Unlicensed Flying Is Illegal

Unlicensed Flying Is Illegal

Outside the Association, Lu Su stared blankly at the flying mount pilot's license in his hand.

The Card Master Association was quite efficient. He had thought it would take a while, but they issued his license as soon as he finished registering.

Lu Su headed for the saddle shop beside the Card Master Association, intending to buy a saddle.

Since Card Masters often had all sorts of strange mounts, the saddle shop carried a comprehensive selection.

Seeing Lu Su summon Pidgeot, the shop owner sized it up and took a bird saddle from the shelf.

"Try it on and see if it fits."

Lu Su took the saddle and placed it on Pidgeot. It fit perfectly.

"This works. I'll take it." Lu Su nodded in satisfaction.

"Thank you for your patronage. Five thousand yuan." The saddle shop owner held up five fingers at Lu Su.

That expensive?

Lu Su froze inwardly, but he had no intention of haggling.

Anyone who could open a shop next to the Association and charge that much either had connections or genuinely sold good products.

After paying with a clean swipe of his card, Lu Su picked up the saddle and prepared to leave.

"Hey, hey, young man." The saddle shop owner hurriedly stopped him. "What's the rush?"

The man stepped forward and touched the saddle, which slowly transformed into a card.

Only then did Lu Su understand why it had cost so much. It was an Item Card.

According to the original owner's memories, Item Cards could be gifted, while creature cards could not.

Taking the Item Card, Lu Su slowly absorbed it into his mind.

Bird Saddle

Grade: Black Iron

Quality: White

The description could not have been simpler. Outside the shop, Lu Su stroked Pidgeot's head. "Let me experience what flying feels like."

With that, Lu Su mounted Pidgeot.

Under the curious gazes of passersby, Pidgeot soared into the sky.

Feeling the cold wind whip across his face, Lu Su thought to himself, Not having a windshield really isn't ideal.

Still, although the riding experience was not great, Pidgeot's speed satisfied him. It could fly at over sixty kilometers per hour under normal conditions, more than enough for everyday travel.

As a Black Iron Grade card, he could not ask for much more.

Though riding it in a thunderstorm probably would not be very pleasant.

Late at night, in a dark, damp undersea cave.

"Does the Shanghai City Card Master Association have any plans to explore Secret Realms lately?" A hook-nosed elder with a gloomy expression played with a balance scale in his hand.

Before him stood a middle-aged man in a black robe.

Hearing the Hook-nosed Elder's question, the middle-aged man quickly replied, "My lord, because of the Demon's Nest riots, the Shanghai City Card Master Association has put all recent Secret Realm exploration plans on hold."

After a pause, the middle-aged man continued, "However, my lord, I heard that several high schools in Shanghai City are organizing Secret Realm practical training for their students."

The Hook-nosed Elder let out a hoarse laugh. "Bai Yueming, Bai Yueming. Let's see whether you can still protect them this time."

"Plant a few pawns among them."

The middle-aged man immediately responded, "Yes, my lord."

Amid piercing, frenzied laughter, one side of the Hook-nosed Elder's balance scale gradually filled with the image of money and treasure, while the other held scarlet cards.

The moment the two sides balanced, an inexplicable voice echoed from the void.

"Transaction complete."

The days of student life always passed quickly, and soon it was time for Lu Su and the others to head to the Secret Realm for practical training.

Before the bus, Song Qian was delivering her final speech.

"This training session is an opportunity Principal Xie fought hard to secure for everyone. I hope you will all cherish it."

Ignoring Song Qian's lengthy speech, Lu Su quietly asked Jiang Nanxi, "Isn't it dangerous to just send students like us directly into a Secret Realm?"

In Lu Su's view, the students in Shanghai City No. 1 High School's advanced class were all greenhouse flowers with no real combat experience.

Wasn't it too risky to throw them straight into something this intense?

Jiang Nanxi kept her eyes on Song Qian as she answered softly, "The Secret Realms that high school students like us can enter have long been completely controlled by the Card Master Association. They only contain Black Iron Grade monsters."

Lu Su nodded slightly. That made sense. Normally, a Card Master of the same grade could handle several Demons of the same grade at once.

Of course, that was assuming they did not run into elite monsters.

After a pause, Jiang Nanxi continued, "Besides, these Secret Realms are basically covered by surveillance. Even if there really is danger, the Association's Card Masters will rescue us in time."

As the two spoke, Song Qian finally finished. "All right, students. Get on the bus."

The group boarded the bus one after another.

As the bus started moving, the scenery outside the windows rapidly swept backward.

Gradually, the towering buildings of Shanghai City disappeared, replaced by stretches of dense woods.

This was Lu Su's first time leaving Shanghai City. In the original owner's memories, the outskirts of cities were now almost entirely forest.

Over the years, the Daming Dynasty Court had tried to expand the cities' borders, but achieved little.

The main reason was that countless wandering Demons still lurked in the mountains and forests, and new Secret Realms could emerge at any moment.

Strangely enough, the more uninhabited a place was, the more likely it was for a Secret Realm to appear.

As a result, the oceans were now scattered with countless Secret Realms of every size.

Apart from a few powerful individuals capable of ocean voyages, the overseas trade that should have existed had long since vanished completely.

The bus gradually arrived before a steel base.

An armed soldier stopped the bus. "Classified facility ahead. Unauthorized personnel, stop."

Song Qian got off the bus with documents issued by the Card Master Association to communicate with him.

Only after the guard repeatedly confirmed that the documents were valid did he send word to the sentry post behind him.

"No problem. Let them through!"

The bus slowly drove into the base.

The base's leader had been waiting for quite some time.

"You must be the Shanghai City No. 1 High School students Chairman Ma arranged for." The leader greeted Song Qian with a smile.

Song Qian smiled in return. "Yes. We'll be troubling you today."

The leader quickly waved his hands. How could he dare delay something Chairman Ma had personally ordered? "Not at all, not at all. We're all serving the nation."

Then he turned to the person beside him and instructed, "Take these students to the Secret Realm."

Song Qian turned toward the advanced class students and gave them one final reminder. "Go on, students. Be sure to stay safe."

Following the others, Lu Su arrived at an enormous plaza. At its center stood a spatial gate emitting silvery-white light.

The staff member leading them introduced it with a smile. "This is your first time seeing a Secret Realm spatial gate, right, students? Please enter in order. We have Card Masters waiting inside the Secret Realm."

Hearing this, the advanced class students entered the spatial gate one after another.

Lu Su followed the crowd through the spatial gate. His vision blurred, and he found himself at the foot of a great mountain.

Before him stood two Card Masters dressed in black uniforms.

The leader smiled at the advanced class students from Shanghai City No. 1 High School. "Welcome, students, to the Thousand-Legged Secret Realm."

"You may not be familiar with this Secret Realm. It is called Thousand-Legged because it once contained a powerful centipede-type Demon. But rest assured, students, all Demons above Black Iron Grade have already been cleared out by the Association."

"Once you receive your communication devices, you may move about freely."