Yamamine: "..."
Yamamine glanced at Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo on the field and fell silent.
He wanted to keep building his board, but with that thing sitting there, he could not even Summon monsters. What board was there left to build?
And it was still Turn 1. He could not attack to reset anything, either.
However…
The corner of his eye flicked toward the Set Trap Card in his back row, its surface glinting with a cold sheen, and an eerie smile crept onto his face.
It did not matter if he could not move. This kind of lock was a two-way street. Next turn, Yusaku would not be able to develop new monsters either.
If Yusaku got impatient and tried to push for damage anyway, then the card in Yamamine's hand would be the key to turning the tables.
With that thought, he did not hesitate. He flicked the Trap Card out and slapped it onto his Duel Disk.
"I Set one card. End my turn!"
The instant his words fell, a low hiss sounded. The ground in front of his Duel Disk split open, and a card covered in cryptic patterns rose slowly from the fissure, settling firmly into place.
"Not going to attack?" Yusaku's gaze swept over the ominous Set card at Yamamine's feet, his tone even. "Then, in your End Phase, my banished 'Ecclesia of the Black Dragon' returns to the field."
Before he even finished speaking, a rift tore open in midair. A blonde, battle-armored maiden with a commanding presence burst out astride a heavily plated dragon, gripping a scythe-halberd scepter shaped like a coiling drake as she rode the wind of the fracture back onto the field.
Ecclesia of the Black Dragon (ATK 2500)
"Now then. My turn. Draw."
Yusaku drew from the top of his Deck, his eyes flicking across the card face as his mind sketched the next exchange in a heartbeat.
Right now, he already had five monsters on his field: White Lion Ars, Ecclesia of the Black Dragon, the Four Riders, Duskfall Dragon, Albion the Sanctifire Dragon, and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo.
Across from him, Yamamine had only the Hop Ear Squadron that had been Special Summoned by Albion's effect.
If he simply went to battle, he had more than enough power on board to end the Duel immediately, but…
Yusaku's eyes returned to the Set card at Yamamine's feet. After a brief pause, he played the card in his hand.
"I activate the effect of 'The Bystial Magnamhut' in my hand. I add 'The Bystial Magnamhut' to my hand, then Special Summon it from my hand in Defense Position!"
"I send it to the Graveyard, and add 'The Bystial Druiswurm' from my Deck to my hand."
With the searched card sliding into his hand, Yusaku did not slow down for even a second.
"I Tribute 'Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo'! I Tribute Summon 'The Bystial Druiswurm'!"
In the same instant, a pitch-black pillar of light erupted behind Yusaku like an ink spill reaching for the sky. From within it, a colossal dragon clad in gray-black scales unfurled its wings and roared as it surged out, its sheer mass whipping a ring of dark gale across the entire arena.
The Bystial Druiswurm
Level 6 / Dragon / Effect
ATK 2500
"Next, I activate the effect of 'Ecclesia of the Black Dragon'! I Tribute it until the End Phase, and Special Summon from my Deck a monster that lists 'Fallen of Albaz' in its text: 'Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous'!"
Light gathered, and a saintly maiden stepped forth in red-brown ceremonial robes, a shining holy blade in hand, silver hair spilling like moonlight.
Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous
Level 4 / Spellcaster / Tuner / Effect
ATK 1500
"Then I tune the 'Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous' I just Summoned with my Level 6 'The Bystial Druiswurm'!"
"Synchro Summon! Level 10, descend—Baronne de Fleur!!!"
In the instant his declaration landed, Graveyard flame and holy light interwove and spiraled upward into a radiant starpath that pierced the heavens. Countless motes of stardust traced a phantom ten-star chain across the sky, and a dazzling rose-colored beam poured down like a galaxy waterfall onto the Duel field.
Then came a crisp, powerful cadence of hoofbeats.
A valiant female knight in silver armor burst from the bloom of light astride a magnificent white steed, longsword raised, her aura as clean and sharp as a drawn blade.
Baronne de Fleur
Level 10 / Warrior / Synchro / Effect
ATK 3000
"Settle it."
The moment Baronne de Fleur appeared, Yamamine's expression sank. He stepped back decisively, shoulders tight.
"As expected. Name lives up to the hype. I thought I could trade a few more blows with you."
Yusaku smiled, timing a modest shrug perfectly.
"Just good draws. You played fine."
Yamamine waved a hand.
"You're being polite. I lost this time, but I'll challenge you again. Next time won't end like this."
Yusaku's smile deepened slightly.
"As long as I have the time, you're welcome to come fight anytime. That said… it's time to end this game."
Yusaku's eyes sharpened.
