The Card Apprentice - Chapter 11
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Chapter 11

Since he was a street urchin in his younger years, Chen Mu suffers from malnutrition for quite a while. After obtaining a better life, his body started to become more robust. Although from the surface, he can’t be considered well built, but he actually has an excellent const.i.tution, and rarely fell ill.

However, when Chen Mu tried to do one of the movement, he discovered that the movement is abnormally strenuous, requires a high level of strength in the lower extremities, which is not really his strong points. Back and forth several times, both of his legs feel aches and limp, just like moving in a mud. He did not know if he did the movement right or not, but he clearly can feel his legs aching.

When he tried to do all of the 18 movements once, he can only do three. He also discovers, as long as he did one of the movement similar to the standard, the corresponding image will become dimmer. If what he did is not similar, then the images will not change.

Except for this small change, regardless of what Chen Mu do in the void, no changes around him occurs at all.

Chen Mu repeatedly did the movements until his strength were almost depleted. His current problem is not how to complete the 18 movements, rather, it is how to get out from this dreamland.

All around him is just an empty void. Except for the 18 human-like images, there are no signs of other things. Can it be, these 18 human-like images…

Chen Mu quickly shot down this idea. These 18 images are just a phantom. Maybe he needs to complete all 18 movements? Chen Mu forced a wry smile, if really so, then he is certainly very miserable! These 18 movements, he cannot do it all smoothly in an instant. He would need to go through quite a lot of practice to be able to successfully do the movement. Breaking open the dreamland? There’s no need to even think about it. Such a brilliant dreamland, depending on his own power, is simply impossible to break.

Where is the exit point of this illusion? Recalling all the stories and legends about high-ranked magic cards, a bit of cold sweat seeps out from Chen Mu’s forehead.

If the exit point can’t be found, then he only has two choices. The first one is to wait until the energy card supply the magic card to run out of power. Then the dreamland will naturally be removed automatically. The other one is that he died of dehydration and starvation before the energy runs out.

A drop of sweat slides down the bridge of his nose, dropping off the tip of his nose into the endless abyss beneath.

Although he is facing a perilous situation, Chen Mu did not panic. This is not the first time he encountered a life-threatening situation. Living his childhood as a street urchin, in addition to starvation and cold, there are a lot of dangerous situations. Stray dogs, towards street urchins, is equally fatal. There also is those diabolical human trafficker. In their eyes, street urchins are no different that a piece of meat.

However, never once those dangerous situations made Chen Mu felt so helpless. In his eyes, this magic card represents the highest rank of magic cards, too high for him to reach. For him that was just a while ago finally learned how to make one-star magic card and entered half a step into the realm of Card Creator, it is an insurmountable existence that he can only look up to. This sense of danger does not come from the outside, but from the depth of his heart.

Chen Mu forced himself to calm down. He believed that the purpose of this card is not to hold the user to death by starvation inside the dreamland, because, if it were that way, then the inside of this dreamland should be filled with attacks to kill and wound. It is unlikely to be this mild. Then – the only possibility is that he hasn’t found the exit point of this dreamland.

He didn’t go through the orthodox Card Creator’s aspect of the study, so to use his current knowledge to solve this problem is clearly unrealistic. Pondering for a while, Chen Mu decided to use a simple method, by using the process of elimination, to remove the wrong answer, since there’s not too many things in the dreamland.

However, almost all of the stuff inside the dreamland has been touched by him! There’s obviously no response. Where would the exit be?

Void, human-like images… himself!

Chen Mu felt like a flash of light just went inside his mind. Right, he has overlooked one possibility all along, which is himself! In the entire illusion, beside the void and 18 images, there is also him!

Chen Mu’s sight went towards his wrist. On his wrist, he can see his device! Almost subconsciously, he pressed the activation b.u.t.ton on the device.

*Haah*, before his eyes, the scenery changes. He has returned to his room.

With his legs that has become a jelly, exhaling a sigh of relief, Chen Mu sat down on the ground. Too tired! He doesn’t even want to move a finger at all.

