Chapter 28: Our True Silent Is Truly Too Strong

Kaiba Land.

The venue, shaped like the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, was constructed from countless small mirrored glass panels pieced together into a scale-like structure, reflecting a kaleidoscope of colorful light. Outside the hall, people came and went, the atmosphere lively yet tinged with tension.

This was the site of the Duel Academy's annual practical admissions examination.

The student exam consisted of a written test and a practical battle; only those who passed the written test first were qualified to participate in the practical assessment. Furthermore, the admission ticket numbers for the practical exam were assigned based on the ranking of written test scores, which also determined the corresponding difficulty level of the assessment.

Finally, the comprehensive score derived from both the written and re-examination stages would serve as the enrollment result. Duel Academy operated on an elite education system, emphasizing strength in every aspect from daily life to academics. Upon enrollment, students were assigned dormitories based on their scores; besides luxurious hardware facilities, the cafeteria food and services for honor students were incomparable to what the low-performing students received.

Naturally, credit rewards, priority rights to purchase rare cards, discount rates, and so on also varied accordingly.

The academy dormitories were divided into three tiers, named after the three legendary God Cards standing at the apex of Duel Monsters. The highest-tier dormitory was named "Obelisk-Blue," the next tier was "Ra-Yellow," and the lowest tier, also the most despised bottom-feeders across the entire academy, was "Osiris-Red."

However, every time he saw this setting, You Xuan felt there absolutely had to be some shady manipulation by President Kaiba Seto, the academy's founder.

After all, in the Duel City arc, Obelisk the Tormentor was the God Card held by Kaiba himself, while Osiris the Sky Dragon was the one held by his arch-rival, the dark Yugi, Atem.

So one could imagine that when President Kaiba was handling the dormitory classification, his expression must have been ferocious, gnashing his teeth: "That damn Yuu-gi! After beating me, he just ran off without saying a word!"

"Make Yuu-gi's dorm—no, make the Osiris dormitory the lowest of the low!!!"

Minion: "Yes, President!"

"."

The written test results had been released a day earlier. As expected, You Xuan had rather easily secured first place, earning admission ticket number 001.

Upon receiving this admission ticket, You Xuan recalled something.

He remembered that in the original TV series, there seemed to be a character who originally took first place; had he stolen that person's position?

Was his name something like Four Basic Operations? Or maybe Six Ze Sky?

Oh, he remembered now: Daichi Misawa. But it didn't matter anyway; from what he recalled, the guy was just a high-scoring background character, so deleting him outright would seemingly have zero impact on the plot. Of course, at least he didn't drag Jaden down; among those teammates in GX who competed to see who could slack off more, he was already considered rare.

You Xuan then arrived at the entrance of the examination venue. Before entering, all candidates first had to complete candidate reporting and registration.

Sitting at the entrance was one of Duel Academy's teachers: the health instructor, Megumi Namikawa. She wore an Obelisk-Blue vest and short skirt, her crossed white legs pressing against each other, accentuating a fleshy appeal.

She belonged to that category of D-rank powerhouse who, when you tried to search for childhood memories, would shock you with "She's actually that big?" and make you wonder, "Why did I only notice the card dueling back then?"

But You Xuan's heart remained completely unmoved, because his mind was currently filled only with thoughts of what deck and configuration to use in the upcoming exam, and how to play his cards.

Determined duelists are single-minded. Only with no self in the heart can one be fearless; only with cards in the heart can one achieve unity of person and card.

"Name?"

"Fujiki You Xuan."

"Admission ticket number?"

"001."

"So you're this year's number one? Impressive."

Teacher Megumi smiled brightly.

It seemed that seeing a somewhat handsome student made her mood even more pleasant.

"Alright, please register your main deck," Teacher Megumi said with a kind expression.

She had voluntarily applied to handle this candidate registration work out of curiosity to see what the new freshmen entering this year looked like.

This year's first-place candidate was already making a very good impression on her. Not only were his grades excellent, but he also looked good, and at a glance seemed like a polite, elegant child; surely he must be a sunny-type boy.

"I have to register my deck?" This caught You Xuan slightly off guard.

Duelists in this world indeed seemed to have their own signature decks and ace monsters symbolizing their identity. But You Xuan reasoned that to prevent being studied and targeted, he was always changing his build; he had actually planned to decide on his specific configuration later, after entering the venue and observing the examiner's deck situation.

Could it be that once registered here, he wouldn't be allowed to change it?

"Student?" Teacher Megumi tilted her head strangely.

For a duelist who had tested into Duel Academy, did one really need to think about which deck to use?

After a moment's thought, she considerately reminded him, "Oh, this isn't any strict inspection; it's just a simple registration. Many students' self-built decks might not have a clear series or theme, so registering based on your commonly used race, attribute, or tactics is perfectly fine."

You Xuan pondered for a moment.

"Hmm, then my commonly used cards should be Spell Cards, plus Trap Cards, plus Spellcaster-type, plus Warrior-type, plus Machine-type..."

Teacher Megumi: "?"

Are you sure that thing you're describing is called a deck?

"Hahaha, this student is truly humorous." Teacher Megumi gave a dry laugh. "Some students' decks might be quite mixed. In that case, talking about your ace monster or favorite card is also acceptable."

You Xuan fell into deep thought.

Although the monster axis of his deck would change, no matter what configuration he switched to, the generic red traps, the interruptions to stop opponents' negations, and the violent card-drawing filters for profit would never change.

Thinking of this, he silently pulled out a Pot of Greed... then his movement abruptly stopped.

Because at that moment, he seemed to vaguely sense an ominous aura.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye, You Xuan clearly saw that the reclusive, god-hidden girl, the Silent Magician, had somehow drifted out. In a spirit form visible only to him, she stood silently beside him.

Though she made not a sound nor any movement, her resentful little gaze seemed to say, "So your favorite isn't me after all..."

You Xuan took a deep breath.

Some unknown survival instinct made him stuff the half-withdrawn Pot of Greed back in, and instead pull out the Silent Magician.

"It's actually the Silent Magician!?" Teacher Megumi exclaimed in great shock, "That super-rare card once used by the King of Games, Yugi Muto?"

The teacher immediately became even more awestruck.

Having completed the registration, You Xuan instantly felt the invisible pressure in his heart lift. Looking back, sure enough, the spirit figure that had been floating behind him was now gone.

You Xuan let out a long sigh of relief.

That was close, that was close; luckily my reaction was fast enough.

With this, the bond with the spirit should deepen, right?

Yo-ta-zo (That's great).

Although he might not even need to use the True Silent in this exam.

But it wasn't a big problem.

The True Silent doesn't even need to hit the field to win the duel; our True Silent deck is truly too strong.

(End of Chapter)