The Card Apprentice

Chapter 270: Gambling with Cards (II)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Chen Mu had dared to make the bet because he was confident. Given that those materials were only ordinary, being able to make a card with a damage value as high as 721 actually implied outstanding ability. Chen Mu certainly never would have made the bet before he had made the numbered series of cards.

The numbered series of cards had been a watershed in Chen Mu’s entire career. Those 20-some successful cards, along with nearly ten failures, had been both designed and made personally by him.

Because he hadn’t been so influenced by the Van Sant System, Chen Mu hadn’t been constrained by it. The creativity of the numbered series of cards had made people feel as though the skies had opened to something wonderful. Added to Chen Mu’s ever-deepening understanding of Token Theory, the two combined to form the numbered series of cards, most of which had utterly fantastic power.

Chen Mu was now going to copy one of his own cards, 005 from the numbered series.

More precisely, it was a simplified version of 005. Card 005 wasn’t the most eye-catching among those cards. Compared to the boundless horizons of 007 and 013, it was considered ordinary. Still, each one of those 20-some cards was the product of Chen Mu wracking his brains, and there was nothing ordinary about any of them. That was easily seen from the more than 50 million Oudi 005 had brought in.

Once Chen Mu heard the list of materials reported by the card master, the first thing that flashed through his mind was 005! The properties of those materials were similar to those he had used to make 005, except for being a level lower in quality.

Doing some calculation to himself, Chen Mu used a conservative result before deciding to make the bet with them.

Since it was a card he had invented, Chen Mu had almost no hesitation in placing the pen. He worked fast.

The entire process was completed in a single breath; he spent only five minutes. Placed on the desk was a pink card. The black pattern on its surface wouldn’t be considered complex, though the fluidity of the lines lit up their eyes.

Ru Qiu walked over and picked up the card to give to the card master who had made the bet. The card masters from the Origins Academy had long since been unable to restrain themselves, and they gasped as they gathered around.

“Nice penmanship!” Professor Wen couldn’t hold back his praise.

The rest of the card masters marveled at the accomplishment of the penmanship on the card. Such penmanship was only seen on the cards made by card masters with dozens of years’ experience. Even old Wen would never dare to say his own penmanship was more accomplished.

Penmanship could only be improved with lots of practice. Unless you spent a lot of time specifically practicing, any progress would be painfully slow. Moreover, since the quality of the penmanship wasn’t related to how effective the composition was, contemporary card masters paid less and less attention to it. It was really hard to find a card master with outstanding penmanship.

So, none of them could help but sound out their praises when they saw that card. Even though contemporary card masters weren’t in pursuit of penmanship, it was something everyone had to practice in the old days. The masterpieces handed down from the grand masters of yore showed how outstanding the penmanship of the previous generations was. The most ironic thing was that the increasing belittling of penmanship was directly related to the establishment of the Van Sant System. But the one who created that system, Heiner Van Sant, had outstanding penmanship.

Among everyone, only Ru Qiu had long since stopped being amazed at Chen Mu’s penmanship. She couldn’t have been more familiar with it after following Chen Mu for a few days.

When everyone’s attention turned to the card’s composition, there were many expressions of surprise and marvel before the card masters all fell silent.

Ru Qiu sneered.

The situation in front of her hadn’t been unexpected; she had already guessed their own card masters would surely never recognize those patterns. Those compositions so full of mystery had been torturing her over those last few days. She still hadn’t been able to make any sense of them.

Ru Qiu was as smart as a whip, with a lot of insight, and she had roughly guessed the reason. According to her surmise, Chen Mu must have been from a branch descended from the age of the sects. The card compositions he was good at were so different from the Van Sant System. The compositions she had seen must have had a rather high standing within their system, which was why she had found them so difficult.

From any angle, Ru Qiu’s conjecture was basically right on. It would have been strange if she could understand those many deep layers of Token composition, never having studied even basic Token Theory.

The Origins Academy card artisans were all looking at one another, unable to understand the composition on the card. Even the profoundly learned and well-known old Wen had never seen such a composition.

That was when those card masters felt abruptly embarrassed. They had been paying attention to something else before, wanting to clarify which sect Chen Mu finally belonged to. But now, they couldn’t even recognize the card composition in front of them.

