Card Master

Su Ming knew that, within a few years, this world would face a massive alien invasion.

If he chose firearms, they would be more than enough against terrorists, but before aliens, they would be worthless.

So firearms—pass!

He recalled those famous superheroes: Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Thor...

They themselves were powerful weapons, so there was no need to rely on external tools.

With that in mind, Su Ming decided to first raise his Level 1 Physique Enhancement to five layers—at the cost of $60,000.

[-$60,000, talent upgraded successfully! Account balance: $1,841,380]

He opened his status panel, and a stream of data formed a holographic interface before his eyes:

[Name: Su Ming]

[Age: 28]

[Physical Fitness: 15]

[Current Account: $1,841,380]

[Current Talents: Sub-Wolverine-Level Recovery, Dynamic Vision Lv.1, Jeet Kune Do Mastery, Physique Enhancement Lv.1 (5/5 layers), Formless Mask]

His physical fitness had risen from 9 to 15.

Looking at himself in the mirror, his streamlined muscles were like a cheetah's, brimming with explosive power.

He casually picked up a soda can. Before, he could only squeeze it into the shape of a stick. He wondered what effect his improved physique would have now.

His palm closed lightly—and the can was directly flattened into a plane.

Staring in surprise at the soda can in his hand, which had practically become a card, Su Ming knew it could no longer be used to test the changes in his body.

He briefly surveyed the furnishings in the room, walked over to the sofa, grabbed its armrest, and lifted gently.

The nearly three-meter-long sofa left the ground just like that...

A trace of satisfaction flashed through his eyes. Su Ming slowly loosened his fingers until only two fingers pinched the armrest—the sofa still hung in midair without moving in the slightest.

"Crack! Bang!"

The armrest could no longer bear the load and snapped...

"No wonder it took $2 million just to reach Level 2. This enhancement really is impressive!"

As he turned back toward the bed, "Riiip!"—the carpet beneath his feet tore open with a huge gash.

Su Ming paused, realizing that he had used too much force while turning. The thick carpet had torn as easily as paper.

His physique had improved too quickly. He still needed time to adapt.

He carefully returned to the bed, drank some iced cola, and decided to choose a cold weapon for long-range attacks.

A bow? Throwing knives? Or... javelins? No, forget javelins.

Imagining himself carrying a huge bundle of javelins and heaving them at enemies, what kind of Spear of Vengeance would that be?

By the same logic, running all over the place with a bow on his back did not fit his sense of style either.

After all, there was already a Hawkeye who used a bow here—and his combat strength was not even in the first tier.

Bows—pass!

In the end, Su Ming chose throwing knives, and not merely because they were easy to carry.

In his memories, Li Xunhuan's ultimate throwing knife technique was insanely cool. Once a knife was unleashed, wind and clouds changed color, and it never missed!

With his current physical fitness and the Dynamic Vision talent, throwing knives suited him better.

Muttering, "Throwing knives, throwing knives...," Su Ming searched through the system store for a long while. At last, in an inconspicuous corner, he found a talent:

[Unerring Aim → Precision Throwing Lv.1, $200,000]

"Exchange!"

[-$200,000, exchange successful! Account balance: $1,641,380]

An indescribable sensation surged through him. Su Ming felt as though inspiration had struck. Looking toward the bathroom, the farthest place from him in the suite, he picked up an advertisement card by the bed and casually threw it...

"Smack!"

The card turned into a streak of light, flew straight through the living room, and embedded itself in the bathroom doorknob, leaving only a tiny corner exposed.

"Oh? Not bad!"

Su Ming's playful mood rose. He walked to the window and opened a deck of playing cards...

Whoosh~

With a flick of his hand, a playing card spun through the air and flew into the distance, pinning itself to the eaves of the building across from him dozens of meters away.

Luckily, Su Ming had Dynamic Vision. Otherwise, he would not even have been able to see how that playing card had flown over.

Watching the playing card precisely pin a plastic bag fluttering through the air to the wall, Su Ming nodded in satisfaction.

He drew another card, but this time he did not aim at anything.