In order to attempt the 18 movements, his strength has almost been completely used up. Then there is the high mental tension. Both of his body and mind felt like he has been through a severe test.

Chen Mu was so tired he just lay down on the floor and fell asleep.

Once again, Chen Mu was awakened by hunger. Waking up starving felt really terrible. Chen Mu really hates the feeling of hunger, which is probably a leftover shadow of his life as a street urchin.

He isn’t a picky eater, as long as it can fill his stomach. Opening the fridge, a strand of cold air rushes towards his face. Within the fridge’s core is a card that produces cold air, so it can keep the foods fresh. It is cheap, but the monthly energy usage is not small.

Cards such as the fridge’s ‘Cold Air Card’, the cooking pot’s ‘Heat Card’, and so on, is not of a high grade, with rank of one to two stars, but it has become an indispensable part of people’s life. They can be industrially ma.s.s produced, thus reducing their cost even more.

Low leveled cards have spread into most of the fields in the people’s life. In the field of cards exist two undisputed masters, Lawson Borgh and Heiner Vincent. Lawson Borg is the father of the ‘Principle of Cards’, and the first human in history to manufacture energy and magic cards. As for Heiner Vincent, he has not only developed Lawson Borg’s cards to an unprecedented height, but also created a great amount of cards using a totally different style from Lawson Borg’s.

Both masters have climbed to the top of the Card world.

However, in the world, there is one equally outstanding figure. Him in another way, emits an incomparable dazzling radiance, and have been named a Great Grandmaster close to those two Masters.

That person is Rosie! Rosie’s status as a high ranking Card Creator, from those outstanding Card Creator in history, is quite dim. Still, as a Card Creator, he brought an unprecedented change to the world of card. He dedicated a lifetime worth of effort to link the cards and the people’s life. A lot of originally unattainable cards, because of him, has entered into the life of ordinary people.

The fridge, cooking pot, shuttle cars……

He is someone that is full of wisdom and creativity, has given those unremarkable one and two star cards a huge value and caused an earthshaking change in the people’s life. This also gave those Card Creators with hard livelihood an enormous improvement in their life. This also gave him a huge, unparalleled wealth. Since he is also a shrewd businessman, his wealth acc.u.mulates like a s...o...b..ll. In just a few decades, he has become the richest billionaire in the whole TianYou Federation. Even now, the Rosie clan is still one of the wealthiest and influential clan in the whole TianYou Federation.

Rosie is a very controversial figure. In the eyes of traditional Card Creators, he is a representation of a dishonest worker. At that time, Heiner Vincent even called him ‘The Profiteering Man’. Still, in the eyes of a lot of people, he is 100% a genius, and unconventional genius. Chen Mu also considered him an out-of-the-ordinary genius.

Breaking the convention is not something everybody can achieve.

Chewing on the hard bread while sitting in front of the desk, his sight once again fell to the top of that mysterious card. This mysterious card is still a huge riddle. He wants to find the solution, but haven’t found any clue. Originally, he believed that after acquiring a three-star energy card, he can find out what card is this mysterious card. He didn’t expect that, in the end, it still is not clear.

The card’s realistic illusion can cut off all contact with the surrounding environment, making it seems like another world altogether. It almost did not let him find an exit, which brought him a strong shock.

Actually, the things illusions can do, are up to this extent!

Thinking about it again, to create a magic card is not a simple task for Chen Mu. However, this feeling of frustration only lasts for a few seconds. Chen Mu believes, this kind of magic card, nowadays, only a few people have the ability to make. Currently, it is a significantly encouraging item. Magic card, the traditional card of TianYou Federation, is really fierce!

Chewing on the hard bread subconsciously, Chen Mu’s brain went back to those 18 movements. These are not a method of attack. Chen Mu is not a Card Refiner, but during his life as a street urchin, scuffle is a common occurrence. He is a veteran in this area, and thus he can determine at a glance that these 18 movements do not have any offensive capability.

However, he can see that those 18 movements resemble the movement of a health exercise or something similar.