Master of Trading Star Card Game - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Lifelike Star Card Hologram

Xie Mingzhe calmed down in the ward for one night, sorting out the memories of the body’s original owner.

The body’s original owner grew up in an orphanage. Talented in painting, he was admitted to the Fine Arts Department of Capital University through College Entrance Exam for Art. The new term would begin on September 1, and today was August 1. With one month left, he must be prepared as soon as possible.

First of all, he had to get out of the hospital. It took a lot of money to stay in the intensive care unit. He had no relatives in this world, and he did not know who paid for his medical expenses. Thinking of this, Xie Mingzhe was restless. He hurriedly wore slippers to look for the doctor in charge.

At eight in the morning, the boy in the ward 7 suddenly pulled the door open and came out.

Doctor Qin, who was making the rounds of the wards, raised his eyebrows and looked at Xie Mingzhe in confusion: “Xie Mingzhe? What are you going to do instead of lying down on the bed to recover?” Generally, patients just waking up from the vegetative state would become very confused at first, and it took a long time for them to accept the changes of the world. But this boy was very strange, showing no blank or frustrated expression. He ran out in the early morning with his slippers without putting on socks, but he was full of spirit and energy.

“Doctor, when can I be discharged?” Xie Mingzhe looked at the doctor seriously. “And, how do I pay for my medical expenses?”

“Your body-segment data is normal now. I will observe it for another day. If there is no problem, I will give you a hospital discharge certificate tomorrow.” Doctor Qin walked up to him. Seeing his clear and bright eyes, Doctor Qin’s voice softened: “As for the cost of hospitalization, you don’t have to worry. Because you have bought critical medical insurance before, the insurance company will pay for you when you are discharged from hospital.”

“Thank you.” Xie Mingzhe breathed a sigh of relief. He remembered that the orphanage had bought him medical insurance when he graduated from high school. Since the insurance company would bear the cost of treatment, he would not be in debt. This was good news for him.

After returning to the room, Xie Mingzhe began to arrange his personal belongings. Before his injury, he went to a themed restaurant for an interview but fell off the third floor accidentally, then he was sent to the hospital by the crowd. What he had were only a room card, an ID card and a smartphone.

The ID card had his photo on it and was bound to his bank card, which made it impossible to be embezzled. In his memory, this room card was the one he temporarily rent in a low-rent house with ten square meters. As for the smartphone, it was the cheapest one he bought through hard work. There were few phone numbers on his phone since he didn’t have many friends in this world.

Therefore, nobody might pay attention to his change of disposition and soul.

After arranging his belongings, Xie Mingzhe came to the window in a hospital gown.

Outside the window, there were many tall buildings and skyscrapers with over one hundred floors. There were also seven or eight floors of criss-crossed suspended lanes with various kinds of strange-shaped levitated vehicles running on it. Xie Mingzhe observed the world curiously with open eyes.

He lived in the intensive care unit on the third floor, so he could see downstairs clearly.

Xie Mingzhe happened to see a girl passing by with a particularly adorable pet downstairs, he had never seen the pet before, which was taller than one meter and had long ears, jumping around on foot. Was that a rabbit?

Was there such a big rabbit? It was cute in pink. However, didn’t the hospital ban pets? Pets carried a lot of infectious pathogens, what if they passed them on to patients?

Xie Mingzhe was confused. The question couldn’t be explained by the memory of the original owner of the body.

While Xie Mingzhe was thinking about that, Doctor Qin opened the door and came in. The middle-aged doctor had a good temper and a gentle voice. After a full examination, the doctor said, “Since you’ve been in bed and supported by the nutritive medium for two months, the muscles are atrophied to a certain extent and your weight dropped dramatically. Exercise more after discharge, and you will recover slowly.”

Xie Mingzhe was reduced to skin and bones because of the injury. It was normal to be skinny after lying on the bed as a vegetable for one month. He used to be in good shape and knew how to exercise, so he didn’t worry about it.

Downstairs another little girl walked over, with a pet rabbit like that he had just seen. The rabbit was a few centimeters taller than the girl. Xie Mingzhe, this time, couldn’t control his strong curiosity but asked: “Doctor Qin, what is the pet beside that little girl? Is the hospital now allowed to bring pets in?” This was a thing that he couldn’t find answer from the memory of the body’s original owner. So it would not be strange to ask it, Xie Mingzhe thought.

“That’s a card hologram.” Doctor Qin explained, “The hospital won’t let pets in. We’re not veterinarians.”

“Card hologram?” Xie Mingzhe was confused.

“Don’t you play the game?” Doctor Qin quipped, “There are just a few young people who don’t play this game.”

“Well, I really don’t pay much attention to games.” With an awkward smile, Xie Mingzhe reached out his hand and scratched his head. He came from a poor planet and surely didn’t know the fashion trending of the prosperous capital. In the doctor’s eyes, he must be a bumpkin.

Card hologram? What it was on earth?

Xie Mingzhe remembered the word secretly and planned to search for it after the doctor left.