"I activate the effect of 'The Bystial Druiswurm' in my Graveyard! When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, its ATK increases by 1000!"
A red arc of light shot out from the Graveyard zone, wrapping around Hop Ear Squadron on Yamamine's field like a tightening band of forged metal before dragging it down into the Graveyard.
"Then I activate the effect of 'Baronne de Fleur'! Destroy the card on your field!"
Baronne de Fleur wheeled her mount, sword lifting high as rose-colored radiance gathered along the blade, petals glittering through the air like drifting sparks.
With a single, decisive slash, a crescent-shaped sword wave—laced with shadow, blossoms, and fluttering butterflies—screamed forward, the air whining as it split. It caught Yamamine's Set card, yanking it up and spinning it violently in midair until it shattered under the relentless spiral.
At that moment, The Bystial Druiswurm's ATK rose by 1000.
Around them, the crowd erupted into a wave of chatter.
"Reflect shield? That would've been nasty. If he'd just swung first, he might've had a chance to flip it!"
"No 'if' here. That's why he's called a freak. He's absurdly strong, and he's still that careful."
With Baronne de Fleur established, Yusaku made no unnecessary moves. He entered the Battle Phase cleanly.
Between Baronne de Fleur, Albion the Sanctifire Dragon, and the rest of his board, the combined pressure was already far beyond 8000.
After a single, crushing exchange, the Duel was over.
Yamamine, LP 8000 → 0
When it ended, Yamamine dusted off his clothes, pulled out three Decks from his bag, and tossed them to Yusaku.
"Here. What I promised. I don't welch."
Yusaku caught them easily, tapped the stacks together in his palm, and smiled.
"Thanks."
"What's there to thank me for?" Yamamine looked at him seriously. "If anything, I've always hated how awful my old study habits were. Ever think about coming to our dojo as an instructor? We're not a top-tier dojo, but we're well-known in the Upper City. Interested?"
"An instructor, huh?" Yusaku considered it.
It was not a bad path. No daily classes, and a steady dojo salary.
After a moment, he shook his head.
"Not for now. I'm used to being free."
"That's a shame." Yamamine smiled. "If you ever change your mind, come find me."
With that, he turned and left the Duel arena.
After Yamamine left, Yusaku put away his Duel Disk, declined the remaining dojo invitations, and headed back down to the next level.
Strange. Where did all those players go?
They had been swarming the match the entire time, but the moment it ended, they were gone. Did they all log off at once?
While he was still thinking, Takeuchi Yuushi squeezed out from the crowd, panting.
"Whew. Are people in the Upper City always this crazy?"
Yusaku teased him lightly.
"Master, how does it feel after coming up here?"
Takeuchi Yuushi thought for a moment, then replied.
"Other than the sky being bluer and the air being cleaner, it's not that different. But compared to the Satellite Zone, the average duelist level here is definitely higher."
"So what are you all planning to do now?" Yusaku asked.
Takeuchi Yuushi lifted his head toward the blue sky, a trace of longing in his eyes.
"Even if the Upper City and the Satellite Zone aren't that different, the dueling atmosphere here is still better. A few of us old guys are thinking of teaming up and opening a dojo in the Upper City."
Then he turned to Yusaku.
"And you? What are you going to do?"
Yusaku thought about it.
Now that the Upper City and the Satellite Zone were fully connected, there was no longer any reason to rebuild a dojo in the Satellite Zone.
So their plan was to find the spirits scattered across the city, gather them all back together, and carry out the route they had already mapped out.
They even had a name for it: "Searching for the Lost Spirits."
After a beat, he smiled.
"Master, you're not going to try to keep me?"
Takeuchi Yuushi froze for a second, then laughed and cursed affectionately.
"Keep you? As if you'd stay if I did. I know a dojo can't hold you. Your strength shouldn't be boxed in by a dojo. You should go farther, into wider spaces. But if you ever want to come back, you can always come home."
He smiled, then sighed.
"Alright. If you run into any of the students, tell them we'll be waiting at the spot where you just dueled. Those brats are just like you. I can't stand a single one of them. Always stirring trouble and slacking off. Now you're the same."
He shook his head helplessly.
"Just now they suddenly said something about a 'version update,' and that they had to duel before it hit, grind their mission ranking for rewards… and they got wiped out across the board."
Yusaku smiled.
"Got it. If I see them, I'll tell them."
He knew exactly what they meant. The so-called missions were probably faction quests, and they were all rushing the ranking before the patch dropped, hoping to grab the best rewards.
"Then I'm heading out, Master. If anything comes up, contact me directly."
