The next morning, the first light of dawn had only just begun to seep in.
Yusaku woke up inside the private space created by the Quantum Cube. Just as he braced himself to sit up, he realized his wrist was wrapped in something soft and warm.
Labrynth was curled up beside him, hugging his arm tightly to her chest, breathing evenly in her sleep.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He carefully slid his arm out of the girl's warm embrace.
After finishing the second match yesterday, he had successfully advanced into the main event of the Duel Tournament, so he didn't continue dueling.
As soon as he stepped out of the venue, he ran into the group waiting outside.
"Something's off…" Yusaku propped his chin up with one hand, brow slightly furrowed as he thought.
"Logically, if the Underworld God and the Mikanko girls sensed my presence, they should've come to me on their own. Could it be that Saya and the others made a mistake in their sensing?"
Yesterday, Labrynth's group hadn't found any trace of the Underworld God. They had planned to keep expanding the search radius, but Yusaku felt it was getting late, so he told them to stop for the night.
"Forget it. Thinking about it won't help." He shook his head, tossing the thoughts out of his mind. "If they really are in the Upper City, we'll run into them sooner or later."
With that, Yusaku stretched hard. His bones gave a soft series of cracks, and his mind instantly cleared.
Today was the opening day of the Duel Tournament.
He'd heard this tournament had an ante rule, and it was officially mandated.
A chance to duel and replenish his deck at the same time? He wasn't going to miss that. He'd already sold quite a few cards yesterday and earned a pile of crystals, and his inventory was visibly running low. This was the perfect opportunity to restock, then keep flipping cards and grind out a Tearlaments deck as soon as possible.
Sensing movement beside her, Reina rubbed her sleepy eyes and sat up on the soft bed.
She instinctively pulled her clothes back up over her shoulder, her voice still carrying that drowsy, muffled softness. "Not going to sleep a bit longer, Master?"
As the number of duels increased, his level cap had risen to Level 27. His Stamina stat had steadily climbed from the original 45 points to 72.
The last time his legs had given out was because he'd fought 605 straight matches in the Duel Tower—he'd burned through too much physical energy.
Yesterday, he'd only dueled twice, and both were one-turn blowouts. He hadn't spent much stamina at all.
So last night, the one whose legs gave out wasn't him. It was the girls.
At this moment, Saya and Labrynth were still sleeping soundly.
Yusaku gently ruffled Reina's hair, feeling how soft it was. He smiled in satisfaction and casually tucked the Quantum Cube into his clothes.
He had to admit, the thing was unbelievably convenient. Creating an independent space out of thin air solved the lodging problem perfectly.
After straightening his clothes, Yusaku stepped out of the alley. He needed to head to Domino City—this time's designated rendezvous point was there.
He didn't know whether the organizers were paying homage to the classics or just couldn't be bothered to innovate, but the Upper City really did have a city named Domino City.
Of course, even though the name matched the original, there was no Yugi Muto, no Seto Kaiba—none of the familiar faces. Only the city's name was the same.
And precisely because that name was so special, players loved wandering around here, challenging strangers to duels to level up.
Over time, as more and more duelists gathered, Domino City gradually became a true dueling holy ground. In the city center, you could barely take a step without seeing someone in the middle of a duel.
Just walking from the alley to the main street, Yusaku had already seen no fewer than a hundred fierce duels.
Besides the people actively dueling, plenty of duelists were roaming the streets, repeatedly checking the time on their phones. Clearly, they were waiting for the tournament to begin.
According to the official announcement, the opening ceremony would start at 9:00 a.m.
But it was already 8:55, and there was still no movement from the officials. Many people wore puzzled expressions.
Just as the crowd started murmuring and trading guesses, a helicopter with a sleek body—shaped like a Blue-Eyes White Dragon—suddenly appeared above the city and slowly descended.
When it reached a suitable altitude, a duelist wearing a mask and a white trench coat, styled like an anime version of Seto Kaiba, leapt straight out of the helicopter.
The coat tails flared wildly in the air. He landed in a half-crouch with the swagger of a superhero, then snapped his coat and rose smoothly to his feet.
