The Card Apprentice

Chapter 84: A Perfect Replica

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

He wasn’t a stranger to the composition of three-star jet stream cards, since he’d modified the Silver Star’s jet stream card. As it happened, his modifications had a lot of similarities with that ‘mud fish’ jet stream card, except that its composition was much more ingenious. It had more channels to distribute the flow, and had a much higher degree of difficulty to make. And it could be much more precisely controlled than the one he’d modified. His modifications would be considered very rudimentary in comparison.

“This ‘mud fish’ jet stream card had very limited production, with only thirty having been produced in the entire Heavenly Federation. The one I have is serial number eight. I’ve been looking for someone to make a copy, but there are too few card masters who are proficient in the jet stream card. It’s not that the ones I find don’t understand them, just that they don’t have that kind of ability. There’s never been anyone able to copy it.” The sense of what Hua Hua was saying showed some skepticism about Chen Mu’s capability, displaying the arrogance of youth with his bird’s nest hair.

Phoenix gave Hua Hua a hard look, not wanting him to offend Chen Mu.

Not the least bit cowed, Hua Hua smiled insolently and said, “Oh yeah, is this your new lover? You must feel strongly about him to defend him like that, which doesn’t seem like your style. If all the handsome guys find out that you’ve been thrown like this, I wonder what they’ll think, ho ho.”

To her side, Ya Ya made a strange face as though she were repressing a laugh, which she finally couldn’t do as she guffawed.

Phoenix’s face had turned red.

Hua Hua put on a look of surprise, “Sister Phoenix can actually blush? This big guy must really be a charmer!”

Looking carefully at Chen Mu, she saw that he was still engrossed in the ‘mud fish’ jet stream card and didn’t seem to have heard. Phoenix breathed a sigh of relief, which then turned into a rage.

She picked up a wrench from the ground and came at Hua Hua with a murderous look.

Hua Hua jumped away like a monkey, making a strange sound and grabbing Ya Ya, who was convulsed in laughter.

Chen Mu hadn’t paid any attention to what was going on next to him, with his whole mind immersed in the jet stream card in his hand. Seeing such an ingenious jet stream card was entertainment enough for him. He’d started to derive its composition bit by bit, and bit by bit, he clarified its conception.

This was how Chen Mu did things. Before he’d entered Eastern Wei Academy, his course of study had been his own solitary explorations. It wasn’t worth much in his eyes to perfectly imitate some other card master’s work. What he needed to study was how an outstanding card master approached a problem, their train of thought, and especially how their conception was manifested on the card.

The ingenious ideas of the card masters would always cause him to marvel. The ‘mud fish’ card in front of him was like that. Although it was a three-star as far as ratings were concerned, the degree of difficulty to make it far surpassed other jet stream cards of the same rating.

Only one of the cards that Chen Mu had made had exceeded its degree of difficulty: The tailless shuttle card. None of the other cards could compare with it, including those twelve cards from the simple water world.

Probably only such a large card could contain such a complex composition. As Chen Mu peeled apart its composition layer by layer, he was able to trace back to its foundational composition, which he couldn’t help marveling at.

There were altogether one hundred and twelve recursive compositions on the card, plus forty-four linked compositions, making it easy to imagine how complicated its overall composition was. Never mind ordinary people, even most card masters would get dizzy looking at such a variegated and complex composition.

But that wasn’t either the most crucial aspect or the part which most exceeded Chen Mu’s expectations with the whole card. That would be the three junctions. Those three junctions took the form of three triangles covering the face of the card. Their composition wasn’t necessarily complicated and wouldn’t even attract attention, but in Chen Mu’s eyes, it was the most precious hidden gem of the overall composition.

Those three nodes were the most fundamental aspect of the token composition, and he already had a certain degree of ability with the token. If he hadn’t learned the principles of the token, Chen Mu believed that it would have been the most difficult hurdle with the card.

