Chapter 22 – An Unknown Guru
Translator: Star River from
Proofreader: Rhith
The 660,000 gold that Xie Mingzhe had withdrawn from the Auction House was equivalent to 66,000 crystal coins, which was a great fortune for him.
This time, however, he didn’t hasten to exchange game coins for crystal coins, instead, for the time being, he kept that amount of game coins as reserve funds for future stores because he already had 300,000 crystal coins in his bank account.
After returning to his personal space, Xie Mingzhe arranged the cards in his card display case. The ten neat cards were a joy to behold. He knew clearly that future [Lin Daiyu]s wouldn’t be sold at such a high price. It was only because his [Lin Daiyu] had appeared at auction for the first time and that the card experts belonging to various clubs, including that confident rich player, had raised the price whilst bidding against each other that it was sold at such a horrifying price.
If he sold [Lin Daiyu]s in bulk, its price would fall.
Selling cards at auction was his first step to establish a good reputation in the game.
He wouldn’t sell other [Lin Daiyu]s at auction where a player was only allowed to sell one card a day and his/her card had to queue up for at least three days before it was auctioned, because it would be a waste of time if did that. He planned to open a card store.
Xie Mingzhe decided to go to the Auction House and see if he could rent a store tomorrow afternoon.
At this moment, he heard the prompt sound, “You’ve received a voice message from Can Yang.”
In his voice message, Can Yang, the vice president, said urgently, “Uncle Chubby, have you considered Legend Nie’s invitation to join the Adjudication Club? We’ve been waiting for your reply eagerly for four days. I somewhat envy your future fantastic job. Come on, Uncle Chubby, we’re all looking forward to you joining our club!”
It was obvious that Can Yang had been eager to receive Xie Mingzhe’s reply because he spoke so fast. However, Xie Mingzhe replied politely, “Sorry, Vice President. I have something important to do now, so I won’t join the Adjudication Club in the near future.”
Just after he sent the message, Xie Mingzhe heard the prompt sound, “You’ve received a voice message from Huan Yue.”
Then he heard President Huan Yue’s calm voice, “Hello, Uncle Chubby. After our deliberation, we agreed that if you join the Adjudication Club, our boss will raise your monthly salary to 50,000, the same as an official card designer’s. Every time you design a battle card that can be used in competitions, you can get at least 50,000 commission, and there will be a club bonus payment at the end of every month and year. In this way, your annual salary will certainly be more than a million. I hope you can seriously consider it.”
Xie Mingzhe, “………”
Annual salary of more than a million – the Adjudication Club provided him with such good benefits that he could not help but feel like agreeing.
He had never dreamed that one day he could have so much income.
But it was nothing more than an increase in income. Huan Yue never mentioned the key issue of “card copyright.” Xie Mingzhe quickly controlled his excitement and replied, “President, the treatment you’re willing to provide is really good, but for some practical reasons, I don’t want to join a club as a card designer. I appreciate your kindness, please pass my thanks on to Legend Nie and Legend Lan.”
Can Yang, who received the message, frowned, “He doesn’t want to join the Adjudication Club. Is it because other clubs have invited him?”
Huan Yue took a deep breath and calmly analyzed, “I don’t think so. The Adjudication Club should be the first to invite him. The Fenghua Club must have not had time to take action, otherwise [Lin Daiyu] wouldn’t have appeared in the auction. I have a premonition that Uncle Chubby is smart enough to realize his talent, so he doesn’t want to join any club. Instead, he wants to be a free card designer and sell cards to get rich!”
“Free card designer?” Can Yang looked weird, “I didn’t expect this fat uncle to be popular! Have you seen the forum post about the auction? It tops all other posts, hitting the headlines. Now everyone knows a card designer making IDE cards with the 月半 LOGO!”
He completely misjudged Uncle Chubby! At first he had thought that with the name “月半”, he would definitely not be popular. Now it turns out that he had become popular even faster than Tang Muzhou!
