"Here we go! Today let's play 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Link World Online'!"
The speaker is "Miss Yue Hua," one of the streamers who recently joined the 'Link World Online' crowd.
However, this opening line isn't her original creation. It's said that anyone doing card game videos nowadays starts with this standard format. Everyone also shares a similar game commentary style, especially enjoying saying classic lines like "But it seems irrelevant" and "Our old XX~."
This format seems to have spread from the video of a certain pillar-level content creator in the card game community. Because their work is of exceptionally high quality, it has influenced creators who entered the game later to some extent...
Moreover, ever since Linked World opened its servers, it's attracted many other streamers to join. Due to the game's outstanding quality and revolutionary high realism, even players and streamers who previously weren't familiar with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards have switched to learning how to play.
It just so happens that Linked World's 1.0 version starts from the early stage of the animation. The duel rules right now aren't as strict, but compared to later stages, they're very simple, with no novel summon methods or complicated plays. It's extremely friendly for newcomers wanting to get into the game.
"Miss Yue Hua" is a typical representative preparing to transition from a spectator to a player... bringing with her a massive live stream audience of millions.
"Finally, K Consortium released this game after a five-year delay. Initially, we thought the consortium's promotional hype wouldn't live up to it, and the game would be hard to deliver, but it actually went online this time.
This makes Final Fantasy seem even more hardcore, as they delayed for ten years. I was just a clueless little girl when I first heard about Final Fantasy XV, and by the time it officially released, I had become the get-ahead Overlord hanging out with you guys..."
Although it's still quite early, the live stream comments were already rolling.
"Hahaha here to watch Yue Sister play cards!"
"Here to see noob Yue Sister get rekt by NPCs."
"What's happening? Is Yue Sister in a queue?"
"Is it that NPC called Youyu? I've heard about it, seems like they're supposedly a protagonist-level figure."
"What? Shouldn't the DM's protagonist be Yugi?"
"Yes, but that's in the animation. This is an online game. Yugi could just be the protagonist of the 1.0 version, but this Youyu might be an original protagonist spanning the next few versions..."
Miss Yue Hua also began explaining: "That's right, today we're going to meet the rumored NPC in the forums. Morning queues are somewhat shorter, plus I have a membership for the member lane, so I should get through quickly..."
"Yue Sister OP!"
"Damn, even queueing requires a membership, they should learn from the penguins..."
The speed with membership was indeed different. Miss Yue Hua and her viewers were chatting while queueing, and soon they reached the counter.
Seeing what was in front of her, Miss Yue Hua's eyes lit up instantly—
—Wow! He's actually kinda handsome!
She previously thought the forum screenshots were all beauty filters—at least her live stream was using beauty tech enough to warp space, yet she discovered the forum images seemed untouched.
The NPC called Youyu, looked as if he was photoshopped to perfection!
Miss Yue Hua daydreamed for a moment until Youyu smiled gently and asked, "May I ask, dear customer, what do you plan to buy?"
Only then did Miss Yue Hua snap back to reality.
Right! I'm not here for eye candy, I'm here to shop, aren't I?
So she quickly clicked open the personal store option and started selecting card combinations earnestly.
Though she was a big streamer, her understanding of card games was possibly no better than the random NPCs'.
But as a player, her advantage lay in having guides to refer to. Can't build a deck? Just go to the forums to copy guides and card lists. There's already a compiled list by experts detailing the cheapest and easiest starter decks; she only had to exchange cards according to the list... like a lazy student copying from the smart one's homework.
Opening packs from the System Card Pool has too much randomness, likely only yielding cards related to your starter deck's type, attribute, or series, or otherwise mostly useless unrelated General Cards.
Beginner's Crystal Stones are quite limited; investing heavily in them isn't rewarding. It's better to wait until after completing tasks and obtaining more promising series cards to open packs later.
Therefore, just a little calculation makes it clear that initially buying cards from Youyu with Crystal Stones is absolutely more cost-effective than directly investing in the card pool.
Miss Yue Hua meticulously selected cards one by one from the forum's copied card list, completely ignoring the flood of experts' comments in the chat.
"Gosh, what's the use of that one? That card's a solid waste, you should exchange it for this one instead."
