After entering the game, Xie Mingzhe, who had never played holographic games before, was stupefied by the image in front of him.
The vast starry sky and the resplendent Milky Way greeted his eyes. He also saw a meteor shower while travelling in a carrier s.p.a.cecraft. Countless meteors dragging silvery white trails of light dotted the night sky, which was like gorgeous fireworks in the s.p.a.ce.
Xie Mingzhe thrilled to enjoy the scene at the window. He felt like "granny Liu who was visiting the Grand View Gardens¹" – a b.u.mpkin opened the door to a new world.
After a period of voyage in s.p.a.ce, there was a "ding" in his ear and the crisp prompt sound said: "Welcome to the Binary Star. Your a.s.signed residence here is: No. 7498 Apartment in G District. Please enter your personal s.p.a.ce."
Landed on both feet, Xie Mingzhe took a deep breath to slow down his rapid heartbeat and turned his head to look at the so-called "personal s.p.a.ce".
The design of three bedrooms and one living room was similar to that of a house in the real world. There were sofas, tea tables and LCD TV with a huge screen – it was probably the world channel, on which there were many literal messages that made Xie Mingzhe dazzled.
“Original translation from wWW。w.a.n.gmamaread。COM”
After leaving the living room, he followed the arrows beneath his feet to the bedroom. The system sound: "You can rest in your bedroom if you are tired. Certainly, you are allowed to change its decorative style and furniture.In addition, you can invite your friends to your house."
The game designers incorporated "Homeland Design" into the game. Every player had his own apartment that they could decorate and design to make a virtual friendship s.p.a.ce.
Xie Mingzhe praised the design in the heart. He followed the instruction to the study from the bedroom.
The three walls of the study were lined with light blue metal display cases, which were divided into neat rows of small sub-boxes. Each sub-box is a square of 20×20cm, which was similar to a backpack that you can store cards and materials in online games.
There was a metal console in the center of the study. As Xie Mingzhe approached it, the system sound: "This is the [Card Console] where all the cards are made, decomposed, leveled and evolved. Please read carefully the card instructions."
Game newbies should pay attention to the instruction – this was Xie Mingzhe's experience from playing different games in the past.
With a gentle stroke, an animated version of a detailed explanation appeared in front of him.
Star Card Storm, of course, took card as the core of the game.
Star cards' strength depended on upgrading and evolution.
The initial card was level 1 one-star green card, which could evolve to a level 20 two-star blue card, level 30 three-star purple card, level 40 four-star orange card, level 50 five-star silver card, level 60 six-star golden card and level 70 (the highest level) seven-star black card.
Every time the card leveled up, its skill power would gain a percentage increase. When it evolved, its base attributes would be raised two fold. To evolve, the card must reach a certain level first, and then it needed to devour three cards of the same star level or one hundred fragments of high star level.
For instance, to evolve a six-star card into a seven-star card, players needed to raise the card level to 70 and then fed it three six-star cards or one hundred fragments of seven-star, and it could evolve into a powerful seven-star card with doubled strength.
Leveling up was easy to understand, which was to gain as much experience as possible to level. Xie Mingzhe interpreted the evolution of the card as "level breakthrough" in online games. Every time the card evolved, it would consume a lot of resources, but the high star-level card players obtained at last would repay them with doubled strength.
In the late game, there would be seven-star cards of the highest level in instances and arena that dominated the game. A seven-star card of level 70 was extremely expensive to cultivate as it needed a great deal of experience and resources, so how to cultivate cards was a knowledge for players.
Xie Mingzhe had a basic understanding of the game rules.
After reading the beginner's guide, Xie Mingzhe heard a prompt sound of the system: “After reading the rules of card upgrading and evolution, let's get into battle! There are countless wonderful lands of illusion in the World of Star Card. You can gain a wealth of experience and material rewards by challenging them. There are some alien creatures in the lands of illusion, use the cards the system gives you to defeat them!”
“Original translation from wWW。w.a.n.gmamaread。COM”
"Ding-ding," went the prompt sound – Get card [Icy Snake] × 1, [Thunder Bird] × 1.
A display case on the left side lit up, and two green cards appeared inside. The level 1 one-star green card was the initial card in the game.
Xie Mingzhe picked up the cards, poring over their data.
[Icy Snake]（Water²）
Card Level：1
Evolution Level：★
Available Times of Use：1/1
Base Attributes：Health 100，Defense 100，Attack 20，Agility 10， Critical Strike Chance 1%
Additional Skill：Freeze（Causes 20% damage of Water attribute to target. At the same time, target will be frozen in ice for 2 seconds.）
[Thunder Bird]（Metal）
Card Level：1
Evolution Level：★
Available Times of Use：1/1
Base Attributes：Health 100，Defense 50，Attack 100，Agility 30，Critical Strike Chance 5%
Additional Skill：Interlinking Thunder（A Thunder Bird hovering in the sky causes 80% sputtering damage of Thunder attribute to all targets within range.）
A control card and an AOE card.
The two cards, which the system gave to a beginner like him, must be enough to handle the instance in the novice stage.
Xie Mingzhe took two cards to the first instance, and the scene suddenly changed.
There was an empty square with a stone pillar in the middle. When Xie Mingzhe entered, he heard a woman's spooky voice: “Hehehe, here comes fresh food…”
Xie Mingzhe raised his head and saw a creature with a human-like upper body and a snake-like lower body twisting beside the stone pillar. There were several small snakes around her. They were obviously the BOSS and its followers that he had to defeat.
Prompt Sound: “Please pay attention to your Inner Spirit points. Your current level is 1, with Inner Spirit totaling 10 points. Summoning a one-star card requires 5 Inner Spirit points. The system will automatically restore the Inner Spirit for you every second.”
As an experienced game player, Xie Mingzhe understood quickly - the Inner Spirit was just like the MP (Magic Points) in online games. Summoning cards would consume a player's Inner Spirit points, which was obviously aimed at limiting the number of cards a player could summon. Otherwise, if a player summoned hundreds of cards in one breath, the game would definitely be in chaos.
Summoning a card needed 5 points, and Xie Mingzhe had 10 Inner Spirit points, so he could only summon two cards at most. No wonder the system just gave him two cards.
Xie Mingzhe summoned [Icy Snake] and [Thunder Bird] at the same time.
Translator's Notes:
1. It is an expression commonly known to modern Chinese people relating to Granny Liu in Dream of the Red Mansion (one of the four greatest ancient Chinese novels). It refers to the parts of the novel where Granny Liu visits the n.o.ble family who plays host to her, but which also makes fun of her openly for her simplicity. (Granny Liu is, however, grateful for their generosity.) The expression is used in modern Chinese to describe someone, usually a simple unsophisticated person, who is overwhelmed by new experiences and luxurious surroundings.
2. This is one of the characters of the Five Elements called Wu Xing in Chinese. It is a fivefold conceptual scheme that many traditional Chinese fields used to explain a wide array of phenomena, from cosmic cycles to the interaction between internal organs, and from the succession of political regimes to the properties of medicinal drugs. The “Five Elements” are Wood (木 mù), Fire (火 huǒ), Earth (土 tǔ), Metal (金 jīn), and Water (水 shuǐ).