The Marvelous Card Making
1665 Words
Qingming City
In a bustling shop in the city center, Lu Ming was deeply focused, holding a card-making pen and carefully drawing.
In front of him was a design blueprint—"One-Star Energy Card Pattern Template," a standard card-making design diagram.
This was a basic card.
Thirty-six strokes!
Each stroke was a basic pattern.
As long as you followed the design to draw the patterns, you could create an energy card. This was the first card that all card makers had to learn, and it was the only card Lu Ming knew how to make.
Swish!
The card-making pen moved.
Lu Ming could clearly feel the energy within him flowing through the pen tip, slowly entering the card and ultimately forming a dark pattern.
So this is card-making!
"Familiar feeling..."
Lu Ming pondered.
He felt that the patterns on the back of the card were remarkably similar to programming languages.
Although the principles were unclear, it seemed that treating the card like a program made everything much clearer.
In his previous life, he wrote complex programs using simple programming languages, and now, he was using patterns to create cards.
"An energy card is like a simple little program, much like those basic addition and subtraction programs learned in programming—very simple."
"So the patterns are simple and easy to draw!"
"Patterns."
"Are the core of card-making."
"Learning to draw these patterns is mastering the basics of card-making."
"For me, card-making is like programming in this other world!"
Lu Ming felt a surge of excitement.
This feeling was truly wonderful. With the memory of the former Lu Ming, he was steady with his hand. This energy card, drawn countless times, gradually took shape under Lu Ming's skillful hands.
Soon.
Lu Ming finished the last stroke on the blank card's back.
Buzz—
A faint glow appeared.
All the patterns solidified, becoming faintly visible. The once-blank front of the card now showed a diamond-shaped crystal pattern.
That was an energy stone.
This blank card had transformed into a brand-new energy card.
"One-Star Energy Card!"
Lu Ming was thrilled.
Although Lu Ming had successfully made this card countless times in his previous life, making it himself for the first time felt incredibly magical.
Of course.
This was with a design blueprint. What if there was no design blueprint?
That’s where the original card came in.
An original card can encapsulate any ability and turn it into a card. Then, by following the patterns on the back of the original card, you can create a new card!
That’s the strength of a card maker!
"Original card."
Lu Ming raised his hand.
Swish!
A faint stream of light passed.
In his hand, an energy-infused card appeared.
Buzz—
Faint light flickered.
The transparent card spun in front of him, glowing faintly. This was his original card, the foundation of a card maker!
Theoretically.
With this original card, you could encapsulate an ability.
Then, the back of the card would show patterns. As long as you followed these patterns to draw, you could create a card. It was very powerful, but unfortunately...
The former Lu Ming’s use of the original card was zero.
The reason was simple—insufficient energy!
The minimum requirement for encapsulating an ability with an original card was that the energy contained in the original card must be higher than the energy of the ability you want to encapsulate for success!
If you had an original card with 100 energy trying to encapsulate an ability with 200 energy?
It would be overwhelmed!
And Lu Ming’s original card had only 48 energy!
To put it simply, an energy card already had 100 energy. That means, without a design blueprint, Lu Ming couldn't even make an energy card!
He had only a pitiful 48 energy!
Now, every energy card he made needed an energy stone as an aid to complete!
In short—his current job was just a converter, responsible for turning energy stones into energy cards, nothing more, a laborer among laborers, the king of brick-moving.
From his limited memory.
He once asked a classmate, who was also at the bottom of the class, to cast Fireball and attempt to encapsulate it. He ended up lying in the infirmary for a month to recover.
The encapsulation failed, and the fireball hit him directly.
Because even the lowest-level Fireball required 50 energy.
He couldn’t encapsulate it.
In simple terms, the capacity was insufficient.
Trying to record an 8GB movie onto a 4GB disc is impossible! As for buying the Fireball design blueprint and using energy stones to supplement the energy for drawing...
He couldn’t afford it!
Moreover, the most basic skills like Fireball were everywhere. Every card shop had plenty of these low-level cards.
Buying them was useless!
On this street, at least ten shops sold them!
Making money?
It was non-existent.
So.
The unfortunate former Lu Ming decided to make money through energy cards.
Mass-producing energy cards could earn some labor money and also improve his cultivation. Only by increasing energy could he encapsulate more abilities and make more money.
Actually, his decision was reasonable.
Unfortunately—
He was crushed under the interest of the loan.
