Finis: "Blow... blow... Information from Nikaido's side. Your opponent tonight is a very formidable bounty hunter named Rutz. Blow..."
Wangchuan You: "A bounty hunter? What do they do? Slurp..."
Finis: "They don't belong to any group or corporation, but they can be hired by them. They let their strength do the talking. As long as the money is right, they'll take on any duel. Naturally, that includes underground duels. Sip..."
Amano Zero: "So, it's ramen, huh..."
In Zero's imagination, since the Young Lady of the Wynn family was treating him—especially after she mentioned "pre-battle preparations"—it should have been at a high-end restaurant, eating luxurious cuisine that poor people had never even seen. After the meal, they'd go to a secret room filled with cards, where he could take his pick of powerful, generic, "dream-tier" rare cards.
The gap between dream and reality was brutal. Leaving aside the fact that the high-end restaurant had turned into a roadside ramen stall, the "useful" cards Finis had collected were just scattered haphazardly across a greasy, grimy table, leaving Zero to pick through them while slurping his noodles.
It seemed this Young Lady wasn't quite as wealthy as she looked. Fortunately, the ramen in Sector 11 tasted good—certainly better than what the Amano family usually ate.
Zero took a bite of noodles. "The opponent's identity isn't the point. The point is their deck information."
Who cares if he was a bounty hunter or an outlaw? Whether a duel could be won depended on cards and skill, not titles and names.
Finis: "Blow... blow... With my information network, I couldn't gather anything that useful. Ow! Hot! Hot!"
Honestly, Miss, aren't you a bit too sensitive to heat? You've been blowing on that for ages. Zero thought. "Ice Queen" types were common, but an "Ice Queen" with a "cat-tongue" (sensitive to heat) was a genuine rarity. Watching Finis stick her pink tongue out to cool it off, Zero felt a strange sense of dissonance. It felt as if her cold exterior was just a disguise for the Young Lady, and her inner self was actually quite lively.
"A degg inforbashun is a bountee huntah's lifeline. Eben mo' so for dose who do undahgwound duels. Dey nebber let it slip easily."
Miss, please finish cooling your tongue before you try to explain.
Realizing she had broken character, Finis waited a good while before continuing. "However, I do know a little about his deck. Although his deck changes depending on the fee, it's said that the bounty hunter's strongest ace monster has an Attack power that surpasses even the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
And there it is, Zero thought. The universal power-level measurement unit: Blue-Eyes White Dragon. No matter what world he was in, he couldn't escape it. And poor Blue-Eyes—he hadn't even made it to Zero's second duel before being power-crept!
"It's better than nothing." Zero looked away from Finis's tongue and back to the messy pile of cards on the table. "Where did you get these? They're all junk."
"I pulled them myself at the Duelist Center."
Man, your hair might be red, but your luck is pure black.
These Spells and Traps were the kind destined to rot in the "junk" bins of a card shop. Only one Trap card, Desperate Tag, had an effect capable of lowering an opponent's Attack. It might actually be useful tonight against an ace that surpassed Blue-Eyes.
And then there was...
Zero: "Why is there even 'H' in here?"
Wangchuan You: "Why are you suddenly being perverted?"
Zero: "Your mind is just filthy. Look for yourself!"
Zero pointed at a Spell card on the table. The card face featured a giant letter 'H,' and it looked "hot" as hell.
H - Heated Heart [Normal Spell: Target 1 face-up monster you control; it gains 500 ATK, and if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage.]
If Zero remembered correctly, while this Spell had no activation restrictions, it was intended as a support card for the "HERO" archetype. The 'H' stood for "HERO."
"Did you pull these cards too?"
"Blow... blow... Yeah, why?"
This made Zero wonder about Finis's deck archetype. However, in this world, archetypes were strictly private. Forget it; digging into the female boss's secrets on the first day isn't a good look. Besides, it had nothing to do with tonight's duel.
"Fine, I'll take this one too."
In Eden Tower, effects that boosted Attack were more valuable and practical than almost anything else. But speaking of HEROes, there was one card he couldn't ignore—the one card he wanted most right now.
"No Polymerization?"
If he had a Fusion spell—even the most basic one—combined with his Dragon-type Extra Deck, it would be a massive upgrade.
"Let me check for you." Finis tapped the Eva Terminal on her slender wrist. The terminals of the wealthy seemed capable of connecting to the Eva Network anywhere, unlike the poor in the lower sectors who were restricted at every turn.
"The Spell card Polymerization is so versatile that there are very few in circulation. The market price is currently... 30,000 points. Do you want me to buy it for you? Naturally, it'll be deducted from your reward. Also, it won't arrive in time for tonight."
The most basic 'Polymerization' sells for 30,000 points in Eden Tower? It seemed the average dueling level in this world was even lower than Zero had anticipated.
"Never mind." Spending 30,000 points on a single card was still too extravagant for the current Zero.
Finis downed the rest of her soup. "A pity. I actually have a copy of Polymerization on me, but I can't lend it to you."
Bound card, Zero noted. This Young Lady, who pulled all these junk cards, actually managed to get Polymerization in her initial ten-pull? Could you really be a HERO player?
Of course, a mere initial Polymerization was still a far cry from his initial Blue-Eyes White Dragon. At least in terms of price.
After picking out a few more Spells and Traps that might work with his current Low-Level Normal Monster deck, Zero officially set off for the underground black market.
It was located even deeper than the surface of Sector 11. It was a special territory carved out by man, outside the jurisdiction of Eden Tower, designed to bypass several of the rules imposed by the host AI, Eva. Most importantly, in underground duels, the organizers could manually disable the safety limits set by Eva, raising the duel feedback to an extremely dangerous level.
If you asked what the point of doing this was?
Excitement. That was what the wealthy sought.
It was just like the underground fight clubs of his past life. The rich sat in the stands, holding red wine that looked like blood, watching the poor on stage spill blood that looked like red wine. No matter which world you were in, it was a picture-perfect display of "vampirism."
Beyond the thrill, these underground duels were usually accompanied by massive gambling. Wealth that an ordinary person couldn't amass in a lifetime would change hands several times in a single night among these elites.
"Disputes between different corporations that can't be resolved on the surface are sometimes settled through underground duels. For example, the Wynn family's current rival in the lower sectors is the Sharia Group, under the Nanguiyuan family," Finis explained as they descended in a hidden elevator.
"Tonight's underground duel is a fight between the Wynn Group and the Sharia Group over the development rights for the artificial lake in Sector 7. The winning group will secure a commercial order worth at least 26 million points."
"One duel can decide the fate of 26 million points?" To Zero, that was an astronomical figure. It was ironic; while the capitalists could profit by the tens of millions, Zero, who was fighting the life-and-death struggle, would only walk away with 100,000.
"I have to ask—is the other side also getting 100,000?"
"You're asking about the Sharia Group's payout? Rutz is a regular for them. Word is his fee is 1.2 million points, on the condition that he wins."
"(￣ー￣)"
Hey, hey, hey! The other guy is getting paid ten times more than me!
He knew the other guy was a famous bounty hunter and that a nameless rookie from the slums couldn't compare, but still. On the bright side, Finis hadn't made winning a condition for his pay. Zero was already secretly wondering if he should negotiate with his opponent. Since your pay is so high, how about you forfeit and we split it? We're both just working stiffs; why put our lives on the line?
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