Master of Trading Star Card Game - Chapter 17

Chapter 17 – Big Shot

After returning to his individual space, Xie Mingzhe concentrated on studying the two seven-star cards that Brother Chen had given him.

What puzzled him, was that the patterns on the back of these two seven-star cards were very gorgeous, but there was no embellishment on the front of these cards. There was only one goddess on [Storm Goddess]; [Ice Goddess] also had only one character without any background decorations like temples or churches.

No background? Xie Mingzhe was stunned after noticing that – did he make cards the wrong way from the very beginning?

Senior Brother Qi had said that the higher the card maker’s Inner Spirit, and the finer and more detailed the card, the stronger its strength. But “detailed” had referred to the delicacy of the main part on the card. For example, on a character card, the character’s clothes, appearance, and even the hair should be very detailed, so the hologram summoned would be more realistic – rather than depicting a bunch of flashy backgrounds for characters!

Xie Mingzhe, who had just understood this point, became enlightened all of a sudden.

He quickly went to his study and picked up a piece of Nebula paper. He closed his eyes , connecting his Inner Spirit to the World of Star Card.

As he directed his Inner Spirit on depicting in his mind, a slim beauty wearing historical costume gradually appeared on the Nebula paper – no green trees, rivers or lawns; only Lin Daiyu.

Xie Mingzhe took a deep breath and ended his imagination.

Since the original author had card copyright, of course he could modify his card.

After being modified, [Lin Daiyu]’s data had obviously improved – Attack and Defense didn’t changed much, while Agility raised from 1 to 15, and the skill description changed from “10% chance of triggering instant death effect on plant cards” to “30% chance of triggering instant death effect on plant cards”.

It seemed that his thinking was right.

Xie Mingzhe then re-created a [Wu Song]. He painted a more detailed muscular Wu Song, coloured his clothes, and made his facial features more strongly defined. This time the card data had also improved, and the chance of triggering instant death effect on tiger cards also increased to 30%.

Xie Mingzhe was pondering over the cards when he heard the prompt sound, “You got new emails, please check them out.”

Xie Mingzhe had heard the prompt sound several times since he entered his individual space. He had thought they were all official advertising emails, so he ignored them for the time being. Now the sound appeared again and Xie Mingzhe, whose mind was interrupted, walked into the living room with some annoyance. He’s going to delete all unread mails.

But as soon as he clicked the email icon on the LCD screen, he saw many emails from other players.

Shuang Shuang: “Hello, Uncle Chubby. I am a member of the Adjudication Club. We are very interested in the [Wu Song] that you made and want to buy in bulk. Please reply as soon as you see this email.”

Shuang Shuang: “Is Uncle Chubby here? Please reply to me if you see this mail!”

Shuang Shuang: “Uncle, Uncle Chubby! Please! We are waiting for you to reply!”

More than a dozen emails in the mailbox were sent by Shuang Shuang. Xie Mingzhe soon remembered that she spent 140 gold coins to buy [Wu Song] in the black market. She said that the Adjudication Club wanted to buy [Wu Song] in bulk? Would the club make a great deal with him?

Xie Mingzhe replied to Shuang Shuang with light in his eyes, “I’m so sorry. I just saw your email. You want to buy [Wu Song] in bulk, right? I just improved this card, and its data is better than before. In terms of price, if you buy more than ten [Wu Song] cards, I can give you a discount.”

Shuang Shuang almost burst into tears with excitement when she received Xie Mingzhe’s reply. She immediately contact Can Yang, “Vice president, Uncle Chubby finally replied to me!”

Can Yang was thrilled to hear that, saying, “Ask him to come to our club base quickly.”

Shuang Shuang emailed back to Xie Mingzhe, “Uncle Chubby, You now have admission to our base, which you can transfer directly to using the galaxy map. I’m waiting for you in our club.”

Walking to the galaxy map, Xie Mingzhe found a small star highlighted in red as expected. It was the Adjudication Club’s territory.

