Chapter 75: New Four-Star Card
Ian had actually been puzzled about the system's card star rating for a while now.
He remembered asking the system back then if there were any psychological or mental-type skill cards. The system had told him there was a four-star orange card from the game *Red Alert* — Yuri. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, but after he drew his first four-star orange card, Flying Shadow, something felt off. No matter how he looked at it, Yuri, a character who only excelled at mental control but had a pathetically weak body, couldn't possibly be as strong as Flying Shadow, right? So why were they both rated as four stars?
He'd had this doubt before but never got around to asking. Now, after the ten-draw, a similar situation had come up, and Ian couldn't help but voice his question.
Luckily, though the system was a bit too good at gouging money, it still answered Ian's questions like a game customer service rep.
Well, if a money-gouging game like this had bad service, it'd be doomed to go bankrupt...
The system replied, "Card star ratings are only compared vertically within the same series of characters!"
"What does that mean?" Ian didn't quite get it at first.
"For example, the card you just drew, Master Roshi, is only rated within the *Dragon Ball* series card set," the system explained.
So that's what vertical comparison meant. Ian suddenly understood. He'd been thinking about it wrong before. Whether comparing Yuri to Flying Shadow or Master Roshi to Ryohishi, those were all horizontal comparisons — pitting characters from different worlds and different power systems against each other. No wonder it caused confusion.
But if you compared vertically within the same series, Master Roshi's two-star rating made sense. In the *Dragon Ball* card set, characters like Bulma were probably one-star, Master Roshi two-star, Yamcha and Tien three-star, and so on.
Thinking about it, Ian asked the system, "So in the *Dragon Ball* series, how many stars is Son Goku?"
"Four stars," the system answered. "In any series, main characters and popular characters are rated three or four stars based on their strength. Five-star cards are limited to boss-level characters, like Cell and Majin Buu, who are native five-star cards in the *Dragon Ball* set."
Ian wasn't happy with that. "That doesn't make sense. How could the protagonist's strength be lower than the boss's? Don't all bosses end up getting taken down by the protagonist?"
The system explained, "Card star ratings aren't just about growth and stats. They also represent rarity and difficulty of acquisition."
Ian thought about that for a while before it clicked. The system meant that by making main characters and popular characters four-star, it reduced the difficulty of getting them?
Don't forget, four-star cards can be upgraded to five-star through breakthroughs and advancement. Compared to native five-star cards, they have room to grow. Native five-star cards might have higher growth potential, but they're harder to get and harder to train.
Five-star cards are best saved for later, when resources are more abundant. For Ian, focusing on three-star and four-star cards was the best choice for now.
This was a common trend in card-based mobile games. Trying to aim too high from the start and turn all your cards into top-tier ones was impossible.
Ian then asked the system a few more questions, like whether card characters from high-power worlds like *Dragon Ball* could be strong enough to destroy planets. He used this chance to clear up all his doubts.
The system patiently answered each one.
What Ian feared didn't happen. Even though the system was a knockoff domestic product that didn't care about copyright, mashing characters from various anime and games together, it was still a game with its own system — the Nen system. Whether characters came from high-power or low-power worlds, all card characters followed this Nen system for their settings.
In other words, how strong the card characters' skills became when reflected onto Ian depended entirely on how powerful Ian's Nen was.
Since the system existed based on Ian's soul, it naturally prioritized Ian. It was secondary. If Ian died, it would disappear too. So even though it kept making Ian spend diamonds to draw cards, strictly speaking, it was a fair exchange — the system's reason for existing as a money-gouging game. It couldn't break this rule. Otherwise, to keep Ian alive and maintain its existence, it could just give him tons of five-star cards for free to boost his strength and prevent his death.
Ian didn't know what had gone wrong with the system or why it had mutated into this form, but after this exchange, he felt a lot more at ease.
In this world, with Devil Fruits existing, people didn't fully understand their principles. It was commonly believed that a demon lived inside each Devil Fruit. When someone ate one, the demon would inhabit them, granting them its power. From that perspective, the system in Ian's head was also a kind of demon — one obsessed with money. Ian himself could be considered a Devil Fruit user, specifically a System Fruit user...
Thinking about it, Ian couldn't help but laugh.
Ha! Other Devil Fruit users were cursed to become land lubbers, but his curse was to become a money-grubber!
Feeling a bit better, Ian continued his ten-draws.
