Chapter 9

One week later, in the city of Toyono Jitsushi, at a certain duel arena.

"It's my turn!"

Youyu drew a card from his deck and then swept his arm.

"I offer as tribute Elemental Hero Sparkman and Elemental Hero Clayman on the field... Come forth! Elemental Hero Gold Paladin!"

A warrior clad in pure gold alloy emerged from the holographic card image. He had green eyes, and his body structure resembled steel muscles, reflecting a unique metallic luster under the arena's lights.

[Elemental Hero Gold Paladin, Attack: 2600]

The unnamed duelist in front of Youyu: "Wh-What!? A monster with 2600 attack?"

The onlookers, B, C, and D, began to stir: "A card with higher attack than the legendary Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Dark Magician!"

Youyu: "..."

The criteria for judging the strength of cards in this world were indeed amusingly simplistic. What players considered the most important—monster effects—were largely irrelevant to the local NPCs, who paid little attention even to magic and trap cards.

What they valued most was the monster's attack power.

To be honest, the card pool in Yu-Gi-Oh! DM was not very deep. A 3000-attack Blue-Eyes White Dragon was a monster that many duelists could only dream of.

However, from a player's perspective, attack power was just a minor factor. The Five-Imperial Dragons, known for having the highest attack power in Duel Monsters at 5000, were merely considered "not even worth a wall" by players.

Of course, Youyu, who was currently in a severe card shortage, didn't have the right to say such things just yet...

But defeating these nameless NPCs was no challenge at all.

"Battle phase!" Youyu entered the battle phase directly, "Elemental Hero Gold Paladin, attack 'Captain of the Cutting Edge'!"

[Captain of the Cutting Edge, Attack: 1200]

The golden metal hero's back engines ignited, and he dashed forward as a golden blur, reaching the sword-wielding warrior.

The Captain of the Cutting Edge gritted his teeth and raised his sword to defend, but his strength was negligible against the advanced monster, Gold Paladin.

The golden blade easily sliced the Captain's silver sword in two, and the Captain let out a pained groan, falling to the ground.

Unnamed duelist: "Aaaaaah!!!"

[Unnamed duelist, LP 1400 → LP 0]

The crowd around them erupted in cheers.

"Elemental Heroes... I've never heard of this deck, but it's so strong!"

"Who is this new duelist?"

"He's already defeated twenty people in a row, right?"

"He's so strong, he's at a professional level..."

Indeed, over the past week, Youyu spent all his free time after work at this duel arena, dueling various duelists.

As everyone knows, Toyono Jitsushi is essentially a city centered around dueling. Thanks to Kaiba Corporation's promotion, half the city's population has become "duel-brained."

This is why the city has numerous duel arenas where duelists can challenge each other. Sometimes, private tournaments are held within the arenas, and the winners can earn some extra money.

However, that was secondary to Youyu.

He came here every day, rain or shine, to play cards, mainly to gain experience and level up quickly to earn more crystals to exchange for the cards he wanted from the system card pool...

The early levels are the easiest to gain, although the crystals earned per level are minimal compared to later levels, but they come quickly.

Over the past week, Youyu had already achieved a twenty-game winning streak... The reason it was only twenty was that he had limited free time due to his job, and his stamina limited the number of consecutive duels he could have.

Dueling NPCs in the arena is one of the most common early leveling methods for players. The local duelists' decks are mostly filled with common monsters, and their magic and trap cards are often flashy but useless.

For players, even with purely entertainment decks, they can easily defeat these NPCs.

So, after a week of dueling, although Youyu had become a towering figure in the eyes of the crowd, almost reaching the level of a war god, he didn't feel much accomplishment.

What's the point of bullying simple AI?

... Well, maybe except for Kaiba Corporation's president.

From the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM anime, Kaiba Corporation's president, Seto Kaiba, developed an AI to mimic Dark Yugi because he could never beat Dark Yugi in a duel, earning him the title of "King of AI."

After a week of dueling, Youyu used all the crystals he had earned to draw cards from the system card pool, but most of the cards he drew were either meaningless or looked impressive but were useless in actual duels.

The only card that stood out was the Elemental Hero Gold Paladin with 2600 attack, which was still a formidable monster in this era (a time when even Gold Paladin was considered a big monster seems quaint now). The other cards were mostly just collecting dust in his card collection.

After finishing this duel, his stamina was almost depleted for the day.

Youyu put away his duel disk and left the arena, heading back to his current dormitory.

By now, it was already dark outside, and the streets were cool. Pedestrians strolled in small groups, and vehicles zipped by, leaving trails of light from their taillights.

When Youyu returned to the shop, the maid was standing at the entrance, tiptoeing to try to stick a poster on the door.

Unfortunately, she was a bit... too short. Without a stool, it seemed impossible for her to stick the poster up properly.

Youyu walked up behind her: "Let me do it."

Ito Chisato noticed him, her cheeks slightly blushing, and stepped aside with a nod.

[Goodwill +2]

Youyu was already numb to this.

Youyu took the poster and stuck it neatly on the door, then stepped back to check the effect.

It was a promotional poster for newly released cards. The poster featured a large number of new cards, with a background of the Dark Magician in a black robe.

Youyu was a bit puzzled: "There's a Dark Magician in the new cards?"

He remembered that the Dark Magician was a top-tier rare card, both among players and in this world.

"Of course not," Chisato said coolly.

"So, the image on the poster..."

"Would you expect to find the beef and vegetables shown on the packaging when you eat instant noodles?"

Youyu: "..."

Damn, that makes sense, I have no words to counter that.