Once he was upright, the masked duelist crossed his arms. A proud, arrogant chuckle colored his voice.
"Each of you is a battle-hardened warrior. You earned the right to step onto this battlefield with your own strength… but this is only the beginning!"
He took one step forward, his voice rising sharply, ringing through the entire block.
"From this moment on, this city will become your Duel Arena! Your deck is the blade in your hand, and only the one who stands victorious at the end will be worthy of reaching the summit!"
As he spoke, he raised his Duel Disk high and announced loudly.
"The rules for this tournament are different from before! In duels within Battle City, the victor may win from the loser either a single rare card, or the loser's entire deck! The size of the ante is up to you, but the minimum ante must be one rare card, chosen by the winner!"
He paused briefly, then continued.
"Only the fastest 32 duelists to emerge from the citywide melee will qualify for the next round! And the battlefield for the next round is hidden somewhere within this city!"
He then revealed a puzzle-piece-shaped card in his hand.
"Each contestant holds one specific Puzzle Card. Only by winning eight Puzzle Cards and stacking them together will you reveal a complete map that points to the location of the next round! The first to arrive is automatically promoted, until the 32nd person arrives—at that moment, the qualification gate will close! Anyone who arrives after that will no longer be eligible to compete!"
"Now then," he declared, "I hereby announce—The tournament officially begins!"
As soon as his words fell, the helicopter's searchlight swept across the area. When the masked duelist saw the colorful player IDs, his eyebrow twitched upward.
It wasn't strange for players to qualify for the Duel Tournament. After all, plenty of hardcore grinders had bought a lot of cards from Yusaku. With those, they could easily assemble decks with respectable power.
Those cards meant little to him, but for weaker local duelists, they were enough to create a crushing mismatch.
What surprised Yusaku was this: in just an instant—while he was thinking about eliminating all the duelists who weren't players—he spotted over twenty familiar player IDs.
And at that very moment, those twenty-plus players had gathered together, loudly conspiring to wipe out all non-players and monopolize every one of the Top 32 slots.
But thinking it through, the odds of that succeeding didn't seem high. In the surrounding crowd, Yusaku also saw students wearing the uniforms of Genius Academy, as well as several high-ranked trainee duelists mixed in.
So the plan to monopolize all the slots probably wasn't going to work.
The duelists around them also noticed that player faction at once.
Instantly, duelists from the same dojo or academy moved closer together, forming small clusters.
Meanwhile, lone duelists with no backing immediately distanced themselves from the brewing trouble.
On the streets, plenty of people had already begun dueling in a hurry.
Yusaku was just about to look for an opponent when a figure in a black robe—his entire body concealed—walked straight up to him. A hoarse, low voice rasped out.
"You're Yusaku, right? I've been waiting for you for a long time! I know you possess a God Card. Duel me. If you lose, hand over your God Card!"
Seeing that outfit, Yusaku raised an eyebrow. "A Gurus Rare Hunter?"
"That's right!" the robed man snorted coldly. "These tournament rules are practically made for our Gurus! We don't even need to hunt targets anymore. As long as we enter the tournament, we can win our opponents' cards openly and legitimately!"
"Enough talk. Let's go! By the rules, in this city, the challenged party has no right to refuse a duel!"
Yusaku's lips curved into a confident smile. "If we're following the rules, then the loser hands over their deck. You want my God Card, but you can't afford an ante of equal value. How about this—if you lose, you give me your entire deck."
"That depends on whether you can win!" the robed man scoffed. "My deck was custom-built by our leader. Beating you will be easy!"
Yusaku said nothing more. He raised his arm, and his Duel Disk snapped open. A dark, glossy card tray slid into place with a clean mechanical sound.
"Duel!"
The Duel Disk hummed to life. A pale-blue holographic screen unfolded, data streams racing across the interface, and both players' starting Life Points appeared clearly.
Yusaku, LP 8000
Ichiro Kuki, LP 8000
The turn order was decided immediately.
First turn: Ichiro Kuki
Seeing someone actually challenge Yusaku, the players who had been preparing to duel stopped and gathered around out of curiosity.
