Chapter 24: Dark Duel

Walking along his path to find food, You Xuan reflected on himself and felt his approach might be slightly off.

Other schools of thought, take the electronic style from anime for example, all rely on cultivation and progress; they train their card-drawing techniques day and night, dawn to dusk, as if practicing martial arts, until their sincerity moves stone and gold, finally earning the acknowledgment of spirits like the Electronic End Dragon.

Yet right now, the Silent Magician was probably wondering how she ended up with a master whose thinking was so peculiar, whose method of summoning a spirit was simply to annoy her until she begged for mercy.

However, looking at it from another angle, in terms of results, you have to admit he did summon her.

It seemed he would need to seriously reconsider the correct posture for cultivating bonds in the future.

As You Xuan walked and pondered back and forth, he suddenly noticed something was amiss.

The small alley at night lay quietly hidden behind the neon lights and red lanterns; this was a shortcut to the commercial district, only about six or seven hundred meters long, with the street beyond filled with snack stalls and late-night eats.

The air was thick with dampness, mixed with an unknown strange odor. The stone slab road under the dim light appeared pitted and uneven, while a cool breeze blew against the old tree at the alley entrance, making a rustling sound.

After walking just a few steps forward, the dim light illuminated a wall ahead.

A dead end.

You Xuan frowned.

This shouldn't be happening; according to his predecessor's memories, this path was clearly passable. Could it be that the memory inheritance was chaotic, causing him to take the wrong turn?

Feeling puzzled, he turned around to return along his original path, but upon reaching the end, he immediately discovered something was wrong again.

Under the dim light, a wall appeared once more. Although he had clearly turned around, this wall looked exactly identical to the previous one. Upon closer observation, he realized even the surroundings on both sides looked incredibly familiar.

Could this be the legendary ghost wall?

Fear naturally surged forth; for a moment, every shadow in his sight seemed to hide a life-taking vengeful spirit or a ferocious demon.

However, You Xuan quickly forced himself to calm down.

If this were any other plane, such supernatural occurrences would likely mean a nine-out-of-ten chance of death. But this was no other place; this was the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Having come to this world, whether it was extraterrestrial gods, demons, or supernatural ghosts, could they possibly try to take his life without going through a card duel first?

You Xuan stopped in his tracks and was cautiously looking around when he suddenly sensed a heavy roar from the darkness, as if coming from an abyss. Following that, a dark light pierced through the darkness, and some kind of invisible fluctuation swept over like a sharp blade.

Startled, alarms rang loudly in his heart; he took half a step back and instinctively raised his Duel Disk to shield himself. Immediately, a flash of white light passed over his Duel Disk, and a semi-transparent magic circle, resembling ice crystals, unfolded, solidly blocking that invisible impact. Invisible shockwaves swept in all directions, carving cracks into the ground and walls.

A transparent phantom materialized beside him; the Silent Magician, her white robes snow-like, twirled her staff which shimmered with cold light in her hand.

You Xuan let out a long breath.

He was once again convinced that spirits were absolutely essential for travel and daily life here; one wouldn't dare step out the door without stuffing three or two spirits into their deck.

"So you're a Spirit Master too?"

A rough voice came from the darkness, and a figure in black robes slowly stepped out from the mist-like environment.

"And a high-level magician spirit at that; today really is a huge gain."

You Xuan narrowed his eyes. He couldn't see the newcomer's face clearly, only vaguely noticing green light flashing beneath the hood.

"A Dark Duelist?" he asked tentatively.

But he was fairly certain this was a character he hadn't seen in the original work. After all, Dark Duelists were countless in the Yu-Gi-Oh! world, and those appearing in the anime were just the tip of the iceberg.

"Heh, quite knowledgeable for a kid."

The man in black robes sneered coldly and activated his Duel Disk. You Xuan had never seen this style of Duel Disk before; it was some kind of black model where five square areas rotated down one by one, assembling together to form the Monster Zone.

"Since you know the rules, this will be easy to discuss. That's right, I am a Dark Duelist, and furthermore..."

He slowly lifted his hood, revealing a somewhat weathered face, his eyes flashing with a dim green light. An aura of domineering power seemed to diffuse along with his invisible presence.

"I am Onizuka Genichiro."

You Xuan racked his memories carefully but truly couldn't recall ever hearing this name, so he had to ask, "Sorry, am I supposed to know you?"

Onizuka Genichiro: "."

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward for a moment.

"Ahem." Genichiro frowned. "The Genichiro who reached the top sixty-four in the third Duel City Tournament in Domino City, known in the underworld as the 'Dinosaur Tyrant'; still no impression?"

Regarding the Duel City Tournament, sorry, but the anime only aired the first one; the subsequent tournaments weren't shown, so You Xuan indicated he hadn't seen them.

And speaking of dinosaurs, shouldn't the first person that comes to mind be Ryuzaki, who was just beaten down a moment ago?

"On the day I rose to power, that legendary duelist Dinosaur Ryuzaki had already retired and vanished without a trace. Some ignorant people always say that if Ryuzaki were still around, I would surely not be his match; how laughable."

Genichiro smiled coldly.

"I have already obtained the power of darkness, a mighty strength that will not lose to any duelist. I heard that Ryuzaki actually intends to make a comeback, and I immediately realized this is the opportunity I have been waiting for all along."

Genichiro shouted loudly.

"I am the strongest Dragon Tamer! And as a remnant of the previous generation, his only fate is to be swallowed by darkness and annihilated!"

You Xuan: "."

Then go find Ryuzaki; why are you blocking me?

"Well, good luck with that, bro," You Xuan said. "I have somewhere to be, so I'll be leaving now."

"It's useless; you cannot leave this domain. Only one of us can walk out of here alive."

Genichiro said coldly.

"I saw it; you defeated him on the arena, that Dinosaur Ryuzaki. Moreover, it was with absolute crushing dominance; he couldn't even touch your LP from start to finish."

"That was when I changed my mind. You are more worth defeating than Dinosaur Ryuzaki, and more worth sacrificing to the darkness. If I can swallow you into my darkness, I will surely advance further on my path as a Dark Duelist!"

You Xuan: "."

"Talking more is pointless."

Genichiro had already activated his Duel Disk.

"Once a Dark Duel begins, it will not stop easily. It decides both superiority and life or death! Come, wager your soul as a duelist!"

Actually, based on his understanding of the original work, You Xuan knew that Dark Duels were not entirely impossible to stop. If someone with dark power far stronger than the person who initiated the Dark Duel intervened, they could forcibly terminate it or even modify the rules of the wager. For instance, the Pharaoh's Millennium Puzzle could do exactly that.

Or there were special cases; for example, halfway through a Riding Duel, if one was about to lose, they could quickly pull out a screw, the bike would crash, and the duel would be nullified.

However, looking at the current situation, it seemed escape was impossible. You Xuan took a deep breath and activated his Duel Disk.

"Duel!" x2

(End of Chapter)