MSC: Chapter 4

Xie Mingzhe had never played a full immersion game before, so he was immediately stunned by the scene before him after entering the game.

The vast starry sky, the dazzling galaxy—during the journey on the spaceship, he could even see meteor showers streaking across the window. Countless meteors trailed silvery-white streaks decorated the sky like a magnificent fireworks display on the cosmic canopy.

The excited Xie Mingzhe pressed his face against the window. He felt like a country bumpkin visiting a grand garden—a country bumpkin opening the door to a new world.

After a period of space travel, there was finally a ding in his ear and the clear system voice rang out again. “Welcome to Gemini. Your assigned residence here is: Gemini G District, Apartment 7498. Please enter your personal space.”

His feet finally touched the ground. Xie Mingzhe took a deep breath to steady his racing heartbeat and turned to examine his so-called personal space.

The layout of three bedrooms and one living room was just like an apartment in the real world. The living room had a sofa, coffee table and huge LCD TV. This TV was probably a world channel. It constantly displayed text messages, making Xie Mingzhe dizzy.

Xie Mingzhe left the living room and followed the arrow to the bedroom. The system voice sounded again. “Once you are tired in the game world, you can return to your bedroom to rest. Of course, the bedroom’s decor and furniture can be changed, and you can also invite friends over.”

This game also incorporated the ‘home’ feature, where each player could be assigned their own apartment to decorate and design according to their personal preferences, creating a virtual social space.

Xie Mingzhe mentally gave it a thumbs up, left the bedroom and followed the prompts to the study.

Three walls of the study were lined with display cabinets. The light blue, lustrous metal cabinets were divided into neat rows of small compartments, each one a 20×20 cm square. This design was similar to a backpack in an online game. Cards and materials obtained in the game could be placed in the display cabinets.

There was a silver-white metal platform in the center of the study. The moment Xie Mingzhe approached it, a system voice announced, “This is the Card Operation Table. All card creation, dismantling, upgrading and evolution are done here. Please read the card operation instructions carefully.”

New players should definitely read the instructions carefully. This was experience that Xie Mingzhe had gained from playing so many games.

He lightly swiped his finger and a detailed, animated explanation appeared before him.

Star Card Storm naturally revolved around cards as the core of the game.

In order to improve a card’s abilities, it needed to be leveled up and evolved.

Initially, cards were level 1, one-star green cards. At level 20, they evolved into two-star blue cards. At level 30, it was three-star purple cards. Level 40 was four-star orange cards, level 50 was five-star silver cards and level 60 as six-star gold cards. At the highest level 70, they became powerful seven-star black cards.

Each card level up granted a percentage increase to the skills. Each evolution doubled the base attributes. However, evolution required the card to reach the corresponding level. Then it would consume three cards of the same star level or 100 high-star fragments.

For example, in order to evolve a six-star card into a seven-star card, the card must first be upgraded to level 70, the level required for evolution. Then consume three ‘six-star cards’ or 100 ‘seven-star fragments.’ This would allow it to evolve into a seven-star card with doubled strength.

Leveling up was easy to understand. It was about gaining experience and increasing their level. Xie Mingzhe understood card evolution as equivalent to ‘level breakthroughs’ in online games. Each evolution required a large amount of resources, but the resulting high-star card would reward the player with doubled strength.

In the later stages of the game, both dungeons and arenas would be dominated by the max-level seven-star cards. Training a level 70 seven-star card was extremely costly, requiring a large amount of experience and materials, and how players trained their cards was a skill in itself.

Xie Mingzhe roughly understood the game rules.

He finished reading the beginner’s guide and the system voice sounded in his ear. “Now that you understand the rules for the card upgrades and evolution, let’s get into the action! The Star Card world is full of wondrous illusions. Challenging these illusions will reward you with abundant experience and materials. There are some alien creatures in the illusions. Use the cards given to you to defeat them!”

There was a ding-dong notification sound in his ear. He had obtained the cards Ice Serpent x1 and Thunderbird x1.

