Passengers who could afford starship travel in this era were not lacking in knowledge, at least they had the money to hire card makers. However, having money and being extravagant or completely indifferent to it were two different matters.
Apart from the white-level cards that could now be mass-produced by machinery, any colored card could not be described as cheap. Yet, even such valuable cards would gradually suffer circuit damage with use.
Who hadn’t fantasized about finding a card maker to repair a damaged card? After all, no matter how you looked at it, repair was definitely cheaper than crafting a new card from scratch.
But in the end, the results they received were always the same: impossible, can’t be done, just order a new one.
Even if the card maker they invited for repairs was the very one who had drawn the damaged card, it made no difference. After all, a person’s psychic energy underwent subtle changes daily. For instance, Chi Yun Su was still in a phase of rapid psychic energy growth.
Thus, a card maker’s psychic energy ten years later could not possibly be the same as it was ten years ago.
Once the card-making world concluded that card repair was impossible, no card maker bothered with such futile attempts anymore.
But…
As they watched Chi Yun Su finish her strokes, the purple card’s glow gradually receded, revealing golden circuits that appeared cleaner and more distinct than the rest of the card, shining vividly before their eyes—completely resembling normal, authentic card circuits.
How could they not feel that this card was now indistinguishable from a regular one?!
The surprise wasn’t limited to the onlooking passengers; Chi Yun Su was also reflecting on the unique sensation she had experienced while drawing.
It felt entirely different from when she had drawn on a finished base card in the past. The strokes she made while filling in the repaired area had been incredibly smooth and fluid.
Previously, when Chi Yun Su drew, it felt as though she was sketching on the card’s surface. But with this card, she sensed that the circuits she had repaired had seamlessly fused with the card itself.
It was a subtle, almost imperceptible sensation.
Chi Yun Su vaguely felt that the performance of this repaired card might be slightly better than before.
In fact, she wasn’t the only one who sensed this.
“Doesn’t the color of this card seem deeper?” someone whispered. However, due to the shock Chi Yun Su’s card repair had caused, the activity room was eerily quiet, making even this faint whisper audible to everyone present.
All eyes focused intently on the card in Chi Yun Su’s hand, though many wore uncertain expressions.
It did seem a bit different.
Unconvinced, they looked again.
The more they stared, as if hypnotizing themselves, the more they became convinced that the color indeed differed from before.
“Can a card’s color change?” wondered the onlookers, who prided themselves on being well-informed, now questioning their own judgment.
It was common knowledge that a card’s color—its grade—was permanently set the moment it was completed, as the glow receded and solidified.
“No one has ever repaired a card before,” someone else replied. Moreover, when Chi Yun Su was repairing the card, there had been a glow, though localized, leaving them unsure whether it counted.
The onlookers gradually began discussing among themselves.
Having completed the card repair, Chi Yun Su overheard their conversation and paused in surprise.
No one had ever repaired a card before?
Was that really possible?Chi Yun Su thought about the Inspector’s calm demeanor when he saw her repairing cards. Although he asked about her card repair work, it was just like other times—he only gave some pointers on her repair methods and didn’t seem completely unfamiliar with it.
Thus, Chi Yun Su finally came to a conclusion.
Other card makers also knew how to repair cards. It was just that people from fringe planets or those unrelated to card crafting on the starship had limited exposure.
For high-level card makers like the Inspector, card repair was something they understood and acknowledged.
Moreover, card repair was a skill with a certain threshold, so it was normal that only a small number of card makers mastered it. Chi Yun Su recalled the hardships she endured when she first started.
It wasn’t particularly difficult, but not many could persevere, which was why so many people believed cards couldn’t be repaired.
So…
Chi Yun Su quietly raised her psychological pricing for card repairs.
Fortunately, she hadn’t set fixed prices yet.
After turning over many thoughts in her mind, Chi Yun Su handed the repaired card to the middle-aged passenger. The middle-aged passenger took it as if in a dream and, under the impatient nudges and frantic hints of the other passengers, finally snapped back to reality. He leaped up from his chair.
“I’ll go get the equipment!” the middle-aged passenger shouted before darting off at a speed that didn’t match his elite image, disappearing from everyone’s sight.
The activity room was meant for passengers to rest and entertain themselves. Aside from Chi Yun Su, who had ulterior motives for making money, no one brought their luggage with them.
Once the middle-aged passenger left, everyone’s gaze fell on Chi Yun Su again. The room fell into an eerie silence for a few seconds before someone, in a slightly respectful tone, asked her, “Do you still repair cards?”
