Chapter 3: The First Battle

The initial deck for this transmigration was now complete. After checking and confirming everything was correct, You Xuan naturally felt his hands itching to play soon.

No card gamer could possibly finish building a deck without wanting to test its quality immediately.

Thus, his first choice of target naturally led him straight to the dojo his predecessor belonged to, intending to randomly find a colleague there to bring him the joy of a duel.

Upon arriving at the dojo and stepping through the door, he saw a group of students gathered in one spot, making quite a commotion.

"As expected of Brother Sato, he actually succeeded in his tribulation!"

You Xuan raised an eyebrow, looking over with some curiosity.

Surrounded by the apprentices in the center was a guy with yellow hair, sporting a hairstyle that looked like it belonged to someone who knew how to play cards. He sounded humble, but pride was hard to hide on his face: "Oh, it's nothing, I just luckily managed to reach three stars; it's just average, haha."

"Level three! Brother Sato must be the first in our dojo to reach level three, right?"

"So strong."

Frowning, You Xuan searched through his predecessor's memories and finally understood what they were talking about.

The Duelist Star System was a real-time strength assessment indicator adjusted by Kaiba Corporation based on each duelist's battle record registered within their internal system; in other words, the system that appeared in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime.

Normally, the duelist star range spanned from Level One to Level Eight, totaling eight ranks. In the Duel City arc of the DM anime, both the King of Games, Yugi Muto, and Seto Kaiba himself were rated as Level Eight.

However, this also showed the system wasn't absolutely authoritative and sometimes carried personal biases. Take Katsuya Jonouchi, the man Kaiba scornfully called "Scum."

Jonouchi was called by Pegasus the "world's third-best duelist after Yugi and Kaiba," yet in Kaiba Corporation's system rating, he was only Level Two, belonging to the amateur tier.

It was hard to say this didn't include the CEO's personal grudge against Scum.

But that was during the Duel City era. By now, Katsuya Jonouchi had long been adjusted to Level Eight, placing him in the highest tier generally recognized among duelists, known to the world as a "Legendary Duelist."

Meanwhile, CEO Seto Kaiba had very arrogantly adjusted his own rating to Level Ten.

Among duelists existing in the current era, only two Level Tens remained. One was Seto Kaiba himself, and the other was Yugi Muto, who had long since retired from dueling.

This setting existed partly because CEO Kaiba believed he stood a tier above all existing duelists, and partly to signify that Yugi Muto was the only opponent in the world he acknowledged as worthy of rivaling him.

Well, saying "rival" was actually a bit of an exaggeration. As everyone knew, CEO Kaiba had challenged the King of Games, Yugi Muto, countless times throughout his life, yet to this day, he had never tasted a single victory.

As for You Xuan's predecessor, his rating in the system was—

One star.

A fighter jet among noobs.

You Xuan: (ヘ｀;)

Obviously, because his predecessor was terrible yet loved to play, frequently going to the arenas under Kaiba Group to play matched games but winning few and losing many, his star rating had naturally plummeted straight to the abyssal bottom over time.

For ordinary people to raise their star rating, they had to play matched games in the arena, but arena matching seemed to cap out at four stars as the limit; to rise further, one had to participate in public tournaments.

Only then did he remember that when he previously searched for the Duel Academy enrollment requirements, there seemed to be a rule stating that a duelist certified by Kaiba Corporation needed to be at least Level Three or above.

In this system, Levels Seven and Eight were either Legendary Duelists or top-tier experts in the professional circle. Most professional players were Level Six, with a minority of lower-tier pros at Level Five.

Most amateur duelists clustered at Level Two. Level One was for noobs below average, while Level Three already counted as an expert.

Therefore, the Duel Academy's enrollment requirement of three stars or above was actually quite high.

But this was only natural. At this stage, duel education in this world was still in its infancy, with not many school options available. And this academy run by Kaiba was the cream of the crop; its quality and the massive resources invested were obvious to all.

Even in the opening of the GX anime, the principal mentioned during his school-wide speech that the academy's admissions were strict, so every student present was an elite. The background students in the anime academy, even the bottom-feeders in the Osiris Red dormitory, were theoretically higher in skill than most duelists outside.

"So to get into the academy, I have to grind for points first?" You Xuan's mouth twitched.

The apprentice surrounded by everyone right now was named Sato Koji, already the big brother of this small dojo. It seemed he got lucky this week and reached three stars, so everyone was congratulating him one after another.

Since You Xuan was currently looking for someone to duel, thinking of this, he decided he might as well challenge the big brother.

Although the background extras appearing in the anime seemed very weak, You Xuan knew well that true knowledge comes from practice. One couldn't casually draw conclusions based on stereotypes without personal testing.

It was perfect for testing the strength of duelists in this world.

The dojo naturally encouraged students to frequently challenge each other for sparring matches. Since Sato had just gained a huge boost in rank and was in a joyful mood, seeing a duel challenge naturally meant he had no reason to refuse.

Once the students scattered around the dojo heard there was a match to watch, they immediately gathered around the duel field to spectate.

"For real? That You Xuan? Challenging Brother Sato?"

"Didn't he only have one star? Isn't this just asking to be crushed?"

While the students giggled nearby, the two combatants had already taken their positions on opposite sides of the venue.

