Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Card Making
Joyce Lynch hadn’t actually made up her mind before coming. She just wanted to see if she could trade for some cards that suited her.
But when she walked into the card shop and saw the fan-shaped display of four-star cards behind the bar, she changed her mind.
’No matter who this person is, there’s no doubt that her initial Talent must be incredibly strong.’
All players awaken an initial Talent after entering the game for the first time. This is the fundamental way players protect themselves in the early stages.
In reality, however, most players awaken Talents that enhance things like their constitution or speed. Other types of Talents are exceedingly rare.
And while the Talent Joyce Lynch obtained wasn’t as rare as Perry Yates’s SSS-rank Ascension, it was only a slight step down: S-rank Card Creation.
As the name implied, she could create cards.
However, creating these cards had its own requirements; she couldn’t just make them limitlessly.
And frankly, this Talent offered no direct benefit to Joyce Lynch herself. To be more precise, its disadvantages outweighed its advantages.
This was because she couldn’t use the cards she created on herself. Furthermore, everyone had a limit to how many cards they could fuse. Fusing too many would exceed the body’s tolerance and become a burden.
Perry Yates didn’t recognize the person before her as the one she had sold attributeless cards to at the offline trading meet.
So when she heard Joyce Lynch wanted to do business with her, she asked curiously, "What kind of business?"
"I can provide you with a large number of attributeless cards, but you have to promise me at least one three-star Water Attribute Card or two two-star Water Attribute Cards each month."
If Perry Yates hadn’t recognized the person in front of her at first, her identity became crystal clear the moment she mentioned attributeless cards.
She didn’t immediately agree to Joyce Lynch’s request.
Given her abilities, she could easily create High Star Cards through Ascension, but she still didn’t want to agree.
The reason was simple. Joyce Lynch said she could provide a "large number" of attributeless cards, but she hadn’t specified exactly how many.
On top of that, she was asking for a three-star card right off the bat.
One had to understand that three-star cards were considered a custom service, priced at one hundred White Cards.
Although she had fused attributeless cards before, she had to admit that most of them weren’t very useful—some weren’t even as good as a single White Card.
At least after undergoing Ascension, even the most ordinary item on a White Card, like a needle, would be granted a unique purpose.
But these attributeless cards could only be Ascended once, after which they would not change any further.
Seeing Perry Yates remain silent for so long, Joyce Lynch couldn’t help but grow nervous.
At this, Perry Yates slowly spoke up. "I can’t agree to your terms. However, I can take a look at the attributeless cards you’ve brought with you."
Joyce Lynch was disappointed when she heard Perry Yates’s refusal, but when she heard the second part of the sentence, her hope was rekindled.
She then took out all the attributeless cards she had on her in one go.
Although she could create cards, each one required specific conditions to be met before it could be successfully made.
Take Invisibility, for example.
To create this card, she had to mentally simulate the entire process and principles of turning invisible.
For Joyce Lynch, who was raised as a successor to socialism under the red flag, one could only imagine the difficulty this posed—let alone skills like Instant Teleportation.
Compared to these Skill-like attributeless cards, the profession-type attributeless cards were even more difficult. The creator needed to have a complete mastery of a profession’s knowledge to be able to make the card.
Simply put, to make a profession card, you first needed to have rock-solid professional knowledge.
Joyce Lynch took out more than twenty attributeless cards in one go and placed them on the table.
"These are all the cards I have on me right now."
Joyce Lynch looked like a primary school student obediently handing in her homework, which Perry Yates found somewhat amusing.
She spread all the cards out on the table and began to pick through them.
She hadn’t realized it before, but a single look was enough to give her a shock. The contents of these attributeless cards truly covered everything.
From martial arts to various professions, and then to Skills.
Besides Skills like Instant Teleportation and X-ray vision, there were also ones like Dimensional Pocket, Flash, Sprint, and Purify—Skills that were clearly inspired by video games.
Perry Yates selected ten cards from the pile and said, "If your future cards can all meet the standard of these, I can agree to your proposal. One hundred cards can be exchanged for one two-star card. You can pick the attribute."
"As for three-star cards, those fall under the custom card series."
"Custom cards?"
Joyce Lynch was first overjoyed, but then a hint of confusion flashed in her eyes when she heard the words "custom cards."
Perry Yates then explained to Joyce Lynch what custom cards were, which only made her more bewildered.
"Cards can be custom-made?"
Perry Yates shrugged nonchalantly. "You can create cards, so why can’t I customize them?"
"It’s one rule for you and another for me, is that it?"
Joyce Lynch didn’t say anything. That wasn’t what she meant.
"Then let’s go with the price you just mentioned. Take these ten cards as a deposit. I’ll need time to create the rest. Can you give me the Water Attribute Card in advance?"
"No." Perry Yates’s refusal was decisive. "I don’t know you. What if you run off?"
Hearing this, Joyce Lynch was taken aback. Although she had never considered doing such a thing, she felt Perry Yates had a point. After all, this was their first time meeting; her request was indeed inappropriate.
She looked around and suddenly said, "Since this place is a bar, you should be open 24/7, right?"
Perry Yates nodded. "Yes."
"Good. Do you have any private rooms here? I need a quiet environment to create cards." As she spoke, Joyce Lynch’s gaze shifted to the second floor.
"There are private rooms on the second floor, but you have to pay ten one-star cards to use one."
Hearing the price, Joyce Lynch’s eyes instantly widened in disbelief.
"What did you say?! Ten! One-star cards!"
Joyce Lynch stared at Perry Yates, her expression screaming, ’Why don’t you just rob me instead?’
Perry Yates shrugged and pointed behind her. "If you want a quiet space and don’t want to spend anything, just go find a spot back there and say ’quiet’ to the table in front of you."
Hearing this, Joyce Lynch skeptically found a random seat. After sitting down, she knocked twice on the table in front of her and said, "Quiet."
The next second, her surroundings instantly fell silent. Not a single sound could be heard.
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