Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Chen Mu looked at the big pile of materials in front of him, as well as the countless pieces of equipment, and felt helplessly excited. Those materials would be difficult to buy on the market. If it weren’t for the fatty’s cooperation, he wouldn’t have even been able to imagine them.

The quantity of materials was more than he had seen the last time at the Yang Clan Auction House, and they filled three entire small storerooms. The equipment the fatty had sent over was just as valuable, with quite a few items he had never seen. All of that equipment couldn’t be less than several hundred million, which was a pretty serious gift. Chen Mu had no way to refuse them and could only remember the favor in his heart.

Directing the group to help stow them, they were busy for a whole afternoon before they had properly placed all the equipment and materials.

A card analysis instrument, a precision liquid-quenching device, a temperature maintenance apparatus—looking all around, Chen Mu couldn’t help but feel plenty satisfied. To have an advanced lab had always been his dream. But he had never thought that dream could be so easy to realize. Although those pieces of equipment weren’t the most top-notch in the federation, they certainly weren’t something any ordinary firm could purchase.

What could be more wonderful than that?

It was already dark outside before Chen Mu realized he had forgotten the time and had never eaten. Just as he was getting ready to look for something to eat, a sudden warning sounded.

“An unknown intruder has been discovered! First-level alert. All units immediately take your stations!”

The announcement in the building was incessant, and everyone immediately went on alert. The card artisans on rotation were ready for battle in the first instant, while those who had been resting also quickly took up their battle stations.

The vacant base appeared immediately more vacant.

For 20 people to guard such a huge base was far too skimpy. Having taken that into consideration, they were only using a single passageway for the entire base, and all the rest were sealed. That meant they only had to concentrate their firepower on that one passageway. The building’s defensive capabilities were perfectly outstanding; if any single card artisan had wanted to break through the wall to enter, he would need to keep up the attack for a long while before he could accomplish his goal without some specialized card.

* * *

At the operations command center, Bogner sat casually on the command chair surrounded by a circle of 12 screens, each about two meters tall and two meters wide. The command chair could swivel in any direction, and images from beyond the base could clearly be seen on all the screens.

The screen in front of him showed a dark, crouching shadow on the edge of the turf.

It was Chen Mu’s first time to see such an advanced operations command room, with every person having several screens in front of them and some incessantly manipulating them. The thing he found most novel was that on some of the screens were symbols constantly flowing past. Looking more closely, he found out that those rapidly scanning symbols were complicated strings of numbers.

Chen Mu had never systematically studied mathematics. Math was something seldom seen among card masters. But that wasn’t to say he was completely ignorant of math. On the contrary, he had a rather deep attainment in some math fields.

That had a direct connection with his study of Token Theory. At the core of Token Theory were calculation and optimization. At the beginning of his study of it, the abstruse and esoteric content made him suffer quite a bit. In order to study Token Theory, he had to delve into math for quite a while. But his study of math wasn’t anything more than learning Token Theory. In other words, it was severely lopsided.

Such a large operations command center only sporadically had three or five people, and Bogner was lazily half-lying in the chair with his eyes half closed. It wasn’t clear if he was watching the screen in front of him or was about to fall asleep.

Bogner suddenly noticed Chen Mu having entered the operations command center. He rushed to sit up. “Why have you come?”

“I heard there has been an intrusion, and I came to watch.”

“You may relax; there’s only one, and I reckon he’s just a scout.” Bogner was pointing at the screen as he spoke.

Chen Mu then paid attention to the squatting dark shadow on the screen. Looking again at Bogner’s unalarmed expression, Chen Mu suddenly wanted to see how he commanded a battle.

“What is he doing?” Seeing how slowly he was moving, Chen Mu couldn’t help but ask.

“Ha ha,” Bogner said with satisfaction. “He’s worrying and probably wondering how he can get closer.”

Bogner had certainly taken thorough measures, which was something Chen Mu completely admired. If it were him out there, he wouldn’t even have known how to approach the base without being discovered. He felt to himself that a professional was a professional, after all, and he would never have thought up so many ideas.

After half an hour, that dark shadow still hadn’t moved. Bogner had maintained his unconcerned expression, however, remaining plenty patient all along.

After another ten or more minutes, the intruder finally couldn’t restrain himself and started to approach the new base. Only his crouching shadow slowly advancing could be seen. His movements were quick, which made him truly difficult to discern given the cover of darkness. Those who had discovered him had surprisingly good eyesight to have seen him from such a distance.

