Master of Trading Star Card Game - Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – A Strange Original Card

Xie Mingzhe reckoned that the Additional Skill of the [Lin Daiyu], as its name suggested, to trigger off instant death of flower cards, was automatically created by the system in accordance with his imagination as he was thinking of the story of Daiyu burying the flowers while picturing the [Lin Daiyu] that was designed to overcome most flower cards. Unfortunately, its Defense was low and the chance of using its skill was only 10%. In other words, its data was terrible.

What should he do with this card? To sell it for several gold coins? He was too badly off. Thinking of it, Xie Mingzhe concentrated attentively on producing the [Lin Daiyu] cards again.

He had the right to produce the cards as he had its copyright, while others were prohibited from doing the same thing.

Xie Mingzhe had used up the Nebula paper to make 9 [Lin Daiyu] cards.

The reason why he had made 9 same cards was that he hadn’t made any cards before. He wanted to learn the techniques and gain more experience of creating cards. He had noticed that the more he focused on the cards, the clearer the picture and the better the data would be. For instance, the last [Lin Daiyu] card he made had different data from the first card. Although its Defense was 16, it was indeed improved.

Xie Mingzhe collected the 9 [Lin Daiyu] cards and took them to the black market with optimism.

After arriving at the black market, Xie Mingzhe walked around it first, because he knew he would be cheated easily as a newbie if he didn’t know the market clearly in the game. Studying the market first was the habit he developed through years of playing online games. The black market was a suitable place to do market research as it had all kinds of cards.

After investigating, he had a basic understanding of the market.

The original one-star cards that had good data and powerful skills would be sold at auction or leveled up to seven stars and then sold at a high price. In the black market, the one-star cards with the ordinary data were sold for 50 gold coins (it was equivalent to 5 RMB in the real world), the cards with terrible data but a beautiful surface were sold for 20 to 30 gold coins and other cards having bad data and ugly surface were sold for less than 10 gold coins.

A lot of upgrading materials were needed for a one-star card to be leveled up to a seven-star card, so the one-star cards were cheap in general, especially those having terrible data were sold at a very low price. Players bought those one-star cards in the black market mainly because they were originally created. Such a card was valueless and players dealt in it as a collection.

Having known the price, Xie Mingzhe walked to a large stall, whose signboard read ‘Purchasing original cards’. He asked politely, “Hello, I have some original cards. Do you want them?”

The stall owner took his card and looked at it, “The image on the card is pretty good, but the data is too low.”

Xie Mingzhe had already prepared himself for being laughed at. He smiled and said, “I’m just an inexperienced beginner. The data is indeed terrible. How much can I sell it at?”

The stall owner rubbed his chin, poring over the card. He felt that this card was somewhat strange.

The image on the card was quite beautiful – a delicate and touching girl whose face was bathed in tears, as well as realistic petals and trees as auxiliary decorations – it was just like a painting. He had never seen such a pretty card. But the terrible data was no match for the beautiful image. That’s weird.

The stall owner asked confusedly, “Are you the maker of this card? Are there any more?”

Xie Mingzhe took out the remaining eight, “That’s all. Do you want to buy them?”

The stall owner thought for a moment and said, “These cards are really beautiful, but the data is so terrible. They are pleasant to the eye but of no use. Besides, they are character cards, not cute animal cards, which are not very popular in the market. I can only sell them to players who like collecting character cards. Well, nine cards for a total of 30 gold coins, how about that?”

“30 is too low for such a beautiful card.”

“30 is not a low price. You can ask other stall owners nearby. Only one-star cards with good data can sell 50 gold coins each. Cards having pretty images only are sold for 20 gold coins each on average. This card is quite beautiful, so I offer 30 for it. Maybe I will fail to sell the cards to other players!”

What the stall owner said agreed with the market prices Xie Mingzhe had known. After all, this card’s Defense was too low. Actually 20 gold coins or so was what he had expected, and 30 was higher than that. Xie Mingzhe replied without hesitation, “Well, then 30 gold coins for each. 9 cards total 270 gold coins. They are all yours!”

“OK!” Cash on delivery, they made a deal.

Xie Mingzhe got 270 gold coins and went to the stall selling Nebula papers again.

The stall owner greeted Xie Mingzhe as he saw the latter, “It’s you, Uncle Chubby. Want to buy more Nebula papers?”

Xie Mingzhe said with a smile, “I’m a regular customer, so still 10 gold coins for one paper, is that okay?”

The stall owner seemed to be depressed. He lowered his voice, “You must not tell others about this price, or I will lose my money.”

Xie Mingzhe gave a smile showing “I know”, then he said, “OK. Then I can buy papers at your stall every day.”