The pattern on the card’s surface wasn’t complex. Its composition was clear and could be taken in at a glance. Although the composition was entirely different from the patterns on ordinary cards, it was highly accomplished. It had some implicit order.

In their minds, when they looked at that card, Chen Mu was definitely a card master descended from some sect.

The card master who had made the bet had remained surprisingly unruffled as he gave the card to Jiao Si. “None of us recognize this card, Headmaster, and we ask that you please give it a try.” If one didn’t understand the pattern on a card and wanted to know the card’s application, the simplest way was to try it out.

Jiao Si didn’t immediately take the card but looked at Chen Mu instead.

Chen Mu invited him by turning up his palm. “Give it a try, Headmaster Jiao Si, and see what the card is like.”

Only then did Jiao Si take the card. But to detect the power of a card, they had to go to a different training field. The determination of a card’s destructive value required the use of some specific instruments.

Fortunately, Chen Mu had never skimped on training-related instruments. Bogner also placed simply hair-raising importance on training. The training equipment used in the base was basically the best on the market. Of course, some very expensive training equipment got dismissed for reasons of funding.

Jiao Si stood on the field with that fresh-from-the-oven card already firmly stuck into his apparatus. He was still quite interested to try out new cards, even more so when it was a card Chen Mu had made! The rest of them didn’t know who Chen Mu was, but he sure did. When the card artisans had previously made that ruckus, he had wanted to see how Chen Mu would settle things. That was why he had given that look at Ru Qiu to prevent her from interfering.

He knew little enough about that Mr. Cao. As one who had led teams of card artisans, he had never even run into him before. So, he really wanted to see how that partner of his conducted himself in the end.

When the matter changed into that card master starting to gamble, he knew what the results of the bet would be. He didn’t want to lose an ace card master at that critical juncture, so even at the expense of some blood, he had changed the stakes.

Jiao Si settled himself in meditation after standing still. He lightly stuck out the finger on his right hand, where a starburst the size of a grain of rice appeared. Although it was small, it was eye-piercing. It dragged a long tail behind it like a comet as it shot toward the target.

The target didn’t move, but the column of numbers about the damage value started to jump around like crazy. It showed 600, 700, 800…

The damage value finally stopped at 902.

The card masters all had their mouths hanging open, stunned at those numbers.

The card wasn’t as good as 005 in the end. It not only fell short in the damage value, but more critically in firing frequency. The firing frequency of 005 was five times higher. And, there would be five shooting stars with every shot, unlike that card, which could only emit a single energy body.

Those two performance factors had determined that the two cards were at completely different levels. Still, in Chen Mu’s eyes, that card, which would only be considered ordinary, was enough to win the bet.

“What comes out of Mr. Cao’s hands is really outstanding. I’m afraid very few in the federation could make a card with such power.” Jiao Si laughed with a good deal of affection in his expression.

“President Jiao Si flatters me. I just like to try obscure things. Compared to true power, I am far from the level of any of your colleagues!” Chen Mu spoke calmly and with no polite meaning to what he said. As he saw it, apart from the aspect of Token Theory, he would never flatter himself that he was up to those card masters; they had been immersed in card making knowledge for dozens of years.

After he said that, the card masters were so embarrassed they couldn’t wait to find some hole to crawl into. The face of the card master who had made the bet had turned ashen, and his eyes were blank and dispirited. To be defeated by someone at the thing he was best at was really too big a blow.

After that, the card masters became a lot more well-behaved. Card masters formed a rather unique group, mostly fanatical about technology. Once someone else’s technology was better than theirs, they would be very accepting.

But Chen Mu wasn’t about to make them produce power cards. On the one hand, because of the fracas about the power cards, of course he wasn’t going to make them do that again. On the other, what they had made were all four-star cards. Those were for use in battle, and they already had sufficient quantities. Three-star power cards would be just as good for ordinary training, with a lot less outlay.

So, Chen Mu simply opened his warehouse to allow them to make cards as they pleased. If all of those materials were turned into cards, their value would be multiplied many times over. With such a large warehouse, even if Chen Mu were to make them himself, it would be a long, long time before he could use up all the materials. They would go to waste.

At that time, the first battle in Pomelo after the standoff had broken out between the Central Repository of the Classics and the Federation Comprehensive Academy!