The Card Apprentice

Bogner’s return certainly had a calming effect on the base, which had just survived a great battle. Returning with Bogner were 82 card artisans.

Chen Mu could tell with one look that those card artisans had been fundamentally changed since he had last seen them. He was already familiar with the air of having being baptized by battle and could see it immediately.

Among the 82 card artisans, 42 were card set card artisans, and the remaining 40 had been recruited by Bogner previously. Bogner had recruited 80 in total, but only 40 were left. That was definitely a cruel number.

Bogner’s unshaven face was covered with frost. When he saw Chen Mu, he couldn’t hide the joy on his face. Approaching swiftly, he saluted at once. “Boss!”

The card artisans behind him, especially those recruited later, were shocked by the scene before them. In their eyes, Bogner was absolutely the epitome of the rebellious; even to Miss Wei Wei from the Luo family, he had never been serious. How could he be so respectful to someone? But the more senior card set card artisans showed no expressions of surprise.

However, just as Bogner put his hand down, his gaze became much queerer. “Boss, you seem to be much more haggard.” Quickly lowering his voice, he laughed and said, “Can it be that the boss has already gotten Miss Sue to… um-hum?” He made an expression of “you know what I mean.”

“Um-hum?” Chen Mu quizzically repeated Bogner’s weird pronunciation. Clearly, he didn’t get it.

“Um-hum, yeah, that um-hum! Ha ha, Boss, don’t pretend! Don’t you pretend!” Bogner burst out laughing. Suddenly, his eyes brightened, and he called out to somewhere behind Chen Mu, “Old thief!”

Xi Ping, who had originally been rather glad to see Bogner, darkened his face instantly when he heard that shout.

Bogner realized his mistake at once. “Ha ha. You see, Old Xi, I’ve missed you so much in the past few days!” Before his words finished, he had already stepped up, swift as an arrow, and had an arm around Xi Ping’s shoulder, utterly disregarding Xi Ping’s charcoal-black face.

Xi Ping’s dark face vanished quickly. The two were arm in arm, each wearing a perverted expression and glancing occasionally in Chen Mu’s direction.

“Let me tell you about it…”

“Oh my! I certainly have an excellent eye! The boss looks a bit pale on first glance… Liquid nutrients… Miss Sue certainly is an advanced medical card artisan… We ought to remind them… Though, their youth allows them to be reckless… Some restraint is still needed…”

The two were busy whispering and were soon far away, leaving Chen Mu at the original spot with a face full of perplexity. He was still pondering that extremely weird sound Bogner made just a moment ago. “Um-hum… Um-hum…”

Bogner’s trip could be considered rather profitable. Apart from the commission of 200 million Oudi, Miss Wei Wei had increased it by an additional 100 million Oudi as a reward. However, the most important thing was actually that they had established good relations with the Luo family.

Chen Mu knew nothing about the Luo family, but after Bogner’s introduction, he began to understand its importance.

The Luo family was a rich and powerful family in the Heavenly Drum Village District with a longstanding history. In the Heavenly Drum Village District, among the presently surviving rich and powerful families, only two had a longer history. The Luo family had a history that was far longer than even that of Moon Frost Island, one of the Big Six.

Hundreds of years of management had them spreading their reaches into every corner of the Heavenly Drum Village District like a huge tree. Different from those showy family corporations, the Luo family was covert and low-key. However, nobody dared to ignore the voice of the Luo family; even Moon Frost Island couldn’t.

The establishment of good relations with the Luo family at that time was greatly beneficial to their future development in the Heavenly Drum Village District. The conflict between Miss Wei Wei and the Luo family’s council of elders was much more complicated. Nonetheless, it could be confirmed that Miss Wei Wei’s wielding of power in the Luo family was already as good as final.

Yet, the experience had also been a harrowing one. When Bogner proposed to traverse the Welsh Woods, cross the Heavenly Canyon, and make their way around Lier City, he hadn’t had much confidence, either. But, unexpectedly, Miss Wei Wei had disregarded the objections of her subordinates and had decidedly chosen that incomparably dangerous course of action.

They had encountered many formidable beasts along the way. Thanks to Bogner’s excellent commandeering and the power of the shuttle cards manned by the card set card artisans, however, they had finally managed to get to the city of Thousand Lakes after much hardship.

When he had received news of the Downstream Alliance’s attack on the ravine, Bogner couldn’t be bothered by anything else and had begun to return at top speed. However, they had been just in time to coincide with the chaotic battles started by Faya, so they had been forced to return the way they had come. Thankfully, luck had been good on their journey back, and they hadn’t met with danger before finally arriving in safety at the snow silkworm ravine.

As he reached that part of the story, Bogner couldn’t help but show some signs of relief for having survived all that. When he understood the base had won against the Downstream Alliance, Bogner’s face showed his joy. When he found out about the spoils of the war, he was dumbstruck on the spot, and countless money cards were flying in front of his eyes!

