Chapter 8

Qian Shengcai's fainting was a minor issue.

Even the losses of these shops in the bustling downtown area were minor. As Lu Ming fully disclosed the Fruit Ninja card, the card truly became a hit.

Function!

Effect!

Lu Ming wrote everything in his paper, making it clear at a glance.

Many card makers, after making it according to the design, found that the function was indeed more complete, the content more robust, and the fun stronger!

As for the simplicity of the illusion itself?

No one cared about it anymore.

One could say that Fruit Ninja became a sensation, sweeping the world, and as its founder, Lu Ming became known to countless people through his paper.

At a certain academy.

A vice dean who specialized in illusions sighed after reading all of Lu Ming's materials, "It's a pity he's not an illusionist."

The other teachers deeply agreed.

Yes.

It's a pity he's not an illusionist.

The success of the Fruit Ninja card hinges on the illusion! If Lu Ming were an illusionist, it would demonstrate his creativity in this area!

Unfortunately.

He isn't.

He is a card maker.

That means he just had a flash of inspiration, thought of it, and had someone make it. Even if he really has a talent for illusions, it's too late now.

Lu Ming is already sixteen years old, past the best age for starting. To retrain in illusion studies and rebuild the illusion core would be too late.

That's why the vice dean felt it was a pity.

"What about the Card Makers Association?"

The vice dean asked.

"Their reaction was very lukewarm. After all, although Fruit Ninja is popular, it doesn't involve much card-making technology, so the old masters don't care."

"This wave of popularity..."

"Actually highlights his business acumen more."

A teacher said.

"Let me think."

The vice dean still felt it was a pity and recommended Lu Ming to a powerful card maker, a good friend of his. However, after reading it, the card maker was silent for a long time.

"This card is too crude."

"Not just the illusion, the entire card-making process is crude."

"Do you know what I saw?"

"There's no technical content at all."

"Let's not even talk about advanced card-making techniques, just this design."

"Chaotic patterns, only the energy card patterns are slightly neat, the rest are in the right position but drawn very sloppily, with no aesthetic value."

"Undoubtedly, this is a card maker who specializes in energy cards!"

"He's cannon fodder from an energy card training program, completely different from a normal card maker, lacking the standards a card maker should have."

"Perhaps the idea of Fruit Ninja is good, making him famous."

"But for a card maker..."

The card maker shook his head and left.

"..."

The vice dean was silent for a long time, sighing, "What a pity."

Naturally, those who noticed Lu Ming's rising popularity were not just him. Many people paid attention to him.

However, when those card makers saw Lu Ming's drawing method, they only shook their heads. The traces of his training program background were too obvious!

"His brushwork is poor."

"His energy control is unstable."

"Not standardized."

Many card makers gave their evaluations.

People like geniuses, but clearly not this kind.

Training programs produce millions of low-level laborers every year. How many can stand out? Moreover, the way training programs treat card makers as money-making machines is despised by all card makers. As a result, they also despise card makers from training programs.

What kind of card-making is that?

It's clearly just tracing!

People from training programs don't even deserve to be called card makers!

"Training programs... hah."

"Even the best ideas can't overcome this inferior technique, and no matter how popular it is, it can't hide his almost ugly drawing method."

"Card makers from training programs are a disgrace to card makers."

"Card-making should be elegant."

Many card makers also criticized Lu Ming.

However, no matter how they evaluated Lu Ming, they couldn't stop one thing—Fruit Ninja became a hit, so popular that no one could ignore it!

It even went viral.

Whether in the news, online, or in social circles, Fruit Ninja almost swept all the sections.

"How many points do you have?"

"120, how about you?"

"I only have 150, hehe."

"Wow, there was a big surge at 120, how did you avoid it?"

"I react quickly."

"Can't do that, I need to go back and practice."

People were discussing it.

Rankings, debates, points.

The popularity exploded.

Fruit Ninja almost became a must-have card for everyone.

Of course, some people were dissatisfied with the crude illusion and began to improve it.

Fruit Ninja: Slash for Life, Fruit Ninja: Meteor Hammer, Fruit Ninja: Shoot the Sky, various strange versions emerged, with different weapons, different professions, and even the illusion background was fine-tuned. People developed more powerful effects on this basis.

Fruit Ninja was promoted and developed by these illusion masters.

Of course.

