She looked up in horror at the burning iron brute staring back at her. For some reason, she could almost see a trace of innocence in its hollow eyes as it slowly offered the spiked wheel toward her.
As if to say, do not blame me. I really have no choice.
She collapsed onto the ground with a scream.
Do not come any closer. Stay away from me!
The spiked interrogation wheel rolled over her body.
Seika Kohinata, LP 400 to LP 0.
Unless something unexpected happens, this book should go online tomorrow night at eight. The story already has more than ten thousand reads, and before launch it even held first place on Battle City for a full week on New Book Ranking.
The editor said she was hoping I could reach ten thousand first subscriptions, and I was genuinely surprised. Battle City is the only one so far to have ever had more than ten thousand preorders for Yu-Gi-Oh!, which already felt like a fantasy.
Now this book might even hit the Student Council first-subscriber ten-thousand level, and I never expected so many hidden dueling masters to be on board.
So far, all books on the site that have earned the "first ten thousand subscriptions" badge total only 162. Whether we can make the first Yu-Gi-Oh! that gets this badge is up to all of you, the Duelists.
Tomorrow's update will definitely start at ten thousand words, and I will try to reach twenty thousand. I would love to upload ten chapters in one day, but I don't have that much prewritten material.
Because this is still the new-book period, regular readers know I usually try to finish a chapter in one day whenever possible, so I kept adding extra updates and never built up enough backlog.
For the same reason, I will also have to leave New Book Ranking early, because the word count is about to pass two hundred thousand. It is a shame, and it looks like first place may only last for these two days.
The posting rush will not finish in one single Student Council day, and after that, I will still try to keep posting more often. I know everyone cares about not letting duels drag into the next day, so I still try to finish most duels in one day.
But in major boss fights and key rounds, one match can be so long that writing all those words in a single day is not realistic, because duel fiction sometimes requires extended duels.
I will stop here for now. Instead of forcing out a couple more lines of a postscript, I am going to write one more chapter for tomorrow's update. Tomorrow at eight, please subscribe and send monthly votes. Aki!
The first match ended in less than ten minutes, and Yugen smoothly took five credits. His mood was great, because this single Duel earned more credits than a round in the Exchange Duel Tournament. The points came far too easily, almost to the point of disbelief.
If it were possible, he even wanted to ask the senior if they could play a best of five and wager five credits each round. Judging by the senior's furious expression, though, she clearly had no interest in continuing. The audience who watched the whole thing fell into silence for a while.
After a moment, a student from the Duel Academy Student Council could not help stepping forward and asking, "Um, Yugen, is the soul of your Deck a Lava Golem?"
Yugen raised an eyebrow. What, was that tone looking down on his Lava Golem? He immediately felt the need to argue it out properly.
"What, is the Lava Golem's ATK not high enough?" he shot back.
"Oh, no, that's not it." Its ATK was on the same level as the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Who would dare say it was low?
"Then you think the level is too low?" "No, no, level eight is already very impressive." "Then you think the effect isn't strong enough?" "The effect is pretty strong." "Then why can't it be my soul?" Yugen said righteously.
Nakamura fell silent. The logic was flawless, leaving him with nothing to say. It just felt strange to him out of habit, since a soul that appeared on the opponent's field the moment it was summoned always felt a bit wrong.
In a corner of the venue, within the crowd, a certain Jellyfish Hair who had also been dragged in by the Duel Academy Student Council for not voting spoke up. "Oh, that Yugen looks really strong. I wonder when I'll get a chance to Duel him."
"Eh!?" The lackey beside him, Sho Marufuji, stared at his boss in shock. He wondered just how obsessed with cards Judai Yuki had to be to see a Duel like that and still want to jump in. Shouldn't a normal person keep their distance and quietly blacklist him instead?
"But still, he's using a Machine Deck too," Judai Yuki said with a laugh as he patted Sho on the back. "Could it be that Machina is actually really strong?"
Sho Marufuji had nothing to say. Somehow, it felt like the same Machina looked completely different in other people's hands. Other people used Machina to beat opponents until they dropped their Duel Disk, while he was usually the one getting beaten until he dropped his.
Sho started to reflect on himself. Was it possible that it was not the Machina that was bad, but simply that he was bad at using it?
"By the way, that Tenjoin student looks pretty strong too," Judai Yuki said, rubbing his nose with anticipation. "Feels like there's more good stuff to watch."
At this moment, Asuka Tenjoin had already put on her Duel Disk and stepped up in front of Yugen. "You're very strong," she said seriously. "But I will also give it everything I have."
"That's only natural," he replied.
As he spoke, Yugen smoothly pulled the Deck out of his Duel Disk and inserted it into an empty card case behind him. Then he took another Deck from a different case and slotted it into the Duel Disk. The latest Duel Disk supplied by Kaiba Corporation immediately began its shuffle process, rapidly mixing the newly inserted Deck.
Asuka Tenjoin frowned slightly. He changed his Deck?
"I'm standing here as a Duelist, not as a girl," she said. "I hope you will also go all out."
"Don't worry, of course I will," Yugen said with a smile. "Just a normal tactical switch."
In a world with destiny-related forces, using the same tactics two duels in a row carried the risk of being countered. Even if the opponent did not adjust their Deck on purpose, knowing your deck and ideas meant that five random cards could already contain an answer. As one of the early main cast, Asuka Tenjoin likely had strong destiny on her side, especially among the classmates around Judai Yuki.
"Duel!" both shouted.
Yugen, LP 4000. Asuka Tenjoin, LP 4000.
"I'll go first. Card Draw," Asuka Tenjoin said. "I Normal Summon Cyber Bladerette in attack position!"
Cyber Bladerette, ATK 1000.
"Then I activate the Equip Spell Angel Wing, equipping it to Cyber Bladerette!"