The Card Apprentice

The screenplay for the second installment of Copper’s “Legend of Master Shi” was finally finished, which meant that Chen Mu had to spend most of his time making the card play.

Although he basically didn’t know how high the level of the perceptual training recorded on this mysterious card was, Chen Mu clearly felt that his perception had made tremendous progress those last few days.

Where did the card come from? This was constantly the biggest question on Chen Mu’s mind. No one’s name was on this mysterious perceptual training method, where the only thing written was simply ‘A Method for Training Perception.’

The best thing which came from being able to improve his perception was that he could make more fantasy cards in a day. With his daily output now already doubled as the result of only one month of that perceptual training method, how could he not be overjoyed?

With the encouragement of such practical results, he became even more attentive to his training. He even kept up with his training while he was making the card play.

The sales for the second installment of “The Legend of Master Shi” were so good that Copper once again raised the price, since they still couldn’t meet the demand. Chen Mu wasn’t thinking of anything other than making the card play, and wasn’t wasting any attention on those matters, being hardly concerned at all. And all his thoughts were devoted to perceptual training.

Because of improvements to his perception, Chen Mu no longer needed to take advantage of the ‘token’ structure to keep up with his quota of one-star fantasy cards. The two of them together decided to use the traditional card making composition. Although their costs would increase, it was more secure since they avoided the bothersome attention of others.

During that period in his perceptual training, the first stage was to extend the scope his perception to the standard five meters. Chen Mu could only make three meters by then.

The first stage of training wasn’t very complicated, but it really taxed a person’s determination. Chen Mu privately gave the stage his personal name: ‘Extreme Training.’

If he didn’t take go to the extreme each time he trained, there would basically be no results. There was no room for shortcuts in the training.

From its foundation, perception was a wonderful ability derived from a persons’ spirit. So, one result of that ‘extreme training’ was that the brain would be in terrible pain after each session. Each nerve fiber was as taught as a drum head, and every slightest breath of air on grass around him was like a loud explosion in Chen Mu’s brain.

Under those conditions, never mind doing anything else, he wasn’t even sleeping. While he was waiting for normalcy to return, every hour to Chen Mu was like an hour in hell. He wasn’t thinking of any other methods than just to endure.

Chen Mu was basically counting the seconds during that brief period.

Strange to say that the aftereffects come right on time, like clockwork. Chen Mu didn’t know why that was, but he had become used to it. There were really too many inexplicable aspects of that mysterious card. For example, eleven among those twelve cards that he made were logically one-star fantasy cards, but then why was this “Simple Water World” not just a virtual image?

Chen Mu made a mental record whenever he encountered inexplicable problems. He was clear that it was a matter of his perceptual ability not having gotten there yet.

He stretched his bones lightly, as he was keeping up with his exercise gymnastics, since good things required persistence.

It was just then that Copper returned. He had already become used to seeing Chen Mu in the middle of doing his strange movements, so he plopped onto the sofa, and asked about the thing he was waving in his hand.

“Are you interested in a low-grade fantasy card club, Blockhead?”

Chen Mu wasn’t paying him any attention, since although the movement was much more familiar than before, it had to be completed in a breath, so that once he talked, the qi would slacken, and it would be easy to be injured.

In general, even when he was doing the movements with half his attention, he would still rather frequently look right through Copper. Copper wasn’t bothered by that, since if Chen Mu were to open his mouth to say something, that would pretty much blow Copper’s mind.

Having finished the set, Chen Mu’s body was damp with sweat, although very comfortable. Taking what was in Copper’s hand, he asked as he looked at it, “Low-grade fantasy card club? What do they do?”

Copper sat up, and took the joke, “I’d heard of this club, but I think it would be more useful to you. I saw them on the street soliciting members, and so I simply got an application for you.”

“What does that mean?” Chen Mu was curious to ask. Although Copper didn’t normally look like much, when it came to important matters, he was very prudent. And he also had much more social competency than Chen Mu. If he said that something was useful, then it most certainly was.

Copper explained, “The low-grade fantasy card club hasn’t been going for very long, maybe around five years. But it is well known in card play circles. The members they attract are all good at making low-grade fantasy cards, with no shortage of aces among them. Low-grade fantasy cards are mostly used in card plays and advertisements. According to what I know, some of the club’s membership are relatively famous advertising fantasy card masters, or card play makers. They communicate regularly, not only to talk about what they have learned, but also about what is happening in some industry.”

He raised his head to see if Chen Mu was really listening, and then continued, “Although I don’t know much about card making, I still think that I should spend more time communicating with others. And this could really help with your card making ability.”

“And besides,” Copper added a bit more, “given your experience, it will be easy for you to stand on your two feet. This is also an avenue for when you need to make a living in the future. It’s never a bad thing to have a few different avenues.”

Nodding and showing his appreciation for what Copper was saying, Chen Mu asked, “How do I get in?”

“You just need to make a one-star fantasy card. Or you could just bring along that fiery dragon fantasy card. But you don’t want to make something to get too much attention, since it wouldn’t be good to ask for trouble.” Copper reminded Chen Mu.

“Oh, then I’ll make a new one.”

Chen Mu went right to work, since to say was to do for him. He finished a new one-star fantasy card. This fantasy card could emit a goldfish illusion, with exquisite life-like detail, having movements full of the native responsiveness of living goldfish. Based on the remarks that Copper had made, Chen Mu paid special attention to making sure that the characteristics of the card made no use of the ‘token’ composition.

Copper helped Chen Mu fill out the form properly and send it off together with the goldfish fantasy card.

* * *

Zuo Tingyi had been very busy lately. Demands at the disciplinary office had become much more severe because of all that had been happening at the school. That guy who was killed had always hung around with ‘Allah’ Gong, but with the sudden violence ‘Allah’ Gong’s gang felt insecure. Even using all their power to investigate the matter they didn’t make any progress.

And that student who had gotten killed had always been up to something, and had made a lot of enemies, making it unlikely that anyone would want to investigate.

But the cooling down of the ordinary activities of those arrogant jerks in the school was one good effect of the affair. So, Zuo Tingyi could pay more attention to those around Wang Ze.

Wang Ze and his group were going to the outer reaches quite often recently, frequently dragging Hong Tao along as their guide. Hong Tao was a card artisan and was much more familiar than Zuo Tingyi with the surrounding topography.

Zuo Tingyi could always very easily find out where they went each time, straight from Hong Tao’s mouth.

He was still more convinced that his father’s surmise was correct. They really did have an agenda! The area surrounding Eastern Shang-Wei City was all colored red on the map. These red regions were everyplace that Wang Ze and his group went each time, and they just about surrounded Eastern Shang-Wei City.

Wang Ze’s group had been snooping around in just about every part of Eastern Shang-Wei City’s surroundings.

What did they plan to do? Zuo Tingyi was full of suspicions.