Chapter 29

Arriving inside the examination hall, You Xuan stood high in the spectator stands and looked left and right, quickly spotting several familiar faces.

For instance, there was Kaiser Marufuji Ryo from Duel Academy, who was also observing from a high platform, as well as Tenjoin Asuka, the female background character with the highest appearance rate in GX who had been inseparable from him in the early stages.

Then there were Chazz Princeton and his minions in the adjacent spectator seats, already clad in their Obelisk Blue uniforms.

Students like Chazz and Asuka were recommended admissions; they had been top students in Duel Academy's middle division. Only those recommended like this could enroll and immediately advance to the highest-tier Obelisk Blue dormitory.

Other candidates who entered via examination, even with perfect scores in all subjects, could only be assigned to the Ra Yellow dormitory. This was why Misawa Daichi, despite entering with the number one score in the anime, only made it to Ra Yellow. Only with excellent subsequent performance and good conduct would there be a chance to promote to Obelisk Blue.

You Xuan scanned the area; although it was already exam time, he did not see a certain familiar jellyfish head.

If nothing unexpected happened, kid Judai's train must be running late today. At this hour, he should have bumped into Yugi Muto on the way and received a Winged Kuriboh card from Mr. Yugi, Judai's first Spirit Card in the main series, which would safeguard him through various Dark Duels in his early days.

Looking solely at the GX story, there was no explanation in the opening for why Yugi would bump into someone on the road and randomly select a lucky jellyfish head to gift a Spirit Card.

But if combined with the later movie *Bonds Beyond Time*, one could guess that Yugi had already met Judai, who returned from the future, many years ago; therefore, in the present, he already regarded Judai as a comrade-in-arms he had never formally met.

"Examinee number 001, Fujiki You Xuan."

It finally began.

You Xuan rose and walked toward the duel field.

While observing the battles from above just now, he had already noted that today's examiners were rotating through several exam-specific decks. Different candidates came and went facing only those few decks, so he had roughly figured them all out.

Nothing he couldn't handle.

One minute ago, Chazz Princeton and his two minions sat confidently in the stands.

"According to the grouping, this year's number 001 should be taking the field soon," Minion A said. "I wonder who this year's number one will be."

Minion B: "Heh, it doesn't matter who it is. This year's freshman emperor has long been decided to be Big Brother Chazz."

Chazz's lips curled upward as he chuckled coldly.

"There can be only one ruler of the academy; as the saying goes, one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers. Well, if that guy is excellent enough, serving as my opponent to pass the time wouldn't be bad. After all, if ruling is too easy, these three years in the academy could get quite boring, heh heh."

"Big Brother is right, hahaha."

The three burst into laughter together.

Then came that voice announcement.

"Examinee number 001, Fujiki You Xuan, please proceed immediately to Field One to prepare for the exam. Examinee number 001."

The laughter stopped abruptly.

Minion A: "Nani? That name, could it be—"

Minion B: "Big Brother!"

Both turned to look at Chazz simultaneously, only to find him gone in an instant.

"Eh? Big Brother, how did you get under the bench?"

Although the fall hurt a bit, Chazz had no time to attend to it; he scrambled up from under the chair on all fours, eyes wide and staring fixedly at Field One.

Then he saw a certain familiar back entering the field.

The Academy King Chazz had fallen before his campaign even began; before he had even enrolled, his dream of domination had turned to bubbles, replaced instead by the fear once dominated by the underworld.

Why is it you again!?

"Hello, teacher."

You Xuan, now standing firmly on the field, was very polite.

The examiner was a stoic tough guy wearing sunglasses, expressionless: "Prepare to duel."

"Yes, teacher."

You Xuan activated his Duel Disk, but just before the match started, he thought of something and couldn't help but frown slightly.

"Wait, teacher. Hypothetically speaking... just a hypothesis, even if I win, but during the duel you feel displeased or are dissatisfied with the process itself, is there any possibility you would fail me?"

"Rest assured." The sunglasses-wearing examiner maintained his poker face. "We examiners have undergone professional training; we are not low-quality third-rate duelers. No matter what kind of duel occurs, I will not get angry."

He paused, then added.