“Of course,” Chi Yun Su tapped her simple sign and flashed a bright smile. “The first order was a promotional price. It definitely won’t be as low as fifty star coins now. For Blue Cards and above, the minimum starts at… five digits.”
Chi Yun Su didn’t know what the normal pricing should be, so she simply multiplied the bonus given by the Cleaning Company by five. This starting price was already comparable to the normal price of a Blue Card.
Anyway, she quoted high—if people thought it was too expensive, they could always negotiate later.
With her rich experience in doing business, Chi Yun Su was quite savvy in this regard.
No one had any objections to Chi Yun Su’s pricing. Anything related to Cards was expensive, which was taken for granted in this world.
And was this price expensive? Many people found it quite acceptable. After all, booking a card maker capable of crafting Blue Cards wasn’t easy—they often had waiting lists.
Market prices were one thing; reality was another.
There were plenty of hidden costs involved.
Several quick-thinking individuals, like the middle-aged passenger earlier, hurriedly stood up and rushed off. They didn’t know what level a card maker who could repair purple-grade Cards was, but to them, it was no different from an ordinary two-star card maker.
Not everyone carried their Cards with them, so they also had to go back and retrieve their luggage.
Instantly, one-third of the people in the activity room left. Those who remained wore expressions of regret.
They hadn’t brought any Cards onto the starship at all.
However, after their initial regret, some quick-witted individuals immediately asked Chi Yun Su, “Do you accept orders for crafting Cards?”
Faced with business opportunities, Chi Yun Su naturally wanted to take them, but some things weren’t as simple as just wanting to do them.”I’m sorry, I didn’t bring many materials with me,” Chi Yun Su said with genuine regret.
During her previous training with the Inspector, Chi Yun Su had used up most of her ink. Additionally, while studying the properties of materials, she had ruined quite a few things. When she left the Cleaning Company, she truly had nothing left except for money.
Of course, after boarding the starship, she didn’t even have money anymore.
The little ink and materials she had left were barely enough for card repair, but card crafting was out of the question—she didn’t even have a usable card base.
After all, the blank card bases Chi Yun Su had were all made using her cleansing technique. Knowing that the card cleansing technique had been banned by the outside world, she naturally couldn’t use these card bases casually.
The passengers who hadn’t brought their cards were even more regretful than Chi Yun Su. They weren’t card makers and didn’t even have cards with them, let alone card-making materials.
However, the starship staff member who had initially approached Chi Yun Su to ask about her difficulties immediately perked up. A service-oriented smile spread across their face as they said, “Dear passengers, as long as you have needs, our Galaxy Technology will do everything possible to provide you with services.”
Of course, at an additional cost.
Although Chi Yun Su had never traveled on a starship before, she was familiar with such tactics. With only a little over two hundred star coins in her pocket, she wisely kept quiet.
The other passengers also fell silent after calculating the markup on the materials provided by the starship.
They were wealthy, but they weren’t fools.
Card makers didn’t have a 100% success rate when crafting cards. Typically, they needed to prepare around five sets of materials at their own expense to ensure success. Adding Chi Yun Su’s card-making fee on top of that, the total cost would be higher than hiring an ordinary card maker.
Moreover, they had no idea what Chi Yun Su’s card-making success rate was. Some card makers required over a dozen attempts before succeeding, and such cases were not uncommon.
How much would that cost? Better to forget about it.
Unaware of the concept of card-making success rates—aside from her initial learning phase and attempts at crafting new cards—Chi Yun Su rarely experienced failure when making cards.
Thus, sensing the wealthy passengers’ silence, Chi Yun Su felt nothing but relief.
Wow, are the materials on this starship so expensive that even the wealthy can’t afford them?
Chi Yun Su felt a hint of shock from the outside world.
However, she didn’t have much time to dwell on this shock. The middle-aged passenger from earlier acted quickly and had already hurried back with his player.
Everyone’s attention instantly focused on him.
Whether they would later request card repairs or card crafting, everything depended on whether the repaired recording card worked.
The middle-aged passenger was excited and deftly set up the player. During this time, the other passengers who had gone back to fetch their cards also returned one by one. Meanwhile, the other passengers who had boarded the starship with Chi Yun Su had already settled their luggage and come to the activity room to relax.
Seeing the middle-aged passenger’s preparations, the newcomers, though unaware of what was happening, were eager to watch the spectacle. Regardless of wealth, everyone enjoys a good show, so they quickly found seats and settled down.
Once the entire machine was set up, the middle-aged passenger inserted the energy block and the recording card.
The player’s screen lit up.