Chapter 14
[Michael: Newcomer, can we get to know each other?]
[Michael: [Shows a golden badge] I'm a veteran card player, feel free to ask me any questions, newbies.]
[Michael: Newbie, your ID is Sun God, and my former name was Michael. We're both mythological figures, this must be fate!]
Michael: Newcomer... newcomer... [meme emoji]
[The Sun God is working a fantastic job: ?]
Although it was just a question mark, Michael received tremendous encouragement. What does a question mark mean? A question mark is a question, and a question is curiosity about him, a desire to get to know him, understand him, and have in-depth conversations with him.
In short: Question mark is victory!
[Michael: Newbie, you're making cards so fast! Are you in a bad mood? When I'm in a bad mood, I like to make cards like crazy.]
[The Sun God is currently working a fantastic job: ...]
Although it was just an ellipsis, Michael was encouraged once again.
What does an ellipsis mean? An ellipsis is an omission, a symbol that implies more than one's words. It means that the other person has endless things to say but doesn't know how to express them, so they use this symbol to convey their true meaning.
This shows that he, Michael, has completely aroused the other party's interest in communication!
[Michael: Newbie, are you from the Vast Ocean Star Region?]
[The Sun God is doing an amazing job: How could you tell?]
[Michael: There are many invalid card patterns on the cards you created. I found simple line drawings of osmanthus and lotus flowers among them. Only your Hanhai Star Region likes these flowers.]
[Michael: You seem reluctant to communicate, are you in a bad mood? You can tell me what's bothering you.]
[The Sun God is working a fantastic job: Yes, it is.]
[The Sun God is working diligently: I can't fuse these two materials. Even with my mental power suppressed, it's hard to guarantee that it won't affect the energy within them.]
[Michael: Why suppress mental power?]
[Michael: The newbie must be a high-level mental being, right? I'm quite envious of card makers like you. But with these low-level materials, there's no need to suppress mental power at all; just release it and force them to fuse.]
[Michael: [Video Link] If beginners find the technique difficult, they can watch this video.]
Ning Xi shook her head. She really wanted to tell the person in front of the screen that her mental power was special, and if she didn't hold back, it would burn all the materials. But the "domineering" trait was very rare, and if she told the truth, it would be tantamount to voluntarily opening the box for herself.
She doesn't want to use her real name on the forum yet.
Indeed, I have to solve my own problems...etc.
Ning Xi stopped what she was doing.
She vaguely felt that Michael was right. So what if the materials were burned away? Card making requires energy, not materials!
She had been so focused on preserving the materials, simply because she wasn't yet proficient in manipulating energy.
She clicked on the video link that Michael had sent her.
As if the other party knew what she was thinking, Ning Xi entered and saw the card maker demonstrating how to burn materials with mental power.
"Turn your mental power to the maximum. Don't be afraid of overloading. Those who are afraid of overloading won't be able to learn this technique!" The card maker, with a large beard and a burly build, grinned, revealing a set of beautiful white teeth. "I know that doing this is very difficult, but I believe that with practice, you will definitely be able to do it!"
Is it difficult...?
Ning Xi casually released her spiritual power, burned a Flame Flower, wrapped its essence in her spiritual power, and played with it in her hand.
Besides burning materials and extracting the energy essence, the video also teaches many subsequent processing steps. For example, choosing a suitable base liquid and incorporating the energy essence into it to prevent it from dissipating.
While taking notes, Ning Xi mentally revised the card recipes for her practical assignment.
She glanced at the comments section of the video; most people were criticizing the card maker. Some said the technique was completely unfounded and the entire video was AI-generated; others said the video was enticing people to engage in dangerous activities and should be reported. Even the best comments said the technique was too unethical and advised everyone to stick to legitimate methods and not use it indiscriminately.
Is it a heretical path?
It suits her perfectly.
[Sun God working superbly: Thank you for your suggestion, it's very helpful.]
The other person seemed to have plenty of free time, replying instantly: "No problem, no problem, I'm glad I could help. I love mentoring newbies."
[Michael: People often say I'm harsh and don't give newcomers any face, but most card makers don't lack praise; what they lack is someone to point out their shortcomings and then provide effective improvement plans.]
[Sun God working superbly: By the way, did the big boss need something from me?]
Michael raised the corners of his mouth.
The happiest time for him when mentoring newcomers is when they wholeheartedly admire and appreciate him.
[Michael: I wouldn't dare call myself a big shot. But I do have a small request. I'd like you to record a video of you creating cards for me, the types of cards should be within the scope of my request.]
This wasn't a big deal. Ning Xi had solved the problem and was in high spirits, so she immediately placed an order for materials and prepared to make the card.
[Michael: Of course, there's no rush. You can take your time when you have more free time. You've made so many cards; your mental energy must be quite depleted.]
Michael: If this is inconvenient for you, just pretend I didn't say anything. I'm not a petty person.
[The Sun God is working an amazing job: [Video]]
Michael: ?
[Michael: What kind of extreme hand speed? Is the newcomer interested in developing in the direction of a combat card master? Like, someone who follows a card master into a domain and creates targeted cards using collected materials.]
