Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2898: Taboo

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Western Region, Berg District, Scarlet Berg, Guild Association Mall

”Kirk, while you’re at it, why don’t you also tell them you charged everyone a fifty percent commission to help sell their free VR-Slime cards?” she said coldly, enlightening the group. ”I swear, I’ve never seen a greedier asshole in my life.”

The atmosphere instantly shifted.

Aurelia, Jonas, and the others slowly turned to look at Kirk again, but this time the admiration in their eyes was gone. A fifty percent cut was outright robbery. These kids had trusted him because he was the only one capable of bypassing the VR-Slime restrictions, and he had exploited that trust to bleed them dry.

Suddenly, the way the members of the Seven Knights in Red had abandoned him without hesitation made perfect sense.

Even Jaya, who had already thought Kirk was shameless, looked mildly impressed by the sheer scale of his greed. The guy had practically built an entire business around scamming his own people while acting like their savior.

”Hey, I settled for fifty. These fuckers wanted me to take seventy percent,” Kirk hurriedly defended himself. ”Not to mention, a quarter of that cut went to these six to keep their mouths shut and stop them from telling our families.”

As he spoke, Kirk pointed straight at Zora and the others, dragging all of them down with him without the slightest hesitation.

”You forced me to take it because you couldn’t trust me if I didn’t,” Zora snapped back, trying to explain the full story but Kirk spared no effort to completely ruin her holier-than-thou image. ”Doesn’t matter. You still took the money.”

The other five awkwardly avoided eye contact while Aurelia and the rest stared at them with increasingly strange expressions. Just moments ago, this had sounded like some noble deed. Now it felt more like a bunch of greedy teenagers running a black-market scam ring out of a mall food court.

”Shut the fuck up. The two of you are practically begging to be executed. Do you idiots even realize you’re openly confessing your crimes right now?” Aurelia snapped.

”You do remember what Southern Hope said about selling free VR-Slime cards, right?”

This was one of those situations where the less they knew, the better. Reselling VR-Slime cards was considered a massive taboo within their organization, and these idiots were casually discussing an entire underground operation like it was some harmless side hustle.

”No, please don’t ban me from VR-Universe! I’ve invested all my money into it. I swear I’ll destroy those Block Cards and burn them to ash. Please, just let this slide this once,” Kirk cried out before immediately kowtowing to Aurelia and Jaya, desperately begging for forgiveness.

At that moment, Kirk wanted nothing more than to slap himself. He had only wanted to show how useful and clever he would be as a member of the Bright Lions, yet somehow he had ended up voluntarily confessing to crimes nobody had even accused him of in the first place.

”Stop it. Get back on your knees before I get mad,” Aurelia warned Kirk.

She personally didn’t mind kowtowing to others when necessary, but she hated seeing people kowtow before her. Too many desperate moments in remote border cities were tied to scenes like this, and unfortunately, she had been at the center of more than enough of them already. Those were memories she would rather not revisit.

Seeing Kirk get back on his knees, Aurelia calmly instructed, ”Hand over all the Block Cards along with the method you used to create them, then swear an oath before the World’s Will that you will never create another Block Card again.

”Also, hand over twice the amount of commission you earned from helping others sell their free VR-Slime cards. Since you invested that money into VR-Universe, I’m sure you’ve already earned back several times over, so this won’t exactly leave a dent in your pockets.

”After that, you’ll come with us and report to Vivian. She’ll know how to make proper use of your talent.”

”I’ll do as you say, boss, but I want to join the Bright Lions instead of being thrown into the Card Creationist workforce...”

”Nope. Not happening,” Aurelia cut him off without hesitation. ”I like ambition and greed as much as anyone else, but I value brotherhood more. If you had helped them sell those VR-Slime cards for free, I would’ve personally begged our lord to pardon you.

”But after what you did, there’s no place for you or those kids in the Bright Lions.”

”I understand,” Kirk replied with a nod, knowing that not being banned from VR-Universe or having his assets seized was already a massive blessing. Pushing his luck any further would only end badly for him.

”Ma’am, what about me?” Zora asked nervously.

Jaya looked at her before casually replying, ”Don’t worry, sweetie. You’re not part of the Bright Lions. You’re my secretary. Though I’ll only be paying you minimum wage until we recover twice the amount you earned from selling those free VR-Slime cards.”

”Thank you, Ma’am. I also invested the money into VR-Universe. I can return it right away,” Zora quickly offered, sounding genuinely relieved, as if a huge weight had just been lifted off her shoulders.

”We can also return twice the amount we earned from selling the free VR-Slime cards. Please don’t ban us,” Nory suddenly spoke up, no longer pretending to be half-dead on his knees.

Like the others, most of his assets had also been invested into VR-Universe, and the thought of getting banned terrified him far more than the beating Jaya had given him.

Aurelia and Jaya ignored his desperate plea. Instead, Aurelia glanced at Jonas and remarked, ”Take notes, Jonas. This is how the rich stay rich.”

These bastards had not only convinced their members to sell off their VR-Slime cards, but had also taken hefty commissions from those sales while secretly keeping their own VR-Slime cards. Then they had turned around and invested all that money into VR-Universe, making an absolute killing from its explosive rise in popularity.