The scheme of a jet-stream card was taking shape ever more clearly in Chen Mu’s mind, and those interlocking crisscrossed lines were no longer abstruse and hard to understand.

Gradually coming out of it, he saw the three jokers, and Chen Mu lightened up from that great yield he’d just realized.

The three of them stopped when they saw that Chen Mu had raised his head.

“What do you think?” Phoenix asked nervously.

“Three days’ time, but I also have to give you a detailed list of materials.” Chen Mu answered calmly.

Hua Hua looked like he had heard a joke, and guffawed with a look of disbelief, “Hunh? Three days? Man, you looked pretty honest at first glance. I never thought you could brag like this! Do you think you’re Zuo Tingyi? Such boasting! Even Zuo Tingyi wouldn’t dare brag about being able to make a ‘mud fish’ card in three days! You really do shoot off at the mouth.”

Chen Mu made no reaction to Hua Hua’s questioning of him, and walked away without looking at him, dropping a phrase, “I’ll bring you back the materials list in a little while.”

Phoenix and Ya Ya looked at each other and chased after him.

Hua Hua whistled as he watched the three leaving, and shook his bird’s nest head, saying to himself, “Three days? Braggarts these days don’t even make a rough draft?”

The three of them went back to the classroom, which was already empty.

Finding a pen and paper, Chen Mu sat down and stroked away. After half a minute, he handed Phoenix a piece of paper full of words.

Phoenix was startled to see so many kinds of materials on the paper, “So many?”

“I’ll do it whenever you get the materials. Have the million ready.” Chen Mu then gathered his things and strolled away under their stunned gaze.

Once he was on his way, Chen Mu thought back to that ‘mud fish’ jet stream card’s composition. Those lines really were as beautiful as a work of art. He’d learned an entirely new way of thinking from that card. If you’re willing to dig deeply among the same level of card, you can find characteristics which rival high grade works.

High grade jet stream cards may be able to emit powerful jet streams, but if you wanted to make something like the ‘mud fish,’ you shouldn’t be concerned with the level.

Level doesn’t stand for everything!

That reminded him of the simple water world, where who would have thought that the twelve low-grade cards could have such surprising results.

But he got a headache whenever he thought about the scheme for the ‘simplified’ simple water world that he still couldn’t come up with.

Apart from that, there were still quite a few such things that he couldn’t quite understand about card restoration, so he didn’t have any time to relax. He looked through every room when he got home, and still didn’t see any sign of the demonic woman. Chen Mu’s originally joyful mood drifted immediately into a fog.

He ate a simple dinner, and then went on to bury his head in tackling those problems.

Phoenix walked over as soon as he got to class the next day.

“I’ve got all the materials; when will you start working?” Her tone was between trust and doubt. Although she had promoted it at first, she couldn’t help being skeptical when Chen Mu had said that he could finish the “mud fish” jet stream card in three days.

She’d had some apprehension when Chen Mu gave her the list of materials, but she hadn’t considered that she would only have to spend not quite a hundred thousand Oudi to get everything on the detailed list that looked so packed. The cheap prices were a lot lower than she had expected, especially given Ya Ya’s muttering over and over about how stingy Chen Mu was.

“Oh. I’ll give it to you in three days.” Chen Mu looked very natural.

The “mud fish” jet stream card hadn’t used any precious materials. They were all commonly used ordinary materials. Still, a hundred thousand Oudi worth of materials in one place was an impressive sight. It was a good thing that he had gotten a lot stronger. After he had loaded everything into an old burlap bag that he had gotten from somewhere, he carried it home over his shoulder as though it were nothing.

Behind him, Phoenix and Ya Ya were struck dumb.

It would be the biggest card Chen Mu had ever made. And it would still take a lot of processing to condense a burlap sack full of material onto a card.

It required a lot of very solid basic skill for the hundred and twelve recursive and forty-four linked compositions. That wasn’t any problem for Chen Mu with his many years making one-star power cards, and he could make them even more meticulous there. The three nodes were just as routine, since he’d already learned the fundamentals of the token composition.

