Wearing high-heeled shoes, Xue Linxiang ran all the way to the players' apartment building and knocked at Tang Muzhou's door.
After a long while, Tang Muzhou opened the door, squinting his eyes as he leaned against it, yawning.
He worked and rested on a strange schedule. For example, while most people take a nap around noon, he preferred to rest for an hour from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day. If he didn't, he would get so sleepy that he'd keep yawning.
When he saw Xue Linxiang, he looked so tired that his eyes were vacant.
Xue Linxiang said seriously, "Xiao Tang, go wash your face to clear your mind. I have something important to tell you."
With his eyes closed, Tang Muzhou didn't respond; instead, he fell asleep standing up.
Xue Linxiang shouted, "Tang Muzhou!"
"OK," Tang Muzhou finally replied. He kept yawning as he turned to wash his face, walking like he was sleepwalking.
Just then, the door next to his apartment suddenly opened from the inside. A little boy poked his head out through the crack.
He had a chubby baby face, big, bright sky-blue eyes, and long, thick eyelashes. In the light from the hall, his hair had a golden sheen, making him look like a doll. The boy hadn't gone through the voice-change period, and in a clear, melodious voice, he said, "Sister Xue, your shout scared me half to death... Are you unhappy with my Shifu? How will you deal with him?"
Looking at the boy, Xue Linxiang said, "Shen An, come here. I have something serious to tell you."
Shen An, who had originally planned to watch the scene unfold, stopped joking and followed Xue Linxiang when he saw her serious face.
When they entered Tang Muzhou's room, he had finished washing his face.
Sitting on the sofa, Tang Muzhou looked relaxed. His eyes, no longer vacant, showed he had recovered his usual sharp and thoughtful demeanor.
Tang Muzhou changed tremendously after washing his face.
In the years since he became a professional player, Tang Muzhou had won individual championships and played a stable role in team events. However, his performance was notoriously bad when competing against others from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Gradually, everyone learned about his strange work-rest schedule. Some fans joked that the legendary Tang had spent too much time tending to his plant cards, and his habits were now like those of plants—he withered in the afternoon sun and had to sleep.
Fortunately, for the sake of viewership, most matches in the National Star Card League were scheduled for primetime, between 7 and 10 p.m., so it didn't affect his performance too much.
By 5 p.m., Tang Muzhou was fully awake.
Seeing Sister Xue and his apprentice walking in one after the other, Tang Muzhou asked with concern, "Sister Xue, you look pale today. What happened?" He glanced at his apprentice, but the teenager shook his head, indicating he didn't know.
Xue Linxiang remained silent and quickly opened the flat-panel optical brain.
In front of them, a large virtual projection screen appeared, over two meters wide. Nine identical cards were displayed, arranged neatly in a row, looking quite spectacular.
These were character cards. The beauty's face was bathed in tears as she scattered petals from her delicate hands. The painting was quite elaborate.
Tang Muzhou stood up, walked over to the card, and examined it carefully. "What card is this?"
"Hong Zhu bought them from the black market," Xue Linxiang said seriously. "Look at its data and skill."
Health: 100, Attack: 0, Defense: 15—its base stats were laughable. The skill was "Daiyu Burying the Flowers," which inflicted severe damage to flower cards, with a 10% chance of instant death.
Instant death? Specifically targeting flower cards?
Tang Muzhou raised his eyebrows and was silent for a moment. Then he turned to his apprentice and said, "Xiao An, what do you think of it?"
Shen An raised his head and studied the card carefully, then said, "The one-star cards have a 10% chance of instant death, and when they're evolved into seven-star cards, that chance rises to 80%. If these cards are strengthened with materials that increase the probability, the chance of instant death can reach 100%. These cards are of little use in fighting other players, but for Shifu, they could easily kill Shifu's trump flower cards. Are these cards specially targeted at Shifu?"
Xue Linxiang was pleased. Shen An, although just a 15-year-old mischievous boy who followed everyone around like a child, was incredibly sharp and insightful about the card game. He quickly identified the issue with the cards. He definitely deserved to be Tang Muzhou's apprentice.
She was about to echo Shen An's thoughts when Tang Muzhou said coolly, "This card is directed at me? Not necessarily."
Shen An was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Look at the image on the card carefully," Tang Muzhou pointed to the image. "There's too much decoration."
Shen An suddenly realized. "Yes! The background—the flowers, the trees—it looks like a painting!"
Xue Linxiang also sensed something was off. She asked, "Xiao Tang, do you mean this card isn't aimed at you?"
"Exactly," Tang Muzhou looked at the girl crying on the card and responded calmly. "The best first-tier card designers know that the simpler the image, the clearer the star card hologram and the more powerful the card. This image is cluttered with too many decorations. Besides the main character, there are trees, flowers, and a river... These elements make the card visually rich, but they actually weaken the strength of the main character."
Seeing that both of them were listening carefully, Tang Muzhou patiently analyzed, "If this were created by a professional card designer, they would have only drawn two key elements: 'character' and 'flowers and plants.' In that case, a level-0 card would have a 30% chance of instant death. When it upgrades to level 70, that chance would be 100% without any extra materials. But this person doesn't know how to design cards. His card's chance of instant death is just 10% to begin with, and the data is awful, which means he will have to invest a lot of resources to upgrade this card to level 70 and raise the instant-death chance to 100%."
Shen An nodded eagerly. "Shifu is right! The image is so detailed, it looks like a student's artwork from an art academy. A top-tier card designer would know that filling a card with ornaments is the worst mistake you can make when designing battle cards!"
Xue Linxiang frowned. After a moment, she asked, "Is this just a coincidence?"
Tang Muzhou nodded.
As Xue Linxiang was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Tang Muzhou said, "I'm not worried about someone making cards to target me. What's worse is that such a coincidence could be even more dangerous."
Xue Linxiang was stunned, then quickly understood what the legendary Tang meant.