Yun placed Jin's phone on top of one of the cash ports of the vending machine and the interface besides the machine responded with a few messages. "First time user of the Battle Cards Interface detected. Creating decks for each monster type corresponding to the monsters User has caught. Please hold..."
From the vending machine, packs of cards with the monsters' began keep appearing in chronological order. First were the goblins, then Mr Oink, and subsequently Ke Mi as well as the rest of the gang. Jin and Yun were moving around quite a lot while collecting the packs to place them on the table's interface.
"Wow, there are quite a few packs of cards indeed! But how do they actually work?" Jin asked and Yun, who was taking out the cards from the card packs, answered him.
"Watch and learn young Pandawan." Yun finished opening the goblin deck completely and placed it on the interface. She then asked Jin to not touch the rest of the decks at the moment. "As you can see, the moment you place the cards on the interface, the screen will immediately bring up the monsters corresponding to the deck that the card is from."
True enough, the Spear, Sword and Dagger Goblin came out on the screen and they were shown as cards. In the next few steps, Yun showed him how to get the deck cards scanned and analysed by the system. The cards that had weapons and armour on them appeared right in front of him as well. Yun placed the weapon card behind the dagger goblin and the screen immediately updated the card art with a new image. Right now, the dagger goblin not only held two daggers, but it was also equipped with a shortbow and quiver that was hanging right behind its body, though it was covered by his cape.
"Wow, this is more advanced than any card game system I have ever seen." Jin was a little excited as it had been ages since he had last touched a proper card game. "Mmm, so let's say this is what I wanted my monster to equip. I would put these two cards into this particular slot here and press this big green 'Fuse' button. So, the interface would then cover the slot and in a few seconds a new card would appear." Yun waited for a while and true enough when the cover for the slot was automatically opened, a new card was revealed.
"What's more is that the monster cards are actually holographic. Pick it up and insert some chi into it." Yun instructed Jin and he did as he was told. A greenish light screen appeared from the card and the stats, weapons and any armour equipped were all shown on it.
"This is really fascinating, but why should I do this? Can't I make my own items for the monsters?" Jin asked.
"Well, you could. It doesn't matter if you create or buy the equipment, maybe you might even get something from dungeon takeovers. All you have to do is place them on this interface for them to be converted into cards. "Yun demonstrated with the teacup and saucer by placing them onto the interface and after some magical particles swirled around the item, the teacup and the saucer both became cards.
"But do you have the strength and time to locate and coordinate weapons and armour for the ever increasing number of monsters? Are you going to equip all your zombies with different equipment? With this card system, you can even ask the system to optimise the procedure by automatically equipping items." Yun explained.
"I see… Makes sense, but I'm gonna think about it and play around a little before doing anything drastic. Anyway, now that he has a bow with him, calling the Dagger goblin 'Dagger goblin' isn't really appropriate." Jin took a closer look at the design of the card. The front was illustrated with the new art design displaying the new weapon and the back of the card was actually engraved with a unique goblin insignia silhouette to identify the card deck this particular card was from.
"Just call him Daggers, like how they call each other Spear and Sword." Yun gave a random suggestion and Jin gave her a curious look. "Don't they have their own names?" He then summoned the three into the dungeon maker.
"You called us?" The three goblins immediately kneeled and Jin saw that the dagger goblin was actually holding onto the new short bow that Yun had randomly inserted as an example.
"Erm, I am really sorry for not asking before, but what are your names?" Jin scratched his head in embarrassment.
"Master, My lowly name is Piercestriker," The Spear Goblin spoke.
"My great master, my humble name is Slashreaver," Sword Goblin answered.
"Master, one's name is Ripcaller. Also, thank you for the new equipment." Dagger Goblin bowed once again in gratitude.
"Eh, I was just testing out a new card system. Do you guys have any preferences in terms of weapons or armour?" Jin beckoned them to stand up and come towards the interface. The table was slightly tall so Jin commanded the Dungeon Maker to lower the table and they all sat around it and started discussing.
"Are you okay with a short bow?" Jin asked and Ripcaller, the dagger goblin, nodded his head excitedly, bordering on wildly. "It was my childhood dream to work with a bow, but I was just not allowed because the quota for the goblin archers reached the maximum for our village," Ripcaller responded.
'Hmm, I wonder what the goblin world is like…Maybe I should ask them during my free time.' Jin thought to himself while he continued discussing their weapon preferences. Once they were done, Jin rearranged the cards and carried out the placement of cards as tutored by Yun.
Within minutes, magical particles appeared around each of the three goblins and they were decked full with armour they had just chosen. The three goblins liked it more than the standard armour given to them when they previously reached Grade 2. Now they were deadlier than before and would prove a challenge to many more cultivators.
'The changes to the power levels and streamlining the card system sure is useful.' Jin thought to himself before he repeated the same equipment selection process for everyone, first by calling them into the dungeon maker and then discussing what equipment would be good for them. Of course, exceptions were made. The zombies and the Deep Ones weren't asked as the zombies were brainless while the Deep Ones had yet to contribute to the shop's coffers.
"Yun, so how do I earn new cards if I do not make or create new equipment?" Jin packed the deck of cards properly and the Dungeon Maker now had a dedicated drawer to keep the card decks neat and organised. Whenever Jin wanted a specific deck, all he had to do was call out the monster's name, and card decks in the drawer shuffled themselves for Jin to precisely pick his desired card deck out.
"Just pay 10 Dungeon Dollars for a card., It's more or less random but there's a chance for unique rarity. Oh, do remember to tell the system which monster you intend the equipment to be for or else it will just give you a card randomly."
"Ewwww, I have to deal with gacha too? And 10 Dungeon Dollars? That is like 1000 Yuan." Jin made a slightly disgusted face.
"If that's the case, you can just wait until you reach a new cultivation grade and the system will endorse an array of equipment cards." Yun shrugged her shoulders to express her nonchalant attitude.
"Forget about that for now… I just struck some gold. Maybe I could redesign the digital pets system and do a battle card game with the digital pets…instead of them just fighting mindlessly in an arena." Inspired by the battle card system, Jin thought to himself and wrote it down in the KIV section of the to-do list on his phone.
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