Fifteen thousand Odi! Looking at the strange card, Chen Mu could not quite make up his mind. Now that his long-held wish to make a one-star Illusion Card no longer held him back, intense curiosity drew him in, and the scales in his heart rapidly tipped toward this card.
I'll spend it! Chen Mu steeled himself. At worst, he would spend another few months earning it back.
Once Chen Mu had made up his mind, he stopped hesitating and went out to buy a Three-Star Energy Card.
Walking out onto the streets again, Chen Mu felt completely different from the last time he had gone out to bask in the sun.
Shuttlecraft filled the sky, the air streaming from their tails faintly audible. Shuttlecraft were expensive, naturally beyond the means of someone like Chen Mu. The core component of a Shuttlecraft was a card capable of generating a high-speed airflow. That airflow passed through specially designed structures inside the Shuttlecraft, producing tremendous thrust. Highly skilled Card Adepts, however, had no need for Shuttlecraft at all. They could deftly control these Airflow Cards to fly, with greater speed and agility.
Unable to afford a Shuttlecraft or control an Airflow Card, Chen Mu had no choice but to dutifully make his way on his own two legs.
Three-Star Energy Cards could only be bought at relatively upscale stores. They were not cheap, after all. This was Chen Mu's first time entering such a high-end card shop. The gleaming, smooth floor reflected people's images, and a faint, refreshing fragrance lingered throughout the store. Inside the glass counters, all sorts of high-grade cards rested on red velvet, each with a detailed description beneath it.
The beautiful, poised saleswomen wore neat uniforms, their lovely smiles gentle and inviting.
"Hello, what can I help you with?" The saleswoman did not look down on Chen Mu in the slightest because of his scruffy appearance. They all possessed excellent professional standards. Having seen plenty of the world, they knew that many unassuming-looking people would spend a fortune here. Not every wealthy person cared so much about clothing. Scholars absorbed in research who paid little attention to their appearance were an especially common sight.
"A Three-Star Energy Card." Chen Mu wasted no words.
He really is rich! The saleswoman was secretly delighted. A Three-Star Energy Card cost fifteen thousand Odi, just enough to meet her sales target for the day.
Chen Mu never dragged his feet when doing things. Once he had decided to buy something, he entertained no second thoughts, and he paid just as readily. This only made the saleswoman more certain that the man before her was wealthy.
"Would you like anything else, sir? We have everything here-the widest selection of cards in the city. If we don't have the card you need, we can place a special order for you and have one of the senior Card Masters we work with make it specifically for you." The saleswoman's enthusiasm blazed as she spared no effort promoting the store.
The dazzling array of high-grade cards nearly made Chen Mu's eyes swim. He secretly swallowed, then shook his head. "No, thank you. You don't have the card I need here."
Once he left the card shop, the cold air outside immediately cleared Chen Mu's head. He stood there blankly for a long while before suddenly letting out a chuckle. It seemed his resistance really was poor; these cards alone had dazzled him. Casting those impractical thoughts aside, he remembered the mysterious card still at home, and his heart abruptly warmed. Intense curiosity drove him to break into a run.
After sprinting all the way, Chen Mu opened his front door, panting, and went inside.
Questions about this mysterious card had kept circling in Chen Mu's mind. It had been given an extraordinarily convincing disguise. What sort of card needed to be disguised? What was the purpose of that disguise? Even those two layers of masking film were the work of a master. Which master had made it?
Every one of these questions could stir anyone's curiosity, yet none was the strangest thing about it. The most peculiar feature of this mysterious card was that the structural pattern on its surface had undergone an earth-shaking transformation overnight!
Chen Mu had never heard of a card whose structural pattern could change. Once a card's structural pattern formed, it was exceptionally stable; the bonding between its materials was irreversible. That bond was tremendously strong. Even an irresistible force like time could only loosen it and make it flake away little by little, never rearrange it into another form.
If this card really was someone's creation, what astonishing, world-shaking skill its creator must have possessed!
All these mysteries were like countless tiny insects, making Chen Mu's heart itch unbearably.
Now, at last, it was time to unravel this mystery! Chen Mu felt a little excited.
He picked up the mysterious card from the table and gently rubbed its surface with his palm. With a deft flip of his fingers, he slid it into a card slot in his Wrist Device. Immediately afterward, Chen Mu swiftly inserted the Three-Star Energy Card into another slot in the Wrist Device.
Without hesitation, he pressed the activation button.
His surroundings abruptly darkened, and Chen Mu felt as though he had suddenly entered a completely unfamiliar space. What an incredible Illusion Card! Words could no longer express the shock in his heart! He had never imagined an Illusion Card could reach such heights. This truly was "reality woven into illusion"! This was definitely an extremely high-grade Illusion Card! He had never expected to encounter an Illusion Card of such a high grade. Although he knew full well that everything before his eyes was false, his expression still changed. This card had completely severed his connection to his surroundings.
All around him lay nothing but boundless darkness. He seemed to be floating alone in an endless black void.
"Step one: please complete the following eighteen movements." Suddenly, an aged voice sounded beside Chen Mu's ear. It was as though someone had spoken right against his ear, quietly yet with perfect clarity. Chen Mu involuntarily turned to look behind him, but there was nothing in sight except the same boundless black void.
As soon as the voice fell silent, eighteen lifelike Puppets suddenly appeared before Chen Mu, each performing a different movement. Their faces were indistinct, but their physiques were perfect. They repeated their movements ceaselessly, over and over. Each of the eighteen Puppets performed a different movement, some of them exceedingly bizarre.
Suppressing the shock in his heart, Chen Mu began carefully observing their movements. When he focused his gaze on one of the Puppets, a large block of text suddenly appeared beside it. Chen Mu hurriedly read it carefully. The text turned out to contain detailed instructions for that movement, along with a few precautions.
After finishing the text, Chen Mu began trying to follow the Puppets' movements.
(End of chapter)