Chapter 1: Time

"Are you kidding me?"

Shi Li looked at the iron rod and anvil in front of him and seemed a little surprised.

As soon as he entered the copy, he received the mission information.

We have all heard the story of grinding an iron rod into a needle.

The task of this copy is to use the existing props and hand in an iron needle.

At this moment, I was in an empty yard.

The yard is surrounded by earth bricks on three sides, and the other side is backed by an ancient city wall more than three meters high.

The city wall has been weathered by wind and sand for a long time and its surface is mottled.

There was an old lock hanging on the gate leading to the outside, and it was locked.

In addition to the iron pestle and anvil, there were also several bottles of drinking water, dry food similar to compressed biscuits, and straw mats and wooden pillows in the yard.

"This newbie copy is a bit unfriendly."

He didn't look very good.

One look at the configuration and you'll know that this dungeon mission is a tiring and time-consuming job.

Jie~Jie~Jie~Jie~

At this time, the sound of iron grinding came from next door.

The wall was not very high, so Shi Li climbed over it easily.

What came into view was a man with a human body and a bull's head, with his upper body naked.

He was wrapping his hands with strips of cloth torn from his clothes and grinding the iron pestle with great effort.

This guy was very strong, and every blow produced sparks on the anvil.

"Moo?"

There was an extra person on the wall, and it was hard for the Minotaur not to notice it.

"A new player?"

The other person looked at the fair and clean young face and tilted his head in question.

"Hello."

"How long has this been grinding?"

Shi Li waved at the other party and asked.

The iron pestle in the bull-headed man's hand had been ground to half the thickness of the one in his yard.

"I've been grinding for 24 hours. It's really tiring work."

The bull-headed man answered while continuing with the work at hand.

“…”

Shi Li looked at the other person's muscular body and fell silent.

If this is so difficult for someone with this physique, wouldn't it take me even longer?

"Have you ever been out?"

He pointed to the wooden door at the other end of the other yard, which was also locked.

"I don't have the time for that."

The bull-headed man shook his head.

"Okay, then you get busy."

Pursing his lips, Shi Li climbed down the wall.

"As someone who has been through this, I remind you that it's best to dig the hole first."

"Otherwise, it may be too late when the emergency comes."

I had just gotten down from the wall when I heard the bull-headed man's voice coming over from across the wall again.

“…”

Shi Li thought about it carefully and realized that there seemed to be no toilet or anything like that here.

But there was no need to rush, so he walked to the opposite wall and climbed up.

On the other side of the wall, there was a girl with small horns on her head, also sharpening iron.

"I must sharpen the most perfect iron needle!"

“Die, die, die, die quickly…!”

But this person seemed to be in a worrying mental state, with bloodshot eyes and mumbling to himself.

The iron pestle in her hand was only as thick as chopsticks.

“…”

Shi Li watched for a while but didn't dare to say anything.

He was afraid that if he interrupted that insane state, he would be stabbed to death by the other party.

He went back to the yard, stood there with his chin in his hand, and thought about it.

"Let's try exploring it first."

His eyes fell on the wall with the door.

The rumored air wall did not appear, so he successfully climbed over the wall and left the yard.

Outside the door is an alley paved with bluestone slabs.

When you walk on it and step on the loose bricks, it makes a healing, crisp and pleasant sound.

The mottled and dilapidated walls were covered with moss from bottom to top.

A fat orange cat was lying on the top of the wall not far away, lazily enjoying the quiet afternoon sun falling on its body.

These scenes give people a feeling of harmony.

However, Shi Li kept walking along the alley, and before he had gone far, he heard a discordant sound.

"Be honest and hand over the money!"

Something seemed to be happening around the corner ahead.

When I got closer, I saw a thin man cornering two frightened boys.

It seemed that the two boys were about fifteen or sixteen years old, about two or three years younger than me.

He did not regard these three people as so-called copy NPCs, but treated them with normal cognition.

Because he knew that each copy was a parallel projection fragment captured from a certain world.

In a sense, the people here are living beings, not just programs that execute mechanical instructions.

If a player dies in the dungeon world or fails a mission, they will be ejected from the dungeon.

"What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a robbery?"

"Boy, if you don't get out of here, it will be your turn soon!"

When the man noticed a young man appear, he glared at him fiercely.

“…”

Shi Li looked the man up and down. He was skinny and looked fierce but didn't seem to have much fighting power.

But as he had just arrived, he chose to turn around and leave silently.

"Humph, you're smart!"

Seeing the other party give in, the man snorted coldly.

For now, let’s deal with these two fat sheep first.

"See? No one can save you."

"Don't force me to waste my energy on the real thing."

As he spoke, he clenched his fists until they made a crackling sound.

However, the boys just cried and shook their heads because they had no money.

"Um?"

Before he could continue threatening, the man saw Shi Li returning silently.

He was holding a short iron rod in his hand.

…

Fifteen minutes later, Shi Li found a tailor shop under the guidance of the two boys.

I bought an iron needle with the penny I "picked up".

After buying the iron needles, I wandered around the area.

This was just an ordinary small town, so he returned the same way and returned to his own yard.

Standing in the yard, holding an iron needle.

With a thought, the task panel popped up.

[Hand over an iron needle - 1/1]

[Congratulations, mission accomplished]

Buzz!

A beam of light came down from the sky and took him away.

"ah?"

The bull-headed man next door was grinding an iron pestle with all his might. When he saw the light, he couldn't help but raise his head.

"Is this... the mission completed in the yard next door?"

"But didn't he just come???"

He stopped what he was doing, stunned.

…

Shi Li contracted a strange disease that left him paralyzed all over.

Fortunately, he traveled through time.

Traveled to the Cubic Card Metaverse, a world where all races respect playing cards.

Time travel is not a rare thing here. At least five out of ten people are time travelers, and the remaining five are descendants of time travelers.

Besides living and working in peace and contentment, the people here spend their daily lives playing cards.

Playing cards is both an entertainment activity and a career pursued by many people.

The prerequisite for becoming a card player is to awaken the card player talent.

After a three-month adaptation period after traveling across time, Shi Li was finally able to awaken his talent as a poker player.

At this time, he had just completed the first copy in his career as a card player, the rookie copy.

Buzz!

The beam of light fell to the ground and Shi Li appeared.

The empty pure white space is the personal stay area of the copy.

"This copy isn't that difficult."

He muttered to himself as he looked around.

[Instance completion - 100%]

[Getting experience points, calculating...]

[Congratulations, your level has been raised to LV1]

At this time, a new panel popped up.

After completing the dungeon, you will gain relative experience points based on many factors such as the difficulty of the dungeon and your performance in this trip.

When the experience value is full, the player level can be upgraded.

The player level can improve the player's physical strength, mental strength and other qualities in the dungeon.

Moreover, many copies allow you to carry follower cards or equipment cards.

The higher the player level, the more powerful these minion cards or equipment cards will be in the dungeon.

LV1 is just the most basic starting point.

[Please draw 5 cards as rewards for this instance]

After the level was raised, a ball of light floated to the front.

call out!

A card flew out from the ball of light and hovered in the air.

Whoosh!

The second one, the third one... a total of 200 cards were neatly displayed in front of Shi Li.

However, all of their cards have a big [? ].