After muttering to himself for a while, Mark Victor's eyelids drooped, and he said calmly, "I have two plans."
"Oh." Chen Mu responded, and waited for him to continue.
Mark Victor extended a finger, "In the first plan, I will teach you some of the necessary skills of a close-combat card artisan, and if you can learn them, then your power will be above average among close-combat card artisans.
What you will have to pay for this plan are contribution points. "
Chen Mu showed a thoughtful expression.
"In the second plan, you won't have to pay any contribution points."
Mark Victor noticed that Chen Mu's expression was the same as always, without the slightest fluctuation because of what he had said, which made him even more resolute in his thinking.
He paused a little, and then continued, "I will pass on to you all the skills and techniques I know, without holding anything back.
But I need a promise from you. "
"What promise?" Chen Mu's gaze was as clear as water.
"If I run into any difficulties in the future, such as someone challenging me, I hope you can help me if it's convenient." Mark Victor said calmly.
Chen Mu was taken aback, since he was a smart person, and could naturally understand what that meant.
That sentence had almost no binding force on him, and if he didn't want to acknowledge it.
He didn't immediately agree, but voiced his doubts, "That doesn't seem very fair to you."
Mark Victor's expression was indifferent, "All I want is hope."
He then took a look at Chen Mu, "For me to be able to trade this for hope would be a very good deal.
How about it?
You can think about it. "
Chen Mu looked startled, since what Mark Victor had said had clearly surprised him.
Seeing Chen Mu's startled expression, Mark Victor smiled, "Actually, I've never understood why you want to become a card artisan.
Compared to a card artisan, being a card master is a lot safer.
And for you to be able to pay such a high reward, I presume you're outstanding in card making, and wouldn't want to wade into the muddy waters of card artisans. "Chen Mu could hear the loneliness and desolation in Mark Victor's words.
"I agree to the second plan."
Having thought it through, Chen Mu solemnly nodded in agreement, and he also raised his own requirements, "But I hope you can keep it a secret about me studying close-combat card artisan.
If anyone asks, please say you're helping me experiment with my new close-combat card. "
"Okay." Mark Victor's expression was serious, without any surprise or joy.
He looked at Chen Mu and said calmly, "Very well, then let's begin.
The training is a little tough. "
When Chen Mu returned to his room, his legs were weak.
He was so tired that he didn't even have the strength to lift a finger. He now deeply understood what Mark Victor had meant by hardship.
For the whole afternoon, he practiced hard, repeatedly and crazily.
He felt that the last of his strength had been squeezed out by Mark Victor, and he didn't even know how he had returned to his room.
Mark Victor seemed to have suddenly transformed into a cold military instructor, his face as stiff as a brick. Chen Mu thought with some mischief.
It had been a long time since he was this tired. Ever since he started practicing the exercise gymnastics, his physical strength had been increasing.
He became more and more confident in his physical strength, but this time, he knew that his physical strength was not enough.
Sure enough, close-combat card artisans were a tough profession.
This was only the most basic training. It had yet to involve the use of cards.
No wonder there were so few close-combat card artisans nowadays. Chen Mu felt that most of them had been scared away by the intensity of the training.
Without having time to take a bath, Chen Mu fell asleep in a dark corner.
He had always remembered what the demonic woman had said, to get familiar with the darkness.
After sleeping for nearly three hours, Chen Mu opened his eyes, startled by a knock on his door.
It must have been Ning Peng or Ning Yan, since only they would knock on his door.
He carefully turned on the light and scanned the room to make sure there wasn't anything unsightly before opening the door.
There was a smiling stranger standing outside the door.
"Hello, may I ask if you are Mr. Chen Mu?" The stranger said with a smile.
When his gaze fell onto the bruise on Chen Mu's face, a look of surprise flashed through his eyes.
Chen Mu was on guard, sizing up the stranger, and said, "I am, and you are?"
"I'm called Bo Wen."
The stranger introduced himself very politely, "I've long heard of Mr. Chen Mu's great name, and have admired you for a long time.
Your card making skills are superb, and every time brother Ning Peng speaks of you, he is full of praise. "
Was this person called Bo Wen in front of him a friend of Ning Peng's?
Although he was smiling the whole time, and looked friendly and harmless, Chen Mu still maintained his vigilance.
He quickly denied his own conjecture, since even if he were a friend, Ning Peng would never have talked about him with that person.
