MSC: Chapter 5

Xie Mingzhe might be a complete newbie but he was still an intern of the studio. Brother Chen took advantage of this group activity to introduce Xie Mingzhe to the members of the Nirvana Studio. “Chi Qin’s game ID is Green Grass, Pang Yu’s is Universe Stars, Jin Yue’s ID us Jinzi and my game ID is just Brother Chen. Currently, there are only four of us in the studio.”

“Hello everyone.” Xie Mingzhe introduced himself, “My name is Xie Mingzhe and I just started playing this game. My game ID is Chubby Uncle.”

“…Hello.” Everyone responded vaguely after hearing this strange ID, not very enthusiastic. They hadn’t seen a newbie like him in a long time. They didn’t know what Brother Chen was thinking, hiring a newbie to be a game leveler. Was this reliable?

Chi Qing’s lips twitched slightly. She privately messaged the boss. “Brother Chen, are you sure you want to bring him along?”

“He said he has a few years of experience in power level. I will explain the boss’ mechanics to him later and it should be fine. Let him join in the fun.” Brother Chen forced himself to believe it and glanced at Xie Mingzhe in the game.

He remembered that the young man who came today was very handsome. He had a sunny smile and was estimated to be over 1.8 meters tall. In contrast, his in-game image was completely different. It was a chubby man under 1.7 meters tall, named Chubby Uncle. The more he looked, the sillier it seemed.

A tall, thin boy with the ID Chubby Boy? Was he here to be funny?

Brother Chen couldn’t bear to look at the ID and waved. “Enter the dungeon.”

The illusionary realms in the Star Card world were like dungeons in online games. Challenging them would yield many rewards. The difficulty of the illusionary realms was divided by stars, with the lowest being one-star and the highest was seven-stars. The Misty Forest on Jupiter was a five-player material dungeon with a seven-star difficulty.

Xie Mingzhe knew he was in the wrong place as soon as he entered the dungeon. The monsters here had tens of thousands of HP while his Thunderbird only had 100 attack power. Forget fighting the monsters, he would end up dead in one second. Xie Mingzhe was heartbroken when he saw his Ice Serpent and Thunderbird die as soon as they entered the dungeon, their usage count dropping from 1/1 to 0/1, needing repair materials. He immediately put the cards away.

XIe Mingzhe had thought that at such a low level, he would definitely die in high-level dungeons. Surprisingly, both his cards died but his Chubby Uncle character didn’t. It was probably because the game’s setting revolved around cards. Combat relied entirely on cards and players didn’t have attack power, so the character wouldn’t die?

Xie Mingzhe followed the other four with a puzzled expression, observing carefully.

Pang Yu used a Rhino card as soon as he entered the dungeon. The rhino charged wildly, instantly shattering the silence of the Misty Forest. The awakened tree spirits instantly howled after seeing an intruder in their home, and lunched at the rhino.

The rhino charged forward, and Brother Chen and his teammates followed. The little tree spirits scattered in all directions, and everyone could barely see where the rhino was.

Just then, the girl called Chi Qing summoned two cards in quick succession.

Storm Goddess, the graceful goddess waved her wings and a fierce tornado swept through. It instantly gathered the scattered tree spirits together.

Ice Goddess, a goddess as transparent as ice crystals descended from the sky. Snow fell all around them, freezing all the tree spirits in place!

Brother Chen shouted, “Attack!”

Then Brother Chen and the guy called Jin Yue started unleashing a barrage of skills.

Xie Mingzhe, hiding in the back, was completely stunned.

The holographic game effects were too realistic. He had just seen the Storm Goddess and Ice Goddess descend, and it was like watching various 3D fantasy blockbusters in a movie theater. The goddesses were so close and life-like, with the sound of fierce wind all around him and snow falling overhead. Both the visuals and sound effects were perfect.

Amazing, this game’s effects were amazing! The engineers who developed it deserved a collective thumbs up.

Xie Mingzhe sighed as he watched them fight the mobs.

The four of them worked in perfect harmony and cleared the dungeon quickly, wiping out the entire group of tree spirits in just thirty seconds. Brother Chen quickly gathered the dropped materials and put them into his inventory before continuing deeper into the forest.

