Chapter 1: The World of Yu-Gi-Oh! Is Too Wholesome

You Xuan slowly opened his eyes, looking around blankly at the unfamiliar surroundings.

It was a room he had never seen before, yet it exuded an inexplicable sense of familiarity. Sunlight filtered through the window lattice, casting dappled patterns on the soft floor like twinkling stardust. Even the air seemed light and transparent under the warm sunshine.

His head throbbed with a dull ache as strange images and unfamiliar fragments flashed through his mind. Some instinct seemed to whisper from the depths of his heart about the extraordinary situation he now faced—

—He had transmigrated.

You Xuan scanned his surroundings again, his gaze quickly drawn to the computer on the desk.

The computer was on, displaying a search engine webpage, yet it was not any search engine he had known before.

The large characters above the search box clearly read, "Kaiba Search."

What struck him as even more peculiar were the trending news headlines below the search box.

"Todai Research Team Discovers New Form of 'Summoned Skull'; Demon Decks Poised for Major Buff!"

You Xuan: "?"

Curious, he clicked to take a look. The report stated that after days and nights of research, the team had unlocked new potential for the famous Fiend-type monster "Summoned Skull" and had published their findings in an internationally authoritative top-tier Duel Monsters journal.

A team spokesperson mentioned they had spoken with Pegasus J. Crawford, CEO of Industrial Illusions, and that Industrial Illusions was already assisting them in developing the new card.

If even this failed to reveal what world he had transmigrated into, then all those years You Xuan spent playing cards would have been in vain.

This was the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, a plane famously revered for cards, where the very foundation and laws of the world were built upon playing cards.

Below the trending searches was something even more absurd.

"International Conflict in the Middle East Eases; Leaders of Two Nations Decide to Negotiate Through a Duel."

You Xuan: "."

After reading the headline, a scene immediately formed in his mind. On a battlefield shrouded in gunpowder smoke, two armies faced off, fully armed, with rifles and cannons pointed at each other.

At this moment, the generals of both armies stepped out from their positions, revealing the Duel Disks and decks on their arms, deciding to resolve the territorial dispute with a tense and exciting game of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

This was just too damn ridiculous.

But this was precisely how this world operated.

Duel Monsters was the sole path to ascend to the extraordinary in this world, to grasp divine power capable of transcending time and space and rewriting the laws of reality.

As the fog gradually lifted from his brain, new memories seemed to slowly integrate. You Xuan soon clarified his identity in this world.

Fujiki You Xuan, male, current status: Duel Dojo apprentice?

Although called a dojo, it felt more like a social card-playing training class. Unlike formal Duel Academies, Duel Dojos were social training institutions where anyone could enroll simply by paying the registration fee.

In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, playing cards was naturally far from being an unproductive hobby. On the contrary, mastering card dueling promised a bright future.

To this day, the development of Duel Monster cards meant that nearly every industry was closely tied to card dueling. These days, even starting a business required a company-specific Duel Agent, Zhuanmen tasked with handling all corporate affairs that needed to be settled through card duels. It was even said that in Domino City, known as the "Capital of Duels," Kaiba Corporation's operations had reached the point where one could not register residency without registering a deck.

However, this did not mean the path was easy. Although his predecessor had worked part-time to earn tuition while studying at the dojo, striving toward the path of a true duelist, both he himself and those around him knew his hopes were slim.

Because he was noob.

While the prospects for duelists were indeed boundless, the industry was also fiercely competitive. Unlike his previous world, being a duelist here was Gongren to be heavily dependent on talent; not everyone possessed the potential to become a master.

Putting aside other factors, if someone couldn't even draw the cards they wanted, how could they ever become a duelist?

You Xuan pondered for a moment and concluded that the development path his predecessor had insisted on, despite such hardships, was not inherently wrong.

In this world, whether one sought supernatural power or wished to achieve great things in the city, Duel Monsters was the primary route.

Therefore, since he intended to walk this path, his greatest asset would be the accumulation of knowledge from his previous life as a hardcore card player over many years.

Thinking of this, You Xuan immediately sat down at the computer and began searching.

