The blade-like nib glided lightly over a blue-gray card. Fine blue lines flowed smoothly from its tip. Pale blue lines multiplied across the palm-sized card, gradually forming an intricate, mysterious pattern that grew ever more complete with each movement of the pen.
Chen Mu stared intently at the card, breathing softly, as though afraid of disturbing something. A closer look would reveal that his right arm had not moved a fraction the entire time. Only his wrist moved, supple as a snake, as soft as if it had no bones. A gentle turn of the nib traced an elegant arc across the card. Suddenly, the nib pressed down hard, abandoning its earlier lightness, then swept sharply sideways into a hook. The stroke was like a knife's edge! The pattern on the card flashed, then quickly dimmed and returned to normal.
Chen Mu casually placed it on the pile of cards beside him on the table. His movements were practiced and natural, without the slightest hesitation. Even after completing the card, his expression remained focused. He had only finished fifteen, still ten short of today's quota. He was making one-star Energy Cards. As the lowest-grade Energy Cards, they were among the most widely used and heavily consumed cards available. Just then, the room suddenly went dark.
"Damn it, out of energy again!" Chen Mu muttered. With his left hand, he pulled an Energy Card from the pile, then lightly pressed the Wrist Device on his right wrist. It emitted a bright beam. By its light, Chen Mu carefully made his way to the corner. The room was far too cluttered, and he did not want to knock anything over. A square meter was mounted on the wall in the corner, with a slot beneath it. Chen Mu inserted the Energy Card into the slot.
As soon as the Energy Card slid into place, light returned to the room. The meter displayed the number one hundred. He had not expected the energy to run out; it looked as though he would have to add another card to today's quota. Returning to his desk, Chen Mu quickly immersed himself in work. His entire livelihood depended on these lowest-grade cards. Ever since learning to make them three years ago, he had never missed a single day of his twenty-five-card workload.
Chen Mu's room was small, less than forty square meters, with a worn worktable inside. Apart from the relatively clean tabletop, mountains of clutter filled every corner. There was all manner of junk: piles of old books and assorted raw materials scattered about.
Chen Mu had lived in this shabby place for three full years. It was relief housing provided by the Federation Government. A small room like this cost only a hundred and fifty Odi a month. For someone as poor as Chen Mu, there was simply nowhere cheaper. Besides, he considered himself fairly well off already. He had even seen families of four squeezed into rooms of the same size.
At five in the afternoon, Chen Mu finally finished the day's work-twenty-five Energy Cards. He carefully counted them twice. Only after confirming the number did he cautiously tuck them into the card pouch inside his clothes.
By the time he stepped onto the street, the night was deepening. Colorful lights shone alluringly in the darkness, while Shuttlecraft occasionally streaked overhead, flames from their tails tracing brilliant trails that vanished in an instant. Chen Mu pulled his coat a little tighter and looked up at the sky. The chill was growing stronger. Winter must be coming soon. He had no spare attention to lament the passage of time; he was merely calculating the additional expense of winter heating.
He passed the rear gate of East Guard Academy. He had taken this route for three years, yet every time he saw students coming and going in groups, an inexplicable feeling still rose within him. Composing himself, Chen Mu hurried toward a little shop beside the academy. It was called the East Guard General Store-there were at least twenty similar shops with the same name around East Guard Academy. For three years, Chen Mu had visited this one every day, rain or shine, without fail. He did not come to buy things, however. On the contrary, he came to sell them.
The shopkeeper noticed him as soon as he entered and greeted him. "Ah, Mu, you're here!"
"Yes, Uncle Hua," he answered. Uncle Hua was an older man of about fifty, and the years had left unmistakable traces on him: fine wrinkles, hair half gone gray, and a pair of reading glasses.
"Here's today's batch." Chen Mu carefully took the card pouch from inside his clothes, drew out the stack of Energy Cards, and handed it to the shopkeeper. "Twenty-five."
Uncle Hua took the cards from Chen Mu and casually set them on a shelf without even looking at them. Smiling, he said, "Good thing you bring me cards every day, Chen Mu. Otherwise, I'd be running short."
Chen Mu smiled faintly but said nothing. He knew Uncle Hua was mostly joking. One-star Energy Cards were the cheapest Energy Cards, but they were also among the most heavily consumed. And with the shop so close to East Guard Academy, how could it possibly sell only twenty-five a day?
