After going over the deck, Yutaka was honestly disappointed.
The only three cards he found that might be staples in his deck in the future were Negate Attack, Polymerisation, and Crush Card Virus. The rest were too situational, and he would only be using them for the duration of the tournament.
But there were also some surprises.
He had found a trap card that was actually a monster card in the real-world environment, and the effect itself was entirely different.
Now that he added 6 new cards, his deck was getting a little thicker.
In the past, he had made sure to leave his deck at the 40 card limit, but this time he decided to forgo it.
Why?
Because he felt that the cards in his deck were too valuable to discard.
He thought about taking out his burn cards, like Ookazi and Tremendous Fire, but at least they were essential in this tournament since they had such a small life pool.
Then he thought about getting rid of his normal cards like Baby Dragon and Launcher Spider, but these two were essential to his deck.
In the future, Baby Dragon was going to evolve into a member of his Red-Eyes archetype, and in the current format, Machine Cards were immune to spell cards and spellcaster monsters.
He needed it to have a chance against Yugi.
Even though Yuta knew that Yugi was the biggest cheater in the world and that there was no way to defeat him unless he sabotaged himself, he still wanted to try his best.
As the master of the Red-Eyes, how could he even back down without even trying to defeat his opponent?
The Lycanthrope engine couldn't be given up either since in this format it dealt 200 damage to the opponent's life points for every normal monster in the graveyard.
This meant the opponent's graveyard counted as well as his, so it was a giant nuke towards the end of the duel.
Maybe he could give up the Blue Flame Swordsman, but its ability was too useful on the field. He especially treasured it, as his deck's ceiling was 2400 ATK points thanks to Red-Eyes.
The result of this debate?
Just leave the deck as it is and contemplate it later.
He had enough draw cards to make the deck consistent anyway.
However, it was uncertain whether this attitude would have negative consequences for him in the future.
"Okay! I am done; let's go!"
Yuta got up and put his deck back in its case.
Speaking of, the deck cases were really cool in this world.
You had them on your belt. Like a gun holster. Which was visually appealing to him.
He also found it amusing to imagine two western cowboys at high noon, staring at each other, shouting "duel", and drawing their decks from their holsters.
"Go? Go where?" Tristan asked as he looked around. They were still in the middle of the forest without any other duellist in sight.
"I don't know. I am just hoping to find a specific duellist before the sun goes down," Yuta explained as he randomly picked a direction to go.
"That's going to be hard. The sun is already starting to set.
Speaking of which, shouldn't we meet with the others before it goes completely dark?"
"Meet up?
How?
We are in the middle of nowhere.
Please enlighten me, Tristan.
How in the hell are we going to find Yugi and others?
Don't tell me you are friends with an alien and a spaceship will arrive to take us to them?" Yuta replied sarcastically.
"Leave it to me, buddy!" Tristan said as he hit his chest proudly, which left him confused.
What did this guy have to rely on to be so confident?
"This way!" Tristan took the lead, and Yuta followed with question marks all over his face.
"So how are you going to find them exactly?" Yuta couldn't help but ask.
"With the power of friendship, of course!"
"BULLSHIT!" Yuta couldn't help but curse out.
Was this guy hit in the back of the head by a donkey or something?
If Tristan were a duellist, he might have taken him seriously, but he wasn't even a duellist.
So how could he even have metaphysical powers?
- Half an hour Later -
"Look, guys, Tristan and Yuta are back!" Tea said excitedly as she waved towards the duo.
Yuta looked towards Tristan like he was looking at an alien. He wanted to say something but didn't even know where to start.
Deny the metaphysical?
No way!
His deck had so many Duel Spirits that even if he wanted to, he would not be able to do it.
But why Tristan, of all people?
He would even be okay with Joey, but Tristan!?
How could Tristan, of all people, possess metaphysical powers!?
IMPOSSIBLE!
Tristan, on the other hand, looked at Yuta proudly and knew that this naive guy was deceived by him.
Of course Tristan didn't have metaphysical powers like the power of friendship.
He had something even better.
Something called a cell phone.
Yes, when Yuta had passed out, thinking he would not be able to wake up until the sunset, he had thought about meeting with the rest of the gang, so Tristan was talking with Tea over the phone when Yuta was passed out.
They had already decided on a place they had seen during the day before Yuta had woken up.
In fact, when he had woken up, Tristan was actually resting because he had gotten tired of carrying this bag of potatoes everywhere.