But since he had gotten his room number from Ning Peng, he certainly had a close relationship with the Ning family.
"You're too polite." Chen Mu responded, since he was living under someone else's roof, and he still had to give him that little bit of face.
Compared to his peers, although Chen Mu looked wooden, he actually had a lot more life experience.
Bo Wen was still smiling warmly, and said leisurely, "I took the liberty of paying you a visit this time because I have something to ask of you."
Chen Mu made an 'oh' sound, and waited for Bo Wen to continue.
Bo Wen was a little bashful, "I would like to ask Mr. Chen to help me make a three-star card."
"A three-star card?" Chen Mu looked cautiously at Bo Wen, since his counterpart's request was in line with what he had guessed.
He guessed that only a card maker would be able to come looking for him.
"Mmmm, I specialize in the wavy blade type of card, but I'm not very satisfied with this wavy blade card." He pulled a card out of his apparatus and handed it to Chen Mu.
Chen Mu took the card from Bo Wen and looked at it carefully. It turned out to be a stacked wave card.
The stacked wave card was very powerful, and its principle was very simple, which was to let multiple wavy blades charge together to increase its attack power.
Chen Mu looked at Bo Wen in astonishment. The stacked wave card was very powerful, but there weren't many people who used it.
To stack so many wavy blades together required very precise perceptual control, which was very difficult. That was one of the reasons it was abandoned by the vast majority of card artisans.
"The stacked wave card's power is pretty good. What performance aren't you satisfied with?" Chen Mu asked.
Bo Wen said seriously, "The frequency. Its firing speed is a little slow."
Chen Mu quite agreed with what Bo Wen had said.
Because the stacked wave card needed to use perception to stack several wavy blades together, it took a long time, and the frequency was naturally slow.
That was another important reason for limiting the use of that kind of card.
There were gains and there were losses. That was the law of nature, and Chen Mu couldn't do both at the same time.
There would never be a card in the world that could satisfy all of humanity's requirements.
Thinking about it, Chen Mu asked, "What kind of card would you like?" Chen Mu decided to make a card for him based on his deep relationship with the Ning family.
As for how far he would go, that would depend on his mood.
"A medium frequency would be fine, but it has to be powerful enough. Wavy blade type.
That's all. "Bo Wen was looking at Chen Mu with a slight smile.
Chen Mu didn't say anything, since Bo Wen's description was very general.
No matter what line it was, the stricter the other's requirements were, the easier it would be to get things done.
Those with general requirements were the hardest to get rid of.
For example, the biggest headache for those jewel masters would be "as long as it looks good," or "no special requirements, as long as it feels good." But for those kinds of customers, the jewel masters would certainly be very cautious and careful, always grinding until they had the specific design and the specific pattern set.
As Bo Wen put it, what was considered a medium frequency?
What was considered enough power?
That was a very mysterious way of putting it, but it was hard to get rid of.
But Chen Mu wasn't planning on making any good card for him, and would just use any card to get rid of him.
Seeming to have seen through Chen Mu's thoughts, Bo Wen didn't wait for him to open his mouth when he gave a slight smile and threw out a condition that Chen Mu couldn't refuse, "As a reward, I will present Mr. Chen with a set of Kuo Haofeng's proudest work, the 'Weak Water' set of pens."
Chen Mu's expression abruptly turned serious.
Last time at Eastern Wei Academy, the biggest prize in the card making competition organized by the Star Academy had been Kuo Haofeng's famous pen.
Chen Mu hadn't become familiar with Kuo Haofeng's generation of famous pen-making masters since then.
He had once specifically looked up some information about that great pen-making master.
He had a vague impression of the "Weak Water" set of pens.
It seemed to be able to greatly increase the compatibility between card ink and card, and especially had an excellent amplification effect on liquid card ink.
You have to know that among all the card inks, liquid card ink was the most common, and also the most widely used.
That also made the "Weak Water" set of pens quite valuable, never having thought it would be in the hands of that youth.
As far as a card master was concerned, a good set of card pens was irreplaceable.
The card master had to make the card ink himself, but card masters were powerless when it came to card making pens.
There were far fewer pen masters than card masters, and the number of grandmasters who could climb to the top like Kuo Haofeng could be counted on one's fingers.
Such a treasure as the "Weak Water" was something that countless card masters yearned for even in their dreams.
Now that it was in front of Chen Mu, how could he not be tempted?
A "Weak Water" level card making pen basically couldn't be bought on the market.