The Card Apprentice

Chapter 104: Raining Shuttles Card·Ⅱ

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

Ning Peng, Ning Yan and Chen Mu went together to the training arena which was numbered 888. It was also the training arena at the building with the highest specifications. The training fee for each hour went up to three points. Before his bartering, that kind of high fee would have given Chen Mu pause.

“This is the improved type raining shuttles card.” Chen Mu handed over the bright red card. This raining shuttles card looked very cool, with its face covered in deep red, while full of a passionate bright red design, which made it look like it was encased in a ball of fire.

Ning Peng took the card. Aside from being in charge of that base, he was also a high-grade card artisan, whose strengths were a profound mystery. Seeing him skillfully insert the raining shuttle scar into the apparatus signaled to Ning Yan that she could start.

In mid air in front of Ning Yan was standing a colored screen, which was the control screen for the training arena. She skillfully selected the appropriate options.

The first thing they did was the penetration test that everyone was the most concerned about.

A spherical energy cloak started slowly rising about two hundred meters away, within which was a red target. The target could only be hit after passing through the energy cloak. This cloak was a standard three-star energy cloak, whose protective power was generally equivalent to an ordinary three-star energy cloak.

Without having much to say, Ning Peng raised his hand in which was a shuttle.

Hsiu! The sudden shrill whistling sound startled Ning Yan. A dark green energy shuttle shot out from Ning Peng’s hand, leaving a green trail in the sky.

Ping! Pow! The first was a crisp sound, followed by an explosion. The two sounds were very close together, but the three of them all had extraordinary hearing, and they could clearly tell them apart.

Everyone could clearly see that the target inside the energy cloak had been blown apart.

The screen in front of Ning Yan was also slowly playing back the scene, which enabled them to see more clearly the moment when the green shuttle had pierced the energy cloak.

It was hard to hide the joyful expression on Ning Peng’s face, “Not bad, not bad!” then he said to Ning Yan, “Switch to free-fire mode.”

Ning Yan selected that mode on the screen.

Countless small glowing spheres suddenly flew to a spot about five hundred meters from Ning Pen, looking like star after shooting star, dragging long tails. Due to their high speed, and the difficultly of discerning their flight trajectory, they looked bizarre and abnormally as though they were quick-witted. Those small glowing spheres were so numerous, and they were so scattered, that it was hard to catch sight of them.

Chen Mu was supposing to himself that if he were called to shoot, he would probably have a pitifully low hit rate. The tailless shuttle was awesome, but its firing speed being so slow was its fatal weakness.

He’d broadened his scope that day. Until he watched Ning Peng’s demonstration, he hadn’t understod how stunning the battle-power of a high-grade card artisan was.

Pow Pow Pow!

Ning Peng looked focused, as the green shuttles in his hand were falling away like raindrops, with each shuttle accurately targeting a glowing sphere. Getting out in front of each glowing sphere, the green shuttle would abruptly cut it off, with every glowing sphere hit by an incomparably accurate green shuttle when it reached the area, and then instantly turning into a ball of shrapnel.

The sky full of scattered shrapnel spraying from one after the other was very fine to look at.

Chen Mu was shocked. Ning Peng’s battle-power was amazing, and if he had to fight him, there wouldn’t be any chance of success. He did a little figuring. Although it was Ning Peng’s first time using the raining shuttles card, his firing speed was approaching six shuttles per second. After some time, his firing frequency would get faster and faster until he reached six shuttles a second.

Chen Mu was looking jittery, since it was Ning Peng’s first time using the raining shuttles card. If he were to get in a little more practice, Chen Mu believed that he had an extremely good probability to break through six shuttles a second.

That’s one really scary guy!

Ning Yan was concentrating all of her attention on the screen in front of her, where all sorts of data was pulsating. The more she looked, the more her expression turned grave. If she had had any misgivings about the reports coming though in front of her, she was now completely on board and full of praise.

That is one really scary kind of card!

Taking a quick glance at the wooden simpleton Chen Mu to her side, she sighed that the guy who looked like nothing had actually invented such a terrifying battle-card. She no longer dared to look down on his simple looks. He’d proven himself.

Gathering back her thoughts, her head was quickly filling with outlines for various schemes to use such a card. If a small team of twenty were each equipped with one of them, they should be able to form a dense net of fire, enough to cover a small district with firepower. And if there were a hundred?

Ning Peng finally wrapped up the demonstration that had made Chen Mu quake with a very satisfied expression.

