Thinking of that, Xie Mingzhe immediately took Senior Brother Qi aside and consulted him modestly. "You mentioned the 'original card' several times just now. If players want to create an original card, are there any special requirements?"
The experienced player, Senior Brother Qi, explained patiently, like a commentator, "To create an original card in the game depends on the player's Inner Spirit and talent."
Xie Mingzhe nodded. "Oh, could you explain in more detail?"
Senior Brother Qi found a quiet pavilion nearby and sat down, with Xie Mingzhe following. Sisi also tagged along, listening curiously to the "old player's lecture."
"Inner Spirit, in simpler terms, refers to your brain's ability to withstand external stimuli, which can be measured in hospitals. The average person has an Inner Spirit around 200. If it's higher than 260, the person is fit for complex tasks in various fields or to participate in the professional leagues of holographic games."
"..." Xie Mingzhe was stunned. How high were his spirit points? When he woke up in the hospital, Dr. Qin had measured his Inner Spirit with robots. His Inner Spirit score seemed to be 300—yes, when the robot placed the electrode on his temple, the number displayed on the screen was 300!
So his Inner Spirit was relatively high, at least higher than the average of 200. Xie Mingzhe felt pleased and continued, "Does creating an original card in the game require using Inner Spirit?"
"Yes," Senior Brother Qi replied in detail. "Both the content and skills of the card you want to create depend on your Inner Spirit. For example, if you want to make a plant card, the cards you create must be detailed—what the flowers look like, how the roots grow, the shape of the leaves, how to describe its abilities, and how to distribute its data. The more specific and precise your card creation, the better the quality of the card will be."
Xie Mingzhe was stunned—this sounded similar to drawing!
There are two ways to draw a picture: one is to replicate a real scene on paper, the other is to imagine it.
For example, if you wanted to draw a plant, you'd first need to form a mental image of the plant. Once the mental image is clear, you would sketch it on paper. The works of great artists are realistic enough to be mistaken for real objects.
Creating a card in this way should be easy for Xie Mingzhe. In his previous life, he was a science student, but in this world, he had been admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts at Capital University.
He could draw, he had the imagination, and his Inner Spirit was 300—he had all the qualifications needed to create cards. Now, he just needed permission to create them.
Excited, Xie Mingzhe rubbed his hands and continued, "So, after imagining the detailed contents of the card, I will use my Inner Spirit to draw them onto special cardboard to create a card? Is that the entire process?"
Senior Brother Qi shook his head. "That's just the beginning. A more important part of creating a card is the examination and approval of the new card. There is a strict copyright protection system in the game. Your card must be examined and approved by the official card database system before it can be used in the game."
"Protect copyright? What does that mean?" Xie Mingzhe scratched his head, confused.
"For example, the [Nine-tailed Fox] card sold at today's auction has been reviewed by the official card database system, so the creator owns its copyright, and others are prohibited from copying the idea. This means that other players are not allowed to create similar cards, such as an [Eight-tailed Fox], [Seven-tailed Fox], or a [Nine-tailed Cat] card."
Sisi nodded as if she understood, saying, "So, players can't modify cards already in the card database, but they can create new cards that haven't been seen before, right?"
Senior Brother Qi nodded. "Yes. Cards in the database can't be turned into original cards through modification, and the skills of existing cards can't be copied directly. Players must create new cards and design new skills for their cards to be approved by the system. As for character cards, the official has a special requirement. The features of real-world individuals cannot be imported. Players must create original characters."
Xie Mingzhe suddenly understood.
The official rules were effective, preventing plagiarism. This way, the officials could protect the creative ideas of the players, so creators wouldn't have to worry about their ideas being stolen. Banning the importation of real people's features into the game also prevented players from maliciously distorting real people's images and giving them strange abilities. For example, one could not import a classmate's features into a card and give it a "Fart" skill, which would be terrible.
Senior Brother Qi added, "More importantly, the skills of your card need to align with its image. For instance, [Tuberose] has skills like Alluring Scent and Night Falls, which directly relate to the card's name. Tang Muzhou's strongest AOE card, [Thousand-year-old God Tree], has a skill called [Fatal Strangling], which can strangle star card holograms with its wooden vines over a wide area. The reason his card is so powerful is that the card's image, data, and skills are perfectly compatible."
Xie Mingzhe nodded in admiration. It seemed Tang Muzhou had a vivid imagination, giving plants incredible skills.
The official rules for creating original cards were very strict. Players couldn't just make cards at will. To ensure fairness, the officials had a large professional database and calculation formulas to regulate card data. For example, skills like "kill all targets within 100 meters" would not be approved.
The earlier you started playing the game, the easier it was to create original cards, because there was less chance of creating skills that were already in use by other players. But Star Card Storm had been operating for a decade, with countless players. Those who had been playing for longer must have already created a wide variety of cards. Xie Mingzhe wondered—did the official database already contain all the plants, animals, and character cards? It would be challenging for many players to come up with something original.
Did he have to create a card not already in the database? How should he go about it? Xie Mingzhe rubbed his chin, deep in thought.
Senior Brother Qi said, "If you're really interested in creating original cards, you could try buying some Nebula paper from the black market and give it a shot."
Sisi advised, "Uncle Chubby, creating original cards is really expensive. One of my best friends tried to create a pet card last month and spent several thousand coins on materials. But she failed in the end. Don't put yourself in a difficult situation!"
Xie Mingzhe nodded. "Okay. I'm just curious and want to try. If I fail, I'll let it go. I won't spend too much." He didn't have a lot of money to waste, but he couldn't resist trying.
At least he had a high Inner Spirit and was skilled at drawing, meaning he was fully qualified to create original cards. Maybe he could even succeed and make money by selling his cards.
Resolved, Xie Mingzhe followed Senior Brother Qi to the black market, the largest underground trading market on the commercial star.