An olive branch was offered. Should he accept it or not?
Xie Mingzhe was both excited and surprised. God Nie’s invitation to join the Judgment Club meant that he was indeed very talented in card making. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have attracted professional players like Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan, who even offered 300,000 crystal coins for the copyright of his Wu Song card.
But Xie Mingzhe was no longer a naive 18 year old boy. He wouldn’t happily bite into any piece of meat offered to him.
He possessed two sets of memories. His experiences in these two lives allowed him to remain calm in the face of major events without making impulsive decisions.
God Lan’s words just now made him feel like a complete idiot! He had just entered the game and didn’t understand the market, so he actually went to the black market to sell cards at low prices. Now a true expert had appeared and God Nie offered a high price of 300,000 crystal coins for the copyright of the Wu Song card. This was just for one White Tiger card.
What about Daiyu? That was for the entire flower category!
God Nie said that card designers could earn a monthly salary of 20,000 and there would be high commissions for creating good cards, greatly tempting the poor young Xie Mingzhe. However, Xie Mingzhe ultimately calmed down and said with a smile, “The copyright transfer of the Wu Song card is no problem, but I need to think about becoming a designer at the Judgment Club.”
The vice president, Canyang, frowned and said unhappily, “Chubby Uncle, our God Nie personally invited you because he values your talent. Our Judgment Club is one of the top clubs in the Star Card League. Many designers would kill to enter it.”
Xie Mingzhe smiled in a good-natured manner. “Yes, I know the Judgment Club is very powerful, but I can’t just agree to something so important. I need to go back and think it over carefully, as well as discuss it with my family.” He made up an excuse to buy himself some time.
Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan exchanged looks.
Shan Lan said gently, “Chubby Uncle, we sincerely invite you to join Judgment. The copyright price we are offering you is much higher than the market price. You can check it out if you don’t believe me. Our club has a great environment, high benefits and the food in the cafeteria is especially delicious. Moreover, the club has an apartment building and we will allocate you an apartment. After you come to Judgment, you only need to focus on researching cards. You don’t need to worry about anything else.”
God Lan’s advertisement was very tempting. Xie Mingzhe forced himself to calm down. “Thank you, God Lan. I will consider it carefully and give you an answer as soon as possible.”
Canyang rolled her eyes at Chubby Uncle in the game, thinking he was especially ungrateful.
The guild president Huanyue was much calmer. He took a step back and said, “Chubby Uncle, let’s add each other as friends first. You can go with Canyang to handle the card transfer later. Our guild territory will always be open to you. Once you’ve thought it over, come find us as soon as possible or just send me and Canyang a private message.”
“Okay.” Xie Mingzhe accepted the guild president and vice president’s friend requests. Then he said to Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan, “Goodbye, two great masters.”
Canyang led the way and Xie Mingzhe followed her as they turned and left the adjudication office.
It was only after the two of them had walked a distance that Huanyue approached the two men. “God Nie, this Chubby Uncle has raised the instant death probability of the Wu Song card to 30% in such a short time. His potential seems to be far beyond this.”
Nie Yuandao nodded and said softly, “He is indeed a promising talent. Recruit him as soon as possible. I’m logging off now. Let me know if there is more news.”
Shan Lan said, “I’m leaving too. Goodbye, President.”
Huanyue watched the two of them leave before immediately summoning several guild managers. He had them continue their thorough search of the black market for other cards made by Half Moon. He also sent a voice message to Chubby Uncle with great sincerity, listing in great detail the various benefits of the Judgment Club. It was even more diligent than an official advertisement.
Xie Mingzhe followed Canyang to the service center on Aquarius Star.
The service center building had dozens of floors and could help players solve various problems. The card copyright department was on the 16th floor. Canyang led him to the copyright department where Xie Mingzhe connected to the database to verify his creator identity. Then he transferred the production copyright of the Wu Song card to the Judgment Guild.
After the copyright transfer, he could no longer create the Wu Song card. Still, it was okay. Wu Song only targeted tigers, so his skill range was relatively narrow. He could still create the Daiyu card, which targeted a wider range of flowers.
