Stark leaned in, eager to see what they were playing. As soon as he took a look, he was met with a bunch of square Chinese characters, and it felt like his head had taken a punch. He abruptly covered his eyes and stepped back.
Stark was a bit stronger than the others since he had to cooperate with China for technology exchanges. He knew some basic Chinese, but not this much.
Furthermore, the text on these cards had complex logic. Even native Chinese speakers would need quite some time to understand them, let alone foreigners.
But they were playing spiritedly. Could it be that they all turned into language geniuses overnight and learned to read Chinese characters?
He looked around and only realized the problem when he saw Wanda also wearing a pair of glasses.
Just then, Harry happened to bring several pairs of glasses. The unused ones were casually placed aside. Stark picked up a pair, put them on, and when he looked at the cards again, everything changed.
In fact, Stark's mecha had a similar feature, only not through translation, but through artificial intelligence. As long as the AI could recognize the text, it could summarize and tell him. After all, he didn't have the time to read word by word during a battle; this was a much more efficient method.
It wasn't that Stark didn't want to make this technology available for public use. The issue was that there were many ethical controversies in the field of artificial intelligence. Implementing it would require tremendous efforts, and he had more pressing matters to attend to. Civilian applications weren't within his considerations at the moment.
Unexpectedly, the Osborn Group had already made a translation device.
Stark was no longer the naive capitalist of the past. He was someone who had outgrown petty interests and didn't bother to compete with Osborn for peanuts. He had more crucial work to do.
So, he comfortably wore the glasses and watched their next game.
Shiller had resolved to suffer the pain and never play the mechanical flow again, but fatefully, his cursed hand drew another set of mechanical cards—Iron Man combined with Ant-Man and Dr. Beast and even got the Cerebro used by Professor X.
What's the use of just giving me an Amplifier? Where is Professor X?
Unfortunately, Professor X was in Wanda's hands.
After the game started, and the dice were thrown, Shiller decided not to play Iron Man first because Iron Man was useless in the early game—where would he get enough points to buy the mechas?
Shiller had to gamble, hoping to find himself or another superhero with the mind-reading tag on the market later. Combined with the Cerebro, it could turn other players' cards to his advantage—awakening in a seemingly hopeless situation to find the Priest was none other than himself.
Stark, standing behind Shiller and seeing that Shiller could have played his card in the first round but didn't, muttered his dissatisfaction. Shiller turned and glared at him.
Although Wanda had Professor X, she lacked other Mutants and couldn't play a Mutant card set. She had two Spider-Man-related cards and had even drawn the special action card Spider Silk Launcher, so she started playing the Spider Stream.
Surprisingly, Jarvis had the best luck, gathering a set of Scientist Cards, stacking effects, accumulating Research Points, and opening the equipment box.
The funniest part came in the third round. Just as Shiller had managed to save some points and was about to play Iron Man and summon some Mark Series Mechas, Jarvis went ahead and brought out the Mark 17.
Stark, standing behind Shiller, exploded on the spot, slamming the table and roaring, "What kind of sorcery is this?! Connors and Dr. Ethan, plus Reed Richards, how could they possibly develop the Mark 17???? That's my mecha!!!"
Jarvis shrugged and said, "Sorry, sir, but that's the game's rules. The Scientist flow is played like this. In the later stages, you can even unlock a modified Galactus."
"The Galactus is my makeover, too!!!"
Shiller, though sighing at his own misfortune, had no choice but to accept it. He played the Iron Man card and used his points to summon a Hulkbuster mecha.
Indeed, in this universe, there was also such a thing as Hulkbuster armor. This armor, developed with the help of Dr. Banner, not only served to fight The Hulk head-on but to restrain him and then transport him to a designated area in space—essentially a strong control with a Teleportation Portal.
Although with the help of Shiller and Professor X, Dr. Banner's condition had improved, there were several unfortunate relapses, each causing quite a chaos in the settlements under the Three Great Empires. However, Earth was spared.
Then Shiller summoned a Mark 26, an Engineering Mecha that Stark had created for land engineering—a mecha for engineers.
"What are you summoning him for?!" Stark couldn't stand it anymore. He leaned on the table toward the deck of cards from which mechas could be chosen and said, "Choose this one! This one is strong!"
"Do you think I can afford it?" Shiller rolled his eyes. He knew how powerful Justice Enforcement was. Even if he sold all his cards now, he wouldn't be able to afford that mecha.
