Fools sometimes have good fortune

Indeed, a card shop – essentially a gathering place for card game enthusiasts. Games were indispensable for youth entertainment and socialization, but whether it was buying single-player games or spending money on online competitive games, Xiaoxin couldn’t find a way to fleece his cousin. After all, the accounts were hers; even if she lent them to him, he couldn’t sell them for money.

Cards, however, were different. Even autographed cards could become a lucrative avenue for speculators. Perhaps some might think that in an era of projected cloud computing and immersive gaming experiences, a tabletop card duel in reality would be dull, but that was far from the truth.

Projection technology not only gave video games a more realistic feel but also brought new vitality and possibilities to card games. Instead of focusing on card sheen and borders as before, merchants began to improve the cards themselves.

These plastic cards were embedded with identification chips and unique verification barcodes. Through terminal authentication, they could project the card’s special effects or even the card art itself.

Furthermore, if one drew a [Top Rarity] card, what was projected wasn’t merely the card’s face, but a complete character, which would perform various animations—defending, attacking, or taking damage—according to one’s in-game commands.

Undoubtedly, achieving the optimal experience was a costly affair. A terminal battle board cost 12,980 yuan, a private projector 18,000 yuan, and a professional store-grade one a staggering 240,000 yuan per unit. However, battle boards could at least be rented, and official projectors were provided for regular tournaments. The most crucial element, though, remained the cards themselves.

Xiaoxin, though he used to play, mostly collected cards of the lowest rarity. They lacked fancy effects, merely projecting the card art when played, but they sufficed for social interactions. After all, while aesthetically pleasing card art was enjoyable, [winning] was ultimately the goal. Thus, Xiaoxin felt he didn’t care about having high rarity cards.

‘That’s right, truly strong card players don’t care for flashy frills; victory is everything!’

‘My inner self was cool, wearing sunglasses and acting like a total badass.’

‘But what if I took off the sunglasses?’

‘I want them too! But I don’t have the money!!’

With teary cat eyes, Xiaoxin had even sold his old card decks for survival. Alas, time spared no one, and card decks were no exception; old, outdated decks were no match for the tides of the new era, selling for barely enough to cover two days’ worth of meals.

The bright and tidy card shop, bathed in brilliant light, illuminated the display cases as people came and went, examining various cards. For promotional purposes, in-store projectors showcased card effects, while nearby screens continuously looped promotional videos for new card boxes.

Not fully understanding any of it, the young girl merely observed with a sense of wonder. Knowing his cousin had a fondness for beautiful girls, Xiaoxin recommended some cards with appealing female character art.

“Wow! So cute! This transforming uniform is amazing! Being able to transform with a sword, it’s just like a magical girl!”

“Ah… though her design leans a bit more towards sci-fi.”

“Can I make friends by playing this?”

“Of course! I used to make quite a few ‘bad’ friends playing this game myself.”

Though he rarely kept in touch after entering the workforce.

Observing his cousin’s slightly moved expression, for a girl who rarely had friends her age, finding such an opportunity to make new acquaintances was indeed a good thing for her development.

Nevertheless, he was now just one crucial step away from success.

“To be honest, cousin, I once took second place in a tournament of over thirty people playing this game. If you’re interested, I can explain the rules to you, and if we have time, I can even play a round or two with you.”

‘Here it comes! The perfect friendly offensive. By deliberately extending an olive branch, I’ll draw her in. How could she not fall for it!?’

“Ohh! That sounds really interesting!”

“It’s wonderful that you’re interested! I’ll do my best to make you love this game.” He felt like a game salesperson, trying hard to act like a calm, gentle, good cousin, but his heart was bursting with joy.

‘Good! Very good! Sometimes, a person’s luck and misfortune can’t be eternal. As long as there isn’t excessive human manipulation, the principle of extremes reversing themselves generally applies to the world.’

He recommended a card box to her, one that combined reprints and alternate art from five different card series. It wasn’t cheap, and among them was one his cousin had taken a liking to. He continuously used persuasive words to introduce the deck’s allure, making her like, even fall in love with, the character, compelling her to pursue the top rarity configuration for this particular deck!

He succeeded! He had initially planned for her to buy three boxes, but to his surprise, she unhesitatingly bought an entire case, totaling 7200 yuan!

‘How I envy her. 7200 yuan spent just like that. Being rich is truly great.’