The stall owner, “………”

Give me a break! You said that you were a novice without money, but why did you get money in a blink of an eye? You went back to bought Nebula papers in just half an hour. Did you really have no money?

Suddenly, the stall owner believed that if this guy went into business, he must be a profiteer.

Xie Mingzhe felt very happy because he bought some Nebula papers at a low price.

To buy the Nebula paper for 70 gold coins and sell 10 [Lin Daiyu] cards for 300 gold coins. Every time, he could make a profit of 230 gold coins, equal to the real currency 23 crystal coins, which was enough for a meal.

When Xie Mingzhe got proficient in making cards, to make 10 [Lin Daiyu] cards only took him half an hour. To earn more than twenty crystal coins in half an hour was economical. As long as he persisted in making cards, his life would get better gradually. After all, penny and penny laid up will be many.

After Xie Mingzhe made up his mind, with a good mood, he went back to his personal apartment and continued to make the [Lin Daiyu] card.

***

As soon as he left the black market, a customer came to Boss Zhang’s stall.

The ID of the player was “Hong Zhu”. The figure with a long ponytail was about 1.6 meters tall, wearing a red tight dress and a pair of black high-heeled sandals. She said in a clear voice, “Boss Zhang, do you have new original cards these days?”

The boss replied respectfully, “Sister Hong Zhu, pick whatever card you want.”

Hong Zhu said, “Due to the preparation for the new season, our guild only collect cards with high Attack.”

The owner handed her a stack of four-star cards with high Attack, “If there are cards you like, 500 gold coins per card. As a regular customer, an affordable price.”

With bowed head, Hong Zhu picked cards carefully but only selected three good cards. Obviously, she was a little disappointed. When she gave the other cards back, she asked, “Anything else?”

The boss said, “All cards with high basic attributes are here. Would you mind having another look at these cards?”

Hong Zhu ran down the whole stall, and suddenly, a stack of special cards caught her attention. She squatted down and watched the card carefully. The card was named [Lin Daiyu], on which depicted a beauty who threw petals gently to the ground, with tears on her face and in her eyes and petals in her hands. The drifting petals were scattered all over the ground, the scene of which made Hong Zhu heartrending.

“Eh? This card is really beautiful.” Hong Zhu picked up the card and looked at its data —

Health 100, Attack 0, Defense 15. Apparently, it was a failed original card with extremely low attributes.

Its additional skill was “Daiyu Burying the Flowers”. What a strange skill name!

Hong Zhu looked further down. The description of its skill – to inflict severe damage on flower cards, with a 10% chance for instant death.

Instant death? Did it mean to destroy the target in an instant?

She had never seen this kind of compulsory judgment in online games before. Was the card a kind of tactical cards that could seckill the enemy, which was put forward by legend Tang?

Hong Zhu thought about it in her mind again.

It could cause huge damage to flower cards and had a 10% chance for triggering instant death.

As a one-star card, it had a 10% chance; if it was leveled up to a seven-star card, the chance would…

“! ! !” At that moment, Hong Zhu was startled and extremely terrified by the card, as if she was hit hard by a heavy hammer.

Seeing that her face turned pale with sudden fear, the stall owner thought she was indisposed and asked with concern, “sister Hong Zhu, what’s wrong with you?”

Taking a deep breath to slow down her rapid heartbeat, Hong Zhu stood up slowly and asked with a calm face, pretending to the stall owner that she was indifferent to the card, “Is this your new card?”

The stall owner smiled and said, “Yes, I have bought nine [Lin Daiyu] cards.”

Hearing the owner’s words, Hong Zhu’s fingertips slightly trembled. She asked while trying to keep a peaceful voice, “Who made these cards that have elegant pictures on their faces?”

The owner replied, “I don’t know him and I can’t remember his name as he was supposed to be a newcomer that I haven’t seen before. The data of the card is terrible. For example, its Defense is 15. I have never seen such a low Defense.”

“Have you sold out all these nine cards?”

“Not yet. I have bought them just then.”

“I’ll take all of them.”

“What? You want to buy all these cards?” The stall owner was stunned.

“These cards are beautiful. I’ll buy them for girls in the guild to conduct collections.” Hong Zhu smiled, saying, “Quote a price for these cards. I’ll buy all of them.”

Hong Zhu was an influential figure in the game, though she was short in stature. As the president of Fenghua Guild, she was called ‘sister Hong Zhu’ by others respectfully. She was in charge of collecting cards and materials for Fenghua Club, so she studied the cards more incisively than most players in the game.

She had a special hobby – wandering in the black market to hunt out original cards. Although she feigned indifference and said that she loved the face of this card, the owner always thought the cards that Hong Zhu loved must be great and quoted the price for the cards intelligently, saying, “How about 60 gold coins for one card?”

