The Card Apprentice

While he skimmed through what was on the screen, Bogner introduced the place. “This is Chilei’s general headquarters for the card artisan activity centers. It provides nearly every service related to a card artisan, such as assessment and advancement, the study of card artisan skills, and so forth. It’s also a comprehensive platform where there are large numbers of freelance card artisans, which is why I came here to recruit. In addition to the commissions announced and taken here, they also have the most advanced training field in Chilei and the largest card artisan shopping center in the city.” He then lowered his voice to say, “But this doesn’t have anything better than the black market. They only dare sell above-board things.” After that, he added, “And, the prices are very high.”

Looking around, Bogner brought everyone to a service desk.

The girl attendant wore a professional smile. “Greetings. How may I serve you?”

“Hello, I need to recruit some card artisans.”

“May I ask what sort of requirements you might have for the card artisans?” The service girl maintained her slight smile.

Bogner adeptly reported his requirements. “A perceptual level above five, single and without a family to support, and able to take a long-term contract.”

“Alright, just a second.” The service girl quickly went to work. “Ok, according to your requirements, there are 123 who meet the criteria. Among them are 82 battle card artisans and 41 other types.”

“Battle card artisans and medical card artisans.”

“All right, there are five medical card artisans. With the 82 battle card artisans, there would be 87 altogether. Would you like to confirm that you require us to issue a letter of notification?”

Hearing what was being said, Chen Mu couldn’t help a deep sigh. In such a remote city in the Heavenly Drum Village District, there were still so many card artisans with level-five and above perception. There were actually card artisans who had broken through level five, which rather surprised him.

“Mmmm, right.” Bogner was very definite.

“Please fill in the location for interviews. You may freely choose your location and time for the interviews. If you require specialized equipment, you may rent space and equipment on the 57th through 69th floors. In addition, you will need to remit a fee of 500,000 Oudi.” The attendant spoke very fast.

It sure was expensive! Chen Mu felt inwardly speechless. If they had been in the ordinary residential districts, a fee of 40,000 or 50,000 Oudi would be sky-high. Around there, it was about ten times more.

Bogner readily handed over the money and filled out the address. He’d set the interviews for the next morning at 8 o’clock. Just as they were planning to leave, someone suddenly said something.

“I believe we’ve already met.”

Bogner turned around. The one speaking was astonishingly that elegant and cool woman who had suddenly showed up at the door a few days before. She had another woman with her who was wearing huge glasses that nearly covered her whole face.

“How are you? I’m glad to see you again.” Bogner had no hint of being happy in his tone.

The pretty woman still had her icy look. “Would the gentleman really not consider it a little more? If it’s an issue with the remuneration, I believe that’s something we could discuss. If your firm would like to accept this commission, we would like to pay 200 million Oudi. Moreover, we would like to notarize the authenticity of the commission for your honorable firm. I’m sure if you complete this commission, it would be sufficient to advance you the second level of card artisan firms.”

When Chen Mu heard her say 200 million Oudi, he was a little astonished. He couldn’t help but carefully size up those two women. The second one hadn’t uttered a word up until then, and what she wore was a lot plainer than the elegant woman.

A commission of 200 million Oudi rather got Bogner’s interest.

Seeing Bogner hesitate, a glimmer of joy flashed through the pretty woman’s eyes. Striking while the iron was hot, she said, “The 50 million Oudi reward we spoke of previously remains in effect. That would mean that if your esteemed firm could finally achieve the highest yield, you would possibly be able to get 250 million Oudi. That amount would be enough to purchase a newly established card artisan firm!”

She wasn’t far off. For a level-one card artisan firm, that kind of compensation was sky-high without a doubt.

“What do you think, Boss?” Bogner had abruptly realized his boss was there, and he quickly lowered his voice to ask.

The woman only then paid attention to Chen Mu, and an odd look flashed through her eyes. The woman beside her wearing glasses also seemed to raise her head a little.

“You make the decision.” Chen Mu didn’t want to influence Bogner’s judgment with his own unprofessional assessment.

Bogner had long gotten used to Chen Mu’s style and nodded to show he understood. The woman once again showed a strange look as she said, “And this is…?”

“My boss.” Bogner succinctly introduced him, following in a more ponderous tone, “I’ll need to know some specifics about the operation.”

The pretty woman showed some hesitancy, though the other woman intervened to say, “No problem.”

Following that, Bogner went to the side to discuss in detail with the two of them, so Chen Mu just roamed around. The first place he went was the marketplace. The shopping center there was quite prosperous and had a lot of traffic. It had many departments, such as the card department, the materials department, the card appliance department, and so forth.

