Master of Trading Star Card Game

Chapter 6 – New Partners

In the instance of the Misty Forest.

The Boss died, leaving five fragments with seven-star Wood attribute, and a complete four-star card with Wood attribute: [Flower Monster].

Brother Chen was in a good mood, saying with a smile: “It seems that luck is on our side. We got the fragments and a complete card the first time we defeated the Boss.”

Xie Mingzhe asked curiously: “Brother Chen, is the drop rate of this [Flower Monster] low?”

Brother Chen nodded: “Well, the drop rate of a complete card is less than 10%. The Boss usually only drops fragments of [Flower Monster], requiring players to assemble them in full.”

Chi Qing suddenly interrupted them: “Brother Chen, the client just side-texted me, saying that in addition to 100 fragments with seven-star Wood attribute, he also wants 100 fragments with Water attribute and 100 fragments with Fire attribute. The three transactions total 66,000 gold coins. If we can give all of these to him within one week, he will pay in one lump sum.”

Brother Chen replied first, saying with complete surprise: “Is the client a guru? He wants so many fragments for evolution at one time?”

Pang Yu guessed: “Maybe he wants to level up three cards to seven-star? Will it be a game association?”

Chi Qing shook her head: “It should be a personal acquisition. When he released the task in Exchange, his ID was a pile of garbled characters. It is obviously a smurf account.”

Of course they would take up a task offering a 66,000 gold reward. Brother Chen thought for a moment and said: “Take up the task first. A’Qing, post a job looking for some players to join our team – we will begin a raid battle at 9 o’clock in the evening. We have to go through all the material instances in two days to gain as many fragments as possible. If not enough, we will find another way.”

“Can I help?” Xie Mingzhe asked. He could stand aside and watch them battling. He excelled at this, so he would definitely not make trouble with them.

Brother Chen gave him the cold shoulder: “Your level is too low to enter the instance requiring a raid of ten people. Level up yourself first, and then come to me after raising to level 35.”

“OK!” Xie Mingzhe had already expected this answer. He waved goodbye to Brother Chen, and ran back to level up.

When he returned to his apartment, he heard the prompt sound immediately: “Welcome back! The magical World of Star Card is extremely large. Would you like to follow me to explore?”

System options:

1. Yes

2. You’ve got to say yes, whether you like or not

Xie Mingzhe, “….”

You were a mischievous system! It seemed that the official copywriter of the game was funny and adorable.

He chose the first option. The system said in a relaxing and pleasant voice, “Next, let me take you to explore the wondrous world of Star Card! Stars in the World of Star Card can be divided into three types: the first one is [Function Star], the second one [Resource Star], and the last one [Opening Star]. Please find the four functional stars in the galaxy navigation map.”

Following the instructions, Xie Mingzhe walked up to the galaxy navigation map and saw four large stars as big as his head in the vast galaxy map.

The detailed introduction of the star popped up when he walked closer.

The entire domain of the Gemini was the game’s residential area, where all players’ apartments were located. The domain of the Aquarius was a business zone, where players sold things by auction, opened stores and set up stalls. The domain of the Peacock was for entertainment, there were cinemas, amusement parks, food cities, bars and other recreational places. The domain of the Phoenix was a competition center, where events related to competition were held.

The four major stars had different functions, and players could be transmitted to their targeted stars from their personal space.

The prompt sound, “After learning about the four functional stars, let’s turn to the resource stars. There are five resource stars in the game: Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn. Each resource star is surrounded by innumerable small stars where players can enter the Star Card illusion instance. Players can obtain cards, evolution fragments, strengthening materials of the corresponding attributes on these five resource stars. If you want your cards to become stronger, you need to frequent the resource stars to get materials.”

The prompt sound, “There are two opening stars in the World of Star Card: the Egret star and the White Crane star. There are various kinds of illusion creatures of different levels spread over the Egret star. You can defeat them to gain Exp (XP, experience) and materials. While the White Crane star has abundant natural mineral resources. You can collect Nebula Paper, Repairing Stones, furniture woods and other game resources there.”

The prompt sound: “Introduction completed. Next, please explore the Egret star.”

Xie Mingzhe was transmitted to the Egret star via the galaxy map.