In Star Card Forum, a post headlined “An IDE Card Made By A New Card Designer 月半 Was Sold For 660,000 At Auction!” was highlighted in red. Its replies quickly exceeded ten digits, so the post rose to the very top, attracting a large number of players.
“Breaking the record, amazing!”
“Who is this person? I haven’t heard of this card maker. A newcomer of great potential?”
“Doesn’t 月半 mean fat? Is this a fat guy?”
“Leaving my comment here before the post goes viral. Fatty, I support you!”
“660,000 for a level 1 card. This is even higher than Legend Tang’s vine card! 666!※”
In the blink of an eye, this post was repeatedly forwarded. All the clubs knew about it and then investigated who this “月半” was. The Adjudication Club and the Fenghua Club, knowing the answer, were extremely quiet.
Xie Mingzhe didn’t know what was happening in the forum. After replying to President Huan Yue, he directly went to the Peacock galaxy to see the rich player who had bought [Lin Daiyu] for 660,000 gold.
The Peacock galaxy was the entertainment area within the game and he was visiting for the first time. It was just like the bustling metropolis in the real world. At 8:30pm, lights lit up the street. In the bright light, various bars, restaurants and cinemas were a feast for the eyes.
Just like what the buyer’s message had said, he found the Qianlin Restaurant next to the central square.
Qianlin Restaurant’s appearance was very stylish. There was a delicate musical fountain in front of the restaurant. As soon as he entered through the door, Xie Mingzhe saw the restaurant ceiling entwined with countless green vines which hung down and almost touched people’s heads. Inside there were many ornamental plants with large green leaves and flowers, decorating the restaurant like a garden.
The waiter at the door saw him and said with a smile, “Uncle Chubby, here please. Our boss is waiting for you on the second floor.”
Following the waiter, Xie Mingzhe went to the second floor and found it spacious. Through the window that occupied a whole wall, he could see the bustling night scene outside. The ceiling lights were covered by green leaves and shone warmly. There were several wooden tables and comfortable sofas in the room. The dining room had been elegantly designed and decorated, which made it look more like a private club.
The waiter said respectfully, “Boss, your guest has arrived.”
Looking in the direction of the waiter’s eyes, Xie Mingzhe saw a tall man standing by the window in casual clothes.
Xie Mingzhe saw his face when the man swivelled his head. The man looked quite ordinary. Obviously, this rich player hadn’t felt like changing his appearance and had directly chosen the system’s own No.1 character design when he established the role. He had named this character 7456789, which was quite casual.
There were many players choosing the system’s preset designs in the game, but this ID reminded Xie Mingzhe of two gurus, Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan. Was this man a guru who created a smurf account?
“You bought my [Lin Daiyu]?” Xie Mingzhe asked politely.
“Yes.” The man pointed at the seat beside him, saying, “Please, sit down. Let’s talk about it.”
His voice was still the basic preset from character creation, showing no emotional ups and downs.
The man calmly sat on the sofa. Xie Mingzhe, who didn’t like beating about the bush, sat opposite him and asked directly, “You said that you wanted to buy [Lin Daiyu] in bulk? Are you serious?”
“No. It was just an excuse for having you come to see me.”
“…” Xie Mingzhe took a deep breath, saying as calmly as he could, “Why do you want to see me? My time is limited, please tell me directly.”
The man stared at him for a while, then asked with a smile, “Are you interested in recognizing someone as your Shifu, who can guide you in making cards?”
Translator’s Note:
“666” in Chinese is pronounced similarly to “溜溜溜” in Chinese. It has become one of the most popular network phrases in China.
“溜” is an oral word said to someone who did something awesome.
For example, I can say: You play piano very “溜”.
When we put three “溜” together, they become an exclamatory sentence, that is “溜溜溜”.
The Pinyin of “溜” is liù, and so does the word “六”,which means 6. It’s obviously easier, so we use 666 instead of “溜溜溜” when we text each other.
Not only 666, you can use 666666666666666666666666666666666 as well.
And by the way, many Chinese started to use “six six six” now. XD