‘If it were me, spending 7200 on a case would be unthinkable. I’d never truly held that much money. Watching the numbers flash as she paid, my heart couldn’t help but pound wildly.’

‘Why is it beating so violently?! Is it guilt? For enticing a young girl to spend such a massive sum on a card game?’

‘Perhaps 7200 yuan could be spent on something more meaningful? No, perhaps what I consider meaningful, others already possess or simply don’t care about.’

‘If I had ever dared to spend this much money at once, I would surely have received a severe lecture from my parents. No, it’s even likely they would have fanned the flames, spreading the word and ruining my reputation.’

A sense of criminality gnawed at his heart. Helping her select the cards she would use, setting aside the high-rarity ones, and sorting through packs was quite time-consuming. By the time they had finished opening almost everything, darkness had fallen outside.

Each of them opened six boxes. Although every box guaranteed at least one high-rarity card, given it was a mix of five series, not every series commanded a good price. Thus, there was naturally a chance to pull unwanted cards.

Take Xiaoxin, for instance: the guaranteed card in each of his boxes was a new card from the filler series, an alternate art of high rarity whose price couldn’t even reach 100 yuan. In stark contrast, the handsome men and beautiful women from the other four decks frequently fluctuated between 3000 and 4000 yuan. Its presence was akin to a four-member idol group, desperate to fill a void, reluctantly recruiting a civil engineering student from a nearby construction site to complete their lineup.

He calculated that each box cost 600 yuan, yet his six opened cards combined didn’t even amount to 500, a complete loss.

‘That’s why I despise opening boxes; this gambling behavior only profits a select few.’

And his cousin? With a troubled expression, it seemed she wasn’t faring much better. He had, after all, recommended this to her. He was about to offer some words of comfort, but when she showed him the cards in her hand, Xiaoxin’s jaw nearly dropped. Bystanders, seeing this, couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

“Holy cow! Amazing! A double yolk!”

“Huh?” His cousin looked at the cards in her hand, somewhat bewildered. Both were top-tier rarity alternate art cards. If connected to a projection device, they could even generate animated figures.

These two cards alone were worth 8000 yuan combined! She had instantly recouped her investment.

But that wasn’t all. He looked at the remaining four guaranteed cards. Though not the ones she specifically wanted, they were all highly popular, top-rarity cards, their prices no less than the two she held. These four combined were valued at nearly 15,000 yuan! Other people might get only one top-rarity card in an entire case, but she had opened six!

Compared to his own pathetic pulls, he could only console himself internally with, ‘Everything happens for a reason. The souls residing in the cards chose me,’ before heading to the counter to sell them off.

‘Whether the cards cried, I don’t know, but my wallet was crying, even if it wasn’t my money.’

His cousin didn’t seem to want the cards he had pulled, so he considered them a consolation gift. Including miscellaneous items, they exchanged for approximately 550 yuan. If he had opened such results with his own money, he would surely have cried on the street, but since it was his cousin’s money and her pulls, these were enough for him to make a small profit.

The 300 yuan from teaching, plus this 550, meant he had fleeced a total of 850 yuan from his cousin in one day!

Furthermore, he had kept some low-rarity cards to build a deck for himself. To ensure his cousin didn’t lose interest in the game, and for a longer-term operation, he would occasionally need to play with her to maintain her enthusiasm and enjoyment.

‘Why…’

Suddenly, a voice entered Xiaoxin’s mind, deep and pained, like dozens of similar voices asking the same question simultaneously.

He turned around, alert, but saw nothing. Only the cards displayed in the cabinet.

“It’s truly pathetic, you know. Cards from the same box, some get instantly snatched up for 4000, while these things, even with price cuts, no one buys them,” a passing customer remarked with a hint of sarcasm.

“Heh, it’s all part of that damn company’s scheme to sell cards. Because every box has to guarantee a high rarity, they picked four popular series and then found a scapegoat series to absorb the rarity pool, thereby ensuring the high prices of those popular cards.”

“And these useless things have an incredibly high drop rate! It’s a total scam! They’re just artificially inflating the prices of the popular cards.”

Somewhat pitifully, only a pile of these cards sat unsold in the display cabinet. In this situation, Xiaoxin felt a pang of sympathy, yet just moments ago, he had sold six of them.

Perhaps there was a reason it was chosen, mingling with the popular ones; it suggested it once had its glory. But times had changed, and like old machinery, it was gradually replaced, buried, and destined for rusty decay.