I Rely on Drawing Cards to Set Up a Persona

Chapter 8: Yes, Brother is Useless

After the farce was over, Qiao Xingnan did not want to wander around too much anymore.
After taking Zero around the lake, roughly getting familiar with the route, he turned around to go back to his place.

“That one is finally going back.”

The brown-haired knight following Qiao Xingnan from afar sighed in relief, but this time he didn’t dare speak ill of the crook.

Would an ordinary crook meddle and trick a woman into slashing a heartless man? It was a bit unlikely.

But who was he if not a liar? The brown-haired knight shuddered as he recalled the man’s arrogant and unsettling appearance, inexplicably reminding him of their paranoid and crazy emperor of Arilance.

How…how could he associate him with the emperor? How could the liar really be an emperor? It was unbelievable!

Qiao Xingnan didn’t know at all that he had gotten an additional label that could be compared to the tyrant of Arilance after his trip outside.

If he was not in a hurry to stimulate the woman’s desire to live, Qiao Xingnan, a screenwriter with a normal outlook, would not have been able to make up a script like that.

He raised his hand and let Zero sit on the mat to rest under the sun.
Then, he slowly opened the system interface and was shocked.

The countdown to the card draw on the screen was constantly changing.

Qiao Xingnan looked at it a few times, withdrew his eyes, and was about to call on the system to find out how to upgrade the card when a blue envelope with small wings suddenly flew over the interface.

This was a public message sent by the central system of the star field to each new host.
It did not need to be operated by Qiao Xingnan as the envelope opened automatically when it flew to the screen.

[Dear host, congratulations on obtaining the monthly draw card acceleration package.
You can shorten the waiting time by spending one hundred gold coins.
For details, please consult your responsible system].

Qiao Xingnan paused.
This vivid feeling, one can only say that the card draw system was also well-versed in the modern sales pitch.

If the system agrees to exchange three silver coins for the monthly acceleration package, then Qiao Xingnan will not say a word and will directly offer all of his fortunes to exchange for the acceleration package.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to think about it.
The system would never trade at a loss.

Thinking so, Qiao Xingnan called out System 035, the system in charge of the Chaos card pool.

Before Qiao Xingnan could say anything, 035 began to take the initiative to ask.

[Dear host, do you want to buy the monthly acceleration package? Don’t miss out on this opportunity.
The star field center system is offering a big discount.
You can pick up your partner early for only 100 gold coins!]

The system made it sound very tempting, but it was helpless that the host it was bound to was a poor man with no money.

Qiao Xingnan politely expressed his heart and rejected the system’s sales pitch: “There is no need for now.”

035’s speech paused, and its tone was instantly colder and more businesslike: [So, what is the host’s problem?]

Qiao Xingnan looked at Zero, who was obediently basking in the sun.
It seemed that because the sun was comfortable, Zero took off his hood, and his handsome face, which was expressionless and somewhat stiff, became slightly softer.

If Zero becomes stronger, the two of them will be able to do more.
They won’t have to worry about Zero being shattered by others when acting.

“I’d like to ask if there’s a way to upgrade Zero, or at least make Zero able to walk on his own, express himself fluently, or become stronger and less fragile.”

When Qiao Xingnan’s words fell, a buzzing sound came to his ears, and a few moments of anticipation arose in his heart.

[Ding – Cards can be upgraded and receive corresponding improvements.

Chaos card upgrade route is: N-R-SR-SSR-SP

The current grade of Zero – Puppet Card is N (Level 1)]

Qiao Xingnan was overjoyed that Zero could really be upgraded: “System, what will happen to Zero if he is upgraded to R?”

He thought that the system would give a reply immediately, but he didn’t expect that it would take about a minute before Qiao Xingnan got a response.

[The Zero Puppet Card has never had an upgrade record.]

[The host can try to upgrade.
Maybe there will be a surprise, but of course, there may not be :)]

There has never been an upgrade record? So it means that no one has ever upgraded Zero?

Qiao Xingnan asked the system again and got an affirmative answer.

After a card is upgraded, the system will record the card data for each grade of the upgrade.

Zero is an N-grade card and has not been upgraded since its creation, so no one knows what changes would happen to Zero’s body after the upgrade.
This situation was very common in the Chaos card pool.

Few hosts will be willing to upgrade N-grade cards because it’s simply not worth it.
Raising these low-grade cards costs a lot of gold, and the return was so low that it’s better to exchange them for gold and save up to draw the next high-grade card.

When Qiao Xingnan heard this, he did not have any inner turmoil.
Although Zero was of low grade, he had a good personality and helped him greatly, which could not be replaced by high-grade cards.

[System, how should I upgrade Zero?

