Chapter 5

Fujiki You Xuan began to discover the joy of playing cards in this different world.

However, he soon realized that happiness in the world must be conserved after all. Because he started to be happy, the interest of his fellow apprentices in the dojo in dueling seemed to start fading away.

In just three short days, no one was willing to duel him anymore.

Fujiki You Xuan could only look up at the sky and let out a faint sigh.

Now he seemed to understand a little why Yugi Mutou said he couldn't make any friends before meeting the Pharaoh. Indeed, people from the Underworld don't deserve friends.

Later, the matter even alarmed the dojo master.

The dojo master was named Takeuchi Yingliu, and it was said that in his youth, he was once in the top 32 of the town's duel tournament. Master Takeuchi heard that one of his apprentices had recently made rapid progress in dueling skills, defeating his proudest disciple in one fell swoop, and had even made the other apprentices so depressed over the past three days that no one was willing to duel him anymore.

Hearing this, Master Takeuchi immediately felt he had to step in.

He immediately gathered all the apprentices, first praising Fujiki You Xuan for his diligent study and rapid progress, and then criticizing the negative attitude of the other apprentices.

The master lectured, saying that dueling and sparring were meant for improvement, and that a strong opponent was clearly a good thing. Otherwise, if you just bully the weak all day, beating up the elderly in the Nanshan nursing home and kicking the children in the Beihai kindergarten, what would that achieve?

The apprentices were lectured into silence, not daring to make a sound.

"Enough."

The master waved his hand and beckoned to Fujiki You Xuan with a smile.

"Since they aren't willing to come, I'll personally test how much you've improved, and I can also give you some pointers on your deck."

Having finally found someone willing to duel him, Fujiki You Xuan, who still had several deck adjustments he wanted to test, naturally accepted happily.

Alright, so today is a duel against the master.

The master was very cool, directly giving the first move to Fujiki You Xuan, showing the demeanor of an expert. Fujiki You Xuan didn't stand on ceremony and took the first move.

He started by paying 1,000 LP and revealing the Spell Card "Confiscation." This familiar opening made the apprentices, who had suffered enough over the past three days, tremble all over, almost suffering from PTSD.

Then, the effect of Confiscation was activated.

Present? Let me see your hand?

Fujiki You Xuan glanced at it, immediately set his eyes on the "Monster Reborn" in the master's hand, and discarded it. Then he Normal Summoned "Green Gadget," activating its effect to search for a "Red Gadget" from his deck upon a successful summon. He then set three cards in his back row and coolly ended his turn.

Now it was the master's turn. The master directly played "Gearfried the Iron Knight," a Level 4 monster with 1800 ATK, which was very cool. But it was useless, because before the Iron Knight could even stand firm, it fell into a "Trap Hole" Fujiki You Xuan had set and was sent to the Underworld.

【Trap Hole: Destroys a monster when it is successfully summoned with 1000 or more ATK.】

But the master was worthy of being a master; he still had moves. Although his Normal Summon for the turn was gone, he activated the effect of "Rock Spirit" in his hand, which could be Special Summoned by banishing an Earth-attribute monster from his Graveyard. He banished the Iron Knight from his Graveyard and jumped the Rock Spirit onto the field.

Master Takeuchi then waved his hand and attacked the Green Gadget with the Rock Spirit. But Fujiki You Xuan snapped his fingers, and a bright red trap card in his back row was flipped open.

I directly activate the Sublime Force of Hano!

【Mirror Force: When the opponent declares an attack, destroy all Attack Position monsters on the opponent's field.】

Master Takeuchi: "."

Stepping on two traps in a row, the master had no choice but to pass his turn.

Then it was Fujiki You Xuan's turn again. Fujiki You Xuan looked at the card he drew and directly played "Twin Elves." He paid 1,000 LP, and the opponent discarded two more cards.

Master Takeuchi looked down at his hand, which had instantly evaporated to only one card, and fell into deep contemplation about life.

Fujiki You Xuan then summoned the "Red Gadget" he had searched for last turn, and the Red Gadget's effect allowed him to search for a "Yellow Gadget" from his deck upon a successful summon. In the Battle Phase, the Red Gadget and Green Gadget attacked directly, taking away 2,700 of the master's LP.

This wasn't even the end. In the End Phase, he waved his hand and flipped open another set card.

【Seal of Time】

【Trap/Effect: Skip the Draw Phase of the opponent's next turn.】

You might not believe it, but this heaven-defying Underworld card was also a card used by the King of Games, Yugi Mutou. It was printed back when Dark Yugi was dueling the Ghouls' fake card seller who used "Exodia the Forbidden One" in Battle City.

With his hand evaporated and his Draw Phase directly cut off by the Crimson King, Master Takeuchi looked at his empty field, as clean as a blank sheet of paper, and then at the two Gadgets on the opponent's field, and couldn't help but seriously consider the feasibility of a physical duel.

"."

One minute later.

With his LP at zero, the dojo master stepped off the duel field, looked up at the sky, and took a deep breath.

He began to reflect on why he had been so foolish as to duel such an Underworld creature.

The watching apprentices were even more sorrowful.

Even the master had fallen!

In fact, before this duel started, they still had expectations for the result. Everyone felt, more or less, that although they were very powerless when facing this "Underworld guy," feeling a sense of frustration where they couldn't use their strength or play their cards, that was mostly because their own skills were not refined enough. If he ran into an expert, the result would surely be different.

However, the reality was that the master started, the master attacked, and the master also said "GG."

The process was almost exactly the same as the opening each of them had faced when dueling Fujiki You Xuan over the past few days!

For them, this was simply a shock to their values, a collapse of their worldview, and they felt endless confusion and deep worry about the dark future of the entire Duel Realm, while similar thoughts flashed through their minds—

—The invincible master lost to an autistic person who takes revenge on society; why would I have such a dream?

In fact, the deck-building strategy Fujiki You Xuan was testing this time was very simple: a combination of traditional early-game Trap Beat and hand destruction.

Friends who played Yu-Gi-Oh in the early years all know that in that era, when monster effects were far less powerful than they are today and the deck's ability to operate and expand was far less exaggerated, powerful Spells and Traps occupied a very important position in mainstream decks.

The Red, Green, and Yellow Gadgets all had the effect of searching for each other to replenish the hand upon summoning, which could fill up ammunition to prevent running out of monsters, while powerful traps and spells could continuously break down the opponent's resources. As the resource gap between the two sides continued to widen, it naturally became impossible to play.

But Fujiki You Xuan still humbly asked for advice: "Master, what do you think of my deck? Is there anything else you can give me pointers on?"

Master Takeuchi only then recovered from his contemplation of life and gave him a meaningful look. Strange to say, he was clearly a handsome and sunny young man, but now his heart would shudder whenever he saw this face.

Pointers? Heh, what pointers could I possibly give?

You're so awesome, you should be the one giving me pointers.

Honestly, if he didn't feel that his old face couldn't hold up, he actually really had this thought in his heart.

He wanted to learn dueling from Fujiki You Xuan.

Especially he wanted to learn this kind of dueling that could bring "smiles" to people.

"I have nothing left to teach you."

Master Takeuchi sighed and said somewhat powerlessly.

"By the way, Teacher, I remembered there is one more thing I'd like to ask of you," Fujiki You Xuan said.

"What is it?"

"I want to sign up for the Duel Academy entrance exam," Fujiki You Xuan said, "I wanted to ask if I could apply for the dojo's subsidy."

(End of chapter)