Xie Mingzhe had a huge sum of three million gold coins in his pocket, so he happily ran to the Star Card Bank next door.
At the Star Card Bank counter, Xie Mingzhe politely asked the smart teller, “Hello, how do I convert game coins to real-world crystal coins?”
The smart teller replied, “Today’s reference price is 10:1. You can set the price of the gold coins you want to sell, put them in the Star Bank Card gold coin purchase window and bind your bank account information. If a player buys your game coins, your bank account will automatically receive the transfer.”
So it was the game’s built-in currency trading platform?
Xie Mingzhe quickly entered the information. He planned to divide the three million into ten parts and list them in the trading window. This should make them easier to sell.
Xie Mingzhe was in a good mood when he walked out of the Star Card Bank. Even the sky outside seemed bluer than before.
Just then, a system notification sounded in his ear. “You have received a voice message from a friend, Huanyue.”
Xie Mingzhe answered. Huanyue went on and on about the benefits of the Judgment Guild, clearly trying to recruit him. He didn’t want to make a hasty decision, so he politely replied with something like, “Thank you, Guild President. I will consider it carefully.”
Immediately afterward, the system issued another voice notification. “Dear player, you have been online for over five hours. Holographic games consume mental power, and prolonged online play is detrimental to your health. Please manage your game time reasonably and log off to rest as soon as possible.”
Holographic games connected to all five senses, which was indeed mentally demanding. He had logged in at 6:30 p.m. after dinner and now it was almost midnight. Xie Mingzhe noticed that his headache was getting worse, so he simply logged off.
After logging off, Xie Mingzhe rubbed his throbbing temples. Just then, his phone popped up with a text message. “Dear user, you have received a transfer of 30,000 crystal coins from the Star Card Bank. Your account balance is 30,200 crystal coins.”
”Dear user, you have received a transfer of 30,000 crystal coins from the Star Card Bank…”
”Dear user…”
Ten consecutive bank text messages flooded his screen!
The final balance became 300,200 crystal coins.
Xie Mingzhe looked at the balance in his bank card and rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
The penniless guy who originally only had 200 crystal coins in his bank account had now become a little tycoon with 300,200!
This was the first money he had earned since his rebirth. He had never expected that the copyright fee for just one original card could earn so much money. Honestly, he had never seen so much savings in his account before. 300,000!
Xie Mingzhe took a deep breath, ran to the bathroom to wash his face and felt refreshed. Pang Yu had just logged off and finished washing his face as well. Xie Mingzhe knew he would be living with Pang Yu from now on, so he followed the chubby boy to the dorm room upstairs.
Pang Yu was always eager to make friends, so he started chatting with Xie Mingzhe as soon as they entered the room. “Xiao Xie, you look quite young. You probably aren’t even 20 years old, right?”
“Yes, I just turned 18 this year. I am doing odd jobs during the holidays to earn some living expenses.”
“Not bad, not bad. You are ambitious.” Pang Yu gave him a thumbs up.
“By the way, Brother Yu. Do you know about the Judgment Club? What is this club like?” Xie Mingzhe started to make inquiries.
“Judgment Club? That is impressive. It is one of the six giants of the Star Card League.” Pang Yu enthusiastically introduced. “The Judgment Club mainly focuses on beast-type card decks. The most famous player is Nie Yuandao. He has been in the industry for almost ten years and is currently the most senior player in the league. He is also highly respected by other players. By the way, why are you asking about the Judgment Club?”
“I saw Nie Yuandao’s introduction while researching before and I’m a bit curious.” Choosing a job was a big deal and it was essential to investigate thoroughly before making a decision. Xie Mingzhe continued to ask Pang Yu, “Brother Yu, do you know anything about card designers? What are the prospects for this job?”
