Yugen slowly opened his eyes and looked around at an unfamiliar room. He had never seen this place before, yet it carried a strange sense of familiarity. Sunlight came through the window frames and fell across the soft floor in scattered patches, making the air feel warm and clear.
A dull ache lingered in his head as odd images and broken memories flashed through his mind. Some instinct deep inside told him he was facing something far beyond the ordinary. He had crossed into another world.
Yugen looked around again, and his gaze soon stopped on the computer on the desk. The computer was already on, showing the page of a search engine he had never used before. At the top of the search box were large words that read "Kaiba Search".
What caught his attention even more were the trending news items below the search bar. One headline read, "Toto University research team discovers a new form of 'Summoned Skull', Fiend Deck may receive a major boost." The moment he saw it, his brows lifted slightly.
Yugen said, "?"
Curious, he clicked into the article. It claimed that the research team had worked day and night to uncover new potential in the famous Fiend-type monster "Summoned Skull", and that their paper had already been published in a top international Duel Monsters journal. According to the team's spokesperson, they had spoken with Industrial Illusions CEO Maximillion Pegasus J. Crawford, and Industrial Illusions was now helping with the development of new cards.
If he still could not tell what kind of world this was, then Yugen would have wasted all those years playing cards. This was the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, a place where cards ruled everything and the foundations of society were built around dueling. It was a setting he knew all too well.
Another trending topic below was even more absurd. "International conflict in the Middle East eases as leaders decide to settle negotiations through a duel." Just reading the headline made an image form in his mind.
He imagined two armies facing each other across a battlefield, weapons raised and aimed. Then the commanders stepped forward, raised their arms with Duel Disk and decks ready, and chose to resolve a territorial dispute with a single game of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Ridiculous as it sounded, this was simply how the world worked.
In this world, Duel Monsters was the only path to true power, the only way to reach abilities that could go beyond time and even alter reality. As his mind cleared, new memories slowly settled into place. Yugen quickly understood who he was supposed to be here.
His name was Yugen Fujiki, male, and his current status was an apprentice at Dueling Dojo. Despite the name, it felt more like a paid training center than a proper dojo. Unlike formal schools such as Duel Academy, Dueling Dojo accepted anyone as long as they could pay the fee.
In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, playing cards was hardly seen as wasting time. On the contrary, mastering dueling could lead to a bright future. Nearly every profession was tied to Duel Monsters in some way, and even companies hired dedicated duel agents to handle business disputes through cards.
Cities like Domino City, known as the City of Duels, had reportedly reached the point where residents needed a registered deck just to settle down. Still, that did not mean this path was easy. The original owner of this body worked part-time to pay tuition while studying at the dojo, pushing toward the dream of becoming a real duelist, but everyone knew his chances were slim.
The reason was simple. He was bad at it.
Dueling promised limitless prospects, but competition was fierce. In this world, talent mattered greatly, and not everyone had what it took to become a master. Setting everything else aside, if someone could not even draw the cards they needed, how could they call themselves a duelist?
After thinking it over, Yugen felt that the path the previous owner chose was not wrong. In this world, whether one sought extraordinary power or success in the city, Duel Monsters was the best option. If that was the case, then his greatest advantage lay in his own past experience as a longtime card player.
With that thought, Yugen sat down at the computer and began searching. First, he needed to confirm the exact era and background he had arrived in. Yu-Gi-Oh! had many series, and later eras were closer to real card environments, which meant fewer advantages for someone like him.
After a quick search, he found what he needed. This was the classic base dimension, the place where dreams began, the shared world of Yu-Gi-Oh! DM and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The current time was likely after DM had ended and before or early in GX, which gave him a clear idea of the present card environment.
Next, it was time to look at the deck left behind. Yugen stared at it in silence. Once he spread everything out, he saw a bloated sixty-card pile that could hardly be called a deck at all.
The monster lineup alone was filled with normal monsters that had no effects. Players usually used a single word to describe cards like these: vanillas. The rest of the build was just as chaotic, with almost no synergy between cards.
Any six-card opening hand would be a mess, each card doing its own thing. Yugen seriously doubted whether this pile had any real combat power. After another look, though, he began to understand the idea behind it.
It was useless, but it was expensive.
It reminded him of those episodes in GX where Manjoume's rich brothers showed up. They had plenty of money but terrible skills, and believed that expensive always meant better. They threw money at rare cards to build a flashy deck, only to be crushed by a pile of junk cards Manjoume picked up behind the school.
The previous owner had made the same mistake. Many of these cards were likely bought with money earned through exhausting part-time work. Seeing the ridiculous market prices, Yugen even wondered if the reason he crossed worlds was because the original owner had worked himself to death.
Holding those so-called ultra-rare cards that meant nothing to him, he could not help but feel it was all a waste. Many strong cards were indeed expensive, but expensive did not always mean good. In this world, plenty of cards cost a fortune simply because they were rare.
Some were made from excavated relics, others used gemstones as materials. There were even monsters that were popular just because they looked good and were produced in small numbers. After flipping through the whole deck, Yugen felt that only a few pricey trap cards were even somewhat useful.
It was clear the starting deck needed to be rebuilt from scratch. He thought for a moment, then went back online to watch match videos from current professional duelists. This helped him understand the dominant strategies and trends of the era.
As expected from the anime, duelists of this time mostly chased raw power. They aimed to summon high-attack, flashy ace monsters to dominate the field. After watching several matches, Yugen could not help but sigh at how simple the mindset was.
Overall, most duelists shared the same flaw. Everything was too straightforward. Back when the former Duel King Muto Yugi was active, he alone carried all the trickiness of the era, leaving others far behind.
Now that Yugi no longer played, duelists followed the example of Seto Kaiba, shouting about crushing power and overwhelming force. The environment had become bright and aggressive. With that, Yugen made his decision.
He would bring a bit of darker fun into this overly straightforward card world. This time, the story truly began with GX.
Yugen logged into the card search sites of Kaiba Corporation and Industrial Illusions and checked the pools of cards that could be bought on the open market.
The first thing he looked for was something any player who crossed into this world would search for without hesitation. That card was Pot of Greed.