The thing that felt the hardest to him was perception, since his perception still hadn’t been restored to its best. He really had to work hard to adhere completely to the many compositions that were contained in the card.

His head full of sweat, Chen Mu finally breathed a sigh of relief. There was a completed card in front of him which was identical to that “mud fish” card that he’d just seen.

His was a perfect replica, except for making Chen Mu feel alarmed about his pitiful perception. If it weren’t for his perception being more sensitive than it had been, and more responsive, he would have had a great deal of difficulty completing such a complicated card, given the current strength of his perception.

But it was now all finished, and the process had been smooth.

Chen Mu was rather pleased, looking at the card in front of him.

Hua Hua, Phoenix and Ya Ya were all rather nervous looking at the appliance simulator in Hua Hua’s shop. This appliance simulator was about the size of a shuttle car, but with a much simpler design, having only the shuttle car’s most basic structure. And it had an adjustable card holder, which enabled inserting different jet stream cards.

What had been installed just then was the “mud fish” jet stream card that Chen Mu had made. Chen Mu had declined the test activation, in favor of rushing over to the library.

The simulator in front of them had seven steerable exhaust pipes lined up, which was its most complicated configuration to date. Keeping in mind that while the agility of the shuttle car would increase quite a bit with each additional steerable nozzle, the difficulty of controlling it would increase exponentially.

Hua Hua’s appliance simulator had originally only had four steerable nozzles, which had been the record for the shuttle cars that he had assembled. Increasing it to seven was completely for the purpose of testing out the “mud fish” card.

With the seven steerable nozzles activated and nimbly moving in all directions, the whole shop was overrun with jet streams to the point that the three of them nearly couldn’t open their eyes.

“Wow! Oh God! What am I seeing! ‘Mud fish!’ It really is the ‘mud fish.’! I must be dreaming . . .” Hua Hua was so excited that he was incoherent, as his eyes were fixed with enchantment on the seven swiveling nozzles of the appliance simulator.

“Did he succeed?” Ya Ya shouted at Phoenix, who was transfixed by the simulator. The shop was so full of the shriek of the jet streams that if you didn’t yell, you couldn’t hear what anyone was saying.

Phoenix came out of it nodding her head, saying excitedly, “He succeeded! He really succeeded!”

Phoenix felt a surge of emotion. She was going to have an incredible cornering car! In her excitement she still had some complicated feelings, though. He really had been an ace all along! She knew that if the word were to get out that there was someone who could successfully make a “mud fish” card, Yao Ke would immediately become the dazzling star of Eastern Wei Academy.

Being very clear about the reputation of the sponsorship section across campus, it would really be quite dramatic if there were a student who could make that “mud fish” jet stream card coming from that kind of class section.

Ya Ya had covered her mouth in shock, since she never would have believed that such a stingy devil could actually be a card making ace! Which raised even more doubts in her mind.

Why was he in the sponsorship class? Reviewing Chen Mu’s ordinary activities, she realized that apart from those couple of hits, Chen Mu’s work was pretty low key, very seldom showing his card making abilities.

It seemed as though the calm and cool person was a completely different person from the parvenu look that he started with.

Ya Ya’s face filled with doubt as she went over those things.

Chen Mu didn’t have time to pay any attention to them, but it pleased him very much when Phoenix easily handed over the million Oudi once the testing was complete. It was very pleasant to deal with a satisfied customer, especially after walking away with a million.

But he threw himself right back into his other money-making scheme. Compared with making the ‘mud fish’ card, restoring three-star cars was still more cumbersome, involving many more problems.

Still, if it wasn’t always going to be so easy to run into such spendthrift suckers, Chen Mu could comfort himself that he could always do his restoration work.

Burying his head in the work of card repair, Chen Mu still didn’t understand what it meant that he had been able to make the “mud fish” jet stream card.