Manjoume collapsed onto the ground, his clothes disheveled, his eyes glazed, his expression vacant.
He lost again.
He had clearly made ample preparations, clearly gained new powers, and had arrived today feeling quite confident.
But judging by the outcome, nothing seemed to have changed from before.
If, during their first encounter at the Moon Blossom Cup, he could still claim to have underestimated his opponent or had bad luck, this time he seemed to have no reason left to convince himself.
Yugi Xuan, standing on the opposite side of the field, was putting away his Duel Disk. In Manjoume's eyes, he still looked as casual as ever. Throughout the entire process, there was no sense of the sharp fighting spirit typical of other duelists, nor the slightest hint of tension.
This made the feeling of "being nothing but cannon fodder" resurface in Manjoume's heart.
His fists clenched uncontrollably again.
"..."
"Then congratulations to You Xuan-kun for winning this year's Freshman Cup Championship." The senior student smiled and stepped forward to congratulate him, "As this year's outstanding newcomer in the club, do you have anything you'd like to say to everyone?"
You Xuan thought for a moment, then casually said, "I'm not much of a talker. So... I hope everyone can continue to enjoy dueling together in the future."
As soon as these words were spoken, the students who had previously faced him couldn't help but shiver, as if a primal, instinctive stress response had been triggered in their bodies.
Unbeknownst to them, the club's freshmen had already reached a consensus.
Watching this big shot duel was quite entertaining, but actually participating? Forget it. The joy of dueling really had to be built upon someone else's suffering.
In fact, after the duel, You Xuan had wanted to offer a few words of comfort to Manjoume, his opponent. Manjoume's performance in this match actually felt quite good, but after the duel, he looked as if he was about to shut himself off from the world.
But when You Xuan turned his head, Manjoume was nowhere to be seen.
So You Xuan had no choice but to set aside that thought for now.
I hope Manjoume-kun is alright.
Beating Manjoume with VWXYZ felt a little subtle. It was rather like a main character committing an offense, with the victim still completely clueless and bewildered—a peculiar sense of déjà vu.
However, judging by the current trajectory, he predicted that Manjoume's evolution and transformation had only just begun.
This match saw the appearance of Light End Dragon and Dark End Dragon, but not the famous "Panda Dragon" – also known as "Light and Darkness Dragon," humorously dubbed "Panda Dragon" by card players due to its half-black, half-white design.
According to the original work, Panda Dragon also had a spirit, and one with considerable power at that; it was Manjoume's ace. Of course, in the anime timeline, Manjoume's signature spirits were the Ojama Trio, which instantly made the art style comical.
Manjoume's first encounter with Ojama Yellow was after he suffered a setback and decided to leave Duel Academy. He was shipwrecked at sea, and afterward, the principal of Duel Academy's Northern Branch gave him the card Ojama Yellow.
Now, although the world line has shifted and the process is different, Manjoume still seems to be heading towards self-isolation. Given his current state, it wouldn't be surprising if the world line converges and he tries to escape the academy at any moment.
Of course, for him personally, it might not necessarily be a bad thing. If he hadn't gone through those experiences, he might have found it difficult to continue progressing.
For now, this had nothing to do with You Xuan. He had now collected the duel club's competition reward credits and, led by the senior student, arrived at the duel club's card inventory.
Which one to choose?
There weren't many cards he specifically wanted on his list, but there were some useful ones, though usually general-purpose cards. For instance, he immediately spotted this one:
[Magic Reflector], Level 5, ATK 1800
Effect: As long as this card remains face-up on the field, Spell Cards cannot be activated, and the effects of all Spell Cards on the field are negated.
A monster used by Amelda, one of the Doma Three Musketeers in the DM anime. This card immediately reminded You Xuan of a top-tier deck from ancient times—Ojama Reflector.
From the name, it's clear the deck's core was "Ojama" and "Magic Reflector."
Ojama was a card series known for locking down the opponent's field, and the inclusion of Magic Reflector targeted the various overpowered Spell Cards rampant in the environment at the time. Things like Pot of Greed, Card Destruction, Dark Hole, Raigeki, and Heavy Storm were all equal in the face of Magic Reflector.
At that time, a whole bunch of Forbidden-level Spell Cards were almost mandatory in all mainstream decks. Running into Magic Reflector made it quite easy for players to find themselves with a hand full of Forbidden cards that they couldn't play.
Of course, Magic Reflector's own ATK of only 1800 was its main weakness, making it easy to be defeated. "Ojama", however, perfectly compensated for this weakness.
Using "Ojama Trio" to clog the opponent's Monster Zones, preventing them from summoning monsters, or using backrow staples like "Gravity Bind" to create a lockdown. The opponent couldn't attack and couldn't play Spell Cards to clear the field, so they naturally had no choice but to helplessly wait for death in front of this lockdown formation.
So clearly, this was an ancient, purely lockdown type of "revenge on society" deck, which pioneered new ideas for countless "anti-social" players in later generations, a great pioneer in the field of lockdown.
Thus, filled with respect for these great pioneers, You Xuan decisively selected several components of the [Ojama Reflector] deck.
Overall, this deck wasn't expensive to build. Most of the deck, including the Ojama cards, used cheap cards from this world. Only rare cards like Amelda's "Magic Reflector" were exceptions, but he happened to find one available for free in the duel club's inventory. There were also two relatively rare Trap Cards available there.
So, You Xuan acquired another early top-tier deck for almost no money, and it was even one that had good synergy with his style.
Especially in the anime world, the Ojama Trio seemed to naturally come with a taunt-buffing attribute. Their attack animation even involved jumping and ramming the opponent with their butts. He could almost already imagine how much fun duelists who ran into this ancient "revenge-on-society" top-tier deck would have.
"Alright, these are the ones."
You Xuan happily collected the chosen cards.
The senior student carefully counted the cards he had selected, and a question mark seemed to appear on her forehead.
"Are you sure you want just these?"
"Yeah." You Xuan smiled.
The senior student's expression was odd. She felt that their duel club's inventory still had some attractive high-level powerful monsters, all rare cards.
In the past, when club members had the opportunity to receive rare card rewards from the inventory, they would usually choose those expensive and powerful high-level monsters.
However, the only monster above four stars You Xuan chose after browsing was [Magic Reflector], a Level 5 monster with only 1800 ATK. While she didn't deny that the spell suppression effect was good, in most people's eyes, a Level 5 monster with only 1800 ATK was undoubtedly unqualified.
Furthermore, You Xuan's Ojama archetype was something he had bought himself in the academy club before, so the cards he chose here were other unrelated components, making it even harder to understand what kind of arrangement he was making by selecting these.
But the senior student also knew that this junior always had some unique and ingenious ideas that others didn't, so she didn't try to dissuade him.
However, as she packed You Xuan's selected cards into a deck box and handed them to him, she couldn't help but ask, "Junior, may I ask, are you developing a new strategy with these cards?"
"Senior's intuition is very accurate." You Xuan happily accepted them.
"Then can you reveal what it is?"
The senior student couldn't suppress her curiosity.
You Xuan smiled and looked at her for a moment.
"Want to know?"
"Yes." The senior student nodded repeatedly.
She wanted to know desperately.
"Then please make sure to watch next week's tag duel."
You Xuan put away the deck box and chuckled.
"You'll understand when you see it."
After saying that, he waved goodbye and left.
The senior student stomped her foot in frustration, making her body tremble.
He still wouldn't say, keeping her in suspense.
It made her even more unbearable with curiosity.
But next week's tag duel...
She suddenly had a premonition.
Some unlucky duo was probably about to suffer greatly.
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