Just then, a boy next to him said in a deep voice, "Sisi, what happened?"
Turning his head, Xie Mingzhe looked at them. The boy had regular features but was somewhat serious. However, Sisi was pet.i.te and adorable. Xie Mingzhe wondered whether it was a real image of Sisi or just a virtual figure in the game.
Being chagrined by her failure, the girl walked towards the boy and said, "Just now, I was killed by five Golems due to my imprudence."
The boy dabbed the girl's head with his hand, saying gently, "I have told you to wait for me here. Why did you run about just now?"
Xie Mingzhe, "…"
Touching her head while she was disappointed to steal her heart, was it good to show off your love to a bachelor?
Unwilling to see the lovers flaunting their love before him, Xie Mingzhe was about to turn around and leave. However, the girl stopped him and said, "Uncle Chubby, let's work together to gain Exp! It's hard to meet low-level players in the newbie area since the game has been in operation for ten years. I've been gaining Exp here for ten minutes and only seen you a novice."
The boy sent the invitation actively, saying, "Come on, we will gain Exp faster if we work together."
Thinking that it was better to make some friends in the game, Xie Mingzhe joined them.
The boy's game ID was senior brother Qi. It could be concluded from their chat that senior brother Qi used this smurf account to help his girlfriend gain Exp. He knew a lot more than novices did as he had played this game for at least five years.
Senior brother Qi suggested, "We won't gain much Exp from the small Golems. We can gain Exp by killing the high-level mobs if we use our crowd control skills orderly and effectively."
He was a veteran in the game and what he said was reasonable. Two novices followed him to the lake.
The fourth-level mob by the lake was called "Willow Monster". It could cause great damage to the players, but it could be controlled. Three of them had the [Icy Snake] cards given by the system when they started playing this game. A [Icy Snake] card could control one mob. Each of them controlled one mob, using [Thunder Bird] cards launch crowd attack. It was very easy to kill the mobs as long as they used their skills effectively.
After gaining Exp for half an hour, all of them levelled up to 10, and their cards levelled to 20.
Cards have to evolve first when they levelled up to 20, or they wouldn't be able to level up. They got many low-level evolution fragments just now, which were dropped by the Willow. Then senior brother Qi said, “Go back to evolve your cards in personal s.p.a.ce. Evolve Thunder Bird with Area of Effect first.”
Xie Mingzhe called a portal out to transmit him to his personal s.p.a.ce, going back to evolve his card.
In front of the console, the light green one-star card at level 20 slowly swallowed 100 two-star fragments, rotating constantly. At the same time, the pattern on its back also changed continuously. At last, the original green card turned blue completely.
—— Level 20, two-star evolution, blue card.
Xie Mingzhe noticed after it evolved into a higher-star card, the color on its back changed, while its front pattern remained original appearance. In terms of numerical values, all Base Attributes doubled, for example, the basic attack power of Thunder Bird had increased from 100 to 200 when it became a two-star card.
In other words, after an upgrade, the Skill Increase of cards would be enhanced and after evolution, the Base Attributes would increase.
Therefore, to upgrade and evolve cards in order would enhance cards all around.
Cultivating a seven-star card needed a lot of materials. If average players wanted to have a high-level card, they not only needed good skills but also manual work – to gain the necessary materials would make them tired and half dead, let alone other preparations!
Xie Mingzhe sighed and returned to the lakeside in Egret Star after he evolved the card. Sisi and senior brother Qi were also back.
Senior brother Qi said, “We have to buy more attack cards. Our team's cards are not enough to kill mobs and gain Exp.”
Sisi asked excitedly, “Where can we buy cards?”
Senior brother Qi said, “Black market.”
Sisi was stunned, “Black market? Is there such a place?”
Senior brother Qi answered, “There is an underground city on the back of the commercial street, called the black market. Over there, players could set up stalls at their will. No rent. In the black market, we can bargain and find a lot of good cards and materials, especially low-level original cards. They are much cheaper than those in regular stores.”
Sisi scratched her hair, “But I heard that original cards are more expensive.”
Senior brother Qi explained, “The original cards I referred are ordinary cards with average or extremely low data. There are even failed cards. As for the best original cards, they would be sold in auctions.”
Hearing their words, Xie Mingzhe thought, "It turns out that only failed cards will be in sale in black market at a low price." However, for newbies like him, buying a few “failed cards” created by experienced players to kill mobs was not a bad way at the beginning.
So they transferred themselves to the Aquarius galaxy.
This was the first time Xie Mingzhe had personally come to the downtown area in this game.
There was a square in the center of the Aquarius planet, with a beautiful crystal sculpture of a water container standing in the middle of the square. Four skysc.r.a.pers, located in the east, south, west and north of the square, were "Auction House", "Star Card Bank", "Exchange" and "Service Center" respectively.
Behind the four skysc.r.a.pers were a maze of commercial streets, all of which were rented to players and operated by them. Xie Mingzhe looked down a street, finding shops with different unique names, such as "An Affectionate Couple's Repair Shop", "Monopoly Store of Seven-star Cards", "Doudou's Material Store", "Boss Wants to Have a Girlfriend", etc. - many players were shopping on these commercial streets which were more bustling than those in the real world.
They had decided to go to the black market together before, but found a crowd thronged the doorway of “Auction House” in the east of the square. Sisi curiously looked over the crowd standing on tiptoe and asked, “Senior brother, what happened there?”
Senior brother Qi looked at the crowd in the direction of her gaze, answering: “Auction House holds an auction at 3:30 every afternoon. Maybe these people are going to the auction.”
Xie Mingzhe had only watched auctions on TV, which he thought were designed for high-income consumers. He hadn't been to an auction yet, so he really wanted to see that. Before he spoke, Sisi said excitedly: “Can we have a look? It seems very interesting!”
Senior brother Qi nodded: “Okay, we will go to the auction first and then the black market.”
When they stood at the Auction House's doorway, a scream coming from afar caused a stir: “It is said legend Tang's card will be sold in auction today!” “Is it Tang Muzhou's original card?” “It's an inside dope. I'm not sure. Let's go and see!” “Hurry up, tickets will be snapped up soon!”
The crowd behind Xie Mingzhe came pouring into the Auction House, which startled him. Then he quickly sneaked into the auction.