Card Holder

Card Holder is a card-system game-world novel by Qidian author Sudden Light and Heat, serialized from April 2013 and completed on July 8, 2014, totaling about 1.13 million characters and 407 chapters. The story is set on the Card Continent, a world where cards are the foundation of power: summoning cards call forth strange creatures, martial skill cards contain sharp combat techniques, magic cards cast various spells, and there are also support cards, recovery cards, attribute cards, talent cards, equipment cards, transformation cards, and item cards. Those who master and wield cards are called Card Holders. The protagonist, Luo Hao, was originally a card game developer on Earth who dreamed of creating a card game that would sweep the world; just as the dream was about to come true, he was cut by a mysterious metal card, transported to the Card Continent, and possessed the body of a boy of the same name, becoming an apprentice in a general store. Drawing on his familiarity with card mechanics and the Truth Eye granted by the mysterious card, he starts by modifying a single illumination card, then passes the Card Apprentice exam, opens the Meow Meow Card Shop, enters the Radiance Card Maker Academy to study card crafting, befriends companions such as Meow Meow and Lianxin, contends with hostile forces such as Andra and Andrei, and advances through academy exchange competitions, card maker examinations, small-world exploration, and family feuds, gradually coming into contact with the Fate lineage and higher-level God Cards, ultimately growing into a top-tier Card Holder. The book is tightly paced with detailed worldbuilding and is one of the more representative completed works in the card-system web novel genre.