24: Director Hou's investment

“Haha! I got you!”

Director Hou’s eyes immediately lit up.

Shi Li’s Unique Character Card was actually given to him by Xiu Qingshan!

One must know that completing the simulation task to acquire a Unique Character Card usually requires dozens, if not hundreds, of token cards.

The crucial point is that unique token cards are not resources that can be bought with money.

He himself had obtained his Unique Character Card by exchanging Card Hall points for a batch of token cards.

Therefore, the relationship between these two was definitely not ordinary!

They were either relatives or master and disciple, with the latter being more probable.

No wonder he always felt Curator Xiu was a bit off; it turned out he was trying to cover it up.

Sure enough, young people’s mouths were looser and easier to get information from.

Now, thinking about it again, Director Hou understood.

Xiu Qingshan was a direct descendant of the Show Card Hall, and in the future, he would surely hold a high position of power, possibly even inheriting the position of Chief Curator.

With him paving the way, Shi Li’s future prospects would undoubtedly be secure.

Director Hou believed he was definitely the first among his colleagues to discover this connection.

Befriending Shi Li was equivalent to befriending Xiu Qingshan.

As the saying goes, ‘one step fast, every step fast’; as long as he got on this line first, he might even be able to rise with them in the future.

“Shi Li, I, Hou Waida, am betting on you!”

During the drive, Director Hou’s thoughts raced.

Although he had slightly increased the rewards for the assessment ranking.

But on the surface, it was given by the Card Hall; the other party did not know the underlying relationship and would not appreciate his gesture.

To say it out loud would also have the suspicion of taking credit too obviously.

So he had to personally give a gift.

However, this gift could not be too heavy, otherwise, it might backfire and incur Curator Xiu’s displeasure.

But at the same time, it had to be useful to the current Shi Li, so that the other party would genuinely thank him.

Director Hou pondered over it and finally came up with an answer before reaching the residential area.

“By the way, no one from our city’s Show Card Hall has participated in the Climbing Tower Competition for several years.”

Before Shi Li got out of the car, he pulled out his prepared words: “Take these material cards; I hope you can bring honor to our Card Hall in a month.”

“This…”

Shi Li didn’t expect the other party to give him a gift.

“Take them; these aren’t for you, they’re for our Show Card Hall.”

Director Hou’s expression became somewhat serious: “Our Show Card Hall joined late, so our foundation in Durian City is not as strong as the other two Card Halls.

As a member of the Show Card Hall, my career aspiration is to make our city’s Card Hall bigger and stronger, and one day be able to hold our heads high in front of the people from those two Card Halls.”

His words were not entirely false.

The Show Card Hall being suppressed by the other two Card Halls in Durian City was not a new thing.

As a member of the Show Card Hall, he naturally didn’t want to see this situation.

“Then thank you, Director Hou.”

With the other party elevating it to this level, Shi Li could no longer refuse.

“If there’s anything I can help with in the future, please don’t hesitate.”

He glanced at them; they were actually 3 identical two-star material cards.

For him, this was a generous gift.

“Look at you, I didn’t mean that.”

Director Hou refused with his words, but in reality, he was already beaming.

Wasn’t this exactly what he was waiting for?

After saying goodbye to Director Hou, Shi Li bought two late-night snacks outside the residential area.

While eating supper, he checked on Shi Yuan’s studies, and everything was normal.

Then he took a hot bath and felt much of his fatigue disappear.

“These 3 material cards…”

Shi Li pulled out the material cards gifted by Director Hou.

The projection of the card was a crystal-clear small bottle.

Inside the bottle, there was a green liquid emitting a soft glow, giving a vibrant feeling.

【life river water】: Berserk-type Trait Material (Two-star)

Director Hou giving out such a material card was clearly because of the Red Blade Maiden.

“And he gave three at once, seemingly to increase my fault tolerance.”

Once the use of a material card failed, the entire card would be completely scrapped.

It seemed the other party truly had good intentions.

“Let’s practice with the Fluorescent Vine first.”

Shi Li was not in a hurry to use these 3 life river water.

Instead, he pulled out another two-star material card he had acquired today.

It was called 【Complete Fluorescent Leaf】, which was also a drop from the Fluorescent Vine.

Looking at his savings again, he still had 2500+.

“I don’t know how many times this money is enough to refresh, but I’ll try to get it done in one go.”

Saying that, he opened the card-making panel of the Card Player System.

He selected the Fluorescent Vine and then the trait 【Nourishment】.

Subsequently, a complex circuit diagram appeared before his eyes.

The image was composed of multiple blue light lines, either straight, bent, or curved, with small light points flowing at a constant speed along the light tracks.

Then he took out the 【Complete Fluorescent Leaf】 and chose to open its internal structure view.

A relatively less complex, smaller, and brand new blue light circuit appeared.

“Let me see, here is point A, and here is point B.”

Shi Li used the system’s drawing tool to intercept a segment of the light line in the material card’s circuit.

“Oh dear.”

As a result, his hand trembled, and he intercepted a few extra millimeters.

“It seems my technique is still not skilled enough.”

He shook his head helplessly: “Then I can only rely on the reset.”

Clicking to end card-making, two lines of text popped up.

【Detecting material card circuit changes, this card will be destroyed after completion.】

【Yes/No to consume 300 cubic coins to reset this card-making.】

Good news, resetting card-making was much cheaper than resetting a task.

Shi Li didn’t hesitate at all and directly chose to reset.

Although he had operated well on the simulation machine at school, there was still a slight difference in real card-making.

Moreover, Shi Li pursued excellence, striving to optimize the trait to the upper limit of its star level.

After three failures, the trait optimization was finally completed.

Looking at the optimization result of the Fluorescent Vine, Shi Li expressed his satisfaction.

【Fluorescent Vine】

Listen to the Wind, 30 points, Two-star

Attack 30, 100/100, 0/40

【Nutrient Absorption - Passive】: Restore 10 energy points on the turn a skill is cast

【Nourishment - 30 → 20 Energy Points】: Fluorescent Vine gives 1 target 30 points of Healing (T1)

The energy-Healing conversion rate was optimized from the previous 30-30 to 20-30.

For a two-star card, or for the Fluorescent Vine card, this was its limit.

With the enhancement of Nutrient Absorption, it was equivalent to being able to Heal for 3 turns after being static for 2 turns.

This was especially important for the Red Blade Maiden, who had a huge amount of health consumption.

“Alright, now it’s the Red Blade Maiden’s turn.”

After successfully practicing, Shi Li’s confidence greatly increased.

However, when he opened the circuit of the life river water, he realized it was much more complex than he had imagined.

“Even two-star material cards have differences.”

He immediately understood.

Unlike the Complete Fluorescent Leaf, this life river water was not used to optimize existing traits, but to generate new traits.

…

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