Master Of Trading Star Card Game

Translator: Star River from w.a.n.gmamaread

Proofreader: Rhith

After returning to his individual s.p.a.ce, Tang Muzhou retrieved 15 Agility-Enhancing Cards from the display case to feed [Lin Daiyu], upgrading its Agility from 85 to 100. Then he handed the card to Xie Mingzhe and said, “Every cards' attributes in this game can be enhanced in the later stages, but these white enhancing cards are limited in number, so they are very expensive. For example, this Agility-Enhancing Card costs 5,000 gold coins."

That is to say, he had just spent tens of thousands of gold coins in order to upgrade [Lin Daiyu]. This man, who liked doing experiments, was really generous with money.

Xie Mingzhe took [Lin Daiyu], which had once again been upgraded, and followed behind him again in a complicated mood.

They went to Phoenix galaxy's Arena .

As soon as the countdown ended, Xie Mingzhe immediately summoned [Lin Daiyu] and released the skill – [Daiyu Burying the Flowers]. Daiyu reached out her hand, throwing the petals. When the petals touched Tuberose's hologram, the latter was instkilled!

[Lin Daiyu]'s skill was really powerful, as long as it took effect.

Xie Mingzhe, who had only visited the Arena for the first time today, was greatly shocked by the scene before him.

The next moment, Tang Muzhou took out a tree card – [Banyan Tree]. It had thick branches, looking extraordinarily powerful, while the [Tuberose] next to it looked so exquisite.

“Try again.” Tang Muzhou said.

“Continue to use [Lin Daiyu] to instakill [Tuberose]?”

“Yes, give it a try.”

Counting down 5 seconds, and the game began.

Like before, Xie Mingzhe summoned [Lin Daiyu] at the moment when the countdown became 0. He quickly activated the skill [Daiyu Burying the Flowers] to target [Tuberose], but at that same moment, he saw the [Banyan Tree] suddenly stretching out its branches and leaves. The green leaves, wide enough to cover the sky, formed a huge light green protective shield. Under the bright light, the thin shield was like a big green bubble, looking very beautiful.

[Tuberose] was safe and sound in the shield.

Xie Mingzhe quickly realized, “Did [Banyan Tree]'s protective skill stop the IDE?”

“Yes.” Seeing that Xie Mingzhe understood so quickly, Tang Muzhou appreciated him even more, and said in a more gentle tone, “[G.o.d Tree Blessing] – protects friendly cards under its cover from all enemy control and damage, lasts 5 seconds. [Banyan Tree]'s Agility is also 100, so it can release its skill at the same time as [Lin Daiyu], but in the Arena, card skills are released in special sequence based on the card's attribute data.”

Tang Muzhou opened the battle panel, showing the log, and explained, “Look, defense and healing skills are prioritized, then control and IDE skills, and finally attack skills. [Daiyu Burying the Flowers] was blocked by [Banyan Tree]'s protective defense skill, so it didn't work.”

“Besides, in the second battle, I deliberately summoned [Tuberose] 0.3 seconds slower than you, so that you instkilled it. Otherwise, even if [Lin Daiyu] has 100 Agility, you won't necessarily instkill my flower card because I have a stronger sense of prediction than you so I can take action faster. In matches, speed and timing are very important. You don't know how to play in the Arena, so you can't master the right rhythm.”

“…” Xie Mingzhe really learned something this time. It turned out that he didn't have much knowledge of the Arena rules. Although he had countless great ideas in his mind to make cards, his understanding of this card game was nothing but the tip of the iceberg.

“IDE cards are not invincible. Masters will not give you the opportunity to release IDE skills simply by predicting your timing. An IDE card is not used directly; you should use it as a tactical card to instkill your opponent's card at the key moment when the latter's skills are in CD※." Tang Muzhou explained gently, "I told you about this because I want you to understand that a real card designer not only has novel ideas, but also must clearly know all the rules in the Arena, so that the cards you make will be more useful.”