“Nice! I suppose that if I spend a little time getting used to it, I can break through seven shuttles a second. It’s hard to imagine that this is a three-star fantasy card. You always give us a pleasant surprise, Mr. Chen.”

“Thank you for the praise.” Chen Mu had to strenuously maintain his calm exterior and cover up his shock. Seven shuttles a second had already exceeded the theoretical limit. Could that be the real power of the card artisan then?

Calming his shock, he pulled out a pile of raining shuttles cards, “Here are twenty of the previous model.”

Ning Peng took the cards, “Mr Chen is very punctual, and very efficient. I’d like to ask, how does the time to make the raining shuttles card .II compare with the previous raining shuttles card?”

“It takes a fifth more time.” Chen Mu gave him a pretty definite answer.

“Could you make twenty in three days?” Ning Peng’s expression had become serious. He really understood what this card could do once it could be deployed, especially if it were deployed at scale. It would have an impact on the entire situation of the war.

“Sure.” Chen Mu didn’t waste any words either.

Ning Peng’s expression relaxed a bit, as he continued, “If Mr. Chen could shave off a day, I would like to give another hundred points per card.”

Chen Mu was dumbfounded, as he did some mental arithmetic, quickly finding that this was do-able. But after thinking about it, he declined the tempting offer, “Two days is too short. It would be too easy for the cards to have a lot of defects.”

Hearing that, Ning Peng could only regretfully say, “It’s done then, quality comes first.”

Chen Mu returned to his apartment which had practically turned into a warehouse full of piles of materials. He had had the materials supermarket deliver the materials directly to his apartment, to save time.

Chen Mu could easily complete twenty raining shuttle cards .II within three days, and it wouldn’t be any trouble to shorten it by a day. But he felt that caution was still his best strategy, since he never wanted others to know his real strength, or he wouldn’t maintain his margin for error in a counterattack if he ever encountered a dangerous situation.

He needed to be careful to survive.

He had already earned a lot of points. And since he could now get all his materials for free, he basically didn’t need to spend points. His craving for points was nothing like what it had been at the outset, though going forward, he still needed to be very careful to keep some chips in his hands.

He had a lot of things he had to do with any extra time. He had never had enough time, and there could never be too much time.

When Ning Yan and Ning Peng got back to the office, before they could sit down, the secretary knocked on the door.

“They’ve arrived.”

Ning Peng and Ning Yan looked at each other and Ning Peng said, “Mmmm, take them to the number one meeting room.”

When the two soon arrived at the number one meeting room, there were five people waiting for them.

None of the five were young, with the youngest about forty or so, and most were old men with white hair. When the five saw the two enter, they all stood, except for the eldest.

Ning Peng signaled for them all to sit, and said with a smile, “I won’t waste any words. I naturally requested the honor of your visit this time because I have something to ask of you.” None of the five was surprised, since they had long since guessed that for him to have invited them was naturally not so they could chat and drink tea. But with Ning Peng speaking so directly, all of the old and seasoned guys detected the urgency.

Ning Peng nodded to Ning Yan, who then distributed a card to each of them from the pile in her hands.

“This is a card made by one of our card masters. It’s called the raining shuttles card, in the category of a three-star battle fantasy card. Its biggest advantage is its fast firing rate, which is theoretically six shuttles per second, though for a card artisan who is proficient in shuttle-type cards, it could be pushed a little faster.” Ning Peng very simply introduced the raining shuttles card.

“Six shuttles a second?” The five were all stunned. The youngest one couldn’t restrain his refutation, “Not possible. How could a three-star battle card have such performance? Only fourth level and above could achieve this kind of firing rate!”

While none of the rest of them said anything, their expressions showed that they didn’t believe it either.

Ning Peng wasn’t annoyed, as he just lightly rubbed his bald head, and said with a slight smile, “You can all take a look at the card in your hands. I’ve already tested one myself. The reason I’ve asked you all to come is that I hope you can copy the card. You are all powerful card masters, I don’t know how many grades higher than the one who made this card. I don’t imagine it will be too much trouble for you. Of course, we won’t be shabby with the remuneration.”

He then signaled that they should look at the cards.

The five of them all retuned their gazes to the cards, wanting to see what kind of three-star fantasy card that was which could achieve six shuttles per second.

“Yi!””Yi!” Sounds of surprise from time to time. Their faces had all become very grave.