The Egret star was the equivalent of the place outside the residential area in the online game. It was a fully open star, where players freely killed each other when they met. Unlike in instances, there was no guard that protected players from death – they would be killed in the wild. Therefore, players must be extra careful. There were forests, deserts, oceans, as well as swamps, grasslands, and snow mountains here. In the rich natural environment were countless fierce beasts and plant demons that were scattered around. Players could gain experience points by killing them.

Xie Mingzhe was still a level 5 beginner, so the system was considerate to take him to a lakeside where low-level mobs occurred.

When Xie Mingzhe walked close to the lake, he saw a thin small girl who was chased by a few Golems. She was blundering around, with her HP falling rapidly. While running, she shouted, “Help, help!”

Xie Mingzhe went two steps forward. The girl thought Xie Mingzhe would give her a hand and then she ran in his direction. However, Xie Mingzhe immediately stepped back and stared vigilantly at the Golems, for fear that he would be involved in Golems’ attack.

He had a good movement, avoiding the attacks flexibly.

The girl was killed by Golems within three seconds, falling down at Xie Mingzhe’s feet.

The girl’s ID was “Sisi”. Because she couldn’t get a voice call after “death”, she sent a text box above her head and asked, “Why didn’t you save me?”

Xie Mingzhe returned, “Why should I save you? I don’t know you.” Meddling wasn’t his style.

“……” The girl was so angry that she immediately clicked the resurrection button in situ and then said, “Even if you don’t know me, you should also save me when convenient. Helping others is a virtue!”

“I couldn’t help you.” Xie Mingzhe analyzed, “I only have a one-star card with 100 attack power, while the HP of the Glome that chased you was 1000 points. The five Glomes’ HP add up to 5000 points. I can’t defeat them and save you. If I did, I would be implicated and killed, too.”

“…….” What Xie Mingzhe said made sense, and it was impossible for the girl to refute.

Seeing that Xie Mingzhe turned and was about to go away, the girl got up from the ground at once and caught up with him, “Hey, Uncle Chubby, let’s gain Exp together!”

Xie Mingzhe: “?”

Uncle Chubby? Who did she call?

Looking up at his own ID, Xie Mingzhe remembered it. He almost forgot that when he entered the game to create the account today, he named his ID “Uncle Chubby”. No wonder the girl called him this way. Xie Mingzhe couldn’t be bothered to explain. Anyway, she was just a net friend in the game, so there was no need to treat her like his friend in reality.

Just then, a boy next to him said in a deep voice, “Sisi, what happened?”

Turning his head, Xie Mingzhe looked at them. The boy had regular features but was somewhat serious. However, Sisi was petite and adorable. Xie Mingzhe wondered whether it was a real image of Sisi or just a virtual figure in the game.

Being chagrined by her failure, the girl walked towards the boy and said, “Just now, I was killed by five Golems due to my imprudence.“

The boy dabbed the girl’s head with his hand, saying gently, “I have told you to wait for me here. Why did you run about just now?”

Xie Mingzhe, “…”

Touching her head while she was disappointed to steal her heart, was it good to show off your love to a bachelor?

Unwilling to see the lovers flaunting their love before him, Xie Mingzhe was about to turn around and leave. However, the girl stopped him and said, “Uncle Chubby, let’s work together to gain Exp! It’s hard to meet low-level players in the newbie area since the game has been in operation for ten years. I’ve been gaining Exp here for ten minutes and only seen you a novice.”

The boy sent the invitation actively, saying, “Come on, we will gain Exp faster if we work together.”

Thinking that it was better to make some friends in the game, Xie Mingzhe joined them.

The boy’s game ID was senior brother Qi. It could be concluded from their chat that senior brother Qi used this smurf account to help his girlfriend gain Exp. He knew a lot more than novices did as he had played this game for at least five years.

Senior brother Qi suggested, “We won’t gain much Exp from the small Golems. We can gain Exp by killing the high-level mobs if we use our crowd control skills orderly and effectively.”

He was a veteran in the game and what he said was reasonable. Two novices followed him to the lake.

The fourth-level mob by the lake was called “Willow Monster”. It could cause great damage to the players, but it could be controlled. Three of them had the [Icy Snake] cards given by the system when they started playing this game. A [Icy Snake] card could control one mob. Each of them controlled one mob, using [Thunder Bird] cards launch crowd attack. It was very easy to kill the mobs as long as they used their skills effectively.

