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 Douyashiki, 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.

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 the hottest online card game in the world before Su Yu was transported... but saying it was just a card game wasn't entirely accurate.

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

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

The 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, in the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* world, the strength of a deck and card-playing skills were directly linked to one's overall power. This was almost like a fundamental law of the world, where card duels were the ultimate form of power.

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

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 Online* 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 the wave of *Link World Online*'s popularity, 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 duels were paramount.

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

To his surprise, when he tried to bring up the menu as he would 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, starting the name with "Yū" was supposed to bring good luck in card games (a misconception), and "Yū" was just the homophone of his real name, Yu, with no other meaning.

But now, this randomly chosen ID would become his name...

Thinking about this, Su Yu (now Yū) felt a bit relieved. At least he hadn't chosen 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 hard to describe.

The good news was that the data on the interface wasn't 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 Charisma. In simpler terms, that was 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 being handsome mean you can 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). With patience, they can wait until the favorability is maxed out, and then they can...

...duel with the NPC girls (or boys).

Ha, what are you thinking? *Link World Online* is a proper card game, and it has passed the review, so there's absolutely no unhealthy content.

A Charisma of 95 is pretty good, after all. Being handsome 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 and 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 can't draw the cards you want during a duel—according to the game's world, that depends on the "bond" between the duelist and the cards, not on luck.

The Luck attribute affects the probability of success when you use effects that involve coin flips or similar random events.

With a Luck of 20, you're basically destined to 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 it bordered on superhuman, allowing him to achieve impressive results in the original anime, such as placing second in the Duelist Kingdom tournament and reaching the semi-finals in the Battle City tournament.

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 playing cards have to do with Stamina?

According to the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* world, playing cards does indeed require 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 meant he could duel three times in a perfect condition, and any more would exceed his limit.

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

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

Yū's Stamina of 35 was below the passing line, which was a bit of a pain.

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 Online*, to level up, you must earn experience points by dueling others or completing tasks, and 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 draw card packs from the system.

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

But that's for later.

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