The Card Apprentice

“Uncle Hughes! You know Uncle Hughes?” Miss Xiao lost her voice squealing. All of her refined aloofness and her capable maturity were tossed far away. She was like a child with her wide-open eyes, looking at Bogner in surprise.

Bogner was unconsciously rubbing the dark blue stubble on his cheeks as he laughed to say, “So, you are Hughes’ niece!” There was a tone of sad remembrance in his voice.

“Do you really know Uncle Hughes?” Miss Xiao was wide-eyed, staring at Bogner. “Are you a friend of his? I never heard my uncle say he had any friends!”

“We’re old friends. When I add it up, it’s been more than 20 years. Is he well?” Bogner asked softly.

Miss Xiao’s eyes, which were like black marbles, immediately dimmed as she shook her head. “Uncle passed away five years ago.”

Bogner was silent. There was the sadness of loss in his eyes. After a while, he said calmly, “Where is he buried? Inchbald? He really liked the gardenias there.”

Miss Xiao shook her head. “No, he was buried in Bristol, his hometown. My uncle didn’t like gardenias; he liked magnolias.” She was looking at Bogner with suspicion.

“Ha ha, I’m getting old, and my memory is getting worse.” Bogner’s expression didn’t change, and he felt more relaxed. With memories filling his face, he said, “I heard him say Bristol was his hometown. There is a Dawn Cathedral there, where the wafers are really good.”

“Did the uncle really once know Uncle Hughes?” Miss Xiao’s eyes had gotten bigger as she said uncomfortably, “I thought you were lying to me!”

Bogner smiled, clearly sunken. He suddenly opened his mouth and said, “Did you build this base, or was it your uncle?”

“Uncle built it. The previous base was too broken down. Uncle didn’t want to develop in the city, so he spent a lot of money to build the Regal Base here. Afterward, he established the Hughes Chamber of Commerce. More and more card artisans kept coming until we reached our current scale.” The young lass’s speech was full of pride.

Letting out a sigh, Bogner didn’t know what to say. He then lifted his head toward Chen Mu and said, “If it would be convenient, Boss, could you give her a hand? It would be inexcusable not to help her now after finding out my old friend is dead.”

“Ok!” Chen Mu nodded in a simple response.

Bogner’s relationship changed things, of course. Previously, Chen Mu just hadn’t wanted any delays or complications. The matter didn’t really having anything troublesome about it.

“How did you all get here, Uncle? And with someone tailing you?” Miss Xiao suddenly thought of something. “Right, I almost forgot. My name is Xaio Liqian! You were pretty horny just now, Uncle!”

Bogner couldn’t help a humph, embarrassed as he was. Xi Ping was clutching his chest to his side, rather interested to watch Bogner’s embarrassment.

“We’re going to the flourishing district, but we provoked a little trouble; our adversary is pretty powerful. We came this way to evade their line of sight,” Bogner explained simply.

“So, that’s how it was.” Xiao Liqian got it and didn’t ask any more. But she then asked back, “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Bogner pondered. “We’d like to recruit one or two aces of the highest skill level.”

Xiao Liqian couldn’t help but show in her face how difficult that might be. Most of the income for that base of hers relied on those aces. But she gritted her teeth and said, “Xiaobo should be returning in a couple of days, and I’ll introduce you to him when he does. But whether you can convince him will depend on you. His strength is absolutely among the top three here, except that the fantasy card he has is deficient. If you have some high-grade card, the possibility to convince him would be relatively better.”

Bogner an Xi Ping looked at one another, smiling. They wouldn’t have been so certain if they had been talking about something else, but when it came to cards, they immediately relaxed. Who was the boss? He was none other than the grand master who’d made the numbered series of cards!

On the other hand, Chen Mu didn’t have much feeling about it, having no conception of himself as any grand master. But he was actually thinking about the matter of the card just then. Since Xiao Liqian had mentioned Xiaobo’s preferences, Chen Mu understood that the card he made would be the crux of the matter.

Seeing Bogner and Xi Ping’s expressions, Xiao Liqian immediately understood the young boss was certainly an outstanding card master. Otherwise, the two of them wouldn’t have had that expression of having a card up their sleeves.

Her pair of gorgeous eyes couldn’t help but fall onto Chen Mu, who had remained calm throughout. She looked at him with curiosity, his age about the same as hers. Although Uncle Bogner hadn’t behaved so well before, Xiao Liqian could see at a glance that he was the same as her Uncle Hughes. They were both the sort who had skills but were also proud. To be so willing to serve under such a young talent was in itself pretty awesome.

Chen Mu suddenly raised his head and asked Xiao Liqian, “What sort of card is that Xiaobo you spoke of good at?”