Since Xie Mingzhe’s cards were already dead and damaged, he simply focused on watching the spectacle.

Just as he predicted, the materials dropped in the Jupiter forest dungeon were all wood attribute.

They cleared several waves of mobs and finally reached the boss.

Xie Mingzhe saw that the boss in the distance was a flower around one meter tall. It was shaped somewhat like a lily from Earth, but was a multicolored one with five large petals of red, green, blue, brown and gold.

Brother Chen stopped and said, “Ah Qing, explain the strategy of this boss to Xiao Xie.”

Chi Qing was indifferent despite her name being called. “The Flower Fairy is a five-element boss. In order to defeat it, players needed to step on formations. Metal, wood, water, fire and earth correspond to gold, green, blue, red and brown respectively. Once different colored formations appear beneath its feet, players need to step on the surrounding formations that counter it. This will make the fight much easier. The order of the counters is that wood counters earth, earth counters water, water counters fire, fire counters metal and metal counters wood.”

A newbie definitely wouldn’t be able to remember this all at once. However, Xie Mingzhe had exceptional gaming talent, to the point where he had been approached by the scouts of e-sports clubs. He immediately realized the key point from her words. “How can I help? Can I help you with the formations?”

Chi Qing spoke quickly, so she was surprised that he had listened so attentively. Her aversion to the ‘newbie who was dragging them down’ lessened slightly. She explained, “If the green wood formation appears under the boss’ feet, it will heal itself. The red fire formation will cause the berserk state and it will wipe out the entire raid group. You have to step on the formations to counter it. Other formations that increase attack and defense don’t need to be stepped on. We can just brute force it. Do you understand how to step on them?”

Xie Mingzhe nodded. “Understood. Step on the metal formation when the wood formation appears, and the water formation when the fire formation appears, right?”

“…That’s right.” Chi Qing was somewhat surprised. She had spent a long time memorizing the elemental counter formula and had intended to explain it to him in detail, but this newbie understood after just one listen? Was this real?

“Get ready to start,” Brother Chen said. He wasn’t sure either. He always felt that the newbie stepping on the wrong formation would lead to a complete wipeout.

To everyone’s surprise, the moment the healing wood formation appeared under the boss’ feet, Xie Mingzhe immediately ran to the surrounding metal formation and stepped on it to neutralize the wood formation. Immediately after, a red fire formation appeared under the boss’ feet and he stepped on the blue formation to counter it. A blue formation appeared and he stepped on the brown one. A brown one appeared and he stepped on the green one.

The boss’ formations were extremely fat, but Chubby Uncle in the game was also very fast. He ran around in perfect sync with the boss’ skill rhythm. The boss would create a formation every ten seconds, and Chubby Uncle would run back and forth exactly once every ten seconds. It was as if he had calculated the boss’ attack timing perfectly.

All the formations were accurately stepped on, and all five elemental formations were broken.

With his help, the four of them summoned cards and attacked the boss with full force. Their speed was actually faster than usual?

After successfully clearing the level, Brother Chen was quite surprised to see that the completion time was three minutes shorter than usual. He thought this newbie would run around randomly and step on the wrong formations, causing everyone’s cards to be killed instantly. Unexpectedly, the newbie was quite smart. He remembered the formation counter relationship after Chi Qing explained it once, and he didn’t make any mistakes.

It seemed that his words about being a game booster for several years was true. He might’ve never played Star Card Storm but he had played other games. He could apply what he learned and quickly grasp the concepts.

The intern recruited for 1,500 was truly good value for money! Brother Chen thought this and his attitude towards Xie Mingzhe softened considerably. He gently asked, “Xiao Xie, you seem to know a lot about the relationships between the five elements?”

Xie Mingzhe chuckled. “I’ve memorized the settings of metal, wood, water, fire and earth in the games I played before.”

Brother Chen sent him an approving look. “In the game Star Card Storm, all cards have an inherent attribute that correspond to the five elemental stars. You have to go to the corresponding star to farm evolution materials. Attributes counter each other. For example, water counters fire, so water cards hit fire cards more easily. This hit rate bonus isn’t high. What’s more important is the deck bonus for cards of the same attribute.”

