The Fenghua Club.
Tang Muzhou returned to his dormitory, took out his helmet and logged into the Star Card World.
Two characters appeared before him. The first character’s ID was ‘Tang’ and his appearance was very similar to Tang Muzhou’s, wearing a silver mask. This was the character he created when he first entered the game six years ago. It was this character that made him famous in the black market, turning him into an original card player in the professional league.
The second character had the system’s default adult male character image, a common face in the game. It had the ID ‘7456789’, randomly entered gibberish. It was obviously an alternative account. He used this alt account to post fragment collection tasks in the game. Every time he researched a new card, he would hand it over to the alt card to practice in the arena and test the card data.
Tang Muzhou chose the alt account to enter the game and teleported to the black market of the commercial power.
Hongzhu was setting up a stall looking for someone. She turned her head and suddenly saw a passerby ID in the crowd. The string of gibberish numbers looked very familiar. Hongzhu immediately went over and asked in a private chat, “God Tang, did you really come to the game?”
“Yes. Do you have any clues about that card creator?”
“I sent dozens of people to conduct a thorough search of the black market, but we still can’t find the Daiyu card. The other original cards don’t have the Half Moon mark on the back either. It is like that person suddenly disappeared.”
“I’ll go look for him myself.” Tang Muzhou turned and walked away.
He had started his career in the black market and was extremely familiar with this place.
The card buying stalls in the black market were divided into two categories. One type was the merchants who bought and sold original cards. These bosses were relatively professional and could distinguish between good and bad cards. The other type were players who set up stalls randomly, only looking at whether the card was pretty or not. They bought cards at low prices to collect.
Some casual card collecting players had never played in the arena or liked to study card information. They just liked to collect all types of beautiful cards, filling their display cabinets to the brim. They only looked at whether the card was pretty or not, buying cards at low prices to collect.
If a professional boss bought a card like Daiyu Burying the Flowers, it would surely appear at an auction or be exchanged for a fortune by a major guild. Since it hadn’t been found, it might’ve fallen into the hands of a casual player who enjoyed collecting character cards. These vendors bought the cards without upgrading or training them. It was just to display in their showcase, summoning them out when bored.
Tang Muzhou noticed that many managers from major guilds like Judgment and Frostfall City were also browsing the black market, picking and choosing from various stalls.
It was just as Hongzhu had said. The black market in the game had become chaotic.
Back then, he didn’t understand the market and sold a few excellent vine combat cards at low prices, disrupting the black market and attracting searches from various guilds. Years later, this scene had reappeared. This card creator really resembled him.
Tang Muzhou smiled slightly and turned to leisurely browse the black market.
“Boss, do you have any character cards worth collecting? I would like to buy them at a high price,” Tang Muzhou asked politely.
He bypassed some stalls selling combat cards and specifically inquired at the small stalls selling collectible cards. He asked over a dozen people without success. Then he approached a very cute girl.
The girl smiled when she heard the question. “I have two, but I don’t want to sell them.”
Tang Muzhou said gently, “I’m very interested in character cards. Could you show me your collection?”
“This… okay.” Perhaps due to his gentle attitude, the girl finally took out two character cards.
Just as expected, they were Lin Daiyu.
Tang Muzhou played with the cards in his hand and said, “I really like the art style of this card. Will you sell it to me for 500 gold coins each?”
“This card is very beautiful. I bought it to collect it, so I don’t want to sell it.”
“1,000 gold coins.”
She bought it for 50 but sold it for 1,000. It was a twenty fold profit. The girl was overjoyed at making such a huge profit and immediately handed the cards to him. “Okay, I’ll sell them to you!”
“Thank you.” Tang Muzhou put away the cards and pretended to be curious, asking, “Do you remember the name of the person who sold you this card?”
“I remember. It is a very friendly name, Chubby Uncle.”
Chubby Uncle? No wonder why the logo was Half Moon. Could it really be a chubby uncle?
Tang Muzhou put away the cards, said goodbye to the girl and turned to Hongzhu’s stall. He privately messaged her, “I bought two Daiyu cards. A girl bought them to collect them. I also found out the creator’s name, Chubby Uncle.”
Hongzhu was stunned. She had spent the whole afternoon searching but couldn’t find anything about the card creator. Meanwhile, Tang Muzhou had found the name as soon as he stepped in. No wonder he started from the black market!
Tang Muzhou continued in the private voice message, “Contact Chubby Uncle as soon as possible and tell him we want to buy a lot of Daiyu cards. Also, have someone keep a close eye on the auction house. If this person makes a new card, he might put it up for auction.”
“Okay… God Tang, aren’t you going to sleep yet?”
“I’ll play a few rounds in the arena before I sleep.”