Sato Koji was currently relaxed in mind. Having gained rank and now returning to the dojo to duel, looking at this crowd of junior brothers gave him a feeling of overlooking all the small mountains, brimming with pride.

He now felt somewhat like a grandmaster expert coming to guide the juniors. Playing this duel was no longer for sparring or improvement; on one hand, it was to offer some guidance to the juniors, and on the other, it was to satisfy his need to show off and display his prowess before his junior brothers.

Hmm, the latter might be slightly more dominant.

Otherwise what?

He, a Level Three big shot, facing a one-star junior brother; could he possibly flip over and lose?

Both duel disks unfolded, and each drew five cards into their hands.

"Duel!" x2

[You Xuan, LP 4000]

[Koji, LP 4000]

"I'll go first. Draw."

You Xuan drew a card from his deck.

In the anime, this was still an era where the first player could draw a card. In his previous life, the first player hadn't been able to draw for many years.

Going first or second was usually decided randomly by both duel disks, though the person who got the first turn could choose to forfeit it.

Sweeping his eyes over the initial six cards, he nodded slightly. Although it couldn't be called a "perfect hand," it was passable.

"First, this card..."

He pulled out the first card and inserted it into the duel disk.

"Pay 1000 Life Points to activate the Spell Card from my hand - Mischievous Twins!"

[You Xuan, LP 4000 → LP 3000]

As the card was inserted, a 3D projection of the green Spell Card appeared before You Xuan. Two little demons, one red and one blue, flew out, with the numbers "1" and "2" hovering above their heads respectively.

"The effect of this card allows me to make you randomly discard one card from your hand, and then you choose another card from your hand to discard."

A simple and brutal hand-destroying heavy weapon from early tournaments. A violent one-for-two trade; playing it immediately reduced the opponent's opening hand by two.

One could imagine that such a vicious thing received the same treatment as Pot of Greed; since You Xuan started playing cards, it had always been a banned card serving a life sentence. So despite playing for so many years, this was the first time he had personally played such a thing.

The demons flew out and, without saying a word, snatched a card right out of Koji's hand, as if saying, "Hand it over."

Koji frowned slightly, then selected another card himself and sent it to the Graveyard.

Then, without any further actions, You Xuan elegantly drew three cards from his hand—

—Set three, pass.

Next, he made a gesture inviting the other to proceed.

Alright, now it's your turn to play Yu-Gi-Oh!

Any actual card gamer facing those three dark face-down backrow cards at this moment should already be feeling the hellish aura and breaking out in a cold sweat, but as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss; duelists in this sunny environment of the anime were completely unaware of the severity of the problem.

Koji even maintained that gentle, big-brother-like smile, speaking in a guiding tone: "Didn't you draw any Monster Cards on your first turn? Junior brother, when constructing your deck, you must pay attention to the reasonable balance between Monsters and Spell/Trap cards.

Well then, my turn, draw!"

"Wait."

You Xuan interrupted him, waving his hand broadly.

"The moment you draw a card, a Trap has triggered. Open face-down card, Trap Card - Drop Off!

Activate during the opponent's Draw Phase; send the card they just drew directly to the Graveyard."

Koji: "!"

He hesitated for a moment, then sent this card he had just drawn and not yet warmed up to the duel disk's Graveyard zone. Looking down at his hand again, he finally began to realize something was wrong.

Up to this point, neither side had summoned a single monster; it seemed the duel hadn't even truly started, yet Koji's opening hand of six cards was already halved, leaving him with only three.

Moreover, he faced an even more painful problem.

That was, damn it, he had no monsters in his hand either!

Of the two cards discarded by Twin Mischievous Demons, one was a low-level monster, and the one just dropped by Drop Off was another. Now with only three cards total in hand, he didn't have a single summonable monster.

But it didn't matter.

"Tch, in that case, I'll activate a Spell Card from my hand—"

Koji waved his hand greatly, directly playing another card from his remaining three.

Monster Reborn!

A revival Spell that could bring back one monster from the Graveyard; from the DM to the GX era, whether in reality or the anime, it was a highly sought-after god-card for turning the tide.

"I will use Monster Reborn to revive this guy from the Graveyard, Jirai Gumo, in Attack Position!"

This time, what appeared was a warrior clad in green armor holding a great sword, standing majestically in the center of the field, becoming the first monster to appear in this duel.

[Jirai Gumo, ATK 1600]

Actually, if he had a choice, Koji certainly wouldn't want to use a precious Monster Reborn to revive such a small fry, but there was no help for it; he truly had no other cards to play. In a duel, hesitation leads to defeat; he had to seize the opportunity to establish an offensive rhythm.

"Open face-down card - Bottomless Trap Hole." You Xuan calmly flipped over one of his backrow cards. "When your opponent Summons a monster(s) with 1500 or more ATK: Destroy that monster(s), and if you do, banish it."

Thus, the Jirai Gumo who had consumed one Monster Reborn to appear hadn't even steadied his footing before stepping directly into a dark hole that opened beneath his feet, falling in with a boom and exploding into a cloud of smoke, vanishing without a trace.

Koji: "."

With only two cards left in hand and the field still completely blank.

Whether it was an illusion or not.

Sato Koji seemed to feel his blood pressure starting to rise.

(End of Chapter)