When Duanmu Huai walked out of the Kyokugenryu Dojo, he felt completely refreshed.
Because of Duel City's rules—nobody actually dies—he naturally didn't kill Takuma Sakazaki. Not only that, after defeating Takuma, Duanmu Huai received two rewards: [Transcended Style] and [Defeated a Grandmaster]. In an instant, he earned 5,000 Duel Points—more than enough to finally ditch that miserable place he'd been living in and move into a proper apartment.
On top of that, after waking up, Takuma even told Duanmu Huai that he would personally recommend him to the Duel Tournament as the Kyokugenryu instructor. That also put Duanmu Huai at ease. He still didn't fully understand this world's situation, but according to the game's setting, most martial arts clans' masters had considerable influence over the Duel Tournament. Since Takuma said he'd recommend him, getting that Letter of Recommendation was now only a matter of time.
But for now… Duanmu Huai planned to get himself a new place first. Since Duel City functioned as a long-term event hub, and he'd be coming back frequently to participate in matches, he needed a proper base of operations.
Preferably a comfortable one.
As a side note, prices in Duel City were absolutely warped—completely impossible to understand with normal logic. Here, the most expensive items were clothing.
Take bikinis, for instance. The cheapest bikini cost 50,000 Duel Points—and that was considered N-rank mobile-game trash quality. If you wanted an SSR-rank outfit, you either had to win first place in the Duel Tournament to earn a set… or spend anywhere from hundreds of thousands to billions of Duel Points.
To put this into perspective—a whole villa here cost only 50,000 Duel Points.
Meaning it was the same price as a bargain-bin N-rank bikini.
Of course, in the original game, the Duel Tournament was extremely difficult. Players fought not only NPCs but also other players, which created way too many unpredictable risks. Fortunately, now that Duel City had only one player—Duanmu Huai—he could treat this PvP map like PvE content.
If he beat the NPCs and won the tournament, he could get Anne a gorgeous new outfit.
One that was also very durable.
And also had a clothes-tearing mechanic (this being the important part).
After leaving the Kyokugenryu Dojo, Duanmu Huai contacted Lorena—who, incidentally, was going even crazier in Duel City than he was. Especially after Lorena discovered that people here couldn't be killed, she had been running around everywhere, picking fights with anyone who looked remotely strong… Well, considering the Holy City definitely didn't have anything resembling fighting tournaments, I guess she's been holding it in for a long time. Now that she'd entered Duel City, she was like a fish thrown into the ocean—free, ecstatic, finally able to indulge in her love of battle.
Not only that, Lorena seemed to have befriended several female fighters and was now basically hanging out with them. Hmph… I'd better keep an eye on her. If my girl gets brainwashed by NPCs into joining their team to compete, that would be ridiculous.
After conquering the Kyokugenryu Dojo, Duanmu Huai finally had spare money, meaning he could move into a proper residence. He briefly considered challenging the Kusanagi style afterward… but decided against it. He had no desire to butt heads with Kyo Kusanagi right now.
So he dropped the idea and began searching for a home. Thanks to his in-game experience, Duanmu Huai quickly settled on an apartment located in the western district of Duel City. The rooms were large and spacious, the price was cheap, and there were restaurants and amusement facilities nearby. Beside it was a river and a forest park, and walking through the park for thirty minutes would bring him straight to the Duel Tournament venue.
Because of this, many players in the game used this place as their base. Whether coming or going from Duel City, this area had always been a hotspot.
Duanmu Huai still remembered the in-game version clearly—players lined the entire street, setting up stalls selling accessories and outfits. But now…
Standing on the empty, silent street, it was obvious the lively in-game scene no longer existed.
"Man… I wonder what the game looks like now."
Gazing at the familiar yet unfamiliar street, Duanmu Huai couldn't help sighing. He remembered how, in the game, both sides of this street were full of player stalls. The roads were crowded with players in all sorts of bizarre outfits—muscle-bound men wearing bikinis, male fighters in bunny suits, and even people wearing mascot costumes…
Mostly to attract attention, of course.
It got so bad the developers had to issue an announcement politely begging players to dress somewhat like normal humans in public areas.
And not to traumatize others by sending muscular men in bikinis walking around.
Lost in the noisy memories of the past, Duanmu Huai strolled down the now-quiet street. He soon spotted an NPC food cart near the road and walked over.
"One ice cream."
"Huh? Ah—y-yes, yes sir!"
The vendor looked up, saw Duanmu Huai, and instantly paled, nodding frantically. He grabbed a cone and stuffed several apple-sized scoops of ice cream into it before respectfully handing it over.
"P-please enjoy, sir."
"Mm."
Duanmu Huai accepted it without much thought. Even in the real world, restaurants often treated him generously.
When he ordered beef noodles, they'd dump several pounds of sliced beef into his bowl.
When he ordered chicken soup, he'd get an entire boiled chicken floating inside.
What could he say—there were still generous shopkeepers in the world.
"… … …"
As he ate his ice cream, he suddenly felt someone staring at him. He turned and saw a girl not far away, standing still, her eyes fixed blankly on the ice cream in his hand.
She looked around thirteen or fourteen, dressed like she was wearing sportswear, with vivid red eyes and delicate features. Most noticeable of all were the golden gloves on her hands.
…Hmm? Isn't this Kula? Why is she here?
Duanmu Huai paused. Players knew NPC spawn zones extremely well, and Kula wasn't supposed to appear here.
Whatever. If we meet, it's fate.
He waved his ice cream at her.
"Want one?"
"… … …"
Kula didn't speak. She simply nodded silently.
So Duanmu Huai turned to the extremely generous ice cream vendor.
"Another one. Bigger."
"Y-yes… y-yes!!"
The vendor's face went deathly pale as he nodded vigorously.
"Don't worry, sir—this one will be HUGE!"
And he delivered—he whipped up a cone even larger than the one Duanmu Huai had. Honestly, stacking that many scoops on a single cone took skill.
Duanmu Huai took the enormous ice cream and held it out to Kula.
"Here."
"… … …?"
She blinked at him, then looked back at the ice cream. Apparently, the ice cream's allure exceeded her wariness toward him.
"It's for you. Go ahead."
"… … …"
Kula approached slowly—like a small animal uncertain whether to accept food from a human—took the cone carefully, and began nibbling on it in tiny bites.
Seeing this, Duanmu Huai shook his head and turned to leave, planning to return to his apartment for a good rest.
Kula, meanwhile, kept eating intently. Only after Duanmu Huai had walked far away did she raise her head to look at his back. She considered for a moment—looked at Duanmu Huai, then at the ice cream in her hand—
Then the next moment, the blue-haired girl moved silently—
And began following in the direction Duanmu Huai had gone.
(End of Chapter)