The Card Apprentice

Chapter 83: The Mud Fish Jet-Stream Card

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

Since he’d connected with a business, Chen Mu returned to Eastern Shang-Wei City the same day. His original reason for riding the train for six hours to Amay City was that he didn’t want to draw other peoples’ attention. While the Zuo household was powerful in Eastern Shang-Wei City, once out of that city, they didn’t count for much. If it wasn’t for having to wait for the demonic woman, he would have left there before.

Chen Mu started to work as soon as he got home. Repairing cards was very technical work, and there were a lot of areas where he would have to study while doing. Although he already had the experience of successfully restoring a three-star jet stream card, there were many different types of cards represented among the three-star cards in his hand, which meant that there was a commensurate amount of preparation work.

If it were earlier, he absolutely wouldn’t have dared to have any thoughts about those things. He considered Eastern Wei Academy to have a structure he’d never seen before. Now that he was there, he could also inquire about all kinds of relevant information.

He had a lot of homework to do, but he could also gain a lot of knowledge, which was just as important for him. To restore a card, he couldn’t ruin its original version, which is to say that there would be only one chance to do the repair. That also meant that he needed to do still more work in preparation.

In the hands of those card masters who are proficient in restoring cards, restoring fifteen three-star cards shouldn’t take more than three hours. While for Chen Mu, it would be very difficult to complete the work in a week.

Chen Mu spent the rest of his weekend on it and didn’t go out at all.

There was such a variety of three-star cards that even the high-grade card masters couldn’t guarantee that they had made all of them, much less a rookie like Chen Mu.

* * *

“What?” Ya Ya stretched her tempting little cherry lips, looking at Sister Phoenix in shock, then shaking her head desperately, “I won’t go, I won’t go! Go by yourself if you want to go! Sister Phoenix, how is he as awesome as you say? I’d speculate that apart from the advanced group, there’s only Tang Tang’s older brother who’s that awesome in our school. Would you like me help you ask Tang Tang?”

Phoenix exhaled, “I know that Zuo Tingyi is certainly awesome. But that guy never responds to anyone. Lots of people want to go through Tang Tang looking for him to make a card, but they are all rebuffed. Though you have good relations with Tang Tang, it isn’t likely that Zuo Tingyi would agree to it.”

But she immediately looked interested, and deliberately lowered her voice, “this Yao Ke has some skills. Hey! You can’t imagine how your Silver Star executes S-shaped drifts. It’s really too much!”

“What S-shaped drifts?” Ya Ya didn’t understand, but she was still firmly shaking her head, “If you want to find him, you go yourself, and anyhow, I don’t want to deal with that boorish profiteer any more. Humph, If you want him to make a card, you still don’t know how much he’ll want to extort from you!” She looked furious, clearly still angry about what had happened last time.

“Ya Ya, I’m begging you!” Phoenix was desperately nodding Ya Ya’s head, and then she gave a forceful pucker on Ya Ya’s cheek with her dripping bright red lips, “If you won’t do it, I’ll sacrifice my feminine charms to you, and kiss you a few times. How about ten? Or maybe twenty?

For two pretty girls to gesture that way was really too ambiguous, leaving some of the classmates around them gaping and gulping.

“You’re scaring me!” Ya Ya’s face had turned red, hurriedly asking for mercy, since she really couldn’t take being stared at by everyone. Still, she immediately wondered, “How much money have you got ready, I think that guy will certainly want a lot.”

Phoenix snapped her perfect teeth, “I’ll pay a million Oudi as long as he makes a jet stream card according to my demands!”

“Are you crazy?” Ya Ya cried out in alarm, “With that kind of money, you’re just about able to buy a Silver Star. And you want to use it to buy a jet-stream card?”

“I’ll give it to him as long as he can make a jet stream card according to my demands!” Phoenix said through her clenched teeth, “You don’t know how soon I’ll be tortured to death by that sex fiend Wen Tianming!”

“Sex fiend? Sister Phoenix, aren’t you called the sex fiend’s nemesis?” Ya Ya looked at Sister Phoenix in surprise, clearly not having imagined that anyone could force the feisty Sister Phoenix to that point.

It was just then that Chen Mu walked into the classroom, and the two of them dropped their voices.

Chen Mu’s mind was full of every shape and form of three-star card composition, about which there was still a lot that he didn’t quite understand. Those were all problems that he had to solve today, first planning to go to the library. If he still didn’t have any way to resolve them, he’d look for Feng Zi-ang, which was the good thing about having professors around.

