Ch.20020. Duel!

“SWAT” was a trading card game, commonly known as a TCG. It was a game where players created their own decks according to set rules and battled against opponents. In the Tactical Combat world, it was widely known as an extremely aristocratic game.

Of course, since nobles generally led cultural trends, it goes without saying that it eventually became a game enjoyed by commoners of all ages and genders.

SWAT was played on tables enhanced with magic, where players competed using their constructed decks. It was a game that could be enjoyed by up to four people at once.

The game’s motif was, naturally, combat using Giant Soldiers. It was a simple game where players used various types of Giant Soldier cards, technique cards that could support the Giant Soldiers, and equipment cards that could be attached to the Giant Soldiers. The goal was to reduce the opponent’s mobility limit—their life points—to zero.

It was a well-designed game that mixed strategy and luck, with various tactical elements such as disabling the opponent’s equipment cards or defending with counter-technique cards.

In the real world, the mini-game’s popularity was so immense that Tactical Combat’s developer separately produced and released SWAT as a standalone game, creating a sensation.

And even South Korea, the country of duelists, couldn’t escape its influence.

“What’s your problem?”

“Then who are you? Duel?”

Conversations like this became so common in online communities that the game became a massive hit not just in Korea but worldwide.

Gilbert was also one of those who had deeply immersed himself in SWAT when it was released as a mini-game. Since one of Tactical Combat’s achievements was becoming a SWAT champion, he had once been completely obsessed with it. The confidence displayed by the Rose Garden’s manager now seemed almost cute to him.

“Do you have your deck with you?”

“Unfortunately, I didn’t bring it today.”

“Excellent. Playing under the same conditions can be fun too. We can clearly see who’s better.”

The manager was pleased with the idea of a match determined purely by strategic skill, with no card advantages. His inability to shake the thought that he’d found an easy mark was partly due to confidence in his own abilities, but also because of what he knew about Gilbert.

It was common knowledge that Gilbert frequently appeared at SWAT gambling dens in Lithuania. And today happened to be a day when gamblers were drinking heavily.

The manager was delighted at the thought that he might gain even more profit than the gold he’d received for information.

But he didn’t know.

He didn’t know that Gilbert, who had lost all his money at gambling dens and caused scenes, had transformed into a man named Kang Do-jun from the country of duelists. Nor did he know that this Kang Do-jun had achieved the SWAT Champion achievement in Tactical Combat, something only a small number of players had accomplished.

And he certainly didn’t know that Gilbert was the world champion of SWAT when it was released as a standalone game.

***

‘T-This is…’

The official SWAT competition rules adopted a best-of-three format.

Generally, a deck for one game consisted of 40 cards, with an additional 20-card side deck, making a total of 60 cards for the match.

After each game, players could reinforce and modify their main deck using the side deck, adding strategic depth. However, in some gambling dens, single-game matches were not uncommon.

As a former SWAT Master, the Rose Garden’s manager engaged Gilbert in a match using the official rules.

He was partly concerned that if they ended with a single match, his opponent might refuse to accept defeat and cause trouble, but he also wanted to teach a lesson to Gilbert who had boldly challenged him to a SWAT match.

But when he lost the first match, he realized something was off.

Using his usual strategy with heavy-type Giant Soldiers, he was soundly defeated by Gilbert’s surprising light-type Giant Soldiers. While he had planned to draw out a long game, Gilbert countered with a quick short match, disabling all his equipment before he knew what was happening, reaching his mobility limit.

Having lost so pathetically as a SWAT Master, he gritted his teeth and laid out his side deck to prepare countermeasures against light-type Giant Soldiers. Based on Gilbert’s SWAT playing style, he seemed to enjoy rapid card deployment, so the manager tried to compensate for that.

I was too careless in the first round.

Clicking his tongue, the manager focused intently, glaring at Gilbert who was casually reinforcing his cards. If he lost here, not only would he forfeit the Dragon Fruit worth over 100 gold, but his reputation as a former SWAT Master would be tarnished.

“I’m ready.”

“Then shall we begin the next match?”

“Well then… Duel!”

“I’ve been wondering about that word—what does it mean?”

