[Onisuka Genichiro, LP 0]
The final attack ended, taking all of his remaining Life Points, and in this Dark Duel he himself initiated, it also represented the true end of the duelist's life.
At this moment, he didn't even feel the pain brought by the impact of the Dark Duel.
Because he had begun to lose all sensation of his physical body.
During the duel, he had boasted that being caught by him was the opponent's lifelong misfortune.
Now, who was truly unfortunate?
This young man was strong, but unlike any strong person he had encountered before.
How to put it... it was as if...
...the way he understood dueling was completely different from how others understood it.
This was Genichiro's first time ever having such a thought after a duel—
—Dueling is really hard.
After his defeat, Genichiro fell to the ground, then his body was enveloped in a layer of golden light, which then dispersed into specks of light that flew away and vanished.
Just like those who lost duels and "died" in the GX dimension-traveling book.
Yugen took a deep breath.
Well, Dark Duels are indeed dangerous. Losing means even your ashes are scattered; that's too terrifying.
Good thing he was a level above.
However, this guy, in his opinion, his Konami language proficiency hadn't even reached a beginner level. Could such a slow person really be a Dark Duelist? It's a miracle he survived until now gambling his life on duels.
No, that's not right.
Yugen realized he was still thinking with his past life's mindset.
He couldn't think like that. In this world, a duelist's strength still relied more on divine draws; as for interpreting card text or Konami language, it was probably just a bonus.
Indeed, it's still a dangerous world. I can't relax even a little.
I still need to collect more powerful cards and increase my strength; that's the king's path.
Like starting from now.
Yugen stepped forward, bent down, and picked up Genichiro's Duel Disk that had fallen to the ground after his "death."
Since the person was gone, the deck naturally became ownerless property.
So Yugen solemnly said: "It was a good duel. Rest in peace, buddy. I will inherit your deck and your will."
Saying that, he stuffed the deck into his bag.
As he was leaving, he felt a chill down his spine, as if a ghostly wind had swept past.
The next morning.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, gently scattering onto the room's floor. Yugen groggily opened his heavy eyelids, his blurry vision struggling to focus.
He seemed to see... a girl?
Silver hair fluttering, one hand holding a staff, the other covering her mouth, her spiritual form had half her body phasing through his body as he lay in bed. Her bright eyes were wide open, peeking out, as if she was observing him.
But the moment he opened his eyes, a "!" seemed to pop up above the girl's head. She instantly turned and zipped back into the deck leaning against the Duel Disk by the table, making no further sound.
Yugen: "..."
After their first cooperation in the tumultuous battle last night, Yugen understood that the Silent girl wasn't intentionally targeting him or refusing to acknowledge him as her owner; she was simply "silent."
In other words, she was just an introvert.
Well, as the saying goes, 'like master, like servant.' It seems perfectly reasonable for an introverted player to have an introverted spirit.
Anyway, she certainly helped out in last night's sudden battle. Indeed, in the Yu-Gi-Oh world, going out without a divine artifact or a spirit by your side is simply too dangerous.
Moreover, he wasn't sure if it was a psychological effect, but he felt that during last night's life-or-death duel, with Silent Magician in his deck, there truly seemed to be something different about the duel compared to before.
It was a feeling difficult to describe clearly. But it was as if, before that, his deck, like the Duel Disk, was just a tool for dueling.
But in that particular duel, he had for the first time the illusion that "the deck seemed to come alive."
Of course, this feeling was very metaphysical, and he couldn't rule out the possibility that he was overthinking it.
"No matter what, I still need to get stronger..."
The unexpected life-or-death duel made Yugen realize once again the critical importance of dueling well in this world. This was even more reliable than carrying a military arsenal around.
At the same time, by reviewing his recent continuous battles, he also gained some new insights.
Many anime characters' decks, from a veteran player's perspective, would often make one exclaim in awe, "How do they even make such a system work?"
But if you build upon the fundamental strength of some "sea emperor head" players who "will never brick their hand" (brick: having an unusable hand), and then look at their decks, you'll find a similar characteristic. (CVT: brick hand: refers to having a hand of cards that are useless and cannot be played)
That is: stuffing in things of "unclear ☆ meaning" (crossed out)
That is: they have a solution for almost any field situation in their decks.
In reality, decks also strive for stability and high efficiency, but even top-tier meta decks will occasionally encounter situations where "the entire deck can't get past it."
This refers to facing a certain board, a certain specific situation, where you know that no matter which card you draw from your deck's structure, you won't be able to get past that board.
Such situations are rare, and even if encountered occasionally, surrendering directly doesn't affect a mainstream deck's status. But it's different in this world.
Dark Duels are single-game matches; victory is life, defeat is death. There's no chance to surrender and try again.
Therefore, some decks that seem to be stuffed with "unclear ☆ meaning" actually achieve the idea of "almost no unplayable board."
Similarly, in reality, deck structures usually aim for exactly forty cards, simplifying as much as possible to minimize the chance of bricking and maximize operational efficiency. But in this world, sixty cards is a normal deck size. No, it even seems that the maximum deck size in this world might be more than sixty cards.
