Age of Summoner

“Sir, are you still in there?”

Back to reality at last, after hiding from the outside world just to call his best friend Tid who was working in Japan. Apparently, he was confirmed that there was indeed a possibility that a card could be worth up to ten million baht. The tall figure flinched when he heard a call and knockings on the door from behind.

“S...Still here.”

Joke responded as he quickly turned around to open the bathroom door. At that moment, he caught sight of the Card Factory’s manager who was smiling sheepishly at him.

“We were able to contact a person who is interested in buying your card, sir.”

Joke lifted his eyebrows upon hearing those words.

“Really? For the price of ten million baht?”

He then glanced at his watch and noticed that only five minutes had passed since the manager offered to be his card-trading middleman. Joke seriously wanted to know what kind of person spent only five minutes deciding to buy a single card for ten million baht.

“Um, sir, there was a small issue regarding the price.”

The manager smiled sheepishly, which rendered Joke stunned.

“What kind of issue? Or did he want to negotiate the price?”

Well, of course, it’s ten million we’re talking about. Anybody would want a negotiation.

“It’s not about price negotiation, sir. But many customers are interested in buying your card and they are now fighting over it. The whole thing is now turned into a mini-auction; hence, the price will surely exceed ten million.”

There was not just one person interested!?

Joke screamed internally. Okay, there were clearly many people who were willing to throw away ten million for this card. Not to mention that it now became an auction so, in other words, the card was totally priceless!

“As of now the headquarter is acting as a middleman for the auction of your Snowbelle card; thus, we would like to kindly ask you to please wait for about ten more minutes. Also, reporters from various news agencies are on their way here to make a scoop on the trading, so I’d like to ask whether you would be comfortable for interviews?”

“Reporters?”

Just upon hearing that, Joke immediately lifted his eyebrows before making his way past the manager, poking his head over the bathroom entrance’s wall. He then saw that there were not only customers inside the Card Factory like usual, but there were now also several cameras as well as five to six reporters standing by waiting for him.

“W… why did so many reporters come here?” Joke promptly turned around asking.

“For a scoop, of course. The trading of such a rare card such as Snowbelle’s is indeed a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence, sir. That is why when it reached the reporters’ ears after I contacted the headquarters, they made a beeline here.

“Which means it’ll be on TV?”

“Even more than that, sir. It’ll be all over the newspapers and perhaps they would even ask for an interview.”

Hearing the affirmation as well as seeing that coy smile made Joke curl his lips. Just wandering about in this unknown world had already made his head hurt. Now having to suddenly go for an interview, he felt like he would surely look like an idiot. Ergo, avoiding whatever he could would be ideal here.

“Is it possible to not show up? I really don’t want to be in the news.”

“Are you certain, sir? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The manager looked perplexed as this would be the chance for him to become famous.

“Yes. Anyways, when you’re able to contact the buyer, please direct him to me …uh privately, please.”

The manager did not look too pleased as he wanted the trade to be in the public eye for the sake of his store’s advertisement. Nevertheless, he still had to follow the will of his customer since the store had already gained quite some fame from acting as this trade’s middleman.

“Understood. If so, then I’d like to guide you to the reception room on the third floor. We’ll inform you once the deal is sealed, and the buyer will be on their way to discuss the matter with you personally. So, please wait for a moment.”

“Thank you.”

Joke now was not so sure whether he was cursed or blessed. All of a sudden, ten million baht would be piling up in front of him during the time he needed it most—though it came along with chaotic incidences that made him oddly uncomfortable. In the end, all he could do was compose himself and quietly follow the manager up to the third floor.

.

.

Joke was taken into the reception room. It was a small white room decorated with a simple set of a chair and a coffee machine table, with a small wall-mounted TV currently broadcasting a comedy show filled with laughter, which did not have any effect on Joke’s expression whatsoever. The only thing he could do now was contemplate the reason for what exactly he was doing here.

Two orbs stared down at the White Dragon card called Snowbelle in his hands. It was very baffling; this White Dragon was worth up to ten million baht?

“A mere card game can really make this much money?”

That was a question he could not manage to shake off from his mind.

Even though the amount of money he would make off the selling of this card would certainly assist him tremendously in his life —whether for studying abroad, opening up ways for his dream career in literature, or even starting his own publishing house—the very value of the card was what was still bothering him.

Pondering up to this point, an annoying bout of laughter suddenly erupted from the TV in front, causing Joke to quickly grab the remote control on the table before him to change the channel. It was true that he did not want to be alone with his thoughts in silence, but the dang laugh from the comedy show was too aggravating.

“That’s it, the final half* King has chosen is the Black Dragon, Linga!”

He had changed the channel to “AOS-Station”—a channel in affiliation with the White Knight company—that broadcasted AOS-related programs all day long. He assumed that this was supposed to be some kind of recorded match given that the TV was displaying an image of a stadium filled with thousands of people.

The camera transitioned to a certain man, probably in his mid-twenties, with brown hair in a black suit. He flicked his hand outward before a gigantic black dragon soared out from thin air. That black dragon spread its wings and soared up to the center of the arena, resulting in a well-received response from the crowd.

“A hologram can generate such an image?”

Joke murmured to himself. Just seeing it through the screen already made him amazed. If he could witness this black dragon flying about in the arena with his own eyes, it would totally be a phenomenal experience.

“A huge amount of money to invest, huh?”

This was not the first time that Joke saw an official AOS competition broadcast, given that he used to force himself to watch them with Tid in his apartment before. AOS pro league tournaments had always been known for being exciting and engrossing with its latest realistic hologram technology that was able to bring out the characters from the card into existence and make them battle each other in a large soccer field-sized arena. However, there would only be two contestants on the field battling each other with monsters from their cards.

Just like this time with two contestants—one in black and the other in white—calling forth two monsters out on the field: a terrifying ginormous metallic basilisk on one side, and on the other side, a black dragon with intimidating scarlet eyes soaring in the sky.

The creatures charged at each other whilst the two contestants activated countless cards, generating tons of incredible fight effects in a truly heated battle. Obviously, Joke barely understood anything. If he ought to look at it as a monster movie, he could supposedly say that it was “entertaining”, but its endless rules were what was preventing him from understanding the game.

The battle ended in a victory for the contestant controlling that black dragon.

The camera cut to an image of that brunet in a black suit, along with a graphic image appearing on the screen saying...

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King | WRK-1 | W-18 L-0 D-0

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