This small star hadn’t appeared on his galaxy map before. Maybe it was because each club had its own territorial star that strangers couldn’t find or enter, unless they had been given admission.

Xie Mingzhe arrived at the Adjudication Club’s territory. Once he landed, he saw many tall buildings painted in red. The seven-story club building was standing right in front of him. Shuang Shuang met him at the entrance and took him to the office immediately, saying, “Uncle Chubby, come in. Several legends are waiting for you.”

Xie Mingzhe was somewhat nervous because it was his first big deal. He took a deep breath and put on a cheerful look before walking in.

The office had a large space with simple and neat decoration.

A badge hung on the middle of the wall. A golden, sharp sword penetrated through the domineering word ‘Adjudication’ that had a fire effect, which looked as if it was about to burn. The badge was so well designed that even if Xie Mingzhe didn’t know the club, he could tell from it that this club was powerful.

Two grey-haired old men, whose IDs were 9876543 and 9877521, were sitting on the sofa. Can Yang and Huan Yue were standing beside them with the titles of ‘Vice President of the Adjudication Club’ and ‘President of the Adjudication Club’ above their heads respectively.

Xie Mingzhe, “???”

Both the president and the vice president were present, but why did these two old men attend the meeting?

Xie Mingzhe wondered, but as a businessman, he said cordially with an amiable smile, “It’s good to see you. Shuang Shuang told me that your club wants to buy my [Wu Song] cards in a large number?”

Looking at Uncle Chubby smiling in front of him, Huan Yue put aside his strange feeling and asked, “You are Uncle Chubby who creates [Wu Song]?”

“Yes. The first [Wu Song] is not good enough, so I improved it. The [Wu Song] that I have just made is better than the one I sold to Shuang Shuang, do you want to have a look?” Since it was a business, if his card had good data, he could sell it at a higher price, so he gave his improved card to Huan Yue.

Instead of looking at it himself, Huan Yue directly gave the card to one of the old men sitting on the sofa with respect.

The old man looked at it and asked, “How many [Wu Song]s have you made?”

Although they were old, they had a young voice. Their low tone sounded stable.

Xie Mingzhe was stunned, saying, “You are?”

Huan Yue introduced them on his own initiative, “They are Legend Nie and Legend Lan.”

The old man nodded towards him, saying, “Hello, I’m Nie Yuandao, a professional player in the Adjudication Club.”

The other old man said, “Hello, I’m Legend Nie’s apprentice, Shan Lan, also a professional player.”

Xie Mingzhe, “…”

God! To Xie Mingzhe’s surprise, such powerful legends had come to meet him. When he was reborn in this world, he searched  Star Card Storm while in the hospital, and read some comments about these two legends. Nie Yuandao seemed to be as well-known as Tang Muzhou and had extensive popularity.

Xie Mingzhe felt flattered by their personal presence, saying hurriedly, “It’s nice to meet you, legends.”

Shan Lan smiled and said with a soft voice, “Are you stunned by our images? These are our smurf accounts that we created casually. The competition is around the corner, so we’d better not log on to our main accounts.”

“Well, I see.” Recovering from the shock, Xie Mingzhe found that Legend Lan had a very gentle voice. The disordered ID numbers and the image of bizarre old men showed that these accounts were surely their smurf accounts, but how could you create smurf accounts so casually that the images actually looked uglier than his Uncle Chubby’s.

Nie Yuandao asked in a deep and steady voice again, “How many [Wu Song]s have you made?”

“I sold one [Wu Song] to Shuang Shuang. I have ten new [Wu Song]s waiting to be sold.” Xie Mingzhe answered.

“That is to say, you have 11 cards?” Nie Yuandao paused and said, “I want to buy all your [Wu Song]s and its production copyright. Please give me your offer.”

“???” Xie Mingzhe looked blank.

Seeing that ‘Uncle Chubby’ was confused, Shan Lan explained softly, “If you transfer the copyright to Legend Nie, you won’t be allowed to make this card in the future, instead, Legend Nie will copy this card.”

