[Sato, LP: 3000 → 0]
One-turn kill!
The onlookers were stunned. For a long beat, no one even cheered.
Staring at the boy on the field with his robe fluttering, the students behind Sato were all frozen in place.
When their senior finished building his board, they thought the match was already decided. And, well, it was decided—just not the way they imagined.
In this duel, the opponent really did what he said he would: in a single game, he used a Fusion Summon, a Synchro Summon, and even an Xyz Summon.
No brick hands. No stumbles.
At the moment, even the students behind Yusaku were dazed, staring at him in disbelief.
Sure, most of them expected Yusaku to win… but watching it happen like this was still a bit too shocking.
Because this wasn't just "winning a duel." From start to finish, it felt like the entire pace of play was locked in Yusaku's hands.
Even when Sato brought out his ace, "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem," it all seemed… pointless to Yusaku.
The tempo stayed in Yusaku's grip from beginning to end. Whatever board Sato built, Yusaku brushed it aside with ease. Honestly… it looked almost too effortless.
"I lost." Sato stood up. "I lost completely. I'm convinced."
"Nice game." Yusaku smiled. "Hope we can duel again."
"I hope so too. Maybe I should change how I think about dueling."
With that, he returned to his team and followed the Asahi Dojo's sour-faced head toward the exit.
At the same time, the system's voice chimed in Yusaku's mind.
[Congratulations, Host. Mission complete. Rewards have been delivered. Please check your inventory.]
So the reward's in already? Wonder which Fusion deck it is.
Just as Yusaku was about to check what he'd gotten, the students behind him crowded up, asking whether their own decks could be built like his.
After watching Yusaku's two duels, they'd been completely converted. So decks could be built like that.
"All right, all right."
The dojo head, Takeuchi, came over, half-laughing, half-scolding.
"If you've got questions, go try things yourselves. Didn't Yusaku figure it out by testing?"
Then he walked up and patted Yusaku's shoulder.
"Good kid—well done. Even Sato lost to you. You should've seen the look on Asahi's face when you won. Haven't had that much fun in ages!"
"I don't have much to reward you with. Take these two cards."
"Eh? So stingy, head. We rarely beat their dojo. We won both duels this time and you're giving out just two Pot of Greed?"
"Yeah! If you're rewarding us, give us some high-ATK beaters!"
Huh? Pot of Greed?
"Thanks, head."
The moment he heard the name, Yusaku reached out and took the cards.
Maybe they weren't anything special to others, but to him they were huge. Who doesn't love a clean +1 with no conditions?
"Look at him, then look at you brats."
Takeuchi snorted, smiling.
"I paid good money for those back in the day. And we keep losing because you lot won't step up. Anyway, it's late. I told the auntie to add a few extra meat dishes tonight!"
…
After dinner, Yusaku returned to his dorm. It was just like the dorms from his school days—only a desk and a bed, nothing else.
Well, this is the Satellite Sector. Having a place at all is already lucky.
"How did I even isekai… and into a game, no less."
He walked to the window and looked up at the dim sky, sighing.
"Whatever. Since I'm here, I'll settle in. Time to check the system features—and the deck reward."
Thinking that, Yusaku called up the system.
A second later, a techy, azure Duel Monsters panel appeared before his eyes.
Name: Yusaku.
Class: ?
Charm: 95
Luck: 21
Stamina: 45
Quests: None
Crystals: 0
"Huh? No quests… And this Charm is kind of terrifying. But Luck and Stamina are low."
Staring at the panel floating in his view, Yusaku didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Luck and Stamina were absurdly low, but Charm was insanely high.
In this Yu-Gi-Oh! game, there are only three stats: Charm, Luck, Stamina.
The worldbuilding is about the same as the anime. Dueling is physically taxing; to boost player immersion, monster attacks create shock on the duelist.
And summoning certain high-level monsters requires high Stamina to pull off.
Luck here isn't the usual "topdeck god" kind.
Normally, when people hear "Luck," they think "miracle draw," but not here—it follows the anime logic.