The slot on the left side of the display case lit up, revealing two green cards. Level 1, one-star green cards were the most basic cards in the game.

Xie Mingzhe picked up the cards and examined them.

[Ice Serpent (Water Type)]

[Card Level: 1.

Evolution Star Level: ★

Available Uses: 1/1

Basic Attributes: HP 100, Defense 100, Attack 20, Agility 10, Critical Rate 1%.

Additional Skills: Freeze (freezes a designated target for 2 seconds, dealing 20% water damage to the target).]

[Thunderbird (Metal Type)]

[Card Level: 1.

Evolution Star Level: ★

Available Uses: 1/1

Basic Attributes: HP 100, Defense 50, Attack 100, Agility 30, Critical Rate 5%.

Additional Skills: Lightning Chain (circle and spin in the air, dealing 80% lightning splash damage to all targets within range).]

One control card and one AOE card.

The official team gave two cards to beginners, which should be enough to handle the beginner dungeons.

Xie Mingzhe took the two cards into the first dungeon and the scene before him really changed.

This was a spacious plaza with a stone pillar in the center. Xie Mingzhe had just entered the scene when he heard a woman’s eerie voice. “Hehehe, more fresh food delivered to my door?”

Xie Mingzhe looked up and saw a creature with the upper body of a beautiful woman and the lower body of a snake. She was writhing around the pillar, followed by several small snakes. This was clearly the BOSS and small mobs that he needed to defeat in the dungeon.

The system told him, “Please pay attention to your mental power points. Your current character level is 1, with a total of 10 mental power points. Summoning a one-star card requires 5 mental power points, which will automatically regenerate every second.”

Xie Mingzhe had played games before and easily understood this. Mental power was like the mana bar in online games and summoning cards consumed it. This was obviously to limit the number of cards that could be summoned. Otherwise, the game would definitely be chaotic if players summoned hundreds of cards in a row.

10 mental power points with 5 points per card. This meant a maximum of two cards could be summoned. The official team only gave him two, no more and no less.

Xie Mingzhe summoned the Ice Serpent and Thunderbird together.

The Ice Serpent was a small, pure white snake that was around one meter long. Its entire body was seemingly covered in ice and snow, and it radiated a chilling aura. It looked rather cute as it crawled around on the ground. Meanwhile, the Thunderbird was less flattering. It resembled a black crow and was covered in electricity. It was truly a little bird with bristling feathers.

The Ice Serpent’s single-target Freeze skill could freeze a designated target. Xie Mingzhe tried to use it to freeze the giant snake demon. The Thunderbird’s skill, Lightning Chain, was an AOE effect. Xie Mingzhe tested the skill and it really damaged both the giant snake demon and the surrounding smaller snakes.

In his previous life, he was a science student and was quite sensitive to data. He specifically observed the damage values. The Thunderbird’s AOE damage was around 80 points. Judging from the card’s stats, the base attack power was 100 points and the skill description stated 80% damage. This perfectly matched the 100 x 80% calculation.

In other words, the final damage a card dealt depended on the base attack power and skill coefficient bonus.

Xie Mingzhe’s years of gaming experience allowed him to quickly judge that this card’s stats were mediocre. It wasn’t worth wasting resources to raise it to seven-stars. It was no wonder. The cards given during the beginner period definitely weren’t top-tier cards. Later on, there might be better cards with 200% or 300% skill coefficient bonuses and a higher base attack power.

Good cards definitely needed to be collected slowly, so Xie Mingzhe wasn’t in a hurry. He wanted to familiarize himself with the game’s rules first.

The simple beginner dungeons weren’t difficult for Xie Mingzhe. He calculated the data while playing the dungeons. He quickly cleared out the mobs and reduced the giant snake demon’s health to 1%.

Just then, the giant snake demon suddenly self-destructed, instantly killing both the Ice Serpent and Thunderbird.

[Congratulations on clearing the illusionary realm!]

[Your Ice Serpent and Thunderbird have reached level 3. You have received an additional reward of 10 Green Star Stones and 2 Green Repair Stones.]

