Xie Mingzhe thought that the [Lin Daiyu] card's additional skill, which triggered an instant death for flower and plant cards, was automatically generated by the system based on his imagination. He had been picturing the story of Daiyu burying flowers and visualizing a [Lin Daiyu] card designed to counter most flower and plant cards. Unfortunately, its Defense was low, and the chance of using the skill was only 10%, meaning the card's data was pretty terrible.
What was he supposed to do with this card? Sell it for a few gold coins? He was in a bad financial spot. With that thought, Xie Mingzhe focused again on producing more [Lin Daiyu] cards.
He had the right to produce the cards since he owned the copyright, while others were not allowed to do so.
Xie Mingzhe used up the Nebula paper to create nine [Lin Daiyu] cards.
The reason he made nine identical cards was because he had never crafted cards before. He wanted to learn the techniques and gain more experience. He noticed that the more he focused on the cards, the clearer the image and the better the data would become. For instance, the last [Lin Daiyu] card he made had different data from the first one. Although its Defense was 16, it was an improvement.
After collecting the nine [Lin Daiyu] cards, Xie Mingzhe took them to the black market with optimism.
Upon arriving at the black market, Xie Mingzhe walked around first. He knew that as a newbie, he would easily be scammed if he didn't understand the market well. Studying the market first was a habit he developed over years of playing online games. The black market, with its variety of cards, was the perfect place to conduct some market research.
After investigating, he had a basic understanding of the market.
Original one-star cards with good data and powerful skills would be auctioned or leveled up to seven stars and sold for a high price. In the black market, one-star cards with ordinary data were sold for 50 gold coins (equivalent to 5 RMB in the real world), while cards with poor data but attractive designs were sold for 20 to 30 gold coins, and cards with both bad data and unattractive designs were priced under 10 gold coins.
A lot of upgrading materials were required to level a one-star card to seven stars, so one-star cards were generally cheap, especially those with poor data. Players mainly bought those one-star cards for their original design, as such cards had no real value and were traded as collectibles.
Knowing the market price, Xie Mingzhe approached a large stall with a sign that read "Purchasing Original Cards." He politely asked, "Hello, I have some original cards. Would you be interested in buying them?"
The stall owner took the card, looked at it, and commented, "The image on the card is lovely, but the data is too low."
Xie Mingzhe had already expected this and smiled. "I'm just an inexperienced beginner. The data is indeed awful. How much can I sell it for?"
The stall owner rubbed his chin, carefully studying the card. He found the card strangely intriguing.
The image was beautiful – a delicate girl whose face was bathed in tears, surrounded by realistic petals and trees, almost like a painting. He had never seen such a beautiful card, but its terrible data didn't match the lovely image. It was odd.
The stall owner asked curiously, "Are you the creator of this card? Do you have more?"
Xie Mingzhe took out the remaining eight cards. "That's all. Would you like to buy them?"
The stall owner thought for a moment before saying, "These cards are certainly beautiful, but their data is so bad. They're nice to look at but useless. Plus, they're character cards, not the cute animal cards that are popular in the market. I could only sell them to collectors. How about 30 gold coins for all nine?"
Xie Mingzhe knew that this price matched the market rate and agreed. "30 gold coins is too low for such beautiful cards."
"30 isn't a bad price. You can ask around at other stalls. Only one-star cards with good data sell for 50 gold coins. Cards with only a pretty image are sold for about 20 gold coins each. This one is beautiful, so I'm offering 30. I might not even be able to sell them to other players!"
What the stall owner said aligned with the market prices Xie Mingzhe knew. After all, the card's Defense was too low. He had expected around 20 gold coins, so 30 was better than anticipated. Xie Mingzhe didn't hesitate and agreed. "Alright, 30 gold coins each. That's 270 gold coins for all nine. They're yours!"
"Deal!" The transaction was made with cash on delivery.
Xie Mingzhe received 270 gold coins and headed back to the stall selling Nebula papers.
The stall owner greeted him with a smile. "Ah, it's you, Uncle Chubby. Looking to buy more Nebula papers?"
Xie Mingzhe grinned. "I'm a regular. Same deal, 10 gold coins per paper, alright?"
The stall owner sighed. "You can't tell anyone about this price, or I'll be losing money."
Xie Mingzhe smiled knowingly. "Don't worry. I'll buy from you every day."
The stall owner was speechless. "You said you were a newbie with no money, but in the blink of an eye, you've got gold coins? You're back buying papers so soon. Are you sure you don't have money?"
Suddenly, the stall owner began to think that if Xie Mingzhe were to run a business, he'd probably be a very good profit-maker.
Feeling pleased with the transaction, Xie Mingzhe returned to his apartment to continue making more [Lin Daiyu] cards.
As soon as Xie Mingzhe left the black market, a new customer arrived at Boss Zhang's stall.
The player, "Hong Zhu," was about 1.6 meters tall, dressed in a red tight dress and black high-heeled sandals. She spoke clearly, "Boss Zhang, do you have any new original cards?"
The boss responded respectfully, "Sister Hong Zhu, pick whatever you like."
Hong Zhu said, "We're preparing for the new season. Our guild is only collecting cards with high Attack."
The boss handed her a stack of four-star high-Attack cards. "If you like any of these, they're 500 gold coins each. I'll give you a good price since you're a regular."
Hong Zhu carefully picked through the cards, selecting three that she liked. She looked disappointed and, after returning the others, asked, "Anything else?"
The boss said, "All high-attribute cards are here. Would you mind checking these out?"
Hong Zhu scanned the stall and then, suddenly, her attention was drawn to a stack of special cards. She crouched down to examine one card carefully. It was labeled [Lin Daiyu], and the image depicted a beauty gently scattering petals, with tears on her face and petals in her hands. The drifting petals filled the ground, and the scene was so moving it made Hong Zhu's heart ache.
"Hmm? This card is really beautiful." Hong Zhu picked up the card and checked the data:
Health: 100, Attack: 0, Defense: 15. Clearly, this was a failed original card with very low attributes.
Its additional skill was called "Daiyu Burying the Flowers." What a strange name for a skill!
Hong Zhu read further: The skill inflicted severe damage on flower cards, with a 10% chance of instant death.
Instant death? Did this mean it could destroy the target instantly?
She had never seen a game mechanic like that before. Was this card a kind of tactical card that could take out enemies in one move, as legend had it?