May 2019, Baihu City Chengfeng Middle School.
The rain poured down like a curtain, the sky was dark, and most of the buildings on campus fell into darkness. Only the library was still lit with pale lights.
Zhou Chuan sat alone on the fourth floor of the museum, flipping through a large book titled "Imaginations of Ancient Chinese Mythology". Looking at the fragmentary descriptions and ambiguous illustrations in the book, he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
“Could this monkey holding an embroidery needle be Sun Wukong?”
Zhou Chuan was thinking when the light music playing in his headphones suddenly stopped and was replaced by a crisp prompt sound.
He picked up his phone, only to see a new message in the class group.
Liang Bing, the head teacher: "Students, the school has just received a notice.
The provincial card makers association organized a themed competition for the first set of cards in the lives of high school card makers in our province.
Participants must choose one of the four paths: demons, monsters, ghosts, and monsters, and independently make a spiritual card of at least white quality.
The rewards for this competition are very generous. Not only are there regular items such as extra points for the college entrance examination, rare cards, and customized materials, but there are also many hidden rewards. I hope everyone will actively participate (the school requires everyone to participate).
reply received."
Watching the two subtitles of "Received" fall like cloth, Zhou Chuan silently clicked "+1", then exited the communication software and started to check the news.
"Ancient chronicle stone pillars unearthed from the Stone Forest Ruins may open up a new path for card making!"
"The Japanese Card Players Alliance has officially launched the Hundred Ghosts deck creation plan!"
"The chairman of Penguin Group and diamond-level card maker Yao Guang have successfully reproduced the orange-quality card Northern Emperor Penguin."
"According to the latest news from the Meteorological Observatory, a typhoon will land on the southeast coast of Baihu City this afternoon. It is suspected to be Odin's parade. The Card Master Alliance has sent a specialist to deal with it."
"Odin's Parade?" Zhou Chuan turned his head to look at the pouring rain outside the window and fell into deep thought.
A week ago, he was a programmer who had just graduated for a year and was working a 996 schedule in a large company. But when he woke up (perhaps he died suddenly), he found himself in a parallel world.
I have just become a social animal, but now I have to face the baptism of the college entrance examination.
But unlike the mathematics, physics and chemistry in the previous life, this time you have to fight a card battle.
In fact, hundreds of years ago, the development trajectory of this world was the same as that of the Blue Planet. Until one early winter morning during the Chongzhen period, many huge cracks suddenly appeared in the gloomy sky.
Countless dark creatures rushed out from these holes. They were not afraid of bows and sharp swords, and were not even afraid of firearms and cannons. In a short period of time, they caused heavy losses to the ancestors.
Emperor Chongzhen felt that he was powerless to change the situation, so he took a rope and went to Coal Hill, hoping to find a crooked tree to end his helpless life.
Unexpectedly, as his vision flickered, he suddenly entered a relic and took out the first card in human history, gaining powerful strength to fight against the dark creatures.
Since then, many people have accidentally entered the ruins scattered around the world and collected mysterious cards.
The era of card players officially begins here.
In such an era, the most glorious and influential profession is undoubtedly the card player who holds the "gun" of cards, which is divided into two directions: combat card master and card maker.
Battle Card Masters are like the traveling trainers of the Pokémon world.
They grow up in the most dangerous battlefield, collecting various scarce card-making materials by killing various ferocious dark creatures.
The person who can integrate these materials into cards through processes such as finalizing the real name, calculating the structure, carving and polishing is called a card maker!
Although they are two directions, they are not clearly distinct from each other, but rather they lead to the same destination.
As the old saying goes: "A strong battle card maker may not be able to make cards, but a strong card maker must be good at battle cards!"
If card players are the crown of this era, then card makers are undoubtedly the brightest pearl on this crown!
Zhou Chuan's identity in this world is that of an apprentice card maker who has not even left the house.
However, he is not completely inexperienced in card making.
As early as a week ago, when he just reacted from the time travel, he used the card-making knowledge in his mind and the programming thinking cultivated over the years to experimentally create the first card in his life, and used it to verify a new card-making routine:
Real name: Ghost Wall
Quality: Green (white, green, blue, purple, orange, red, gold)
Category: Skill Cards
Introduction: Do you ever get lost while walking at night
Effect:
Lost: After the card hits, it can reduce the target's self-perception and sense of direction, making it unable to leave the set area for a certain period of time. It will be automatically broken after being attacked. The strength of the effect depends on the "mental strength" of both parties.
Panic: After the card hits, there is a certain probability that it will arouse the target's fear of the "mystery", greatly reducing its desire to fight and reaction ability.
This is a playing card the size of a playing card. The cover shows a backpacker walking cautiously in the deep mountains and forests, surrounded by countless eerie ghosts.
This is the first card in Zhou Chuan's career as a card maker.
Since this Ghost Wall was made by him alone and it is "original", the innate bond was directly pulled to the full value (perfect control), far exceeding the two bond nodes of 60% (barely used) and 80% (initial control), and the quality also reached green.
If it was not classified as a spirit card but a skill card, it would be enough to support him to go to the Battle Card Master Association to participate in the Bronze Battle Card Master certification.
"Lingka doesn't seem to be very far away."
Zhou Chuan looked at the "Imagination of Ancient Chinese Mythology" spread out on the table and couldn't help but smile.
Why are card makers so rare
In addition to talent, this profession also has extremely high requirements on a person's knowledge accumulation, painting foundation, and structural thinking.
The most difficult thing to achieve among these is precisely the four seemingly simple words of knowledge accumulation.
Due to the invasion of dark creatures for hundreds of years, a large number of books in this world have been burned. Coupled with the extremely high illiteracy rate in ancient times, more than 90% of precious knowledge has been submerged in the long river of history.
And these ancient knowledge about weirdness and mythology are precisely the soul of card making!
To put it simply, if your goal in this life is to become a bronze or silver level card maker, the three starter cards in the textbook (Goblin, Patrol Goblin, and Gate-Opening Hyena) are completely sufficient.
But if you have lofty ambitions and dream of becoming a gold, platinum, diamond, master, or even a mythical card maker that only exists in theory.
The only option is to risk one's life to explore extremely dangerous ancient ruins and time-space rifts, and rely on experience and luck to desperately find some fragments of ancient legends.
But as a card maker, Zhou Chuan doesn't need to do these.
It’s because he, who came through time and space, is himself a treasure trove of Chinese mythology!
And this small ghost wall can confirm what he is thinking!