Ning Peng and Ning Yan were looking at one another, each wanting to see if the other was worried.

The meeting room had become very quiet, with all the five card masters looking focused on the cards in their hands, and no-one saying anything. Ning Yan and Ning Peng weren’t pressing them, waiting calmly for the result.

After fully a half hour had passed, someone finally spoke. The one speaking was the oldest, whose hair had all turned white. He was also the most notable among the five. He had been the only one not to stand when Ning Peng and Ning Yan came in just then. He gave a light cough to alert the other four, who looked absorbed.

Seeing that the card master had something to say, Ning Yan and Ning Feng also sat straight up.

After a discreet pause, he slowly began to speak, “I’ve been scrutinizing this card. To tell the truth, I don’t understand a lot of the composition. But since brother Peng has tried it, there certainly isn’t anything wrong with it. It’s just that the composition of this card is quite a bit different from anything that I have studied. I can’t understand what I don’t understand, but its six shuttles per second firing rate must have something to do with its special composition, which is meticulous and rigorously structured.”

Looking around, he saw that everyone was listening. He paused for a moment to enunciate, “I can honestly say that this old man can’t copy this card.”

The entire meeting room fell silent after that. For someone of the stature and position of the elder to say with his own mouth that he couldn’t copy a certain card carried a lot of weight.

Ning Peng and Ning Yan looked at one another, stunned. They needed a large quantity of raining shuttles cards just then, and although Chen Mu was quick, that was still a long way from meeting their needs. So, they had gotten the idea to look for people to copy it. While to them Chen Mu’s power was pretty good, among the many ace card masters at the base, there should be quite a few who could copy it.

Maybe their copies of the raining shuttles card wouldn’t be up to the level of Chen Mu’s, but for them, one more card was one more bit of power. A pretty amazing quantity of raining shuttles cards was being demanded.

Not one among the five wasn’t at the very top level for the base, and they represented the very best among the card masters there. And the elder was at the grand master level, having excellent relations with the Ning family. He was living there in part for retirement and in part to help Ning Peng resolve some issues relating to card masters. Ning Peng gave him the respect due an elder.

Once he opened his mouth, that determined the direction of the whole matter.

Ning Peng looked around at the rest of the card masters, who all looked very uncomfortable. They couldn’t copy the card either.

“This card is too strange. It’s like what the elder said, there are many compositions in it that I have never seen, and I don’t know what school it came out of.” One among them couldn’t help saying softly. The rest of them all nodded, making clear that they all strongly felt the same way.

If anyone wanted to think that you only had to copy each stroke from the cards composition, that would be absolutely wrong. If you didn’t understand the meaning of the composition, and if you didn’t understand its purpose, then copying out a completely identical composition would be useless.

Apart from one-star power cards, all the rest of the cards required the involvement of perception. Provided that you really understood every composition, and the purpose of every recursive composition, you could then allow your perception to make the corresponding adjustments, and from that allow the card ink and the card to achieve different degrees of union.

It’s like painting where some places require a light sketch, and some require a heavy-pen ink-splash. Cards are like that as well, where there is a degree of union that the naked eye has no way to determine but can only speculate about by way of the composition.

Those card masters were stumped on the first step, and so the remainder of the work naturally couldn’t unfold.

Ning Peng smiled bitterly to himself, having never thought that those card masters with such strong reputations wouldn’t even be able to copy a three-star fantasy card. That was far beyond what he had anticipated, and it meant that in the short term, the plan to get large quantities of raining shuttles cards had been declared bankrupt.

“Can we invite him to come and explain his composition?” Ning Yan impulsively opened her mouth.

“Nonsense!” The elder categorically shouted. His look was stern, showing no pleasure, and the gazes of the rest of them looking at Ning Yan were also rather judgmental.

Ning Yan sputtered, knowing that she had spoken poorly.

Seeing that Ning Peng was a little unconvinced, the elder explained, “Although the traditions of card masters aren’t as strict as they used to be, with regard to this question, everyone is in agreement. You can’t talk about compelling others to disclose the key. That would be to pry, and it would violate a taboo.”

Seeing that the two of them were still unconvinced, the elder thought about it and said, “Here’s an example. Brother Peng is a card artisan, and he naturally understands the differences among card artisans, as well as differences in their understanding of the structure of energy. In the same way, two people who have a different understanding of the composition of energy might have a large difference in the amount of power, even while using the very same card. Never mind which school the card artisan is from; the most central thing is the understanding of the composition of energy. Have you ever heard of anyone saying that they would give their own understanding of the structure of energy to someone else?