Xie Mingzhe was very perceptive, so Brother Chen wanted to guide him further. Brother Chen patiently explained, “A deck is when you have five or more cards of the same attribute in your deck. Then you can get the Star’s Protection deck bonus. There are many types of deck bonuses for the five major stars. When building a deck later, you can focus on your favorite star. Since you understand attributes, understanding this game will be much easier!”

“Yes!” Xie Mingzhe responded while flipping through the two cards that the system had given him. The Ice Serpent was a water type and the Thunderbird was a metal type. After Brother Chen’s explanation, he finally understood the function of card attributes. Attributes countered each other, and decks of the same attribute offered bonuses. This was something to consider in future arena battles.

“You should hurry and level up. Once you reach level 35 and can use seven-star cards, we will go run dungeons together!” Brother Chen was impatient. The intern he recruited was a promising talent, so he wanted to train this intern quickly to become a capable assistant.

“Okay!” Xie Mingzhe also wanted to level up quickly. A character’s level affected their mental power. He currently only had 20 points, so he couldn’t use high-level cards. Leveling up his character was the priority.

At the same time, inside the players’ apartments of the Fenghua Club.

A handsome young man sat on a sofa, holding a table computer as thin as a cicada’s wing. His hands were very beautiful, with neatly trimmed nails and long, slender fingers that looked very strong.

At this moment, his right index finger was rapidly sliding across the tablet computer.

On the LCD screen in front of him, black seven-star cards appeared one after another. The back of the cards gleamed with a black metallic sheen and were adorned with intricate and exquisite patterns drawn from fine lines of red, green, blue and gold that were like vines.

Each card was like a collectible work of art.

The door opened and a woman in her thirties, dressed in a business suit and high heels, walked in. She stopped in front of him and said, “Xiao Tang, I saw that task at the trading post this afternoon, where the poster is buying 100 wood attribute seven-star fragments. Is that something you posted privately? I saw your alternate account’s ID.”

“Yes,” Tang Muzhou replied softly, his gaze still fixed on the screen.

“If you need it urgently, you can tell the club and I’ll get the materials directly from the guild,” the woman kindly suggested.

“Don’t let the club know yet.” Tang Muzhou put down his tablet and looked up at her. “I’m researching a new card.”

“Oh?” The woman sat down next to him with interest. “How is the new card’s data?”

“It isn’t bad. Once it reaches seven stars, I’ll test it in the arena and see how it performs before deciding to bring it next season or not. The new card’s skill values are a bit unstable, so I don’t want to alert the club yet. This is why I posted a bounty in the game,” Tang Muzhou explained.

“I see.” The woman nodded before asking, “Is the person who accepted your mission reliable?”

“It is a power leveling studio. Power levelers won’t leak client information. Besides, I used a secondary account so they don’t know me.”

“That’s good.” The woman sighed with relief before advising, “Still, be careful. After all, you have a reputation and many clubs are studying your deck. Don’t reveal your deck information before the competition to avoid being targeted. Be careful when you are experimenting in the game.”

“I know, Sister Xue.” A smile appeared on Tang Muzhou’s face. “It doesn’t matter even if someone finds out. I don’t rely solely on cards to win competitions.”

“……” He was right. A strong deck was only a basic requirement. Whether you could win in a major competition or not depended on the player’s ability to arrange their deck and adapt to changing circumstances. As the champion of the individual competition, Tang Muzhou was undoubtedly an expert in this area.

Tang Muzhou was only 23 years old and had a unique temperament. Every gesture was elegant, like the gentlest prince in a comic book. He was already handsome, and his smile was even more heartwarming. His smile easily made people lower their guard.

However, only those who truly knew him understood that Tang Muzhou wasn’t as gentle as he appeared.

Beneath his charming smile lay a ruthless and decisive style of attack. He wielded his wood-type plant cards with unparalleled skill, especially his signature card, the Millennium Divine Tree. It had a AOE death-crushing attack that had shattered the ace cards of countless professional players.

Smiling as he strangled his opponent with various vines—Tang Muzhou on the field was undoubtedly the most terrifying presence among wood-type players!