Vol 4. Chapter 5: Card Players, Total Wipeout

“AAAHHH! Ferdi, bro, I’ve been wronged! I really didn’t betray the Card Players Alliance, I really didn’t betray the soul of card players!!”

“I really was forced to join!” The two traitors were dragged away by the ruthless card players amid heart-rending howls—an extremely tragic scene.

There were all kinds of clubs within Carillian Academy. Many of these clubs had nothing to do with each other, but there were also clubs that, for one reason or another, had competitive relationships.

And forming a club required approval. But the Card Players Alliance had only officially become a registered Carillian Academy club this semester. As for the reason... Vinny still remembered how Ferdi had stormed back from the club office in a fury, slammed the reimbursement form down onto the table at their hangout spot, and—

“I went and filed with the club office to establish the Card Players Alliance. The Student Council already issued the paperwork, and they still won’t allow it!”

“I’m telling you, the Student Council is watching our card-player forces grow stronger by the day!”

However, reality proved that it had nothing to do with that at all. This bastard had submitted the reimbursement form to the wrong place. It should’ve been submitted to the Student Council’s club office desk, but he’d submitted it to the Disciplinary Committee’s administrative desk instead. They sent it back.

Carillian Academy’s standards for forming clubs were pretty relaxed. After all, the study pressure here was high, the competitive pressure was high, and clubs were truly entertainment-first. So naturally, everything bloomed—there were clubs of every strange and bizarre kind.

But none of that was the point. Rules made the circle. Even a relatively loose organization like the Card Players Alliance had its own rules, and this was the fate of betraying the Card Players Alliance.

The Card Players Alliance had always maintained zero tolerance toward traitors, upholding the principle of “No women in your heart; play cards and you become a god.” If a traitor was discovered, they had to be dragged off on the spot for severe punishment!

Of course, all of that was mostly just jokes.

“Ay, ay. What a disgrace in the family. Really useless. What a mess, huh??” Only after the two voices faded beyond hearing did Ferdi shake his head, putting on the air of a gang boss.

“So what were those two even here for?” Vinny looked shocked.

He couldn’t quite make sense of this. This move of theirs was basically outing both of their identities, but they didn’t get any benefit. Mutually assured destruction.

Why do something that harms others without benefiting yourself?? In the end, both of them just got screwed together.

And as for the idea that there were even fights between clubs, Vinny really couldn’t understand it. Every interest club had different goals and activities. Everyone could just do their own thing. What was there to clash over??

“Little bro Vinny, you don’t know?” Ferdi raised an eyebrow.

“Know what?” Vinny didn’t get it.

“Ay, ay. Looks like you know way too little about campus gossip.” Ferdi shook his head. “Aesphyra and Isatia—these two top school beauties—their support fan clubs have always been the hottest school-beauty support fan clubs on campus.”

“There’s really that kind of thing?” Vinny originally wanted to spit out,

These people seriously have nothing better to do,

but thinking about it carefully—hey. Don’t these people have nothing better to do precisely because they’re full and bored?

At the end of the day, clubs were just an entertainment outlet to vent pressure. If you seriously discussed the topic, every club was made of people who were full and bored. Their card-friend club was no exception.

“Yeah. Originally those two clubs were fine last semester. Later, who knows what happened. Maybe as they got bigger, they clashed while recruiting. There was a lot of friction, and it gradually evolved into disputes. Of course, it seems like they also clash in other areas too.” Ferdi said seriously.

“Besides recruiting, why would there still be clashes in other areas?” Vinny didn’t understand.

“I heard about that. The cause seems to have been some school-beauty ranking contest. Aesphyra’s fan club thought Aesphyra was the number one school beauty, while Isatia’s fan club thought Aesphyra wasn’t worthy and Isatia was. Then, well—they clashed.”

“What’s wrong with these people.” Vinny curled his lip. “They’re really so bored they’re going crazy.”

“Who isn’t?”

“Wait—was it only those two fan clubs? Didn’t other school-beauty fan clubs join the fight?” Vinny asked.

“They did, but their scale wasn’t as big as these two. And that beauty ranking seemed to have a restriction—only first-year students could participate.”