After all, even if they'd bought rare cards from Yusaku and built decent decks, none of them had the nerve to duel him.
With an ante rule in play, they didn't want to lose the same cards they'd already purchased once—then have to pay a second time to buy them back.
"Then I'll take the first move!" Ichiro's fingers flicked rapidly across the Duel Disk's smooth control panel. With a crisp "click" from the mechanical slot, five starting cards snapped into his hand.
His hawk-like gaze swept his hand. After a brief pause, he pulled out one card and slammed it down onto the center of the Duel Disk.
"First, I activate the Continuous Spell—Allure Dance!"
"As the effect when this card is activated, I can add to my hand 1 'Allure Queen' monster or 1 'Allure Palace' from my Deck. I choose to add the Field Spell—Allure Palace!"
Catching the searched card steadily in his palm, he didn't hesitate for even a moment before playing it as well.
"I activate the Field Spell—Allure Palace!"
With that, the entire Duel field rumbled. Colorful light burst from spreading cracks, and a magnificent palace of carved beams and glazed tiles rose slowly from the ground.
"Watch Allure Palace's effect!" Ichiro barked.
"I can send 1 card from my hand to the GY to add 1 'Allure Queen' monster from my Deck to my hand, or Special Summon it to my opponent's field! I can use this effect up to three times per turn!"
He thrust a card forward, and the holographic projection magnified the card text in midair.
"I send my Trap Card, Rainbow Bridge of Salvation, to the GY to add Chaos Allure Queen from my Deck to my hand!"
Before his words even finished, the Duel Disk's automatic search sequence spun up. With a soft whir of gears, the retrieved card popped out precisely.
Ichiro caught it, then immediately drew out the Rainbow Bridge of Salvation he had just sent to the GY. His eyes were sharp, his stare forceful.
"Rainbow Bridge of Salvation's effect!"
"I can banish this card from my GY to add 1 'Crystal Beast' monster and 1 Field Spell from my Deck to my hand. Now, I banish it!"
Ichiro slotted the card into the banished zone.
"I add Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle and the Field Spell Magical Meltdown to my hand!"
"Magical Meltdown?" Yusaku raised an eyebrow. "An Invoked deck?"
"Looks like you've got some eyes!" Ichiro let out a cold laugh. "Yes, I'm using an Invoked deck—but this deck goes far deeper than just Invoked!"
He swung his arm and shouted.
"I activate Allure Palace's effect again! I send the Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle I just searched to the GY, and add another Chaos Allure Queen from my Deck to my hand!"
After sliding the new search into his hand, he immediately revealed it.
"Chaos Allure Queen's effect: I can discard 1 other LIGHT or DARK monster from my hand; Special Summon this card from my hand!"
As his words fell, he revealed another card, a brutal glint flashing in his eyes.
"I discard my other Chaos Allure Queen to the GY, and Special Summon this Chaos Allure Queen!"
Ichiro slammed the card into his monster zone. In the next instant, dazzling light erupted as a queenly Spellcaster appeared—holding a gemstone-studded scepter, draped in a lavish robe embroidered with star patterns, a faint aura of chaos drifting around her.
Chaos Allure Queen
Level 7 / Spellcaster / Effect
ATK 1500
The moment she stood on the field, Ichiro's voice rang out again.
"I activate Chaos Allure Queen's other effect!"
"I can target 1 monster in either GY; equip it to this card as an Equip Spell. Until the End Phase, this card's name becomes the equipped monster's name…"
"If I equip a LIGHT or DARK monster by this effect, I can then Special Summon 1 DARK 'Allure Queen' monster from my Deck or GY!"
"I equip the Chaos Allure Queen I just sent to the GY to the Chaos Allure Queen on my field as an Equip Spell. Since the equipped monster is LIGHT, I can Special Summon Allure Queen LV3 from my Deck!"
Another burst of light flashed, and a young queen appeared on the other side of the field—dressed in black lace, lively-eyed, holding a delicate staff.
Allure Queen LV3
Level 3 / Spellcaster / Effect
ATK 500
(End of Chapter)
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