[Michael: Is the success rate for newcomers really that high? Did they practice a lot?]
[Sun God is working amazingly hard: What success rate? I've already learned this card, how could it possibly fail?]
Michael: ? So you think E-level commissions have a high profit margin? (Withdraws)
[Michael: Newbie, your mental strength level is at least A-, right? You've made so many cards and you're not tired at all. Why don't you become a Card Master? Isn't being a Card Maker a waste?]
[Sun God working a fantastic job: Does even the big shots think that having high mental strength is a waste for a card maker?]
[Michael: My initial mental strength was only C, and I gradually trained it to A-. Even if I had a C+ mental strength, I wouldn't have chosen to become a card maker.]
[Michael: Don't let my reputation on the forums fool you. I'm nobody in the mercenary group, not even a core member. I'm constantly threatened with being fired if I don't perform well, all because I can only make cards for mid-level members. The core members use natural cards. Did you know about the Youth Card Maker League? The first prize is a million star coins.]
[The Sun God is working superbly: That's very high.]
[Michael: In the Youth Card Master League of the same level, the top three receive a small, stable domain, generating a stable income of hundreds of thousands of Star Coins annually. And this is just the reward. Card maker competitions receive little attention outside of industry insiders; the Card Master League, however, is watched by the entire population, and every year some Card Masters become overnight sensations, earning millions of Star Coins. If it were you, wouldn't you want to seize such a great opportunity?]
[SunGod is working superbly: I see, I'll go look up some league information. Thank you for telling me this.]
[Michael: Remember to clear your forum messages; your inbox is probably overflowing.]
Seeing that the other side was no longer replying, the young man with light golden hair fell into deep thought.
His original intention was to invite a newcomer to the mercenary group, since the other party was so poor that she accepted E-grade card commissions at normal prices, which didn't seem like she was affiliated with a guild or a powerful family. However, judging from her actions while making cards, she should be a promising talent from an academy.
There are quite a few famous card academies in the Hanhai Star Region. Is it Dongyun Academy? Mingxin Academy? Xin'an Military Academy? Or other non-comprehensive card academies? Considering the superb skills demonstrated by the other party in making E-level cards, it is very likely that they were taught by Mingxin Academy, which focuses on low-level cards.
However, whether she has an undergraduate or graduate degree is a mystery. If she has an undergraduate degree, she can create low-level cards with high difficulty that ordinary card makers cannot achieve. If she has a graduate degree, she doesn't seem to be able to make mid-level cards.
However, if she were an undergraduate student, she would definitely participate in the Card Maker League. Once she participates in the league, he would definitely be able to recognize her given her unique card-making habits.
Michael stroked his chin, pondering: Should I try to get a judge's spot?
...
Michael is right.
At this moment, she had received more than 99+ messages in her forum's backend. Considering that many of these people might be her future sugar daddies, Ning Xi decided to check them carefully.
The number of invitations for delegation increased dramatically, even reaching several times that of the previous time, which made Ning Xi suspect that there might be a bug in the forum.
Among the commissions, the most numerous were for E-grade cards, with a certain number of D and C-grade cards mixed in. The highest-level commission reached A-grade, and the reward amount was a staggering sum of several zeros.
Ning Xi promptly took a screenshot and saved it: she was also a card maker who had received A-level card commissions.
Then I decisively declined the invitation.
Just kidding, she can't even afford the materials for an A-grade card, let alone craft one.
For the remaining low-level card commissions, there were too many to count, so Ning Xi had to start filtering and begin with the ones with the highest rewards.
A Spring Spray has sent you a card-collecting request.
The reward for this commission was 10,000 star coins, so high that Ning Xi almost clicked to report it. However, this person named "A Cut Spring" looked familiar to her; he seemed to be one of her previous clients.
By the way, it was this client who assigned her a series of assignments that were like practical class assignments, with a reward of no less than three thousand.
Ning Xi felt relieved for the moment and opened the details of the commission.
[A Spring Spray requires the creation of an E-grade weapon card, in the form of dual swords, one with ice attribute and the other with fire attribute.]
This request... really hit the nail on the head.
If this card can be made, it will be a perfect practical assignment.
With the new skills she's learned, perhaps she really can succeed.
...
Midterms are fast approaching, and the atmosphere in the college has become much more tense. Long queues have formed in the library even before it opens.
Fortunately, the college cleverly used space technology to solve the problem of some people not being able to get a seat in the library.
As stated on the college's intranet forum, the courses for this year's students are extremely difficult. In addition to the practical courses, the other theoretical courses are also not to be underestimated, and they all assign highly challenging homework.
Ning Xi's legs were even trembling a little when she went to the diagram array class. The teacher's surname was Hao, given name Yuan, and he had an adorable baby face, but he was actually extremely strict, making all the students complain endlessly.
Ning Xi and Zhang Min were particularly targeted, frequently being called upon to answer questions. Ning Xi was mostly asked questions about drafting standards and norms, and her own work was often publicly displayed negatively.
