Chapter 42

On the front of the card was a beautiful woman in a long dress. Her features were delicate, her figure slender, and her frail appearance made people worry just looking at her. She held pale pink flower petals in her hand and scattered them onto the ground. Tears glistened in her moist eyes; she looked so pitiful that she seemed about to burst into tears at any moment.

What a uniquely beautiful woman! The eyes of many casual players lit up. This character card had a very distinctive art style. If the price was right, they could buy the girl card home for their collection. But after admiring the beauty on the card, most players who loved competitive play still focused on its attributes and skills.

Lin Daiyu (Wood Element)

Card Level: Level 1

Evolution Stars: ★

Usable Times: 1/1

Base Attributes: HP 100, Attack 0, Defense 15, Agility 15, Critical Hit Rate 0%

Additional Skill: Daiyu Burying Flowers (Deals devastating damage to flower-type cards, with a 30% chance of triggering an Instant-Death effect)

Daiyu Burying Flowers? The audience was briefly stunned and stared at the card—its skill affected "flower-type cards," so it could only be useful in the Arena and was useless for farming dungeons. An Instant-Death effect? They had never seen a skill description like that before.

However, the card experts sent to the Auction House by the major guilds reacted as though they had been injected with adrenaline. They quickly sent private voice messages to their guild leaders: "Boss, boss, a god-tier card has appeared at the Auction House—a flower-type Instant-Death Judgment!" "President, someone is selling an Instant-Death Card at the Auction House, specifically against flowers!" "Holy crap, is the seller Tang Muzhou's enemy or something?" "Boss, what do we do? Someone is selling an Instant-Death Card targeting flower-type cards!"

Tang Muzhou: "..."

Fat Uncle, this was rather unfriendly of you. Not only had you ignored our emails, you had even put the Daiyu Card up for public auction?

The news quickly spread from the various guild leaders to the professional players.

Star Card Alliance Pro Player Chat Group—

Zheng Feng: "Hahaha, let me laugh for a while. Tang God proposed Instant-Death Judgment, but someone actually made a flower-type Instant-Death Card specifically to counter him!"

Qiao Xi: "Tang God is so pitiful. Should we go to the Auction House and snatch this card?"

Ling Jingtang: "At this moment, I only want to use [Smile] to express how I feel."

Ye Zhu: "Hahahahahaha, I can't stop laughing!"

Shen An: "Don't laugh at my master! Be careful or you'll get your comeuppance and be countered too!"

***

At the auction venue, the host announced, "The starting price for this card is—3,000 gold!"

Many audience members immediately complained inwardly. "Has this guy gone crazy for money? One-Star Cards usually start at 500, right?" "Selling a One-Star Card for this much—has he considered the cost of raising it to Seven-Star?" "Is this card creator a little too confident?"

But many people who understood cards remained silent, nervously placing their fingers over the bid button, ready to fight for the card.

The moment the host called out "Begin," the auction price on the giant screen began soaring wildly—

3,500... 3,800... 4,000...

Within one minute, the price had risen to 5,000 gold.

Five thousand gold was a threshold. People who regularly followed the Auction House knew that most low-level cards capable of selling for that price were fairly good cards, because after buying a low-level card, one also had to consider the cost of feeding it up to Seven-Star. Upgrading from a One-Star Card to a Seven-Star Card consumed a huge amount of materials. Truly wealthy players preferred to buy Seven-Star Cards directly. As for the game's middle class, before purchasing a low-level card, they would first weigh whether their deck actually lacked that card.

It didn't seem like they needed it that badly? With that thought, those who had intended to bid also stopped one after another.

The host said, "5,000 gold, going once. 5,000 gold, going twice..."

Xie Mingzhe sat calmly among the crowd and waited. The Daiyu Card was definitely worth more than this. Didn't Arena players want to buy an Instant-Death Card? Or was this the first time such a judgment had appeared, and many people still had not figured it out?

The host said, "5,000 gold, going three—"

Before he could finish, a number suddenly appeared on everyone's screens.

—10,000.

Ten thousand! The price had directly doubled!

Many audience members were stunned. Could some rich player have accidentally pressed the bid button?

The host's AI reacted quickly and immediately continued according to its preset program. "The bid has risen to 10,000 gold. Does anyone wish to bid higher?"

—20,000.

Someone had doubled the bid again!

Only then did the casual players who did not understand battle cards realize that perhaps this really was an excellent card? But those who understood cards knew—the card experts sent to the Auction House by the major guilds had finally made their move!

Sure enough, the card's price entered another brutal round of bidding!

—30,000!

—40,000!

—50,000!

—60,000!

—100,000!

The bidding paused at 100,000.

In all the years Star Card Storm had been operating, among the most basic Level 1 One-Star Cards, the only one that had ever sold for as much as 100,000 was Tang Muzhou's Vine Card five years ago. Before Tang Muzhou, there had been no vine-type cards in plant decks. He had pioneered the entirely new Vine Combat Style. The person who had won Tang Muzhou's Vine Card at that auction was his future mentor—an anecdote many fans still loved to talk about.

Of course, prices from five years ago could not be compared with current prices. The 100,000 from back then was equivalent to more than 300,000 today.

But before Tang Muzhou put his Vine Card up for auction, he had already made a name for himself in the Black Market and had countless fans. In contrast, this person named Yueban was an unknown nobody who had never shown his face. On his first visit to the auction, he created an Instant-Death Card—a slender beauty with the skill Daiyu Burying Flowers—and it had actually sold for 100,000? Could another card-making genius be about to burst onto the scene?

The audience widened their eyes, settled into position to watch the show, and stared intently at the screen.

The buyers from the major guilds were practically going mad. They immediately used private voice chat to speak with their guild leaders. "No idea how many people are fighting for it—this Level 1 card has already reached 100,000!" "Is Fenghua Guild at the venue? Are they desperately bidding because they're afraid this card will be bad for Tang God?" "Are we going to fight for it to the end?" "President, please give instructions. Should we keep bidding?"