Chapter Summaries

Red Candle discovered that Xie Mingzhe’s Lin Daiyu card could instantly kill Flower Cards, and Xue Linxiang recognized it as a major threat to Tang Muzhou’s deck. Xue went to warn Tang, but their conversation was interrupted by a young boy from the neighboring room.

• Red Candle bought a Lin Daiyu card from a Black Market merchant and asked him to acquire any more copies he found.
• Red Candle showed the card to Xue Linxiang, who realized its Instant Death skill could eliminate Flower Cards and threaten Tang Muzhou’s deck.
• Xue Linxiang ordered Red Candle to find the card’s creator while Xie Mingzhe, unaware of their concern, made ten Lin Daiyu cards and considered where to sell them.
• Xue Linxiang went to Tang Muzhou’s dormitory to tell him about the card, but found him falling asleep on his feet.
• A young boy emerged from the neighboring room and asked Xue Linxiang whether Tang Muzhou had offended her.

Xue Linxiang showed Tang Muzhou a Black Market card whose Instant Death skill targeted flower-type cards, and Shen An suspected it was designed to counter Tang Muzhou. Tang Muzhou concluded its creator was likely an inexperienced card maker, but warned that the coincidence was more troubling than deliberate targeting because the creator might accidentally make more cards that threatened his deck.

• Xue Linxiang summoned Shen An to join a serious discussion with Tang Muzhou.
• Xue Linxiang showed Tang Muzhou and Shen An nine copies of Daiyu Burying Flowers, a card Red Candle had bought from the Black Market.
• Shen An calculated that the card could reach a 100% Instant Death chance against flower-type cards and suspected someone had made it to target Tang Muzhou.
• Tang Muzhou pointed out the card's cluttered artwork and weak stats, concluding that its creator did not know how to make combat cards.
• Tang Muzhou explained that a deliberate counter would not frighten him, but an accidental counter meant the unknown creator might produce more dangerous cards.

Tang Muzhou and Xue Linxiang discovered that the creator of Lin Daiyu’s counter card had made 19 copies, prompting Red Candle to search for them. Xie Mingzhe sold ten more cards to other stalls and returned to his personal space, while Red Candle recovered eight and waited anxiously for the creator.

• Tang Muzhou searched the card database and found that Yueban had created 19 cards, ten more than Red Candle knew about.
• Xue Linxiang told Red Candle to recover every Daiyu Burying Flowers Card and find the creator; Red Candle began watching Boss Zhang’s stall and searching the Black Market.
• Xie Mingzhe sold ten Lin Meimei cards to three different stall owners and decided he needed to make better cards.
• Red Candle’s scouts found eight Daiyu Cards, which they bought back for the guild.
• Red Candle waited for the missing cards and their creator, but instead encountered Judgment Guild vice president Setting Sun.

Setting Sun learned that Red Candle was secretly buying beautiful female character cards, while Xie Mingzhe abandoned drawing beauties and created a Wu Song card based on the hero fighting a tiger. The chapter left Xie Mingzhe examining Wu Song’s newly approved starter card.

• Setting Sun spoke with Red Candle in the Black Market, then learned from his spy that she was secretly offering high prices for beautiful female character cards.
• Red Candle set up the stall to lure out the seller of Daiyu Burying Flowers, but random card makers flooded her with beauty cards instead.
• Xie Mingzhe concluded that combat ability mattered more than appearance and turned from Dream of the Red Chamber characters to Water Margin.
• Xie Mingzhe drew Wu Song punching a tiger on Nebula Paper, submitted the card for review, and received approval.
• Xie Mingzhe examined the approved level-one Fire card, Wu Song.

Xie Mingzhe sold his Wu Song Card for 140 gold, unaware that it had caught the attention of the Judgment Guild’s Setting Sun because its skill could instantly kill tiger-type cards. Shuangshuang tried to find Xie Mingzhe at Setting Sun’s request, but he logged out when Chen came to call him to dinner.

• Xie Mingzhe rejected a Black Market merchant’s offer of 50 gold for his Wu Song Card and sold it to Shuangshuang for 140 gold.
• Setting Sun examined the card and realized its Instant Death skill could threaten God Nie’s White Tiger.
• Setting Sun told Shuangshuang to find Fat Uncle and bring him to the guild so he could buy many cards.
• Shuangshuang emailed Xie Mingzhe, but he logged out before he could read it when Chen came to call him to dinner.
• Xie Mingzhe took off his headset and followed Chen to the living room, where he saw the boosting studio members for the first time.

Xie Mingzhe met the members of Chen’s power-leveling studio and settled into his new room, though he had to stick to porridge after his recent hospital discharge. Chen explained that the studio occupied his brother’s former home, and he had preserved the balcony just as his brother left it.

