Chapter 207: The Fusion Department

Extremely rare.

After the duel between Tenjo Hikari and the Fusion Department ended, there was no atmosphere of solemnity, no arguing, and certainly no physical fight.

Although they lost the duel, the Fusion Department's students realized their "director" was entirely different from last year's Shinrin, and in this duel, Tenjo Hikari did not act as he usually did.

He did not say things like "You don't fuse, you don't form a club," "Don't insult fusion," or "I'm too lazy to explain reason to you—you're not worthy to listen." He seemed to be in excellent spirits.

Although it was still a duel against the Fusion Department, Tenjo Hikari was genuinely happy this time.

After all, when he first joined the Fusion Department last year and began his "fusion duels," that was exactly what he had been aiming for.

Although it was only one person's change of mind, that person not only refused to follow Ma Professor Chi Ma Chima Chima Lingwang's thinking but was also the head of an activity department—isn't that the best news possible?

After the duel, both activity departments continued recruiting new members, but the atmosphere was far better than before; neither side was hostile, and the Fusion Department did not slink away in shame.

Shen Shui Mao gave Tenjo Hikari the card of the Cursed Dragon; Tenjo Hikari accepted it, chatted with him briefly, and could sense his passion for "fusion."

On the other side, Tierra pursed her lips, looking slightly irritated as she waved her fingers in the air; countless purple threads, controlled by her power, shifted and combined into individual cards, forming models that battled one another.

She was "reviewing."

With her talent, she could easily reconstruct a duel scene using puppet threads—but she wasn't in the mood for that.

She was reflecting on the mistakes she had made during the previous "duel."

Although the duel was extremely short—only three turns in total—she had been too busy watching the Magic Toys and listening to Tenjo Hikari explain their effects to actually analyze the duel's content; thus, when direct attack came, her mind went completely blank and she didn't know what to do.

At that moment, Tenjo Hikari "took over" the duel and swiftly played Vampire Maiden.

She had never seen that card before, so she didn't even consider using it at first.

In this world's duels, there is no concept of "timing"—more precisely, because duels here are real-time, if the opponent's monster attacks you directly, you cannot activate an effect at that exact moment.

Missed is missed; no one will ask you.

Therefore, activating the right card at the right moment is crucial.

When Tenjo Hikari first enrolled, he didn't have this ability—he wasn't native to this world and wasn't accustomed to it—but because he understood card effects and duel mechanics thoroughly, as long as he prepared properly, he wouldn't miss opportunities.

And now…

He had mastered the two essential skills: "I go first! Draw!" and "Your turn's over, right? My turn—draw!"

Just as before, in his duel with Shen Shui Mao, Tenjo Hikari secretly ended Shen Shui Mao's turn.

Although he could do nothing else, he could still stall a bit to think through his strategy—so long as he didn't declare end, technically, according to proper duel rules, he shouldn't have been "controlled" by Tenjo Hikari.

Burn the rope, burn the rope.

But due to physical-layer reasons, Tenjo Hikari could still master this essential skill.

The Fusion Department's recruitment drive was not very successful. On one hand, the better Fusion Department existed; new students hadn't yet thought about post-graduation matters and certainly wouldn't consider the Fusion Army's guaranteed placement.

On the other hand, although the Fusion Department's director showed considerable courage in duels, the thought of their gift dolls containing blades and scissors inside made many potential recruits hesitate.

Of course, the main reason was that school hadn't even started yet, and many students hadn't decided anything yet.

Also, not everyone was afraid of these bizarre dolls.

Despite Shen Shui Mao's repeated explanations that their plush dolls were purely plush, a few students with darker tastes still wanted "magic toys with scissors."

In fact, Tierra was one of them.

After studying Tenjo Hikari's previous hand cards for a while, she yawned, crossed her arms behind her back, showed clear impatience toward the club recruitment, then manipulated her puppet threads to assemble an image: a body split by scissors, mouth hiding darkness and blood-red eyes.

It was the previous Magic Toy: Scissors Wolf.

"Hey, Tenjo Hikari, that demon used by that human was pretty interesting," Tierra said, assembling another one with her threads, then snapping her fingers to make the image vanish. "Turning an angel into a demon using blades, while preserving cuteness and sharpness—the design is truly excellent."

"Hmm… when I'm resurrected, I'll create a batch of such creatures in my world. They look quite nice."

"Did you find out from that human where he got them? Did he draw them from a pack?"

Demons, machines, blades—almost everything Tierra liked.

After chatting with a large group of new students who wanted to see the legendary Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl, and a few others who asked for his autograph, Tenjo Hikari drank some water, then lowered his voice and waved his right hand at her: "Didn't you think the carnivorous plants had great design too? So far, I've only made two—I already fused one into another."

"Fused into one" referred to his earlier-made Carnivorous Plant Sundew Lizard and later-made Carnivorous Plant Cobra Pitcher Plant; since he had no fusion monsters to use them with, he kept them as spare cards until the S-Dimension, where they successfully became base materials for the "Ferocious Hunger Fusion Dragon," fused into one card via Super Fusion.

But this was actually good: the reason Tenjo Hikari hadn't focused on making Carnivorous Plant cards was that he truly had no fusion monsters to use them with; now that he had a future fusion dragon guaranteed to emerge, he could spare time to carefully study how to maximize and streamline their alchemical creation.

"Cards like Magic Toys can probably be alchemized too, but they're not easy to make."

Materials were no longer the issue, but time was always insufficient; even though Tenjo Hikari had tried hard to alchemize some cards, he couldn't possibly acquire so many through alchemy alone.

Especially series that don't circulate on the market—you can't even buy them.

He continued: "Shen Shui Mao said Magic Toys are Fusion Army secrets. If I rejoin the Fusion Army, maybe Ma Professor Chi Ma Chima Chima Lingwang might tell me."

"That's nonsense," Tierra shook her head repeatedly.

How could that be?

Send Tenjo Hikari to join the organization of the least fusion-minded person?

"That's not nonsense," Tenjo Hikari couldn't help laughing and shaking his head. "What he meant, reversed, is… there exists a dimension within the Fusion Army's control that contains Magic Toys."

Oh!

Tierra suddenly understood.

Of course.

Cause trouble for the Fusion Army while searching for cards in that dimension?

Directly seeking the "original" is the best method!

Just like the Alliance Storage Depot, since establishing communication with Tenjo Hikari, it has regularly exchanged intelligence with him, and even some logistics spirits have followed superior orders to come assist A-Strike Core.

According to the communicator, since the Grand Cosmic Workshop is so vast, they planned to establish a "temporary outpost" here with Tenjo Hikari, to serve as a "foreign ministry."

In fact, Tenjo Hikari has already received many VW-series cards from them—though all are ancient cards, lacking ABC-series and no spirits remain, they are still "rare cards."

Just like the school's connection to the "ancient mechanical factory," which provides endless ancient mechanical cards, the cards in Tenjo Hikari's possession can be traded with others or lent to Fusion Department members as temporary deck components.

It also distinguishes them from the Fusion Department's "Gladiator Beasts."

Chapter One: Recommend a good friend's book—very good, very exciting!

Who told you to play the female lead cultivation?!

The link is below

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(End of Chapter)