My Card Beast Taming Game

After taking a quick shower, he left without saying goodbye to Ding Yinan, who was also his friend.

He wasn't used to the club's assigned staff. He had never seen any staff members when Lu Qingning brought him here before, perhaps because Lu Qingning had given him prior notice.

Following Zhao Shiping's instructions, he went to a martial arts equipment store and bought two wooden swords. After returning home, he and Bai Yuangong each took one to practice.

Commander Changming watched from the sidelines, occasionally coming over to cause trouble, but Zhou Chen didn't get angry. When he was tired, he would look at the illustrations or meditate, and after resting, he would continue practicing.

It wasn't until noon, when the sun was high in the sky, that he was about to eat lunch when Hua Ning called.

Zhou Chen was quite surprised. His relationship with this intermediate card master was entirely due to Lu Qingning. What could the other party possibly need from him?

"Hello? Sister Hua?"

"Zhou Chen, someone will add you as a friend in a little while. Remember to accept their request."

"Oh, who are they?"

"You've met the team that went into the secret realm with us before. Your card-making luck is exceptional, so save up some money now so things will be easier in the future."

"Okay, okay, thank you, Sister Hua."

"Don't be so polite with me. If you grow up quickly, we might have a chance to become official teammates in the future."

Hua Ning smiled sweetly.

Although she is young, advancing from an intermediate card master to an advanced card master is not easy.

The youngest publicly known senior card master is 30 years old, which is already considered exceptional talent!

It should be noted that the presidents of associations in various prefecture-level cities are only senior card masters. Zheng Shouzhou, the former president of Fengcheng, and Yue Yong, the president of Jincheng next door, are both included in this category.

Chapter 46: Competition Registration

After Hua Ning hung up the phone.

Zhou Chen accepted friend requests from two strangers.

"Hi Zhou Chen, I'm Qu Shaoheng. How about we collaborate sometime?"

"Hello~ Do you remember me, Zhou Chen? We met before in the Secret Realm Nexus~"

He clicked on the other person's profile and saw that it was indeed the girl who had asked him about his relationship with Hua Ning when they went to the Water Marsh Secret Realm.

Zhou Chen fell into deep thought, wondering what he should reply.

After thinking for a moment, he replied to the person above: "Okay, please take care of me in the future, Brother Shaoheng."

Reply to the girl below: "I remember, hello."

Then he sent an emoji.

Girl: "Hehe, Sister Hua Ning said you're really lucky, your card-making success rate is over 50%?"

She replied with an emoji in return.

Nowadays, emojis are almost like interjections; they can be meaningless, just like when Sister Lu makes the Dark Flame Lion spit fireballs.

"Sister Hua, you flatter me. It's just a bit of luck." Zhou Chen rarely interacted with people, especially women, and for a moment, he didn't know what to reply.

The person on the other end started chatting with him with great interest, rambling on and on about various topics.

Out of a desire to expand his network and to give Hua Ning face, Zhou Chen responded as positively as possible, even finding topics to talk about when none existed.

After talking for a long time, he learned that the other party's name was Shen Jiayi, who belonged to the well-known card player club in Fengcheng, Changfeng, and was also a third-year student at Fengcheng Card Player Academy and a substitute member of the school team.

Overall, he is a very capable person.

While Zhou Chen was obtaining information from the other side, Shen Jiayi also figured out his situation.

An apprentice card master from an orphan family, relying solely on luck to go on a training expedition to a secret realm with Hua Ning?

Shen Jiayi thought of the other two girls who were with her.

But before she could ask any more questions, reality forced her to end the conversation, and she told Zhou Chen that they would talk again next time.

Zhou Chen breathed a slight sigh of relief.

He, a person with social anxiety, was at a loss for words and dared not speak directly, fearing he might offend the other party.

It's not that novice card masters are particularly skilled, it's just that they're very troublesome. Shen Jiayi seems like the kind of person who can easily gather friends and acquaintances.

I made a simple stew of big bones for lunch. The meat came from the Thorn Boar, a bronze-tier monster from a small secret realm. Surprisingly, it didn't have much of a gamey smell; instead, it had a subtle fruity aroma. It's a popular, slightly luxurious type of monster meat.

"Brother Chicken, would you like some?" Zhou Chen tried to share with Captain Changming.

But it only pecked at the meat offered to it twice before getting bored and running away.

Card creatures basically do not need food. Their bodies are purely composed of the card master's mental power, and they cannot digest food even if they are forced to eat it.

Zhou Chen reluctantly ate it all himself. In addition, he bought a pound of thick-shelled river clam meat, planning to stir-fry it with pickled cabbage for dinner.

After getting tired of looking at the card encyclopedia, Zhou Chen, having nothing better to do, went to learn about the Spirit Card Competition and discovered that there were surprisingly many public registration channels.

He used to worry about encountering scammers and thought it would be difficult for ordinary people to participate, so he basically didn't look into it in detail.

Lu Qingning said that Han Baobao's family also had related competitions, so Zhou Chen specifically looked it up.

Yes, there really is! And registration closes next week!

After learning more about it, Zhou Chen discovered that the competition was quite large, jointly organized by dozens of large and small Lingka shopping malls in eight cities in the central region of Yuzhou.

The competition is divided into two regions: Bronze and Silver. The Bronze region requires trainee card players to be under 25 years old, while the Silver region requires junior card players to be under 35 years old.

Zhou Chen didn't look at the prizes for the Silver Division; those were still a long way off for him. But the prizes for the Bronze Division alone were quite generous.

The champion receives a million-dollar cash prize and can choose two two-star bronze cards.

The runner-up receives 600,000 in cash, plus a two-star bronze card of their choice.

The third-place winner receives 350,000 in cash, plus five one-star bronze cards of their choice.

