The Card Apprentice

It wasn’t like no one had ever done research into that; Sue Lochiro knew a little about it. For Chen Mu, however, it was just too strange. Even though he’d studied a lot, he wasn’t very interested in that and had no way to know about academic issues in fields that weren’t critical to him. He had never undergone any systematic study.

That didn’t mean Chen Mu wasn’t clear about the danger.

On the contrary, Chen Mu’s mind was extremely clear just then. He had already smelled the danger. The smell was heavy enough to scare him out of his wits. He immediately understood there had been some mishap.

However, he couldn’t control his perception in such a state of emergency. To tell the truth, even if he could control it, he wouldn’t know what to do.

All they could do was wait until things calmed down.

Just then, a nurse pushed open the door. “Madame Sue…” She saw the two of them sitting together and immediately swallowed what had been on the tip of her tongue. A pair of black eyes showed the glint of gossip as she surreptitiously sized them up.

Because they both had their backs to the door, she couldn’t clearly see their expressions. But, Chen Mu’s masculinity stood out prominently, which really surprised the young girl.

Good lord, is Madame Sue actually being intimate with a man?! She covered her mouth in surprise with her eyes nearly dropping to the floor. She couldn’t quite believe the scene. If all those hot guys chasing after Madame Sue had seen it, she was afraid half of them would jump from 12 stories in their grief.

Sue Lochiro was utterly mild to anyone in the association, and she wasn’t any different to the young nurses.

Among the nurses, there were quite a few who wanted to become medical card artisans but hadn’t passed the assessment. They would work while diligently studying medical card artisan knowledge. Sue Lochiro took extra care of those nurses, though she never put on airs because of being a high-grade card artisan herself. Whenever a nurse would ask her something, she would give a patient explanation, which earned the love of the young nurses.

Could that be Madame Sue’s boyfriend?

An idea came into the young nurse’s head. After looking around to see there wasn’t anyone else paying attention, she tiptoed over to push the red button behind the door. She then quietly shut the door as she left.

The young girl looked with satisfaction at the row of flashing characters above the door. She left, excited for what she’d done.

“Examination Center – Do Not Disturb”

She probably didn’t have any way to know the cozy-looking scene was actually full of danger. There was nothing cozy about it.

Nothing could keep the ever-calm Sue Lochiro from panicking. Even a medical card artisan with a good understanding of the dangers of near-field perception couldn’t understand what was happening then.

In an instant, even Chen Mu felt dizzy. He had never tried such a rapid emission of perception. If it hadn’t been for the coincidence, he would never have known his own perception might have those characteristics. But, he had no way to control it all.

Out-of-control perception was one of the card artisans’ least favorite circumstances. While Chen Mu had never considered himself a professional card artisan, he didn’t like the situation he’d encountered just the same.

He helplessly watched his own perception rolling up into a ball together with Sue Lochiro’s.

It was as though a placid, shallow pool of water had suddenly been over-washed by a surge of water, turning the situation chaotic.

Both Chen Mu and Sue Lochiro were dumbfounded by the two strands of perception mixed up together. They looked at one another helplessly. Never mind that one of them was a decent card artisan, while the other was a young high-grade medical card artisan, there being no two aces more awesome. They didn’t have any good way to face such chaotically stirred-together perception.

Their perception had become very strange by then. They could both feel the entire scope of perception. But, because they were both mixed together, the information feedback from the perception had become fragmented. That wasn’t even the most powerful feeling. What they felt most strongly was actually the other person’s perception!

No matter whose perception, it all contained a great amount of information. It’s composition and its properties…

In just an instant, Chen Mu had a deep and subtle understanding of Sue Lochiro’s perception. It had now become the perception he was most familiar with, apart from his own. In the same way, Sue Lochiro’s understanding of Chen Mu’s perception had reached a stunning place in the blink of an eye. That was because their perception had made such a direct connection.

The endlessly raging perception finally started to calm down, which made them both breathe a sigh of relief. Although a weird transformation had taken place, it hadn’t yet turned really bad. Sue Lochiro was most worried about each of their perceptions combining into a “mutual hedging storm,” which would mean both would leave the field in misery.

Injury to perception was unlike any other, especially for one skilled in medicine like Sue Lochiro, who wouldn’t dare to touch that forbidden area easily.

The situation seemed more and more clear while their expressions became more and more weirded out.

“How could this be?” Sue Lochiro couldn’t help but cry out involuntarily as though she’d seen something inconceivable.