The most popular version was still Lu Ming's.

Indeed, its illusion was crude, the realism low, and the duration short, but its low cost was astonishing, unmatched by anyone!

Even the updated version only required 45 energy points!

Who could do that?

No one could!

Even the lowest-level fireball spell required 50 energy points! Some of the improved Fruit Ninja illusion cards even exceeded 100 energy points!

More realistic, naturally, means greater consumption.

After the initial experience craze, the major card shops could only accept the popularity of the card and sell the Fruit Ninja illusion card as a practice card.

Each card cost 70 yuan to produce and was sold for 100 yuan, earning only a small profit.

"Boss, one Fruit Ninja card."

"Boss, I want ten."

...

In Qingming City.

In the suburbs.

A tattooed man from a loan company looked at the online reports, then at the words "Fruit Ninja founder," feeling a deep pain.

That pretty boy actually had this ability?

Damn.

"Do you have the negatives?"

A large man beside him said, "If you kept the negatives of this kid, you could extort a lot of money."

"I..."

The tattooed man opened his mouth, feeling very uncomfortable, "This kid settled early, so I cleared all the data, including his photos."

"Don't you have the habit of keeping negatives?"

The large man glared, "Don't tell me you don't have any negatives of this kid!"

"I only keep the photos of pretty girls."

The tattooed man smiled bitterly, "Some weak-willed ones can be extorted, but this guy... why would I keep those cross-dressing photos?"

What use are cross-dressing photos besides taking up memory!

Who knows.

When he first saw those photos, he was amazed, even... even that... until he found out the person was male, he almost vomited.

If it weren't for the 100,000 yuan, he would have deleted them long ago!

Why would he keep them?

Who would have thought that guy had such strength?

"The money we could have gotten..."

The men were quite frustrated.

They knew that without the photos, Lu Ming wouldn't care about them at all!

...

At that moment.

Amidst the craze of Fruit Ninja, the main character, Lu Ming, was very low-key.

As the sky grew dark.

Lu Ming was still diligently making cards.

He was very clear about one thing: selling cards was just to pay off debts. Making money was just to practice. In this world, the only thing he could truly rely on was his own strength!

He had seen the online comments.

Indeed, many people from training programs were just simple laborers, doing repetitive work.

In his previous life, it was the same in this life.

A programming genius and a code monkey doing repetitive coding are not the same species!

In the eyes of those card makers, Lu Ming was clearly a code monkey at the bottom, doing repetitive work every day, without any original thinking.

However, Lu Ming didn't care about their evaluations.

His path was just beginning.

Sooner or later, he would make these people realize what a true card maker is!

As for now...

Of course, the most important thing was to improve his strength quietly.

He originally had only 48 energy points, but after crazily making 300 cards, he increased his energy by 12 points, reaching 60!

However.

This amount of energy was still too little.

It was barely enough to make the lowest-level attack card.

"I'm still too weak."

Lu Ming understood his own strength.

Card-making!

Practice!

These were the most basic ways to improve.

Card makers' strength improvement has two aspects.

One is the increase in energy, which is the foundation. After all, with more energy, one can make more powerful cards. The other aspect is card-making skills!

Only by mastering powerful card-making skills can one make more powerful cards.

Increasing energy requires a lot of resources and can't be rushed, so Lu Ming was more concerned about skills.

Powerful card-making skills can make patterns look simpler, more standardized, and neater, allowing for things that single patterns can't achieve.

For example—

Pattern intersection.

When two patterns intersect, how to handle it?

If drawn straight, the energy of the two patterns would conflict and become chaotic, causing the card to fail. This is a skill that must be mastered!

In addition, there are more advanced techniques like three-way and four-way intersections.

To become a true card maker, he still had a lot to learn.

And the skills Lu Ming mastered were zero.

"I need to study hard."

Lu Ming took a deep breath.

Card-making skills are available for sale in the market and the Card Makers Association, and there are even complete learning sets, but the price...

He couldn't rely on his unaccredited vocational college.

"I'll get an attack card and study the patterns."

Lu Ming decided to try it tomorrow.

Night deepened.

The number of passing customers decreased.

Lu Ming looked at the time and prepared to close the shop.

However.

Just as he walked to the door, he suddenly saw a shadow under a tree, hiding outside the surveillance range, and immediately became alert.

"Who's there?!"

Lu Ming shouted.