Chapter 1

As night fell over the modern city, the street lamps and GG brand lights gradually came to life. The colorful lights intertwined with the glow of electronic screens on the circular square, casting a brownish-yellow hue on the road, like the metallic luster through a mist.

Su Yu stood on the bustling street, taking quite a while to accept his current situation.

The place he was in was called Douyashi, a fictional city on a certain island nation in the original world of the classic old anime *Yu-Gi-Oh!*.

Interestingly, just before he was transported, he had just created a new account in the popular IP adaptation game *Yu-Gi-Oh! Link World Online* by a certain conglomerate. He had just finished customizing his character and logged in, ready to start his enjoyable duel journey.

And then nothing happened after that.

So, rather than saying he was transported into the anime, it was more likely that he was transported into the game world of *Link World Online*?

*Link World Online* was, at the time of Su Yu's transportation, the hottest online card game globally. However, saying it was just a card game was a bit inaccurate, as it was much more than that.

It was a fully immersive online game based on the most advanced technology, with a gameplay style somewhat similar to an MMORPG, despite being a card game.

The area where players logged into the game was the famous Douyashi City from the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* anime, the hometown of the original Duel King, Yugi Muto.

This game had an incredibly high degree of freedom, allowing players to freely explore the map, duel with NPC duelists, complete various tasks to earn rewards, collect cards to strengthen their decks, and thereby gain more power in this world.

As everyone knew, the strength of a deck and the skill in playing cards were directly linked to one's power in the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* world. This was almost like a fundamental law of the world, where card dueling was the ultimate form of respect.

Even those with the power to destroy the world, the super bosses, had to follow the rules and play cards with the protagonist in the end.

Before his transportation, Su Yu had basically spent most of his time in this game, running around the map to complete tasks, spending money to draw card packs, or going to the player arena to duel with other players.

*Link World* was not just a game to him; it was also his job.

Initially, he was inspired by a well-known UP主's game videos, which led him to the idea of recording and making videos of exciting duels in the arena.

Riding on the popularity of *Link World*, he made entertainment-oriented card game videos, and his performance was decent. Although he couldn't compare to the big names, he could at least make a living off it.

And then he was transported.

At this moment, Su Yu felt utterly hopeless.

He wasn't a top player in card games. Although he had been playing for a while, he was more inclined towards entertainment rather than competition.

He was unsure if his limited skills would be enough to survive in this world where card dueling was paramount.

However, since he was already here, he had to quickly find a way to adapt.

To his surprise, when he tried to summon the menu as he did in the game, the familiar game interface from his previous life actually appeared before him.

Name: Yū

Category: NPC

Level: 1

Charisma: 95

Luck: 20

Stamina: 35

Health: 3/3

Note: Ordinary, striving to become a professional duelist.

Yū was the ID he had randomly chosen when creating his account. Since it was a *Yu-Gi-Oh!* game, he thought starting the name with "Yū" would bring good luck in card games (a misconception), and "Yū" was just the homophone of his real name, Yu, with no other meaning.

However, it seemed that this randomly chosen ID would now become his name.

Thinking about this, Su Yu (now Yū) felt a bit relieved. At least he didn't choose some ridiculous name like "Mad Dragon Lord" or something, which would have made him want to reincarnate on the spot.

However, this interface was a bit of a mixed bag.

The good news was that the data on the interface was not much different from what he was familiar with in the player interface, and he could understand most of the attributes.

The bad news was that his attributes seemed to be heavily skewed.

Obviously, his initial attribute points seemed to have been entirely allocated to his Charisma. In simpler terms, his looks.

A Charisma of 100 was the maximum, and anything over 80 was considered high. A score of 90 meant you would turn heads on the street. With an initial score of 95, Yū was almost at the level of being one-of-a-kind.

You might be wondering, what's the point of high Charisma in a card game? Does looking good help you draw the cards you want?

Well, you might not understand. The NPCs in this game have a built-in favorability system. The higher a key NPC's favorability towards you, the more likely you are to trigger plot events and even receive rare card rewards.

So, some players can take advantage of their high Charisma to curry favor with their favorite NPC girls (or boys). By patiently increasing their favorability, they can eventually achieve their goals.

And, yes, what are you thinking? *Link World* is a proper card game, and it has passed the review process, so there is absolutely no unhealthy content.

A Charisma of 95 is quite good, after all. Looking good isn't a bad thing. Besides, in this era, the audience for books and shows generally prefers good-looking protagonists, as they find it hard to relate to or enjoy stories with unattractive main characters.

However, a Luck of 20 was a bit of a pain.

It's not that a low Luck means you won't draw the cards you want during duels—according to the game's world, whether you draw the right cards depends on the "bond" between the duelist and the cards, not on luck.

The Luck attribute affects the probability of success in actions like flipping a coin.

With a Luck of 20, it basically means you will lose every bet, always guessing the wrong side of the coin.

In the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* anime, Katsuya Jonouchi, a senior player, probably had a Luck of over 90. His deck was full of gambling effects, and his luck was so strong that it almost seemed like a superpower. In the original anime, he managed to achieve second place in the Duelist Kingdom tournament and fourth place in the Battle City tournament, all thanks to his incredible luck.

We generally describe such people with two words—gambling freaks.

Next were Stamina and Health, which were directly related.

You might be wondering—what does card dueling have to do with Stamina?

According to the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* world, dueling does indeed involve Stamina. The monsters summoned and the cards played by the duelists, although holographic, still have a physical impact on the duelist.

Stamina directly corresponds to the player's Health limit. Yū's Health of 3/3 means he can duel three times in a perfect condition. Beyond that, he would exceed his limit and be unable to continue.

A Stamina of 40 to 50 allows for four consecutive duels, 50 to 60 for five, and 60 and above for six, and so on.

So, dueling is also a test of endurance, requiring a certain level of stamina from the duelist.

A Stamina of 35 was below the passing line, which was a bit of a pain for Yū.

After all, as a man, if you lack endurance, even the best skills are useless (referring to card skills).

Low Health directly affects the speed of leveling up, but this attribute might improve as the level increases.

In *Link World*, to level up, you must earn experience points by dueling others or completing tasks. Leveling up comes with rewards like card tickets and crystals.

Card tickets can be used to exchange for a limited selection of cards from the system, while crystals can be used to buy pre-built decks or draw card packs from the system.

Because of the system, players even have the chance to obtain cards that should not exist in the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* era.

However, that was for later.

Now, Yū had to carefully consider his path as an unknown NPC in the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* world.