"Loan..."
Lu Ming looked at the countdown in the top-right corner, "Fifteen days."
If he didn’t repay the loan in fifteen days, he would likely be taken to sing "Chrysanthemum Terrace." As for contacting his parents and sister...
Hmm.
Better not.
If discovered, it would be a dead end.
Unless absolutely necessary, Lu Ming would not try.
"One hundred thousand."
Lu Ming glanced at the small ledger on the table.
The shop was originally a scam to deceive his sister, renting it for only two months and spending a total of twenty thousand on the cards for decoration.
In theory, it should be manageable to repay.
However, the interest on this type of loan, especially student loans... Hehe, last time those guys came, twenty thousand suddenly became fifty thousand.
Oh.
When they come next time, it will be a hundred thousand.
"Some trouble."
Lu Ming sighed.
These local bullies were quite formidable, especially for someone with almost no combat ability like Lu Ming. So violent resistance wasn’t an option.
At least not now.
So.
How to come up with a hundred thousand in fifteen days was a big problem.
"Making money..."
"Cards..."
Lu Ming fell into deep thought.
The only skill he had now was card-making, still just basic energy cards. He didn’t have the qualifications to touch other cards.
Moreover, even if he did, they wouldn’t be worth much.
Or...
Lu Ming’s gaze fell on a card in his shop.
At the time, he bought some cards for decoration that hadn’t been sold yet, including many low-level attack cards, but he had no qualification to copy them.
Insufficient energy.
Ultimately.
Lu Ming’s gaze settled on one of the cards.
"Illusion Card..."
Lu Ming’s eyes lit up.
There were countless types of cards.
Because cards can encapsulate anything, theoretically, as long as a card can encapsulate an ability, it can be made into a card!
So, cards almost cover all professions and abilities!
An Illusion Card is a card made by encapsulating an illusion. It contains a completed illusion!
For example—
This card in front of him.
One-Star Illusion Card—Creates an illusionary cage to trap enemies. Low realism, poor stability, the most basic illusion card.
Energy: 60 points.
To replicate this card, at least 60 points of energy are needed!
He didn’t plan to replicate this card. Not to mention the energy being insufficient, even if he did, it wouldn’t be worth much! The lowest-level cards were everywhere!
He just suddenly thought of something.
According to the memory of the former Lu Ming, the stability of an illusion was related to energy. The stronger the illusion, the higher the energy, the greater the stability and power.
But...
What if there’s no energy?
What if you only create a simple basic illusion? What if you only create illusions of things with no energy? The consumption would be much lower!
These were theoretical basics!
So...
What illusions can be made without any energy?
"Let’s give it a try."
Lu Ming thought thoughtfully.
He wasn’t worried about finding an illusionist. There were plenty of students from the illusion department in the technical college. Lu Ming thought he could easily find one to help.
Thinking of this, Lu Ming took out his phone.
This world, while not very focused on technological development, still developed rapidly due to the existence of energy.
The overall technological level was even better than his previous life.
"Zhang Xiaopang, do you want to do some business?"
Lu Ming asked.
Zhang Xiaopang was one of his classmates.
Lu Ming chose him for a simple reason. Among the illusionists he knew, this guy was the least competent and also the cheapest.
"What business?"
Zhang Xiaopang’s voice rose by three degrees.
"A simple illusion. You make it, I’ll encapsulate it. Eight hundred bucks."
Lu Ming said.
"Too low."
Zhang Xiaopang disagreed, "That price doesn’t even cover the energy costs."
"Oh, then forget it."
Lu Ming hung up the phone.
One second later, his phone rang again with Zhang Xiaopang’s voice: "Bro, where are you? I’m coming over right now. Can you reimburse me for the two bucks for transportation?"
"Get lost!"
Lu Ming said unceremoniously.
If he backed down now, Zhang Xiaopang would dare to increase the price.
"I’m in the shop."
Lu Ming said irritably.
Eight hundred bucks was extra money for them. Even without money, they still needed to practice and cultivate.
So...
Let’s test his guess.
Lu Ming thought for a moment, took out a pen and paper, and began to plan.
Soon.
Zhang Xiaopang ran in breathlessly.
"What kind of illusion do you want?"
"Do you want a mature, loli, queen series, or flight attendant series?"
Zhang Xiaopang asked with practiced ease.
Lu Ming: "???"
What exactly are these illusionists doing in their spare time!!!
- Writer
