“Recognize you as my master?” Xie Mingzhe never expected that the stranger in front of him would ask to ‘become his master.’ He thought the other person was like God Shen, using an alternative account to buy his cards or copyrights.
“Yes.” The man took out 19 Lin Daiyu cards and placed them side by side on the table.
Xie Mingzhe was horrified when he saw the neat row of Lin Daiyu cards. This was the Lin Daiyu he had first drawn when he didn’t know how to make cards!
In addition to the character Lin Daiyu, there were also decorations such as trees, flowers or the river, and the probability of instant death was only 10%. He didn’t know the market value back then and sold the cards for a low price at the black market. He did sell nineteen cards, but he sold them to four different owners. Could it be that this person bought them all?
“You bought all the Daiyu cards in the black market?” Xie Mingzhe looked at the other person in disbelief.
“Yes, I’ve been keeping an eye on you.” Tang Muzhou smiled slightly, his tone full of appreciation. “You are the first person to create an instant death card.”
Xie Mingzhe had already heard about this from God Lan. Instant death skills were only recently added to the database. He had a unique idea and stumbled upon it by chance. The designs of Daiyu and Wu Song perfectly matched the ideas of the database, giving them the instant death judgment. He just hadn’t expected that someone would be watching him all along, buying all the Daiyu cards circulating on the black market.
Tang Muzhou continued, “Plant cards are categorized by appearance into trees, vines, flowers, and succulents. Cards that can bloom like roses, lilies and night blooming jasmine are classified as flower cards. Flower cards make up more than 20% of plant decks. Once you have the Lin Daiyu card, your opponent’s flower cards can be instantly defeated.”
“You play a flower deck and worry that this card might be bad for you, so you bought it all?” Xie Mingzhe asked in confusion.
“This card is indeed the nemesis of flower cards but it isn’t a complete counter,” Tang Muzhou said calmly. “I’m not worried it will counter me.”
“If you aren’t worried it will counter you, why did you buy all the Daiyu cards on the black market? Today, you even spent 660,000 to buy my revamped Daiyu card. Was that necessary?” Xie Mingzhe really couldn’t understand the thinking of a rich person.
“Of course, it is necessary.” Tang Muzhou smiled, his voice gentle. “It is because I want to get to know you.”
“Get to know me?” Xie Mingzhe was completely confused.
“Yes, that is my real purpose,” Tang Muzhou said. “You were able to create the first instant death card. With your talent, you can definitely create other character cards. Perhaps you will create a completely new character card deck style. It has been a long time since we’ve seen a card maker with such outstanding creativity like you.”
“Cough cough, you really know how to talk.” Xie Mingzhe was flattered by the praise and felt like he was about to ascend to immortality. Xie Mingzhe met the man’s smiling eyes and touched his nose to compose himself. “Master, you didn’t just call me here to praise me, did you?”
“Of course not. I wanted to tell you some card design tips to help you avoid pitfalls and create more powerful cards quickly.” He took out the Daiyu card he had just bought from the auction house and compared it to the old version. “Did you notice the difference?”
“Yes, the old version had too many decorations, resulting in poor stats. The new version only has the character and petals, increasing the initial probability to 30%. Is that the highest probability for a level 1 card?”
“Yes, the skill judgment probability increases slightly with each level. The initial card probability is 30%. After reaching level 70 and evolving into a black card, the probability reaches 100%.”
“I see.” Xie Mingzhe stroked his chin thoughtfully. “A 100% chance of instant death means that no matter how strong a flower card is, it will be instantly killed by the Daiyu card?”
“That isn’t necessarily true,” Tang Muzhou said patiently. “You haven’t played in the arena before and you don’t understand real-time combat techniques. How about this? I’ll give you a demonstration myself. Add me as a friend and come with me to the personal space.”
Tang Muzhou sent a friend request which Xie Mingzhe accepted immediately. Then a portal to the other person’s personal space appeared before him.
Xie Mingzhe had never been to anyone’s house in the game before. This was his first time visiting someone else’s apartment. He teleported to the other person’s personal apartment with curiosity. He saw that the place was simply furnished, exactly like his own apartment. It was clearly a system-provided three-bedroom, one-living room layout. The furniture and decorations were all unchanged, indicating that this wealthy man didn’t care much about decorating his in-game apartment.
The man led him directly to the study.
The display cabinets occupying three walls of the study were almost completely filled with small compartments. The leftmost display case was filled with materials such as repair stones, experience stones, and evolution star stones ranging from one to seven stars. The middle display case contained stacks of attribute-less white cards such as Effect Hit Rate Enhancement Cards, Critical Hit Rate Enhancement Cards, and Basic Attack Enhancement Cards. The rightmost display case held finished cards, including some high-quality, full-starred black cards.
So this rich man was actually an experiment fanatic!