• Xie Mingzhe greeted Chi Qing, Pang Yu, and Jin Yue, and Pang Yu realized that the handsome newcomer was Fat Uncle from the game.
• Xie Mingzhe declined the planned feast because his doctor had restricted him to liquid food after his discharge from the hospital.
• Chen arranged for Chi Qing to make porridge and told Xie Mingzhe that he would share a room with Pang Yu.
• Xie Mingzhe explored the studio and admired the carefully decorated balcony, then asked Chen whether he was renting the place.
• Chen told Xie Mingzhe that the house had belonged to his brother and that he had kept the balcony unchanged after his brother left.

Xie Mingzhe formally joined Chen Xiao’s studio as a power-leveler and grew closer to its members over dinner. After logging into the game with the others, he found a batch of official emails announcing the upcoming professional league season and anniversary rewards.

• Chen Xiao hired Xie Mingzhe under a contract offering a 3,000 base salary, commissions, and possible dividends.
• Xie Mingzhe shared dinner with Chen Xiao, Chi Qing, Pang Yu, and Jin Yue, who welcomed him into their close-knit group.
• Xie Mingzhe wondered what had happened to Chen Xiao’s older brother and resolved to reach level 35 so he could help the studio.
• Xie Mingzhe logged into the game and read official emails about the Star Card Professional League season beginning August 10 and an anniversary commemorative card reward.

Xie Mingzhe continued leveling with Senior Brother Qi while several guild figures searched for Fat Uncle and his cards. After testing Fat Uncle’s Wu Song Card, Illusory Moon and Setting Sun discovered it could instantly kill Nie Yuandao’s White Tiger but was easily defeated by other cards, then found that Fat Uncle had created 20 cards.

• Xie Mingzhe joined Senior Brother Qi’s team to level on White Egret Star.
• Setting Sun told Shuangshuang to contact him if Fat Uncle replied, while Red Candle ordered her guild elders to search for cards bearing the Yueban logo.
• Illusory Moon upgraded Wu Song to a level-70, seven-star card and tested it against Setting Sun’s White Tiger, which Wu Song killed instantly.
• Setting Sun and Illusory Moon tested Wu Song against Lan God’s Fire Phoenix, which defeated it with a fire-element area attack.
• Illusory Moon concluded Wu Song’s instant-kill skill only worked against tiger cards and discovered Fat Uncle had created 20 cards.

Illusory Moon realized that Fat Uncle’s Wu Song Card used the newly approved Instant-Death Judgment and could kill Nie Yuandao’s White Tiger Card. He ordered Judgment to search the Black Market and buy every card with the Yueban logo, while Fenghua and Judgment’s sudden activity left Red Candle and Setting Sun suspicious of each other.

• Illusory Moon recalled that Tang Muzhou and Nie Yuandao had supported adding tightly regulated Instant-Death Cards to the game’s skill database.
• Illusory Moon recognized that Fat Uncle’s Wu Song Card could instantly kill tiger-type cards and threaten Nie Yuandao’s White Tiger Card.
• Illusory Moon ordered Judgment to search the Black Market and buy every Yueban card, especially Wu Song Cards.
• Red Candle and Setting Sun each suspected the other guild had bought the cards they wanted, but they exchanged polite greetings when they met.
• News that Fenghua and Judgment managers had flooded the Black Market spread through the spy community.

Xie Mingzhe unknowingly caused a frenzy among major guilds by selling rare Instant Death cards at the Black Market. As the guilds searched for him, Illusory Moon suspected Fat Uncle might be a card-making genius like Tang Muzhou.

• Major guilds flocked to the Black Market, while Xie Mingzhe casually told his friends he had sold two character cards and planned to make ten more Wu Song Cards.
• Xie Mingzhe continued leveling on White Egret Star, unaware that his Daiyu and Wu Song Cards were the first Instant Death cards in Star Card World.
• Setting Sun reported that he could not find Fat Uncle or his cards, and Illusory Moon suspected the missing cards might include a powerful female character card bought by Red Candle.
• Illusory Moon recalled that Tang Muzhou had first become famous by selling cards at the Black Market and warned that Fat Uncle might become another Tang Muzhou.

Illusory Moon and Fenghua Club both tried to find the mysterious card maker Yueban, while Xie Mingzhe leveled up and returned to making cards. Tang Muzhou learned Yueban had made thirty cards and said he was more interested in their creator than in the threat to his Flower Cards.

