Chapter 6

"......Activate Magic Card - Witch Hunt!"

You Yu pressed the button on his Duel Disk, and the card covering the field flipped over.

It was also a Normal Magic Card, with an illustration of a wooden cross, a woman kneeling and crying with her hands bound, and an executioner wearing a golden helmet and holding a long sword.

Witch Hunt was not a rare card. In the Link World, cards were categorized by rarity into N, NR, R, SR, UR, and the highest rarity, USR.

The rarity of the Witch Hunt magic card was just N, the most common and lowest tier of cards, which were extremely easy to obtain. Any player who had been playing the Link World for a while would have at least seventy to eighty of these cards in their deck.

Although You Yu's initial deck did not have it, he had exchanged it beforehand using the card tokens given by the system when he created his account, specifically to deal with this hidden mission. (After all, the beginner card tokens given by the system didn't seem to be able to exchange for anything useful.)

However, this ordinary, N-rarity card that players would even refuse if given for free was a fatal killer for Pandora's deck.

"Witch Hunt can instantly destroy all face-up Spellcaster-type monsters on both sides of the field," You Yu said with a light laugh. "Even your so-called top-tier Dark Magician is no exception!"

"What... What!?" Pandora's face suddenly changed, and the white mask on his face almost fell off.

There's actually a card like this?

I don't believe you didn't just print this on the spot!?

Even the King wouldn't dare to print such a targeted card so openly!

However, no matter how unwilling Pandora was, it was useless. He could only watch helplessly as his two ace monsters, the Dark Magicians, were enveloped by powerful magic and turned to ashes under the absolute power of the magic card.

"Impossible, how can there be such a card?" Pandora's face twisted, starting to doubt his life. "No, before this, why did your deck have... Could it be that you knew you would encounter me and knew I would use the Dark Magician!?"

Faced with Pandora's shocked questioning, You Yu just shrugged indifferently.

In this regard, Pandora wasn't wrong. You Yu had spent most of the night waiting for him and had indeed known he would use the Dark Magician.

Moreover, Pandora didn't seem to find anything wrong with You Yu's action of activating a Normal Magic Card during the opponent's turn. He only thought that the effect of Witch Hunt was too unrealistic...

...But to be fair, as a member of the largest fake card group in the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! world, Grus, he didn't have the right to accuse others of using fake cards. (Especially since You Yu wasn't using any.)

"Then it's my turn!"

The duel continued.

At this point, Pandora was regretting bitterly.

Although the magic card "Curtain of the Dark Magician" had the powerful effect of summoning a Dark Magician directly from the deck, it was not without side effects.

Using this card required paying half of the player's Life Points, and the player could not summon any monsters during the turn the card was activated.

Actually, he could have won the duel by attacking with the Dark Magician on the field this turn, but he had to show off and wanted to summon another Dark Magician before the final blow. As a result, his field was now empty, and he had wasted 1900 Life Points.

If he hadn't impulsively used the Curtain of the Dark Magician this turn, even if the Dark Magician on the field had been destroyed by Witch Hunt, he could have summoned another one with the Curtain of the Dark Magician, avoiding the awkward empty field he was in now.

But it didn't matter; he still had 1900 Life Points left.

The opponent had already said that the 1600-attack Thunder Giant was his ace. With an empty field, he might not be able to summon a monster to attack and reduce Pandora's remaining 1900 Life Points next turn.

Pandora began to console himself.

As long as he could survive until his next turn, he still had a chance!

"Draw!"

You Yu looked at the card he drew: "Summon Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

A blue current flickered, and a slender blue warrior emerged from the holographic projection.

Elemental Hero Thunder Giant, Version 2!

[Elemental Hero Thunder Giant, Attack 1600]

Pandora let out a sigh of relief.

Phew, phew. It seems that monster is indeed the highest-attack monster in the opponent's deck. Even if he takes this attack, Pandora would still have 300 Life Points left. He felt he could still continue...

However, You Yu then drew another card from his hand and inserted it into the Duel Disk slot.

"Activate Equip Magic Card... Legendary Sword! Equip the Legendary Sword to Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

A golden sword appeared in front of Thunder Giant, who grasped it, and blue lightning instantly wrapped around the blade, which glowed with a cold light.

[Legendary Sword, can only be equipped to Warrior-type monsters, increases the equipped monster's Attack and Defense by 300.]

[Elemental Hero Thunder Giant, Attack 1600 → Attack 1900]

[Pandora, LP 1900]

Pandora's smile gradually froze.

This... This must be a fake card, right?

How could such a coincidence happen???

"Thunder Giant!" You Yu pointed forward. "Direct attack!"

Thunder Giant charged forward with the sword, enveloped in lightning, moving so fast it seemed like a bolt of lightning.

The lightning-entwined blade instantly filled Pandora's field of vision. Pandora screamed in terror, covering his head with his arms.

The lightning sword struck down, bringing a real impact. Pandora screamed, dramatically rolling his eyes and falling backward onto the ground.

[Pandora, LP 1900 → LP 0]

You Yu won.

At the same time, a notification appeared in You Yu's system.

"Hidden mission: Challenge from Grus completed!

Reward: One Dark Magician card. Please check your system card collection."

Feeling satisfied, You Yu immediately opened his card collection and happily checked the newly obtained Dark Magician.

Unfortunately, the card art of this Dark Magician was the version with a black-skinned, red-armored chief, which was less fashionable than the one in the anime.

But he was still content.

After so many years since the Link World's launch, only a few players had managed to obtain the Dark Magician. Getting one was already quite good.

Additionally, his system card collection now had a chance to draw powerful support cards for the Dark Magician!

In the DM era, when duel cards weren't as complex, the Dark Magician deck was still quite strong.

Satisfied, You Yu put away his Duel Disk and turned to leave, but he couldn't help glancing back at Pandora, who was lying on the ground with his eyes rolled back.

Actually, when watching the DM anime, he had always wanted to comment on how, despite it being just a card game, the Grus members always fell to the ground as if they had been hit by a giant sword after losing, looking exhausted and on the verge of death...

Even if ordinary duels caused some impact damage, this reaction was too exaggerated.

Could it be that their master, Malik, had planted a curse on each of them that would activate when they lost a duel?

That would be pretty harsh...

You Yu was about to leave when he suddenly thought of something and turned back to the fallen Pandora, leaning down to remove his entire deck from the Duel Disk on his left hand.

"According to the card gambling rules, I'll take your rare cards," You Yu said seriously, shaking the deck. "But since I haven't decided which one to take, I'll take them all and choose later. No objections, right? Good, no objections, then it's settled..."

Without waiting for Pandora's response, he shook the deck and walked away confidently.

Pandora: "What the...!?"