Even the top 64 players receive a prize of 30,000 yuan, plus a one-star bronze card of their choice.

After reading it, Zhou Chen had only one thought—

Lingka Mall is making a lot of money!

You have to understand that they hold these competitions every year. Not to mention the prizes, just the financial and material resources consumed behind the scenes are a staggering amount.

Zhou Chen soon discovered that this Lingka Competition, also known as the Yuzhong Cup, was officially endorsed by associations from several cities, making it very close to an official competition.

"13221 participants in the Bronze Division... Wow!"

He gasped sharply. More than 13,000 people in eight cities, averaging more than 1,000 per city.

Zhou Chen flipped up to look at the schedule and found that the competition would last less than a month from start to finish.

Is it really possible to finish the competition?

This isn't the first edition, so it should be able to finish by now, right?

After verifying the website's authenticity, he filled in the relevant information, signed the Lingka eSports contract, and completed his registration.

A competition with over 10,000 trainee card dealers under the age of 25 is not to be underestimated!

Zhou Chen carefully reviewed the competition schedule and learned that the first two weeks would be the city selection rounds, where 64 teams from each city would be selected.

The top 64 of the Yuzhong Cup will be determined starting in the third week, and the final competition will take place in the fourth week.

"Practice your swordsmanship and real combat more."

There's still a week until the competition. As long as he can master the White Ape, the championship shouldn't be a problem.

Zhou Chen had full confidence in the White Ape, who possessed specialized martial arts skills.

If some unexpected change occurs, there's nothing he can do; it just proves that there's always someone better.

After practicing his swordsmanship, Zhou Chen seized the opportunity to enter the dungeon and kill monkeys.

This time it went much more smoothly, and the White Ape finally showed its true strength, easily beheading the equally powerful Mountain Demon with just two strikes.

If White Ape was considered top-tier among bronze cards before acquiring his exclusive weapon, then after acquiring it, he became one of the absolute best.

Its three skills alone are enough to make many bronze cards pale in comparison.

Zhou Chen lifted the wooden knife with one hand and felt that it was becoming smoother to handle. Such a significant change had occurred in just one day!

He initially ordered the Commandant of the Long Cry to leave two monsters behind, and then he even ordered it to leave three monsters behind.

If it weren't for the fatigue from the numerous settlements, Zhou Chen would have even wanted the White Ape to take on all five of them by himself!

It's a pity I don't know if it's possible to kill monsters of higher levels...

The only reason preventing him from hunting Silver-rank monsters in advanced dungeons is that, as an apprentice card master, his reaction time is not fast enough.

There's definitely no problem with Captain Changming's side.

Although it is only two stars, when equipped with its exclusive weapon, its stats should be comparable to any three-star gold card and even rival those of a regular four-star gold card.

I wish I were an intermediate-level card master.

Compared to the beginner and apprentice ranks, intermediate card masters not only experience comprehensive improvements in both physical and mental aspects, but can also transfer damage received to their spirit cards, thereby increasing the card master's survivability.

There are a series of other effects, but none of them are as important as [Human Card Coexistence].

"Let's wait until we're more skilled."

Zhou Chen decided to first master the sword technique before considering having the White Ape fight monsters of a higher level.

Not long after.

A squad arrived at the spot where he had left. "It's that guy who doesn't clean up the battlefield again."

"Did he switch cards? The scars on his body have changed so much."

"I still don't understand what he's after..."

"Anyway, he's just wandering around the perimeter, let him kill. We can't kill all these monkeys before the lord monster dies."

"Sigh, if only we could take down the boss monster in the core area."

"Alright, if the golden generation in our family doesn't have the ability, let's give it to the capable ones. Don't let the other families in Dianzhou look down on us."

"Are you moving to the Hua family soon?"

The team chatted as they walked away.

Chapter 47: Challenging the Silver (Please continue reading!!!)

Zhou Chen had two peaceful yet fulfilling days.

Neither of the two people Hua Ning introduced came to him again, and he knew that as a trainee card master, he should take the initiative to start conversations with them.

—This is really putting him in a difficult position.

Regardless of her past or present life, Zhou Chen has always been introverted and has no idea how to socialize effectively.

But it's alright, he didn't plan to go to the secret realm anyway.

Don't be fooled by how generous the rewards are for the first secret realm experience; it's still five people's money split among three. Would Qu Shaoheng really take 30% or even 40% for himself like Sister Lu and the others did?

Totally impossible!

So Zhou Chen simply didn't consider going down to the secret realm with them.

However, Gao Liang, whom I had met in the secret realm before, contacted me again yesterday to send a red envelope as a token of my gratitude.

He successfully completed the process of condensing his spirit into qi, advancing from an apprentice card master to a junior card master, thus completely leaving behind the realm of mortals.

He was deeply grateful to everyone who had helped him in the secret realm, but unfortunately only Zhou Chen had responded so far; Lu Qingning and the others hadn't replied at all.

From their brief conversation, Zhou Chen learned that Gao Liang's four teammates had developed a fear of the Secret Realm after this battle. Some planned to rest for a year or two, while others gave up on the Secret Realm altogether and prepared to become competitive card masters.

It's truly heartbreaking.

However, there's nothing wrong with becoming a competitive card player, provided you're strong enough.

Five Congress Club training ground.

Zhou Chen finished today's swordsmanship and physical training classes.

The physical training class was an extra course added at Zhao Shiping's recommendation, who said that it would allow them to quickly retrieve the weapon if the White Ape accidentally dropped it.

Although he really wanted to tell the other party that the spirit weapon Wind and Thunder Blade was different from real weapons and could be automatically recalled if it was lost, he felt that there was nothing wrong with learning some physical skills.