Master of Trading Star Card Game - Chapter 23

Chapter 23 – Recognize Someone As Shifu?

“Recognize you as my Shifu?” Xie Mingzhe did not expect that the stranger in front of him would ask for this. He had thought the latter would buy his card or copyright in the same way as Legend Nie.

“Yes.” The man said as he took out 19 [Lin Daiyu] cards and put them in a row on the table.

Looking at the row of [Lin Daiyu], Xie Mingzhe felt shocked – these were made by him at the very beginning when he hadn’t known much about creating cards!

In addition to the character Lin Daiyu, there were decorations such as trees, flowers, and rivers on the card, and the IDE chance was only 10%. He didn’t know the market price at first, so he sold 19 [Lin Daiyu] cards for a low price at the black market, but the buyers were four different stall owners. Did this man buy all of them?!

“You bought all the [Lin Daiyu] cards from the black market?” Xie Mingzhe looked at him in amazement.

“Well, I’ve been following you all this time.” Tang Muzhou smiled slightly, with appreciation in his voice. “You are the first person who made an IDE card.”

Xie Mingzhe had heard of this from Legend Lan. The IDE skill had been added to the database very recently. It was just an incredible stroke of luck that [Lin Daiyu] and [Wu Song] fit the rules of the database, so they had an IDE skill. But he didn’t expect that someone had paid attention to him and bought all the [Lin Daiyu] cards he had sold at the black market!

Tang Muzhou went on, “According to card images, plant cards are divided into tree cards, vine cards, flower cards and succulent cards. Roses, lilies, and tuberoses are categorized as flower cards. Flower cards account for more than 20% of the plant cards. Once you have [Lin Daiyu], your opponent’s flower cards may be insta-killed at any time.”

“You are afraid that this card will put you at a disadvantage, so you bought them all?” Xie Mingzhe wondered.

“This card is indeed the flower cards’ nemesis, but not necessarily.” Tang Muzhou said calmly, “I’m not worried that it will subdude my cards.”

“Then why did you buy all the [Lin Daiyu] cards? Besides, today you even spent 660,000 to buy my revised [Lin Daiyu] card. Is this necessary?” Xie Mingzhe completely couldn’t understand what this rich player was thinking about.

“Of course.” Tang Muzhou smiled, his voice mild, “because I want to be familiar with you.”

“Be familiar with me?” Xie Mingzhe was confused.

“Yes. That’s really what I want to do.” Tang Muzhou said, “Now that you have created the first character IDE card, I’m sure that you can create other character cards with your considerable talent. You may create a totally new faction using character cards later. I haven’t seen a creative card designer like you for a long time.”

“Well, you’re so sweet.” Being praised by Tang Muzhou, Xie Mingzhe felt like he was about to become a god. Looking at the man’s smiling eyes, Xie Mingzhe scratched his nose and refocused on their talk, saying, “Guru, you just want to praise me?”

“Of course not. I want to teach you some skills in regards to designing cards, which will quickly enable you to make more powerful cards.” While saying this, Tang Muzhou took out the [Lin Daiyu] card that he had just bought at auction and compared it with its earlier version, saying, “Have you found any differences?”

“Yes. I drew too many decorations on the earlier version that has poor data, but on its latest version, I only drew characters and petals. Meanwhile, I increased its initial probability of using its skill to 30%. Is this the highest probability for a one-star card?”

“Yes. The probability of using its skills will increase 1% every time it levels. Since its initial probability is 30%, when it levels up to 70 and evolves into a black card, its probability will be 100%.”

“I see.” Xie Mingzhe scratched his chin as if he was thinking about something, “100% probability of triggering instant death effect. In other words, [Lin Daiyu] can insta-kill any flower card, no matter how powerful they are?”

“That’s not necessarily true.” Tang Muzhou said patiently, “You haven’t been to Arena before, so you are ignorant of skills in real-time combat. Let me explain the reason to you. Add me to your friendlist and come to my individual space.”

Xie Mingzhe immediately accepted Tang Muzhou’s friend request, then a door to Tang Muzhou’s individual space appeared in front of Xie Mingzhe.

Xie Mingzhe had never been to another player’s individual space before. He transferred to Tang Muzhou’s individual space with curiosity. There he found that Tang Muzhou’s apartment was just like his, which was simply decorated. It was obvious that this rich player had been in no mood for decorating the house in the game because the furniture and decoration in this space, having three bedrooms and one living room, hadn’t been changed at all.

The man directly led him to his study.

All three walls in the study were lined up with display cases, in which the sub-boxes were almost full. There were Repairing Stones, Experience Stones, Evolution stones and other materials in the leftmost display case; attributeless white cards including Effect Accuracy Improvement cards, Critical Strike Chance Improvement cards, Attack Enhancement cards and others in the middle display case; and seven-star cards, including some black cards having excellent data, in the rightmost display case.

This rich man was indeed an experiment maniac!