Tang Muzhou tended to feel sleepy in the afternoon but was particularly energetic at night. Hongzhu didn’t want to persuade him and was busy sending emails.
At this time, Xie Mingzhe was lying in bed, sleeping soundly.
He had a wonderful dream where he created a batch of top character cards, becoming the most popular card maker in the Star Card world. He sold the cards at auction for astronomical prices, and countless people surrounded him, screaming excitedly. The screams at the auction were deafening. At first, they were inaudible. Then they gradually became clear.
God Chubby! God Chubby! God Chubby! God Chubby!
Xie Mingzhe woke up in a startled manner.
He touched his thin body and regretted choosing the name Chubby Uncle. What if he became famous in the future? Would he really be chased by people calling him ‘God Chubby’ like in his dream?
Fortunately, there were also pleasant dreams in his sleep such as his cards being very popular.
He would work hard towards that goal.
He already had 300,000 in his account. For him, the salary from boosting would be nothing. He could easily quit and make a fortune by selling cards, but Xie Mingzhe didn’t want to do that. Brother Chen had helped him when he was at his lowest point. In addition, he signed the boosting contract and should keep his promise. At the very least, he would stick to the contract this month until the girl who had taken leave to get married returned.
Today happened to be Saturday and everyone logged on. Brother Chen immediately formed a team and took everyone to Venus to clear dungeons. They cleared dungeons on the five resource stars of metal, wood, water, fire and earth in the morning. This broadened Xie Mingzhe’s horizons considerably, and the concept of the five elemental creatures gave him a lot of inspiration.
After finishing the day’s work, Xie Mingzhe immediately logged off to avoid a headache. He needed to balance work and rest, giving himself some time to think.
He opened his old laptop and logged into the official website of Star Card Storm.
The website was very elaborate. Clicking on it felt like entering a realistic universe. He found the ‘Announcements’ section and entered. It was filled with announcements about the professional league, the new season and various events. It was a densely packed page.
He flipped through and saw a bolded news article titled ‘Annual Update Announcement for Star Card Storm.’
The article was published on July 25th, only a week ago.
Xie Mingzhe quickly scanned the announcement, catching the key information about the instant death skills.
First, the skill database added the instant death judgment, but the requirements for creating them were extremely strict. The card design and skill setting had to be consistent. There could be only one instant death skill and it could only target a specific sub-category of cards. Its own defense had to be very low, so that it could be quickly killed itself while instantly killing others.
Secondly, only one instant death card could be brought into the arena as a surprise tactical card. No more could be brought.
Xie Mingzhe now completely understood why his Lin Daiyu only had 15 defense points.
Lin Daiyu’s skill was too strong, so her defense had to be weak.
The same applied to Wu Song. It had an instant death judgment, so its attack and defense attributes were only third-rate.
When Xie Mingzhe was creating the cards, his mental power was highly concentrated on the ‘burying flowers’ and ‘smashing tiger’ segments. The two cards perfectly matched the official database settings, which was why the instant death judgment happened by chance.
After figuring this out, Xie Mingzhe continued to research the professional league.
Pang Yu had previously mentioned that Judgment was one of the league’s six giants, and he wanted to understand Judgment’s true strength.
Due to the large number of professional card players in recent years, clubs of all sizes had sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Among them, the Fenghua Club, Judgment Club, Dark Night City, Frostfall City, Temple of the Gods and Ghost Prison were the six clubs that had been established the longest and were the most powerful. They were the six giants mentioned by Pang Yu, with a considerable number of fans. These six clubs had cultivated countless excellent card players and were backed by large financial groups, belonging to the first-tier clubs of the professional league. There were countless other second and third-tier clubs.
The club president, Huanyue hadn’t lied to him. The Judgment Club was indeed very strong and Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan were top-tier players at the peak of the league. In particular, Nie Yuandao had been playing since the first season, almost ten years ago, and even other top players would address him as a senior.
Most people would be tempted by a top club’s offer.
Xie Mingzhe was indeed tempted at the time. Ultimately, reason prevailed over impulse.
He had been poor before. Before selling the copyright of the Wu Song card, he only had 200 in savings. He definitely liked money, but he wasn’t short-sighted. His most valuable asset was his creativity. His experience of being reborn was priceless.
Signing a contract as a designer and handing over the card copyrights to the club? Only a fool would agree!
He wanted to be a free card designer, making whatever cards he liked without being restricted by any club rules.
He wouldn’t sell copyrights anymore, only the cards themselves.
Wu Song only targeted tigers, with a copyright price of 300,000.
Daiyu targeted a broader range, flowers.
Even without selling the copyright, just selling the Daiyu card alone would fetch a good price.
Selling it cheaply on the black market was a huge loss. He should’ve taken it to a higher-end place.
An auction house!
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