Day of Imprisonment

The shop's decor was elaborate. Inside the wooden display cabinets were many different kinds of limited-edition 'cards'.

Including many well-known tabletop games, such as 'Three Kingdoms Kill', 'Magic: The Gathering', 'Monster Rumble', and so on.

Luo Xi placed his folded umbrella at the door and looked around.

Inside the shop, besides the clerk reading a book at the counter, there were no other customers.

Indeed, who would run out to buy card games on such a rainy day?

Moreover, this kind of physical card game was already relatively niche. Firstly, the price wasn't cheap, and secondly, there were many similar games online, so why spend money to buy them and play? Therefore, the poor business was not surprising.

"Feel free to look around. Let me know if you need anything."

The clerk, or perhaps the owner, was a man who looked to be in his thirties, wearing a T-shirt and slightly overweight. At this moment, he said a formulaic sentence. The tea set on his desk was a special porcelain cup with patterns of some magical creatures, like genies. The book in his hand was 'The World of Players'.

Luo Xi had also read this book.

It talked about looking at the world and life from a unique perspective and discovering many different and interesting things.

It could be read superficially or studied in depth. It was a very philosophical book.

And in his memory, there was a very important reason why Luo Xi had read this book.

The author of this book was also called 'Luo Xi'.

Because they shared the same name, he remembered it so clearly.

One wall of the shop was almost entirely covered with various types of cards, looking quite dazzling, with thousands of them. It was clearly a decorative style. Anyway, at first glance, it was quite shocking, but also a bit flashy, making it hard to focus.

Unless you got close and looked carefully, you would definitely be dazzled.

"Luo Xi, look, there's a dog here."

Wu Rui's voice interrupted Luo Xi's observation. Turning his head, he saw Wu Rui squatting on the ground, looking at a dog lying on a cushion next to the counter.

A black Labrador Retriever.

It didn't look very big.

It was probably only two or three months old, still in the very cute puppy stage.

The dog lazily slept, not caring about Wu Rui, who was stroking its head, and even cooperated with her petting, changing to a more comfortable position.

But after just one touch, Wu Rui's face changed drastically, and she began to tremble.

She looked as if she had seen a ghost.

Luo Xi immediately walked over.

"What's wrong?"

"You'll know if you touch this dog."

Wu Rui's tone suddenly became serious, and she looked warily at the clerk over there, who had already revealed a meaningful smile.

Luo Xi reached out and touched the dog.

Then he immediately saw a line of text appear above the dog's head.

【Watchdog】, Creature, Rule Attribute, Other Attributes: Unknown, Can be Cardized - As the name suggests, this is a watchdog. Its role is to guard the house and protect the owner. In short, as long as you don't provoke it, it won't bother with you.

No wonder Wu Rui looked like she had seen a ghost.

Clearly, this shop was not normal. After all, what normal person would come up with a shop name like 'Bikini Bottom Card Shop', which sounded so neurotic?

But Luo Xi thought this was a good thing, a lucky coincidence.

The clerk or owner should be a Memory Gatherer, but the other party seemed to have another way to obtain 【Memory】.

"How much for a Memory?" Luo Xi walked over and asked.

Wu Rui followed behind, gripping the handle of her knife, ready to deal with anything.

And the moment she gripped the handle of the knife, the originally lazy and very cute puppy suddenly turned its head to look at her, baring its teeth.

Incredibly, she actually felt a huge danger from this little dog.

"Relax, don't forget this is a watchdog," Luo Xi said to Wu Rui, who was stunned, realized what was happening, and released the knife handle.

The puppy immediately returned to normal, as if it were harmless.

"Wise choice, lovely lady. As for you, sir... You want Memory, right?" The clerk said with a smile: "What I need to explain in advance is that the cards from the Day of Imprisonment cannot be bought with money. We only barter here, that is, exchange Spider Cards for Spider Cards. So, can I see your cards?"

Luo Xi flipped his hand and took out a card and placed it on the table.

The clerk looked at it.

"A weapon card? Hmm, 【Bloodstained Iron Hammer】. It possesses powerful attack power, but requires sufficient strength. However, using it will also increase strength. Could this be the weapon of some cleaner?" The clerk murmured to himself while appraising it with great interest.

"It is indeed from a cleaner," Luo Xi said.

