"I lost..."
Asuka let out a long sigh.
Although she felt a bit defeated, she wasn't someone who couldn't accept losing. Her opponent was completely ahead in terms of trap utilization, disrupting her dueling pace, and field control.
She lost convincingly; there was nothing more to say.
"You won." Asuka stood up and said, "But I won't give up because of this. In the next three years, I'll strive to become stronger and then challenge you again."
Yugen almost wanted to say, sure, sure, then next time let's double the credits, thanks for your patronage...
Hmm, but seeing the mood right now doesn't seem suitable. Maybe leave it for next time during the duel.
Easily earning ten more credits, he wouldn't mind having more hands like this.
Nakamura from the student council cautiously appeared at this time: "Um... so now, Yugen, who will you vote for?"
Yugen suddenly remembered. Oh right, today's duel was initially for this election, not for his credits...
He didn't care who he voted for anyway; he hadn't been engaged in this event from the start. But Asuka spoke up before him: "Vote for Senior Sister Hyuga; she needs this vote more than I do."
"Don't be ridiculous." Little Hinoaka Seika, standing outside the arena with her arms crossed, looked sideways awkwardly, pouting, "After the duel just now, who's left to vote for doesn't matter anymore..."
Asuka: "?"
Little Hinoaka Seika turned around, waving a hand: "Forget it, I'll just quit."
The unexpected development left Asuka a bit bewildered. She hesitated and said, "But my hope is to gain recognition as a duelist, not to..."
Senior Sister Seika paused, rolling her eyes at her: "Fool, what do you think the reason is that I'm choosing to quit?"
"Eh?"
"This is Duel Academy; any title is only meaningful if won through dueling. That's exactly why... I lost to you."
Asuka was speechless for a moment.
When she turned to try looking for the opponent who gave her this profoundly instructive duel, she found he was nowhere to be seen.
It seemed that what he cared about was only the duel itself, with no interest in any subsequent negotiations or the election results.
Asuka: "..."
This guy... might also be a pure duelist.
Meanwhile, nobody noticed that within the surging crowd at the venue, an Osiris Red with a jellyfish head was holding a Duel Disc, looking around: "Huh? Did anyone see where Yugen went? I want to duel with him..."
Also, nobody knew that Little Hinoaka Seika, who actively withdrew from the election and left the venue, sneaked into a corner unnoticed and took out her student terminal, opened the contest interface, and deftly voted for her junior, Asuka Tenjouin.
Then she displayed a satisfied expression.
The so-called "turning black into a fan," probably is something like this.
"..."
As Yugen squeezed out of the venue, he contentedly counted the newly acquired credits while walking, continuing to use the Academy student-specific terminal to check if there were any new cards in stock at the Academy department today.
And then, at a glance, he spotted a newly restocked card.
Chaos Wizard!
The card he had had his eye on since before the entrance exam, only to find it was sold out shortly after completing his enrollment. Finally, today, a new one had suddenly appeared.
Obviously, without hesitation, Yugen directly reserved this Chaos Wizard.
Now with Great Opening and Chaos Wizard, the next world champion card deck he had been envisioning was almost ready for planning.
The "Chaos" theme had consecutively won three world championship titles and held a dominant status in those years. Yugen naturally couldn't remember the whole deck structure; he only recalled the general idea and considered modifying it based on the cards he currently had.
Still missing a few cards he envisioned, but none were particularly rare. He still had quite a bit of money, and the credits he earned during this period exchanged for many Dp points, so buying them from the Academy department should be quick to replenish.
As Yugen was walking, he suddenly heard someone beside him speaking: "Yo, number one."
He stopped in his tracks, looked up, and found out it was none other than the Yellow Dormitory's well-known ordinary Four Operations... ah no, Mitsuzawa Earth.
"A very impressive duel, as expected of the number one." Mitsuzawa greeted him with a smile, "The exchange battle has been going on for a week now, and it seems like only we both maintain a perfect record."
"You're strong too," Yugen exchanged niceties and then asked, "So, do you mean to say that we should try?"
Meanwhile, in his mind, he was calculating, maybe this time we should bet more credits...
But Mitsuzawa shook his head: "No. We haven't been matched up in the list yet, and I'm not ready either. A match with you has to use the strongest deck that's fused with my blood and soul, and that deck isn't complete yet."
Yugen raised an eyebrow. This remark reminded him; he just realized that Mitsuzawa also seemed like a counter-focused player.
In the original work, when he first faced off against Chazz, he saw through Chazz's use of a Fire Attribute deck, so he specifically drew a Water Attribute deck from his so-called "Six Elemental Deck," whose ace monster "Water Dragon" had the effect of reducing all Flame Race and Fire Attribute monsters' attack power to zero, targeting Chazz to the point of questioning life.
When facing Yuki Judai, after some research, he concluded that the Elemental Hero Deck, without fusion, was just a paper tiger. So he printed a "Seal of Demon Exorcism" overnight, banning Judai's Fusion Magic Cards and prohibiting their use for the entire duel.
Yugen sensed a pattern.
Is he a similar type of doppelganger to me?
That "strongest deck designed to counter myself" Mitsuzawa mentioned, could it be...
"Don't worry, number one, soon." Mitsuzawa confidently smiled, "You should know that it won't be long until the first freshman entrance assessment, right?"
Entrance assessment?
Yugen quickly realized it was the event in episode four of the anime. Freshmen need to undergo periodic real combat evaluations, usually pitted against classmates of similar rank within the same dormitory.
But in the original series, through Professor Chronos's manipulation under the table, with the excuse "Judai's ability is too prominent, and an internal war in the Red Dormitory is like fish in a barrel," he arranged for Judai to duel with the top elite of Obelisk Blue, Chazz.
Yeah, of course, Chazz was eventually the one caught off guard like fish in a barrel.
But without any underhanded manipulation, according to grades, they would match within the dormitory...
"Indeed, it's very likely we'll face off in the assessment." Mitsuzawa smiled slightly, "I heard winning the periodic assessment will earn a large amount of credits, so I won't hold back.
Let me witness your duel then, number one."
Yugen found he hadn't heard anything else clearly; he just heard "large amount of credits."
Initially, he thought it was just a periodic assessment.
Now it seemed, there's no way around not winning it, right?