As the GX tournament officially began, Duel Academy was plunged into a storm of fierce battles.
Duelists from the professional league, top talents invited worldwide by the headmaster, and even the prince of a small country, alongside all the students from the Duel Academy main and branch campuses.
Currently, the sharpest confrontation might be the battle between the academy students and the Light Association.
The Light Association dispatched a large number of elite duelists, their exact purpose unknown. However, it seemed they intended to use dueling to convert a large number of Duel Academy students, with the aim of turning the academy "white".
The members of the association arrived full of enthusiasm and confidence, firmly believing in their victory. As they represented the Cosmic Light, under the protection of fate, they came with the mission to spread light to this academy steeped in darkness and filth.
However, when they confidently stepped onto the grand stage of the academy, ready to showcase their skills, what awaited them was a profound darkness that even the purest Cosmic Light could not illuminate.
Take, for example, a certain member of the association at that moment.
This member was a bit dazed when encountering the first Duel Academy student, even doubting whether they had found the right opponent.
Even though he was an academy student, he appeared disheveled, with a head full of tangled long hair. His rugged upper body exposed muscles as solid as a beast's. The only clothing he wore was a pair of shorts resembling those of the Hulk...
But this person confidently claimed to be an Obelisk Blue student, leaving the association member quite flabbergasted.
Have Duel Academy students become so unorthodox these days? Even wild men from the mountains can enroll?
This "wild man" was, of course, Taira Oyama, the Obelisk Blue student who previously went into the mountains to undergo arduous divine drawing training.
Though Taira Oyama had returned to normal after being defeated by Yugen and was no longer residing in the mountains, the days he spent training there left a significant impact on him.
For instance, the most notable change was the strange condition he developed after returning from the mountains, where he insisted on tearing off his shirt for every card game.
He claimed that wearing clothes made him uncomfortable, disrupting the divine drawing technique he had mastered through communing with nature, and he couldn't perform at his best without stripping.
In fact, were it not for consideration of propriety, he wouldn't even want to keep those shorts...
Taira Oyama: "Under the guidance of the Duel King, I have transformed and reached a new realm!"
Association Member: "Blustering words, let me show you the vastness of the Cosmic Light!"
"Duel!" x2
"This is the latest and most perfect card deck I have created under the king's guidance. Now let me show you!
My turn, draw!"
Taira Oyama said.
"Activate the Magic Card 'Handwriting Erasure,' both parties discard all cards in hand and then draw the same number!"
The association member laughed heartily: "Replacing your hand immediately, is your so-called perfect deck prone to drawing mishaps?"
Taira Oyama: "At this moment, I activate the Speed Attack Magic 'Speed Summon,' to Normal Summon a monster from my hand. I summon 'Temple Guardian' from my hand!
While Temple Guardian is on the field, the opponent is unable to draw cards outside their own draw phase!
Thus, according to 'Handwriting Erasure's' effect, we both discard all cards in our hands, then I draw three cards, and you cannot draw!"
The association member's smile froze on his face.
Nani?!
"..."
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
Yamamoto Yuichi from the Yellow Dormitory, now renowned in the academy as the "first to get fiercely beaten after the Duel King's enrollment," also stepped forward to confront an association member.
"Normal Summon 'Submarine Robot,' then activate the Field Spell 'Legendary City - Atlantis,' increasing Water Attribute monsters' Attack Power by 200!"
Yamamoto Yuichi shouted.
"Submarine, direct attack!"
The opposing association member suffered the submarine's attack head-on and grunted heavily.
"Only 1000 points of damage, I'll defeat this small fry in my next turn..."
"Submarine Robot switches to Defense Position after attacking." Yamamoto Yuichi stated, "Then activate the Continuous Trap 'Super Gravity Net!' Monsters of Level Four or higher cannot attack!"
"Nani?" The association member was startled.
Monsters of Level Four or higher can't attack?
With Submarine Robot's Defense Power at 1800, defeating it with lower-level monsters would prove challenging.
"Damn it... But now your submarine can't attack either!"
"Heh, that's not necessarily the case."
Yamamoto smirked.
"Another effect of Atlantis decreases the Level of all Water Attribute monsters by 1. So now my Submarine Robot is Level 3!"
"Nani!?" The association member began to sweat profusely.
Meaning that only I can't attack?
He immediately realized this. This creature not only benefits from the field's Attack Power boost but also perfectly avoids the Super Gravity Net's restriction by lowering its Level.
Moreover, this blasted submarine can perform direct attacks, so summoning walls of monsters is useless. With Super Gravity Net in play, he must summon a Level Three or lower monster with over 1800 Attack Power to defeat the submarine...
What the hell is this? After taking continuous hits to the face from the submarine, the association member quickly donned a mask of agony: "Aaaaagh——"
"..."
Elsewhere.
Chazz: "Activate the Trap Card 'Ojama Trio,' Special Summoning three Ojama Derivatives onto your field!"
"Then activate the Magic Card 'Land Subsidence,' sealing off two of your monster zones."
"Now you have no monster zones left. Your turn."
The opposing association member: "......"
"..."
The members of the Light Association quickly realized, within just a single day of the tournament's start, that things were far from as simple as they had thought.
This was not Duel Academy at all.
It wasn't the place they imagined, filled with naive students who had never encountered the harsh realities of the world, like flowers in a greenhouse.
This was an isolated island, a cage.
Inside the cage were the darkest, most sinister beasts in the world!
The ones truly protected by this cage were not these dangerous students but the innocent society outside.
They even found it hard to imagine that on the day should this cage be opened, allowing these malevolent beings to pour out...
By then, the professional circle might be overturned, the dueling realm would undergo upheaval, inevitably leading to a storm of bloodshed.
That evening, School Nurse Mina reviewed the first day's battles and those members of the Light Association in disarray. She pondered for a long time, unable to help but look at Yugen beside her.
After hesitating for a while, she slowly spoke.
"When you formulated this 'Underworld Plan' back then, to be honest, I thought the name was a bit overblown, too exaggerated."
"Now, I find you seem to have been a bit conservative in your naming..."