• Illusory Moon judged that Fat Uncle had exceptional talent and ordered Setting Sun to find him before Fenghua Guild, then bring him to God Nie for possible recruitment.
• Setting Sun hurried off to look for Shuangshuang, who said Fat Uncle still had not replied to her email.
• Xie Mingzhe reached level 35 in Dark Cave, parted from Senior Brother Qi and Sisi as they went to buy Seven-Star Cards, and returned to his personal space to make cards.
• Red Candle told Xue Linxiang that Fenghua had not found Yueban and that other major guilds were searching the Black Market for the creator of the Daiyu Card.
• Tang Muzhou told Xue Linxiang that Yueban's card count had risen to thirty and said he was more interested in Yueban than in the threat to his Flower Cards.

Tang Muzhou decided to seek out the newcomer who had made Lin Daiyu’s instant-death card. In the Dark Night Forest dungeon, Xie Mingzhe joined Chen Xiao’s team and used borrowed Seven-Star Cards to control the vines.

• Tang Muzhou told Xue Linxiang he would use an alternate account to find the card maker himself.
• Chen Xiao summoned Xie Mingzhe to the Wood Planet team dungeon and gave him the Storm Goddess and Ice Goddess cards to use.
• Xie Mingzhe joined the ten-player party and was freed from binding vines by Chi Qing’s purification card.
• Chen Xiao directed Pang Yu to draw the vines away, and they crushed his Rhino Card.
• Chen Xiao ordered Xie Mingzhe to freeze the vines, and Xie Mingzhe gathered them with the Storm Goddess before freezing them with the Ice Goddess.

Xie Mingzhe cleared Wood Planet’s dungeons with Chen Xiao’s group, then returned to studying cards. At the Judgment Club, Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan examined his Wu Song card and discussed why the league had added Instant-Death Judgment.

• Xie Mingzhe followed Chen Xiao’s group through the Wood Planet dungeons, where vines and plant creatures repeatedly hindered them.
• Chen Xiao’s group cleared the remaining five-player dungeons, then disbanded for the night.
• Xie Mingzhe returned to his personal space to study cards.
• At the Judgment Club, Shan Lan examined the Wu Song card Illusory Moon had obtained from the Black Market and concluded its creator was likely a newcomer named Fat Uncle.
• Nie Yuandao explained that he had supported adding Instant-Death Judgment to discourage players from copying health-stacking strategies and lamented the lack of creativity among recent newcomers.

Xie Mingzhe realized that detailed card designs improved their stats, remade his Wu Song and Lin Daiyu cards, and discovered that the Judgment Guild wanted to buy Wu Song cards in bulk. Meanwhile, Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan set out to find Fat Uncle, unaware that Xie Mingzhe had just opened the guild’s messages.

• Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan discussed Instant-Death Judgment cards and decided to find Fat Uncle, whose card designs impressed them.
• Xie Mingzhe studied Chen’s Storm Goddess and Ice Goddess cards and realized that a card’s detailed main subject mattered more than its background.
• Xie Mingzhe redrew Lin Daiyu and Wu Song in greater detail, improving their stats and raising their Instant Death chances to 30%.
• Xie Mingzhe opened his player emails and found repeated messages from Shuangshuang, who said the Judgment Guild wanted to buy Wu Song cards in bulk.
• Xie Mingzhe offered a discount for orders of ten cards or more, and Shuangshuang told Vice President Setting Sun that Fat Uncle had finally replied.

Xie Mingzhe met the Judgment Guild’s leaders and professional players, Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan, to negotiate the sale of his Wu Song Card. Nie Yuandao offered to buy all eleven cards and their production rights for 300,000 real-world currency, leaving Xie Mingzhe stunned when the converted payment appeared as three million game coins.

• Shuangshuang invited Xie Mingzhe to the Judgment Guild territory, where she escorted him to meet the guild’s leaders.
• Xie Mingzhe showed Illusory Moon his improved Wu Song Card, and Illusory Moon passed it to Nie Yuandao.
• Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan introduced themselves as professional players using alternate accounts, then Nie asked how many Wu Song Cards Xie Mingzhe had made.
• Xie Mingzhe said he had made eleven cards, and Nie offered to buy them all along with the card’s production rights for 300,000 real-world currency.
• Illusory Moon opened a trade for three million game coins, and Xie Mingzhe realized the amount reflected the currency conversion.

Xie Mingzhe learned that his Wu Song card was valuable and received a generous copyright offer and a job invitation from Judgment Club. He agreed to transfer the card’s copyright but postponed deciding whether to join, while Illusory Moon recognized that his design potential might be exceptional.

