Flashback, 4 and a half years ago
"Ernie, grab the ward cards for me will you?" The voice of a middle aged man, softly called out in a dimley lit room.
A young boy, entered the room with a box of blue glowing paper.
"Dad, what are you making this time?" The boy Ernie grabbed a chair to use it as a platform.
"We're running out of Gathering Cards, so Im currently restocking." The man said, focused on creating the intricate designs on the paper.
With swift strokes, he created a Gathering Ward within 6 seconds.
The boy watched in awe as he saw the paper, form into a Card.
He was new to this. Afterall, back in Earth, not a single ounce of Qi existed.
Though it was weird for him to call it Qi, it should be called Magic however the Country of Shinzheng discovered this energy thousands of years ago.
'Its been 5 years but I still couldnt believe this. Ma- erh, Qi... Existed in this world.'
"Dad, when will I be able to make a card?"
"Well, I guess when your older I'll teach you. How about a promise? When your 7, I'll teach you how to create Cards?"
His father had a kind smile, stopping his work in order to pat his sons head.
'The endless pursue of Spell Cards, your mother would smile if she were to know how you resemble her.'
"Dad, Why not now?" Tilting his head, he grabbed his fathers sleeve pouting.
'cute!' "Now now, Ernest, I'm already granting you a huge favour. Usually this type of creation isnt allowed until you reach the age of 10."
"But-"
"No, buts." The man poked his sons nose. Giving him a slight glare in return.
'Come on old man! Cant you let this Game Developer experience Magical Coding!' Ernest Wardley, his past life was mildly entertaining.
He was better known as Kenneth Philip, an up and coming Game developer known for having developed a popular RPG game that sold a few million copies at the age of 8.
His interesting hobby was simply, memorizing a bunch of code from All kinds of games.
To be left waiting a year and a half before he could do what he dubs as 'magical coding' was a pain.
I mean, wouldnt you be curious how simple ink could be used to create a few strokes in one paper called "Ward Cards" and create Rule Bending Events?
I mean, he sure as hell was hooked on this Qi stuff.
"Stop your glaring, its hurting your fathers poor soul." Inwardly crying, he smiled at his glaring son.
"Fine, You cant create them yet, but, I'll give you this book on understanding Qi." He patted his sons head again.
Activating his Qi into a certain floating card, a book began to manifest.
Ernest was excited, his first peek at the so called Ma- Qi...
Ernest grabbed the book. Reading the Title out loud.
"Basic Qi control? Dad, I wanted to learn Basic Card spells!"
"Be patient Ernie, Learning about Qi and controlling it is the first step to anything Qi related. Especially Card creation." With a calm tone, the man educated his son.
"Here, how about we read the book together since I finished creating the Gathering Cards already." Ernest snapped his neck to the table. Noting how every Card had been turned into Gathering Cards.
'when did he- floating pen.' he noted the flying pen defying the laws of physics and quickly solved the mystery.
He was suddenly lifted up and sat on his fathers lap. Flipping a page, the man pointed out.
"Here, this is called Qi. The very energy surrounding us and within us. It is present in all things. Qi is probably one of, if not, the most important Energy in the entire world."
"Dad! What happens if we run out of Qi?" Ernie wondered if it would mean death.
"Well, you simply run out of Qi that your body creates and stores. Think of it like stamina. If you run out of stamina, all you need to do is rest. However, just like our muscles. Over exerting our Qi would be more dangerous than rewarding."
"Dying from Qi depletion would mean not only running out of your Qi stores. But also your Bodies Qi or more likely known as Life force."
His father explained it quite clearly. In Ernie's mind. Qi was basically Mana. If you run out of Qi, it doesnt mean you die. You simply depleted your energy and need rest.
"However Ernie, sometimes people are very... Unkind. There are certain techniques out there that focus on destroying or taking Life force. Ernie, I dont care how strong you are in the future. Once your Life Force gets destroyed, the body cannot create more."
"Life force is similar to what we call talent Earnie. Sometimes, others just have it better than us."
Ernie nodded at what his father said. So experementing with life force is a no go.
"Then dad, what if your immortal?"
"Hoho, Earnie, Immortals arent actually immortal you know. Reaching the stage of an Immortal means your able to convert Stored Qi into Life force. If you run out, or get destroyed, you can still die."
His father said with a quiet, and sad tone.
"Anyways Ernie, as I was saying." And they began to talk more and more about Qi.
The simplistic side, and slowly adding more complexity.
And just like that, 4 and a half years passed by.
End od Flashback
"Boy! Give me 20 Communication Cards." A muscular man with a big sword behind his back shouted.
A young teenager, sorted through a bunch of cards before ending up with 20 identical cards. He had black hair, eyes and brown robes over a white shirt and brown pants.
"There, 20 communication cards, thats 8000 silver coins." His voice lazed with boredom.
"Nice doing business boy!" The man left 80 gold coins. Ernest, now a teenager, yawned.
"That new regular is such a weirdo, seriously, who says boy to a clerk. Oh right, this is Qi'arth." he began to close down the store. It was already 5 Pm. Which was closing time.
After fully closing the store, he began to smile.
"Finally, Card creation here I come!" Ernest rushed towards his room. As he activated the glowing lamp. He began to look at his new project.
It had taken a while for Ernest to learn the basic steps on creating Spell Cards.
Although the theory was similar to Coding in his past life. It was in a different language and method.
So it had taken him around 2 years to get to a level where he was similar to his Past lifes Confidence in Coding.
He didnt know why his father was so shocked when he said Hed mastered the 3 books of Basic Card Creation.
(What he didnt know, was that those 3 books would take an average of 5 years to get down)
Once he got the basics down however, Intermediate and Advanced Card creation became a breeze. During this time, his father was frequently getting request from people he had no clue of.
(His father began bragging to his mysterious friends about how his son just mastered what took ??? 20 years of hardwork and pure genius in just 3 years.)
He knew that he was faster than average at learning Card Creation. However, it was the only thing he focused on as well.
Why you might ask? Well, Cultivating his Qi was quite difficult after he found out he wasnt really good at martial arts.
He chucked his unusual growth in Card creation to the fact he had experience of similar langauge in his past life.
When he learnt you could stack up cards ontop of each other to create something similar to coding in his past life. It was game over.
He showed his first creation to his father when he was 12, it was what any begginer Coder would create, A calculator.
The reaction was quite confusing. He asked Ernie to explain what it did. Then when he found out its features, he asked Ernie if he could borrow the Project and keep it hidden. As a way to remember his first creation.
Ernie was touched by this, and gave it with no hesitation. It was just a simple calculator anyways.
(His father began to motorboat his mouth on the fact his son created an ingenius card structure, to his mysterious friends)
Back to the current, he was creating something that was in his blood.
His first ever game.
Through various combinations of Illusion Cards, Modification Cards, Affirming and Denying cards which was equivalent to true and false. Along with Projectig and Interacting cards.
He created his first game, or rather, recreated his first game.
Fruit Ninja.