"Damn, there's XXX! Why not exchange for XXX?"
"Streamer so noob..."
But Miss Yue Hua wasn't a newcomer to streaming; wherever she went, wherever the zone, there'd always be experts pointing things out. By now, she learned to ignore them.
Unexpectedly, after just selecting two cards, Miss Yue Hua suddenly noticed a notification, "Youyu's affection for you +5."
"!"
Miss Yue Hua was utterly stunned.
Affection +5? Was she seeing things!?
The forums all said this NPC's affection was terribly hard to increase, requiring much effort to just gain a single point!
Youyu looked at her, smiling gently, "Very well, your choices are interesting, it seems you're also a formidable Duelist. I look forward to crossing paths with you in Duel City.
Oh, and this card might be useful to you; consider it a gift."
There's even a gift!
Miss Yue Hua quickly accepted it and immediately checked the card.
An "Upstart Goblin."
However, this newbie streamer who had just started was still staring blankly at the effect of "Draw a card and your opponent recovers 1000 LP"... It seemed kind of useless?
So she turned around and asked the card players in her chat, "Is this card useful?"
"Divine Card!" Someone immediately replied.
"It helps cycle through cards and compresses the deck space, very useful!"
"Forbidden Card."
"Forbidden Card +1."
"The cloud player above is hilarious, since when did Upstart Goblin become a forbidden card?"
"Everything's part of the forbidden card series."
"... But U1S1, this NPC is seriously awesome!"
"And super handsome!"
"Could he be interested in our sister Yue?"
"Sister Yue, just marry him already..."
Although there were signs of a debate brewing among trolls in the chat, overall, Miss Yue Hua seemed to understand—this card was very useful!
"Thanks!" She quickly thanked with delight.
"No problem." Youyu smiled and waved, "If you need anything, just come back anytime, I'll try to accommodate."
"Okay!"
Miss Yue Hua happily skipped away with her unexpected treasure from today.
She was practically bursting with joy.
As she was leaving, the chat continued buzzing: "Wow, how can Sister Yue stay so calm? He's practically confessed!"
"Listen to this nonsense..."
"Shush, Sister Yue declared that she wants to be the Duel King's woman, a man would just get in the way."
The players waiting in line caught sight of the Upstart Goblin card, and their eyes lit up.
Damn, is there really such a good deal?
No one expected that buying a card could trigger a hidden task. The players at the back craned their necks to see how the girl in front activated it.
Someone immediately inquired about what she bought, and then they followed suit, running to buy the same card from Youyu.
The result...
...Of course nothing happened.
One player got anxious and not-so-subtly hinted: "Think carefully, is there anything you want to say to me?"
Youyu thought carefully, "...Yes."
The player was thrilled, "What is it?"
"After you've bought the card, please step aside and don't block the other people in line."
Player: "..."
Youyu chuckled inwardly.
Hah, did you think he gives out this card randomly?
From the players' perspective, it might seem like he's arbitrarily picking lucky players, but it's not so.
This "Miss Yue Hua" was somewhat familiar to him; when he had time in his past life, he would check out her livestreams. Initially, she was a total newbie, with most viewers tuning in for some funny entertainment, everyone laughing as they watched the streamer hilariously fumble her way through games.
But over time, she became more adept at the game and began venturing into the competitive scene. Youyu recalled that later she even secured decent rankings in player tournaments.
...But those were things that happened later.
The reason Youyu chose to focus on her now was clearly not because of her looks, but rather her audience reach.
Knowing some star players with a large following and audience could be advantageous. Through these channels, he could spread messages he wanted out, helping with promotion and maintaining buzz...
In the information age, controlling public opinion is crucial, whether you're right or wrong depends on how loud your voice is.
He has now decided to pay special attention to these backups... er, players, so there are two targets.
One is Miss Yue Hua, to whom he gave an extra gift just now.
As for the other one...
Youyu turned his gaze to Xue Lang, who was in his shop, wearing a servant's outfit and sweating while mopping the floor.
Xue Lang wiped his sweat, then proudly held his head high, looking at the players outside queuing up.
Ha! I've managed to sneak in here to be an assistant for Youyu!
Are you all jealous?