"Besides, the final grade is decided by Chief Examiner Professor Cronos, not me."

"Is that so."

You Xuan felt relieved.

He still remembered Professor Cronos, the man nicknamed the Greedy Spirit due to his appearance being ninety percent similar to the card art of Pot of Greed.

Although this professor seemed like a villain from the perspective of the anime's early arcs, he only targeted poor students. For students with excellent grades, like Misawa Daichi, even when a baseball was hit directly into the professor's eye socket, he could smile and say it was fine, fine, as long as you maintain your grades, the teacher will recover quickly.

So You Xuan figured that since he was first in the written exams, Professor Greedy surely wouldn't make things difficult for him.

"Duel!" x2

[You Xuan, LP 4000]

[Examiner, LP 4000]

"I go first. Draw."

You Xuan directly drew three cards into his hand.

"I set one monster card in the front field and two cards face-down in the back field. Turn end."

Up in the stands, Chazz began to suffocate the moment he saw this opening hand.

That familiar scent, that atmosphere from the underworld...

"Then it's my turn. Draw," the examiner said. "I Normal Summon 'Gene-Warped Warwolf' in Attack Position."

[Gene-Warped Warwolf, ATK 2000]

As soon as this card appeared, You Xuan recognized which of the several exam decks it belonged to.

It was an aggressive deck centered on Level 4 monsters, most with over 2000 attack points, which, when combined with Equip Cards, could easily reach 2000 or 3000 attack to dominate the field.

It was considered one of the more troublesome decks for freshmen in the entrance exam.

At this moment, a spectator student in the stands said, "Oh, look over there; number one encountered that aggressive suppression deck."

"Yeah, glad I didn't run into it. What an unlucky guy..."

Only Chazz clenched his ten fingers tightly, saying nothing.

Unlucky? No, no, no.

The one who was unlucky was that examiner opposite.

To actually hold an aggressive deck against this kind of thing was simply eight generations of bloody bad luck.

"Attack with 'Gene-Warped Warwolf'!"

The face-down card flipped, revealing an old magician holding a green staff.

[Stubborn Old Magician, DEF 600]

"Effect of 'Stubborn Old Magician' activates," You Xuan said. "When this card is flipped, select one monster on your field and destroy it. I destroy your 'Gene-Warped Warwolf'."

Before dying, the Old Magician flicked his hand, firing a magic bullet that caused the Gene-Warped Warwolf to explode with a boom.

The Gene-Warped Warwolf had been on the field for less than ten seconds before being tricked, but this was still within the bounds of a normal duel; the examiner had not yet sensed anything amiss.

"So it's a flip-effect destruction monster, then. In that case, the Battle Phase ends."

The examiner drew a card and inserted it into his Duel Disk.

"Then I activate the Spell Card 'Return of the Doomed', which allows me to revive one monster destroyed this turn in Attack Position." (Anime effect)

The spell effect activated; a vortex leading to the underworld opened. After a flash of golden light, the dust-covered Gene-Warped Warwolf returned to the field.

"Activate face-down card, Trap Card 'Deal of the Phantom'."

You Xuan pressed the button on his Duel Disk, flipping open his back row.

"When your opponent activates a Spell Card, pay 1000 Life Points to randomly discard one card from their hand."

[You Xuan, LP 4000 → LP 3000]

[You Xuan, LP 4000 → LP 3000]

The examiner was startled; looking down at his hand again, one of his cards had vanished into thin air along with a golden light effect.

"Not done yet. Following the chain, I activate the Trap Card—Torrential Tribute." You Xuan waved his hand to flip open another back-row card. "This can be activated when a monster is Summoned, Special Summoned, or Flip Summoned. Destroy all monsters on the field!"

A flood surged forth from the card, sweeping violently across the entire field. The poor Gene-Warped Warwolf hadn’t even stood its ground before being swept once again into the flood’s vortex, crushed to powder.

Examiner: "..."

A flood roared forth from the card, sweeping across the entire field in a mighty surge. The poor Gene-Wolfman had not even regained his footing before he was dragged into the whirlpool once more and crushed to dust.

Examiner: "."

(End of Chapter)