035: [For each grade of the card, the full level is five.
When the N-grade card reaches level five, you can choose to activate it into R-grade.

Currently, Zero – Puppet is in Grade N (Level 1).
Within Grade N, it takes one thousand gold coins for each level upgrade, while within Grade R, it takes ten thousand gold coins for each level, and so on.]

[Note: Upgrade failure may occur.
If it fails, you need to spend gold to upgrade again.]

In fact, if a normal card is upgraded, it will rarely fail, but corrupted cards are different.
They face more upgrade failures than normal cards, and there may be one chance of success only after five upgrades.

Qiao Xingnan paused, picking at his ears, “System, I just had an auditory hallucination.
You say it again.”

035 dutifully repeated once again.

There was no mistake.
That is to say, for Zero to rise to N-grade card Level 5, it will take at least five thousand gold coins.

Qiao Xingnan stood up and took a deep breath.
He walked to Zero’s side, squatted down, and patted Zero’s shoulder.
Then, he said in a heavy voice: “Brother, I’m useless.
I have let you suffer.”

Zero struggled to understand Qiao Xingnan’s words, and his dark eyes were full of cluelessness.

“No, there is no suffering.”

Zero never felt that he suffered anything by his master’s side.
Being by his master’s side was much more enjoyable than being dazed in his clan’s land.

What a thoughtful card, Qiao Xingnan sighed.
He had to hurry up and put the matter of making money on the agenda.

Not to mention the money needed to draw cards and upgrade, he will have to leave here to wander the world after fooling the tyrant.
Without money, there was no way to do that.
There are also the original body’s younger siblings.
Two children drifting around at a young age, there was no telling how much they have suffered.

The thought of taking on the responsibility of raising a family gave Qiao Xingnan a sense of urgency.

The host ran away halfway through the question, but this did not surprise 035 in the least.

There are many card pools in the star field, and very few hosts will upgrade their N cards.

After all, no one knows what a weak N-grade card can become after spending a lot of money and upgrading.
Instead of risking so much and consuming so many resources, it was better to redraw a high-grade card.

Furthermore, it was actually a wise choice for this host not to upgrade his card.
After all, upgrading his card is far more difficult than a normal one.
Consuming 5,000 gold coins to upgrade to N grade (Level 3) may not even be possible.

035 has some sympathy for this host, whose luck was too bad and happened to be bound to the Chaos card pool.

Qiao Xingnan, who didn’t know he was being pitied by the system, patted Zero’s shoulder, told him to go back to sunbathing, and ran to sit at the table next to him.

How could he make money without crashing his persona?

What a headache.

At this time, Qiao Xingnan’s headache was joined by the maids of the Utia City Lord’s residence.
But, of course, rather than a headache, it was more like a lack of blood supply to the brain caused by fear.

Today was their day to serve His Highness Jin.

The eldest maid walking in the forefront carried a wire twisted in a small lantern in her hand, which had been enough to see the corridor.
The maids following her were still trembling and holding a few candles with strange patterns.

Amidst the swaying candlelight, a pungent odor could be faintly smelled.

The maids lowered their heads one by one and followed closely to the front for fear of being left behind.
The two maids walking at the end of the line jointly carried a sedan chair half a person high.

Soon, the group walked to the city lord’s lake.
The sunset by the lake was so beautiful that people could not move their eyes.
Still, none of the people present dared to appreciate the beauty and instead were nervous.

“Your Highness.” The eldest maid knelt down and called gently toward the lake.

With a ripple of water, the golden scales shimmered, getting closer and closer to the shore, eventually revealing its full appearance.

It was a half-meter-long golden python.

Today, it was their turn as maids to take care of His Highness.

Although with this lantern in place, His Highness would not attack them, they were still very afraid.
This is, after all, a python that can take out a person instantly, and the most critical thing was that His Highness was the emperor’s favorite.
If they displeased him, they would be dead.

The eldest maid has experienced it more and methodically instructed the maids to clean and feed His Highness.
Then, when it was all taken care of, they invited it into the sedan chair.

Inside a glorious room sat a handsome man, his golden hair was a little damp and had stained the red velvet robe on his body, but the man did not care.
His turquoise eyes were like the most beautiful jewels, looking at the few sheets of paper in his hands with a hint of interest.

Suddenly, the sound of some kind of animal scratching rang in his ears.
The man put the paper down in his hand, and soon, a golden python coiled up along the table leg.

It coiled on the tabletop, its green eyes confused as it looked at the paper the man had just put down.

“You can’t read it.”

The snake seemed dissatisfied with the man’s perfunctory words and spat out its tongue.

“It’s just a crook who’s a bit interesting.”

The man laughed lowly, and on a summer night, there was actually a chill, “Who exactly is the person behind him?”

“We’ll find out in a few days.”