While holding the card in her hand casually, Hong Zhu smiled and said, “You’re kidding me. Generally, such a useless one-star card will be sold for 20 gold coins in the market due to its terrible attributes, though it is beautiful. I’ve bought many seven-star cards from you, but you’re still trying to wangle more money from me. I won’t buy them. Go on and keep them for sale.”

She put down the card, turned on her heel and was about to go. The stall owner immediately called out to her, “Hey, I’m just joking. 35 gold coins, is that okay? To be honest, I bought it for 34. I don’t want to lose money.”

Hong Zhu knew that the profiteer certainly did not tell the truth, but such a price was nothing to her. She breathed a sigh of relief. When she turned around, she immediately put a smile on her face, trying to appear she was not troubled about that. She paid the bill and casually said, “Some girls at our association are collecting character cards recently, especially exquisite ones. If someone sells such character cards to you in the future, please keep them all for me. I want to give them to my sisters.”

“Okay, no problem!” The boss counted the money and smiled.

Hong Zhu turned around and left.

She walked around the black market to carefully search for other cards with instant death skills in large stalls acquiring cards. But she didn’t find any other cards like Lin Daiyu, so she unclenched her fist and relieved. Hong Zhu took a deep breath, then she quickly took off her helmet and turned to the office next door.

Next door, Xue Linxiang was checking documents about the league. Hong Zhu hurried in, her face pale.

Xue Linxiang wondered, “What happened? Why are you so anxious?”

Hong Zhu took a deep breath to calm down. She said quickly, “Sister Xue, I just found a particularly strange card in the black market. Its skill is triggering off instant death of flower cards!”

Xue Linxiang jumped to her feet out of shock, “Instant death? Targeted at flower cards?”

Hong Zhu nodded.

Xue Linxiang got a long face, “Immediately show the card’s data to me!”

Hong Zhu opened the flat-panel optical brain, which could exchange information, on the desktop, and signed in to call out the card. She pointed to the card’s data, “Terrible Base Attributes, and extremely low Defense – only 15 points – even if the card levels up to seven stars, its Defense won’t exceed 1000. But its skill…”

Xue Linxiang looked at the delicate and touching girl with tears on her face strewing petals over the ground, then suddenly she had a strange feeling.

This made her feel creepy.

——Daiyu Burying the Flowers: To inflict huge damage on flower cards,  10% chance of triggering instant death effect.

10% chance – this was a level 1 card. According to the rule, the chance would increase 1 point every time it raised 1 level. So when it raised to a level 70 black card, the chance would directly increase to 80%. Then its Effect Accuracy could be improved by using some special materials of high-quality. In the later stage, a black [Lin Daiyu] of level 70 would definitely have a 100% chance  of triggering this effect.

If Daiyu Burying the Flowers caused instant death to flower cards, the consequence would be too ghastly to contemplate.

Walking back and forth in her room, Xue Linxiang took a deep breath to calm down, saying, “The card’s basic data is trivial, and so is its 15 Defense, because it doesn’t need to guard against other cards in the least! It is just a function card that is mainly used to eliminate the opponent’s trump flower cards swiftly.”

She stopped talking and frowned, saying, “Xiao Tang has many flower cards in his set of playing cards, for example, the [Tuberose] that he sold. It is difficult to be killed as it has 100,000 HP and 50,000 Defense. However, the skill of Daiyu Burying the Flowers will inflict an instant death on Xiao Tang’s flower cards compulsorily. If someone uses it to compete against Tang Muzhou in the competition… You know the consequence, right?”

Hong Zhu nodded and said with her voice slightly trembled, “It will instakill legend Tang’s most powerful trump flower cards and disrupt his rhythm completely.”

Feeling a chill down her spine, Xue Linxiang said, “It can be claimed that this card will be the killer of Wood flower cards.”

Hong Zhu turned pale and kept silent for a long time.

She had an unerring instinct. Fortunately she bought all the cards, preventing them from spreading out. Otherwise, once card collectors from other clubs found these cards, they would upgrade them into seven-star black cards, which would pose a great threat to Tang Muzhou.

Xue Linxiang took a deep breath, looking at this card with a poignant style. She gave a rapier glance, “Targeted at flower cards… who made them?”

Hong Zhu nervously said, “The boss said that he did not remember the maker’s name. I will ask members of our association to investigate!”

Xue Linxiang clenched her fists, “We must find the maker as soon as possible!”

At the same time, Xie Mingzhe, who knew nothing about this, continued to draw Lin Daiyu in his personal apartment.

One Cousin Lin… two Cousin Lin…

His speed was getting faster and faster, and the picture more and more refined.

After making ten [Lin Daiyu] cards, Xie Mingzhe stopped. He stroked his chin and thought with a smile on his face, “Where should I sell them this time?”