Chapter 27: Understanding Construction with Anime Characteristics

[Onizuka Genichiro, LP 0]

The final attack concluded, draining the last of his Life Points, and in this Shadow Duel he had initiated himself, it also marked the true end of the duelist's life.

At this moment, he could no longer even feel the pain brought by the Shadow Duel's impact.

Because he had already begun to lose all sensation in his physical body.

Just moments ago during the duel, he had boasted wildly, claiming that being caught by him was the opponent's lifelong misfortune.

Now looking at it, whose misfortune was it really?

This youth was strong, but the feeling he gave was unlike any powerful opponent Genichiro had encountered before.

How to put it? It was as if...

...the duel in his eyes was something completely different from how everyone else understood it.

This was the first time in Genichiro's history that such a thought had arisen after playing cards with someone—

—Duelling is so hard.

Defeated, Genichiro collapsed to the ground, his body enveloped in a golden light, which then scattered into points of light and vanished.

Just like those who lost card games and died in the GX Otherworld arc.

You Xuan sucked in a sharp breath.

Good heavens, Shadow Duels are indeed dangerous. Losing means having even your ashes scattered; it's utterly terrifying.

Fortunately, he had proven slightly more skilled.

However, in his opinion, this guy's proficiency in Konami language hadn't even reached the beginner level; being this weak yet still managing to be a Shadow Dueler? Surviving life-or-death card bets until now was truly a miracle.

No.

You Xuan realized he was still carrying over the habitual thinking from his previous life.

One shouldn't think that way. In this world, a duelist's strength and divine draws are far more important; interpreting card text in Konami language might merely be decorative.

Yes, this is indeed a dangerous world; one cannot relax even a little.

He still needed to collect more powerful cards; improving his strength was the only true path.

For instance, starting right here before his eyes.

You Xuan stepped forward, bent down, and picked up the duel disk that had fallen to the ground from the now-deceased Genichiro.

Since the person was already gone, the deck naturally became ownerless property.

Thus, You Xuan solemnly declared, "It was a good duel. Rest in peace, buddy. I shall inherit both your deck and your will."

Saying this, he tucked the deck into his pocket.

As he turned to leave, he felt a sudden chill run down his spine, as if a gust of sinister wind had blown past.

The next morning.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, lightly sprinkling the room's floor; You Xuan groggily opened his heavy eyelids, his blurred vision struggling to focus.

It seemed he saw... a girl?

Silver hair fluttering, holding a staff in one hand and covering her mouth with the other, the upper half of her spirit form had phased directly into his body as he lay in bed, her bright eyes wide open as she peeked around, seemingly sizing him up.

However, the moment he opened his eyes, an exclamation mark seemed to pop up above the girl's head; she swiftly turned and dove back into the deck resting inside the duel disk leaning against the desk, becoming still.

You Xuan: "..."

After last night's turmoil and their first cooperation as master and servant, You Xuan had learned that the Silent Girl did not intentionally target or refuse to acknowledge him as her master; she was simply "Silent."

In other words, she was socially withdrawn.

Yes, as the saying goes, like master, like servant; it seemed quite reasonable for the spirit of a socially withdrawn player to also be socially withdrawn.

Regardless, she had indeed been helpful during last night's sudden battle. Indeed, in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh, going out without a divine artifact or a spirit companion was far too dangerous.

Moreover, though he wasn't sure if it was psychological, he felt that during yesterday's life-or-death card bet, having the Silent Magician in his deck had indeed made something feel different compared to his previous duels.

It was a sensation difficult to describe clearly, but it was as if when touching his deck, at the very instant of every draw, he could faintly perceive a certain rhythm.

It was as if before this, his deck, much like his duel disk, had been merely a tool for dueling.

But in that match, for the first time, he had the illusion that "the deck had come alive."

Of course, this feeling was very metaphysical, and it was entirely possible he was overthinking it.

"Regardless, I must become stronger."

The sudden encounter with a life-or-death card bet made You Xuan realize once again the importance of playing cards well in this world; this was even more reliable than carrying an armory on one's back.

Furthermore, as he reviewed his recent consecutive battles, he had developed some new understandings.

From the perspective of card game enthusiasts, the decks of many anime characters often evoke astonishment: how did they manage to make systems this clunky function?

But if one bases their observation on the ability of certain "seafood-head" players to "never brick with any system," and then examines their decks, one discovers a similar characteristic.

That is, they are stuffed full of mean☆ing☆less☆ things (crossed out).

That is, they possess solutions within their decks for almost any board state they face.

Decks in reality generally pursue stability and efficiency, but even super-tier decks occasionally encounter situations where "the entire deck cannot get through."

It is facing a certain board, a specific situation, where one clearly knows that no matter which card one picks from all the cards in their deck's construction, none can overcome that board.

Such situations might be extremely rare; even if encountered occasionally, one could simply surrender and be done with it, without affecting a mainstream deck's status. But in this world, it was different.

Shadow Duels consist of only one game; winning means life, losing means death; there is no opportunity to surrender and try again.

Therefore, certain decks that appear stuffed full of mean☆ing☆less☆ things have actually achieved the concept of "almost no board is unbeatable."

