In short, once Judai Yuki found someone else to duel, he quickly forgot about Kagurazaka and happily threw himself back into his Duel Academy life.
That same week, the principal mentioned an upcoming match with a brother school during his speech to the whole school at the general Student Council. "Last year, second-year student Ryo Marufuji represented our school and won, which brought us honor," Principal Samejima said with a smile. "This year's representative has not been decided yet. Every student has a chance."
"Everyone, keep working hard." "Yes!" After hearing the speech, Judai Yuki was full of motivation. "Let's work hard together with the goal of becoming the representative!"
"No, even if it's big bro, I still think this year's representative should be my brother," Sho Marufuji said with strange confidence. Yugen said nothing, but he knew that if things followed the original story, North Academy would deliberately send a first-year student this year to avoid the main campus trump card Kaiser Ryo, and both sides would agree that this school also had to send a first-year student.
If that happened, the final result would probably be a fight between himself and Judai Yuki for the spot.
If nothing unexpected happened, the opponent would still be classmate Manjoume, who had wandered around after leaving the main campus and had now returned. The Duel with Judai Yuki to decide the representative would probably take place within the next week or two. The formal match would come in the third week after that.
Yugen also had a feeling about it. The last time he fought Manjoume, he had already been able to tell that Manjoume had improved a great deal compared with before enrollment. After going out to train for a while, he would probably be even stronger than before.
But during this half semester in Duel Academy, Yugen had also improved at astonishing speed. He felt that compared with when he had first arrived, he had already gone through a major leap. The clearest sign was that whenever he adjusted his build now, his thinking had become more aggressive.
In the past, whenever he made changes, the first thought that came to mind was usually, "Will this brick my hand?" Now that thought appeared less and less. In its place, he found himself thinking more often, "When exactly should this be useful?"
His growth was not limited to his personal strength as a Duelist. It also showed in the expansion of his Deck collection.
These days, he had been checking the new stock from the Academy Department every day, and he had also obtained a batch of good things through internal channels from Industrial Illusions.
Some of them were Rare Cards that Gekko Tenma had used in a Duel before. Cards like Card Trooper, which let you draw a card when it was destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, and even the original version of Gekko Tenma's signature Angel O7, were limited cards that could not be obtained anywhere outside Industrial Illusions.
Then he found an especially valuable Rare Cards, Raiza the Storm Monarch. Raiza the Storm Monarch, Level 6, ATK 2400. Effect: when it is Tribute Summoned, one card on the field is returned to the top of its owner's Deck.
The Monarch series. Even modern card players who had never lived through that era had at least heard of the old glory of the Monarch Level Series. After the Chaos Deck won three straight world titles in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship, the next deck to become world champion in the new era was the Monarch Control deck, a build centered on the famous Monarch series.
This Level Series had even appeared in the GX anime. Still, this Deck seemed rather rare, and Raiza the Storm Monarch was the first Monarch card Yugen had collected. But back in those days, even with just this one Monarch, there had already been a fairly strong dedicated Deck.
After collecting one copy of Raiza the Storm Monarch, Yugen also expanded his list of cards he still wanted. Very quickly, he came up with several simple new build ideas. If he later got the chance to collect the rest of the Monarchs, then putting together a Monarch Control deck would be pretty good too.
From Hand Destruction to Chaos, to Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, and then maybe the Monarch Level Series too if he could complete it. Without noticing it, he seemed to have stepped onto the road of collecting every world champion deck.
**
"Welcome to Link System."
"Identity verified. Deck scan complete."
"Please enter your ID."
So it needed an ID as well. Yugen paused for a moment.
He was currently testing the newly upgraded device for Link System that Kaiba Corporation had sent over through the Student Council. When he had logged in with Mokuba Kaiba last time, the system had probably not entered formal testing yet, or they had used something like a GM account, so he had skipped the whole identity creation and ID entry process. After a brief thought, Yugen casually typed a few words: "Joyful Duel."
It was simple and plain, but it suited his Duel philosophy better than anything else. He believed that through Link System, more and more people in the Student Council would come to understand the fun of Duel in the future.
"Logging into Virtual Domino City. Countdown: ten seconds, nine seconds..."
When the numbers reached zero, a blue current made of countless 0s and 1s surged toward him and swallowed his vision. Yugen felt his body suspended in midair, as if he had been dragged into a freezing ocean wave, spinning with the current as he gradually sank into a swirling vortex. Then his feet touched solid ground again.
He landed in a half crouch and looked down at himself, only to feel his body slowly shift from a blurred outline into something solid while waves of data still drifted around him. He remembered Mokuba Kaiba's explanation of Link System. This body was virtual data, only a simulation, but the state in which he had entered the system was closer to a projection of his consciousness.
Mystifying technology, very much in the style of Kaiba Corporation. Yugen straightened up and looked around, then realized he seemed to be standing inside a massive city.
The skyscrapers rose so high they looked as though they had pierced the atmosphere and stabbed into the clouds. Unlike real buildings, the structures here blended sleek lines with geometric beauty, and their surfaces shimmered with silver light like transparent streams of data flowing across them. At the center of the city stood a giant energy tower that resembled an enormous crystal wrapped in pale blue light, with the "KC" mark of Kaiba Corporation emblazoned in its heart.
Yet despite the city's scale, it felt cold and empty, like a motionless painting. There was no noise, no sign of life, and even time itself seemed to move with a heavy, sluggish drag. "Makes sense. It's still in closed beta, so this place is basically a ghost town before launch."
Yugen walked down the street and casually opened the player interface. It offered a few simple support functions, like editing the player's current Deck, checking the Card already entered in the player's inventory, and viewing a city map with markers for important locations and friends within Link System. Most of the buildings and facilities were still unavailable, but the map showed a shop and an arena.
Curious, Yugen followed the map to the shop. "Welcome," the young clerk said with a smile. "How can I help you?"
"This place is pretty well made." Yugen looked around the shop. "As expected of the president's black tech. It feels almost real."