Translator’s Note:

About [Lin Daiyu]:

At the very beginning when Xie Mingzhe created [Lin Daiyu] for the first time, the author said it’s against “花卉卡” which means “flower and plant cards”, and keeps using this word. So I translated “花卉卡” into “flower and plant cards” in earlier chapters. But as the story goes, the author’s detailed explanation shows that  [Lin Daiyu] is only effective against flower cards. The author seems to think that “花卉” means “flowers” only, but in fact it means “flowers and plants”. In order not to make our readers feel confused, I’ve reedited the translation in earlier chapters.

And thanks proofreader Rhith for pointing out the mistake.

Xie Mingzhe really wanted to move all these display cases to his own space.

Seeing that Uncle Chubby had stopped to observe the display cases at the door, Tang Muzhou said with a smile, “Come in, please.”

After Xie Mingzhe walked into the study, Tang Muzhou took several groups of Experience Stones and evolution fragments out of the display case. After placing his newly bought [Lin Daiyu] on the Card Console, he started to level the card with materials.

The card consumed several hundred evolution fragments and gained several million Exp in an instant. When it leveled up to a six-star card, Tang Muzhou used three six-star cards as the evolution materials to continue to level it up to a seven-star card.

The color of [Lin Daiyu]’s back changed rapidly before turning into pure black with metallic gloss. The green pattern symbolizing ‘Wood’ wrapped the whole back of the card like silk thread. Even the LOGO ‘Chubby’ shone with a soft green light.

It was the first time that Xie Mingzhe saw a seven-star black [Lin Daiyu].

Even the back of the card was extremely beautiful. How powerful was the seven-star black [Lin Daiyu]? Xie Mingzhe was eager to know it.

Tang Muzhou turned the card over and handed it to Xie Mingzhe, saying, “Look at the data of this seven-star card.”

Lin Daiyu (Wood)

Card Level: 70

Evolution Level: ★★★★★★★

Available Times of Use: 7/7

Base Attributes: Health 640, Attack 0, Defense 1000, Agility 85, Critical Strike Chance 0%

Additional Skill: Daiyu Burying the Flowers (To inflict huge damage on flower cards,  100% chance of triggering instant death effect)

Cousin Lin was a delicate girl with poor Defense, but her skill was terrifying – 100% chance of triggering the instant death effect on flower cards.

Tang Muzhou said, “Let’s go to the Arena and see how powerful it is.”

Xie Mingzhe nodded. Following Tang Muzhou excitedly, he used the galaxy map to transfer directly to Phoenix galaxy.

After meeting this guru, Xie Mingzhe had gone to a restaurant in the entertainment district of the Peacock galaxy, another player’s personal space, and also the Phoenix galaxy for the very first time. This experience was an eye-opener for him.

The Phoenix galaxy was designed for players to compete with each other. Tang Muzhou set up a private battle arena directly.

Xie Mingzhe was holding [Lin Daiyu], however, the card in Tang Muzhou’s hand was the seven-star [Tuberose]?

Xie Mingzhe was stunned by this familiar card. He couldn’t resist saying, “It was you who bought Legend Tang’s [Tuberose]! I took part in that auction where this card was sold for 660,000 gold.”

Tang Muzhou smiled, but he didn’t explain – this [Tuberose] was certainly not the one at the auction. He was the card’s author, so he could make countless [Tuberose]. This one was a copy of the original one.

Tang Muzhou said, “Try to kill [Tuberose] with [Lin Daiyu].”

A countdown appeared as the match began. Xie Mingzhe held his breath, and at the moment when the number became 0, he immediately summoned [Lin Daiyu], trying to release the skill Daiyu Burying the Flowers to kill his opponent’s card.

However, Lin Daiyu went out of control. She did not kill the opponent’s card; instead, she just ran around.

Xie Mingzhe’s eyes widened, “What happened? Why did the [Daiyu Burying the Flowers] skill not work?”

Tang Muzhou raised a question, “If you have a submachine gun while I have a pistol, and we shoot at each other while standing face to face, who will win?”

Xie Mingzhe speculated, “Submachine gun? Because it’s more powerful?”

Tang Muzhou laughed, “Who shoots first is the one who wins.”

Xie Mingzhe, “………”

Yes, the one who shot first could kill the other before they could even pull the trigger. Since it was face to face, the first shot would definitely kill the other, regardless of the strength of the latter’s weapon!

Tang Muzhou said: “I just told you that [Daiyu Burying the Flowers] is the nemesis of flower cards, but not necessarily. Why can’t it insta-kill [Tuberose]? The reason is Agility – its Agility is lower than [Tuberose]’s, so it spends more time releasing the skill than [Tuberose]. Before [Lin Daiyu] can use the IDE skill, [Tuberose] can take control of her first. If I have other attack cards in my hand, your [Lin Daiyu] will be killed even before it releases the skill. Do you understand?”

Xie Mingzhe suddenly realized!

He had never paid attention to Agility!

The Agility of [Lin Daiyu] was 85, while the [Tuberose] 100. No wonder [Lin Daiyu] would be controlled by the latter. This was the importance of releasing your skill first in competitions! No matter how powerful a card was, if it couldn’t activate its skills first, then it would just be a target.

Tang Muzhou said, “Let’s go back and upgrade [Lin Daiyu]’s Agility to 100.”

Xie Mingzhe realized that this guru intended to guide him, so he immediately followed behind him.