Chapter 7

You Yu carefully counted the spoils of war he had taken from Pandora, one by one.

According to the rules of the Duel City era, each duelist's deck was required to have a minimum of forty cards. However, in the DM anime, Pandora only used about ten cards when dueling against Yugi Mutou.

Now, as You Yu took a look at Pandora's entire deck, he found that although Pandora claimed to have a "Pure Black Magician" deck, there were only a few cards related to the Black Magician.

Three Black Magicians, one Thousand Knives magic card, one Black Magician's Curtain magic card, and one Black Magician's Revival Coffin.

Thousand Knives, a normal magic card, can only be activated when a "Black Magician" is on your field, targeting one monster on the opponent's field. The targeted monster is destroyed.

Black Magician's Curtain, a normal magic card, in the turn this card is activated, both players can pay half of their Life Points to special summon one magician-type monster from their hand or deck.

Black Magician's Revival Coffin, a normal trap card, can be activated the moment the opponent summons a monster, using that monster and one of your own monsters as tributes to revive one Black Magician from the graveyard.

(All of the above are anime effects.)

You Yu tried inserting the cards he had taken from Pandora into his Duel Disk, and to his surprise, these cards actually seemed to work!

It was important to note that in the previous Link World game, players could only use cards obtained from the system card pool or as mission rewards. Directly taking an NPC's deck and placing it on the Duel Disk would result in no reaction.

You Yu speculated that perhaps it was because he had been reborn as an NPC himself, allowing him to use locally produced cards like other NPCs.

At the same time, he still had the player's game interface, allowing him to obtain cards from the system card pool like a player.

In other words, he had become a hybrid existence between a player and an NPC, capable of using both locally produced and system-generated cards.

The only disappointment was that the three "Black Magician" cards in Pandora's deck showed no reaction when placed on the Duel Disk.

You Yu was unsure of the exact reason, but he suspected it might be due to Pandora tampering with these three cards. In the anime, it was mentioned that Pandora had slightly cut his three Black Magician cards, allowing him to cheat during shuffling and ensure he drew his ace Black Magician at the start of the duel.

It was likely that this minor tampering was the reason the system Duel Disk did not recognize these three cards.

But it didn't matter, as he still had a "Black Magician" card as a mission reward, which was currently resting quietly in his card collection.

Additionally, completing the mission and defeating Pandora had earned him a significant amount of experience points, boosting his level from 1 to 3 and granting him 40 crystals as a reward.

Crystals could be used to draw card packs from the system card pool, but for the Link World, 40 crystals were a mere drop in the bucket, barely enough to satisfy a craving.

...

The misty night gradually dissipated, and the sky began to dawn. The streets of Tono no Shizukana lazily awoke, and pedestrians started to appear in the empty neighborhoods.

This was You Yu's second day after rebirth.

His primary goal for today—find a place to eat and sleep.

After all, without food, one would die.

No matter how good you are at dueling, you still need to eat.

Wages were not a concern; he only needed a temporary place to rest. In the Yu-Gi-Oh! world, as long as you were good at dueling, you wouldn't have to worry about making money in the long run.

After wandering the early morning streets for a short while, You Yu soon stopped in front of a card shop.

The shop's display window was filled with Duel Monster card boxes, and at the top, a "Hiring Staff" notice was posted.

You Yu thought for a moment and walked straight in.

The shop door was open, but it seemed to have only just opened, as the sky had just begun to brighten.

The interior was quite spacious, with rows of shelves resembling those in a library, but filled with card packs and card boxes. Some shelves also displayed popular Duel Monster figurines and other merchandise.

"Welcome."

A clear voice came from behind the rows of shelves.

A girl with short, silver hair appeared from behind, her expression somewhat blank and still somewhat childish, and she didn't seem very tall, looking like a middle school student.

You Yu was initially surprised by her striking silver hair, but then he thought—given that the protagonist, Yugi Mutou, went to school with a colorful starfish hairstyle without anyone batting an eye, in comparison, silver hair seemed quite normal.

What was more noticeable, however, was the maid outfit she was wearing.

Yes, a white lace dress, tight black stockings that perfectly outlined her calves, and a large white bow tied at the back.

It was a standard and regionally characteristic maid outfit.

More interestingly, the moment the girl appeared from behind the shelves and saw You Yu, he noticed a string of "Goodwill +10" appear above her head.

You Yu: "..."

Indeed, being handsome had its advantages.

Without doing anything, and meeting for the first time, he already had a 10-point goodwill boost.

Back when he was a player, he had to go to great lengths to increase an NPC's goodwill for a mission. After a week of running errands and dueling, he only managed to get a measly "Goodwill +5."

At the time, he thought the game was a nightmare, but now, it seemed it might not have been the game's fault, but rather his own lack of good looks...

However, the maid's professionalism was evident. Despite the goodwill boost, her face remained expressionless, and she gave a standard bow to the customer.

"Hello, would you like to buy cards or order a coffee?"

So, they also served coffee.

You Yu noticed that this place wasn't just a card shop; there were tables and seats where customers could order coffee and drinks to read... or duel.

Of course, advanced technology like holographic images wasn't available in such a small shop. Dueling here was similar to friends gathering at a board game cafe in the real world, sitting around a table with a card mat for a casual and entertaining activity.

"No, thank you." You Yu pointed to the notice on the display window. "I saw that you're hiring, so I came to apply."

"Oh, I see." The girl nodded. "Sure, but you'll need to go through an interview."

"Is the interview...?"

"Right now."

The girl walked behind the counter, pulled out a small black notebook from a drawer, and placed it on her slender, fair wrist. She then took out a button pen and clicked the tip out with her thumb.

You Yu was a bit surprised: "Right here... you'll ask the questions?"

He looked around and realized there was no one else in the shop.

The girl raised her head expressionlessly: "Is there a problem?"

"No... nothing."

You Yu just thought the girl looked a bit too young to be the shop owner.

"Let's start with your name." She said.

"You Yu."

"From out of town?"

"Yep."

"Age?"

"... Nineteen."

The age was a fabrication. If he were to be completely honest, his account was only a day old, and technically, he was only a day old... but saying that wouldn't be believable.

"... Nineteen, two years older than me..." the girl muttered to herself.

You Yu noticed another "Goodwill +5" appear above her silver head.

You Yu: "?"

What did I do?

Her gaze then fell on the Duel Disk on his left hand.

"You're a duelist, right?" she asked.

"Yes." You Yu nodded.

"Then why are you looking for a job?"

You Yu: "Duelists... need to eat too."

The girl's facial muscles didn't move, but she stared at him for a while, making You Yu feel a bit uncomfortable.

But she didn't say anything, just lowered her head and continued writing in the notebook.

[Goodwill +5]

You Yu: "??"

What did I do now?

"That's the last question."

The girl stopped writing and said calmly: "... Do you have a girlfriend?"

You Yu: "..."

Is this an interview or a census?

Does this have anything to do with my job application?

But since he was the one applying, he answered truthfully: "No."

This was a complete and utter truth, so tragic that it was true even if you counted his past life.

"Oh, no." The girl nodded.

[Goodwill +10]

You Yu: "?????"