The Card Apprentice

It was like the air had congealed, so oppressive it was suffocating.

In the dark, Bogner’s while teeth dazzled as he chuckled. “Let’s give our friends a little something to remember us by.”

He made a strange gesture with his right hand, and the order was immediately passed down.

Hugo’s face changed color, and a look of rage flashed through his eyes. But, despite the pressure he felt, he had to powerfully restrain his urge to make a move!

Aah! Three blood-curdling screams! Three among the five card artisans behind him had suddenly been hit and fell from the air. There were six kinds of energy bodies. Hugo determined in the first instant that it wasn’t military. The military was composed of highly coordinated troops whose battle style was different from any of the card artisan teams. The were all equipped with standardized regulation cards, and their lethality as a unit was a lot more terrifying than that of other teams.

The energy bodies emitted by their counterpart were all different, which was the style for a team of card artisans. Card artisan teams didn’t have any way to be like the military, which could use standard regulation cards. They did have good mobility, however, and their cards were their own private property. So, the energy bodies a team of card artisans would fire off could be of all sorts, which was one of the reasons the battle power of card artisan teams often couldn’t compare with army troops.

However, Hugo’s furious heart was shocked; his adversary had shot off six different kinds of energy bodies altogether, which must have been six different card artisans who made their moves in unison. There were about two of them opposing only one of his own, on top of which the adversary held the initiative. The outcome wasn’t so surprising. What surprised him was how coordinated his adversary was, everything in place by pairs and the division of labor clear and orderly. Although it was the most basic kind of pairing tactic, it represented superb tactical accomplishment.

That was seldom seen among teams of card artisans! Only the elite troops from those big-name card artisan firms could have such qualities. The critical reason the adversary had hit those three subordinates, who had already died, was that they didn’t show any means to survive.

Hugo’s gaze turned gloomy, and his cheeks were trembling uncontrollably! Those three under him, now so totally beaten, had gone through hell with him and had never been cowardly. His breathing became abruptly coarser, and his fighting spirit surged with violent rage. His eyes had started to turn a little red.

As though they had felt his martial spirit, the strands of perception that were locked onto his body seemed to become a little agitated as well.

But he quickly calmed down when his gaze fell onto the ashen-faced Butchie at his side.

He immediately felt the powerful, oppressive sensation transmitted by the perception locked onto his body! If he were to move, he would only have one shot. If he weren’t killed, he’d be badly injured. He wasn’t afraid to die; under his calm exterior, his boiling blood would embolden him to make such a counterattack. He believed that to risk his life to make a strike would certainly teach the enemy a profound lesson.

It wasn’t that he didn’t dare; he couldn’t! If he were to make a move, Butchie and his own remaining two underlings would certainly die. He wasn’t concerned for his own life, but he had to be concerned about Butchie’s.

For his adversary to kill only those three of his people was surely a signal that his adversary didn’t want to kill them all. He was only teaching them a lesson.

Expressionless, Hugo stared coldly at the small building until he suddenly raised his right hand.

Butchie and the two other card artisans looked in unison at Hugo’s right hand. The subsequent motion of that hand would determine their fate.

Hugo’s right hand waved backward, and the silvery half-masked face was still expressionless as he said in a low voice, “Let’s retreat. Be slow and alert, and if you encounter an attack, everyone immediately fire with all your might. Our objective is the small building.”

Although the faces of Butchie and the other two card artisans had turned white, they all nodded at the same time, still showing resolve. They could be killed in battle, but they couldn’t be humiliated!

The four of them slowly backed away.

“He has personality. I like that.” Bogner rubbed his shaved chin as he watched the four slowly retreat, unable to restrain his look of admiration.

“Let them go,” Bogner ordered.

The card artisans did as he said without hesitation. The speed of the four retreating immediately increased in the dark, and they disappeared into the night in the blink of an eye.

Chen Mu had watched the confrontation between the two sides and couldn’t help but look at Bogner in admiration. Of course power meant having more people. If it had just been him alone, the aftermath was easily imagined.

Spending that money was really worth it!

Bogner clapped and raised his voice to say, “Good. That’s it, fellows. Except for those in the rotation, everyone else eat and rest. There won’t be any free activities during this heightened alert. We’ll have a training tomorrow morning, so get your rest.”

