Super Warriors: Battle with Cards

The blade-like tip of the pen glided gently over a grayish-green card. A thin blue line flowed smoothly from the tip of the pen. On the palm-sized card, the faint blue lines continued to multiply, gradually forming a complex and intricate pattern as the pen tip moved. Chen Mu's gaze was focused on the card, his breath steady, as if afraid to disturb something. Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that his right arm remained completely motionless throughout the process, with only his wrist moving. His right wrist was as flexible as a boneless snake, agile and supple. With a gentle turn of the pen tip, an elegant arc appeared on the card. Suddenly, the pen tip paused heavily, abandoning its previous lightness, and then swiftly executed a sharp hook, as sharp as a blade! The pattern on the card suddenly lit up, then quickly dimmed back to normal. Chen Mu casually placed it among the pile of cards on the table. His movements were skillful and natural, showing no signs of hesitation. Even after completing this card, his face remained focused as before. He had only finished fifteen cards so far, with ten more to go for today's task. The one he was currently working on was a one-star energy card, which, as the lowest-level energy card, was one of the most widely used and consumed cards. Just then, the room suddenly went dark. "Damn, out of energy again!" Chen Mu muttered, reaching into the stack of cards and pulling out an energy card with his left hand. Then, with a light press on his right wrist, the wristband he wore emitted a bright beam of light. With the help of the beam, Chen Mu carefully made his way to the corner of the room. The room was too cluttered, and he didn't want to knock anything over. In the corner of the room, there was a square instrument on the wall with a slot below it. Chen Mu inserted the energy card into the slot. As soon as the energy card was inserted into the slot, the room lit up again. The instrument displayed the number one hundred. Surprised that the energy had run out so quickly, it seemed he would need to make one more card for today's task. Chen Mu quickly returned to his desk and immersed himself in his work. All his livelihood depended on these basic cards. Since he learned to make these energy cards three years ago, he had never missed a day of making twenty-five cards. Chen Mu's room was small, less than forty square meters, with only a semi-old work desk inside. Apart from the relatively clean work desk, the rest of the room was cluttered with piles of miscellaneous items. These items were diverse, ranging from stacks of old books to scattered raw materials. In this rudimentary place, Chen Mu had lived for three full years. This was a relief housing provided by the federal government, and for someone like Chen Mu, there was no cheaper place to stay. Moreover, in his view, he was already doing relatively well here. He had even seen a family of four squeezed into a room of the same size. At five o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Mu finally completed his day's work—twenty-five energy cards. He carefully counted the number of cards twice in a row to ensure there were no mistakes before carefully storing the energy cards in the card pouch attached to his clothes. Walking out onto the street, the night had gradually fallen. The colorful lights in the night were captivating, and the fleeting traces left by the flames ejected from the rear of the shuttle passing by occasionally formed dazzling trajectories. Chen Mu tightened his coat slightly and looked up at the sky. The chill was getting heavier, indicating that winter was approaching. He didn't have the luxury of pondering the passage of time; he was just thinking about the additional expense of heating during winter. Passing by the back gate of the Eastern Guard Academy, a route Chen Mu had taken for three years, he couldn't help but feel a strange emotion seeing the students coming and going in groups. After adjusting his thoughts, Chen Mu briskly walked towards a small shop next to the academy. The shop was called "Eastern Guard Grocery Store"—around the Eastern Guard Academy, there were at least twenty similar shops with similar names. For three years, Chen Mu had visited this shop every day without fail, rain or shine. However, he didn't come here to buy things; instead, he came to sell things. As soon as he entered, the shopkeeper noticed and greeted him, "Ah Mu, you're here!" "Yeah, Uncle Hua," he replied to the shopkeeper. Uncle Hua was a man in his fifties, with the unmistakable marks of age on him. Fine wrinkles, half-graying hair, and a pair of reading glasses perched on his nose. "Here's today's goods." Chen Mu carefully took out the card pouch from his pocket and pulled out the stack of energy cards, handing them to the shopkeeper. "Twenty-five of them." Uncle Hua took the cards from Chen Mu's hand, glanced at them, and casually placed them on the shelf. He smiled and said, "Thank goodness for you, Ah Mu, bringing cards every day. Otherwise, I'd be short of supplies here." Chen Mu smiled faintly but didn't respond. He knew Uncle Hua's words were mostly joking. A one-star energy card was the cheapest, but also one of the most consumed cards. Moreover, being near the Eastern