The Resentment-Powered Card Production Line
Xing Yao still lounged leisurely in his recliner, sunglasses shielding his eyes and a confident smile curling his lips, waiting to see the man's reaction after trying the cards-and waiting for more intrigued people to gather around.
Time ticked by, and more than half an hour quietly slipped away.
With his eyes closed, Xing Yao suddenly felt the Resentment Points in his mental world surge wildly, soaring like floodwaters released through an open gate. An almost imperceptible smile curved his lips. Looks like the punishment has begun.
Another hour passed before the middle-aged man finally returned.
He had changed into a brand-new set of clothes, and his expression was extraordinarily complicated-lingering fear, excitement, and a hint of having been screwed over and wanting to drag everyone else into the water with him.
Before Xing Yao could speak, he grabbed his arm. His voice carried a deliberately excited edge, yet he could not hide the way he gritted his teeth. "They're amazing! Absolutely amazing! The side effects are so minor they're negligible. These are practically divine treasures! Everyone, buy them! Hurry up and try them! You absolutely won't lose out!"
As he spoke, he pulled out his phone, opened a recording, and played it for everyone.
In the footage, with his tier-one, stage-five strength, he teleported nimbly through a secret realm, summoned earth armor to tank a tier-two monster's attacks, then activated his flame form, unleashing power far beyond his own level and single-handedly killing a tier-two monster.
The recording cut off abruptly at the thirty-minute mark, precisely when the cards' effects ended.
After watching the footage, the surrounding crowd's blood instantly boiled, and the place erupted.
"Holy shit! A tier-one, stage-seven taking on a tier two? These cards are way too ridiculous!"
"It's fake, right? Those special effects look way too real!"
"Look at that monster's claws! That's definitely a real tier-two beast! These cards are legit!"
The middle-aged man casually shared the recording on the local awakened forum and in all the major chat groups, with a blunt, eye-catching caption:
[Outside Qingning City Mall · Xing Yao's stall! Field test of a 1,000-Huayuan divine card! Tier one, stage five solos a tier-two monster! Tenfold compensation if fake! Dropping the location right here!]
The instant the message went out, the forum exploded with replies, the group chats flooded with messages, and countless people howled as they rushed over.
The next second, several teams in the crowd who were clearly secret-realm veterans burst forward, their equipment gleaming and their eyes shining fiercely:
"Boss! Ten each of teleportation, flames, and armor!"
"I'll take the lot! Money's no object! Hurry up and pack them!"
The crowd surged forward, the clamor nearly lifting the roof overhead.
Xing Yao raised his eyelids slightly. His voice was soft but carried an unquestionable force, directly quelling the entire crowd's agitation:
"What's all the noise for? Only sixty-four sets a day. First come, first served. Once they're sold out, I close up. No restocking, no extras."
Everyone froze for half a second at those words, then went completely wild.
Sixty-four sets? With so many teams eyeing them, that wasn't even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth!
The four clones hidden in the shadows had completely concealed their auras. Watching these red-eyed people scramble madly to buy, they all gloated inwardly.
They knew perfectly well-the more crazily these people fought for the cards now, the more spectacular their expressions would be once they experienced those little side effects straight out of the underworld. Harvesting their Resentment Points would feel indescribably good.
In just a few dozen seconds, the cards on the stall were swept clean, with not even a corner left behind.
Those who had failed to get any immediately grew frantic, clinging to the stall and refusing to leave:
"Boss! Can't you restock a little? I'll pay extra! Even double!"
"Please! I'm entering a secret realm tomorrow and urgently need them! These cards could save my life!"
Wails and pleas crowded together, and the throng packed the place so tightly that not even water could get through.
Xing Yao slowly sat up, his tone as bland as water:
"Rules are rules. That's it for today. If you want them, come early tomorrow."
Just as the people who had failed to buy cards were clawing at their hearts in frustration, surrounding the stall and refusing to disperse, two figures with outstanding bearing squeezed in from outside the crowd.
A boy and a girl with similar features-they were none other than Lin Chen and Lin Yue, the genius siblings acknowledged by the entire school, and the two seeded candidates carrying the highest expectations in the upcoming secret-realm entrance exam.
Lin Yue recognized the boy by the stall at a glance. Her clear eyes instantly widened, and she exclaimed:
"Xing Yao? What are you doing here?"
Lin Chen also froze slightly. His gaze fell on Xing Yao, and a clear flash of surprise crossed his eyes.
Xing Yao lightly twirled his sunglasses between his fingertips and lazily looked up, a faint smile rippling in his eyes. His tone was relaxed, but carried a slightly obnoxious sting:
"What else? Come here to watch you two make a fuss?"
Lin Yue choked for a moment, her cheeks puffing out. Her gaze quickly swept across the completely empty stall, then turned toward the surrounding adult awakened, their faces full of reluctance. Her voice brimmed with disbelief:
"You... you're actually running a stall? All these people came for you? What on earth are you selling that's this popular?"
Lin Chen suppressed the shock in his heart and spoke with a steady expression, his tone carrying some solemnity:
"Xing Yao, are you selling combat items related to secret realms?"