Uncle Hua knew Chen Mu's temperament, so he got straight to the point. "Cash or transfer, Mu?" "Transfer," Chen Mu answered promptly, handing over the pale green Dika he had already prepared. Once the payment was settled, he said goodbye to Uncle Hua and turned to leave.
Uncle Hua suddenly called him back. "Wait a moment, Chen Mu."
Chen Mu stopped and turned, looking at Uncle Hua with mild surprise. "Is there something else, Uncle Hua?"
Uncle Hua took a pale yellow slip from a drawer and smiled at Chen Mu. "I almost forgot something. This is an attendance pass for a Card Crafter training course. The distributor threw it in with yesterday's delivery. It's just wastepaper sitting here with me. You take it, Chen Mu."
Looking at Uncle Hua's kindly face, Chen Mu could not help feeling a surge of gratitude. He knew how much the older man had helped him over the years. Without him, Chen Mu believed even his present life would have remained far beyond his reach.
Three years ago, when he had just learned to make Energy Cards, he had tried selling them everywhere. Few people showed any interest, and no shop was willing to buy them. Demand for one-star Energy Cards was enormous, and merchants preferred to purchase large batches at once. Chen Mu could make no more than thirty a day, a quantity so small that it did not even amount to a rounding error for them.
Fortunately, he had met Uncle Hua. Uncle Hua agreed to buy his Energy Cards, but at a price of a hundred and three Odi each, two Odi below the market wholesale price. Even so, Chen Mu was immensely grateful.
Four years ago, Chen Mu had still been a homeless street child. One day, he encountered a Card Crafter who was already at death's door. He used the food he had stockpiled over five months to buy the man seven more days of life. During those seven days, he learned a skill: making one-star Energy Cards. The Card Crafter left him nothing when he died, and Chen Mu buried him in the wilderness. Even now, he did not know the man's name, but from then on, his fate began to change.
He spent a year taking every odd job he could, working six different kinds of jobs in that time. He was twelve that year. By the end of it, he finally had a small sum saved up: a thousand Odi. He spent all of it on the raw materials needed to make Energy Cards. The Card Crafter had told him that a one-star Energy Card wholesaled for a hundred and five Odi and had a standard retail price of a hundred and ten, while its production cost was only ninety-eight.
Every Card Crafter knew how to make one-star Energy Cards, but few knew the margin involved. Even among those who did, almost none would consider making money that way. One-star Energy Cards were among the simplest cards and could already be produced entirely by industrial means. Even a master Card Crafter could make only twenty or thirty a day, a pitiful output. Besides, most Card Crafters would not bother picking up that meager profit even if they found it lying on the ground. For Chen Mu, however, it was enough to keep him fed.
On his first attempt, he successfully made eight cards, losing nearly two hundred Odi. Yet it gave him hope. What he had not expected was the obstacle he faced when trying to sell them. Merchants had no interest whatsoever in the pitiful handful of Energy Cards he carried. He spent an entire day running around without eating, finally stepping into Uncle Hua's shop at eight that evening. His legs were trembling as he entered. Without a single grain of rice all day, he was almost on the verge of passing out.
Although a hundred and three Odi was below the wholesale price of a hundred and five, Chen Mu felt engulfed by tremendous joy. He sold all the Energy Cards he had, bought the cheapest food available, and spent the rest on materials for more cards.
From then on, Chen Mu's life finally became stable.
Twenty-five Energy Cards every day. He never missed a day.
Three years passed like that. Throughout those three years, he made only one kind of card-one-star Energy Cards. In the second year, he managed to bring the cost down to ninety-seven Odi. Though it was only a difference of one Odi, it was an enormous encouragement to him. Apart from making Energy Cards, he spent all his time researching ways to lower the cost.
Finally, in the third year, he brought the cost of Energy Cards down to ninety-five Odi. He could earn eight Odi on each card, giving him a steady daily income of two hundred Odi—a figure he would not even have dared imagine three years earlier. An income of six thousand Odi a month was enough for an ordinary life, but he still lived in the same relief housing that cost only a hundred and fifty a month.
Coming back to himself, Chen Mu smiled at Uncle Hua. "Thank you, Uncle Hua!" He accepted the attendance pass and carefully placed it in the card pouch inside his clothes.
Training courses, especially Card Crafter training courses, were among the most rampant kinds of courses around. They often boasted lavish advertisements. This attendance pass, for instance, proclaimed things like "Qualifications recognized by East Guard Academy" and "Personally taught by an authoritative senior Card Crafter from East Guard Academy." Chen Mu knew perfectly well what lay beneath that shiny wrapping. The institution running the course had only one connection to East Guard Academy: it paid the academy a fee each time to maintain the nominal claim that the course was "jointly organized."