Su Ming intended to see just how far a card could effectively travel with his current Level 1 talent.

Whoosh~

The card spun as it turned into a meteor and flew into the distance...

"Now that was a miscalculation!"

Su Ming watched in surprise as the thrown card maintained its accuracy until it disappeared from view.

That meant—with his current level of vision, he could no longer see how far the card had flown.

It was time to upgrade his eyesight.

Looking at the talent upgrade interface, Su Ming once again lamented that money was never enough:

[Dynamic Vision Lv.1 → Dynamic Vision Lv.2, $1,000,000]

[Dynamic Vision Lv.2 → Dynamic Vision Lv.3, $10,000,000]

[Dynamic Vision Lv.3 → Dynamic Vision Lv.4, $100,000,000]

His current account balance was only enough to upgrade Dynamic Vision once...

"Upgrade!"

[-$1,000,000! Upgrade successful! Account balance: $641,380]

As the system's mechanical voice sounded in his mind, everything before Su Ming's eyes became different.

Even though dawn had not fully broken, he could clearly see the patterns on a civilian airliner at the horizon, as if he had turned on a telescope.

He looked again in the direction where he had thrown the card earlier and spotted it on the illuminated sign of a bakery two streets away.

The distance was roughly two kilometers.

"Damn! It actually flew that far!"

Looking at the card from afar, Su Ming saw that it had long since deviated from the direction he had thrown it. He drew another card and hurled it with force...

Whoosh~

In his upgraded vision, the card became a streak of light and flew into the distance, finally deviating from its path after traveling around 200 meters.

"Only 200 meters?"

Su Ming was not particularly satisfied with that distance. He looked at the upgrade interface for Precision Throwing:

[Precision Throwing Lv.1 → Precision Throwing Lv.2, $600,000]

[Precision Throwing Lv.2 → Precision Throwing Lv.3, $6,000,000]

[Precision Throwing Lv.3 → Precision Throwing Lv.4, $60,000,000]

He gritted his teeth!

"Upgrade!"

[-$600,000, upgrade successful! Account balance: $41,380]

Looking at his nearly emptied account, Su Ming's mouth twitched as he kept telling himself:

"Money is just a bastard. If it's gone, I'll earn more..."

Then he threw another card.

Whoosh~

"Crack!"

A large chunk of brick on the rooftop of the building across from him was sliced clean off.

Su Ming's grin only faded after he confirmed that the falling brick had not hit anyone.

"That money wasn't wasted! The power increased by a lot!"

Looking into the distance again, Su Ming planned to observe how much the upgraded talent had changed its range.

Whoosh~

The card streaked across the sky like a meteor, flying straight in the direction Su Ming aimed for nearly a thousand meters before changing trajectory.

"So strong!"

Su Ming suddenly realized that what he had just thrown was a playing card! If he replaced it with a proper throwing knife...

That would definitely be a sight no enemy wanted to see!

Looking at the deck in his hand, if he added teleportation to this...

A strange thought surfaced in Su Ming's mind:

"I clearly wanted to learn from Li Xunhuan. How did I end up becoming a card master?"

Little Li's Flying Daggers were still cooler!

Playing cards could serve as his everyday ranged weapon, but when the time came, throwing knives were still the real deal!

With that in mind, Su Chen found a sheet of paper and started drawing according to the appearance of Little Li's Flying Dagger in his memories...

The result was that he could not even tell what the doodle on the paper was supposed to be! It was ugly as hell!!

Frowning at his drawing, Su Ming suddenly remembered that while browsing the store earlier, he seemed to have seen a talent related to painting:

[Vivid and Lifelike → Sketch Mastery, $40,000]

With this painting mastery, it seemed many things would become much more convenient in the future.

Without a second thought:

"Exchange!"

[-$40,000, exchange successful! Account balance: $1,380]

A flash of understanding passed through him, and he became confident that he could perfectly control the path of the brush in his hand.

After a flurry of pencil strokes...

Looking at the throwing knife on the paper, which seemed to radiate a cold gleam, Su Ming smiled in satisfaction:

"Skills never weigh you down. The ancients truly did not deceive me~"