Ke Jin looked at the gray and dilapidated courtyard in front of him and felt a little dazed.

The outer periphery was dotted with some thin stakes like dry firewood, strung together hastily with rusty iron wire, which formed the wall of the courtyard; there was not even a door at the entrance, just a rough and crude opening, which served as the gate to the courtyard; the courtyard was filled with nothing but loess and weeds, and perhaps it had rained yesterday, so some places were particularly muddy, with prints of footprints left by wild cats and dogs.

Ke Jin had only seen such a dilapidated and desolate yard in documentaries about remote mountainous areas that had not yet escaped poverty, but at least those houses had a door! This one didn't even have a door!

What makes Ke Jin even more desperate is that just a few hours ago, he was forced to be bound to a thing called "Card Pool Management System" after traveling to this world due to a car accident. If he fails to complete the great cause of "opening your card pool throughout the universe" (?), he will be immediately sent back to the tragic car accident scene in the original world - that is, he will die.

The shabby little yard in front of him was the starting point designated by the system to start his "glorious career in card pool management". In the words of the system, "A good start is half the success. The road to entrepreneurship is already under your feet, and a bright future is ahead!"

...Is it possible that it has already fallen apart before it even started? This yard looks like it is about to be demolished!

In the center of the courtyard stood something that looked like a small pavilion, with a red-painted fence surrounding it. Although it looked sturdy, its exterior was weathered and the red paint had almost all fallen off. The roof of the pavilion spread out like an umbrella, with some broken spider webs hanging inside and holes in several places. Ke Jin stood underneath it and felt the wind blowing down from the top of his head, making his heart feel cold.

Right below the pavilion was a dry well, so dark that you couldn't see the bottom. Because he had learned about this world from the system before, Ke Jin knew that this was his "card pool".

In this world, there are such card pools everywhere, but only a few people with special talents can open the card pool. They can enter the other side of the card pool, make and renew cards there, so that the card pool always keeps full of energy, and then ordinary people in this world can draw all kinds of cards from the card pool.

This special group of people who can operate and maintain card pools are called "Card Masters" by people in this world. Local governments also have formal official organizations to uniformly compile and manage card masters and card pools.

Ke Jin is now a "newly awakened card user". As an outsider in this world, the system has established a complete identity information file for him.

By checking the information, Ke Jin learned that his name, age, and appearance were exactly the same as before, except that he had become an orphan. He had been a lonely and introverted person since childhood and had never made any friends. He attended a third-rate vocational college with the help of a government student loan. After graduation, he did not find a suitable job and had been making a living by doing odd jobs. He now owed the bank a loan of more than 20,000 star coins.

Ke Jin was in debt at the beginning, but he didn't think it was a big deal at first, until he saw a system prompt - "If you are still in debt for three consecutive months, it will be judged as a mission failure and the host will be sent back to the original world immediately."

...This is the rhythm of dying if you can't pay back the money! Even loan sharks are not so cruel in collecting repayments!

Before seeing his own card pool, Ke Jin was still very motivated to "pay off the debt within a limited time", but after seeing this shabby card pool courtyard, his heart sank.

Ke Jin looked at the dry well in the card pool with a heavy heart. According to the guidance provided by the system, he knew that this was the state of the card pool not yet activated. But what made him even more speechless was that even such a shabby card pool, he couldn't open it now, because he needed a transporter.

——To put it simply and crudely, he is in urgent need of a “European Emperor”.

In this world, the "first draw" of a card pool is crucial - if the first card drawn is SR-level, then before the card pool undergoes a qualitative change, the highest card that can be drawn from this card pool is SR-level, and SSR-level cards will never appear. A card pool that cannot produce SSR-level cards will not only be slow to upgrade, but also attract fewer customers; as for a card pool that only produces R-level cards in the first draw, it is basically useless and there is no hope of turning things around in this life.

The "luck master" is a special profession who specializes in making the first draw. Different from the temporary good luck of ordinary people, the "lucky attribute" of the luck master is generally very stable. Of course, if you want this special group of people to make a move, you must charge some fees.

Ke Jin pinched the savings crystal card in his pocket resentfully - he only had a little over a thousand star coins in his initial capital. Although he wasn't sure how much it would cost to hire a fortune teller, it wasn't that easy to hire a "lucky guy". He knew with his toes that this amount of money was definitely not enough.

