Apprenticeship?

"Did you buy my Daiyu Card?" Xie Mingzhe asked politely.

"That's right." The other man pointed to the seat beside him. "Have a seat. Let's talk."

His voice was also a system voice, without much emotional inflection.

The man sat calmly on the sofa, leaving Xie Mingzhe no choice but to sit across from him. Xie Mingzhe had never liked beating around the bush, so he asked bluntly, "You said you wanted to buy Daiyu Cards from me in bulk. Was that true?"

"No. I wanted to ask you to come meet me, so I made up an excuse."

"..." Xie Mingzhe took a deep breath and said as calmly as possible, "Why did you want to meet me? My time is limited, so please get to the point."

The other man watched him for a moment before smiling and asking, "Would you be interested in taking a master who can guide you in making cards?"

"Take you as my master?" Xie Mingzhe had never expected this stranger to ask him to become his apprentice. He had assumed the man was like God Nie, using an alt account to buy his cards or their copyrights.

"Yes." The man directly took out nineteen Lin Daiyu Cards and laid them side by side on the table.

Looking at the neat row of Lin Daiyus, Xie Mingzhe was utterly shocked—these were the Lin Meimeis he had drawn back when he knew nothing about card-making!

Besides Lin Daiyu herself, there were decorative trees, flowers, grass, rivers, and more. The Instant Death chance was only 10%. Back when he did not understand the market, he had sold the Daiyu Cards cheaply on the Black Market. He had indeed sold nineteen of them, but to four different buyers. Could this person have bought every single one back?!

"You bought back all the Daiyu Cards from the Black Market?" Xie Mingzhe looked at him in disbelief.

"Mm. I've been keeping an eye on you." Tang Muzhou smiled slightly, his tone full of approval. "You were the first person to make an Instant-Death-Type Card."

Xie Mingzhe had already heard about that from Lan God. Instant-Death-Type Skills had only recently been added to the database. He had merely stumbled onto it through a wild stroke of imagination, and the designs of Daiyu and Wu Song happened to fit the database rules perfectly, giving them the Instant-Death Judgment skill. But he had never expected someone to have been watching him all along—and to buy back every Daiyu Card that had made its way onto the Black Market!

Tang Muzhou continued, "Plant cards are divided by appearance into tree types, vine types, flower types, and succulent types. Cards such as roses, lilies, and tuberoses that can bloom are all classified as Flower Cards. Flower Cards account for more than 20% of plant decks. Once you have Lin Daiyu, your opponent's Flower Cards could be instantly killed by her at any time."

"You use a Flower Card Deck, and you were worried this card would be bad for you, so you bought them all back?" Xie Mingzhe asked doubtfully.

"This card is indeed the nemesis of Flower Cards, but it doesn't completely counter them." Tang Muzhou spoke calmly. "I'm not worried about it restraining me."

"If you aren't worried about it countering you, why buy back every Daiyu Card from the Black Market? And why spend 660,000 today to buy my revised Daiyu Card? Was that really necessary?" Xie Mingzhe truly could not understand how rich people thought.

"Of course it was necessary." Tang Muzhou smiled, his voice exceptionally gentle. "Because I wanted to get to know you."

"Get to know me?" Xie Mingzhe was completely baffled.

"Mm. That was my real purpose." Tang Muzhou said, "With your talent, since you were able to make the first character-based Instant-Death Card, you can certainly make other character cards as well. Perhaps you'll create an entirely new school of character card decks. A card maker with creativity as outstanding as yours hasn't appeared in a long time."

"Cough, cough, cough. You really know how to talk." Xie Mingzhe felt so light from the praise that he thought he might ascend to immortality. Meeting the man's smiling eyes, he quickly touched his nose and collected himself. "God, you didn't bring me here just to praise me, did you?"

"Of course not. I want to tell you some card-designing techniques so you can avoid detours and make more powerful cards as quickly as possible." He took out the Daiyu Card he had just bought from the Auction House and compared it with the old version. "Do you see the difference?"

"Mm. The old version had too many decorative elements, so its stats were poor. In the new version, I only drew the character and flower petals. The base probability rose to 30%. Is that the highest probability for a level-one card?"

"Yes. A skill's activation probability increases by one point per level. A basic card starts at 30%. After reaching level 70 and evolving into a Black Card, its probability reaches 100%."

"So that's how it works." Xie Mingzhe stroked his chin thoughtfully. "A 100% chance to trigger Instant Death... does that mean no matter how powerful a Flower Card is, it can be instantly killed as long as it encounters Daiyu?"

"Not necessarily." Tang Muzhou explained patiently. "You haven't fought in the Arena yet, so you don't understand the techniques of real-time combat. How about this? I'll demonstrate it for you personally. Add me as a friend and come to my personal space."

Xie Mingzhe had never visited anyone else's home in the game. This was his first time visiting another person's apartment. Curious, he teleported to the man's personal apartment—only to find that it was decorated very simply and looked exactly like his own. It was clearly the system's default three-bedroom layout. None of the furniture or decor had been changed, so this wealthy man was obviously not interested in decorating his in-game apartment.

The man led him straight to the study.

The small compartments in the display cabinets covering three walls of the study were nearly all full. The cabinet on the left was filled with materials such as one-star through seven-star Repair Stones, Experience Stones, and Evolution Starstones; the cabinet in the center held stacks of non-elemental White Cards like Effect Hit Enhancement Cards, Critical Hit Rate Enhancement Cards, and Basic Attack Enhancement Cards; the cabinet on the right held finished cards, including quite a few max-star Black Cards with excellent stats.

—So this rich guy was actually an experiment-obsessed madman!

Xie Mingzhe truly wanted to move every display cabinet into his own apartment.

Seeing Fat Uncle standing at the door and curiously examining the display cabinets, Tang Muzhou smiled slightly. "Come in."