In the following draws, he wasn't as unlucky as before, getting only fragments. As the draws increased, complete cards finally started appearing!
On his third ten-draw, Ian got a complete three-star card — Dong Zhang from the *King of Fighters* game.
This card made him hesitate. It didn't suit him, so he set it aside for now.
Next, Ian drew quite a few complete two-star cards and combined two pieces of equipment from the fragments he'd gotten: a Knight's Longsword and Knight's Armor.
Finally, on his tenth ten-draw, Ian got a new four-star orange card!
Card Star Rating: Four Stars
Title: The Wind Swordsman
Level: 1
Strength: 50
Speed: 150
Life: 70
Nen: 130
Skills:
Way of the Wanderer: Passive. When attacking enemy vital points, destructive power increases (can be activated with Advanced Swordsmanship).
Steel Tempest: Each sword strike gains a layer of Cyclone Slash effect, lasting 10 seconds. After accumulating two layers, the next strike creates a cyclone that knocks enemies into the air (can be activated with Expert Swordsmanship).
Wind Wall: Creates a wall of airflow lasting 4 seconds, blocking enemy ranged attacks (can be activated with Expert Swordsmanship).
Sweeping Blade: Dashes toward a target enemy and attacks. Each dash increases the next attack's destructive power by 10%. Cannot dash continuously at the same target within a short time (can be activated with Advanced Swordsmanship).
Ultimate: Last Breath: Teleports to a knocked-up target, suspending them in the air for continuous slashes. During the slashes, destructive power increases by 60% (can be activated with Expert Swordsmanship).
When Ian drew this card, he was ecstatic. He didn't know if it was because his swordsmanship had advanced that led to this card appearing, but without a doubt, this was the most suitable card he'd gotten so far.
Flying Shadow's card was good too, but its ultimate skill, Black Dragon Wave, was unusable because Ian's Nen training skill wasn't high enough. But Yasuo's card was different — all its skills could be activated. Even if Yasuo's ultimate might not be as strong as Flying Shadow's Black Dragon Wave, equipping this card meant Ian finally had a big move!
It was a bit awkward. Up until now, Ian had never had a dedicated finishing move. He relied entirely on strength and speed to take down enemies, at most adding the flames from the Evil King Flame Slayer Sword.
He'd vaguely felt this in several battles. Even later, when he could release sword energy, it wasn't a real finishing move. If the enemy was fast enough, they could dodge his flying slashes.
With this card, he could swap out the Samanosuke card. The Flash Slash skill was decent, but it lacked variety. It was essentially just a slash combining strength and speed. After using it many times, Ian had already mastered the technique. Even without the card, he could still use Flash Slash — he'd just lose the destructive power boost. Once his Nen training improved, he was confident he could combine Flash Slash with the Evil King Flame Slayer Sword to make up for the lack of power.
Of course, another reason to swap out the Samanosuke card was that Ian was currently just over level 9 (after defeating Arlong and his two executives). He hadn't reached level 10 yet, so he only had two card slots. That meant prioritizing higher-star cards.
Counting on his fingers, Ian realized he'd drawn nearly a hundred times before getting this four-star card. Getting a four-star card from a ten-draw was great, but the probability was way too low, right? One percent... no, probably far lower. Drawing a hundred times and getting one was just luck, not a fixed rate.
But no matter what, he finally had a four-star card as a foundation. Even if he didn't get another four-star card in the remaining draws, this spending spree wasn't a waste.
The ten-draws also gave Ian plenty of experience books, so leveling up the card was no problem. He equipped Yasuo's card and raised its level.
However, swapping cards caused Ian's strength to drop a bit, while his speed increased. He was leaning more toward an agile swordsman now, making the Sword Saint Longsword increasingly unsuitable.
To make matters worse, the Sword Saint Longsword now had a small notch, which annoyed Ian. He'd fought Tashigi before, and her sword was decent. When they clashed, it couldn't leave a mark on the Sword Saint Longsword. But Arlong's single water droplet had done this — something Ian never expected.
The smaller the attack area, the more concentrated the force. That made sense...
Though the notch wasn't very noticeable unless you looked closely, Ian's perfectionism made him uncomfortable. He even tried unequipping the Sword Saint Longsword and re-equipping it, hoping it would repair itself. But it didn't work — the notch was still there.
Since ten-draws could yield exclusive equipment fragments, Ian thought about saving up enough to craft a new exclusive item.
So, in the time that followed, he used up all his remaining draws...