Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Upgrading Cards
Perry Yates looked outside. It was nighttime.
’It seems just like the Twin Sunflowers,’ she thought. ’I can only use the Sun Attribute during the day and the Moon attribute at night. The Wood Attribute, however, isn’t affected by either.’
After getting used to the Card Ability she had just acquired, Perry Yates picked up the Thorny Rose Card.
This card was also a Multi-attribute one. The Wood Attribute was a given, and its Dark attribute was somewhat similar to the Moon attribute.
She had just attempted to fuse it. Although it wasn’t as smooth as fusing the Bicolor Rose, it was still within an acceptable range.
Another two and a half days passed.
Perry Yates stared at the brand-new four-star card in front of her, hardly believing her eyes.
On the crimson card, the image of the Thorny Rose had become incredibly exquisite.
But that wasn’t why she was so shocked; after all, she had already fused two four-star cards before this.
The reason Perry Yates was so stunned was because a third attribute had appeared on the Thorny Rose Card: the Poison Attribute.
Moreover, the symbol for the Dark attribute had also become strange. It now resembled the symbol for the Moon attribute, but the color was different.
The symbol for the Moon attribute was a white moon speckled with blue, whereas the symbol for the Dark attribute had now turned into a purple moon.
’Whatever. I’ll just fuse with it first and figure things out later.’
’After all, I spent so much time upgrading it.’
After performing Ascension on two four-star cards in a row, Perry Yates had completely run out of the food she had prepared.
For the next two days, Perry Yates started preparing food again. The entire residential complex was filled with the mouth-watering aroma of meat. The previously quiet property owners’ group chat came alive again, with everyone asking who was responsible.
A resident from the same building even came to Perry Yates’s door, holding a bag of apples, and asked if they could trade for some meat, saying their child was crying their eyes out from the craving.
In response, Perry Yates completely ignored them, turning around and shutting the open window tight, not letting a single whiff of the smell escape.
And that same neighbor, who had just been at her door speaking so politely, immediately went to the owners’ group chat to bad-mouth her, calling her stingy, heartless, and so on.
Perry Yates scoffed at this. ’Let them talk,’ she thought. ’It’s not like I’m going to lose a piece of flesh over it.’
Since there were no more suitable cards for her, she moved on to upgrading item cards.
This time, she planned to try a different upgrade method.
Except for the Space Backpack and the Spider Armor, the rest of her item cards were all White Cards.
So, Perry Yates upgraded all of these cards to one-star in one go.
As the Card Level increases, the ability of the item card also improves.
Take the Space Backpack, for example.
A one-star Space Backpack only has ten cubic meters of space. At two stars, it increases tenfold to one hundred cubic meters.
After the white water pot item card became one-star, its internal space expanded. Its capacity went from just a few hundred milliliters to a full ton of water.
’Now I won’t have to worry about running out of water in the game.’
She then proceeded to upgrade the rest of her cards to one-star one after another.
A set of rusty knives became sharp Fine Steel Knives. A Water Collector that could produce ten milliliters of water a day now produced five hundred. There was also the Undying Fire and the Cat Face Mask.
The mask gained a concealment effect. When wearing it, not even your own parents would recognize you.
The fire didn’t change much, aside from the image of the fire on the card growing brighter.
Finally, there was the Safe House.
After going through one game, Perry Yates had come to deeply understand the importance of having a Safe House.
An item like the Safe House came with a built-in safety feature: as long as the door was closed, no one could enter without your permission.
Its only shortcoming was that a Safe House from a White Card wasn’t very sturdy. Outsiders couldn’t get in through the door, but they could get in from other places.
After the card underwent Ascension to one-star, an option suddenly appeared before Perry Yates.
Increase area or increase sturdiness?
After thinking for a few seconds, Perry Yates decisively chose the latter.
A white light flashed, and the card in Perry Yates’s hand underwent a world-shaking transformation—like a dilapidated straw hut instantly becoming a sturdy brick house.
Moreover, even though she hadn’t chosen to increase its area, the Safe House’s size still grew from one square meter to five.
Seeing this result, Perry Yates decided to continue strengthening the Safe House.
At two stars, the Safe House gained a climate control system—essentially, warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Its sturdiness was reinforced once more, and its area reached ten square meters.
At three stars, a protective shield was added around the Safe House. The shield could block attacks and had a concealment effect.
When the Safe House reached four stars, its area expanded to twenty square meters. While all aspects were strengthened, the interior also went from being completely empty to being fully furnished.
’Five stars... Better forget about five stars for now.’
Although there weren’t as many restrictions on upgrading item cards to five stars, Perry Yates could sense that the energy required to go from four to five stars was immense—far more than she could currently afford.
At the same time, after an item card reached four stars, it gained another function: binding to its owner.
A four-star item card could also be integrated into the player’s body, but unlike a Skill Card, it wouldn’t completely disappear.
With this function, the card could never be stolen unless she willingly gave it up.
Over the next ten-odd days, Perry Yates gradually upgraded all the item cards in her possession to either three or four stars.
Now, Perry Yates could proudly say that all the players in Drakonia, and even the entire world, combined, couldn’t match her outrageously powerful set of gear.
After all, the weakest cards she held were three-star, and four-star cards were a common sight.
Perry Yates did a quick tally. Besides the cards she had fused, she now had four four-star item cards: the Space Backpack, the Safe House, the Water Collector, and the Spider Armor.
The rest were three-star cards: the Magic Water Pot, the Undying Fire, the Cat Face Mask, and a set of knives.
The reason she didn’t perform Ascension on all the three-star cards to make them four-star was mainly that Perry Yates felt three stars was already sufficient; there was no need to waste the extra energy.
After all, she didn’t have much food left. She needed to save some to prepare for the next game, and...
Perry Yates took out her laptop and, with practiced movements, accessed the survival game forum.
As soon as she entered, she saw several lines of conspicuous, large text on the forum’s homepage:
To all players:
The use of improper methods for profit is prohibited!
The use of Card Abilities to harm others is prohibited!
Attacking ordinary people is prohibited!
Violators—will bear the consequences!
This game forum was initially created by players. As the number of users grew, it was eventually taken over by the officials.
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