Once class started, Chen Mu put all those issues aside, to concentrate on the lesson. He knew that the structure of his knowledge was still too shallow.

Once class was over, Chen Mu was getting ready to leave when he sensed someone walking toward him. It was Ya Ya and Phoenix,.

“I have a business proposition for you, Yao Ke, are you interested?” Ya Ya asked with a cold look, still brooding over what had happened a few days before.

“What kind of business?” That word got Chen Mu’s attention, and he looked at the two of them.

“When you repaired my shuttle car last time, did you modify the original composition of the jet stream card?” Ya Ya stared closely at Chen Mu.

Chen Mu nodded, and calmly asked, “Did it break again?”

Ya Ya and Phoenix looked at each other, each seeing the shock in the other’s eyes. The very calm-faced Chen Mu was revealing more and more of a kind of mysterious and unpredictable aspect in their eyes.

“No.” Ya Ya quickly shook her head, “Phoenix wants to ask you to make a jet stream card to use in a shuttle car, and she has some specifications for you. Of course, she’ll provide a certain amount of remuneration.”

Phoenix was a little nervous, and quickly said, “Provided you can make it, I’d like to give you a million Oudi.”

A million? Chen Mu was stunned, sighing to himself how really awesome it was that the gang of rich kids burned money! A million to buy a jet stream card for a shuttle car. This was the first he’d heard of that kind of money for such a thing.

Chen Mu looked at the two a little skeptically, trying to gauge how honest they were about what they were saying.

Seeing Chen Mu’s expression, Ya Ya was in a bad mood, and stuck out her proud breasts, saying haughtily, “What? Are you afraid we won’t pay?”

Chen Mu took back his gaze and turned it to Phoenix, “What specifications?”

Phoenix was immediately overjoyed, and followed up, “Come with me.” She led the way, dragging Ya Ya.

Chen Mu went with them to an instructional building in the Northwest corner of the school, and after looking all around knew that he’d never been there before. There were a lot of students around, their faces all showing excitement and anticipation, and all discussing some topic with one another in low voices that he couldn’t quite hear.

Phoenix and Ya Ya were attracting everyone’s gaze, while Chen Mu who was walking close behind them looking natural also drew plenty of looks. He didn’t like that feeling of being watched, but he’d have to tough it out for that million and stay behind those two.

Chen Mu wondered whether they had walked into some sort of repair factory when they entered the instructional building, as there were all sorts of parts piled up in front of him, and the air was filled with a strange smell.

“This is the distribution center for all the school’s card-appliance societies, and where there is some of the school’s most outstanding talent for such work, with professors sometimes coming here as well to advance their own work.” Phoenix was paying attention to the parts on the floor, while introducing it to Chen Mu. Ya Ya was frowning beside her, holding her nose with one hand, while being very careful, lest the oil puddles on the ground stain her valuable shoes.

“What is a card-appliance?” Chen Mu asked.

“You don’t know anything about card appliances?” Phoenix looked surprised, but she quickly explained, “It’s just a mechanism for using card technology, for example the shuttle car belongs to the category of card appliance.”

“Oh.” Chen Mu nodded his head in understanding.

“There are a lot of people who like card appliances, and you can see a lot of unusual and strange card appliances here, as well as some interesting competitions. Among the people here are many who aren’t so good in their studies, but who are really gifted in this kind of thing.” Phoenix clearly rather admired people who were proficient in the mechanical aspect of cards.

Chen Mu remained calm, while he was nodding to himself. Although cards were endlessly transforming, they couldn’t do everything in the end, and most of the time, they required some media. The one used most often was the card appliance, such as a shuttle car, or a heating pot. Of course, high-grade fantasy cards could create energy bodies, but those were really too expensive, and their energy consumption was too high, putting them out of reach for ordinary people.

Back in his time, the great master Luo Qi had chosen this road.

Even though those students made card appliances which were really ingenious in Chen Mu’s opinion, they weren’t always so useful. Compared with the great master Luo Qi back in the day, they fell very short, as they did compared to the low grade fantasy card club which specialized in low grade fantasy cards.

Chen Mu had never been interested in things which had no practical value and he’d come this time entirely directed at that million Oudi.

The basement of the instructional building had been divided into a number of repair shops, which could be rented by any of the societies, for a high price. The first floor was simply a special-purpose card appliance arena, used for the card appliance fanatics to validate their crazy ideas. Of course, you needed to pay if you wanted to use it.

