On September 1, 2018, a terrifying colossal beast abruptly appeared out of thin air in the skies over western Guya on Earth Star, causing panic across many Guya nations. The savage beast swiftly began a slaughter, bringing severe disaster to multiple coastal countries.
On September 18, Guxia deployed weapons of mass destruction to eliminate the beast that countless nations had failed to destroy despite mobilizing enormous firepower. Several of Guxia's surrounding islands were also reduced to level ground, but on that same day, Guxia found a golden card at the center of where the beast had died.
On September 25, Guxia became the first to discover the source of the beasts: Sky Pit No. 1, located thirteen thousand meters above western Guya.
Over the following years, colossal beasts appeared out of thin air almost every year.
After these beasts were killed, new mysterious cards would appear. Yet more often, sinkholes began emerging across various regions of Earth Star.
The locations of the sinkholes followed no pattern. Some appeared in the sky, while others lay deep underground.
The nations panicked, and Earth Star faced a crisis. This period came to be known as the Cataclysmic Era.
In 2023, the despairing Earth Star welcomed a new dawn.
Guxia discovered the purpose of the first golden card.
That same year, the nations of Earth Star received letters of friendship from humanity in the cosmos, gaining a wealth of new technological information concerning card civilization.
In 2024, pressured by the sinkholes, the nations banded together for survival. They abolished the old national system and established the Human Federation. The Federal Calendar officially came into use across Earth Star.
A new era, accompanied by a new technological civilization, had officially arrived!
"The body is the foundation of everything. Only with sufficient physical fitness can you condense card energy, and card energy is the key to becoming a Card Master."
"Even if you cannot become a Card Master in the future, as long as your card energy reaches a certain standard, you can still become a Card Maker and have a good future."
In Jiangbei City, at Xicheng No. 1 High School, card apprentice mentor Sun Yiying stood at the podium, emphasizing the point.
Her gaze suddenly snapped toward a buzz-cut student in the fourth row on the right, who was clearly lost in thought.
"Tang Jian!"
She called out sharply.
In an instant, many eyes in the class turned toward where Tang Jian was sitting.
"Hey! Jerk! Hey!"
Yang Mao, his deskmate beside him, hurriedly nudged the still-distracted Tang Jian with his elbow.
Tang Jian came back to his senses and blankly glanced at his deskmate. He immediately realized what was happening and looked toward Sun Yiying at the front, whose expression had already turned quite ugly.
The next moment.
He quickly rose to his feet and bowed. "Teacher, I stayed up too late reviewing last night and didn't get enough rest. I got a little distracted just now."
His words immediately drew surprised looks from quite a few classmates.
When called out by the teacher, he had actually taken the initiative to admit his mistake and apologize. Such an example was truly rare. Tang Jian's moral awareness was pretty high, wasn't it?
Sun Yiying had originally intended to criticize him a little, but after hearing what Tang Jian said, she found it difficult to say anything more.
The college entrance exam was just around the corner. They were all seventeen- or eighteen-year-old kids, and he had already taken the initiative to admit his mistake. Further criticism might hurt his self-esteem.
With that in mind, Sun Yiying softened her tone, though she still said, "It's good that you admit your mistake, but don't put too much pressure on yourself. Since you studied so diligently last night, you must have gained something. Let me ask you: how are cards categorized?"
This information about card categories was something the students had basically memorized long ago. By asking this question now, Sun Yiying could both help the whole class reinforce it once more and give Tang Jian a way out.
At Sun Yiying's question, Tang Jian's memories began to stir. His eyes grew slightly distant, and after a pause, he said, "Cards are divided into support, combat, pet, and equipment categories.
"Each category is further divided into many detailed branches.
"For example, support cards are subdivided into scouting, medical, movement, enhancement, and so on.
"Combat cards are subdivided into attack and defense, and further into mental, physical, supernatural ability, Magic Cards, immortal-heroic, divine anomaly, and primordial categories.
"Pet cards are subdivided into—"
This was all basic information. The government had taught it during the nine years of compulsory education in middle school, let alone now that he was already a high school student. Naturally, he remembered it clearly.
After Sun Yiying nodded in satisfaction and told him to sit down.
Tang Jian quietly observed the students around him and saw several inspirational quotations from famous figures hanging on the classroom walls.
"A card apprentice who does not want to become a Card Master is not a good card apprentice. —Sealed Card God Li Zhong."
"It is also bad to study only card energy books. Young card students in the past often detested mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, geography, and biology, believing them unimportant. Later, they became people without even basic common sense. —Card God Mentor Lu Xu."
"It's still the classroom from my memories, and these are still the lovable classmates from my memories..." Tang Jian felt deeply moved as he looked around.
"Hey, Jerk, you were really something just now. You actually admitted your mistake and apologized the moment you stood up. You never run out of cheap tricks."
Yang Mao's teasing voice came from beside him.
Tang Jian instantly abandoned the thought that these classmates were lovable. He turned to glance at Yang Mao and asked quietly, "What's today's date?"