Per the setting, whether you "miracle draw" depends on how strong your bond is with your deck, not your Luck stat.
Luck instead affects probability checks for monsters' effects and Spell/Trap cards that require a coin toss or similar.
Like Barrel Dragon and Cup of Ace—the higher your Luck, the likelier you flip heads.
Put simply, it's like how it works for that guy in the anime, Joey.
Yusaku figured that guy's Luck must be over ninety. He's an ordinary dude in the original, but even so, with cheat-tier luck he took runner-up at Duelist Kingdom and Top 4 at Battle City.
For someone like that, we usually use one word—gambler.
As for Charm… put bluntly, it's looks.
Max is 100. Higher Charm means more heads turn.
Now you might ask, what does dueling have to do with looks?
You wouldn't get it. NPCs in this game have an affection system. The higher the affection, the easier it is to trigger events and get quest rewards.
Max out affection and you can even trigger hidden events.
Ahem. As for those hidden events… let's not elaborate.
Stamina ties into summoning powerful monsters and how many duels you can grind out. With Stamina at 45, after just those two duels earlier, he already felt tired.
Unlike Luck and Charm, Stamina can be raised in this game.
By dueling others or completing quests, players earn EXP, level up, and as the level rises, Stamina goes up with it.
"So am I a player or an NPC?"
Looking at that question mark for "Class," Yusaku rubbed his chin.
"Or am I an NPC who just happens to have a status panel?"
"Probably the latter… Whatever. No point overthinking it. Let's check the deck reward."
He opened his inventory. Four deck boxes lay quietly inside.
Three were the initial "Big Three" starter decks he'd received at the very beginning. The new fourth one was the system reward.
Hmm? That hair… and that bun-like face… Isn't that the foodie saint?
Seeing the blonde girl on the sleeves, Yusaku raised an eyebrow.
The system said it was a Fusion deck. Fusion… Don't tell me it's Branded?
To confirm his hunch, Yusaku opened the deck.
Ecclesia, Fallen of Albaz, Mirrorjade… It was Branded—and pure Branded at that. All Branded components, no splash packages.
"Branded, huh…"
Looking at the deck in his pack, Yusaku's temples throbbed—not because he couldn't play Branded.
But because Branded… is mentally taxing. It's a resource-cycling deck. In expert hands, your resources snowball. In clumsy hands… it's the classic "Fusion Albaz into the usual line and pass on Mirrorjade."
"I thought I might get Tearlaments. Guess I was dreaming. Wonder what the 'Forbidden Shard' coupons do."
He shook his head to clear it and focused on the three "Forbidden Shards" among the reward tickets in his bag.
He knew the UR and SR Vouchers traded for UR- and SR-rarity cards. Did the Forbidden Shards trade for cards on the Forbidden/Limited List?
With that thought, Yusaku opened the exchange screen.
"You've got to be kidding me… You really use Forbidden Shards to trade for cards on the F/L List. One copy of—Tearlaments Kitkallos costs twenty shards!? Wouldn't a full Tear deck run into hundreds of shards!?"
"And this Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon! C'mon, it's already off the list—why does it still cost three shards!?"
Staring at the price list, Yusaku felt a headache coming on.
He'd expected Forbidden Shards to be for F/L cards, but he didn't expect them to be this expensive.
Huh?
He noticed there was also a Shop tab where you could open packs. Everything except Forbidden cards could be pulled. 100 Crystals per pack.
But what drew his eye was the tiny chance to pull Forbidden Shards from packs—just very low.
"100 Crystals per pack, 0.3% drop rate for a shard… how many Crystals would it take to pull even one shard… Wait, no…"
Yusaku shut the window, sat on the bed, and thought it through.
"I recall there are three hundred closed-beta players this round. Players can also get Crystals from daily logins and dailies. I wonder if I can issue quests to players. Then I could harv— I mean, earn a large volume of Crystals… Whether it works or not, it's worth preparing."
With that, Yusaku took out a sheet of paper from the drawer and started drafting his plan to… cultiv— ahem, to capitalize on player traffic.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 500 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]