"I knew it, I wouldn't be wrong about that. Good stuff. If you want to trade it, I can use a 【Memory】 to exchange for this 【Bloodstained Iron Hammer】. Do you agree?" The clerk looked up and asked.

"I don't agree."

Luo Xi reached out and took the card back.

The clerk was stunned, and it was obvious that he was reluctant.

Just like his performance, this was indeed a very good weapon card, but obviously, he was also a greedy merchant and clearly didn't intend to raise the price.

"In short, if you want to trade, there's only one 【Memory】. It's only worth that much."

The clerk's chubby face showed a firmness that he wouldn't raise the price.

"I think it can be exchanged for at least three 【Memories】," Luo Xi said with a smile, stating his price.

"Three? Haha, you're not sincere at all. It's only worth one, just one..." The clerk was obviously a skilled negotiator.

"If we can't agree, then forget it," Luo Xi said, putting the card away. He wasn't short of Memory, he was just testing the waters.

Then he turned his head and pointed at the dog.

"How much for the dog?"

"The dog is not for sale. After all, I need this dog to save my life. Everyone knows the rules of killing between Memory Gatherers, and everyone's mental state isn't very good. Their tempers, well, haha, you all know..."

"So, you opened this shop relying on the 【Watchdog】 and 【Merchant】 cards. This way, you only need a little capital to exchange cards for cards, buying low and selling high. You're very smart. This way, you can avoid the dangers in the checkpoint scenes and live happily," Luo Xi was still looking around.

"Heh, it's not as simple as you think. This kind of business can't be successful every time. There are also times when I lose everything. If there's no business for several times in a row, I can only risk entering some checkpoint scenes to get goods," the clerk said with some helplessness.

"I can see that your business here is indeed very average. Then, besides 【Memory】, do you have any other cards here?" Luo Xi asked.

"Of course, I'm a senior card merchant. Bikini Bottom has a good reputation in this area," the clerk said with a proud face: "What kind do you need?"

"【Duck Prophet】, do you have it?"

"..." The clerk was stunned, then with a hint of excitement: "Have you seen that card before?"

Luo Xi nodded.

The former immediately took out a booklet from under the counter. It was a well-made sketchbook, clipped together with special clips. It contained hand-drawn card patterns and handwritten text descriptions.

It was the kind of thing that was drawn and written manually, like a card encyclopedia.

It was very detailed, obviously something that took time and effort.

The clerk opened a page marked with a 'Special Creatures' bookmark and handed it to Luo Xi to look at: "Is this the one?"

Luo Xi just glanced at it and nodded.

"Not bad, but the pattern you drew is slightly different. The Duck Prophet is holding a chainsaw, a red one. On its clothes, the coat of arms on the chest says 'Spring River' instead of letters like 'DK'. As for the text description, some are missing... Do you need me to supplement it for you?"

"Can you? That would be great!" The clerk was a little excited: "To tell you the truth, what I like most is the card ability system in the Day of Imprisonment. I even spent a lot of time trying to draw a real illustrated book of all the cards from the Day of Imprisonment. I want to write a real card encyclopedia."

"But this is more difficult. I haven't seen some cards, so I can only rely on descriptions to... Uh, what are you holding? My God, you... you..."

Suddenly, the clerk saw that the person opposite him actually casually took out eight Spider Cards and flashed them in front of him.

And inside, many were cards he had never seen before, especially the 【Kurapika's Chains of Restriction】.

Without a doubt, for someone obsessed with the Spider Cards of the Day of Imprisonment, this was definitely an uncontrollable temptation, to the point that his breathing was somewhat stagnant for a moment.

The clerk was a smart man, and also a veteran among Memory Gatherers.

He immediately reacted.

"What do you want to exchange for? Memory? If you're willing, I can use a 【Memory】 to exchange for the information on those cards in your hand."

"No, I don't like taking advantage of others. If you want to see the information on these cards, you can only exchange it for equivalent information."

"Heh, I understand."

The clerk thought for a while and nodded in agreement.

Then, he snapped his fingers.

Bang~

A cloud of smoke flashed, and a delicate card album appeared out of thin air in front of him, like an open book. The entire cover was a lifelike, raised spider pattern, very realistic.

"This is a Card Collection Album. What? You guys haven't seen it before, have you?" The clerk saw the expressions of the two people opposite him and showed a smile, like looking at country bumpkins who had never seen the world, with sympathy, contempt, and a strong sense of superiority.