXPERIENCES FROM THE MAIN GAME!」

I see, so it gives me the cards based on the monsters I have encountered thus far, huh? In that case, the aim would be Crystal Scorpions, giant insects of the Sigmonia Frontline Valley and all of the Unique Monsters.

So for now instead of going right into the game, I just sat in the lobby while holding onto the booster packs that the Brave Fish managed to procure for me out of the vending machine that was placed right next to the wall. Alright, time to do some unboxing! Opening packs like that can be really exciting in its own right!

「By the way, what is the rarity level in this game?」

「FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP WE HAVE: COMMON, UNCOMMON, RARE, EXTENSION. LEGENDARY AND FINALLY THE ONE!」

Doesn’t that make it sound like it was some sort of a supermarket sale or something like that? No, we are talking about “Expiration”, and this right here is the “Extension”. So it would be like something: even rarer than rare.

「By the way, are there any theme decks in this game?」

「HMM, LET ME SEE, THIS ONE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE A DRAGON-THEMED DECK? OR RATHER, A DECK FETURING MONSTERS ABLE TO ADAPT TO HIGHLY INHOSPITABLE AND POLLUTED ENVIORNMENTS.」

「Dragons…… Ah, because of the place that they are usually dwelling, huh?」

For the time being, let’s try to open up the first pack and see what do we have inside of it:

・ Crystal Scorpion Flock (Common)

・ Crystal Scorpion Flock (Common)

・ Crystal Scorpion Flock (Common)

・ Old Crystal Scorpion Flock (Rare)

・ Unbalanced Diet Environment (Rare)

…… Umm? The hell is that supposed to be? But alright, let it be for the time being. Now onto the second pack. Maybe that one is going to have something better inside of it:

・ Crystal Scorpion Flock (Common)

・ Crystal Scorpion Flock (Uncommon)

・ Hunger Alteration (Uncommon)

・ Gold Crystal Scorpion (Rare)

・ Fossil Miner’s Chrysalis “War Orphan” (Legendary)

「Ahh, now I see. I think I get it. Crystal Scorpion Flock has a larger number of individual per unit, so that’s why its overall rarity is lower than the rest, right?」

「AH, NO…… THE SYSTEM ACTUALLY USES THE PLAYER’S OWN EXPERIENCE AS THE POINT OF REFERENCE, AS WELL AS INDIVIDUAL BATTLE LOG. SO THAT MUST MEAN THAT YOU HAVE DEFEATED SO MUCH OF THAT PARTICULAR OPPONENT THAT THEY ARE CONSIDERED COMMON IN YOUR PERSONAL CASE. FOR OTHER PLAYERS, MOST OF THE TIME THAT PARTICULAR CARD TURNS OUT TO BE AT LEAST RARE, AND MOST OF THE TIME IT’S LEGENDARY. 」

「So it’s not the case of it being a reprint or anything like that, huh……?」

Somehow, I had a very bad feeling about this. And that turned into conviction the moment the Usurper Dragon, who in my case turned out to be of Legendary Rare rarity, turned its ugly head out.