Carelessly glancing at the screen, Bogner bared his teeth and laughed. “This guy is about to be out of luck.”

Sure enough, before his voice fell, a starburst suddenly exploded on the dark screen.

The intruder had triggered the ambush card appliance devices in the underbrush. Chen Mu remembered the scene from watching Bogner placing card appliance mechanisms in the grass. One would bump into one nearly every two steps. There was grass everywhere, which meant it was a sea of card appliance devices!

Chen Mu suddenly felt a little sympathy for that intruder.

“Adding a high-sensitivity triggering device to the directional exploding card appliances, the scope of the explosion isn’t even one meter. But the power at the center of the explosion can break through a three-star energy cloak card.” Bogner’s introduction somehow had a hint of satisfaction.

The intruder then flashed a similar starburst from his body as he raised a light blue energy cloak. It shook violently, but it quickly steadied.

“A four-star energy cloak!” Bogner’s eyes lit up as he abruptly got some spirit.

The intruder probably knew he had been exposed. How would someone who could mount such a defense not be discovered by the triggering device? Looking again at the turf stretching for several kilometers, as soon as he thought of the indefensible card appliance devices that had been placed in it, his scalp went numb. He simply rose up into the sky.

In midair, whether he would advance or retreat was up to him.

Chen Mu’s attention was drawn to the light blue energy cloak on the screen. Three-star energy cloaks were pretty common, and four-star were comparatively seldom seen. But, when it came to five-star, they were still rarer. Using an energy cloak card actually implied a lot of skill. The same energy cloak card in the hands of an ordinary card artisan or a defensive card artisan, who specialized in energy cloaks, would have protective qualities that were worlds apart.

A battle card artisan who had the ability to use a four-star energy cloak card must instead be proficient with a five-star card! Someone who could use a five-star card would be an ace among aces, no matter where.

“A big fish has arrived, after all! Ha ha.” Bogner was rubbing his chin with a rather interested expression. He was then talking to himself. “That’s not such a good reception; allow me to calm you down.”

Listening to the side, Chen Mu said nothing.

“Pay close attention, prepare the attack waves, and give a warm welcome to our visitor.” Bogner was giving orders to the sound transmission card appliance in front of him.

The intruder who’d opened up that blue energy cloak saw that no one had mounted any attacks, and he boldly approached the base.

“He’s a rookie, after all,” Bogner muttered as the enthusiasm faded from his face. He immediately followed with orders in a tone that was darkly cold. “Attack!”

Before the echoes died, a light beam, a wavy blade and an energy shuttle went conspicuously whistling at the same time toward the intruder. The first arrived before the intruder could respond, closely followed by the wailing of the second and third.

It was 12 attacks altogether, divided into four waves, with each wave composed of three attacks and with two-tenths of a second between each wave. Each wave of attack, and each attack, had been carefully prepared; every response of the adversary had been calculated.

The first attack wave didn’t mean anything to the intruder. Such an attack wasn’t so fierce. But he still rather praised it. Of course, he could see the angles of those three attacks were all carefully prepared. He had a hard time dodging all of them. For the level of card artisan that he was, however, that level of attack was still not enough to make him retreat.

Only one of the three attacks had hit him—the energy shuttle—which made his energy cloak shake violently.

The next wave two-tenths of a second later made him inwardly surprised that his adversary had recruited so well.

In a spark of time, he had impressively discovered the angles of the three attacks in the second attack wave, which was really too crafty! In the situation of raising his energy cloak, no matter how he dodged and evaded, he would likely be hit by two of the attacks. If he weren’t raising the energy cloak, although his flight speed and flexibility could be increased, being able to evade all of them was still unlikely. But if he didn’t have an energy cloak to protect him, one shot would be enough for him to give up his ghost.

In those two-tenths of a second, he unconsciously chose to continue holding up the energy cloak. As he saw it, that was better insurance and safer. The protective qualities of a four-star energy cloak were outstanding, and ordinary blows basically had no way to break through it.

Those two attacks from the second attack wave hit his energy cloak. His face abruptly changed color!

As though another stone had been thrown into a lake that hadn’t yet calmed, his energy cloak shook more dramatically. But what had made his face change color wasn’t that plenty-powerful wavy blade attack—it was another attack within that attack wave.