The card was warm in his grasp.

Ash turned it once slowly, the golden surface reflecting sunlight from the twin suns above to make the flame sigil in its center appear to pulse.

He was used to cards – dozens, even hundreds of them – having played countless games in the quiet hours before his parents’ death and his sister’s illness.

There were the unique sensations of the card stock, the distinct weight of a whole deck, and the sound of an excellent shuffle.

This was not like that.

Yet, somehow, there was a strange familiarity about holding the object in his hands.

His fingers found their natural placement on it almost instinctively, with the card placed between his index and middle finger, without any thought process behind it. Like how your body remembered a skill your mind had forgotten years ago.

It had been such a long time since he had held a card.

Not since his sister had gotten sick. Not since he had lost all the money he ever had and spent nights in his cramped apartment trying to find work while putting his pastime hobbies on hold one by one, until there was nothing left but hard work, payments, and job after job.

He looked down at the golden card in his hand.

"A different two of hearts, but still."

With that observation, he shifted his focus back to the still-open system panel and searched for the card among the Active Hand section entries.

[♥ 2 of Heart (Ember Shot) - Lv.1

Fires a single ball of fire at a target.]

He read through it twice.

"So, that means this card is able to shoot flames, huh?"

It was relatively simple in concept. However, Ash had no idea how this worked, how to activate it, and what the actual mechanics were. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He supposed the system considered that information unnecessary and provided only the basics in response. Looking at the golden card in his hand again, then at the empty grassland stretching in front of him, Ash found himself with a reasonable testing ground for the new power.

"How do I actually use it?"

As a former avid reader of fantasy books and watcher of countless anime series, he was aware of the general idea. You pointed your hand, focused, said the name of the power, and activated it.

He lifted his arm and directed the card toward the empty space in front of him.

Taking a breath, he imagined the ball of flames he would create and projected that image in his head. It was a relatively small, dense ball of fire about the size of a baseball.

"Ember Shot🔥."

The golden card disintegrated.

Not gradually - in a second’s time, it dissolved into thin air from edge to center, breaking apart into pieces that dispersed in the air and disappeared before they touched the earth.

For a single breath, there was nothing.

Then the fireball formed.

Flames gathered beside his hand, taking the form of a ball of bright amber-colored fire – clean and unnatural-looking, almost perfectly spherical in shape.

It remained floating in the air for an instant, coiled and ready. Then, it shot forward at an incredible speed, burning its trail through the sky.

Not quite as fast as a bullet. However, it was definitely faster than Ash had expected, crossing a large distance in mere seconds. It followed a straight trajectory, keeping its ball-like form and heading somewhere far beyond.

It vanished in midair.

No noise, no explosion, not even any smoke. It just dissipated like the morning fog.

Lowering his arm, Ash stood there in silence, looking at where the fireball disappeared to. The wind was gently blowing grass in waves, while the sun continued to beat mercilessly on them.

He had just used magic in an actual world.

Not just seen others do it in novels or on his screen. He had pointed his card at empty air and summoned a fireball with his own hands in the real world.

Somewhere in him, the man who had spent too many nights reading fantasy novels felt something shift quietly. Not excitement, but some kind of understanding.

A small golden panel appeared beside the main system menu, interrupting his train of thoughts.

[⚠NOTICE⚠]

[★Card Used: ♥ 2 of Heart★]

[Ember Shot - Lv.1]

[Mana: 65 / 80]

Reading it carefully, he calculated the amount of mana used – fifteen points out of his total capacity of eighty. Fifteen points of mana to use one time with the lowest-level card in the hand.

"I need to be careful with this," he said. His voice sounded pragmatic – he couldn’t afford to use magic without restraint. He needed to know whether he could recover mana on its own or not before using it recklessly.

A second smaller menu appeared next to the previous one before he finished his sentence.

[✦First Use Of Cards Bonus✦]

[★REWARD★]

[SP + 30]

[EXP + 20]

Ash blinked in disbelief.

He looked at the new notification and then at the main panel, which refreshed the information immediately after.

-------------

[✦GOD-TIER CARD SYSTEM✦]

[Name: Ash Vulkan]

[Title: Card Bearer]

[Level: 1]

[HP: 200 / 200]

[MP: 65 / 80]

[EXP: 20 / 100]

[SP: 30

(Host can distribute points to any of the stats)]

[✦STATS✦]

[STR : 10 INT : 10

DEF : 10 AGI : 10]

[✦ACTIVE HAND✦]

[ 01 / 54 Cards ]

[♥ 2 of Heart (Ember Shot) - Lv.1

Fires a single ball of fire at a target.]

[★Jokers★ - 2 Cards (LOCKED)]

[✦SKILLS✦]

[None]

[✦QUEST✦]

[★Unique Quest★: SAVE THE WORLD]

--------------

Both smaller notifications closed, leaving the main system panel intact. Ash stared at it thoughtfully for a few moments before turning his gaze elsewhere.

Twenty points of experience out of one hundred needed to advance to level two. And thirty stat points waiting to be distributed.