“It’s a kind of blessing. It means I will never lose.”

“A blessing of never losing… But I have no intention of losing this time either.”

As the game began, mobility limit indicators appeared on the table, and the match commenced.

The manager secretly smiled at his initial hand. He had drawn exactly the Giant Soldier card he wanted and the equipment cards needed for it. He first deployed the Giant Soldier card on the field, placed the equipment card, and ended his turn.

His opponent drew a card, deployed a barrier belonging to the environment card category, flipped over a few cards, and passed the turn. Wondering if those might be trap cards, the manager drew his card.

‘I didn’t expect to get this so early.’

The card he drew was a defensive equipment card for heavy-type Giant Soldiers. He had lost the first round because he couldn’t draw this card, resulting in defeat in a short battle, but now that he had it in hand, it was clear that light-type Giant Soldiers would struggle to break through his defense.

The hard counter to heavy-type Giant Soldiers was a quick victory using light-type Giant Soldiers, but conversely, it was difficult to penetrate a fully equipped heavy-type Giant Soldier.

A firepower-focused Giant Soldier might be able to do it, but such cards were rare and didn’t exist in the decks they were currently playing with.

Restraining the smile that threatened to form at the corners of his mouth, he first destroyed the opponent’s environment card and ended his turn.

“Manager, do you know something?”

“What are you referring to?”

“The dream that everyone who plays SWAT has.”

“You seem to be talking about turning around a disadvantageous situation with a single drawn card… That’s just empty talk from people gambling their lives away in gambling dens.”

The manager mocked Gilbert who had frequented gambling dens, but Gilbert’s expression remained unchanged. He seemed to be confident in the cards he had placed face down, but there were no cards in the prepared deck that could instantly reverse the current situation.

After all, SWAT was a game modeled on operating Giant Soldiers. Just as it’s nearly impossible to win a war in reality once the tide has turned, such occurrences were rare in SWAT as well.

“You’re right. It’s just empty talk from desperate gamblers. However.”

Gilbert’s red eyes gleamed. The manager couldn’t shake the ominous feeling those eyes gave him.

“Everything is part of a plan, and if the final piece of that plan falls into place, it’s not impossible to turn the tide.”

The manager’s ominous feeling intensified. He quickly recalled the composition of the prepared deck, calculating if there was any way to overcome the current situation. If Gilbert wasn’t a SWAT player who specialized in quick battles, there might be a way. As Gilbert said, assuming everything was drawn as planned, there was one possibility.

The manager’s eyes involuntarily turned to Gilbert’s hand, which had yet to draw a card.

“I’ll bet everything on this card.”

Gilbert uttered what had become a sort of meme in reality and drew one card from his deck.

His previously expressionless face broke into a slight smile.

It was truly what could be called a magic spell.

***

Leaving the dumbfounded manager behind, Gilbert exited the Rose Garden building with light steps. As planned, he now held the Dragon Fruit in his hand. He wanted to eat it immediately to increase his stats, but it was better to consume this fruit after obtaining the Lion King’s Mana Cultivation Method.

If he ate the Dragon Fruit with only the basic cultivation method, he wouldn’t be able to maximize its efficiency and might miss out on an important skill. More precisely, it wouldn’t fit the combination formula.

Basically, consumable items that increased magic power stats could only be applied once. In the lore, this was explained as developing mana resistance that prevented further stat increases, but it was really just a measure by the developers to prevent stat boosting through items.

Now that this had become reality, it was unclear if combination formulas would work normally, but “what if” was a phrase used for situations like this. If he later discovered that combination formulas did work, he might regret it bitterly.

He couldn’t risk wasting the hard-earned 100-gold Dragon Fruit due to what gamers called a “wrong sequence.” Once mana resistance developed, obtaining another fruit would be meaningless anyway.

After carefully putting away the Dragon Fruit, he left the back alley. He thought not much time had passed, but judging by the sun’s position, it was already nearly noon.

Gilbert stopped at a nearby restaurant for a light lunch before leaving the Obitus territory. The only business he had left here was obtaining the Lion King’s Mana Cultivation Method.