“

Participate,

my ass. What kind of random unofficial ranking is that?” Vinny mocked. In that kind of random unofficial ranking, the two parties involved probably didn’t even know they were “participating,” and their fans used their names to fight some imaginary battle.

“You know how it is. The thing the world never lacks is bored people. As long as there are people, there will be disputes. That can’t be avoided.” Ferdi spread his hands.

“I’m being serious—arguing over school beauties and not-school beauties is pointless. The topic’s stale as hell.” Vinny crossed his arms. “If you ask me, it’d be better to argue over who owns the ‘top school heartthrob’ ranking.”

“No need to argue. There’s no point. Believe it or not, if you grab any random guy on the street at Carillian Academy and ask who the number one school heartthrob is, they’ll definitely answer: themselves.” Ferdi said with certainty.

“Mm. That’s true. Too many people have no self-awareness. Ay, ay—seriously, if there really were some heartthrob selection, this Young Master still wouldn’t go. Otherwise it’d be too unfair. If I went, the others wouldn’t have even a sliver of a chance, hahahaha.” Vinny brushed back his bangs and laughed smugly a few times.

“Little bro Vinny, it really has to be you. When you get ruthless, you even lie to yourself.” Ferdi gave Vinny a thumbs-up.

“You—damn it! This Young Master is elegant as jade and dignified and handsome. Why can’t I be the number one school heartthrob??” Vinny shot Ferdi a look.

“No, little bro Vinny, heartthrob is about looks and manly vibe. What do you even have? Seriously, feels like you can’t compare to me at all.” Ferdi wasn’t modest either, and he even mocked him. “I’m not dragging you on purpose, little bro Vinny, but you don’t have a shred of manly vibe on you. If you put on girls’ clothes, you could probably go next door and run for school beauty.”

“I’ll interpret your dream! Do you even have eyes??” Vinny instantly blew up when he heard that. “This Young Master is overflowing with kingly aura and masculine spirit from head to toe, and you dare say I don’t have manly vibe??”

“No matter what, this Young Master is still better than you!”

“Ferdi, bro, Vinny, bro—the two traitors have been punished by us. What’s the next step?” Just as the two were bickering nonstop, a card friend came back and said.

“Ahem. I think this incident has already revealed something.” Ferdi lifted his hand. “It shows that our card-player-soul club has already been infiltrated by outside factions until it’s full of holes!”

“What I mean is: once you see a cockroach in the room, it means there’s definitely more than one cockroach. There has to be a cockroach nest!” Ferdi glanced at Vinny beside him. “Little bro Vinny, what do you think?”

“Oh? That makes sense.” Vinny frowned, also feeling that this was no small matter. “These aren’t ordinary card friends anymore. We have to hit hard.”

“So what do you two mean?”

“Since we’ve already opened this up, we’ll investigate thoroughly!” Ferdi said. “Each of you, open your inner lining. Surprise inspection!”

“Huh? Is that really necessary?” Everyone froze when they heard it.

“Of course it’s necessary. What—do you think there’s a problem?”

“N-no, no.” Seeing Ferdi’s sharp gaze shift inch by inch onto him, the card player in front hurriedly shook his head.

“Alright then, everyone—don’t be coy. Don’t make me look down on you. Come on. Show your purest card-player soul. Present your inner lining!” Ferdi called out.

Hearing that, a lot of card players complied, but some hesitated, standing there at a loss.

“I’m saying—what are you hesitating for??” Ferdi’s gaze swept across those hesitators at once.

At those words, the hesitators could only grit their teeth and, unwillingly, open their inner linings.

The final result was unexpected.

One third of the club members in the card-player-soul club had joined other school-beauty support fan clubs. After they were disarmed, the fan badges Vinny saw were a riot—besides Aesphyra’s and Isatia’s, there were Mirexia’s, Milian’s, Luna’s, and so on.

Mm. You could only say everyone had their own tastes. Some liked icy beauties, some liked unattainable flowers on high, some liked refined, otherworldly temperament—there were even audiences for elf brat girls.

Every last one of them was a hero and a bold man, huh??