• Shan Lan explained that Xie Mingzhe’s Wu Song card was a tactical Instant-Death Card and that Nie Yuandao’s 300,000 offer covered its copyright.
• Nie Yuandao invited Xie Mingzhe to join Judgment Club as a card designer, offering a monthly salary of 20,000 and bonuses.
• Xie Mingzhe agreed to transfer the Wu Song card’s copyright but said he needed time to consider joining the club.
• Shan Lan and Illusory Moon offered Xie Mingzhe a chance to investigate the offer and invited him to contact them after deciding.
• After Xie Mingzhe left with Setting Sun to complete the transfer, Illusory Moon told Nie Yuandao that Xie’s rapid improvement suggested exceptional potential.

Xie Mingzhe transferred the Wu Song Card copyright to the Judgment Guild, sold his game coins for 300,000 Crystal Coins, and learned more about the club before deciding not to accept its invitation yet. He ended the chapter resolved to stay independent and wondering why the Judgment players valued his Wu Song Card so highly.

• Illusory Moon searched the Black Market for more Yueban cards and sent Fat Uncle an earnest recruitment pitch for the Judgment Club.
• Xie Mingzhe transferred the Wu Song Card copyright to the Judgment Guild for three million game coins, then listed the coins for sale at the Star Card Bank.
• Illusory Moon invited Xie Mingzhe to join Judgment, but Xie Mingzhe said he would consider it and logged off after a health warning.
• Xie Mingzhe received ten bank transfers totaling 300,000 Crystal Coins and went to the dormitory with Pang Yu.
• Pang Yu explained that contracted card designers surrendered their card copyrights to their clubs, so Xie Mingzhe decided to remain independent.
• Xie Mingzhe wondered why Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan had valued the Wu Song Card so highly.

After realizing no one in Star Card World recognized the Chinese figures he drew, Xie Mingzhe understood that his knowledge of Earth’s history gave him an exceptional advantage as a card maker. Meanwhile, Tang Muzhou searched the Black Market for the creator of the Daiyu card, suspecting it had been bought by a casual collector.

• Xie Mingzhe asked Pang Yu about famous Chinese figures and discovered that Pang Yu did not recognize them.
• Xie Mingzhe realized that people had failed to recognize Lin Meimei and Wu Song because this world had lost the cultural history he knew.
• Xie Mingzhe understood the value of his knowledge and resolved to turn characters from Water Margin, Dream of the Red Chamber, and Three Kingdoms into cards.
• Tang Muzhou logged into Star Card World using his alt account and asked Red Candle whether he had found the creator of the Daiyu card.
• Red Candle reported that searches had found neither the Daiyu card nor any cards marked Yueban, so Tang Muzhou began searching the Black Market himself.
• Tang Muzhou concluded that a casual collector might have bought Daiyu and noticed major guild managers searching the market too.

Tang Muzhou tracked down the creator of the Lin Daiyu cards and arranged for his team to seek a bulk purchase. Meanwhile, Xie Mingzhe learned the rules governing Instant-Death cards and researched the Professional League’s top clubs.

• Tang Muzhou bought two Lin Daiyu cards from a collector and learned that their creator was called Fat Uncle.
• Tang Muzhou told Red Candle to contact Fat Uncle about buying Daiyu Cards in bulk and to monitor the Auction House for new cards.
• Xie Mingzhe woke from a dream about becoming a famous card maker and decided to honor his power-leveling contract through the end of the month.
• Xie Mingzhe ran dungeons on the five Resource Planets with Chen and the others, then logged off to study the official website.
• Xie Mingzhe read the Instant-Death card rules and learned that only one such card could enter the Arena, with strict limits on its skills and attributes.
• Xie Mingzhe researched the Professional League and learned that Fenghua Club, Judgment Card Alliance, City of Evernight, Frostfall City, Pantheon, and Ghost Prison were its Six Giants.

Xie Mingzhe submitted his Lin Daiyu card to the Auction House at a steep price and learned when it would be auctioned. After Chen praised his control of Seven-Star Cards and suggested he try competitive play, Xie Mingzhe asked about a coworker who had taken leave to get married.

• Xie Mingzhe decided to pursue freelance card design and sell cards rather than give their copyrights to a club.
• Xie Mingzhe went to the Auction House and asked an NPC how to auction his Lin Daiyu card.
• Xie Mingzhe set a starting price of 3,000 gold and a minimum sale price of 30,000 gold, then submitted the card.
• The Auction House approved Lin Daiyu and scheduled it for an auction on Wednesday, August 8, at 20:00 next week.
• Chen praised Xie Mingzhe's control of Seven-Star Cards and suggested that he try the arena or amateur leagues.
• Xie Mingzhe said he would focus on power-leveling work and asked Chen when the coworker who had taken leave to get married would return.