Walking down the street to grab a bite, Yugen reflected, feeling that his approach might have been a bit off.
Other dueling schools, like the Cyber-style in the anime, relied on diligent training, practicing drawing cards day and night like martial arts, with sincerity reaching the point where even stones would yield, eventually moving the spirit of Cyber End Dragon and earning its recognition.
Yet, at this very moment, Silent Magician might be internally complaining about how she got such a peculiar owner, whose method of summoning a spirit was apparently to annoy her into submission.
However, looking at it from another perspective, purely from the result, did he or did he not summon her?
It seemed he needed to seriously reconsider the proper way to cultivate their bond in the future.
As Yugen walked, lost in thought, he suddenly noticed something amiss.
A dark alley quietly hid behind the flashy commercial district. This was a shortcut to the shopping area, only about six or seven hundred meters long, with snack stalls and late-night eateries at the other end.
The air was filled with a damp chill, mixed with an unknown, unusual scent. The cobblestone path underfoot looked uneven in the dim light, and the wind rustled through the trees at the alley's entrance.
Just a few steps forward, the faint light illuminated a wall blocking the path ahead.
A dead end.
Yugen frowned.
That shouldn't be right. According to my previous life's memory, this path clearly led through. Could my inherited memories be mixed up, and I took a wrong turn?
Feeling puzzled, he turned back the way he came. But after walking all the way back to the end, he immediately realized something was still wrong.
Under the dim light, another wall appeared. He had clearly turned around, but this wall looked identical to the one he had just seen. Upon closer inspection, even the surrounding environment on both sides seemed remarkably familiar.
Is this the legendary "ghost wall" (ghost-induced disorientation)?
A sense of dread naturally struck him. Suddenly, every patch of shadow seemed to hide a malevolent spirit or a monstrous demon.
However, Yugen quickly managed to calm himself.
If he were in some other dimension, this kind of supernatural situation might be a near-death experience. But this wasn't just anywhere; this was Yu-Gi-Oh.
In this world, no matter if it's some divine being from beyond the heavens or a supernatural ghost, could they really take a life without involving a card duel?
Yugen stood firm, raising his guard and looking around. Suddenly, he felt a deep roar, seemingly from an abyss, echo from within the shadows. Then, a dark light pierced the darkness, and some kind of invisible fluctuation swept towards him like a blade.
He was startled, his internal alarm blaring. He instinctively stepped back half a step and raised his Duel Disk to protect himself. Just then, a white light flashed on his Duel Disk, and a translucent magic circle, like ice crystal, expanded, solidly meeting the invisible impact. An invisible wave of energy swept outwards, carving cracks in the ground and walls.
A transparent illusion manifested beside him; Silent Magician's robes were snow-white, and her staff, gleaming with cold light, twirled in her hand.
Yugen breathed a sigh of relief.
He was once again certain that spirits were truly essential for travel in this world; one wouldn't dare go out without stuffing at least two or three spirits into their deck.
"He's even a spirit user?"
A rough voice echoed from the darkness, and a cloaked figure slowly emerged from what seemed like a misty environment.
"And a high-level Spellcaster spirit at that, I'm really hitting the jackpot today."
Yugen narrowed his eyes. He couldn't see the person's face clearly, only faintly discerning a green glow in their eyes beneath the hood.
"A Dark Duelist?" he tentatively asked.
But he was relatively sure it was a character not seen in the original anime. After all, Dark Duelists were countless in the Yu-Gi-Oh world; those that appeared in the anime were just the tip of the iceberg.
"Ha, quite knowledgeable, kid."
The cloaked figure sneered and unfolded his Duel Disk. The Duel Disk's design was unlike any Yugen had seen before; it was a black model with five square zones that rotated and fell into place, piecing together to form the monster zones.
"If you know the rules, then it's easy. That's right, I am a Dark Duelist, and furthermore—"
He slowly lifted his hood, revealing a somewhat weathered face, with a faint green lightning flickering in his eyes. An imposing aura seemed to spread with his invisible presence.
"I am Onisuka Genichiro."
Yugen meticulously tried to recall, but he genuinely couldn't remember hearing that name. He could only ask: "Excuse me, am I supposed to know you?"
Onisuka Genichiro: "..."
The atmosphere became a bit awkward.
"Cough cough." Genichiro frowned. "The Genichiro who once reached the top 64 in the third Domino City Duelist Kingdom tournament, known as the 'Dinosaur King' in the江湖 (Jianghu, martial arts world/underworld), no impression?"
The Duelist Kingdom tournament... sorry, the anime only skipped the first one. Yugen indicated he hadn't watched the subsequent ones in the anime.
And besides, when talking about dinosaurs, shouldn't the first person that comes to mind be Ryuzaki, who was just defeated?
"On the day of my rise, that legendary duelist Dinosaur Ryuzaki had already retired and disappeared. Some ignorant people always said that if Ryuzaki were still around, I would definitely not be his opponent, ha, utterly ridiculous."
Genichiro gave a sinister laugh.
"I have gained the power of darkness, a powerful force that no duelist can surpass. I heard that Ryuzaki intends to make a comeback, and I immediately realized this was the opportunity I had been waiting for."
Genichiro shouted loudly.
"I am the strongest dragon tamer! And as a remnant of the previous generation, he is destined to be swallowed by darkness, destined for destruction!"
Yugen: "..."
Then why don't you go find Ryuzaki? Why are you stopping me?
"Hmm, well, good luck, buddy." Yugen said, "I have somewhere to be, so I'll be going ahead..."
"Useless, you cannot leave this domain. Only one of us can leave here alive."
Genichiro said coldly.
"I saw it, you defeated him, that Dinosaur Ryuzaki, on the dueling field. And it was with absolute overwhelming power; he couldn't even touch your LP from beginning to end.
That's when I changed my mind. You are more valuable to defeat than Dinosaur Ryuzaki, and even more valuable to sacrifice to darkness. If I can swallow you into my darkness, I will surely advance further on the path of a Dark Duelist!"
Yugen: "..."
"Enough talk."
Genichiro had already unfolded his Duel Disk.
"Once a Dark Duel begins, it won't stop easily. We'll decide who's superior, and who lives or dies! Come on, bet your soul as a duelist!"
Actually, based on his understanding of the original anime, Yugen knew that Dark Duels weren't entirely unstoppable. If someone with far greater dark power than the initiator interfered, they could forcibly end the duel or even alter the wager rules. For example, the Millennium Puzzle could do that.
Or there were special circumstances, like during a riding duel, if you were about to lose, you could quickly remove a screw, causing the vehicle to crash and the duel to be nullified...
However, it seemed he couldn't escape this one. Yugen took a deep breath and unfolded his Duel Disk.
"DUEL!" x2