Besides that, Vinny also saw an extremely niche badge. The name written on it made Vinny suck in a breath of cold flatbread.

Damn it—these people wouldn’t even spare an adorable little elf boy-girl! Dale’s public identity was a boy!!

What kind of beasts are they??

“Fine! You really don’t know until you check, huh? Usually you all brag about how pure you are, how your heart only has cards, and the result is you’re all traitors??” Ferdi scolded them with a look of heartbreak.

And as an old-timer and leader-level existence in the card-player club, Vinny felt he should also prove his innocence. So he opened his own inner lining to show it. After all, he had never joined those weird clubs, and he couldn’t understand why these people joined such a variety of clubs.

Maybe because they were all people around him. Vinny had no filter for them at all.

“Exactly. You’re all seriously disappointing. This is what pure card-player soul looks like. Understand?” Vinny showed his clean inner lining and looked down at the crowd of ashamed card players.

“Next, let Ferdi, bro, show you a round too. Let him tell you what real faith looks like!” As Vinny spoke, he turned his gaze to Ferdi. Guided by Vinny’s words, everyone else also turned their eyes to Ferdi.

“Come on, Ferdi, bro. Show these useless, lost sheep your ‘card-player badge’!” As Vinny spoke, he also slapped the table that was next to him as someone passed by.

According to everyone’s imagination, next Ferdi would also show his clean inner lining, to demonstrate why he was the big bro of the card-player-soul club.

However.

“......” An eerie silence descended.

“?? Ferdi, bro??” Vinny immediately felt something was off. By rights, Ferdi had been yelling so fiercely—there’s no way he’d let go of a chance to show off, right??

But what he got in return was a strange, tight-lipped silence.

Now, it wasn’t just Vinny. The other card players also felt extremely weird. How did Ferdi, who’d been spouting such grand talk, suddenly go quiet??

Looking over, they even found that Ferdi’s expression had stiffened a little.

“? No, what’s wrong with you today??” Vinny’s expression grew more and more strange, and the meaning in his eyes was very clear.

Everyone’s watching. Don’t drop the ball at the critical moment, okay??

So he personally walked over and opened Ferdi’s inner lining.

Ferdi clearly hadn’t expected Vinny’s动作 to be that fast. Instinctively he tried to do something, but because his movement was too violent, a badge placard fell by his feet—and fell into everyone’s sight.

“.........” Seeing that, everyone fell into a dead silence.

Card-player-soul club—total wipeout.

Reality proved it: what “card-player soul”? There was no such thing at all!

“Ferdi, bro... you, you. What am I even supposed to say about you? As the one who founded and managed the club, how can you be this useless too? You really disappoint me. Now I understand—when the top beam isn’t straight, the bottom beams go crooked!” Vinny broke the silence, berating the silent, awkward Ferdi, and he picked up that fan badge from the ground.

Come to think of it, whose school-beauty support badge is this, anyway??

How could there be so many school-beauty support fan clubs on campus? Vinny felt like he’d seen so many his eyes were numb.

Whose badge is this now? It’s blue.

Vinny casually straightened the badge and glanced at it. When he saw the name on it, he broke out in a cold sweat, as if struck by lightning.

The name written on this badge—he both recognized it and didn’t recognize it. He recognized it because he knew the name. He didn’t recognize it because the person represented by that name simply did not exist!

On that delicate blue fan badge, it clearly read: “Vinnia.”

Could it be that there really was someone on campus named Vinnia??

Just as Vinny was confused and hesitant, he noticed another line of text in the corner of the badge: “Lady Vinnia won the academy beauty contest championship in her first semester after enrollment.”

Then looking at both sides of the badge, there were also decorations like bangs, and a hairstyle of twin ponytails falling over the shoulders.

“.........” Now it was confirmed. That terrifying thought had come true.

This meant that name couldn’t belong to anyone else, because Vinny personally participated in that beauty contest. He knew that besides his own alias, there hadn’t been a second contestant named “Vinnia” at all!

Holy shit?!

Vinny stared at Ferdi, whose face was blank and dazed, and in an instant, he stumbled back several steps.