The Card Apprentice

“You certainly haven’t guessed the signal came from the northwest corner of Pomelo. That’s near where we are right now!” The Beard spoke methodically. “The Central Island Firm had previously been making secret investigations in this district. I was wondering about it at the time, not knowing what they were thinking of doing. I now realize it was quite possibly when they had first captured the signal.”

The Beard was eloquent, as though he had witnessed it all.

Butchie had already fallen silent. There were actually wonderful things in that world, which left her speechless. She waved the golden card in her hand and asked, “What about this card? Is it also for capturing the signal?”

The Beard smiled mysteriously. “Very clever! It isn’t only for capturing the signal. After we sent back the signal balls we had seized last time, a card appliance specialist in the organization performed some analysis on them. He finally found the signal’s band. He then directly made a communications card with a single capability. It can call back and forth. Once connected to the other party, the communications card can then show the other party’s general position. Because time was short, there was no way to make it more accurate, and it can only show the other party’s position within some general area.”

“General area? How big?” Butchie asked seriously.

“Within a range of 500 meters.”

Butchie became excited. “Can I try the card now?”

The Beard looked unconcerned as he continued to drink his red wine and returned to his leisurely appearance, languidly saying, “Don’t blame me for not advising you his apparatus hasn’t been turned on.”

Butchie gave it a try. Nothing happened, which turned her bitter-looking. She thought of something. “Right. Help me look into the boss of Heaven’s Wings, Beard.” The Beard was the one responsible for intelligence in the area, and he had lots of spies under him.

“Heaven’s Wings? The one whose boss is Cao Dong? Why are you interested in them?” The Beard put down the wine glass that was at his lips.

“Isn’t he well-known?” Seeing The Beard’s reaction, Butchie was immediately interested.

“This person’s origins are a mystery. No one knows where he came from. It’s said he was first seen in the jungle. He had someone with him who was habitually silent, probably in the age range between 28 to 35. His strength is unknown. They rescued Cleo from the Lewin family in the jungle. Cao Dong was the one who made the move using some kind of shuttle-type card. However, what really drew everyone’s attention to Cao Dong was his card-making talent. Heaven’s Wings was originally one of the Lewin family companies, which had been used to provide sinecures to their feckless internal offspring. In order to thank him for the rescue, the Lewin family gave the company to Cao Dong.”

“Hrumph, the Lewins aren’t really such good jerks. Someone saves their life, and they reward them with something like this. That is really too much.” Butchie grunted out the couple of phrases.

“Ha! The Lewins did harbor malicious intent. They wanted to drag Cao Dong into the Lewin family by deliberately using that trick. Who knew Cao Dong had a better trick? As soon as he took it over, he forced all the fancy-pants to retire. Afterward, Heaven’s Wings started rapidly expanding. Up until now, their most famous two cases included one that was a public service billboard, and the other was the ‘Heaven’s Wings Edition Educational Materials.’ The latter was especially a big heart-stirring deal. To tell the truth, I was stunned the first time I saw it.” He couldn’t help but cluck his cheek. “Why couldn’t someone make such educational materials when we were in school? Then, I would surely have been a good student.”

Listening carefully, Butchie couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“Afterward, which was right in the beginning, did you see anything during that major activity from the Central Island Firm?” The Beard asked.

“Did I see anything? What does that have to do with Cao Dong?” Butchie asked with curiosity.

“Cao Dong was the one who made that advertisement. It has already become a classic among fantasy card advertisements, which has created a stir in the entire federation! There are a lot of interesting things in here. It’s said to be Cao Dong’s own work, and he only took three days to complete it. Gosh, to be able to accomplish such realism; if that guy could make a picture gallery of miss Tan Yumin, it would sell out for sure!” The Beard was stroking his moustache and clucking his cheek. His vulgar face was in the throes of sexual fantasy.

Really not able to stand The Beard’s expression, Butchie cut off his fantasy. “So, can he make a battle fantasy card?”

“Battle fantasy card? I’ve actually never heard that.” The Beard drew a blank and shook his head.

Butchie sank into thought, and Hugo suddenly opened his mouth. “Have you discovered something new, Butchie?”

Seeing both of their gazes on her, Butchie told them about the strange aspects of that fiery dragon card, as well as the letter “C” written on it, plus the situation of her getting kicked out of Heaven’s Wings when she went there.

