The Card Apprentice - The Will to Fight
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The Will to Fight
But then he felt a strong retrospective fear since he hadn’t provided any protection for the mysterious card’s power. Not everyone around was a thief, but if you have something that people want . . . it wasn’t something he had only heard said, but he’d seen it himself quite a few times.
If . . . if someone were to look closely at the card . . .
Chen Mu shuddered.
“What happened?” Ning Dong had sharply paid attention to something strange with Chen Mu.
“It’s nothing.” Chen Mu answered with deliberate calm, while he was secretly awed. He didn’t want to reveal any clues.
In order to distract his own attention, Chen Mu was sizing up the jail. Its walls were made of incredibly thick stone, alternating between linen and blueish ash-colored, which looked ice cold. Chen Mu had seen that kind of stone, which was extremely hard. The walls were at least over three meters thick, and without some powerful tools, it would be impossible to escape.
Chen Mu had noticed some barely perceptible cutting marks on the glassy surface of the stones. The traces from the stone cutting weren’t obvious, and were mostly palm-sized, and seemed to be made by a small palm-sized tool.
Seeing Chen Mu paying attention to these cut marks, Ning Dong explained, “These linen and blue rocks are all made by Ning family children using wavy blades to cut them. Any of them who are learning to use the wavy blades must spend a year at the quarry cutting the stones. Ha ha, these linen-blue stones are very hard by nature, and using a wavy blade to cut them is not an easy thing to do.”
Chen Mu was surprised. Although he had guessed that those stones had been cut with a small tool, he had never imagined that they had been cut using wavy blades. Using palm-sized wavy blades to cut three-meter square huge rocks would have to use up some time. No wonder those children needed to spend a year specifically to be able to cut such even surfaces.
He sighed with regret for how the clans pass along their old and truly unfathomable traditions. Without any doubt, that kind of training would increase a card artisan’s ability to control the wavy blade. But doing it that way would use up a huge number of power cards, which made it evident that each of these cuts was built on a foundation of money.
Ning Dong took him through the manor. Once they left it, it was as though they had entered a different world, where Chen Mu finally saw the tall buildings and mansions that he was so familiar with. Shuttle cars were weaving among the buildings and would come across some card artisans flying in midair from time to time. But when they saw the shuttle cars, the card artisans would all salute and give way. At that instant Chen Mu deeply realized how much control the Ning household had over Amay City.
Their shuttle car finally docked on the roof of a silver-grey tall building in the southwest corner of Amay City. There had been someone waiting for them on the roof.
Ning Dong and Chen Mu stepped off the shuttle car.
“Ah Dong, you woke your esteemed elder up bright and early today, and now you make me wait so long, I’ll have to swindle you out of a few this evening so that you can make it up to me!” The man waiting so impatiently for so long charged forward. He had shaved his head bald, with a lean vital face, and long eyes which flashed when he opened them.
Ning Dong patted the man on the shoulder with his broad hand, and said full of smiles, “Hey, then your abacus has come up empty, since the old man still has something he wants me to take care of, and I have to leave in a little while.
He then introduced Chen Mu, “This is Ning Peng, who will tell you what you should be doing. As soon as you complete two hundred cards, you’ll be free. But before you finish them you can’t leave this place.”
“I hand him over to you, Ning Peng, I still have something to do, and I have to leave!” Ning Dong then rushed away in the shuttle car.
“Come with me, little one.” Sizing him up with a quick look, Ning Peng led him forward. As Chen Mu scanned around him he immediately concluded that the probability of his escaping successfully from this environment was very small. He immediately discarded that plan and walked along dutifully behind Ning Peng.
Ning Peng seemed very satisfied by Chen Mu’s cooperation, and reminded him, “You have to carefully control your perception here, or don’t blame me for not alerting you that you would otherwise be killed or maimed by others.
“Why?” Chen Mu asked, finding it strange.
“Why?” Ning Peng acted as though he had heard a very amusing question, and he started laughing, but Chen Mu didn’t see any laughter in his eyes.
“If you deploy your perception to closely examine someone else in here, it is an expression of aggression. Ha ha, you’ll know when the time comes.”
Ning Peng’s expression returned to its chill.
Chen Mu’s apartment was on the thirty seventh floor. It was a very large apartment, and extremely well-equipped. Chen Mu could see all sorts of card making tools that he had used, as well as quite a few that he had never used. Yet another time, he sighed for how rich and imposing the Ning family was. The amount of money needed for all the equipment in there far exceeded the total amount of money he had ever earned up until then.