No one responded, though they all immediately set to it. They really were well-trained, and with regard to discipline and obedience, they were impeccable. Chen Mu praised them endlessly to himself. In the dark, his six senses were far more sensitive than normal. Even without perception, he could detect their every movement.

Far from the building was someone watching that conflict, which wasn’t quite a battle. It was none other than Jie Yanbai from the Central Repository of the Classics! On his resolute face was a vague look of mockery, and he was carrying a comatose person.

Unfortunately, as Hugo was suppressing his anger in retreat, he didn’t pay any attention to Jie Yanbai in the distance. Otherwise, he would certainly have recognized that the person Jie Yanbai was carrying was the one who had led the way earlier—the youth Hugo had allowed to leave. He worked for the Beard.

How did he fall into the hands of Jie Yanbai?

“Boss.” Bogner turned around to face Chen Mu. “I need more money.”

“You’ve spent it all?” Chen Mu was stunned. For 250 million Oudi to be spent in the space of a few days was staggering to the embarrassingly cash-short Chen Mu.

Bogner nodded as though it were nothing. “It was pretty cheap to get these aces for 250 million.”

On that point, Chen Mu was actually in agreement. Those 20 aces were extraordinarily powerful, and that 250 million was worth it! Moreover, once they got there to help resolve the crisis, he understood more deeply what Bogner meant when he was talking about power that day.

“How much do you need?” Chen Mu had only a few tens of millions on hand, which constituted the profits from Heaven’s Wings along with the reimbursements.

“Two hundred million.” Bogner counted on his fingers. “We’ve barely gathered enough aces, and we swept clean all the cities in the area. We’d have to go further afield to recruit more, which we can’t do just now. What we need to recruit now are some reinforcements—not too powerful, but some youthful card artisans with potential. They can do some peripheral things, and they can act as a reserve. Card artisans we cultivate ourselves, whether in regard to loyalty, tactics or adaptability, would be more reliable.

“Such people are quite cheap, so we won’t have to spend much. It would be a long-term investment that would be helpful in the future. Apart from that, the strength of these 20 is pretty good, though they still haven’t sufficiently mastered their tactical coordination. They need more training!”

Bogner’s straight-out evaluation made Lu Xiaoru turn red, and she was a little annoyed as she stared at Bogner.

Bogner watched her annoyed, fiery gaze as though he didn’t see it and continued on. “They will need a specialized training area, as well as a large quantity of power cards, which is no small expense. Moreover…” He pointed at his feet. “This building is indefensible. If we weren’t afraid the counterattack would produce large causalities when our adversaries were facing death, they would all be dead already. This kind of building has no defensive capability and isn’t much different from a pile of tofu. What we need is…”

His eyes lit up after he’d thought for a while. “Right. A fort!”

He was quite pleased with himself. “That way, we wouldn’t need to be afraid of the enemy attacking. We just need a fortress on top of this gang, which would be enough to make anyone retreat after finding out how hard it would be to get to you. We need specialized training rooms inside with room to accommodate everyone, and we need a large warehouse to store a large quantity of food. Anyone wanting to break into such a fortress would have to pay a heavy price, no matter who they were, unless they were to send several aces like Jiao Si. Ha ha, but that would be a lot of bother, and who would spend that much capital on a card master? There would be no benefit for them to do that. On the one hand, they would become notorious in the minds of the people. It would give a lot of pause to the Big Six, who are so concerned with their face. Though that gang of lawless people at Faya wouldn’t care about that; still, whether Faya or the Big Six, what they pay attention to is the value you would bring them. Such a direct and severe conflict would possibly keep them from getting anything, and it might even cause them great harm. That’s how you can stay safe.”

He raised his voice to stress, “Therefore, we need a strong fortress.”

Chen Mu opened his arms with a calm expression. “I don’t have that much money.”

Bogner looked like a deflated ball, mumbling to himself, “I know. Ai! First, get some money for me to buy some power cards. Those things are essential.”

“Power cards?” Chen Mu took a look at Bogner. “How many do you need? How many stars?”

Three-star would be ok for training. That uses a lot, and for 21 people using about two cards per day on average, we would require at least a week’s supply. That would be 294, rounded up to the whole number of 300. Four-star cards would be held in reserve for battle, with a standard quantity of five per person, though we don’t need so many just now. Two each should do it, which would be 42.”

Chen Mu sucked in a breath of cold air.