Chapter 1 Nine Departures and Thirteen Returns

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Federation Calendar Year 4399, No. 91 Happiness Road, Witch Society.

Thunder raged and rain poured incessantly as a gloomy sky shrouded Yunlin City.

Inside a damp, cramped room, dim lamplight shone on Gu Ye's handsome face, faintly outlining the solemnity in his eyes.

"Little brother, you should know what our Witch Society does, right?"

"I know!"

"Good. Then this house, plus..." The woman paused, winked at Gu Ye, and said emphatically, syllable by syllable:

"You!"

"All of it as collateral, right?"

"Correct."

The woman chuckled. She took a document and a Federation Bank card from a drawer, pushed the document toward him, gave him a provocative look, licked her lips, and shook the bank card in her hand:

"Sign it, and the money! You can take it!"

Staring at the document before him, a flicker of hesitation flashed in Gu Ye's eyes, but his hands didn't stop. He quickly scanned the document, and after confirming there were no issues, he signed his name decisively.

Taking the bank card, Gu Ye turned to leave. Just thinking about how she had come to be what she was made his skin crawl.

"One month term. The interest rate will be calculated as 'nine out, thirteen back'!" the woman reminded him.

The woman stared at his retreating figure, licking her lips which were dry from heat. Her Adam's apple bobbed in her neck, her eyes revealing greed and infatuation:

"So handsome... exactly like I used to be!"

"Just my type!"

...

On the way home, Gu Ye went to the bank to transfer the money.

Returning home, he walked straight into his bedroom and sat down at his computer. To prepare for the Card Domain Trial in three days, he opened a website he had browsed countless times. After the page loaded for a moment, a red warning suddenly popped up:

"404. The website you are currently browsing poses a risk. Do you wish to continue?"

Gu Ye clicked "Continue" without hesitation. After a brief loading period, he finally entered a website that bore the bold header: "Yanxia Federation Official card-making materials Direct Sales Network · Yunlin Branch."

He skillfully entered the shopping cart, used the one-click purchase, and paid; the entire operation was smooth and practiced.

It wasn't until the page displayed "Transaction Successful" that he breathed a sigh of relief. He took out his phone and looked at the 200,000 Federation Coins he had obtained by selling his house and himself; only 10,000 Federation Coins now lay coldly in his account. His thoughts couldn't help but drift back to the cold yet warm world of his past life.

Gu Ye had been transported to this world called "Blue Star" by a literal stroke of luck—being hit by a truck—while he was squatting over a toilet drawing doujinshi. Eighteen years had passed since then.

A sudden Card Domain disaster had left both his parents dead, leaving him with a house but no car, and nothing but a handsome face. He had survived until now through work-study programs and Federation welfare.

To avenge his parents and out of curiosity about the supernatural powers of this world, he had spent years learning what kind of world this truly was.

Blue Star only shared one similarity with Earth, but this was a world of cards. Countless fantasy concepts had shattered his worldview.

"Card Domains, Summon cards, Mount cards, Field cards..."

Two thousand years ago, the sun had suddenly extinguished without warning. The reason remained unknown to this day.

A mysterious river surging from the depths of the universe spanned the planet like a giant dragon, causing Blue Star's volume to suddenly expand several times over. People called it the "domain river," and the worlds born from it were Card Domains—all sorts of Card Domains.

Due to Blue Star's gravity, Card Domains fell from the domain river onto the planet. Countless monsters swarmed out of these Card Domains, slaughtering humanity.

Human technology was useless against them, while their attacks could easily devour human lives.

With the sun extinguished and monsters attacking, humanity entered a dangerous and dark era, and the population plummeted.

Finally, when humanity was on the brink of extinction, the Heavenly Dao was born within the domain river. Following the path of balance, it allowed a man surnamed Shi to enter a Card Domain and awaken his Natal card, obtaining the first card in human history. From then on, humanity gained the power to contend with the monsters.

For this mysterious power, countless people rushed into Card Domains, one after another, to explore the mysteries of cards!

Through over a hundred years of exploration, people discovered that certain spiritual items within Card Domains, or body parts of monsters after death, could be used as materials for making cards. People called these "card-making materialss," which would manifest in the form of cards in their normal state.

Using different card-making materialss as the bone, bizarre stories as the soul, and the will of the Heavenly Dao as the vessel, these were recombined to create new cards, also known as "Card Creation Sequences."

Consciousness determines form; the entire card creation process is operated by consciousness. The energy that powers consciousness is called "Psionic Energy."

In the process of card creation, the story background becomes particularly important. People call this the "World Background."

The birth of one story means the emergence of a string of stories, and also the appearance of a new world!

The Era of cards was born from this, and Card Masters began their legendary paths. Card Makers, in particular, became the cream of the crop among the derived professions.

"The vast horizon is my love, at the foot of the rolling green mountains..."

A trendy phone ringtone suddenly rang out. The name "Chu Ling" flashed on the screen. Gu Ye pressed the answer button and put it to his ear:

"Hello~ Diao Mao, speak your piece or hang up. Your father's busy!"

An urgent male voice came from the other side:

"Old Gu, quick, look at the news! There's a major reform for the College Entrance Examination this year!"

