Miracle Card Shop: All My Cards Can Be Actualize

Behind Alaric Beaumont, the Patriarch of the Beaumont family was a ginger-haired woman, her waist-length hair cascading like silk over her shoulders, and her white dress making her resemble a European porcelain doll.

"Sloth!?" Daniel muttered under his breath as he realized who she was. This is the most astonishing thing Daniel had ever seen since his resurrection.

"Oh... Where are my manners? I am Alaric Theodore Valerian Louise Frederick Beaumont," the old man announced, speaking his long and sophisticated name with pride. Displaying his noble demeanor, he gracefully bowed to Daniel. "At your service, Lord Emberweave," the old patriarch added.

"Er... okay... please take your seat. We'll start the conference in a minute," Daniel replied, choosing to ignore the grand entrance of the Beaumont patriarch.

"Thank you for your understanding, Lord Emberweave," said Alaric Beaumont as he followed the valet to his seat, with Sloth obediently trailing behind him like a well-behaved child.

To say that this scene did not pique Daniel's curiosity would be a lie. He was now overwhelmed with questions. What had happened? Why was this happening? And how in the world did it come to be? Wasn't Sloth always in her wheelchair so she could sleep whenever she wanted?

How was she now walking on her own two feet? Was this old fox planning something?

His paranoia and newfound curiosity were so intense that he wanted to pause the conference and ask Sloth why she was up and about, and what exactly the hell is going on!?.

His curious gaze was so obvious that it caught the attention of everyone in the venue, making Envy feel a bit embarrassed and angry at the old fox Beaumont for playing this cheap trick on Daniel, who was not that well-versed in politics.

"Ahem..." Envy cleared her throat, using a bit of magic to snap Daniel out of his trance induced by the old man's trickery.

With Envy's help, Daniel faked a cough, adjusted his expression, and composed himself before starting.

"Thank you very much for gathering here tonight for the official founding day of the Order of Ember," Daniel spoke into the microphone at his seat, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"Since I'm not cut out to be a politician, even though being the leader and founder of this organization has forced me into the role, whether I like it or not, I'll spare you from any boring, self-indulgent speeches filled with noble thoughts or anything else that isn't of interest to you.

Instead, let's get to the facts you care about—namely, what you need to offer, what is prohibited, and what you will gain by following our playbook," Daniel said, pausing as the large screen behind him displayed the prepared visuals.

"As you can see," he continued as the screen displayed a regional map with four distinct colors: Blue, Green, Red, and Grey.

"The blue areas in Europe represent the sphere of influence of the Hightower, so we'll leave those aside. The green areas, primarily in North and South America, Southeast Asia, and the entirety of Japan, represent the Order of Ember's current sphere of influence.

Now, the red areas..." At this point, the red regions were highlighted on the map, covering parts of Russia, some areas of North America, Australia, and certain regions in Southeast Asia.

"Red signifies areas where there are ongoing power struggles. These regions are under the supervision of our team, who will decide on-site whether to allow them to exist as free parties or to bring them under the Order of Ember's management by any means necessary," Daniel explained, his voice cold and unfeeling.

His gaze swept over some of the attendees, causing them to shift uncomfortably in their seats.

"What about the gray areas?" one of the mage family leaders asked.

Daniel smiled and turned toward the big screen. "The gray areas are regions we consider outside our jurisdiction. We have not yet decided whether to treat them as neutral parties or enemies." The screen displayed Africa and the Qing Empire as gray areas.

"What about the Hightower? Are you regarding them as neutral parties, enemies, or allies?" another mage inquired.

"That is up to them," Daniel replied, pausing to scan the room before continuing. "I have tolerated many cheap tricks and lowball tactics from the Hightower until now. But... I'm just a simple human. Even though I hate complications and am a bit lazy to retaliate since their tricks didn't cause me much harm and I didn't lose anything, my tolerance has its limits.

"And it has already exceeded such limits for quite some time. The reason I haven't retaliated harshly is not due to any goodness in my heart or anything like that. It's because I haven't finished my preparations yet," Daniel said, directing his words at the Hightower representatives, causing some of them to gulp and feel uneasy.

"I hope that answers your question," Daniel concluded, looking at the mage who had asked about the Hightower.

"Pardon me," another mage said, raising his hand. Daniel's gaze made the mage uncomfortable, but he suppressed the feeling and asked, "When you said you had prepared, what do you mean by that preparation?"

Daniel let out a cold smile. "I'll speak about that in just a moment. Please be patient."

The screen then showed the flashing red areas around the world—more than a hundred, some large and some small—flashing simultaneously. Daniel glanced at his watch.

"Ten minutes after the conference... the timing is impeccable," he muttered, as the screen switched to a live feed from an on-site drone camera. The footage showed mages performing a large-scale ritual in public, disregarding any secrecy. The ritual site was atop a tall building, with mages gathering and preparing the ingredients and power sources for the ritual.

"There are about 300 or more mage families who think they can create chaos in the Curtained World to undermine the Order of Ember's authority to govern and maintain order. I'll ask you just once: if anyone in this conference room knows or has a relationship with these families, tell them to stop before I decide to look into their names and deal with them one by one," Daniel stated in a cold tone.

"I'll give you all five minutes to warn them," Daniel said, then waited in silence for five minutes, doing nothing.

Five minutes passed, and none of the people in the room had contacted anyone. Seeing this, Daniel let out a small smile. It seemed they were testing him to the end, which worked just as well.

"The five minutes are up. From now on, I'll assume that everyone here has no connection to the troublemakers undermining my authority. If anyone pleads for them, I'll assume they're in cahoots with those people," Daniel said, then pressed a button on his wrist console.

At that moment, some people began to panic as their phones appeared to malfunction. They tried to fix them, but to no avail—their phones couldn't reach outside.

"What I just did was activate a special jamming device. All phones, communicators, and communication magic are now unable to reach outside this conference room," Daniel said, punching some keys on his wrist console once again.

"Randomly choose and eliminate half of them. Display your operation in the conference room," he commanded through the wrist console.

[Yes sir!] a cold, unfeeling voice responded from Daniel's wrist console.

The big screen behind Daniel changed, showing a large world map with over 300 red areas. Then, the holo projector on the ceiling displayed 150+ screens showing the situations in these areas worldwide.

Each screen showed mages either performing rituals without regard for the rules requiring secrecy from ordinary people or blatantly capturing and kidnapping ordinary people, using their magic to fight against the law and making local authorities helpless.

"As you can see, this is similar to what happened with the Hightower when they betrayed Lady Envy, resulting in their magical phenomena being exposed. The difference is that Hightower's exposure was due to internal mismanagement, while this is a deliberate attempt to destabilize the order and prestige of the Order of Ember."

With this, the massacre began as bullets rained down from the sky, precisely destroying the mages' mana shields and killing them.

Mages displaying their power against local authorities fell victim to mana-burning grenades, which resembled smoke grenades with glittering substances that burned the mana in the area, rendering them unable to use magic and crippling their abilities.

Without magic, mages were no different from ordinary people. Some were shot dead by police and local authorities, while others were arrested on the spot and beaten by the very ordinary people they despised.

On all 150+ screens, the troublesome mages were effectively neutralized, either by invisible drones flying undetectably above or by local authorities. This situation was beyond the wildest dreams of the mages in the conference room. They never imagined that ordinary people would have weapons capable of effectively countering them.

"As you can see, we have developed weapons that can counter mana usage abilities. We have armed local authorities with these weapons, especially those with good relationships with us. Examples include Japan, South Korea, the Ming Federation, and North America..." Daniel was about to continue, but one of the mages immediately stood up in anger.