Stark opened his mouth to say, "Well, this one is good, too. This is a strength-based mecha, and what about this one? We worked on this together before, it's more cost-effective than that excavator..."
Shiller really couldn't take it anymore, he pushed Stark away and said, "Have you never heard of the principle of observing in silence?"
Stark was pissed, but there was nothing he could do, what he said was all true, these Mechas are indeed much stronger than the Engineer Mechas. However, Shiller's next move stunned Stark.
First, Shiller used the Hulkbuster's strong control to pin down Professor X in Wanda's hand, causing Professor X to be unable to draw cards for two turns.
Wait a minute, I'm controlling Professor X? Is that for real?
That just seems so unreasonable. This time Stark didn't dare to say it out loud but thought to himself. With the Hulkbuster's control skills, how is it possible to control Professor X?
Hulkbuster doesn't counteract Magneto, right?
You control Professor X, and Magneto isn't going to smash your head in?
Thankfully, in this game, Magneto is also a summon card that requires the use of X-Men to overcome the Mutant Brotherhood event to be summoned. Otherwise, it would be impossible to play in the early game.
After Professor X was prevented from drawing, Wanda was clearly panicked. In the first few turns, she was always using Professor X's powerful traits and didn't properly play her Spider Stream. Now that her strongest warrior was prevented from drawing, her defense system was simply not strong enough to withstand Shiller's attack.
Peter was playing Magic Stream this round, he gave Wanda a hand, but clearly not because Wanda was playing Spider Man Stream, but because Peter needed to use Spider Man to summon the Spider Totem, which also counted as a Demon God.
There are many different schools within Magic Stream. You can choose the Academy School, or play Magic Technology Stream, Asgard Stream, but Peter chose the most thrilling and exciting playstyle, Magic Sacrifice Flow.
Without being discovered by anyone, he had to play his Sacrifice Cards in a particular order and then sacrifice three offerings to summon a Demon God. After summoning three Demon Gods, they would directly summon the Devil's Descent event above the New York map.
Devil's Descent is a mandatory event; the descended Demon God attacks all non-Demon God characters, basically unleashing a full-screen ultimate move.
But Spider Man only had enough cards to summon two Demon Gods, so he had to keep Spider Man to summon the Spider Totem.
Protecting Wanda with this move, Shiller immediately realized what he was up to. He chose Engineer Robot to counter this precise move, because the Engineering Mecha has a very special skill: it can remove an opponent's Summoning Position.
A player has only three Summoning Positions, and to trigger the Devil's Descent event, all three must be filled. However, if one is removed by the Engineering Mecha, that would spell doom.
With Peter's help, Wanda wasn't kicked out of the competition right away. Shiller played an Engineer Robot in response, and as Peter was prevented from drawing for his Summoning Position, he let out an earth-shattering scream.
"No!!! Doctor!!!"
Harry and Mary beside him laughed at their misfortune. One was playing Erica's Ninja Summoning Flow and the other the Young Avengers Speed Flow; with the field full of squishy characters, if Peter managed to summon the Demon Gods, the two of them would definitely be finished first.
Gwen was playing Mechanical Flow this time and couldn't be of much help; Peter was pretty much knocked out.
Shiller managed to play a bad hand well, but unfortunately, his luck in the later game was still very poor. The cards he drew from the market didn't form a system, and in the end, he only managed to place second, which was an improvement from the last round.
Jarvis's Scientist Stream won this round; his luck was incredibly good. The Scientist's equipment box was a draw-four, pick-one situation, with one of the cards being a bomb that causes direct damage when drawn. Jarvis drew about twenty to thirty times and only got bombs twice; the rest were either parts or equipment.
He got four Mechas early on, exploded two in an event, then drew two more. Later, he got all of Wakanda's equipment and even Asgard's Spaceship. How could anyone compete against that?
Then, with a Divine Draw, he drew the enhanced Mechanical Galactus, sealing the final victory.
Shiller wasn't quite happy with how this round went, but the person watching behind him was even less pleased, because Shiller didn't buy many Mechas this round and preferred to use points to refresh the market's deck rather than buy Mechas. He might as well just pinch you to death!
Stark directly squeezed Shiller to one side. It's just a card game, right? My turn! I'll show you what the true Iron Demon God is like!
Shiller was getting tired of playing anyway and was preparing to go outside for some fresh air. He had barely stepped away when he heard Stark scream.
"Ah!!!"
Curiosity drove him to go back.
As Shiller leaned over, he saw Stark's hand full of purple Magic cards, with "Supreme Mage Stephen Strange" leading the pack.