First, he needed to confirm which era and background he had transmigrated into. Yu-Gi-Oh! had many series; the later anime series more closely resembled the actual card game environment. Thus, the later the timeline, the smaller the advantage for a transmigrator.

After a simple search, he quickly obtained the information he needed.

This was the most classic Basic Dimension, the place where dreams began, the world serving as the backdrop for "Yu-Gi-Oh! DM" and "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX."

The current time point should be after the conclusion of DM and before the start of GX, or perhaps in the early stages of the GX story. With this, You Xuan gained a rough concept of the current Duel Card environment.

Now, let's take a look at his predecessor's deck.

You Xuan: (─??─)

Are you serious with this deck?

Spreading it all out revealed a bloated sixty-card mega-deck. No, this thing couldn't even be called a deck; it was merely a pile of cards.

First, on the monster side, there was a handful of Normal Monsters with no effects whatsoever—things that card players generally liked to describe using a term often Guazaizuibian by President Kaiba: "fodder."

Furthermore, the entire construction was a chaotic mess where every card did its own thing; hardly any two cards had synergy. Drawing any six cards at the start would result in them all fighting separately. You Xuan seriously doubted that combining these things could yield any combat effectiveness.

However, upon closer inspection, he seemed to grasp the logic behind his predecessor's deck construction.

It was useless, but mainly expensive.

The feeling was roughly similar to the two episodes in the GX anime where Manjoume's two rich-but-foolish older brothers appeared. Those tycoons had plenty of money but were completely noobs at playing cards, yet they believed in the theory that money was supreme, firmly convinced that expensive meant best.

Thus, they went all out, spending lavishly to buy a pay-to-win deck composed of the most expensive rare cards to challenge Manjoume, only to be ultimately crushed by Manjoume's temporary deck constructed from trash cards he picked up from an old well behind the school.

Obviously, his predecessor had committed the same mistake as those two tycoons in the anime. Many cards in the deck were likely the result of his predecessor working himself to the bone to grind them out. Seeing the outrageous market prices, You Xuan had reason to suspect that the very reason he had transmigrated was because his predecessor had worked himself to death from overexertion.

Yet, looking at these few cards in his hand that were nominally Ultra Rare but seemed meaningless to him, he couldn't help but silently feel it wasn't worth it for his predecessor.

In the world of card dueling, many powerful cards were indeed expensive, but expensive did not necessarily mean good. Many cards in this world were pricey simply because they were "rare." For instance, some cards were made from archaeological artifacts, while others were crafted using diamonds and gemstones as raw materials.

There were even some that were expensive solely because the summoned monster looked very attractive and was widely popular, yet production numbers were low—especially certain "Bodhisattva-type" spirits who were generous in volume yet breezily revealing.

So, after flipping through the entire deck, You Xuan estimated that only a few of the expensive Trap cards seemed somewhat useful.

It appeared the starting deck would need to be completely dismantled and rebuilt from scratch.

You Xuan thought for a moment, then used the internet again to search for match videos of current professional duelists, gaining a general understanding of the prevailing environment and strategies among today's top duelists.

As expected, just as depicted in the anime, duelists of this era generally pursued overwhelming power, striving to summon their own high-attack, cool-looking ace monsters to achieve board dominance.

After watching several match recordings, You Xuan couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

What an innocent world.

In short, it seemed that most current duelists shared a common problem—

—They were too wholesome.

If the total amount of "unwholesome" tactics in the world today were eight dou, the former King of Games, Yugi Muto, alone occupied one dou, leaving the rest of the world owing him two dou.

Now that Yugi Muto had retired from dueling, duelists everywhere took the legendary duelist Seto Kaiba, who pursued power suppression with his mouth full of "crush and destroy," as their role model, instantly filling the entire environment with a wholesome atmosphere.

Thus, You Xuan's construction strategy was decided.

He would bring a little taste of unwholesome fun to this wholesome card world.

I'm back; this time the setting starts from GX.

New book seeking favorites and recommendation tickets, especially seeking serial reads!

(End of Chapter)