By the same logic, while deck construction in reality generally aims for the forty-card limit, streamlining as much as possible to minimize bricking rates and maximize operational efficiency, in this world, sixty-card decks are the norm... no, it even seems the deck limit in this world might exceed sixty cards.

Because more cards represent more possibilities.

But all of this is built upon the foundation of "never bricking."

Therefore, only top-tier duelists possess the ability to pilot such systems, even mixing four or five completely different archetypes into a single deck like Yugi and Kaiba, yet playing without ever bricking, giving the impression as if they were dueling with four or five independent decks simultaneously.

When truly out of options, drawing a card not even in the deck is not impossible.

However, when ordinary people without such skill blindly imitate the constructions and tactics of these top experts, everyone wielding decks starting at sixty cards, they naturally become worse the more they learn and brick more the more they study, thus creating this bizarre environment where the polarization between experts and the bottom feeders becomes increasingly severe.

Thus, You Xuan felt he had attained another enlightenment.

Although "Yinjian" (dark/cheesy strategies) are very powerful, relying solely on them in this world will not take one far. Current opponents can be dealt with through construction alone, but in the future, he must still expand upon this foundation with more varied styles and tactics.

Deck construction is very important, and divine draw bonds are also very important; one must grasp both firmly, and both must be strong.

The recent duels not only made You Xuan realize that the anime card environment differs, but he also discovered many other aspects that were not quite the same as what he was familiar with.

Watching anime previously without thinking deeply, he hadn't noticed, but now that he had personally entered this world to play cards, he realized that just as depicted in the animation, duelists here, after activating an effect, simply do not proactively offer you a chance to chain.

If following the rules You Xuan was familiar with from his previous life, often after you activate an effect, you need to give the opponent time to ask if they have a chain. Only after all cards on a single chain have been activated do effects resolve in order.

Unless the opponent says "No traps, quick play" or "GKD" (Go Kuai Dian - hurry up), can you freely and happily engage in long combo speeches.

But here, no such thing exists. Whether in the anime or among duelists You Xuan personally encountered, after activating an effect, they immediately begin resolving it on their own, completely lacking this awareness.

However, he soon discovered that this actually doesn't matter much, because the rules regarding chain timing in duels aren't that strict. Even if the opponent has already begun resolving the current card's effect on their own, it won't miss the timing for you to activate a chain; you can still interrupt their operation and follow up with your own effect.

This is only natural. Otherwise, wouldn't it become a situation where whoever moves their mouth fast enough can miss the timing and prevent the opponent from playing cards?

Furthermore, this isn't due to imperfect rules in early anime; even in later series that already adhered to real-card rules, it remained the same.

From an animation production perspective, one can only speculate that perhaps the production team decided dramatic effect was more important than strictly adhering to rules. Because if everyone strictly followed the rules by activating all cards before resolving them one by one, it might undermine the dramatic effect of certain reversal designs.

Although from a realistic perspective such operations are non-compliant, overall, even in the anime, it's merely a presentation effect and generally doesn't affect the match situation.

Last night, You Xuan further discovered that playing cards is indeed physical labor. The gym teacher at Duel Academy had even emphasized that without a good body, one cannot play cards well; back then, You Xuan had found this somewhat amusing, but now he was beginning to comprehend its meaning.

Especially since last night's life-or-death card bet was truly mentally and physically exhausting; he hadn't felt it during the duel, but upon returning, he felt completely drained, wanting to think about nothing and just collapse into sleep.

Only after waking from a full sleep did he feel refreshed, his brain coming back online and resuming work.

Yesterday's victory yielded considerable gains. That Genichiro was, after all, a Shadow Dueler who lived on the edge of a blade; his deck seemed quite valuable. You Xuan estimated that even if he couldn't use some cards himself, they could fetch a good price on the market, allowing him to sell them for what he wanted.

And most importantly, there was the anime-effect version of "Card of Demise."

A divine artifact that instantly draws five cards, with only the side effect of "discard after five turns," which feels like a mocking taunt right in the opponent's face; cards like Pot of Greed immediately become trash in comparison.

It's a pity there's only one. You Xuan even felt that if this thing could be run at three copies, what a wonderful thing that would be...

Additionally, two other cards that he greatly longed for were the other two of the Three Sacred Cards, renowned alongside Card of Demise during the DM era: "Card of Destiny" and "Card from the Sky."

Card of Destiny belongs to Jonouchi; basically, you roll a die, draw a number of cards equal to the result, and then banish that many cards from the top of your deck. It's also an heaven-defying divine card, but in the anime, aside from Jonouchi, no one else was seen using it, and by the GX era, it had completely vanished.

Card from the Sky belongs to Yugi; both players draw until they hold six cards in hand, a super-god-level killer move. Aside from Yugi in DM, quite a few others used this one, making it a generic card, and it even made appearances in the GX era. However, You Xuan had not yet seen it on the market for now.

The DM Three Sacred Cards; he wanted them all so badly...

And now, the greatest hope lay in that broad avenue named "Duel Academy."

Rumors outside claimed that once one entered the academy, it would be a completely different world. A vast quantity of rare cards unimaginable to ordinary duelists, rumored online to be an in-game purchase path of the "has everything" type.

It was already right before his eyes.

In just three days, held at Kaiba Land, was the annual Duel Academy entrance examination.

He would definitely secure it.

(End of Chapter)