Xie Mingzhe really wanted to move all the display cases back to his apartment.
Tang Muzhou smiled slightly when he saw Chubby Uncle standing at the door, curiously observing the display cases. “Come in.”
Xie Mingzhe went inside. Tang Muzhou took out several sets of experience star stones and evolution fragments from the display cases. Then he placed the Lin Daiyu card he bought at the auction house on the operating table and fed it materials.
In the blink of an eye, he had fed it millions of experience points and hundreds of evolution fragments. Once it reached six stars, he even fed it three six-star cards as evolution materials.
The color on the back of the Daiyu card rapidly changed, eventually becoming pure black with a metallic sheen. Green patterns symbolizing the wood element wrapped the entire back like silk threads, and even the Half Moon logo emitted a soft green color.
This was Xie Mingzhe’s first time seeing the seven-star black card Lin Daiyu.
Even the back of the card looked exceptionally beautiful. How strong would a max-level black card Daiyu be? He was incredibly excited.
Tang Muzhou flipped the card over and handed it to Xie Mingzhe, saying, “Let me show you the seven-star card’s stats.”
[Lin Daiyu (Wood Attribute)]
[Card Level: 70.
Evolution Star Level: ★★★★★★★
Available Uses: 7/7.
Basic Attributes: HP 640, Defense 1000, Attack 0, Agility 85, Critical Rate 0%.
Additional Skill: Daiyu Burying the Flowers (Deals severe damage to flower-type cards. There is a 100% chance to trigger the instant death effect).]
Lin Daiyu’s body was too weak and her defense was terrifyingly low, but her skill was incredibly powerful. It was a 100% chance to trigger instant death against flowers.
Tang Muzhou said, “Let’s go to the arena for a practical test and see how the card works.”
Xie Mingzhe nodded and excitedly followed in his footsteps, teleporting directly from the neighboring star region map to the Phoenix star region.
After meeting this legendary figure, Xie Mingzhe visited the entertainment district restaurant in the Peacock star region for the first time, entered someone else’s space for the first time and also came to the Phoenix star region for the first time. It truly broadened his horizons.
Phoenix Star was the competition star and Tang Muzhou directly opened a private battle arena.
Xie Mingzhe held the Daiyu card in his hand while Tang Muzhou held a card that was… the seven-stars Night Blooming Jasmine?
Xie Mingzhe was stunned for a moment upon seeing this familiar card. He couldn’t help saying, “So you bought God Tang’s Night Blooming Jasmine card too! I participated in this auction and remember this card sold for a high price of 660,000.”
Tang Muzhou smiled without explaining. This Night Blooming Jasmine card naturally wasn’t the one at auction. He was the card’s creator and could make countless Night Blooming Jasmine cards. This was a copy he had made and his alternative account just happened to have one stored here.
Tang Muzhou said, “Try it. Use Lin Daiyu to instantly kill my Night Blooming Jasmine.”
The match began and a countdown timer appeared before their eyes. Xie Mingzhe held his breath. The instant the countdown reached 0, he immediately summoned Lin Daiyu, intending to use the skill Daiyu Burying the Flowers to instantly kill the opponent’s card.
However, Lin Daiyu was completely unresponsive. Instead of attacking the opponent’s card, she turned around and ran around aimlessly.
Xie Mingzhe’s eyes widened. “What’s going on? Why isn’t my Daiyu Burying the Flowers skill working?”
Tang Muzhou asked a question. “If you brought a submachine gun and I brought a pistol, who would win if we faced each other and fired?”
Xie Mingzhe speculated, “A submachine gun? It is more powerful.”
Tang Muzhou chuckled softly. “Whoever fires first wins.”
Xie Mingzhe, “……”
That’s right. The person who fired first could kill the opponent with one shot, no matter how powerful the opponent’s weapon was. In a face-to-face situation, the first strike was a guaranteed kill!
Tang Muzhou said, “I just told you, Daiyu’s skill is extremely effective against flower cards but it isn’t a complete counter. Why can’t she kill the Night Blooming Jasmine? It is because of her agility. Her agility is lower than the Night Blooming Jasmine’s and her skill release speed is slower. Before she can release her skill, the Night Blooming Jasmine can control her first. If I had other attack cards, your Lin Daiyu wouldn’t even have time to release her skill before being counter-killed.”
Xie Mingzhe was enlightened!
Agility, he had completely overlooked this card attribute!
Looking closely, Daiyu’s agility was 865 while the Night Blooming Jasmine was 100. No wonder why Daiyu was counter-controlled in the duel. This was the importance of seizing the initiative in competitive duels! No matter how powerful the card, it was just a target if it couldn’t seize the initiative and release its skill.
Tang Muzhou said, “Let’s go back and strengthen Daiyu’s card agility to 100 before trying again.”
Xie Mingzhe realized that this expert was willing to guide him and immediately followed eagerly.
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