Waste Card Utilization

"Cardology is an immensely profound field of study. Yet no matter how profound a field may be, it has an exceedingly simple beginning accepted by the world, followed by a difficult and winding course.

Along that course, more and more people who came to understand it discovered its unfathomable depths. Gradually, those with poor comprehension and low aptitude were weeded out, while even those with high comprehension and great aptitude might not truly reach the end.

To sum it up in the words of a sage: 'Diligence is the path up the mountain of books; hardship is the boat across the boundless sea of learning.'

Before the Federation Era, during the National Era, Cardology was not a field of study.

According to records, the very first card was not made by a powerful Card Maker. It was obtained from the first monster to appear on Earth Star possessing extraordinary power—SDW.

SDW caused an enormous catastrophe on Earth Star at the time. The nations had no choice but to use a nuclear bomb to destroy the monster. After SDW died, the card discovered within its body was an exceptionally rare Six-Star Gold Card.

That card eventually fell into the hands of the great Sealed Card God, Bai Di.

Using that card, Bai Di killed many of the monsters that appeared afterward, which led to the discovery of more cards.

Some of those cards were researched and examined by scientific departments in various nations, which attempted to replicate identical new cards.

From that point on, Cardology began to take on a vague outline.

After a long period of development, humanity came into contact with Interstellar Humans who had entered the Solar System and learned more advanced card-making techniques. As a result, more powerful Card Gods like Bai Di began to emerge on Earth Star, along with Card Makers who established their own schools of thought, driving Cardology into rapid development.

However, while Cardology developed quickly, the monsters invading Earth Star from the cosmic Starry Sky also grew increasingly numerous.

Interstellar Humans had no interest whatsoever in Earth Star, a barren region with thin natural energy. Thus, no powerful figures remained on Earth Star to help clear out the interstellar monsters, nor did they leave behind any top-tier cards above seven stars.

Pressured by the need to survive, the nations began sharing card technology and banding together for warmth.

The national system was abolished, the Federation Era was officially established, and Cardology entered a golden age of rapid development."

Tang Jian turned past this summary page and continued reading.

Nearly all books concerning the basic knowledge of cards explained the origins of Cardology and its history of development in their opening sections.

Tang Jian had long since become familiar with it.

He casually flipped through a few more pages, then closed the book and swept his gaze over the other students in the class.

Senior Year Class 12 was merely an ordinary class, neither an experimental class nor a Rocket Class.

The most academically outstanding student in the class was a girl named Wang Xue.

However, she only excelled in liberal arts and science subjects. In the future, she might get into a decent liberal arts or science academy.

But cards were the mainstream of this world, and Card Masters and Card Makers held the highest social status.

No matter how good one's liberal arts and science grades were, if one could not become a Card Master, it would be difficult to access the core card-tech civilization of the card world. Reaching the top of a city district would already be considered impressive.

In the card world, the rules for everything revolved around Card Masters.

Ordinary people could enter politics as well, but if they were not Card Masters, then rising above a township-level position placed extremely harsh demands on their talent, opportunities, and other factors.

They could also enter the entertainment industry, but that only made them actors. In a world of cards, oppressed and threatened by Heavenly Pits, entertainment occupied an extremely small share of society.

The entertainers in the industry were basically just pretty ornaments supported by powerful Card Masters, little more than a source of amusement.

Tang Jian had been a Three-Star Card Master and Card Maker in his previous life. Back then, quite a few minor celebrities had approached him on their own initiative, hoping to gain his protection and support.

Therefore, he understood very clearly the gap in social status between Card Masters and ordinary people. Now that he had been reborn, the most urgent matter was to become a Card Master once more.

In his current class, students like Wang Xue, who excelled in liberal arts and science but were unremarkable in Card Energy and card-making, could be ignored.

Based on his memories, Liu Kun had possessed the best Card Energy in the class.

Tang Jian's gaze fell upon the brawny youth seated at the front of the first row, fiercely squeezing some kind of hand gripper.

During the college entrance examination, this guy had scored an excellent 108 in Card Energy—more formidable than even Yang Mao after taking drugs. However, his card-making ability was poor and his academic grades average, so he had ultimately entered a first-tier university.

At present, his Card Energy should be above 70. He would definitely be able to join the Rocket Class that the school would specially establish in a little over ten days.

Besides Liu Kun, there were several other top students in the class whose Card Energy was around 40, and Yang Mao was one of them.

Tang Jian remembered that after the Rocket Class was established, only Yang Mao, Liu Kun, and another student named Gao Yang from the entire class had entered it.

"Hey, Jian, why have you been spacing out so much these past two days? Did you finish the book I lent you yesterday? Return it when you're done."

Just then, Yang Mao nudged Tang Jian with his elbow from beside him.

Tang Jian came back to himself, glanced at Yang Mao, and let his gaze settle on a Blank Card lying on his desk.

Seeing that its complex pattern lines abruptly cut off halfway through, he understood that Yang Mao had failed to make the card. That was why he had come over to chat and relax.

"I'm almost done with it. Take it." Tang Jian casually pulled out Yang Mao's book and handed it to him.

"That fast?" Yang Mao looked surprised.

An idea suddenly struck Tang Jian. Pointing at the Blank Card on Yang Mao's desk, he said, "Your card is already useless. How about selling it to me cheaply?"

"Huh? You want to buy waste cards?" Yang Mao's expression turned strange. "Waste cards sell for ten yuan each outside. If you want it, I'll give it to you for eight since you're right here."

It was indeed convenient, at least saving him the trouble of going out to sell it. But Tang Jian understood that Yang Mao was doing him a favor.

Yang Mao's family was not poor, so naturally he did not care about the two yuan.

However, Tang Jian did not want to take advantage of his friend.

"Nine yuan. Sell all your waste cards to me in the future too, so you won't have to run around everywhere," Tang Jian said.

Buying waste cards for nine yuan each, especially in large quantities, did not mean he was taking advantage of Yang Mao. It would also save Yang Mao the trip to sell them elsewhere. Time was money.

Seeing this, Yang Mao said nothing more. He casually handed the failed card to Tang Jian. "Take it. Pay me when you've collected a hundred."

"Thanks." Tang Jian took the failed card, inspected it casually for a while, then slipped it into his pencil case.

Failed cards had limited use. Only after the Energy Ink was washed off with Rare Energy Water could they be used again to make cards, but they only had value for one final use—if that attempt failed too, they were useless.

Moreover, failed cards washed with Rare Energy Water had poorer conductivity, which ultimately increased the difficulty of card-making. The cards produced could also suffer somewhat reduced performance.

Therefore, although failed cards had a market, people like Yang Mao generally found them too troublesome and simply sold them off.

However, Tang Jian was short on funds right now. Buying a failed card from Yang Mao could save him around ten yuan.

Making a One-Star Blank Energy Card required Energy Ink and a Blank Card, for a material cost of 45 yuan.

But if he used a purchased failed card to remake a One-Star Blank Energy Card, he would only need to buy some Rare Energy Water.

A bottle of Rare Energy Water cost 50 yuan and could wash the Energy Ink off roughly ten cards.

In other words, buying a failed card instead of a new one could save around 11 yuan. That was already Tang Jian's food money for an entire day.