Kapten’s stories ·
The three
packs I left.
Twelve Cyberpunk Beta packs, nasi goreng gila, and a little collector’s FOMO.
A polished adaptation of Kapten’s account by Alfred, in Kapten’s first-person voice with selected owner words.
- Packs bought
- 12
- Paid for the packs
- RM300RM25 each
- Named Rare+ copies
- 20
I wanted a box.
A whole box has a particular appeal when you like cards. You get the purchase, then all those unopened possibilities. Today, though, Invictus Collectibles had fifteen loose Cyberpunk Beta packs available. I bought twelve. RM300 altogether: RM25 a pack.
The other three were a choice. Another customer asked while I was counting, so I left three for them.
Then came the collector’s worry. What if the valuable card was in those three? What if I had just left the best pack behind? Twelve packs were already mine, yet the three I did not buy could still take up space in my head.
“rezeki orang jangan makan kan?”
Someone else had asked. I could leave something for them. The contents were still a surprise when I made that decision. That is part of buying packs: you choose before you get to know what is inside.
I had twelve surprises of my own.
Dinner was nasi goreng gila. I opened one pack before the food, and the first named hit was The Relic — Experimental Biochip, β063, an Epic. My message to Alfred included a “sigh”. Then I gave him a job: “keep track of what i pull, just gonna say the rares”.
There was a nice simplicity to that arrangement. I could open the packs and report the hits as they came. Alfred could keep the names together. The evening became a little running account, one message and one pack at a time.
Pack two gave me Placide and Shattered Memories. Another sigh. For pack three, the report was simply “3rd pack ntg”.
Then the fourth one hit.
I sent a photograph of Johnny Silverhand — Never Stop Fighting, β159, beside V — Roamer of the Badlands, β020. Johnny was the Iconic Other printing; V was an Epic. Both were Unit cards, with their own identities and artwork.
“4th one hit.”
That was a much more satisfying message to send. After the first few reports, here was a photograph with two cards worth stopping to name properly. Johnny had made his appearance, and V was beside him.
Then: “Makan first.”
Cards and nasi goreng gila had to share the evening. The dinner interval belonged in the story too, between that fourth-pack photograph and the next report.
The next pair was familiar: Placide and Shattered Memories again. Two names already in the log, now with another copy each. After that came Panam Palmer — Strength Through Family, β085, a Secret.
So there was Johnny, there was V, and now there was Panam. I still had packs to open, and still had particular cards I hoped might turn up.
The remaining reports brought Padre and Yorinobu, El Sombrerón and Misty, then Hanako and Saul. Rogue appeared alongside a Rare Streetkid V. There was Dying Night, followed by another Never Stop Fighting Johnny: this time the base β011 Epic.
By then I was counting down. Four packs left. Then three. I reminded Alfred, “i paid rm300 for 12”. The messages were sometimes only a pair of card numbers, but the opening kept moving toward the last pack.
The last named pair was Evelyn Parker and another Misty.
“there we go.”
All twelve purchased packs were opened. Twenty named Rare-or-higher copies went into the log.
By the end, there was no Iconic Secret and no Judy. Huhu.
I could appreciate the Johnny and Panam pulls and still wish Judy had appeared. Both feelings could fit into the same opening.
The three packs I left remained an unanswered possibility. Maybe the valuable card was among them. Maybe it was not. What I could keep was the actual choice: another customer asked while I counted, and I left three.
“rezeki orang jangan makan kan?”
— Alfred, editor of this first-person adaptation of Kapten’s account.