Chen Mu still intended to go and hear what the course actually taught. Card making was among the most difficult fields of study. He had never given up studying on his own over the years, yet had achieved very little. Only last year had he understood why. His foundation was simply too weak. In more than a decade of life on the streets, he had never received any formal education.
For a boy with no foundation at all, teaching himself a subject renowned for its depth and obscurity was naturally difficulty piled upon difficulty. Yet he had never doubted his intelligence. The Card Crafter back then had praised his talent highly for learning to make one-star Energy Cards within a week through memory alone.
After that, he set aside a goal that was temporarily beyond him and turned to studying the most basic theories. No matter how tired he was from work, he made time every day to study that dry material.
After saying goodbye to Uncle Hua, Chen Mu headed south along an alley. It was Saturday, and he had another job to do.
After crossing two streets and walking for about twenty minutes, he arrived at a used-card collection station.
"Hey, buddy, you're here!" The man greeting him was thin and dark-skinned, with a shaved head. His name was Xiao Hei, and he owned the collection station. Every Saturday and Sunday evening, Chen Mu came here for three hours of part-time work.
Chen Mu gave Xiao Hei a slight nod, his face still somewhat wooden.
Xiao Hei had long since grown accustomed to Chen Mu's expression. When Chen Mu first came asking for part-time work, Xiao Hei had intended to refuse. Ever since his father's time, the collection station had been a one-man operation. After taking it over, he had continued running it alone.
Hire someone? Xiao Hei could not afford the wages.
But when Chen Mu said he did not want wages, Xiao Hei finally agreed. Of course, Chen Mu still received compensation. Usually, he chose a few discarded cards to take away as payment. Sometimes he also picked Energy Cards with power remaining from the piles of junk. Xiao Hei did the sums and found that this saved him a considerable amount every month. Still, he could not help being curious about the taciturn Chen Mu. How did this fellow know which cards still had energy left?
From then on, though, his face lit up with a smile whenever he saw Chen Mu.
Chen Mu crouched down and began sorting the piled-up discarded cards. There were many kinds: Energy Cards, Item Cards, Object-Mimicking Cards, and even some relatively uncommon Plant Cards and Animal Cards. All the cards here were useless, without exception. Chen Mu's job was to sort them into categories.
The work progressed quickly. It was clear that he was very familiar with it.
With a flick of his wrist, Chen Mu tossed a card to Xiao Hei. "Here. This one should last a while." The two-star Energy Card had at least half its energy left. Chen Mu could not understand why its previous owner had been so wasteful. A two-star Energy Card had a capacity of a thousand, meaning this one still contained about five hundred units of energy.
"Heh, thanks, Brother Chen!" Xiao Hei beamed at the two-star Energy Card in his hand. He eagerly trotted over to the energy tester and inserted it. When the number "523" lit up, he grinned so broadly that his features nearly scrunched together.
Chen Mu paid him no attention, wholly focused on sorting through the cards. Discarded mid-grade cards, such as three-star and four-star cards, appeared here fairly often. But they were of little value to him. The only cards that interested him now were one-star Energy Cards.
Three years of making them had given him his own understanding of these most ordinary, lowest-grade cards. There was more than one way to make a one-star Energy Card, and Chen Mu had collected twelve different structures. Those differently structured cards had given him considerable inspiration. It was by borrowing some of their techniques that he had successfully lowered his production cost to ninety-five Odi. Such luck did not come every day, however. So far, he had collected only twelve.
Today, though, his luck seemed good.
Judging by the Structural Pattern on its surface, the one-star Energy Card in his hand had a new structure Chen Mu had never encountered before.
He set it aside and continued sorting, head lowered. There were enormous numbers of one-star Energy Cards, but Chen Mu patiently checked them one by one. He worked extremely quickly. Almost as soon as his hand brushed lightly over a card, he knew whether it was what he wanted.
All of this came from his familiarity with one-star Energy Cards, a familiarity forged through three years of uninterrupted work. Without looking, he could tell by touch alone whether a card was a one-star Energy Card and whether its structure was one he had encountered before. He knew them intimately, down to every detail.
His fingers suddenly stopped as they skimmed the edge of a card.
This card...
(End of chapter)