Guard Academy, it was unlikely that only twenty-five energy cards would be sold in a day. Uncle Hua also knew Chen Mu's temperament and didn't waste any words, asking directly, "Ah Mu, do you need cash or transfer?" "Transfer," Chen Mu replied promptly, handing over a pale green D-card that he had prepared in advance. After settling the transaction, Chen Mu bid farewell to Uncle Hua and was about to leave. Uncle Hua suddenly stopped him. "Ah Mu, wait a moment." Chen Mu paused and turned around, looking at Uncle Hua with a slightly surprised expression. "Is there something else, Uncle Hua?" Uncle Hua took out a beige piece of paper from the drawer and smiled at Chen Mu. "Almost forgot about this. It's a training certificate for a card maker's training class, which the distributor sent along with yesterday's goods. It's just waste paper here, Ah Mu, you take it." Looking at Uncle Hua's kind face, Chen Mu couldn't help but feel touched. He knew how much the old man had helped him over the years. If it weren't for him, Chen Mu believed that his current life would have been just as out of reach. Three years ago, he had just learned to make energy cards and tried to sell them everywhere, but there were few takers, and no merchants were willing to buy them. The amount required for a one-star energy card was very large, and merchants preferred to buy in bulk. However, Chen Mu could only make a maximum of thirty cards a day, which was just a negligible fraction for merchants. Fortunately, he met Uncle Hua. Uncle Hua agreed to buy his energy cards, but the purchase price per card was one hundred and three ED, two ED lower than the wholesale price on the market. Despite this, Chen Mu was still immensely grateful to Uncle Hua. Four years ago, Chen Mu was still a homeless wanderer. Once, he encountered a card maker, one who was already at death's door. He used his five-month accumulation of food to exchange for this card maker's remaining lifespan, extending it by seven days. During those seven days, he learned a skill: making one-star energy cards. After the card maker's death, leaving him nothing, Chen Mu buried him in the wilderness. Until now, he still didn't know the name of the card maker, but his fate had changed since then. He spent a year doing odd jobs as best as he could. During this time, he did six different types of odd jobs. In that year, he was twelve years old. Also during that year, he finally had a small savings, one thousand ED. With this one thousand ED, he bought all the raw materials needed to make energy cards. The card maker had told him that a one-star energy card's wholesale price in the market was one hundred and five ED, the unified retail price was one hundred and ten ED, but its cost was only ninety-eight ED. Every card maker could make one-star energy cards, but not many people knew about the price difference. Even if they did, hardly anyone would bother about it. The one-star energy card was one of the simplest cards, already fully capable of industrial production. Even for a master card maker, they could only make twenty or thirty energy cards a day at most, which was pitifully small output. Moreover, for card makers, the money earned from the price difference was not worth picking up if it fell on the ground. But for Chen Mu, this money was enough to feed himself. The first time he successfully made eight cards, he almost lost two hundred ED, but it gave him hope. What he didn't expect was that when he tried to sell the energy cards, he encountered obstacles. Merchants showed no interest in his meager few energy cards at all. He spent the whole day without eating, and by eight o'clock in the evening, he stepped into Uncle Hua's shop, almost on the verge of fainting. Although the price of one hundred and three ED was two ED lower than the wholesale price of one hundred and five ED, Chen Mu felt surrounded by immense joy. Selling all the energy cards he had, he bought the cheapest food, and with the remaining money, he bought all the raw materials for making energy cards. Since then, Chen Mu's life finally stabilized. Twenty-five energy cards every day, without interruption. This went on for three years. In these three years, he only made one type of card—one-star energy cards. In the second year, he was able to control the cost to ninety-seven ED. Although it was only a difference of one ED, it was a great encouragement for him. In addition to making energy cards, he spent all his time studying how to reduce costs. Finally, in the third year, he managed to control the cost of energy cards to ninety-five ED. He made a profit of eight ED per card, and his daily income stabilized at two hundred ED. Three years ago, this was a number he couldn't even imagine. With a monthly income of six thousand ED, he could live an ordinary life, but he still chose to live in the relief housing that only cost one hundred and fifty ED per month. After coming to his senses, Chen Mu smiled at Uncle Hua. "Thank you, Uncle Hua!" Taking the training certificate, he carefully placed it in the card pouch in his pocket. Training classes, especially for card makers, were one of the most rampant types of classes nowadays. They often advertised with extremely glamorous claims, such as "Recognized by the Eastern Guard Academy" and "Senior