In the act of staring at Chen Mu, she hadn’t thought he would suddenly raise his head. Caught off guard like that, she could only meet Chen Mu’s gaze. That was a little embarrassing. Some panic showed in Xiao Liqian’s eyes as she subconsciously took over the conversation. “Xiaobo… card… that…” She finally exercised more self-control and quickly calmed. “I’m not so clear about technical matters. Please wait a moment, and I’ll find someone for you to ask.”

She turned around and said to Jeeves, “Call Captain Dai over for me, Jeeves.” The Captain Dai she was talking about was the card artisan Chen Mu had seen at the doorway.

Jeeves rushed out and called for Captain Dai to come over.

“Are you looking for me, President?” Captain Dai saluted respectfully.

“Mmmm, describe the type of card Xiaobo is good at for this gentleman, with some detail.” Xiao Liqian’s expression was already back to where it had been.

Although it seemed a little strange, Captain Dai didn’t ask why. He thought about it a little before opening his mouth.

“Your subordinate wouldn’t be considered to know much about it, only having sparred with him once. He’s good at using a type of amorphous energy. His ability to control amorphous energy is refined, and he can transform it into various forms. His perceptual sensitivity is quite high, and the card he’s using now has several ancillary uses. It can isolate his scent, heat, and so forth. It’s rather magical, though its attack damage value isn’t so high.” Taking a look at Chen Mu, Captain Dai hesitated and then said, “I’m guessing Xiaobo’s perceptual strength should be rapidly approaching the sixth level, and his acuity level would be even higher!”

Bogner and Xi Ping were both shocked by what Captain Dai said. Once perceptual strength surpassed level six, that was an utterly stunning ability. Moreover, he was the kind of card artisan who was good at controlling his perception. That guy was really brutal!

Their power would doubtlessly surge if they could attract such an ace! For them, the need for ordinary card artisans wasn’t so urgent; their card set tactics had solved their problems quite well. But the strong points and shortcomings of the card set tactics were both prominent. They needed some things to complement them, and a few aces could easily resolve those issues.

A card artisan who could break through level six would be considered an ace in the military. That would be even truer of a card artisan who was always tempering himself in the jungle. Such an ace who had gone through countless battles and survived wasn’t like Zu Ning and that type of proud card artisan from the academies.

What Captain Dai said had also put Chen Mu into deep thought. According to the description, it wouldn’t be so hard to complete that sort of card, as Chen Mu saw it. But if he wanted to impress an ace, that wasn’t going to be so easy.

After the excitement, Bogner and Xi Ping immediately turned more prudent. Such an ace would be precious no matter where, and nobody would overlook him.

Sure enough, Xiao Liqian said, “The initial idea of my wanting to buy four-star cards was mostly for him. But since the uncle and the rest of you need him now, little Qian might as well let him go.”

Bogner and Xi Ping looked at one another, each seeing the sneer on the other’s face. That little girl was really shrewd! With no mention of returns, she’d clearly allowed them to do as they saw fit.

She reckoned that given the boss’s temperament, he would never be stingy about doing something. Sure enough, after hearing what she said, Chen Mu had nodded. “Mmmm, we will keep our friendship with Miss Xiao in our hearts.”

The boss had been hooked! Bogner and Xi Ping couldn’t help but sigh to themselves. The kind of person the boss was meant he couldn’t stand someone else being so good to him. It would be better if he didn’t say anything, but once he did say it, he would certainly not be stingy about what he did.

Still, they two of them felt no heartache. On the one hand, their counterpart had certainly paid a considerable price. On the other, given the boss’s character as they saw it, he had a lot of humanity; the two of them felt very appreciative. To work under such a boss was utterly comfortable without a doubt.

Xiao Liqian felt overjoyed, though she didn’t show it on her face. But she did bloom into a more enchanting charm given how good she felt.

Once he found out the Regal Base had some card making equipment, Chen Mu said no more and threw himself into it. Ru Qiu had been called to be his assistant.

In that base, Xiao Liqian had unrivaled influence. No one would ever dare to pay attention to Chen Mu and his party.

Delving into the card making lab, Chen Mu didn’t get right to work making cards but sat in the chair, pondering. To his side, Ru Qiu was standing with her hands at her sides, not daring to even breathe hard for fear of cutting off Chen Mu’s thoughts.

Those last few days in the transport shuttle car building the energy model had allowed Chen Mu to understand more of his feelings about energy composition. Those feelings were flashing through his mind, one after the other.

It had been a while since Chen Mu had made any cards, and he suddenly felt a powerful urge—an urge to make cards!