Chapter 155: 155 The evil blind box officially strikes_1
[Seriously, the Mount Flower card set is superior in both quality and quantity. It’s bound to become one of this year’s best-selling card series.]
[What exactly is this ’blind box’ format? If each card has a random probability, doesn’t that mean collecting a full set will be incredibly difficult?]
[That Dragon is so cool! I’d buy this set just for the Dragon.]
[Nvwa, the creation goddess, gets high praise! And they left a great hook. I didn’t expect Dragons of other colors besides gold! But I’m curious, whose tail feather is that in the clouds? Why does it look so much like a bird’s?]
[Is it the Bi Fang Bird?]
[If Pangu couldn’t be made into a card, Nvwa probably can’t either...]
[A civilization that can produce cards is a true civilization! It’s not just me saying this; other civilizations only dare to use Dragons for background art. Can’t a Dragon card be made to prove the authenticity of *this* one?]
[Are you kidding? All the cards released so far are clearly top-tier, ’big boss’ level. Do you think making cards is as easy as setting up a street stall?]
[Blind boxes sound like trouble. I’m putting out an offer to buy Emperor Card Set physical cards in advance! Official price is 20 Yunxia Currency each. For cards I’m missing, I’ll pay 30 Huaxia Currency!]
[An R-Rank Card Spirit for 1,000 Yunxia Currency is pretty expensive, but the quality makes it worth it! *sniffle*]
As the New Year approached, the most discussed topic was the new cards.
This year, the International Competition had added new rules, and all the major associations had definitely submitted their new card sets. It was shaping up to be another feast for card enthusiasts.
On January 1st, as the new year began, only Wen Jiang and Hua Zhuo from the Jimo Family were together.
They had a New Year’s Eve dinner.
Xie Lingyu’s disappearance had been reported to the police. Hua Zhuo, being a member of the Xie Family, might show some concern about whether he would be found, but Wen Jiang didn’t care at all.
At dawn, the official accounts of the major associations punctually released their New Year card sets for sale.
The best-selling ones naturally received massive attention. In the past, Mount Flower rarely had a chance to shine, as its style catered only to a specific niche. Associations like Broken Heart and Holy Beast typically sold card sets with the highest sales and quality.
But this year, Wen Jiang’s Founding Emperor Card Set was undoubtedly a bombshell.
However, whether it could truly save Mount Flower still depended on sales figures.
Although everyone anticipated its popularity, what if it didn’t meet expectations? What if there was a lot of buzz, but not many people actually bought it?
After all, such incidents had occurred before—cards were produced that the leadership loved, but the market simply didn’t embrace.
But alas, such pessimistic expectations were destined not to materialize.
Some people chose to directly buy the R-Rank Card Spirits, and sales of the Founding Emperor Card Spirits began to skyrocket after midnight.
Among these, the sales for Qin Shi Huang and Wu Zetian were the most astounding.
These two weren’t unexpected to Wen Jiang; one was the "emperor for all ages," and the other, the sole empress regnant—both held extraordinary significance.
The factory had initially copied only 1,000 of each card based on sales projections, which was generally the highest sales figure for a Card Spirit. At 1,000 Yunxia Currency per card, it wasn’t a necessity for many Spirit Card Masters, and if bought purely for aesthetics, it wouldn’t appeal to a vast audience.
But they truly hadn’t anticipated that by just one o’clock in the morning, the Card Spirits for Qin Shi Huang and Wu Zetian would be the first to sell out.
Upon receiving the news, the factory burst into a flurry of activity. Spirit Card Masters who had already gone to bed were forced to get up and work overtime to copy cards, since not everyone owned a card-making device to create their own.
These cards required a Spirit Card Master to finalize the card design and then transmit it to a card-making device provided by the recipient. The recipient would then use their device to manifest the card. Without this process, they would have no way to create the card.
The esoteric principles behind these cards remained a mystery that even scientists today couldn’t unravel.
Some theorized it was a form of alternative brainwave transmission ritual, distinguishable by the fact that those without spiritual power couldn’t sense it.
For example, an ordinary person looking at a card-making device would only see it as a normal machine, completely devoid of any perception of spiritual power.
Of course, the sales figures for Card Spirits were directly apparent, but those who preferred to collect physical cards had a tougher time.
A physical card cost 20 Yunxia Currency, was roughly the size of an adult’s palm, and boasted an exquisite design and undeniable quality, making the price reasonable.
But there were just so many cards in the set.
For those with compulsive tendencies, imagine how devastating it is to buy fifty-two blind boxes at once, only to come home and find a pile of duplicates.
"Trash Mount Flower! So, this is what you call a ’blind box format’?!"
Of course, Mount Flower was registered with the Empire. This format was newly emerging in the market, but companies weren’t allowed to intentionally hide cards. Therefore, Mount Flower had declared that all cards were released into the market in complete sets, though their order within the blind boxes was randomized.
Even if every set released was complete, many people would inevitably end up with duplicate cards from the blind boxes.
Those willing to spend time could exchange cards with others online. Of course, some less enthusiastic people might only buy a few to try their luck. Thus, the remaining unwanted cards or unopened blind boxes from these purchases would naturally become surplus.
At least in this era, the Empire could still supervise such practices, but it couldn’t outright ban this type of format.
And for those eager to collect a full set, they had to keep buying blind boxes until they succeeded.
A complete set of fifty-two cards would cost 1,040 Yunxia Currency. Even avid card players wouldn’t necessarily make such a large purchase at once. Many could only afford to nervously buy a few, and since they didn’t necessarily like all the characters, it would be incredibly frustrating if they didn’t get the ones they wanted most.
But at least, they could try to trade for them.
Qian Aiyu was one such victim.
She was particularly fond of the Emperor Card Set and had her eye on it ever since Mount Flower announced its release. Coincidentally, her history class had just covered Qin Shi Huang, and she desperately wanted the Ying Zheng card.
On New Year’s Day, using money from her parents, she got up early and rushed to a mall that partnered with the Mount Flower Card Factory. Sure enough, at the counter, she saw stacks of strangely packaged cards.
Each card was housed in an exquisitely crafted black paper bag with hot-stamped gold accents. The bag, barely large enough for a single card, featured a black Dragon design with a hot-stamped gold border. It looked both mysterious and grand. The Dragon’s eyes seemed to stare intently, and the gold words "Founding Emperor" were printed in the bottom right corner.
Before one was opened, no one knew which card was inside.
Although this blind box model seemed a bit like a rip-off, Qian Aiyu recalled that when she bought cards from other associations, they had their own tactics. They’d release various limited-edition cards with different patterns, charging several or even ten times the normal price. Plus, there were limited-quantity flash sales. It was hard to say who was the bigger rip-off.
These blind boxes, costing twenty Yunxia Currency each, gave everyone a chance. If you didn’t get the card you wanted, you could always trade with someone else. Surely, there would be people willing to exchange.
That was the idea, but when Qian Aiyu first bought thirty cards to test her luck at home and not a single Ying Zheng card appeared, she started to doubt her life choices.
Could it be me—that *I’m* the problem?!