"Yuta here! Thanks to your help I managed to gather my Star Chips even faster. I already have 8 of them minus the one you gave me so I am returning it to you."
Mini Yugi came over and handed Yuta a Star Chip from his gauntlet. With this, Yuta was only 3 chips away from making it to the finals, which shouldn't be that hard.
"Hah, I wasn't no slouch neither. Look! I have five chips as well!" Joey showed off his chips proudly and laughed to himself before Tea came over to give him a powerful smack in the back of the head.
"Shut up! If you weren't careless and lost that duel, you would also have 8 chips, like Yugi!"
"Watch it! I just got unlucky is all. I would have won otherwise." Joey was unwilling to back down, as he believed he had a good chance of winning that previous duel, but he had gotten unlucky, and his Time Wizard had instead destroyed his board, which cost him the duel.
"Tea is right, Joey. You need to take your duels more seriously." Mini Yugi was unwilling to see his friends fight, so he tried to put an end to it peacefully.
"Whatever"
Watching them fight like this, Yuta finally became aware that he had arrived in an anime world.
Joey, who had a tendency to get arrogant easily; Mini Yugi, who was the heart of the group and tried to solve everything peacefully; and Tea, who was the mom of the group.
It was like they had jumped right off his screen and materialised in front of him.
"How was your day, Yuta?" Yugi asked, trying to change the subject.
"With the one you gave me, 7 chips, I guess," Yuta said as he put the Star Chip into the socket.
He admired this gauntlet once again. It just looked so damn sick!
It was a shame that the future arcs never used such a design again.
If there was one thing he liked about this arc, it would just be these gauntlets... maybe also the introduction of Red-Eyes Black Dragon, but that would be about it. Everything else about it was just trash.
"That's wonderful, Yuta! So we will be meeting in the finals then?"
"Obviously," Yuta nodded in response. He didn't believe anyone aside from the cheater in front of him had the ability to defeat him.
"So you guys would not believe the adventures we had today. Listen to me..."
Then Tristan started to explain what happened after they left.
How they duelled against Mai, Mokuba and Kaiba's 'Ghost' and how they heroically defeated each of them.
Of course, Tristan's story was a little skewed, as he mentioned coaching Yuta on how to defeat his opponents during a duel, but Yuta didn't care about it, so he just let him blab.
Just take it as payment for carrying him around everywhere today.
"That's wonderful, Tristan," Bakura congratulated him.
"Thanks, Bakura... wait a minute! When did you come here, Bakura!?" Tristan looked in surprise as he finally noticed Bakura among the group.
"He said he sneaked into the ship to help Yugi just like we did." Tea explained for Bakura.
Tristan, however, complained in his heart.
I swear to god man. It's the British accent that makes the women swoon all around him.
Maybe he should try to learn the British accent; that way he could make women swoon over him as well.
Tristan experienced an epiphany.
It was such a genius idea! Why did he only think about it just now?
"You are here."
"I am?"
Wait a minute...
Yutaka felt like he had this exact exchange before, and even without turning, he could tell who it was due to the sweet smell.
"Yutaka Minami, I challenge you to a duel!" Yutaka looked at Mai in wonder.
Didn't she already get abused by him?
What made her think it was going to be different this time?
Especially after he printed Meteor Black Dragon.
Yes, 'printed'.
Because, before that duel, Yuta did not have that card in his extra deck.
It was so new that you could even smell the fresh ink on it.
But that also made something clear to him.
He couldn't print cards willy-nilly.
So even though he knew that the condition for Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon is Red-Eyes and Dark Magician, he would not be able to fuse them.
He didn't know the reason for it.
It felt like there was something blocking him, but he didn't exactly know what.
So, as always, Yuta created a completely unfounded theory that seemed to fit the situation.
He guessed that the reason for that might be that it was too advanced for the current time frame. Which kind of made sense.
After all, even if he had a tuner monster, he wouldn't be able to synchro summon, as he needed something something particle that was discovered in the future 5D's anime.
So aside from trying to print new vests for the Red-Eyes, Yutaka also needed to push the current duelling scene forward so that they could 'cope' with the said new vest.
Otherwise, the world itself would block you from achieving the said fusion.
That was why he was so obsessed with Bandit Keith.
If he could just get the Magic Metal Force from him, he would be able to print a NEW version of Red-Eyes, and it would be a slightly adjusted version.