Because more cards mean more possibilities.
But all of this is built upon the foundation of "never bricking your hand."
Therefore, only top duelists have the ability to control such a system, even mixing four or five completely different archetypes into one deck like Yugi and Kaiba, yet never bricking their hand, making it feel as if they are simultaneously dueling with four or five independent decks.
In fact, when there are truly no moves left, it's not impossible that you might even draw a card that isn't in your deck.
However, ordinary people without that strength who blindly imitate these top-tier masters' structures and strategies, everyone carrying sixty-card starting decks, will naturally get worse and worse, bricking more and more, thus forming this peculiar environment where the gap between masters and the bottom tier becomes increasingly severe.
So Yugen felt he had another epiphany.
Even though "Yin-Yang" (Darkness) is powerful, relying solely on it in this world won't get you far. At this stage, relying on deck structure is enough to cope with opponents, but in the future, he'll still need to develop even more unpredictable styles and strategies on this basis.
Deck structure is very important, and divine draws/bonds are also very important. Both hands must be held, and both hands must be strong.
In his recent duels, besides realizing the differences in the anime's deck environment, Yugen also discovered many other aspects that were not quite the same as what he was familiar with.
He hadn't thought about it or noticed it much when watching anime before, but now that he had personally transmigrated and started dueling, he realized that, just as depicted in the anime, duelists here generally don't actively give you a chance to chain after activating an effect.
If it were according to the rules Yugen was familiar with from his previous life, often after you activate an effect, you would need to give your opponent time and ask if they want to chain. Only after all cards on both sides of a chain are activated can the effects be resolved in order.
Unless the opponent says "no holes, fast play" or "go ahead," you wouldn't freely declare your moves.
But here, that wasn't the case. Whether in the anime or with duelists Yugen personally encountered, after activating an effect, they immediately began to resolve it, completely lacking this awareness.
However, he quickly realized that this influence wasn't significant, because the chaining rules in duels weren't so strict anyway. Even if the opponent had already started resolving the current card's effect, it wouldn't prevent you from activating your chained card in time. You could still interrupt the opponent's operation and activate your own effect.
This was natural. Otherwise, wouldn't it become a situation where whoever could speak faster could just skip the timing of cards and prevent the opponent from playing?
Furthermore, this wasn't due to incomplete original anime rules; even in later series that already followed the real card game rules, the anime portrayal remained the same.
From the perspective of animation production, one can only infer that perhaps the production team decided that dramatic effect in the anime was more important than strict adherence to rules. Because if everyone strictly followed the rules and activated all cards and then resolved them one by one, it might affect some of the reversal plot effects.
Although from a realistic perspective such operations are not rule-compliant, in general, even in the anime, it's just a dramatic effect and won't cause any actual influence on the duel's state.
Last night, Yugen further discovered that dueling is indeed a physical activity. The PE teacher at Duel Academy even emphasized that without a good body, one cannot duel well. Back then, Yugen found it somewhat amusing, but now he was beginning to grasp its meaning.
Especially last night's life-or-death duel was indeed physically and mentally exhausting. He didn't feel it during the duel, but after returning, he felt completely drained, not wanting to think about anything but collapsing into sleep.
Only after waking up did he feel refreshed, his brain back online and ready for work.
The spoils from last night's victory were considerable. That Genichiro was, after all, a Dark Duelist who courted danger, and his deck felt quite valuable. Yugen noticed that some of the cards, even if he couldn't use them, could fetch a good price on the market, probably enough to trade for what he wanted.
And most importantly, there was no doubt about the anime-effect version of "Card of Demise."
An artifact that instantly draws five cards, with only the comical side effect of "discarding cards after five turns," which felt like a mocking gesture towards the opponent. Things like "Graceful Charity" immediately became mere scraps.
Too bad there was only one copy. Yugen even felt that if this thing could be played three times, it would largely be a good thing.
What else he greatly yearned for were the other two of the "Three Great Treasures" from the DM era, alongside "Card of Demise": "Roll of Fate" and "Card of Sanctity."
"Roll of Fate" belonged to Joey. It basically involved rolling a die; whatever number it landed on, that's how many cards you'd draw, and then banish that many cards from the top of your deck. It was also an incredibly powerful divine card, but in the anime, besides Joey, no one else was seen using it, and by the GX era, it had completely disappeared.
"Card of Sanctity," on the other hand, belonged to Yugi. Both players drew until they had six cards in hand—a super-god-tier lethal weapon. This card was used by quite a few other people besides Yugi in DM and was considered a regularly used card. It even made appearances in the GX era. However, Yugen hadn't seen it on the market yet.
The three divine treasures of DM, he truly wanted them all.
And now, his greatest hope was the promising "Duel Academy."
Outside, rumors spread that once you entered the academy, it would be a completely different world. Normal duelists could hardly imagine the vast number of rare cards, rumored to be a "shortcut" to acquiring "anything you want."
It was almost within reach.
Just three days later, at Kaiba Land, the annual Duel Academy entrance exam would be held.
He would definitely pass.