"I see. Thank you!" Xie Mingzhe said sincerely.

Tang Muzhou had taken him to the Arena and personally taught him a lot today. Although Xie Mingzhe indeed had numerous creative ideas, the cards he had made might not work in a compet.i.tion. In order to make excellent cards, he had to become a master card player first.

Only those who understood how to play could make excellent cards!

"Let's go back and talk about it." Tang Muzhou brought Xie Mingzhe back to Qianlin Restaurant for further discussion.

"Is a card's Agility similar to the character's speed of using a skill in an online game? In other words, if a card has 100 Agility, it will use its skill in an instant, conversely, it will take a long time to use its skill. Am I right?" Xie Mingzhe asked.

"Yes." Tang Muzhou said with a smile, "An excellent IDE card must use its skill in an instant, so its initial Agility has to reach 30, and when it levels up to a seven-star card, it will have 100 Agility. Otherwise, the card won't be effective against your opponent's card. The reason why clubs scramble to gain your IDE cards is that there are few such cards in the game. Later on, when your cards start to circulate the market in larger quant.i.ties, their prices will fall sharply because they are just tactical cards. You can learn more card-creation skills by making IDE cards and try to get Agility to the top by distributing the card's basic data properly. After that, you can try to make a complete set of playing cards."

"OK." Xie Mingzhe nodded seriously.

The guru's guidance changed his understanding of the value of cards completely.

He used to think that excellent cards were those having high HP, Attack and strong Defense, however he now understood that Agility and Additional Skill were the only two attributes in a function card like [Lin Daiyu] that he needed to focus on.

Likewise, control cards also needed to raise their Agility to the maximum, which would enable them to control other cards first and defeat them quickly. If a player wanted to win the game through a protracted fight or a counterattack, they had to MAX out the card's HP. Attack cards had to MAX their Attack, but it wasn't always necessary for their other attributes to be high because there would usually be defense cards protecting them in the game. As the tanks, defense cards had to have high HP.

An excellent set of cards needed to balance every aspect of data and would include a variety of control cards, defense cards, healing cards, attack cards, as well as a few special cards like function cards and tactical cards.

An IDE card was just an 'unexpected' tactical card in the Arena.

Xie Mingzhe still had a long way to go before establishing a complete set of cards, so he must keep learning.

Xie Mingzhe was grateful to the gurus he had met these last few days for their kind help. Legend Nie and Legend Lan had made no bones about the role that an IDE card played in the game, otherwise he wouldn't have realized his talent and potential in such a short time. Today, this guru, whose ID was made up of numbers, had personally taken him to the Arena where he was told how important Agility was and the idea of establishing a card set.

Xie Mingzhe was so excited that he couldn't wait to go back to his individual s.p.a.ce and make more cards.

Seeing that Uncle Chubby was considering something with his head bowed, Tang Muzhou couldn't help asking, "What about recognizing me as your Shifu? We've talked a lot and I've explained how important Agility was to you in the Arena. So am I qualified to be your Shifu?"

Xie Mingzhe recovered his poise, scratching his head and saying, "You're kidding me, Legend Tang. I'm not qualified to be your apprentice."

Tang Muzhou, "…."

He had the terrible feeling of being exposed while facing Xie Mingzhe.

He asked Xie Mingzhe after being silent for a while, "How do you know I am Legend Tang?"

Xie Mingzhe replied, "Your ordinary look, your ID, your vine and green plant decorations in the dining room, your proficiency with plant cards and your strong ability to compete with others in the Arena. All of these reminded me of someone, Tang Muzhou, the most powerful Wood card player."

Xie Mingzhe had met Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan's smurf accounts, whose IDs were made up of numbers, several days ago. Today he met this rich player whose ID was 7456789. He had had doubts about the real ident.i.ty of this man at that moment. Was this a smurf account of a guru?

Translator's Note:

Cooldown, usually shortened as “CD”, is the term used to describe the period in which skills and items cannot be used after prior usage.