Chen Mu shook his head. “I don’t know either.” His eyes showed an uncontrolled look of surprise as well. The situation had developed beyond anything he could have expected.

The perception in Chen Mu’s body formed a vortex, and what Sue Lochiro emitted into his body had already been swept up into it.

A look of panic flashed through her eyes. Her situation was a lot worse than Chen Mu’s. Part of the perception in her body had already been swept up into Chen Mu’s perceptual vortex. The scariest part was that the perception in her body was already completely out of her control. The perceptual vortex in Chen Mu’s body had fierce suction, and her own perception was constantly being drawn in.

What made her discouraged was that she didn’t have any ability to cut them apart. No matter how much effort she expended, her ever-docile perception didn’t have any response. How could that be?

If she didn’t have perception…

Her mind went dizzy, and her eyes nearly went dark.

“Calm down a bit,” Chen Mu couldn’t help but call in a low voice. He had also been unprepared for the change in perception. But, that didn’t make him lose his cool. In truth, he didn’t know how many times he’d been in more dangerous situations than that one. Every time he’d explored his perception, it had been full of the same kind of danger.

When something happened with perception, Chen Mu didn’t panic. His many experiences had taught him the more dangerous things became, the calmer he needed to be. If he were to lose his cool, then he would lose his last chance to survive.

Chen Mu’s blunt warning made Sue Lochiro calm right down. Seeing Chen Mu so calm gave some hope to her discouraged mind. Could he have some way? She wasn’t any ordinary person after all, and she had seen all kinds of major events. What had just happened wasn’t anything more than a moment of excitement where she’d only ceded a square inch. She was a little ashamed after she calmed down, not even being up to a 17- or 18-year-old youth.

With his head spinning rapidly, Chen Mu kept thinking of countermeasures.

Chen Mu hadn’t found it strange when the perceptual vortex took shape. The composition of his perception had two characteristics. One was the spinning, and the other was the vibration. The mildness of Sue Lochiro’s perception, along with it being soft and a little thick, had made it susceptible to the suction of his perceptual structure, finally forming into a vortex. That was actually a normal thing.

After giving it a try, he had no way to make the spring-like coil of his perceptual vortex spin any slower. At the very beginning, the part of Sue Lochiro’s perception that had been sucked into the vortex had pushed the helical perceptual coil a little slower. Now, it had become a boost to the power of the helical spring. It pushed Chen Mu’s spiral perceptual spring to spin even faster. That incessant spinning could then draw in more perception.

What to do?

Chen Mu suddenly had a flash. Since there was no way to slow the spinning of the perception, then why not try the other characteristic of his perception?

That would be vibration!

No sooner thought than done. Unlike for Sue Lochiro, the vortex was in his body, so he was fighting on home territory. He would naturally have stronger control of his perception than she did.

She had already completely calmed down to the point where she even had some curiosity as she watched Chen Mu. He had brought her too many surprises that day, and she wanted to see what sort of surprise he would bring her now.

Chen Mu wasn’t paying any attention to Sue Lochiro’s gaze. All of his attention was focused on the endlessly chaotic perception. Focusing his energy, he lightly adjusted the frequency of vibration of the perceptual coil’s helical spindle.

Under Chen Mu’s control, there were some fine changes to the vibration frequency of the spiral spindle.

There was hope! Chen Mu was silently happy. If he could control it, that would mean more possibilities.

The most critical thing was to be able to control the frequency of the perceptual vibration. That would mean he could enter the state of breath control! The complete calm he felt under the state of breath control would give insight into the nature of everything. Isn’t that what he needed most just then?

However, Chen Mu immediately felt hesitant. He was familiar with entering the state of breath control, and there weren’t any technical difficulties. But, its powerful side effects could be expected just the same. Those side effects were more powerful each time. He thought about the last time, about which he still had lingering fears. There was no question the side effects would be still more powerful than last time.

Should he, or shouldn’t he?

Chen Mu took a look a Sue Lochiro, whose complexion was more and more pale, and he quickly decided. If he allowed that to continue, Sue Lochiro would be abandoned. Chen Mu didn’t think of himself as any great kindly type, though he had his own principles for making his choices. Since Sue Lochiro had helped him to get into that situation, he couldn’t stand by idly, no matter what.

Let’s go! Breath control! Chen Mu’s eyes suddenly glowed with brilliant light. His heart felt some faint anticipation. How far could he get entering the state of breath control this time?

The unexpectedly sudden, brilliant glow blossoming from Chen Mu’s eyes put Sue Lochiro into a momentary trance.