After saying goodbye to the dojo masters, Yusaku left.
The system had already announced the mission completion, but he had not had time to check the rewards.
Now that the players had disappeared and nobody was chasing him for duels, it was the perfect moment to look.
He could also use the rewards to assemble a new Deck. His current cards were starting to feel stale. It was time to swap into a fresh build.
Soon, Yusaku found a quiet park lawn. Seeing no one paying attention, he sat down on a soft patch of grass.
Once seated, he instinctively willed the system interface to appear.
But instead of the usual panel popping up immediately, a slowly pulsing progress bar appeared.
The "Dojo Affairs" line was at 97%, and it was still creeping upward.
Yusaku blinked.
"The system is upgrading? Or is it upgrading along with the version update?"
Staring at the crawling bar, he waited in place. At 97%, even at this speed, it would hit 100% in about three minutes.
Three minutes later, the bar finally reached 100%. With a crisp "ding," a pale-blue light screen snapped into view.
Name: Yusaku
Category: ?
Crystals: 10000
Forbidden Shards: 200
Still a question mark for Category, huh?
Yusaku chuckled.
After skimming the panel, he opened the shop. That progress bar clearly meant the system had upgraded. If the status panel was mostly unchanged, then the real change was probably the shop.
The moment the shop interface appeared, Yusaku's lips curled slightly.
Just as he thought: the shop had upgraded.
Now, besides "Pack Pulls" and "Card Exchange," it also had a new option: "Buy Core Engine."
Each engine had a different price. Some cost Crystals, while others cost Forbidden Shards.
The cheap ones cost only 2000 Crystals, like the Raidraptor core, the Lunalight core, the Bullet core…
The expensive ones cost over 10,000 Crystals, or even Forbidden Shards, like the Kashtira core, the Mermail core, the Spright core—each of those cost 50 Forbidden Shards.
As for those "Tearlaments mermaids," Yusaku glanced at them and saw they were still sitting in the exchange tab, clearly priced at 20 Forbidden Shards per copy.
To build a full, tournament-ready Tearlaments list, just maxing out the three "mermaid" low-levels alone would require 3 copies each. At 20 per copy, that was 180 Forbidden Shards just for that portion, not even counting the other key cards.
Right. He also had 10,000 Crystals.
How many Forbidden Shards could he pull from packs?
With that thought, Yusaku switched to the pack screen and selected a 100-pack pull.
[Pull!]
The moment he pressed the button, his Crystals dropped from 10,000 to 0.
He opened the first ten packs.
Not a single glowing core card appeared.
Yusaku's eye twitched. So his "nonstop bad luck" display was still alive and well. Twenty-one points of luck really was not enough to save him.
Then the system prompt chimed in right on time.
[Since you did not obtain any UR cards in the 10 packs you opened, your next pull is guaranteed to contain at least 1 UR card.]
"I refuse to believe the remaining ninety packs are all just pity."
Yusaku opened the rest.
This time, gold light finally erupted—and it was not just one beam. As pack after pack cracked open, the golden glow flooded his vision, nearly every slot blazing.
"I knew it," Yusaku said, raising an eyebrow. "Twenty-one luck can't be that cursed."
Those ninety packs produced 121 UR cards.
Most were useless to him directly, but dismantling them would yield a hefty pile of UR fragments.
Everything SR and below could be converted into fragments and traded to players for profit.
As for Forbidden Shards: last time, he got none even after 33 packs, but this time, 100 packs gave him 54 shards—almost one every two packs.
That brought his total Forbidden Shards to 254, enough to build half a Tearlaments deck already.
"Tearlaments?" Yusaku shook his head.
Right now, instead of dumping everything into one top deck, it was better to buy several Tier 1 engines first. Once he had more Crystals later, he could finish Tearlaments properly.
With that decided, he looked at the engine section.
Kashtira engine, 50 shards. Buy.
Spright engine, 50 shards. Buy.
Mermail engine, 50 shards. Buy.
Snake-Eye was only 20 shards. Buy.
HERO was only 10 Forbidden Shards. That cheap? Buy.
After indulging in a full shopping spree, he burned through all his Forbidden Shards, picking up a slate of current meta Tier 1 engines. With a few tweaks, he could run any of them immediately.
After adjusting his decklist, Yusaku picked up his phone and looked at the message Birins had just sent.
Birins said that ever since the Duel Tower was opened, the Talent Academy had stopped chasing them. For some reason, all the pursuers had been called back.
Right now, they were in KaibaLand.
"KaibaLand, huh…"
Yusaku asked a passerby for directions, then headed toward the park at a brisk walk.
(End of Chapter)
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