What Kind of Card Was This, Anyway?

Chapter 13: What Kind of Card Was This, Anyway?

Chen Mu hadn't expected Lei Zi to land a job at the Card Shadow Company, but on second thought, it made sense. The guy had always been adaptable, with a silver tongue to match. Chen Mu knew nothing about scriptwriting, but he still had considerable faith in Lei Zi's abilities.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Chen Mu asked in puzzlement, looking Lei Zi up and down.

Lei Zi chuckled and declared shamelessly, "I'm an artist now, you know. This is the hottest style in the industry."

Then he leaned his head toward Chen Mu and whispered, "Can't be helped. If I didn't dress like this, I'd be too embarrassed to even say hello to anyone."

"How have you been lately?" Lei Zi asked Chen Mu.

"Same as before." Chen Mu felt that his life was no different from what it had been.

"All right, all right, no more chatting. I've got to get to the company. Come over sometime. I've still got three bottles of Clear Cloud Flow left." Their meeting was brief, and their parting just as hurried.

Clear Cloud Flow was a green fruit wine with a very light flavor, and both Chen Mu and Lei Zi loved it. It was expensive; the few bottles left at Lei Zi's home had been bought when his adoptive parents were still alive and kept ever since. Lei Zi only brought it out when Chen Mu visited.

Chen Mu's life began to grow simple again. In his eyes, though, perhaps it had never changed at all. Every day, he faithfully practiced the Body-Strengthening Exercise and made Energy Cards to earn his living. The time he would have spent making Illusion Cards went instead into careful observation and study. He didn't have enough money to burn through making Illusion Cards for practice every day. Still, he gained a great deal. He had begun to grasp such things as the variations of light and shadow across different parts of an object, and how to give the illusions he created a stronger sense of depth.

Everything went smoothly. The only thing that caught him by surprise was the Body-Strengthening Exercise. Those eighteen movements took him three full months to master, even with roughly four hours of practice every single day.

But effort always brought its rewards.

By now, Chen Mu's body was extraordinarily supple. His hands, legs, and waist were all so flexible that he could assume all sorts of bizarre positions. This wasn't the softness of dough, but that of steel wire-flexible yet firm. His strength had increased dramatically as well.

He studied himself in the mirror. His bare upper body wasn't bulging with muscle, but it was exceptionally well proportioned. At the slightest exertion, the muscles beneath his skin stood out like taut steel strings.

This was the fruit of his recent practice. Chen Mu was thoroughly satisfied with his physique. He hadn't expected eighteen movements to have such an astonishing effect on his body. The figure he saw in the mirror made all those months of hard work feel worthwhile. He didn't care about his build or looks; those things couldn't put food on the table. But he valued his health greatly, and he could clearly feel that this body gave him far better control over his strength than before. This was especially apparent when he made Energy Cards: his hands were steadier and more dexterous. Three of the eighteen movements specifically trained finger dexterity.

I'll have to keep practicing the Body-Strengthening Exercise every day, Chen Mu thought.

Now that he could easily complete all eighteen movements in one go, it was time to enter the illusion within that mysterious card again.

Ever since his narrow escape from the illusion last time, Chen Mu hadn't activated the mysterious card again.

He pressed the activation button and once more entered that boundless, dark void.

The eighteen Puppets were still performing the same movements as before.

With a mixture of anticipation and curiosity, Chen Mu drew a deep breath.

His body began to move!

Chen Mu's body moved like a snake, shifting through one inconceivable posture after another as his limbs constantly changed position. Each time he completed a movement, one Puppet dimmed.

He had long since mastered this set of Body-Strengthening Exercise movements. As he went through them, each flowed into the next like drifting clouds and running water, without the slightest pause or hitch.

After completing all eighteen movements, Chen Mu was breathing a little hard. Although he knew them thoroughly, the routine was still quite strenuous.

What would happen next? Chen Mu was brimming with curiosity.

All eighteen Puppets had gone dark. At last, the change Chen Mu had been waiting for occurred!

Two cards! Two cards floated before Chen Mu, one pale blue and the other orange-yellow. They gave off a faint glow, suspended in the void without any support.

With his first experience behind him, Chen Mu wasn't afraid. Curious, he tried touching one of them. He chose the orange-yellow card, which was enveloped in a faint ball of orange-yellow light, gentle and warm.

The instant Chen Mu's finger touched the orange-yellow card, it abruptly split into two cards. Each orange-yellow card bore a number: one and two.

Chen Mu's spirits lifted. Thoroughly intrigued, he immediately touched the orange-yellow card numbered one.

"One-Star Illusion Card creation..."

This orange-yellow card contained a complete tutorial on making one-star cards, with images illustrating every step and detail. To a half-trained card maker like Chen Mu, these moving demonstrations were a priceless treasure!

If the eighteen movements had merely piqued his curiosity, then this One-Star Illusion Card tutorial was nothing less than an invaluable treasure to him.

So lifelike! Every detail matched reality perfectly. Every image projected by this Illusion Card was realistic enough to leave anyone gaping in astonishment.

His mind had barely pulled free of those dazzling, breathtaking images before the "tutorial" demonstrated through the illusions captured his attention completely! He stared at the ever-changing moving illusions with ravenous hunger, even a trace of greed. What in the world could draw him more powerfully than what lay before his eyes?

All this time, he had struggled to find his way alone. Only he knew the pain of having no one to guide him. Now that such an opportunity had appeared, how could he possibly let it go? He even worried that these moving illusions might only play once. If he carelessly missed something, wouldn't he regret it to death?

The amount of information contained in card number one far exceeded his expectations. It held not only a complete One-Star Illusion Card tutorial, but also many tricks for making One-Star Illusion Cards. Those little tricks sent Chen Mu into ecstasy; they were enough to raise the quality of the One-Star Illusion Cards he made by an entire level.

"The world really is full of love!" Chen Mu murmured unconsciously.

Even after Chen Mu emerged from the card's illusions, his head still felt somewhat dazed.

Both orange-yellow cards contained knowledge relating to One-Star Illusion Cards. The pale blue card within the illusion was likewise a tutorial for making a certain type of card, but Chen Mu had never heard of this kind before. It was called a Planning Card.

Chen Mu didn't find that strange. There were far too many cards he had never heard of.

That evening, he finally regained his composure. One question now intrigued him: what exactly was this card meant to do?

From the initial Body-Strengthening Exercise to the later demonstration of One-Star Illusion Card creation, he could see no connection between the two.

A curiosity stronger than any he had ever felt lingered in Chen Mu's heart. He wanted to understand-to uncover every secret of this card shrouded in mystery. At the very least, he ought to find out its ultimate purpose.

(End of chapter)