Xie Mingzhe understood, scratching his head and asking, “How much money can I get?”

Although he wouldn’t be allowed to make [Wu Song]s after transferring the copyright, he could accept it if the price was reasonable. All in all, he could make other cards and earn more through selling the copyright. Besides, selling cards one by one consumed too much energy and time.

Having this in mind, Xie Mingzhe said, “Legend Nie, give me your offer for reference.”

Nie Yuandao said directly, “300,000 for the copyright. What do you think?”

10 game coins could exchange for 1 crystal coin, so 300,000 game coins could exchange for 30,000 crystal coins. He could live on this money for several years!

Legend Nie was a big shot who wouldn’t lie about the price. Thinking of his 200 crystal coins in his bank card, Xie Mingzhe answered happily, “OK. Deal!”

Looking at Huan Yue, Nie Yuandao said, “President, please pay him first, I’ll transfer the money to you later.”

Huan Yue nodded and sent him a transaction request directly.

Xie Mingzhe saw Huan Yue swiftly typing 300,000 in the transaction column.

Seven digits; 3,000,000?

Xie Mingzhe was stunned, “Didn’t he say 300,000?”

Huan Yue explained, “The recent exchange rate between game currency and live currency is about 10:1. 300,000 that Legend Nie said is live currency, which is 3,000,000 when exchanged for game currency.”

Xie Mingzhe, “…………………………”

The poor boy, with only 200 crystal coins in his bank card, suddenly saw so many 0s that he felt dazzled.

Shan Lan thought this simple-minded fat uncle was very interesting. He smiled and asked, “Uncle Chubby, don’t you understand the value of this card?”

Xie Mingzhe touched his nose with embarrassment, “To be honest, I just started playing this game a few days ago. I don’t know much about the card market. I previously went to the auction where Legend Tang’s [Tuberose] was sold for 660,000 gold coins. But the card’s Health and Defense are very high. Even if my card is upgraded to level 70, its Health and Defense will still be very low. Is the price provided by Legend Nie too high…”

Although he lacked money, he couldn’t take such huge sums of money without qualms. He had to figure things out first.

Shan Lan explained patiently, “No. The price of Tang Muzhou’s [Tuberose] is only for that single card, and the price we’re offering you is for the copyright buyout. Moreover, your card is not a general battle card, but a one-time function card. It seems that you don’t know that the instant death effect is a new skill that has only recently been added to the database. In every match, a player can only bring one card with the instant death effect, which is highly focused in targeting certain cards and can instakill an opponent’s card unexpectedly to disrupt the opponent’s rhythm. This is a tactical card, so attributes like Health and Defense don’t matter; the key is its additional skill.”

Hearing his words, Xie Mingzhe was very shocked. He had thought that the cards he made and the instant death effect were very common! He had deliberately visited the black market to investigate the price before selling his cards. But it actually turned out that the two stall owners in the black market didn’t know its value either?

Looking at Uncle Chubby’s shocked face, Shan Lan continued to say softly, “Uncle Chubby, my Shifu doesn’t wish to buy the copyright of this card for fear of it. His set of playing cards has dozens of beast cards, and [White Tiger] is just one of them. Even if someone else uses [Wu Song] to go against him, it doesn’t matter – our more important purpose is to make you aware of your talent and hire you as a professional card designer for the Adjudication Club. ”

Nie Yuandao was too serious and many people were afraid of him, so when a negotiation was needed, he usually handed the task over to his gentle apprentice. Hearing Shan Lan’s words, he interjected in a low voice, “I have told our club high-level officials about your things. If you, Uncle Chubby, agree to accept our offer, you can work for the Adjudication Club starting next week, with a monthly salary of 20,000. Every time you design a strong card, the club will give you a high bonus.”

Xie Mingzhe, “……………”

Happiness came too suddenly, and Xie Mingzhe felt like he was dreaming.