Chapter 1180: Dueling Spirit

Yuma looked blankly at the large handful of cards he had grabbed, then looked at his LP that had returned to zero without knowing when, his expression a bit confused.

He looked at Astral beside him: "That... Astral, did I just duel someone?"

Astral nodded: "It seems like that's the case."

Yuma was tearful: "But how come I don't have any real feeling of that at all?"

Astral analyzed seriously: "That's probably because you didn't play a single card in this duel."

Yuma: "..."

He was certain that he had never experienced such a bizarre duel in his life. It wasn't an OTK; in fact, the turn count was quite high. It was just like being bitten by a mosquito—one bite every turn, one bite every turn.

Yet, in the process of such a long, drawn-out torture, he somehow couldn't play a single card. Monsters couldn't be summoned, Spells couldn't be activated, and Traps couldn't be Set.

Yes, he couldn't even manage to Set one card in his backrow. Because Cosmic Shrink limited the field to a maximum of five cards, and that godforsaken opponent occupied all five slots right from the start, leaving absolutely no room to play.

Well, even so, the fact that the opponent was burned to death from full health like this was actually a bit surprising, even to Fujiki You Xuan.

He had originally thought that with Cosmic Shrink locking down the entire field, he would slowly burn the opponent's life points turn by turn. During this period, the opponent would have plenty of opportunities to explode with power or use cheats.

After all, Yuma was a "Yu" generation player and even sported a natural lobster-head hairstyle; his ability to cheat must be quite high. Although the current situation was a dead end for a normal person, with so many chances to cheat, it wouldn't be impossible to break through by simply drawing a god-tier card or something.

As it turned out, the opponent was really burned to death just like that, without a single ripple. He completely lacked the spirit that a "Yu" generation protagonist should have.

Fujiki You Xuan sized up Yuma for a moment.

"So that's how it is... No Astral, huh?"

He was already quite certain that Astral must have been AFK for the entire duration of the duel just now.

At this moment, Astral was again reminding Yuma slowly from behind: "Actually, you had a chance just now."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Yuma said, feeling depressed. "Cosmic Shrink, you know? I couldn't play a single card, so where was the chance? Isn't a card like that too cheap?"

"No, there is no tactic in the world that cannot be countered," Astral shook his head and said. "Don't you have the Spell card 'Monster Gate' in your hand?"

Yuma: "So what? Didn't I say, there were already five cards on the field, so even if I had a Spell card, I couldn't use it..."

"No, Monster Gate is a Spell card that can only be activated by Tributing one monster on your field. Tributing is the activation cost for this card. As long as you Tribute one Ojamuscle Token, the locked field will have space, and you can summon a monster to launch an attack."

After all, Fujiki You Xuan didn't actually reveal any means to force an attack lock. It was just that the field was jammed, Yuma couldn't summon new monsters, and the Ojamuscle Tokens all had 0 ATK and couldn't attack.

If Yuma could have been the first to summon a new monster capable of attacking, even if it were just a low-level monster, the situation would have reversed immediately. Because only Yuma would have had a monster on the field to launch an attack, and Fujiki You Xuan's field would have been empty, then it would have been Fujiki You Xuan himself who was locked by Cosmic Shrink.

Yuma: "But, aren't Tokens unable to be Tributed..."

"Ojamuscle Tokens 'cannot be Tributed for a Tribute Summon'," Astral continued to educate him. "Spell cards are not included in that."

Yuma was shocked: "There's a difference?"

Clearly, for Yuma, who sometimes couldn't even distinguish between Attack and Defense positions in the early stages of the anime, this kind of thing was too profound.

Astral shrugged: "That is how it is."

At this moment, Fujiki You Xuan also understood.

So that was it. Yuma didn't lose because he failed to draw a card to break the situation the whole time. The "King of Games" god-draw ability was still there; it was just that he was too unskilled, to the point where he didn't even realize he had drawn a god-tier card. He had no idea he held a card that could break the situation.

"Ahhh, then why didn't you remind me just now!" Yuma grabbed his hair in frustration. "If I had used that just now, I could have won, right?"

Astral: "You said this was your duel and told me not to interfere."

"Ah, this... that's true, I suppose," Yuma sighed. "The world of dueling is so profound, so hard to understand..."

However, the "King of Games" cheered up again a second later.

"Well, that's exactly why the world of dueling is so interesting!"

Being personally "repaired" by the Lord in Yellow and then being so full of life again in the blink of an eye made the surrounding students look sideways while also feeling a bit envious.

Envious of his resilience and his unwavering passion for dueling.

Well, of course, some people also felt that perhaps the Lord in Yellow hadn't repaired him hard enough. Maybe he still needed to take a harder beating to learn the cruelty of society.

"He's really a bit like Big Brother used to be..." Marufuji Sho, who was watching the battle from the side, muttered.

But that was just saying this passion reminded him a bit of Judai. But if one had to say, Judai had never taken a beating like this...

Yuma heard him: "Big Brother?"

"Ah, one of the strongest duelists in this academy, my Big Brother," Marufuji Sho said. "How should I put it? He's a duelist very similar to you. He has a passion for dueling that no one else can compare to, a duelist like fire."

"Oh, oh! Such an amazing person!"

Yuma was excited again.

"I'd like to try dueling such a duelist once."

"Is... is that so?"

Marufuji Sho was sweating.

Would someone who had just been brutally beaten by the Lord in Yellow's "Cosmic LOCK" really want to immediately challenge a new difficulty level?

Is this kid's mind a bit abnormal?

Yuma asked strangely: "What?"

"No, nothing," Marufuji Sho hesitated. "Just a little curious, why are you able to, um... always look like you don't care about failure at all..."

"That?" As soon as Yuma mentioned this, he was no longer sleepy. "Because of 'High-Flying'! High-Flying!"

Marufuji Sho was confused: "High-Flying?"

"Yeah, never giving up, the spirit of being able to continue challenging even after failing a thousand times, that is High-Flying!" Yuma gripped the Emperor's Key on his chest. "As long as you haven't given up on challenging, it means you haven't given up on victory."

"If I keep going like this, I'll succeed sooner or later! By then, I'll probably already be the Dueling Champion!"

*Clap, clap, clap, clap. *

Fujiki You Xuan walked up, clapping his hands: "This spirit is indeed good. Well, but if possible, I'd actually prefer to duel you in a more serious state... No, perhaps to be more precise, it should be 'you guys', right?"

Yuma and Astral were both startled in their hearts, and the two looked at each other.

Could this person... see Astral?