Ke Jin covered his face and sighed a few times, then turned to look elsewhere in the yard.

In the northeast corner of the yard, there was a small bungalow, which the system said was for the card master to live in. Ke Jin walked over and saw that fortunately the house had a door, but the door panel was tattered and looked like it could fall off at any time.

The house has a simple layout of one living room, one bedroom, one kitchen and one bathroom, and is even equipped with simple furniture. Apart from being a little dusty, Ke Jin couldn't be more satisfied - it's good enough to be able to live in it. He originally thought he would have to sleep on the streets tonight!

***

After visiting his own Kachi courtyard and cleaning the house, it was already noon and Ke Jin felt a little hungry. Although the kitchen was fully equipped with basic facilities, there were no seasonings or ingredients. Ke Jin could only go out to find food and wanted to learn about the prices here.

Ke Jin really suspected that his Kachi Courtyard was in a remote mountain valley, with a very poor location! He walked along the rugged loess mountain road for a full twenty minutes before he stepped onto the neatly paved cement road and saw other houses and people coming and going.

This should be a small town. Although it is not as prosperous as a city, it is still thriving. Ke Jin had heard the system introduce the situation of this world before. He knew that there were many galaxies and alien planets here. He thought it would be like the high-tech society he saw in the movies in the past, with all kinds of high-end things. But now walking on the street, it is also very ordinary! It is not much different from his past world. There are ordinary people, ordinary buildings, and ordinary daily life.

Ke Jin looked along the way and found several card pool courtyards, which were slightly smaller than his. The courtyards were paved with neat and clean bluestone slabs, and the card pool pavilions were also beautifully decorated, each with its own style and characteristics. Many people lined up in front of the card pool to draw cards, and everything looked very orderly.

Seeing Ke Jin staring at the door, a beautiful young girl walked out of the yard and smiled at him.

"Hello, sir, are you here to draw a card?"

Although he had been instilled with a lot of knowledge by the system, Ke Jin had never personally experienced what the card drawing process was like in this world. Now that someone asked him about it, he suddenly felt excited.

"Uh...what type of card pool do you have?"

The girl smiled and pointed to the sign hanging next to the gate, which was marked with eye-catching words: [L** Literature Network Novel Card Pool, ten star coins per draw, ten consecutive draws will definitely give out a new R card! The latest masterpiece of XXX master "XXXX" is on the shelves! Best-selling in the top ten cities! Tens of thousands of fans are crazy about it! ]

Ke Jin: “…”

Do you have to draw cards even to read novels here? And there are too many flaws in this slogan! !

However, ten star coins a draw was not expensive, so Ke Jin did not hesitate and lined up at the end of the card draw line. The people in front were very efficient, and it was his turn soon.

Like the card pool in his own courtyard, the card pool here is also a well, but at this moment it is full of water, and the clear and transparent blue well water seems to be able to overflow at any time, reflecting Ke Jin's curious face.

You can use cash or crystal cards to draw cards. Ke Jin happened to have a ten-star coin on him, so he followed the example of others and threw the coin into the well water.

The coin sank into the water and disappeared in an instant. Almost at the same time, ripples appeared on the water surface. Ke Jin felt a flash of light in front of his eyes. A card with a faint gray light appeared above the water, spinning.

Ke Jin stretched out his hand, and the card flew into his hand as if it had a spirit. Ke Jin looked down and saw that it was just as he expected - even worse than he expected - he drew a NN card, the worst of the worst.

Ke Jin made way and walked aside to continue looking at the card in his hand. The size of this card was similar to the divination tarot cards he had seen. There were some simple pictures on the front and a very eye-catching title "XXXX", which was probably the cover of this novel; the author and some content introduction were marked on the back.

Now, here comes the question -

How to use this card? How to read the content inside?

Probably noticing Ke Jin's embarrassment, the pretty girl who had been observing the customers came over enthusiastically again.

"Sir, how can I help you?"

Although he felt a little embarrassed, Ke Jin could only tell the truth.

"This is my first time drawing a card, and I don't really understand how to use it..."