Xing Yao glanced at him mildly. Without explaining their functions, he merely replied offhandedly:
"Just a few useful little things. Today's my first day running the stall. Just sold out."
With that, he stood straight up and casually gathered the remaining things, speaking naturally:
"I'm heading off."
Before Lin Chen and Lin Yue could ask anything else, they watched the boy sling his things over his back and walk away without looking back, leaving behind a crowd of awakened still unable to let it go, and the two of them rooted to the spot in utter bewilderment.
Xing Yao packed his things and turned to leave.
Several figures silently approached from the shadows, and the clones followed along together.
At that moment, Clone No. 2 reported directly through his thoughts:
"I spotted a very strange man."
"What's going on?"
"He bought one of each card just now. He handled them extremely carefully once he got them, and kept looking around as he walked. There's definitely something wrong with him."
Xing Yao's gaze cooled slightly, and he gave an order directly in his mind:
"Follow him."
"Got it."
Clone No. 2 concealed his figure and immediately pursued without a sound.
Xing Yao looked ahead, not a trace of anything unusual showing on his sunny, handsome face. Only inwardly did he address all the clones calmly:
"Clone No. 1."
"Here."
"Don't wear a mask next time we go out. You'll run the stall and sell things for me. Let's head back tonight first and investigate whether we can mass-produce them."
He paused, his tone growing more certain:
"There are four days until the intensive training before the secret-realm exam starts. Let's earn more money over these four days and try to secure a big house."
With that, he looked toward Clone No. 3, who was awaiting orders:
"Clone No. 3, go with No. 2. You can watch each other's backs."
"All right."
Finally, Xing Yao glanced at the hot-tempered Clone No. 4 and instructed mildly:
"Clone No. 4, stay with me."
"Understood."
They returned once more to the shabby room.
The cramped, dilapidated room stood in stark contrast to the thick stack of cash on the table. Xing Yao sat down in a chair. Sixty-four thousand in net earnings in a single day-he was another huge step closer to securing a big house.
Beside him, the hot-tempered Clone No. 4's mind raced. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he came up with a bold idea on the spot:
"Say, could we use resentment to make a device specifically to feed energy for us? Then we'd shove resentment into the machine, and it'd make cards automatically. We'd start a production line and take off in batches. Wouldn't we just be making money lying down?"
Xing Yao raised his brows slightly. This wild idea hit his needs square on.
He lowered his eyes to glance at the Resentment Points still slowly climbing in his mind, tapped his fingertips against the table, and curled his lips into an if-you-know-you-know smile.
"What's the rush? We'll do it in an hour."
"Those people only just bought their cards. They probably haven't been willing to use them yet. The resentment hasn't started erupting on a large scale."
As his words fell, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes to rest, quietly waiting for the most satisfying resentment harvest on the entire internet to go live.
Xing Yao was still pondering how to make cards efficiently when his mind suddenly felt as though it had been struck by lightning, and his train of thought blasted straight through the ceiling!
The next second, he shot upright with a swish, moving so quickly that he nearly knocked over the things beside him. His eyes instantly went from thoughtful to blazing, and he plunged straight into an excited state.
"Holy shit! I'm seriously so stupid I could cry! How did I only just realize this?"
He slapped his thigh. The more he thought about it, the more heaven-defying the idea seemed. His eyes grew wider and brighter, light practically spilling from them, and even his breathing quickened.
"I don't need any of that fancy stuff at all! With Resentment Points in hand, the world is mine! I'll just use Resentment Points to create an original card first, then use Resentment Points as the raw material to copy it like crazy. Wouldn't that send me soaring on the spot? Mass-production speed maxed out, efficiency off the charts!"
The more he mulled it over, the more worked up he became. His train of thought grew smoother and smoother, and the plan seemed increasingly flawless. His eyes shone like two high-powered light bulbs in the night, utterly unable to hide his wild joy and excitement.
At this point, he could no longer suppress the impulse in his heart. He wished he could immediately put it into practice and test just how powerful this bug-level card-making trick was!
The moment Xing Yao thought about before, his heart gave a sharp spasm, and his lips could not help pulling into a wide grimace.
Before...
He and those clones had been like miserable wage slaves, slowly crafting cards one at a time, working until stars swam before their eyes and they nearly collapsed from exhaustion, with efficiency that was low as hell.
Not only had it been slow as death, but they had also failed at the drop of a hat, wasting materials and effort and nearly wrecking their mental state. They had been total, total, total, total suckers.
But now?
As long as this method really worked-
He could first create a master card using Resentment Points, then copy it infinitely, running the loop at full tilt without consuming extra resources or risking failure. He wouldn't be able to stop even if he wanted to.
How would that even be making cards?
That would clearly be creating a perpetual-motion machine for infinite card production!
Before, he had miserably crafted cards by hand, nowhere close to a production line;
Afterward, he would have fully automated, unlimited mass production, with efficiency crushing his old methods ten thousand times over!
If it really worked...
Then those miserable days before would seem like nothing but a joke.
The more Xing Yao thought about it, the more excited he became. His eyes were so bright they were almost glowing, and he could no longer hold himself back from trying it immediately!