“A card master?” Hugo looked like he found that strange. “Could he be more awesome than Peanut Head?”

Peanut Head was a card master within the organization. Butchie’s Orange and Tadpole were both from his hands. Since his hair looked like a peanut, everyone liked to call him Peanut Head. The cards he made were very popular and were the object of everyone’s striving. But, he was quite frank in front of the female T. rex, Butchie.

Butchie hesitated before saying, “I think he might be more awesome than Peanut Head.”

“Oh.” Both Hugo and The Beard simultaneously showed the same amazement. It wasn’t easy for any card master to earn such an evaluation from Butchie.

Hugo muttered, “If that’s the way it is, you might as well make friends with him.”

Hearing the song, The Beard knew how elegant it was and rushed to nod. “Mmmm, I’ll look into it, and we’ll see if we can’t strike up some relations.”

Meeting really powerful card masters was a rather important daily activity for card masters. Even though there was a powerful card master within the organization, to know another one would naturally provide another avenue. That wouldn’t be a bad thing for them.

Hugo warned, “But, we must still put our energy into the Central Island Firm first. We can’t put too much into this matter.”

Butchie cleverly said, “Don’t worry, Hugo; I know what’s important.”

* * *

When Chen Mu came to, he found his whole body in a glass tank, which was full of a light green liquid. His naked body was soaking in it with only his head sticking out.

The wisp of a sneer floated up.

He was still thinking too simply about that green thread! He had thought he could draw it out in the state of breath control. Who know the green thread was like a living thing that would actually come to life? Once it activated, it was like you’d pull one hair, and the whole body moves. The part that was a fine mesh in Chen Mu’s body immediately transformed. It would be wishful thinking if he’d wanted to draw it out by brute force. He was afraid it would draw out all of the flesh and blood from his body.

Once the time span for breath control had expired, and he had returned to normal, Chen Mu didn’t even get to feel the side effects. He was submerged in a wave of pain that blacked him out.

Examining his body, the wound on his left arm was already healing, and he couldn’t help his inward surprised at how fast it was.

Sue Lochiro walked in and saw Chen Mu had come to. She couldn’t help but call out in surprise, “You’re awake!”

“Mmmm.” Chen Mu nodded and smiled. “Thank you very much for your treatment. I’d be in a lot of trouble otherwise.”

Sue Lochiro was embarrassed to say, “I could only deal with your wound. I still don’t have any prospect to help you with that green thread in your body. She was looking at Chen Mu full of apology, although she felt relieved. Cao Dong seemed to have returned to normal. She didn’t know why, but that Cao Dong without any expression on his face terrified her.

Chen Mu said, “No worries, we’ll take it easy. Can I come out now?”

As she did a quick examination of Chen Mu’s naked body, he didn’t pay any attention to the blush that passed over her face. A second later, Sue Lochiro stood up with nothing strange on her face but the beautiful smile blossoming there. “The wound is already healed. You can come out.”

Hearing that, Chen Mu didn’t waste any words and climbed right out over the glass pool, putting one leg over and jumping down. That made Sue Lochiro, who had been just about to open the pool, dumbstruck.

Looking around to be sure his things were all there, Chen Mu relaxed. He put on his clothes, heedless of anyone else in the room. Sue Lochiro opened her mouth to say something, but after she took a look and felt her face was burning, she hurriedly turned around.

Having put on his apparatus, and wearing clothes, Chen Mu looked as though he’d once again returned to being an ordinary youth.

However, Sue Lochiro couldn’t take him as an ordinary youth anymore. How could someone who could cut open his own left arm so calmly and indifferently be any ordinary youth? There was no one who could more clearly feel than she did what was so uncommon about Cao Dong.

Looking at the shy, smiling face in front of her eyes, how could Sue Lochiro connect that to the coldly indifferent face? She had a faint feeling he must have been through some kind of unknown transformation. But, what could make him undergo such a startling transformation?

In her mind, Chen Mu was increasingly mysterious and unpredictable.

Suddenly having thought of who knows what, Sue Lochiro’s snow-white face went red and seemed as though it would ooze blood. The blush spread with shocking speed to her ears.

She firmly pursed her adorable, moist red lips, trying to calm herself down, until finally her face seemed to return to normal when she walked to the door.

When the door opened, Chen Mu could see Lu Xiaoru playing with the little girl.