After gaining Exp for half an hour, all of them levelled up to 10, and their cards levelled to 20.

Cards have to evolve first when they levelled up to 20, or they wouldn’t be able to level up. They got many low-level evolution fragments just now, which were dropped by the Willow. Then senior brother Qi said, “Go back to evolve your cards in personal space. Evolve Thunder Bird with Area of Effect first.”

Xie Mingzhe called a portal out to transmit him to his personal space, going back to evolve his card.

In front of the console, the light green one-star card at level 20 slowly swallowed 100 two-star fragments, rotating constantly. At the same time, the pattern on its back also changed continuously. At last, the original green card turned blue completely.

—— Level 20, two-star evolution, blue card.

Xie Mingzhe noticed after it evolved into a higher-star card, the color on its back changed, while its front pattern remained original appearance. In terms of numerical values, all Base Attributes doubled, for example, the basic attack power of Thunder Bird had increased from 100 to 200 when it became a two-star card.

In other words, after an upgrade, the Skill Increase of cards would be enhanced and after evolution, the Base Attributes would increase.

Therefore, to upgrade and evolve cards in order would enhance cards all around.

Cultivating a seven-star card needed a lot of materials. If average players wanted to have a high-level card, they not only needed good skills but also manual work – to gain the necessary materials would make them tired and half dead, let alone other preparations!

Xie Mingzhe sighed and returned to the lakeside in Egret Star after he evolved the card. Sisi and senior brother Qi were also back.

Senior brother Qi said, “We have to buy more attack cards. Our team’s cards are not enough to kill mobs and gain Exp.”

Sisi asked excitedly, “Where can we buy cards?”

Senior brother Qi said, “Black market.”

Sisi was stunned, “Black market? Is there such a place?”

Senior brother Qi answered, “There is an underground city on the back of the commercial street, called the black market. Over there, players could set up stalls at their will. No rent. In the black market, we can bargain and find a lot of good cards and materials, especially low-level original cards. They are much cheaper than those in regular stores.”

Sisi scratched her hair, “But I heard that original cards are more expensive.”

Senior brother Qi explained, “The original cards I referred are ordinary cards with average or extremely low data. There are even failed cards. As for the best original cards, they would be sold in auctions.”

Hearing their words, Xie Mingzhe thought, “It turns out that only failed cards will be in sale in black market at a low price.” However, for newbies like him, buying a few “failed cards” created by experienced players to kill mobs was not a bad way at the beginning.

So they transferred themselves to the Aquarius galaxy.

This was the first time Xie Mingzhe had personally come to the downtown area in this game.

There was a square in the center of the Aquarius planet, with a beautiful crystal sculpture of a water container standing in the middle of the square. Four skyscrapers, located in the east, south, west and north of the square, were “Auction House”, “Star Card Bank”, “Exchange” and “Service Center” respectively.

Behind the four skyscrapers were a maze of commercial streets, all of which were rented to players and operated by them. Xie Mingzhe looked down a street, finding shops with different unique names, such as “An Affectionate Couple’s Repair Shop”, “Monopoly Store of Seven-star Cards”, “Doudou’s Material Store”, “Boss Wants to Have a Girlfriend”, etc. – many players were shopping on these commercial streets which were more bustling than those in the real world.

They had decided to go to the black market together before, but found a crowd thronged the doorway of “Auction House” in the east of the square. Sisi curiously looked over the crowd standing on tiptoe and asked, “Senior brother, what happened there?”

Senior brother Qi looked at the crowd in the direction of her gaze, answering: “Auction House holds an auction at 3:30 every afternoon. Maybe these people are going to the auction.”

Xie Mingzhe had only watched auctions on TV, which he thought were designed for high-income consumers. He hadn’t been to an auction yet, so he really wanted to see that. Before he spoke, Sisi said excitedly: “Can we have a look? It seems very interesting!”

Senior brother Qi nodded: “Okay, we will go to the auction first and then the black market.”

When they stood at the Auction House’s doorway, a scream coming from afar caused a stir: “It is said legend Tang’s card will be sold in auction today!” “Is it Tang Muzhou’s original card?” “It’s an inside dope. I’m not sure. Let’s go and see!” “Hurry up, tickets will be snapped up soon!”

The crowd behind Xie Mingzhe came pouring into the Auction House, which startled him. Then he quickly sneaked into the auction.