Xie Mingzhe was puzzled while the helpful system explained, “Star Stones are rich in experience. You can feed them to your favorite cards to level them up. Repair Stones can repair cards. Each card in the Star Card world has a limited number of uses. When a Star Card dies, the number of uses decreases. If it reaches 0, the card is damaged and it must be repaired with a Repair Stone of the same level.”

“Your Ice Serpent and Thunderbird are damaged. Use the Repair Stones to repair them!”

No wonder why the snake demon self-destructed and destroyed two cards at the end. It was to teach players about the card repair function.

Xie Mingzhe repaired the two cards and followed the system prompts to continue farming experience in the dungeon.

Outside the door, Brother Chen had just stepped out when a tall girl said to him, “Brother Chen, we got a big order.”

Brother Chen’s eyes lit up. “What order?”

The girl said, “Someone posted a bounty on the trading post. It is 100 seven-star wood attribute fragments and the reward is 20,000 gold coins. It must be completed within three days. I snatched it.”

Cheers erupted around them. “Ah Qing is awesome!”

”One hundred fragments, we will be busy!”

Brother Chen waved his hand decisively. “Everyone, get ready. We will go to Jupiter to farm materials.”

The girl reminded him, “The entry requirement for the Jupiter dungeon is a five-person team. The four of us can’t get in. We need to find another person.”

Brother Chen remembered that he had just hired a new person today, so he went back to the room next door and said to Xie Mingzhe, “Xiao Xie, the studio is short-handed. Are you familiar with the game yet? Come and run a dungeon with us.”

Xie Mingzhe, eager to show his skills, immediately ran over. He greeted his colleagues with a smile and sat down next to them.

Everyone was in the game, so they didn’t pay much attention to greeting him. They were wearing helmets and simply couldn’t see him.

Brother Chen ordered, “Jupiter, gather at the entrance of the Misty Forest dungeon.”

Xie Mingzhe shamelessly asked, “Brother Chen, where is the Misty Forest?”

Brother Chen patiently explained, “There is a room in your private apartment with a world map. Just click on it and you can teleport anywhere.”

Xie Mingzhe had been following the system prompts to grind dungeons and had just reached the study. He hadn’t finished the quests yet. He put down the quests and went next door. Sure enough, he found a world map in the last room of the three-bedroom apartment. It was a vast cosmic star map, with each twinkling star labeled.

Was this the Star Card world? It was magnificent…

Xie Mingzhe was stunned for two seconds. Then he quickly found Jupiter that Brother Chen had mentioned among the countless stars.

The game had planets like Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn and Mars, but he couldn’t see Earth. Xie Mingzhe carefully noticed that the cards also had symbols for the water and metal attributes. Were Jupiter and Mars related to these card attributes?

Xie Mingzhe, filled with doubt, teleported to Jupiter and found the entrance to the Misty Forest dungeon. Brother Chen sent him a party invitation. The moment Xie Mingzhe joined, a clear female voice whispered in his ear, “You are new here, right? Tell me what cards you have so I can assign tasks for the dungeon later.”

Xie Mingzhe summoned two cards. “I only have an Ice Serpent and a Thunderbird.”

The girl glanced at the cute white snake crawling at his feet and the electrified little bird flying around his head. She almost choked. “You brought level 1 cards to a seven-star dungeon? Are you kidding me?”

The man with glasses beside him suppressed a laugh. “Your Thunderbird only has 100 attack power. The boss of the seven-star dungeon has 1 million HP.”

A flock of crows flew overhead…

In the game, Xie Mingzhe had an innocent expression. ‘Weren’t you guys the ones who invited me here?’

The culprit, Brother Chen, awkwardly touched his nose. “I forget, I forgot. He is a newbie and it is his first time playing this game.”

The scene suddenly fell silent.

After five seconds of silence, Brother Chen rubbed his temples with a troubled expression. “Forget it. Xiao Xie, just join in the fun.”

Xie Mingzhe excitedly rubbed his hands together. Then he quickly straightened like a diligent student. “Okay, Brother Chen. I will just join in the fun and I definitely won’t cause any trouble!”