The card department was a real eye-opener for Chen Mu. Four-star fantasy cards were mainstream in the Heavenly Drum Village District. That showed the difference between the ordinary residential districts and the flourishing districts. There was no shortage of fine goods among the excellent cards, but none of them had low prices. Chen Mu felt a rush of excitement just looking at them.

When upward of thousands of four-star cards were placed together, it sure did have a visual impact. Since every card was four-star and above, the effect was naturally still more extraordinary. Chen Mu even saw a few five-star cards. They had all been pulled out by themselves in the middle of the display case.

Chen Mu was really curious what six- or seven-star cards would be like. Too bad he had never seen one. Those were legendary cards.

There were also all sorts of card appliances there, especially shuttle cars. Because of the unique geography and climate of the Heavenly Drum Village District, shuttle cars were used far more there than in other places. Compared to the ordinary residential districts, however, the shuttle cars there were much higher in both price and performance.

The prices in the materials department made Chen Mu speechless when he saw them. Both the types and appearance of the materials were outstanding, though their quality-to-price ratio wasn’t great; their prices were too high. After seeing a few kinds, Chen Mu lost interest.

He spent 1.5 million to buy a set of card pens for Ru Qiu, and those were only ordinary goods. From Chen Mu’s point of view, it was a set of extremely good card making pens, although it wasn’t as outstanding as the Weak Water pen set. Still, it was worth 1.5 million.

After buying the set of card pens, Chen Mu didn’t plan to buy anything else. The spending he had done was causing him some real pain. When he went back to the station, Bogner had already reached an agreement with the pretty woman. As the two women were about to leave, they couldn’t help but do a double-take on Chen Mu.

“This commission is certainly tough, Boss, and I asked them about that. Still, the compensation is so high that I felt it was worth considering,” Bogner reported to Chen Mu. He had inquired carefully that time, and the pretty woman didn’t want to talk about many of the issues. He hadn’t thought the woman wearing glasses would actually talk about them so frankly.

“Mmmm, you understand that better than I do. Do as you see fit, and that will be fine.” Chen Mu continued his hands-off style.

“Yes, sir. This outing will probably require a month and a half before we can come back. We’ll be doing escort work, and I’ve already reached an agreement with them that all the itineraries along the way must follow my arrangements, including theirs,” Bogner said.

“Good. Are you going to send a few more hands to Xi Ping?” Chen Mu asked. Bogner would be gone for a month and a half on this trip, and Chen Mu was a little concerned about Xi Ping’s safety. He really didn’t want anything to happen to either of those two people.

“Relax, Boss. No one would dare cause trouble inside the city of Chilei. Even people from Moon Frost Island wouldn’t dare, never mind anyone else.”

Chen Mu patted Bogner on the shoulder. “Take care, and be sure to take enough people!”

That rare action by the boss made Bogner really surprised, but he didn’t say anything, only grunting his heavy assent.

Everyone was busy, and Chen Mu didn’t even have time to relax. He took Lu Xiaoru and the others and returned to the ravine. After he got back, Chen Mu started to follow up with the purple fluorescent ore.

That was their most important source of funds. If something were to happen in that regard, it would be a huge blow to them. Still, the equipment Chen Mu had made was undergoing testing. It had been working over the past several days without stopping or having any issues.

Two days later, a shuttle car sent a medical card artisan and five nurses. That finally gave the extremely busy Sue Lochiro a chance to relax.

* * *

An old, half-squinting man was putting the purple reagent bottles under the light. With the light shining through them, the metal floating in the purple reagent bottles was especially shiny, as crystal-clear as amethyst and extremely enchanting.

“The appearance is quite good and at a first-class standard. It’s perfectly pure, and the contaminants should be less than 0.5 percent. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen purple extract of fluorescent purple that looked this good.” The old man felt moved, and he looked at Xi Ping. “Boss Xi is quite capable, after all!”

Xi Ping responded with a look full of respect. “You are too kind, Mr. Stinger. As compared with yourself, I am only a latecomer.”

He really wasn’t exaggerating. Stinger was truly among one of the adepts in the business circles of Chilei.

“Ha ha, I’ll take the whole shipment. Boss Xi needn’t worry about the price. The appearance of these liquid extracts is quite a bit better than what’s on the market, and I’ll be able to get 20 percent above the market price. I had never thought Boss Xi could actually get the red extract of fluorescent purple. If Boss Xi gets another shipment, take care to come straight to me, and I’ll take all of it. And, Boss Xi, if you have the time, come over and sit down with me. I’ll introduce you to a few friends. I get along pretty well with the old men of Chilei.”

Xi Ping was thrilled. “Thank you for the guidance, Mr. Stinger!”