Master of Trading Star Card Game - Chapter 29-1

Capital of Darkness Club.

Ye Zhu turned around in the room and kept rubbing his nose, “An IDE card against butterfly cards? How is it possible? There are so many butterfly cards in my set of playing cards. Does this guy hate me? My entire set of playing cards is being targeted!”

Seeing Ye Zhu hovering like a gyroscope, Pei Jingshan stepped forward to stop him and said gently, “Xiao Zhu, you don’t have to worry too much. Our club is investigating this card maker. And since 月半 also made [Lin Daiyu] targeting all flower cards, it means he isn’t targeting specifically you.”

Ye Zhu looked confused, “Then who is his target?”

Pei Jingshan said, “I’m guessing 月半 doesn’t mean to target at any professional player, but his cards may be against all the mainstream sets of playing cards, so you don’t have to worry. Tang Muzhou has been put at a disadvantage, as well as you, but a group of people will also be put at a disadvantage later. Once everyone has the same trouble, then no one is in trouble.”

Ye Zhu, “……… I don’t want to talk to you.”

This man was a philosophy graduate who used dialectical thinking even in daily talks. Every time Ye Zhu talked to Pei Jingshan, he felt that his intelligence was steamrolled by the latter, so he simply ignored Pei Jingshan and returned to his dormitory.

In his dorm, there was a wall of transparent glass cabinets used for storing various butterfly specimens he had bought at high prices from each and every galaxy, including some precious and endangered butterfly species.

Since he was a child, he had been very interested in butterflies and studying them for a long time. He also bought butterfly specimens at high prices and filled a room with these specimens, which showed his obsession with butterflies.

At the age of fifteen, he started to play Star Card Storm and tried to make butterfly cards. Thanks to his big collection of butterfly specimens at home, he could get a limitless amount of inspiration from them to make cards.

There were only two or three butterfly cards in the official card pool at that time. Ye Zhu took a different approach by making a set of butterfly cards, and even created a distinctive “butterfly genre”.

Within his set of playing cards, there was a black-striped butterfly for control, a transparent butterfly for tracking, a postman butterfly for AOE, a green-veined butterfly with a strong group healing ability, and various blue morpho butterflies, black swallowtail butterflies, white sulphur butterflies, brush-footed butterflies, orange oakleaf butterflies…

Ye Zhu’s butterfly cards included nearly every kind of butterfly he knew.

Currently in the league, Zheng Feng’s Earth cards had the highest Defense, while Ye Zhu’s had the lowest.

Smaller creatures had a lower Defense, so most players in the league don’t have such small creature cards included in their card pool. Currently only Pei Jingshan, the King of Gu※, had a large number of Gu insects in his set of playing cards. He launched attacks relying on Gu insects and multiple debuffs, but since many of his Gu insect cards could divide and regenerate, Defense was an unimportant attribute for his cards.

Compared to the terrible Gu insects, the lightweight butterfly was an insect which couldn’t regenerate. So when Ye Zhu first made butterfly cards, everyone was pessimistic about his future.

Unexpectedly, Ye Zhu, who was endowed with intelligence and wit, created a lot of butterfly control cards. He carved a niche for himself as a professional player and won the Best New Player Award in the eighth season by using the cards’ control skills, such as the hallucination and blindness skills, to gain more time to attack his opponents.

Shen An, Tang Muzhou’s apprentice, was the winner of the Best New Player Award in the ninth season. Ye Zhu and Shen An were also the most talented young players in the league. The former was seventeen years old and the latter was sixteen years old.

Ye Zhu’s talent was recognized by most veteran players in the league. The clash between Ye Zhu and Shan Lan was one of the most classic in the league’s recent years. Shan Lan, who was very good at air attacks, competed against Ye Zhu with his various cranes, larks, phoenixes, and white eagles. That air battle was also called “the most beautiful air battle in history”.

After that match, Ye Zhu and Shan Lan, who was a few years older, became good friends.

After the eighth and ninth season, the way Ye Zhu played gradually matured. Ye Zhu was very confident in himself. He wanted to win a medal in the individual race of the 10th season. Even if he couldn’t win the championship, he could also consolidate his position in the league with a silver or bronze medal.

But now, the appearance of [Xue Baochai] was like a pot of cold water pouring down on him, which made him particularly uneasy.

Because [Xue Baochai] had an instant death effect on butterfly cards.

Why did Chubby create that kind of card? Did Chubby hate him?

Being very depressed, Ye Zhu switched his optical tablet on and gave Shan Lan a holographic video call, “Brother Lan, do you know that there are butterfly IDE cards with MAX Agility in Chubby’s store? I’m really mad at him!”

Looking at the anxious teenager who appeared in the video, Shan Lan smiled and said with a soft voice, “One can take only one IDE card with him in the game, but you have so many butterfly cards. Your opponent’s IDE card will insta-kill just one of your cards. Don’t worry about it.”

Feeling stunned, Ye Zhu scratched the back of his head, saying, “I was so mad that I almost forgot about it.”

Ye Zhu recovered his composure and became slightly calmer. In his set of playing cards, there were more than 30 butterfly cards, so it wouldn’t matter if one of them was insta-killed. However, if a top player seized the opportunity and insta-killed his black-striped butterfly or transparent butterfly, his rhythm was likely to be completely destroyed.

Ye Zhu still couldn’t rest assured. He asked, “Brother Lan, do you know Chubby?”

Shan Lan said, “His name is Uncle Chubby. He will make many IDE cards in the near future. You won’t be the only one to have cards directed against you, so don’t worry about it. IDE cards won’t be circulated in the market until next season, so you still have plenty of time to think about how to deal with them.”

Ye Zhu nodded, “Got it. Thanks, Brother Lan.”

Ye Zhu turned off the video communication device and picked up his helmet – he decided to create a smurf account and go to Chubby’s store in person. There will be some new cards tomorrow, won’t there? He wanted to know who would be the next jinx.

Translator’s Note:

Gu(蛊) is a venom-based poison associated with cultures of south China, particularly Nanyue. The traditional preparation of gu poison involved sealing several venomous creatures (e.g., centipede, snake, scorpion) inside a closed container, where they devoured one another and allegedly concentrated their toxins into a single survivor. Gu was used in black magic practices such as manipulating sexual partners, creating malignant diseases, and causing death.