Hearing this, Gu Ye swiped his finger to exit the call interface, opened his browser, ignored the gambling and porn ads, and found the current affairs section:

"#Large-scale Cultivation Card Domain [A Mortal's Journey to Immortality] has fallen in Shanghai City. Major companies like Qiangsheng and Penguin have dispatched large numbers of Platinum-rank Card Masters. The Card Domain is currently under exploration!#"

"#Recently, genius Card Maker Xiao Chunan successfully created a new world and is about to be specially admitted to the Yanxia Federation National Defense University.#"

"#Inside an Illusory Card Domain, [Lamb to the Slaughter] and [Butcher's Knife] will enter a final battle at the Peak of the Forbidden City on the night of March 20th. Who will reach the summit? Stay tuned!#"

"#Breaking! The 4399 College Entrance Examination system will undergo major reforms. Specific details will be officially released on June 1st!#"

Seeing the news about the College Entrance Examination that Chu Ling mentioned, Gu Ye clicked in and scanned it. It only covered some general reform matters without detailed explanations, so Gu Ye didn't pay it much more mind.

"I heard from my old man that team-ups will be allowed for this College Entrance Examination. When the time comes, we'll add Ye Suxuan and the three of us will dominate!"

"Let's pass the Card Domain Trial in three days first, otherwise we won't even be able to take the College Entrance Examination!"

Just as he finished speaking, a series of "tap-tap-tap" knocking sounds suddenly came from the window.

Gu Ye quickly jumped off the bed with his phone, walked to the window, and said to the other end of the line:

"Hanging up now, I've got things to do!"

Just as Gu Ye was about to hang up, Chu Ling hurriedly asked:

"Didn't you want to strengthen your [Heavy Armored Soldier]? Did you find an Enhancer? We..."

"No need, I've already found one."

Gu Ye interrupted him. Without waiting for Chu Ling's rebuttal, he hung up the phone and pushed open the window.

What met his eyes was a short figure, about four inches tall, standing in the rain. It wore a knee-length robe, a yellow headscarf, and had a small cloth bag slung around its waist. Its eyes were bright and piercing.

As the exclusive courier for a logistics company, Gu Ye recognized it. He smiled and welcomed it inside:

"Little Qingji, where's my package?"

The Qingji shook the rainwater off its body, took a stack of envelopes from its small satchel, handed them to Gu Ye, and then pulled out a delivery receipt with a serious little face:

"Please confirm if the items are correct!"

Gu Ye tore open the envelopes and took out over a dozen cards, confirming they were the ones he wanted.

He immediately signed the receipt handed over by the Qingji. The Qingji tucked away the receipt, summoned its exclusive BMW mount, dashed out the window, and gradually disappeared into the wind and rain.

Closing the window, Gu Ye looked at the dozens of cards in his hand with burning eyes.

"I can start creating the card now!"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card with a greyish-white back.

On the card face was a black-faced middle-aged man holding a spear and wearing armor. He had a ferocious expression, exuding an aura of someone unafraid of death.

card: [Heavy Armored Soldier]

Quality: [Pale White · 1-Star]

(card grades are divided into: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold, Red, and Iridescent. Each grade is further divided into pale and deep shades. Star levels represent the amount of Psionic Energy used by the Card Master, card development degree, etc., ranging from 1-Star to 9-Star.)

Category: [General/Summon/Humanoid]

Traits:

[Heavy Armor] Clad in heavy armor, possesses slightly strong defense.

Skills:

[Thrust] Lunges forward with a spear to attack the target.

[Unarmor] Removes heavy armor to increase speed.

Gu Ye looked at this card—the only item his parents had left behind and his very first card. For a moment, he was overcome with emotion.

Although this card was only [White · 1-Star], it had cost his parents a great deal of money to buy. He planned to use this card as a foundation to create an entirely new card, a new card Sequence.

For commoners like them, obtaining cards or card Sequences meant either spending money or spending even more money.

Otherwise, they had to pay to enter Card Domains controlled by Noble Families or corporations to obtain card-making materialss, or enter wild Card Domains in the wilderness to kill monsters for them. Alternatively, they could work for the corporations and receive them as charity.

Once "card-making materialss" were obtained, a "World Background" was still needed, which was another massive expense for commoners.

Over the past few thousand years, countless Card Domains had fallen and countless heroes had been born, but the emergence of "World Backgrounds" had become increasingly rare.

Millennium Noble Families controlled most of the World Backgrounds on Blue Star. If the Federation hadn't released some low-quality "World Backgrounds," commoner Card Makers who wanted to make cards would truly have had no choice but to sell their lives to the Noble Families and corporations!

Although Gu Ye's card was a common mass-produced model, he believed that by adding Refinement materials and the World Background from his previous life on Earth, the card would undergo a complete transformation.

Although the birth of every card Sequence meant the deaths of countless people—the cause of death being the Malignant Corruption Disease that came along with the domain river.

But fortunately, Gu Ye had a cheat. He wasn't afraid of any Malignant Corruption Disease at all. With the help of his cheat, he felt he could infinitely deduce those card Sequences from his past life.

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The little author bows in thanks here, (｢･ω･)｢ Hey!