With his initial deck finalized, Yugen naturally felt his hands itching to duel.
No card game veteran, having just completed a new deck, would ever not want to test its quality.
So, for him, the first target was, of course, to head straight to the dojo his predecessor had belonged to, ready to randomly find a fellow dojo member to bring him the joy of a duel.
Entering the dojo, he immediately saw a group of students gathered, making a commotion.
"As expected of Brother Sato, he actually managed to break through!"
Yugen raised an eyebrow, looking over with curiosity.
The blonde man surrounded by the apprentices had a hairstyle that suggested he might be good at card games. He was listening modestly, but a smug expression was hard to hide on his face: "Oh, it's nothing, nothing at all. Just lucky to hit three stars, it's quite normal, haha."
"Level three! Brother Sato must be the first one in our dojo to reach level three, right?"
"So strong!"
Yugen frowned and searched through his predecessor's memories, finally understanding what they were talking about.
The Duelist Star Rank system was a real-time strength assessment index adjusted by Kaiba Corporation based on each duelist's registered battle records in the company's system. It was the same system that appeared in the "Yu-Gi-Oh! DM" anime.
Normally, a duelist's Star Rank ranged from Level 1 to Level 8, with a total of eight levels. In the "Duelist Kingdom" arc of the DM anime, both the King of Games Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba himself were rated as Level 8.
However, it was also evident that this system wasn't absolutely authoritative; sometimes, it carried a bit of personal bias. Take Jonouchi Katsuya, for example, scornfully referred to as "Common Bone" by Kaiba.
Jonouchi was called "the world's third best duelist after Yugi and Kaiba" by Pegasus, yet in Kaiba Corporation's system evaluation, he was only Level 2, considered an amateur.
It's hard to say that this didn't include the CEO's personal animosity towards the "Common Bone."
But that was a matter from the Duelist Kingdom era. Now, Jonouchi Katsuya had long been adjusted to Level 8, the highest tier among duelists in the conventional sense, and was referred to by the world as a "Legendary Duelist."
Meanwhile, CEO Seto Kaiba, being quite arrogant, adjusted himself to Level 10.
At that time, there were only two Level 10 duelists: Seto Kaiba himself, and the long-retired Yugi Muto, who had sealed his cards.
This setup, on one hand, was because CEO Kaiba believed he was a tier above all existing duelists, and it also signified that Yugi Muto was the only opponent in the world he acknowledged as being worthy of rivalling him.
Well, "rival" might even be a slight overstatement. Because it was common knowledge that throughout his life, CEO Kaiba had dueled the King of Games Yugi Muto countless times, yet to this day, he had not secured a single victory.
And Yugen's predecessor's rating in the system?
One star.
He was a fighter jet among the weaklings.
Yugen: (ヘ`;)
Clearly, it was because his predecessor was both terrible and addicted to playing. He frequently played ranked matches in Kaiba Corporation's arenas, but with many more losses than wins, his Star Rank naturally plummeted to the bottom.
To increase one's Star Rank, a duelist typically had to play ranked matches in the arena. However, arena ranked matches seemed to be capped at four stars at most. To advance further, one had to participate in public tournaments.
He then remembered that when he searched for Duel Academy admission requirements earlier, there was a rule stating that a Kaiba Corporation-certified duelist's Star Rank had to be at least Level 3 or higher.
In this system, Level 7 and 8 duelists were either legendary duelists or top-tier professional masters. Most professional players were Level 6, with a few lower-tier professionals at Level 5.
Amateur duelists mostly congregated at Level 2. Level 1 indicated a below-average beginner, while Level 3 was considered a skilled player.
Therefore, the Duel Academy's admission requirement of three stars or higher was actually quite demanding.
But this was to be expected. At this stage, dueling education in this world was still in its nascent phase, and school options weren't particularly numerous. Kaiba's academy, in particular, was the pinnacle among them, with its quality and massive resource investment being evident.
In the GX anime's prelude, during the principal's speech to the entire school, he also mentioned the academy's stringent admission criteria, which meant all students there were elites. In the anime, even the background students in the academy, or even the lowest-ranking "slacker" students in the Slifer Red dorm, theoretically possessed a higher skill level than most duelists outside.
"So, to get into the academy, I have to rank up first, huh?" Yugen's mouth twitched.
The apprentice currently surrounded by the crowd was named Sato Koji, already the "big brother" in this small dojo. It seemed he had been lucky this week to reach three stars, and everyone was eagerly congratulating him.
Yugen happened to be looking for someone to duel at this moment, and with that thought, he decided to just challenge the "big brother" for a try.
Although the background characters who appeared in the anime seemed extremely weak, Yugen knew the principle that only practice leads to true understanding. He couldn't rely on preconceived notions without personally testing them.
It was a good chance to test the strength of duelists in this world.
The dojo inherently encouraged students to frequently duel and spar. Sato, having just ranked up, was in a good mood. Seeing a duel challenge, there was no reason for him to refuse.
The apprentices scattered throughout the dojo, hearing that there was a duel to watch, immediately gathered around the dueling arena to spectate.
"Really? That Yugen? Challenging Brother Sato?"
"I remember he's only one star? Isn't this just asking for trouble?"