Chen Mu was listening to Phoenix’s introduction while sighing with emotion. The ability of those Eastern Wei Academy students to scrape money together was a lot stronger than Copper’s.

Still, to assure safety, after charging a high fee, the school provided pretty good services. For example, these repair shops had all undergone reinforcement, and they had rebuilt the energy supply system.

Those who liked to play with card appliances were naturally all rich. Thinking about wanting to spend a million Oudi for a jet stream card, it became clear to him that playing with card appliances burned more money than making cards.

The three of them got to a repair shop, in which were parked a few very cool-shaped shuttle cars.

“Hey, Hua Hua.” Phoenix stood in front of a red shuttle car, calling out in a loud voice.

A head came out from underneath the shuttle, and because of the angle his head was right under Phoenix’s skirt.

“Sister Phoenix, you’re wearing black today.” The boy made a loud whistle. Ya Ya stepped back in fear.

Bam! Without a pause, Phoenix stomped on the boy’s face, from where a howling wail suddenly sounded. She ground her feet a couple of times, before she pulled back her foot satisfied.

“How come you came to see me today, Sister Phoenix? Do you miss me?” This man called Hua Hua was wearing a colorful checked shirt after he took off his work overalls, with the hair style of a bird’s nest, and with his smile making him look somewhat more vulgar, with that footprint on his face being his only striking feature.

“Yeah, I really missed you.” Phoenix gave a charming smile, while her tall slender legs looked like they were about to kick. Hua Hua quickly ran scared off to the side.

Phoenix looked at the expressionless Chen Mu, quickly putting an end to the slapstick, “My friend plans to help me make a shuttle car jet stream card, and I thought I’d come to ask your opinion. I’m thinking of putting together another shuttle car.”

“Jet stream card?” Hua Hua sized up Chen Mu with a skeptical gaze, “How old is he??”

“He’s in our section.” Seeing Hua Hua’s lip curled up in disdain, Phoenix was a little afraid of offending Chen Mu, and quickly said, “Tell me now what I asked you, and don’t give me any nonsense.” Chen Mu’s mood was volatile in Phoenix’s eyes, gloomy and hot.

Hua Hua shrugged in response, spreading out his hands, “If you say it like that, I have nothing to say.” Then his expression became serious, “What type of card do you want?”

Phoenix thought about the scene that day, freely and pleasantly shuttling through the tall buildings, and blurted out, “A cornering car!”

“You don’t even race, so what’s with the cornering car?” Hua Hua was astonished. As the name suggested, cornering cars were shuttle cars with great cornering performance. While they displayed remarkable quickness, speed was not generally their strong suit. But shuttle cars generally flew through the air, and as long as they didn’t fly low, they weren’t going to run into many obstacles.

“For fun!” Phoenix raised an eyebrow.

“If you want a car for swerves, the demands on the jet-stream card are quite high. There is actually a classic ‘mud-fish’ jet-stream card here, but it’s a collector’s item and I can’t give it to you to use. Those were the most suited jet stream card for cornering cars, though it unfortunately can’t be purchased anymore.” Hua Hua said with a serious expression.

The name of this “mud-fish” jet stream card made Chen Mu a little curious, since he couldn’t quite see how the jet stream card could be connected to that kind of creature. He also opened his mouth to say the first thing he’d said since arriving, “Can you get it for me to look at?”

Phoenix accompanied him, “I had heard of your mudfish card. Get it for us to have a look and broaden our understanding!”

“Alright.” With unexpected alacrity, Hua Hua ran into the storage room of the repair shop, and quickly brought out a card as big as a book, or rather, more like a plate.

Chen Mu took the card and looked it over meticulously. Hua Hua kept reminding him from beside him, “Be more careful, don’t drop and break it!”

The jet-stream card had quite a few differences from the one in Ya Ya’s Silver Star shuttle car. The jet stream emitted from the jet stream card in the Silver Star was very concentrated, and only went in one direction. Where the jet stream emitted from that card could come from many different streams, and those could be combined, or they could diverge.

What made them different was the difference in their compositions. This “mud fish” jet-stream card’s plan was a lot more ingenious, having a much higher degree of difficulty to make. Making a fine count, it could emit seven streams in seven different directions, with each of them able to be regulated in size, This was the first time he’d seen such an ingenious card.