A trace of surprise flashed across the girl's face. Although not everyone is keen on drawing cards, in today's world where card pools are everywhere, it is really rare that someone has never drawn from the card pool or used cards since childhood.

"You need to have a card reader first. You can find them in any card store." The girl said, "If you don't want the most advanced built-in type, they can give you the ordinary plug-in type for free."

Ke Jin quickly wrote down the knowledge points that were not provided by the system.

The girl looked at Ke Jin carefully again and couldn't help asking, "Sir, are you a new resident in town? I don't think I've seen you before." She would definitely remember such a handsome boy.

"I really just got here." Ke Jin scratched his face and pointed in the direction of his own card pool courtyard, "I live over there, and a card pool will open in a few days."

"Ah!" The girl immediately became serious and stretched out her hand.

"My apologies, I didn't expect you to be in the same industry. My name is Gu Qianqian, I've lived here since I was a child, I awakened at the age of eighteen, and I've been running this novel card pool for five years."

As a courtesy, Ke Jin shook hands with the other party and introduced himself.

"My name is Ke Jin. I just celebrated my twentieth birthday yesterday. Uh... I just awakened these few days and haven't opened the card pool yet, so I'm not sure what my card pool type is yet."

"Oh, have you found a luck master?" Gu Qianqian asked with concern.

Ke Jin shook his head and asked about the prices: "How much does it cost to hire a transporter?"

When Gu Qianqian heard this question, she knew that the person in front of her was a complete rookie. He probably had no knowledge of the card field before awakening as a card user, otherwise he would never have asked such a layman's question.

"It depends on the level of the transporter. The higher the level, the more famous, and the higher the ranking, the more expensive the fee." Gu Qianqian explained patiently, "It can be as low as a few hundred thousand or a few million, or as high as several hundred million or even tens of billions. We can charge anything."

With only a thousand star coins in his pocket, Ke Jin's legs went weak and he almost fell to his knees: What? ! ! Is it so expensive to hire a fortune teller? ! ! There are actually over 100 million? ! Are you robbing me? !

Without noticing the young man's face turning pale, Gu Qianqian continued to introduce enthusiastically: "If you need, I can recommend a few to you, or you can go to the forum of 'Card Master's Home' to look for information about transport masters, as well as the evaluation and user experience of card masters, which should be able to give you a lot of help."

"Ah..." Ke Jin barely pulled back his wandering soul and quickly memorized this piece of knowledge he had never heard of. "Thank you, thank you. I'll go check it out."

Gu Qianqian was a warm person. When she was silent, she looked like a quiet black beauty with long straight hair. But once she started talking, she became a generous elder sister. Seeing Ke Jin's confused look, she was even more affectionate and told him a lot of introductory information about the card user. It was not until someone came to invite Gu Qianqian to the house for dinner that the two stopped talking with reluctance.

After politely declining Gu Qianqian's invitation to stay for dinner and agreeing to meet again later, Ke Jin left the Kachi courtyard.

***

Ke Jin first went to the card store that Gu Qianqian mentioned and asked for an external card reader. This thing looks a bit like an electronic watch. When using the cards, you just need to swipe the dial.

Ke Jin tested the card he had just drawn on the spot, and it really turned into a thin little book. However, the card could not be restored to its original state after use. Ke Jin casually put the novel into his pocket, planning to read it in his spare time.

Then he spent ten star coins to order a bowl of vegetarian noodles at a small restaurant, but he almost vomited after taking the first bite - it was too disgusting! However, Ke Jin was short of money and would never waste it. In the end, he pinched his nose and ate it all, only to be half full.

After lunch, Ke Jin went to the market again and found that the prices here were almost the same as in his original world. He carefully calculated and bought a batch of daily necessities. Although he had been extremely frugal, he still spent nearly 300 star coins. His already meager savings dropped by a quarter in an instant. Ke Jin was so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe.

Carrying a lot of bags and starting his return journey, he was stunned as soon as he walked into his desolate and dilapidated yard.

There were some red marks on the yellow ground in the yard, which looked like bloodstains, scattered all the way to the small house in the northeast corner.

Through the open window, you can hear some rustling sounds coming from inside the house. If you listen carefully, you can seem to hear rapid breathing - a little weak, but very clear.

There's someone in the room.