What did he just say?
Elemental Hero?
Were there already Elemental Heroes during the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM era?
Xue Lang quickly rubbed his eyes, shocked as he watched the hero in red and gold armor, with a flowing cape, release a scorching impact with his bare hands. The muscular guy opposite had his LP reduced to zero in an instant due to the heatwave.
There's no way this is wrong.
Even if he had misheard earlier due to his mental lapse, Xue Lang now recognized the awe-inspiring Hero Monster on the field—Elemental Hero Nova Master, an Elemental Hero that never appeared in the anime or manga but was originally created in the OCG Physical Card.
But now it's the era of Yu-Gi-Oh! DM! Aren't the Elemental Heroes a series that only became popular during the GX period?
Could it be that... the Elemental Hero series was actually released at this time, but the main characters in the anime just never happened to encounter them?
That seems to be the only explanation.
Any kid with some understanding of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series should know that the most famous user of the Elemental Hero Deck throughout the series is Yuki Judai, the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. In the hearts of many players and viewers, Judai is almost synonymous with 'Hero' in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and seeing a Hero Deck would naturally lead them to think of this character first.
Naturally, this was Xue Lang's immediate reaction as well.
At this point in time, since it's still early in the DM era, there should be no appearance of Judai in the story.
Could this overly handsome NPC in front of him be related in some way to Yuki Judai?
Like... could he be Judai's dad, who never had the chance to appear?
...Impossible!
Xue Lang instantly forced himself to dismiss such unrealistic thoughts.
Key character, definitely a key character!
Having years of experience battling in highly skill-intensive games like Zuma, Lianliankan, and Dressing-Up Mountain, Xue Lang instantly believed he had encountered a key NPC in the game!
Could he trigger a hidden quest?
Xue Lang immediately felt a rush of excitement.
According to the game's descriptions, Linked World is supposed to be a game with extremely high freedom. As quoted from the director: "We hope players see the game as a brand-new world because even our development team can't fully control the storyline. We think that will be one of the game's highlights."
While the phrase "even the development team can't control it" is often viewed by many as the developers' exaggerated pitch, there's no doubt that the game's high degree of freedom and abundant hidden quests are undeniable.
...
Of course, Youyu also noticed Xue Lang's presence.
As mentioned before, players all have their ID above their heads. By design, NPCs can't see the IDs, thus serving as a general means for players to identify each other.
However, Youyu is not an ordinary NPC; with his built-in panel, he can see player IDs and use this to quickly identify player identities from the crowd.
Today's round of duels was over, and after the cheering from the onlookers, most of them dispersed. Youyu was pondering how to approach this player when unexpectedly, the player enthusiastically ran over with a hopeful expression.
Youyu thought for a moment, recalling the typical opening lines of an online game NPC.
"You're a new face. Are you a Duelist who just arrived?" he started.
Xue Lang quickly nodded.
"I see, could you help me with something?"
Normally, making a request like this to a stranger you're meeting for the first time would only get you a weird look, as if you're insane.
Yet players are such a strange species.
Upon hearing this, Xue Lang's eyes lit up, nodding eagerly like a pecking chick, "Yes, yes! Absolutely no problem."
[Would you like to issue a task to the player Xue Lang?]
Here it comes, as expected.
At this moment, Youyu deeply appreciated that his elementary school teachers weren't lying: reading more books indeed has its benefits. Thanks to his wide array of reading before the transmigration, including everything from "becoming an NPC" to all sorts of cliché web novels, he understood the setup routines inside out.
Perhaps because his built-in panel can interact with the players' game panels, he might be the only NPC in the entire Linked World capable of autonomously editing and issuing tasks to players.
He could freely edit the specific content and rewards of the task, easily using this task system to get players to run errands for him with incentives.
Even if he doesn't fear being despised by players, he could edit the task board with bizarre requests like "run around naked" or "bark like a dog" or even "stick your butt up in the air"...
Ahem, of course, being a proper NPC, Youyu wouldn't issue such silly tasks.
The task rewards usually available are special items, experience points for leveling up, and Crystal Stones for drawing card packs from the System Card Pool.
Of course, he could also choose to use cards directly as task rewards.
However, if he chooses items, Crystal Stones, or cards as rewards, they must come from Youyu himself. In other words, if he uses Crystal Stones as rewards for players, his inventory of Crystal Stones would decrease.
The same goes for cards. He can only offer up his own cards as rewards for players.
Youyu thought it through, deciding that he should keep the useful cards for himself. Only those he couldn't use or those exceeding three copies in his Deck would be suitable as rewards to give away.
(Note: According to Yu-Gi-Oh! rules, a Deck can have a maximum of three copies of the same card.)
As for experience points, they cannot be deducted from himself, but there's a daily limit to the experience points he can issue as an NPC. This limit is related to his level and title status.
The so-called title status refers to the honors attained in various dueling competitions. For example, Jonouchi is the runner-up of the Duelist Kingdom, and Muto Yugi is the champion and the sole designated Duel King.
If he could possess a unique title like Duel King as Yugi does, the daily limit for issuing experience points would likely be quite substantial.
Emmmm..... definitely another familiar setting.
But such a setting seems quite reasonable. Otherwise, if issuing experience points would demote him, Youyu would feel he could just repeatedly bounce around between level 1 and level 2, repeatedly farming the Crystal Stone rewards given on level-up...
Having deliberated, Youyu issued the first task he edited for the player.
"I'm missing a 'Fusion' Magic Card here," he said, "Can you help me find a 'Fusion'?"