“That would never happen.” This time Ning Peng very smartly nodded, while Ning Yan continued to sputter as though she’d been naughty.

“Then that’s about it. Please always remember that while this is an unwritten rule in the world of card masters, it is also an iron rule. If anyone were to break it, once other card masters found out, the results would be severe. What’s more, the composition of this card is very unconventional, diametrically different from the composition of ordinary cards. It clearly belongs to some certain school. Whenever they are linked to a school, these kinds of matters become even more sensitive, and still more firmly decided.” The elder sternly instructed the two of them. He was the only one who might have dared to give the two a lesson like that.

“I understand, grandfather Yu.” Ning Peng rushed to show his respect.

“I’ll take the card back to study it some.” And then the elder suddenly thought of an issue, “Who is the card master? Introduce him to me some day.”

“You’d like to see him? No problem, no problem, though it will have to be after a while, since he’s recently caught up in making the raining shuttles cards. I’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to get any of his time, and if you were to see him during this time, I’m afraid it wouldn’t be a satisfying talk.” Ning Peng explained.

The elder thought about it and nodded, “After a while then.”

Ning Yan suddenly pointed to the raining shuttles card in the elder’s hand, and said, “Grandfather Yu, this card will be sent to the front lines.”

The elder was startled, and immediately gave back the raining shuttles card, saying to himself, “Ai, then I won’t take it, if it can save one person, then save that person!” His face was full of concern, and he seemed to have gotten suddenly older. All sorts of feelings welled up in him when he thought about running into such a war during his later years.

Ning Yan rushed over to steady him and take him back to his apartment.

Chen Mu wasn’t too worried about any issues with the raining shuttles card, but he also didn’t have any time at all to consider any issues. Although making the raining shuttles card .II still gave him a little time left over, the time needed for his daily training was as long as always.

And moreover, it was quite an enticement for him to be able to make use of materials for free. He still didn’t have strong foundations, especially in the practical aspects. Previously, his economic conditions were never sufficient to allow him to burn money like that. He had to grab the opportunity, since whether or not he could enjoy such treatment after the war had ended was a matter of uncertainty.

No matter what, he had to take hold of the opportunity in front of him.

By that time his apartment had gotten a lot more like a warehouse. Apart from a passage in the middle through which a person could pass with difficulty, everyplace else was piled with all sorts of materials.

Ning Yan had later entered his apartment once, when there wasn’t even anyplace to sit. In addition to that were all sorts of materials floating around mixed up with a strange smell. And when she saw some kind of insect-shell carcass at her feet, her face had turned white.

She only stayed three minutes before bolting away.

Ever since then, she would always call Chen Mu to the door, not being willing to enter on pain of death.

Chen Mu didn’t care about her, being only too anxious for them to bother him less often. But it was a good thing that he also knew that his ability to enjoy such treatment was tightly connected to his usefulness, so he was always punctual and met the quantities with the raining shuttles card .II, which really satisfied Ning Peng.

Chen Mu was in an awkward position just then as a card master, having made more than enough cards in the three-star category, but still not having enough power to make four-star cards.

He pondered that a bit and decided that he would still put most of his energy into making three-star cards. There were many types of three-star cards, among which the category of fantasy cards alone included a massive number. Chen Mu had started to try using token theory to optimize those three-star cards, such as the jet-stream card.

Being able to fly had always been Chen Mu’s dream, and if he wanted to fly, the jet stream card was essential. And when it came to jet-stream cards, the first thing Chen Mu thought of was the mudfish jet-stream card.

That was the most ingenious jet stream card among all the compositions Chen Mu had seen, even though it was specifically made for shuttle cars. But for Chen Mu as he was by then, it wouldn’t be a difficult thing for him to make a standard three-star jet stream card from it, for use in a wrist-apparatus.

But Chen Mu wasn’t satisfied with just that.

There was a very important reason that the mudfish jet stream card had such excellent capabilities, which was that it used a token-style composition, although that composition was still in its first stages. And what Chen Mu needed to make would take the more mature token theory as he understood it to optimize the mudfish jet stream card to a new level, taking its capabilities to an even more outstanding place.

He had sufficient fine materials on hand and didn’t need to worry about problems with those.

What would the first three-star jet-stream card that was in his own category be like? That was something to look forward to!