The apprentices grinned on the sidelines, while the two combatants had already taken their positions at opposite ends of the arena.
Sato Koji's mindset was relaxed at this moment. Having ranked up and now back at the dojo accepting a duel, he looked at the group of junior apprentices with a sense of proud oversight.
He felt very much like a grandmaster instructing a junior. Playing this duel wasn't for sparring improvement; on one hand, it was to guide a junior, and on the other, it was to satisfy his need to show off and impress his junior apprentices.
Hmm, the latter might have been slightly more dominant.
Why not?
He, a three-star bigshot, against a one-star apprentice. Could he possibly lose?
The two duel disks activated, and each drew five cards into their hands.
"Duel!" x2
[Yugen, LP 4000]
[Koji, LP 4000]
"I'll go first. Draw."
Yugen drew a card from his deck.
In the anime, it was still an era where the first player could draw a card. In his previous life, for many years, the first player couldn't draw.
Going first or second was usually determined randomly by the duel disks, but the player who got the first turn could also choose to forgo it.
Scanning the six cards in his hand, he couldn't help but nod slightly. Although it wasn't a "perfect hand," it was decent.
"First, this card."
He drew the first card and inserted it into his duel disk.
"I pay 1000 Life Points to activate the Spell Card - Delinquent Duo from my hand!"
[Yugen, LP 4000 → LP 3000]
As the card was inserted, the holographic projection of the green Spell Card materialized in front of Yugen. Two small devils, one red and one blue, flew out side-by-side, each with a number "1" and "2" floating above their heads respectively.
"This card's effect allows my opponent to randomly discard one card from their hand, and then discard one more card of their choice from their hand."
This was a brutal heavy-hitter of the "Hand Destruction" deck from the original tournaments. A violent 1-for-2, playing it directly reduced the opponent's hand by two.
It was imaginable that such a brutal card, like Pot of Greed, received the same treatment; ever since Yugen started playing card games, it had been a permanently banned card. So, after playing cards for so many years, this was the first time he had personally played such a card.
The devils flew out, unceremoniously snatching a card from Koji's hand, as if saying, "Give it up."
Koji frowned, then voluntarily discarded another card to the Graveyard.
Next, Yugen performed no further actions, simply elegantly setting three cards from his hand—
—After setting three, he passed his turn.
Then he made a welcoming gesture.
Alright, now it's your turn to play Yu-Gi-Oh.
Any real card game veteran at this point, facing those three dark face-down cards, would already be feeling the "Yin" aura and breaking out in a cold sweat. However, due to the saying "ignorance is bliss," duelists in this "sunny" anime environment were completely unaware of the seriousness of the problem.
Koji even maintained that kind and warm senior-apprentice smile, saying with an instructive tone: "Couldn't draw a monster card on your first turn? Junior, when building your deck, you should pay attention to the proper balance of monsters, spells, and traps."
"Alright, my turn. Draw!"
"Wait a moment."
Yugen interrupted him, waving his hand.
"The moment you drew, a Trap Card activated. I flip my set card, Trap Card - Drop Off!
Activated during the opponent's Draw Phase, it sends the card drawn by the opponent directly to the Graveyard."
Koji: "!"
He hesitated for a moment, then sent the card he had just drawn, which had not even been warmed yet, to his duel disk's Graveyard zone. He then lowered his head to look at his hand, finally starting to realize something was wrong.
Up to this point, neither side had played a single monster; it was as if the duel hadn't even truly begun. Yet, half of Koji's initial six cards were already gone, leaving only three.
And he faced an even more irritating problem.
That is, he had no damn monsters in his hand.
The two cards discarded by Delinquent Duo included one low-level monster, and the card he just dropped was another. Now he only had three cards total in his hand, and not a single monster he could play.
But it was okay.
"Alright, in that case, I'll activate a Spell Card from my hand—"
Koji waved his hand, directly picking out another card from his remaining three.
Monster Reborn!
A powerful revival Spell Card that could revive a monster from the Graveyard, from the DM to GX era, it was a highly sought-after game-changing god card, both in real life and the anime.
"I will use Monster Reborn to revive this guy, Warrior of Zera, in Attack Position!"
Appearing this time was a warrior in green armor holding a great sword, standing majestically in the center of the field, becoming the first monster to appear in this duel.
[Warrior of Zera, ATK 1600]
Actually, if Koji had a choice, he definitely wouldn't want to use a precious Monster Reborn to revive such a weak monster, but there was no other way; he literally had no cards he could play. In a duel, hesitation leads to defeat, and he had to seize the opportunity to launch an offensive.
"I flip my set card - Bottomless Trap Hole." Yugen calmly flipped over a face-down card. "When the opponent summons a monster with 1500 or more ATK, that monster is destroyed and banished."
So, the Warrior of Zera, who had just been revived with a costly Monster Reborn, hadn't even found its footing before it stepped into a gaping black hole that opened beneath its feet, falling with a boom and exploding into a puff of smoke, vanishing without a trace.
Koji: "."
Only two cards remained in his hand, and his field was still empty.
He didn't know if it was an illusion.
Sato Koji seemed to feel his blood pressure beginning to rise.