After Maya ran away, Cipher observed the war preparations for a few more minutes.
Disciples continued rushing about. Formations were being reinforced. Weapons distributed. Orders shouted.
He stretched, rolling his shoulders.
"I suppose I should also prepare," he thought.
He flew up, navigating to the tallest building in the sect and settling down on its peak. The view stretched for miles in every direction.
This is a nice place, he thought. He should be able to see any approaching danger from here, even if it wasn’t within his ESP range.
He summoned his system. He needed to prepare for the war as well.
And for him, preparation of course meant... gambling.
Ahem. Card building.
He opened the Cheat Shop.
The cards were still Exploit , Merge , and Mirror . He took all of them.
The packs were also still Mega Code Packs.
He glanced at the Mod DLC voucher.
Well, it seemed attractive, but he wouldn’t be taking it for now. This was a very serious time. He needed to optimize his build and didn’t have any room to experiment with new cards. He also really needed to hit the cards he wanted reliably.
He opened one of the Mega Code Packs.
The cards inside were: Optimize , Patch , Refactor , Debug , Import .
He looked at them carefully.
Optimize was obviously a no-brainer.
But he was torn between picking Patch or Import.
On one hand, he really needed Import to solve Dante’s berserker problem, especially now that they were going to war. On the other hand, he really needed Patch for his experimental builds.
He thought deeply for a long time.
Eventually, he decided to go with Import.
While he really needed Patch for the experimental builds, it was wartime now. He didn’t have the luxury to experiment. Besides, he had passed on the Mod DLC for the same reason.
But after picking the cards, he had a moment of realization.
He held his head.
How could he have forgotten? Even if he took Import and took Dante’s skill, he would still need a Patch card to remove the debuff. What was he thinking?
But then he noticed something.
He still had a Patch card in his Owned Cards section.
He sighed in relief.
Well, he was overreacting a little. After all, he still had another Mega Code Pack to open and also still had over fifty thousand points left. As long as he wasn’t cursed with bad luck, he should be able to find another Patch.
Now that war was looming over them, Cipher wasn’t worried about wasting points. He wouldn’t follow his usual three-reroll rule.
He needed all the cards he could get to perfect his build.
While he still had Lyra, he also needed to be able to protect himself and not be a burden to her.
...
Cipher opened the second Mega Code Pack.
The cards this time were: Merge , Patch , Export , Fork , Import .
It seemed his luck was really good this time. He picked Merge and Fork without hesitation.
He looked at the shop. He was now 900 points down. But this was nothing.
It was time to begin the rerolls.
He did his first reroll. The cards were: Soul , Mirror , and Malware .
And the luck had gone to hell again. Not a single code card.
He took the Mirror.
He did another reroll, worth two hundred points this time. The cards were now: Rework , Fork , and Patch .
He took all of them. It seemed the last roll had just been a fluke and his luck was turning around.
He rerolled again. The cards were now: Exploit , Refactor , Patch .
He took the Exploit and Patch.
He rolled again: Debug , Import , Commit .
He was about to pick just Import and keep rerolling, but he paused.
He glanced at the cards, specifically the Commit card. He was currently lacking in useful high-level skills. If he could combine Commit with a few Forks, he should be able to at least acquire some decent high-level skills.
He decided to pick it too.
After rerolling, this time it was: Optimize , Malware , and a B-Rank defensive skill worth 1,600 points.
Although the skill was cheap, he passed on it. While it could be used for merging, he currently needed all his points for cards. Besides, he already had the Overkill cheat for defense.
He took the Optimize.
He rerolled again, now costing 600 points. The cards were: Debug , Class , Refactor .
He took the Class and kept rerolling.
Debug , Class , Mirror
He took the Class and Mirror and kept on.
Patch , Blank , Mirror .
He sighed, taking all three.
He wasn’t getting nearly as many Forks and Merges as he’d like. If he had taken the Mod DLC, this would be even worse. It seemed his decision had been wise.
He decided to slow down. He would reroll two more times to get the reroll price to a thousand, then try using what he had. If he continued like this, he really might go broke with nothing to show for it.
This time the cards were: Fork , Seed , Optimize .
He took all of them.
He rerolled for the final time at 1,000 points: Mirror , Delete , Merge .
He took all three.
He looked at the damage. 8,500 points spent. His balance was now 45,560.
As for the cards:
[Owned Cards: Commit, Optimize (3), Import (2), Exploit (2), Merge (3), Delete (2), Fork (4), Class (4), Patch (4), Mirror (7), Rework (4), Seed (4), Blank (5) & Export (2)]
He decided to stop there for now.
He also realized that what he was doing was stupid in the first place. Why waste points now when he already had multiple consciousnesses? He could fight and reroll for cards every time he leveled up, using his other consciousness to manage the shop and avoid wasting points.
He sighed at the wasted points.
Well, on the bright side, he could upgrade Mana Recovery early and have it generate infinite qi for him before he got into combat.
At the moment, he was regenerating 1.24% of his mana while out of combat and 2.48% while sleeping. But those were just the base rates. Thanks to his Majin class’s 50% boost in mana recovery, he was actually recovering 1.86% while out of combat and 3.72% while sleeping.
He decided to begin by applying the Optimizes. He currently had three of them, and he was going to use all of them. He needed as much mana as he could get.
After quickly applying the three Optimizes, the numbers changed to 2.14% while out of combat and 4.29% while sleeping. And those were just the base rates.
While accounting for the Majin boost, he was generating about 1,800 qi every hour while out of combat and about 3,500 while sleeping.
And this wasn’t even his final form.
He Forked the skill and Merged it, bringing its level to C+.
He then Forked again and Merged, bringing the level to B.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have another Merge, so he couldn’t upgrade beyond B. But this was good enough.
Now he was generating over 3,500 demonic qi an hour while out of combat and about 7,000 while sleeping.