CH 15

Li Shaoxi was stunned.

It was because he reached out and really took a card out of the Duobaoge.

The texture of the card in his hand was stiff and the material difficult to distinguish. The hardness was like a thin, steel sheet but it wasn’t so smooth and cold to touch. There was a bit of frosted grain.

The size of the card was more like a tarot card used for divination. It was thin and long and was far more advanced than ordinary playing cards on the market.

Li Shaoxi seriously observed the card in his hand. The front showed a picture of the staff. It was made of wood and was around one meter long. The thickness was like a broom handle and the top was slightly curved with a small ruby inlaid.

Yes, this was the staff he picked up in the ruby level. The front of the card was a picture and the back contained a few sentences in rather flamboyant font.

[Name: Ebony Staff.

Attribute: 50 points of magic attack.

Special Effect: Immune to all damage within 0.2 seconds after releasing an effective attack.

Level: 5.]

Apart from the final level, the other sentences were the same as what Li Shaoxi saw in the game. It was just that…

How did the staff become a card? How could he use it?

Li Shaoxi tried to shake it but there was no response. He shook it and it ignored him. He threw it out and it actually returned to the Duobaoge!

Li Shaoxi hadn’t seen Cardcaptor Sakura but he had long heard about it. He endured for a while and finally held back without saying the words: Key that hides the powers of the dark, reveal your true form before me. I, Sakura Kinomoto, command you under our contract—release the seal!

Damn! It was so shameful that it was understandable if he dug at the ground with his toes!

The staff card flew back to the cabinet so Li Shaoxi took out another three.

Obviously, these three cards were all equipment from the treasure chests. There was the armor from the pearl level, a blue potion and a necklace dropped in the sapphire level.

Li Shaoxi gasped when he saw the last two.

He had just closed his eyes and grabbed anything. He didn’t think about the fact that Jian Yue would still stay there and took away both items. What if the boss had to continue clearing the levels?

Li Shaoxi quickly turned over the last two cards to see their attributes.

[Name: Blue Potion

Attribute: None.

Special Effect: Restores 20 mana immediately after use and 4 mana per second for the next 5 seconds.

Level: 3.]

Li Shaoxi was slightly relieved when he saw this. Fortunately, the bigshot had no magic attacks and didn’t need to restore his mana. This thing was useless for him.

He hurriedly checked the other one.

[Name: Sapphire Necklace.

Attribute: None.

Special Effect: Resist a fatal injury (one-time use. Can’t be repaired after it breaks).

Level: 10.]

Li Shaoxi couldn’t hold back after seeing the effect of his necklace!

Damn, it was an amazing skill. This necklace gave one more life. He actually closed his eyes and took away the bigshot’s extra life.

Li Shaoxi was remorseful and afraid that something would happen to Jian Yue…

No, no, the bigshot wouldn’t have an accident.

The panicked Li Shaoxi tried to calm down. “Think about the bigshot’s ability. He can easily defeat the bosses in the first three levels. The last two definitely won’t be a problem.”

“Besides, I was a hindrance. Now I’m not in the game so I won’t get in the way.”

Li Shaoxi comforted himself like this before panicking again. “The bigshot also has a weakness. He can’t swim. What if there is water in the later levels?”

Li Shaoxi couldn’t care about the Duobaoge any longer. He stepped toward the computer desk and clicked on the live stream website. Then he searched for Fang Yihuai’s live stream room.

It was found very quickly but he received the notification that the streamer had ended the live stream.

Li Shaoxi released the mouse and leaned back in his chair. Even if Fang Yihuai was still streaming live, it would be impossible to see Jian Yue’s situation. After all, Fang Yihuai wasn’t with Jian Yue.

Li Shaoxi soon rushed to the computer again and searched for the revised version of Treasure Miner under the VR device. There were many online strategy guides that were far more detailed than what Fang Yihuai had told him. They listed almost all the changes in each level.

However, none of the guides mentioned ‘drowning in the sapphire level.’ It was as Jian Yue told him. This was a game that wasn’t a game. A game that had become a field had long been distorted and the situation in the field was unpredictable.

Li Shaoxi looked through the strategy guides for a long time and relied on his own experience to find some rules.

In the first level, they encountered Pearl and it was obviously very different from what the online players encountered. It was a distorted level.

The ruby in the second level was almost the same as what the Internet described. It was just more realistic, bloody and terrifying.

The sapphire third level was another distorted level. No player ever mentioned drowning and the boss wasn’t a water snake.

Distorted, normal, distorted…

If this pattern existed then the fourth level of gold should be relatively normal.

Li Shaoxi searched all the strategy guides for this level and there was no element related to water. It just said that the boss had a very high magic defense and should be attacked physically.

Jian Yue only used physical attacks so it should be easy to kill the boss.

The fifth level was the diamond level and it had a high probability of being a distorted level.

The final boss was unpredictable but if it was normal… what normal?!

Li Shaoxi thought about the characteristics of diamonds and felt that no matter how it was changed, it had nothing to do with water. The biggest probability was that it had high defense and had to be killed with magic.

This was also quite deadly. After all, Jian Yue only had physical attacks and the only source of magic attack, the Ebony Staff, was brought out by him.

Li Shaoxi really wanted to hammer himself when he thought of this. 10 seconds was quite urgent but he shouldn’t have been in such a hurry!

He ‘disconnected’ and took away the items… he pitted his teammate and really wanted to kill himself! Unfortunately, it was meaningless to think about this. All Li Shaoxi could do was wait.