Doctor Qin finished the examination and told Xie Mingzhe, “Your stomach is still sensitive. Have some liquid food in the next three days, and then you could eat as usual. But, remember not to have anything stimulating. Bear it in mind.”

Xie Mingzhe nodded obediently: “Got it. Thank you, doctor.”

When the doctor left, Xie Mingzhe immediately sat cross-legged on the bed and tried to search for the keyword “Star Card Hologram” on his mobile phone.

A whole bunch of information quickly popped up, which made Xie Mingzhe startled.

It turned out that these star card holograms came from a game called Star Card Storm.

It was a popular Holographic Card Battle Online Game around the Galaxy, which had been in operation for ten years with more than three billion users.

The official had launched card league matches ten years ago, which went viral since then. There were many professional card players who depended on it, as well as various kinds of regular card clubs.

As a well-known star conflict network battle game, Star Card Storm had been playing the leading role for ten years due to its own merits.

The diverse kinds of cards that were officially called “Star Card” served as the core of the game.

Star Card could be used to fight on the holographic network; besides, a large number of fun pet cards could be miraculously transformed in reality. For instance, the most famous [Long-eared Rabbit Star Card] could transform into a big cute rabbit, which was lifelike.

With the release of the game, girls went crazy. Pet cards such as Persian Cat, Teddy Dog, Long-eared Rabbit became popular worldwide in a very short time. Almost every girl had several pet cards – they could play with the summoned pets when they were free – although the pets were illusions created by holographic projection and did not exist, they were adorable.

Apart from the pet cards that were popular with girls and almost out of stock, there were also many battle star cards.

Xie Mingzhe took a look at the high-rated battle cards on the network. For example, the top-of-the-line battle card [Flame Dragon], created by the ultra-popular player Nie Yuandao, could summon a flaming dragon that can release the “Firestorm” to sweep across and burn all the illusions around it to ashes; Tang Muzhou’s battle card [Thousand-year-old God Tree] was more powerful – it could directly summon a god tree blotting out the sky and covering the sun. Numerous green vines quickly spread like tentacles, powerful enough to instantly strangle its surrounding illusion creatures.

With the emergence of these top-level battle cards, matches held by the National Star Card League had become more and more exciting.

After ten years of development, today’s National Star Card League boasted a high standard. The business models of major clubs were also very mature. The number of participants in the non-governmental matches had been over 100 million, not to mention the top official league match had an viewing rate over 30%, and the income of the top card players in the National Star Card League was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

It was said that top card players like Nie Yuandao and Tang Muzhou had an annual income of over 100 million, and the number of their fans was comparable to the top stars.

This reminded Xie Mingzhe of e-sports games such as League of Legends and StarCraft, which were globally popular on Earth. Xie Mingzhe also played this kind of competitive games at the university. But he didn’t expect that Star Card Storm had almost become a national game – 80% of citizens were players, which was unimaginable.

Players in this game were allowed considerable freedom – they could create original cards by themselves. For example, the two top battle cards Flame Dragon and Thousand-year-old God Tree that Xie Mingzhe just saw were all original cards created by professional players. Netizens could also make their own unique cards and raise their level, which was one of the reasons why Star Card Storm had been in operation for ten years.

After reading the information, Xie Mingzhe really admired the developer of this game.

As a student of science in the 21st century, he had studied computer programming. At that time, the technology was not as advanced as now and people could not develop such a game. Today the engineers were really awesome and had developed advanced technologies, especially “Star Card Hologram Technology” which could put the creatures on star cards into the real world for people to entertain. Xie Mingzhe almost thought that the pet besides the little girl was real!

According to the introduction online, the main differences between real pets and card pets were the shadow and penetration.

Star card hologram was shadowless under the lights, and people could directly pass through it. After all, it was just a visual image produced by high technology, which didn’t exist in the material world. Therefore, Doctor Qin recognized that a star card hologram at once – people in this world had long been accustomed to various hologram creatures, but Xie Mingzhe was shocked by it.

Xie Mingzhe wanted to search for more game information. At that moment, a text message suddenly appeared on his mobile phone, saying: “Xie Mingzhe, I am your landlord, Aunt Zhang. I just checked the account and found your rent for July, 800 crystal coins, not been paid. Please pay off as soon as possible.”

Xie Mingzhe was stunned for the message. The rent for July? Alright, he came to the capital city and rent a little house where he could live temporarily. Unexpectedly, he had become a vegetable and laid in the hospital for the whole month. As a result, the rent did not pay.

Xie Mingzhe checked the balance of his bank card immediately with his mobile phone.

Central Bank: “Dear Mr. Xie, your account balance is 1000 crystal icons.”

Xie Mingzhe: “……”

800 crystal icons for the rent, only 200 left.

According to the memory of the original owner of the body, the commodity prices in this world were the same as that in 2018s. How long could he support himself with only 200 crystal icons?

How could a poor man like him live? After the rebirth, he would be starved to death?!

It was an annoying problem. Xie Mingzhe rubbed his temples and began to think about how to survive in this strange world.