“The chief card designer of a big club earns over a million a year, and even a regular designer earns hundreds of thousands. Of course, it is a dream job for ordinary people.” Pang Yu looked envious. “However, once you become a contracted designer for a club, the copyright of the cards you create no longer belongs to you, but the club. Therefore, most original designers with high mental power will design their own cards and compete in competitions themselves. Only those who don’t meet the mental power requirements or whose age doesn’t allow them to compete in intense competitions will become professional designers.”
“!!!!” Xie Mingzhe was startled after hearing this.
Fortunately, he had been cautious and wasn’t tempted by the immediate profits to rashly accept the Judgment Club’s invitation.
Once he became a card designer for the Judgment Club, the copyrights to all his future card designs would be in their hands. Wouldn’t that be like being tied to one tree? It was better to be free and design more good cards to sell!
Xie Mingzhe had only sold one card so far, but every beginning was different. Once the first one was sold, the second would naturally follow.
After God Nie bought the copyright to the Wu Song card for a high price, Xie Mingzhe had a vague feeling. Did people in this world not know Wu Song? He thought that the card design was quite ordinary. Wasn’t it just Wu Song Smashes the Tiger scene from Water Margin? Why did God Lan seem to particularly admire him?
Xie Mingzhe thought of this and couldn’t help asking Pang Yu, “Brother Yu, have you ever read Water margin?”
Pang Yu was taken aback. “Water Tiger? A tiger that can swim in water?”
Xie Mingzhe was both amused and exasperated. In order to confirm it, he continued. “Do you know Cao Cao, Liu Bei or Sun Quan?”
Pang Yu looked confused. “Who are you talking about?”
Xie Mingzhe said, “Have you heard of Sun Wukong or Jin Baoyu?”
Pang Yu laughed. “No, are these your classmates? Their names are quite interesting.”
“……” Xie Mingzhe’s heart pounded violently.
He was really an idiot!
Previously when he finished drawing Daiyu Burying the Flowers and went to sell the cards on the black market, he should’ve realized it after no one recognized Lin Daiyu. They only said the card art was beautiful and the style was beautiful. The card collectors were all studying the card’s attributes, completely ignoring the exquisite imagery of Daiyu Burying the Flowers.
At the time, he thought it was because there were too many cards in the Star Card World. His cards were too ordinary, which was why they weren’t popular. Now it seemed that it wasn’t his cards that weren’t good enough. Rather, it was that no one recognized the characters he drew. They just thought it was a crying girl.
Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan obviously didn’t know Wu Song either. This was why they thought his design was particularly good and even came to him personally.
It seemed the cultural background of this world was completely different from China on Earth in the 21st century. Perhaps humanity experienced something that destroyed those brilliant civilizations in the past.
It was no wonder the navigation map of the game’s star system showed a bunch of planets like Venus, Jupiter and Mars but no Earth.
He had wondered at the time if the Star Card game’s background included a solar system , shouldn’t humans live on Earth? Why was it on Gemini?
In 3001 of the Star Calendar, countless centuries had passed since his rebirth in 2018.
Had these splendid cultures and five thousand years of Chinese history and civilization actually disappeared in this world?
Xie Mingzhe took a deep breath, trying to steady his racing heart.
He realized he had made a huge mistake and underestimated his card making potential. He thought he was just an ordinary player with little talent, selling his Daiyu and Wu Song cards cheaply on the black market. How stupid of him!
Now he knew that he actually possessed an extremely valuable treasure. It was a vast and rich treasury of knowledge, as unimaginable to others as the boundless universe!
Wu Song’s copyright sold for 300,000 and there were 108 heroes in the Water Margin.
Daiyu hadn’t sold yet. Daiyu’s skill targeted a broader range of cards, so her price definitely wouldn’t be lower than Wu Song’s. Then there were the Twelve Beauties of Jinling from Dream of the Red Chamber!
In addition, he could use his imagination to create cards from so many characters in his favorite Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Xie Mingzhe clenched his fists, his whole body filled with energy.
He loved reading novels. Unfortunately, he couldn’t write them. He was unable to recreate these stories in a novel format.
However, he could draw these wonderful stories into his cards!
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