Advanced Card Maker Authority lectures," but Chen Mu knew exactly what was inside. The organization hosting this training class had to pay a fee to the Eastern Guard Academy each time, as a price for maintaining their "joint hosting" in name only. Chen Mu still planned to attend the training class to see what was actually being taught. Making cards was one of the most profound subjects, and for many years, he hadn't given up self-study, but with little success. It wasn't until last year that he understood what was going on. His foundation was just too poor. Thirteen years of wandering life, he had never received any cultural education. For a teenager with no foundation, wanting to self-study the complicated and obscure card-making art was naturally extremely difficult. However, he had no doubts about his intelligence. He could learn to make one-star energy cards in just a week solely on memory, and the card maker praised his talent back then. Since then, he had set aside this temporarily lofty goal and turned to the most basic theoretical learning. No matter how tired he was from work every day, he would take out time to study these tedious knowledge. After bidding farewell to Uncle Hua, Chen Mu walked south along an alley. Today was Saturday, and he still had a job to do. After crossing two streets and walking for about twenty minutes, he arrived at a second-hand scrap card collection station. "Hey, buddy, you're here!" The person greeting him was a tall and skinny bald man named Xiao Hei. He was the owner of this collection station. Every Saturday and Sunday evening, Chen Mu would come here to work for three hours. Chen Mu nodded slightly towards Xiao Hei, his face still somewhat expressionless. Xiao Hei was already used to Chen Mu's demeanor. When Chen Mu initially asked to work here, Xiao Hei had refused. This collection station had always been managed by one person since his father's time, and even under his ownership, he had handled everything himself. Hiring someone? Xiao Hei couldn't afford the wages. However, when Chen Mu said he didn't want any pay, Xiao Hei finally agreed. Of course, Chen Mu still received compensation; usually, he would choose a few scrap cards to take home as his wages. Sometimes, Chen Mu would even pick out a few partially used energy cards from the scrap piles. Xiao Hei calculated the value, and every month, he saved a considerable amount of money on this. However, Xiao Hei couldn't help but be curious about the silent Chen Mu. How did this guy know there was still residual energy in these cards? Since then, every time he saw Chen Mu, Xiao Hei was all smiles. Chen Mu squatted down and began sorting the piled-up scrap cards. There were many types of cards: energy cards, item cards, mimetic cards, and even some rarer plant and animal cards. However, without exception, all the cards here were useless, and Chen Mu's task was to categorize them. The work proceeded quickly, showing that he was very familiar with it. With a flick of his wrist, Chen Mu tossed a card to Xiao Hei. "Here, this card can still be used for a while." This two-star energy card still had at least half of its energy remaining. Chen Mu couldn't understand why the original owner of this card would waste it like this. A two-star energy card had a capacity of one thousand, meaning there were still about five hundred units of energy left inside. "Hehe, thanks, Brother Xiao Chen!" Xiao Hei looked at the two-star energy card in his hand, smiling from ear to ear. He happily ran to the energy measuring device and inserted the card. When he saw the "523" number light up, Xiao Hei's facial features almost squeezed together from smiling. Ignoring him, Chen Mu focused on his sorting. Although there were occasionally some scrap intermediate cards, such as three or four-star cards, they had no value to him. The only thing he was interested in now was one-star energy cards. Three years of crafting had given him his own understanding of these most common and basic cards. There wasn't just one way to make a one-star energy card; Chen Mu had collected twelve different structures of one-star energy cards. These varied structures had greatly inspired him. It was because of these cards that he had successfully reduced the cost of making one-star energy cards to ninety-five ED. However, such good luck didn't come every day, and so far, he had only collected twelve cards. But today's luck seemed good. Looking at the one-star energy card in his hand, from the surface texture, it was a new structure of one-star energy card that Chen Mu had never encountered before. He set this card aside and continued to focus on sorting. There were just too many one-star energy cards, but Chen Mu meticulously checked them one by one. His speed was extremely fast; he could almost tell if it was the type of card he wanted with just a light touch of his hand. All of this came from his familiarity with one-star energy cards. This familiarity had been built up over three years of uninterrupted crafting. He didn't need to look; just by touch, he could determine if the card was indeed a one-star energy card and whether it was the structure he had seen before. He was so familiar with them, down to every detail. His fingers, gliding over the edge of a card, suddenly stopped. This card...