Zhang Min consistently achieved top marks in her graphic design course. She was often called upon to answer questions on highly complex topics within graphic design, including but not limited to content beyond the textbook syllabus, the latest cutting-edge papers, and the graphic composition of obscure low-to-medium-level cards. Zhang Min often spent several nights researching these topics.
As Ning Xi walked out of the graphic arts classroom, she breathed a sigh of relief; her assigned task was fairly standard. Zhang Min, however, wasn't so lucky; she received the most difficult assignment of all.
"Teacher Zou... she's practically trying to get all the students in her class to drop out," Zhang Min said, shaking her head repeatedly.
She heard that the restoration course assignments were also difficult, but that was none of Ning Xi's business. She checked on her roommate as usual, brought her some barbecue, and then began to tackle her own unique challenge—the practical course assignments.
Soon, the time to submit the assignment will arrive.
...
Inside the card-making department office, Song Shichun slowly admired the cards while listening to Xia, the teaching assistant, report her observations.
"Almost everyone has given up, and quite a few people are even practicing other cards in the practical classes?"
“Yes, boss,” Xia, the teaching assistant, nodded, “including Luo Qing’an, whom you have your eye on.”
"Luo Qing'an probably hasn't given up. He has something on his mind about me, and he must have brought in outside help."
"Of course, Ning Xi did not give up, but she was stuck at the stage of modifying the Kamo. Her mental strength characteristics still brought him too many difficulties."
Song Shichun nodded.
Teaching assistant Xia went out, and an unexpected person came in.
"Director Song..."
"Murong Xixiu? What brings you here?"
Murong Xixiu gave a delicate smile: "I came to see you, and by the way..."
"Just say what you want to say."
"Did you assign an extremely difficult task as the assessment for the card-making practice class, and then lower the standards for everyone except Ning Xi?"
"Professor Murong, I remember that your Department of Mental Rehabilitation and Training has nothing to do with our Department of Card Making, right?"
"No, no, no," Murong Xixiu waved her hands repeatedly, "I'm not questioning the curriculum standards of the Card Making Department. I just want to say that I still want to recruit Ning Xi into my Mental Power Experiment Group. Could you... not expel her so soon?"
Song Shichun was unusually surprised: "You want her? Didn't you enroll her as soon as the semester started? She needs money, you can just give her some experimental subsidies."
“Um…” Murong Xixiu looked away. “It hasn’t passed the ethics committee’s review yet. I think they’re making a mountain out of a molehill. I just wanted to try music and meditation, do they really need to be so strict…”
“It’s not your fault,” Song Shichun shook his head, “it’s just that your predecessors have narrowed the path.”
"So, could you..."
"Do you really think she can't get good grades?" Song Shichun smiled slightly and looked at his left hand.
Murong Xixiu could vaguely make out that it was a card, with extremely intricate and ornate patterns. Blue, representing frost, and red, representing fire, intertwined, like a riddle of fate.
...
Ning Xi arranged to meet Yu Xiangyin.
In just half a semester, he seemed to have undergone a great deal of hardship and was almost transformed into a different person.
Yu Xiangyin sat down in the private room of the cafeteria and ordered a large portion of braised pork: "You're treating today? Then I won't be polite."
"You're welcome. I've taken on a lot of orders lately." Ning Xi smiled. "By the way, I'll pay you back the money I owe you today."
"I had completely forgotten about it if you hadn't mentioned it." Yu Xiangyin took a big gulp of water.
As Ning Xi opened the payment interface, she asked, "How's your exam preparation going?"
"Midterm or final? We've already taken the midterm. As for the final..."
Yu Xiangyin took a deep breath and said with a hint of self-abandonment, "Our assessment is to participate in the Royal Card Master League."
“That seems to be a team competition,” Ning Xi frowned unconsciously. “Isn’t this giving people the opportunity to pay to pass the assessment?”
“No need to say ‘seems,’ it’s a team competition.” Yu Xiangyin shrugged. “Every year’s league is a team competition. The official explanation is that it’s to test the participants’ teamwork skills. But because of this, there are quite a few players who spend money to participate every year. Haven’t you seen the school forum? Our department is in an uproar.”
"By the way," Yu Xiangyin's gaze became inquisitive, "I heard you were given an extremely difficult assessment, is that true?"
"So you found out too."
"People on the forum are betting on whether you can win."
"Did you gamble?" Ning Xi asked, intrigued.
“No.” Yu Xiangyin shook her head seriously. “If it’s really as the Card Making Department says, and the difficulty of this assessment is far beyond what is usually required, you can report the course instructor to the Academic Affairs Office. But Director Song… actually, reporting her won’t do any good. She expelled a lot of Card Making Department students last year.”
“But you are not them. You passed the entrance exam with increased difficulty, and you have real talent and can keep up with the pace of the course. The Card Making Department should not expel you because of your mental strength characteristics.”
"Thank you, Yu Xiangyin." Ning Xi smiled slightly. "I bet I can pass. I believe I can pass."
...
“…Ning Xi’s progress is slow, but I believe I can win this assessment and bring glory to the family.”
Luo Qing'an's face was pale and bloodless, but he stood ramrod straight.
"...I will not let you down, Father."
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