It was rumored that Bogner pestered Xi Ping for a good while that night. The gist of it was that with so much money, a beauty ought to be given out to each person no matter what!

Bogner’s return allowed a weight to be lifted from Chen Mu’s mind. Though Jiang Liang’s performance was outstanding, due to his young age, there were many areas in which he wasn’t as shrewd as Bogner. Bogner had seen and known much of the world and had plenty of experience all around. He could always provide the right suggestions at the right moments.

The two men were of two completely different styles. Jiang Liang excelled at seeing the bigger picture, kept to rules and regulations, and had the makings of a good general. But his methods were just a wee bit tender. On the other hand, Bogner was as sly as a wolf, had an inexhaustible store of shady means, and was quite experienced. He was definitely a headache-inducing existence.

But the two also shared many similarities, like how both placed extreme emphasis on organizational discipline and had methods just as hardcore.

After Bogner’s return, much of the work concerning card artisans was transferred over to him. Jiang Liang had no objections against that point. On the contrary, he was relieved. In spite of the fact that he had received a lot of attention during his time in the military, responsibilities like being in charge of the training of thousands and so on were far beyond his ability. But Bogner hadn’t been around, so he had had to put up a bold front.

The moment it had been passed on to Bogner, he instantly felt relieved. He was willing to be Bogner’s deputy, and in that way, he could gain more knowledge. Bogner was never stingy when it came to sharing his experience.

Those card artisans still in the probation period were to be pitied. Endless variations began appearing in their training. In the first few days, they had been exceedingly happy and believed that from then on, they could bid goodbye to the damned physical training and formation drills.

Soon, however, they understood how laughable their thoughts had been. Indeed, the content of the training changed every two or three days and seemed to look a lot more interesting. But they realized with horror that after every training, they were even more tired than before. They didn’t even have enough strength left to lift a finger. Just when they got used to the new training methods, they would discover with a shock that it had been changed once more.

At first, they had cursed that new instructor in their hearts day after day, but it wasn’t more than a few days until they didn’t even have the strength left to curse. The most hateful thing was that the new instructor was totally different from the previous one.

Want to leave now? No way! Do you think this is some shop? Everyone must wait until the end of the probation period to leave.

That time, not just two, but 40 card artisans appeared by the side of that instructor. After the protesting card artisans had been ruthlessly fixed, no one dared to speak out. What was more depressing was that when they went back and flipped through the contract they had signed, they suddenly discovered the actions of the new instructor actually agreed with the contract. Thus, some had begun to have ideas about slacking off, but the harsh reality crushed the remaining hope in their hearts.

That smiley, middle-aged instructor announced that all card artisans were to be divided into four sections. Every ten people formed a group, and confrontation training would be carried out within every section. The groups ranking last ten in each section would have their rations halved and given over to the top ten groups in the same section.

The moment that move was made, its effect was extraordinary. All of the card artisans acted as though they had been injected with chicken blood, all putting their lives on the line. It wasn’t a joke! If anyone dared to slack, even his own groupmates wouldn’t let him off. Moreover, due to the fact that it was group confrontation, insufficient teamwork also meant starving.

Half of the usual amount of food couldn’t possibly make one full, but it was sufficient in keeping them from being so hungry that they couldn’t continue with the next day’s training.

This sly and vicious fellow!

Whenever card artisans saw that smiley face, they desperately wished to lunge at it and tear it into pieces! They had only then realized that the young instructor who followed the middle-aged man around had been so gentle! Nevertheless, under the intimidation of 40 fiendish card artisans, no one dared to make a move.

However, Bogner’s training methods and techniques were far more effective than Jiang Liang’s. Within the short span of a few days, those card artisans appeared as though they were entirely different people than who they had been before. Particularly during the confrontation training, everyone’s gaze was ferocious, as though they were hungry wolves.

Seeing the performance of those card artisans, Bogner laughed with great satisfaction. “Card artisans from the flourishing districts certainly have a decent foundation, far better than those we recruited in the past. It’s just that the training methods are a bit too gentle. Tsk, tsk. Pity that resources aren’t sufficient, else we can try out some extreme survival training. The effect may be not bad.”

Jiang Liang, who had been standing on one side, instantly felt his hairs stand on end. He had heard of the infamous name of the extreme survival training long ago. But, even in the military, such training would not be carried out casually because its death rate was more than 15 percent.

He glanced with pity at the card artisans undergoing training at the moment. To have fallen into Bogner’s hands, their luck was really bad enough. He had completely forgotten that he himself had previously endured Bogner’s hellish training.

* * *

Chen Mu didn’t know whether it was due to the effects of Bogner’s return or the nourishment of Sue Lochiro’s liquid nutrients, but his condition in the past few days had been remarkably good.

He was designing new card sets.