MSC: Chapter 8

Xie Mingzhe stared blankly at the scrolling numbers on the screen, deeply feeling his own poverty and insignificance.

He was worrying about his 800 crystal coins rent and was happy to have found a job with a monthly salary of 1,500 crystal coins, but in the world of the game, these rich people were actually spending tens of thousands of crystal coins on a small card.

He remembered that when he played online games, there was a rich person in his server who spent hundreds of thousands of yuan to make a weapon. It was said that in many games where equipment was randomized, rich people would easily spend millions of yuan to make a good set of equipment.

Indeed, there was no shortage of rich people in any era. Of course, there was also no shortage of poor people in any era. Unfortunately, Xie Mingzhe was poor, no matter whether it was on Earth or in this time and space.

He didn’t understand the world of the rich and could only watch the show.

The price of the card on the screen had soared to 150,000 before stopping.

The auctioneer announced, “150,000 once, 150,000 twice, anyone else…”

Before she could finish talking about increasing the bid, the number jumped again.

200,000.

220,000.

250,000.

300,000.

Xie Mingzhe stared wide-eyed at the screen. Just now, the bids had increased by only a few thousand but the situation had suddenly changed. The bids were now tens of thousands!

Senior Brother Qi whispered, “This is just small-time stuff. The real big spenders are making their move now. This seven-star card has excellent attributes. It has 100 agility, extreme double crowd control and the aura bonus of Tang Muzhou. The price will definitely be more than this.”

Xie Mingzhe, “……”

Indeed, the world of the rick was terrifying,.

Precious cards in this game should be top-tier equipment in other games, especially this card with perfect attributes. This price seemed reasonable?

Xie Mingzhe sighed as he continued to watch the show.

At the same time, the office of the Imperial Capital Fenghua Club.

Xue Linxiang glanced at the young man lounging on the sofa who was constantly yawning. She said gently, “Xiao Tang, this Night Blooming Jasmine card is your hard work. The data is really excellent. If you don’t want to use it yourself, you can give it to someone else. Why sell it?” Xue Linxiang looked reluctant to part with it.

Tang Muzhou was so sleepy that he almost fell asleep, his eyelids constantly drooping. Hearing Sister Xue’s voice, he forced himself to stay awake. He squinted his eyes as he said, “Changfeng, Manman and Xiao An aren’t good at plant cards. Giving it to them won’t bring out their full potential. Why not find a more suitable owner for this card?”

His voice was low with a lazy huskiness when he was sleepy. It sounded particularly pleasant.

She was afraid that his strange sleep schedule would cause him to fall asleep again, so Xue Linxiang quickly spoke to get his attention. “You are right. Since you don’t need it anymore, you should find it a new owner who can take care of it instead of letting it gather dust in the card display case. However, now that you have sold the Night Blooming Jasmine support card, have you chosen a replacement card for your deck?”

“Of course.” Tang Muzhou opened his tablet computer, pulled up a card’s information and introduced it. “This card was just made a few days ago. I used a different approach. Sister Xue, take a look at is information.”

“……” Xue Linxiang’s eyes widened suddenly.

Tang Muzhou had sold the seven-star Night Blooming Jasmine to make the most of it. However, the information of the card that replaced the Night Blooming Jasmine was even more terrifying. She believed that when this card appeared on the field, it would definitely give Tang Muzhou’s opponents a headache.

“How did you make this card?” Xue Linxiang turned around and saw that Tang Muzhou had already fallen asleep while hugging his tablet computer.

He took an afternoon nap every day, looking like a plant wilted by the scorching sun, completely listless. This strange sleep schedule was simply frustrating. Xue Linxiang saw him sleeping so soundly and put away her personal terminal, not wanting to wake him. She turned back to her office to check the competition schedule the league had just sent her.

At the auction venue.

The Night Blooming Jasmine card ultimately sold for 660,000. It was roughly 66,000 crystal coins in real currency. It was truly amazing!

