Tang Muzhou | Wood-Type Player: Tang Muzhou

Author's note: The early part sets up the world, so there will be a bit more game description. The game mechanics are more novel than the keyboard-based online games I wrote before, so the rules need to be explained clearly.

You can think of cards as [summons]. Summoned cards came with different skills. This was an open card world where all players could create their own decks, and every player in the story would have their own distinctive deck.

Tang Muzhou | Wood-Type Player: Tang Muzhou

Although Xie Mingzhe was undeniably a complete newbie, he had come to the studio as an intern after all. Taking advantage of this group activity, Chen introduced Nirvana Studio's members to him. "Chi Qing's game ID is Green Grass, Pang Yu's is Cosmic Stars, Jin Yue's is Gold, and my in-game ID is Chen. There are currently just four of us in the studio."

"Hello, everyone." Xie Mingzhe proactively introduced himself as well. "My name is Xie Mingzhe. I just started playing this game, and my in-game ID is Fat Uncle."

"...Hello." Hearing that strange ID, everyone gave vague replies, none of them particularly enthusiastic. It had been a long time since they had seen a newbie like him. Chen had actually recruited a beginner to become a power-leveler—was that really reliable?

The corner of Chi Qing's mouth twitched slightly as she privately messaged their leader. "Chen, are you sure you want to bring him along?"

"He said he has several years of power-leveling experience. We just need to explain the Boss mechanics to him later, and he should be fine. Let him come along and see the action." Chen forcibly convinced himself, then glanced at Xie Mingzhe in the game again.

He remembered that the young man who had arrived today was very handsome, with a sunny smile and a height that looked to be over 1.8 meters. But his in-game appearance was the complete opposite—a fat man under 1.7 meters tall, named "Fat Uncle." The more Chen looked, the more ridiculous it seemed.

A tall, skinny young man with the ID "Fat Uncle"? Was he here to be funny?

Unable to bear looking at that ID, Chen waved his hand. "Enter the dungeon."

***

The realms of Star Card World were like dungeons in online games. Challenging realms yielded all kinds of rewards, and their difficulty was classified by star rating, from one star at the lowest to seven stars at the highest. Misty Forest on Wood Planet was a five-player material dungeon with a seven-star difficulty rating.

The moment Xie Mingzhe entered the dungeon, he knew he had come to the wrong place. The minor monsters here had health in the tens of thousands, while his Thunderbird only had 100 attack power. Forget fighting monsters—one touch would kill him instantly. Watching Ice Serpent and Thunderbird die as soon as they entered the dungeon, their usage count changing from 1/1 to 0/1, Xie Mingzhe's heart ached. Damaged cards needed materials to repair, so he immediately put them away.

Xie Mingzhe had assumed that, at such a low level, he would definitely spend the entire high-level dungeon lying dead. Yet although both his cards had died, Fat Uncle's character had not died in the dungeon. Perhaps the game's mechanics centered around cards—combat depended entirely on cards, while players themselves had no attack power, so they could not die?

Full of questions, Xie Mingzhe followed behind the other four and watched carefully.

As soon as Pang Yu entered the dungeon, he used a [Rhino Card]. The rhino charged wildly forward, instantly shattering Misty Forest's silence. Startled awake, the Tree Sprites saw invaders in their home and immediately howled as they pounced on the rhino.

The rhino ran at full speed, with Chen and his teammates chasing after it. The Tree Sprites scattered chaotically in every direction, and soon they could barely see where the rhino was.

Just then, Chi Qing suddenly summoned two cards in succession.

—Storm Goddess. The graceful goddess spread her wings, and a fierce tornado swept through the area, instantly gathering the scattered Tree Sprites together!

—Ice Goddess. The crystal-clear goddess descended from the sky as snow swirled around her, freezing all the Tree Sprites where they stood!

Chen said, "Attack!"

Then Chen and the guy named Jin Yue began raining down skills in a crackling barrage.

Xie Mingzhe stared from the back, nearly dumbfounded.

The holographic game's effects were incredibly realistic. Seeing Storm Goddess and Ice Goddess descend just now felt like sitting in a movie theater during the Earth era and watching a 3D fantasy blockbuster. The goddesses were right before his eyes, lifelike and vivid. Sharp winds howled around him, snow fluttered overhead, and both the visuals and sound effects were flawless.

Awesome. This game's effects were seriously amazing. The engineers who developed it deserved a collective thumbs-up.

Xie Mingzhe marveled as he watched them clear the minor monsters.

The four coordinated seamlessly and cleared the dungeon very efficiently. In just thirty seconds, they slaughtered the entire batch of Tree Sprites. Chen regrouped on the spot, put the dropped fragment materials into his inventory, and continued deeper into the forest.

Since Xie Mingzhe's cards were already dead and damaged, he simply focused on watching the show.

Just as he had expected, the forest dungeon on Wood Planet only dropped wood-element materials.

After clearing seven waves of minor monsters, they finally reached the Boss.

Xie Mingzhe saw that the Boss in the distance was a flower over a meter tall. It looked somewhat like a lily from Earth, except it was multicolored. Its five large petals were red, green, blue, brown, and gold.

Chen stopped walking and said, "A-Qing, explain how to fight this Boss to Little Xie."

Chi Qing, who had been called on, remained as cold as ever. "Flower Demon is a five-element Boss. When fighting it, players need to step on formations. Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth correspond to gold, green, blue, red, and brown. When formations of different colors appear beneath it, players need to step on the outer formation that counters it, making the fight much easier. The countering order is: wood counters earth, earth counters water, water counters fire, fire counters metal, and metal counters wood."

A newbie definitely would not remember so much information at once. But Xie Mingzhe had such outstanding gaming talent that esports club scouts had once approached him, and he immediately picked out the key point from her explanation. "What can I help with? Should I step on the formations for you?"

Chi Qing spoke quickly, but she had not expected him to listen so carefully. Her aversion toward this newbie who would drag them down lessened slightly. "When a green wood formation appears beneath the Boss, it restores its health. A red fire formation sends it berserk and wipes out the whole party. You have to step on formations to counter those. The other formations that increase attack or defense don't matter if we ignore them—we can brute-force the fight... Do you understand how to step on them?"