Judging from Teacher Sun's mention of the college entrance exam, this should be Federal Calendar Year 203. It was the period 205 years after the Earth Federation had made contact with cosmic interstellar forces, but Tang Jian did not know the exact date.
"You're asking me? How would I know? I've been so busy studying cards lately that I forgot what day it is." Yang Mao said this and immediately lowered his head to continue flipping through his book.
Tang Jian glanced at the book he was reading and understood that he was telling the truth.
His deskmate Yang Mao had great potential. He did not like being a Card Master and instead preferred becoming a Card Maker.
As he put it, becoming a Card Master might mean fighting to the death and battling monsters.
But if he became a Card Maker, he would only need to make cards and sell them to Card Masters. He could earn money while watching others fight little monsters, living easily and comfortably.
Monsters did indeed exist in this world.
Monster was merely the Federation's term for them. In the cosmos, they were actually called interstellar monsters, alien races, and so on. Some of these beings might even lurk within human society.
When the old nations began making contact with interstellar forces, interstellar monsters and certain special alien races began invading Earth Star, causing immense harm to the planet at the time.
Even now, some regions of Earth Star still contained terrifying radiation zones left behind after the destruction of interstellar monsters.
That painful era was known as the Great Cataclysm, a transitional period between the old nations and the Federation system.
During that time, the emergence of the miraculous tool known as cards gradually changed Earth Star's difficult situation.
The people of Earth Star also found that cards were a new tool more suited than nuclear bombs for dealing with monsters. The profession of Card Master began to take shape then as well.
The reason everyone wanted to become a Card Master was that Card Masters held an extremely high social status.
Human society needed powerful people like Card Masters to maintain social order, preserve world peace, and ensure stable development.
In his previous life, Tang Jian had been a Three-Star Card Master who graduated from a second-tier university in Earth Star's Elite Base City. He could be considered one of Earth Star's backbone forces.
Yet now, Tang Jian had confirmed that he had absurdly been reborn.
The environment around him did not seem fake.
Nor did it seem like some high-level mental-type Card Master had used a hypnosis card on him to evoke memories of the past.
In his memories, he had begun encountering danger after obtaining a peculiar Red Card.
That Red Card had originally been hidden within the inner layer of an ordinary blank Three-Star Energy Card, which had been installed inside the card meter he had just bought.
Tang Jian remembered that when he inspected the Energy Card in the card meter, he noticed that its thickness was unusual. Through a broken corner of the Energy Card, he had also discovered the existence of that Red Card.
When he removed the Red Card from the Energy Card's inner layer, the anciently designed card, with its incomparably intricate and mysterious patterns, immediately captured his interest.
Yet less than two days after obtaining the Red Card, he was targeted in an assassination attempt.
That assassin had also possessed the strength of a Three-Star Card Master. Tang Jian had barely escaped at the cost of severe injuries, but in doing so, he lost his most precious Blue Three-Star Magic Card, "Hundred-Mile Shift."
After losing that most precious card, Tang Jian was targeted by the Federation Apprehension Bureau.
At the time, with only the strength of a Three-Star Card Master, he had no way to escape. He had even nearly suffered inhuman torture in a predicament worse than death.
However, at the most critical moment, the Red Card hidden on his body erupted with a powerful, destructive card energy. It caused every Apprehension Bureau member to die and destroyed everything in the surrounding area.
Tang Jian had originally thought that he had died as well.
Now, it seemed that he had been reborn after death.
"I've been reborn now. But where is that Red Card?"
Tang Jian frowned.
"Ring, ring, ring—"
Just then, the dismissal bell rang.
Yang Mao began putting away the card whose outline he had just sketched, placing it into his pencil case. He turned to Tang Jian, who was searching all over himself, and said, "Hey, let's go. School's out."
"Yang Mao, have you seen a... a Red Card?"
Tang Jian searched his entire body but could not find the Red Card. Hesitating, he asked Yang Mao beside him.
If the Red Card had been lost, then with this guy Yang Mao's obsessive enthusiasm for researching cards, he definitely would not have ignored it if he had seen it.
"What Red Card? Cards can be red? Fake, right? Tang Jian, you've studied so hard you've got your head up your ass. From low to high, card grades only come in white, green, blue, purple, orange, gold, and black." Yang Mao said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder with a smile.
This was basic common knowledge.
Seeing that Yang Mao's expression did not seem fake, Tang Jian felt both puzzled and disappointed. Still, he picked up his backpack and walked out of the classroom with Yang Mao.
"Perhaps that Red Card's function is rebirth? Then since I've been reborn, could those Apprehension Bureau people have been reborn too?"
Tang Jian pondered as he walked, once again feeling a sense of danger.
If those Apprehension Bureau people had also been reborn, that would be bad.
Those people had all been at least Three-Star Card Masters. Even in his previous life, he could only barely contend with them.
Now that he had been reborn, given his family circumstances and current strength, it would be even harder to deal with that group.
Even if they had also been reborn and their strength reset to zero, the fact that they had been able to join the Apprehension Bureau proved that their starting points and backgrounds were likely far better than his current status as an ordinary high school student from a small county town.
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