Xie Mingzhe finished watching the show and left the auction house with two friends.

The summer sun shone on him, the realistic effect making him feel warm even in the game. The temperature was just right and the weather was lovely, but his mood was particularly bad.

Rich people could casually spend tens of thousands on a single card while he was struggling to make ends meet.

The gap between rich and poor was a problem that existed in every world. Xie Mingzhe didn’t resent the rich. Their wealth was their own achievement. He was born an orphan and forced to rely on himself. He started from a much lower point than other people.

Still, he was unwilling to accept it.

He was unwilling to be a poor boy again after being reborn.

In this previous life on Earth, he had completed college on scholarships. He planned to find a decent job and live a stable life. He was quite content with that peaceful existence.

Things were different now.

This world was technologically advanced, but people’s spiritual needs were severely lacking. As a result, holographic games like Star Card Storm became wildly popular worldwide. Many players used the game as a source of spiritual sustenance. Naturally, countless people were willing to spend money on it.

The auction just now showed that a pet card with little offensive power, the Nine-Tailed Fox, could be sold for 8,000 gold coins simply because it was cute. Meanwhile, a powerful combat card like the Night Blooming Jasmine actually sold for a huge 660,000 gold coins. This was equivalent to 66,000 in real-world currency!

If he had that card, it would be more than enough to cover his living expenses and tuition for four years of college!

Xie Mingzhe was deeply shaken.

He had never played card games before. There were so many cards in Star Card Storm that he assumed they would be cheap. They would only cost a few coins to buy and collect. Now seeing original cards selling for thousands or even tens of thousands, Xie Mingzhe’s worldview was completely shattered.

Maybe he could make a few original cards and sell them? It wouldn’t matter if he failed. What if he succeeded? He didn’t need to sell them for tens of thousands. Even a few hundred would be enough for a comfortable few days!

Xie Mingzhe thought this and immediately grabbed Senior Brother Qi, humbling asking, “I’ve been hearing you talk about original cards all this time. Are there any special requirements for players who want to make original cards?”

Senior Brother Qi patiently explained, “In the game, creating original cards relies on the player’s mental power and talent.”

Xie Mingzhe nodded vigorously. “Oh, tell me more about it?”

Senior Brother Qi pulled Xie Mingzhe to a quiet pavilion nearby. Sisi was also curious and followed to listen to the lecture from the veteran player.

“To put it simply, mental power is the ability of your brain’s nerves to withstand external stimuli. It can be measured in hospitals. Most people have around 200. Those who exceed 260 can take on the most mentally demanding and challenging jobs in various industries, or play in professional leagues for holographic games.”

“……” Xie Mingzhe paused, wondering what his mental power was again. The first time he woke up in hospital, Dr. Qin had a robot test him and it seemed to be 300. That’s right, the robot stuck electrodes to his temples and the result was 300!

So his mental power was quite high. At the very least, it was significantly higher than the average of 200. Xie Mingzhe was somewhat please and continued to humbly ask, “Do I need to use mental power to create original cards in the game?”

“Yes.” Senior Brother Qi explained it in detail. “The content of a card and the skills all depend on your mental power to create it. For example, if you want to create a plant card, you must be very detailed in your creation. You have to specify what the plant’s flowers look like, how the roots and stems grow, the shape of the leaves, how the skills are described and how the data is allocated. The more specific and detailed the creation, the better the quality of the card.”

Xie Mingzhe was stunned. Wasn’t this just like drawing?’

There were two ways to draw. One was to draw what you saw on paper and the other was to imagine it.

For example, if he wanted to draw a plant, he first needed to sketch its appearance in his mind. After the image took shape, he put pen to paper and drew the plant from his mind. A good artist’s work was incredibly realistic and could even be indistinguishable from the real thing.

This wasn’t difficult for Xie Mingzhe. In his previous life, he was a science student but in this world, Xie Mingzhe was admitted to the art department of the Imperial Capital College.