“This will be your house from now on. You will stay here all along before you leave. You can use any of the equipment that is here. If you need to use some higher-grade equipment, you would have to pay contribution points.” He then gave Chen Mu a light yellow one-star fantasy card, “There is a detailed description in it, which you should take some time to read and understand.”
As he took the fantasy card, Chen Mu asked, “What are contribution points?”
“You’ll get it when you see it yourself.” Ning Peng said with some impatience, though he quickly added, “The two hundred cards are not included in them. Naturally, we will give you the cards to restore. Of course, you may also apply for a commission, though as soon as you file, you have to complete it, or else you can’t apply for the next card. Do you understand?”
Without waiting for Chen Mu’s response, Ning Peng waved his hand, “read the details yourself.” He then turned to leave, mumbling to himself, “I have to be a damned handmaiden too?”
The first thing that Chen Mu thought was that the situation couldn’t be called too bad. Looking all around the apartment, Chen Mu smirked to himself that this was the best house he had lived in, up until then.
The metallic styling of the furnishings was simple and clean, although it didn’t have a warm feeling in the bright white light. Chen Mu knew very little about the qualities of metal, since there wasn’t a high probability of its being used in cards. He only knew that it had excellent physical properties, was easy to process, and was inexpensive.
It was a model card master house, with all its facilities having been prepared for card masters. Apart from a bedroom and guest room, each of the other rooms were all work spaces.
Chen Mu very quickly grew to like it. His gaze fell onto the card-making pen rack, where there were all sizes and types of all the pens that you might need, many more than he had known about, and all of a uniformly high quality. There were very pure crystalline containers of all different shapes, which were high grade instruments for the compounding of card ink.
Chen Mu had long dreamed of being able to use a set of such instruments, but their high price had left it as only a dream.
He never would have thought that after he had become a prisoner, the dream would become true, which left him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
He put that light-yellow card into his own apparatus, and read its “details” very closely.
He used up more than an hour, before finishing all the “details.” He had read them very closely, since every detail could determine his fate. His plight at that time could turn dangerous at any moment.
Having read the details, he finally understood the meaning of what Ning Pen had been saying.
The floors in the thirties and forties in the tall building were living spaces for card masters, while those below the thirtieth floor were living spaces for card artisans. Apart from those, there was some residential space for those studying card appliances, as well as for some other people. Each of the residential areas had a perfect commercial area. For example, in the business areas of the card making section, you could purchase any of the materials needed by card masters, though of course that required that you spend contribution points.
It was actually very similar to the low grade fantasy card club in Eastern Shang-Wei City. Except that this had a much more perfected set of rules, as well as having a larger scope. It wasn’t necessary to spend any contribution points on food or housing here, though spending them was required for everything else.
Although they had an extremely rigorous registration system, it wasn’t prohibited to go out.
Of course, that didn’t apply to him. He couldn’t go out, since this was more like house arrest for him.
The Ning clan had a huge system for the contribution points. It was like a production center with the large volume of products that they required, and so many card masters serving them. And as long as they were led by the Ning household, the card artisans could get corresponding contribution points for all the kinds of materials that they would seek out for the Ning family.
Theirs was the most dangerous work.
Chen Mu didn’t know where they got so many card artisans from.
It was really the survival of the fittest there; only the strongest and most seasoned card artisans would survive and live long. Still, they could make huge returns. From many aspects, they were the same as dependents of the Ning household.
The grandeur of the Ning household was built on the bodies and bones of so many of those dependent card artisans and card masters.
If Chen Mu wanted to earn any contribution points, he would have to complete some commissions, which were mostly card repair and card making, or he could get them in trade from others in the building.
The two hundred cards that he was obligated to make were not included in that, which is to say that he was indentured, and wouldn’t get any returns. But only after he finished those would he be free.
If the circumstances were more powerful than he was, then he was too weak! Chen Mu suddenly gave rise to a powerful desire such as he had never had.
Become strong! Only by becoming strong could he live a free and independent life.
Taking a deep breath, he was filled from head to toe with the will to fight.
Although he had lost his freedom for a short while, this was doubtless an opportunity for him. Compared with the low grade fantasy card club, this was a higher level, larger, and more perfect platform. By being here, he could become strong much more quickly!
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