After all, they were still in the bullshit era, so, as long as it was reasonable, he should be able to add in any effect he wanted to Red-Eyes, and he had been thinking about which exact words he needed to utter to get the exact effect he wanted.
Maybe it would even be good enough to be played in the modern format, as negate cards were OP.
As Yuta had already gotten distracted after hearing the challenge from Mai, she tried to keep her cool and not try to take his life in anger.
"...or at least that's what I would have said if I did not come on behalf of someone else this time." Mai continued her words, which finally made Yuta snap out of his daze.
That was when a biker with a USA flag bandana on his head walked into the scene.
Even though it was the evening, he was still wearing his sunglasses, which made him look like a prick.
"Was this the guy you were talking about, Blondie?"
But before Mai could even say anything, Yuta walked forward and grabbed the guy's hand and shook it excitedly.
"Yes, yes!
I don't know what you were talking about, but it definitely must have been me! You want a duel, right? Let's duel! What do you want me to bet!? Do you want all of my Star Chips? Done! Do you want my deck as well? Sure, I will throw it into the pile. I can't believe I will be duelling THE Bandit Keith!"
As Yuta rambled like a bullet train, Bandit Keith didn't know how to react. He looked at Mai with a questioning gaze, asking her if this kid was really the one with the legendary dragon.
Yes, the only reason Bandit Keith was here was because he wanted Red-Eyes.
He wanted to have his revenge on Pegasus, and he needed better cards in his deck for it.
Mai also looked at Yuta with a questioning gaze. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that would act like this.
But his excitement seemed genuine?
She wanted to warn Bandit Keith that there was something wrong, but at the same time she was curious about what that guy was planning, so she decided to keep quiet for now.
"Umm, Yuta, I don't think this is a good idea. Maybe you should—"
"No way! It's THE Bandit Keith! THE US champion. Do you know how rare of an opportunity this is? I would still duel even if I had to bet on my underwear and be forced to walk around the island naked. So let's go, sir! Where is the duelling arena you picked?" Yuta cut Yugi off, as he was fearing that his words might change Keith's mind.
He wanted that Magic Metal Force.
No, he NEEDED it!
"Ahem, I never met a fan this enthusiastic." Even Bandit Keith couldn't keep a straight face because of how sincere Yuta was.
He didn't know he had fans even across the globe.
Unfortunately, he had to let this fan down by taking his deck.
Though he should feel honoured, his hero was using his monster, right?
Bandit Keith led the gang towards a Duel Arena he had carefully 'picked', hidden inside a crevice.
This arena looked different from the one in the anime.
You know, the one gang was stuck in after defeating Bonz.
How did Yuta know this despite practically not having any idea about the Duellist Kingdom arc?
Simple, who could forget the handsome Black Skull Dragon that debuted in the Paradox tag team duel?
Yes, the only reason he remembered was because he was such a Red-Eyes fanboy.
"How many Star Chips do you have?" Bandit Keith asked as he took the stage.
"Oh, not much. I only have 7. I bet you, sir, must have already gotten at least 8 Star Chips, right?" Yuta replied as he shuffled his deck. He was so excited that his little heart was about to jump out of his chest.
His sweet Magic Metal Force was waiting for him.
"Ahem, right, I obviously do."
No, he didn't.
Bandit Keith was not a proper duellist that was invited to this tournament.
He and his goons had actually sneaked in because Keith wanted to take revenge against Pegasus.
So the gauntlet and the Star Chips he had were stolen from other players rather than something he had obtained legally.
He only had 4 chips on him, but he couldn't come out and say that he was worse than his little fan, right?
"But you see, since you are my fan, I would rather not kick you out of the tournament yet. How about we place a bet for just 4 Star Chips? Ah, though since I am taking care of you, you also need to bet that Red-Eyes of yours."
"That's not fair! Yuta only needs three more star chips to qualify for the tournament! Why should he agree to your dem-" Yugi who had turned into Yami Yugi, somewhere along the way, wanted to argue for Yuta's sake, but he was once again cut off short.
"I agree! In fact, forget just Red-Eyes; let's bet our entire decks!" Then Yuta shot a death glare towards Yami Yugi, signalling him to shut up.
"This... isn't that too much? What are you going to do after I take your deck?" Keith felt a pang in his conscience, so he reminded the kid that he didn't need to bet his entire deck.
"No worries, Bandit Keith, sir. I still have enough cards on me to make another deck. So are 'we' betting our decks as well?"
"Umm, sure. 4 Star Chips and the deck!"
"Alright! Let's duel!"