He could draw, he could imagine and his mental power was 300. All the hardware requirements were met and he was only lacking the software.

Xie Mingzhe excitedly rubbed his hands together before asking, “So after imagining the specific card content, I use my mental power to drawn them on special cardstock in the game to make cards. That’s it?”

Senior Brother Qi shook his head. “That is only the first step. The more crucial step is the card review. The game has a very strict copyright protection system. Your cards must be reviewed by the official card database before they can be used in the game world.”

“Copyright protection? What does that mean?” Xie Mingzhe scratched his head in confusion.

“For example, the Nine-Tailed Fox at today’s auction has already passed the database review, so the copyright of this card belongs to the original creator and others can’t copy it. You can’t imitate it by making an Eight-Tailed Fox card or a Seven-Tailed Fox card. You also can’t change its head to create a Nine-Tailed Cat card.”

Sisi nodded knowingly. “That means we can’t modify cards from the deck. We can only create new cards that haven’t appeared in the deck, right?”

Senior Brother Qi nodded. “Yes, cards that already exist in the database can’t be considered original cards after simple modifications. The skills of existing cards also can’t be directly copied. We must create new cards and set new skills to pass the system’s review. If it is a character card, the official team has a special requirement. We can’t directly import the facial features of real-world characters. We must create our own original characters.”

Xie Mingzhe suddenly understood.

This official rule was indeed impressive, preventing a bunch of people from copying cards. Doing so could protect players’ creativity to the greatest extent, so that the new idea they came up with wouldn’t be copied by someone else tomorrow. Character cards couldn’t be imported from the real world, which prevented players from maliciously vilifying real-world people in the game world and giving them strange skills. For example, making a classmate into a card and giving them the skill of Farting would be bad.

Senior Brother Qi added, “More importantly, your card skills need to match the card’s image. For example, the Night Blooming Jasmine’s Bewitching Fragrance and Dark Night Descends are related to the card’s name. Tang Muzhou’s strongest group attack skill, the Millennium Divine Tree, has a skill called Death Strangulation. This strangles the illusion of star cards with large-area wood vines. The reason his card is so strong is because the card, its information and its skills are perfectly matched.”

Xie Mingzhe nodded admiringly. It seemed that Tang Muzhou had a very creative mind! He endowed various plants with powerful skills.

The official rules for creating original cards were indeed very difficult. Players couldn’t just do whatever they wanted. In order to make the competition as fair as possible, the official team definitely had a professional database and calculation formula to control the card values. For example, a skill that could instantly kill groups within a 100 meter radius definitely wouldn’t pass the review process.

The early a person started the game, the easier it was to create original cards since there were fewer duplicate cards. Now, Star Card Storm had been running for a full ten years. There were so many players and all sorts of cards had probably already been created by his predecessors, right? Who knew if the system’s card library already included all types of plants, animals and characters? The issue of creativity alone could stump a lot of people trying to create entirely new cards.

He had to make new cards that weren’t already in the card library? What should he do? Xie Mingzhe stroked his chin thoughtfully.

Senior Brother Qi said, “If you are really interested in original cards, you can go to the black market and buy some Nebula Paper to try making some.”

Sisi advised, “Chubby Uncle, original cards are extremely expensive. A friend of mine wanted to create an original pet card last month and she spent several thousand just on materials. In the end, she didn’t even succeed. Don’t jump into this trap so easily!”

Xie Mingzhe nodded. “Yes, I’m just interested and want to try it. If I don’t succeed then it’s fine. I won’t invest a lot of money.” He didn’t have that much money to waste, but he was unwilling to give up without trying.

At the very least, he had high mental power and could draw so he met all the hardware standards. Maybe he could actually make some cards and sell them, which would be a source of income.

Xie Mingzhe made up his mind and followed Senior Brother Qi to the largest underground trading market on the commercial planet, the black market.