Jian Yue would be fine. He said this was a ‘novice field.’ Jian Yue would definitely clear it unharmed. He wasn’t the type of person to be careless and reckless.

Li Shaoxi’s only hope was that Jian Yue would end the game and remember the WeChat Li Shaoxi left for him. For the first time in his life, Li Shaoxi was really looking for the small red 1 appearing in the column of adding friends.

Li Shaoxi had long estimated that one day in the game was equivalent to half an hour. Even if Jian Yue cleared the field, the fastest time would be ‘two days later.’

No, Li Shaoxi realized it when he looked at the clock. The time flow rate on both sides were different. He had been in the game for at least an hour and a half but only a minute had passed in reality.

It took him at least 30 minutes to check the strategy guides. It was reasonable to say that Jian Yue should be out of the game by now.

Li Shaoxi picked up his phone, opened his WeChat and stared at it for a while.

There was no response. No new friend request.

Li Shaoxi gripped his phone tightly in an anxious manner. He intellectually knew that Jian Yue would be fine. This person had never looked at these items or even this field.

Drowning was just a small accident. Such an accident wouldn’t happen again. He quit the game and Jian Yue would only pass it more easily.

It didn’t matter how much Li Shaoxi comforted himself. It didn’t prevent him from scaring himself half to death.

So what were the facts?

Well, Jian Yue had long cleared the levels without damage.

Li Shaoxi hadn’t made a mistake when he said that it would just be easier for Jian Yue if he wasn’t there. It was quite easy. Previously, Jian Yue was worried about hurting Li Shaoxi so he didn’t use his ability.

The moment Li Shaoxi left the field, Jian Yue really passed in seconds.

What gold or diamond level? The boss fell to the ground without even having a chance to speak. As for why Jian Yue didn’t add Li Shaoxi’s WeChat despite ending the field…

It wasn’t that he didn’t remember the string of numbers. But…

He couldn’t do it.

Li Shaoxi panicked for a while but he could only calm down and wait patiently. Fortunately, there was the Duobaoge to distract him so this time wasn’t difficult. He checked all four of the item cards one by one. The rest were full of sapphire cards.

He took out one at random. There was a huge shiny sapphire on the front and the information on the back.

[Name: Sapphire.

Attribute: None.

Special Effect: None.

Level: 20.]

There were no attributes or skills, but the level was so high. Was this reasonable?

Li Shaoxi took out some sapphire cards and discovered the rules. The name, attributes and special effects of the sapphires were all the same, only the level was different.

The level was judged based on the size, shape, shine and other data of the sapphire depicted in the picture on the front of the card. For example, the level 20 sapphire was huge to the naked eye and could probably be auctioned off for sky high prices in reality. Therefore, the level was very high.

In this pile of sapphire cards, 20 was the highest level and there were three of time. Then there was level 18 and there were four of these cards. Next was level 15 with five cards. After that, there was a wave of smaller levels. Most of them were level 2 and 3 and the number was very large.

Li Shaoxi took out a sapphire card that was just level 2. The drawing on the front showed a sapphire so small it could only be used for a ring.

Of course, the market price of sapphires wasn’t as high as that of diamonds but if it was one carat, it could probably be sold for 10,000 yuan?

Every year on Li Shaoxi’s birthday, his parents would give him a gem. Of course, the weight wasn’t large. The most expensive one was a one carat diamond.

A child’s collection would be no match for a real gem collector. But… look at the sapphires in Li Shaoxi’s cabinet. If they weren’t cards then his collection would crush 90% off the world’s gem collectors! Just these few level 20 sapphires would be enough to pay off his family’s debt in minutes. The problem was…

They were just cards!

Li Shaoxi’s mind spun as he thought about the information of Duobaoge that he had seen before.

[Current level: 2.]

[Hatching card slots: 2.]

[Hatching level: 2.]

He could understand the level but what did incubation mean?

Li Shaoxi carefully examined the Duobaoge and found that the two card slots at the front had subtle halos around them, which were different from the other card slots.

He had played many games so he was very perceptive when it came to such settings. He quickly took two sapphire cards with a level of just 2 and put them in the 1st card slot surrounded by a fine halo.

There was a ‘ding dong’ sound.

Words appeared again at the top of Duobaoge: [The match was successful. Do you want to hatch it?]

Li Shaoxi nodded. “Yes.”

Duobaoge: [Starting the hatching.]

A countdown appeared below the 1st card slot and took only two seconds.

Duobaoge: [The hatching is successful.]

Li Shaoxi looked at the 1st card slot. The original card was gone and it was replaced by a small sapphire.

!!!

Li Shaoxi suppressed his pounding heart and gently took out the small sapphire. Even though it was as small as one carat, the translucent blue refracted the morning sun and emitted a unique brilliance.

Li Shaoxi stared at it out of fear that it would disappear when he blinked.

Sapphire…

It was really a sapphire!

There were two card slots and their hatching level was 2 while the hatching time was only two seconds. According to the matching rules of Duobaoge just now, they could be hatched as long as they were the same level…

He had a total of 42 level 2 sapphire cards in his card slots!

In less than a few minutes, Li Shaoxi’s white hand held 42 sapphires.

They were small and only up to one carat but… they had been in-game data not long ago!

Li Shaoxi stared at his palm for a long time before his mind returned. He really…

He could bring things from the ‘game’ to reality!