May 27, 202X, a card shop in Xia Long Kingdom.
Luo Bai, exhausted from tidying up, stretched and lay down on the table. Eighteen years old, he looked at the ceiling with slight fatigue.
"Sigh..."
The card shop was going to close down.
The Tearlaments environment was too homogenized; other decks had been driven out of the game, and business was losing money.
It was just a hobby, and with the college entrance exam and university commitments, there was no time to run it.
As for his parents?
Congenital analgesia. Perhaps for this reason, Luo Bai was an abandoned child, unable to feel pain from the day he was born.
Because he wore a broken crystal blank card with half a "Bai" (white) written on it since childhood, the old shopkeeper Nanyang Gong, who adopted him, casually named him Luo Bai.
"I don't want to think about it anymore..."
Luo Bai shook his head, forcing a cheerful smile, and took out two card decks from his pocket.
[Sky Striker] and [Dinomorphia].
"First turn is mine! Tony!"
Luo Bai took the [Dinomorphia] deck, placed the [Sky Striker] deck opposite him on the table, then woke up the sleeping fat cat—Tony—and placed it on the empty chair opposite him.
Afterwards, he silently shuffled and dealt the cards to both decks.
"I Normal Summon [Dinomorphia Therizia, 1500/0], activate its effect to set one of my own Trap Cards from my deck. Anything wrong, Tony?"
Luo Bai asked sharply.
Tony the Teacher: "Meow?"
"Since Tony the Teacher has spoken, I'll take a look." Luo Bai said to himself, walking to the opposite table to examine Big Fat Cat's hand. "No veiler effect to negate it, so my Dinomorphia Therizia effect works..."
Having said that, he walked back to his own table, showing Big Fat Cat a card: "Then I'll set [Dinomorphia Frenzy]."
When the shop is deserted.
You have to learn to play cards with yourself.
Luo Bai is already a mature shopkeeper.
But even if he's more mature.
Who wouldn't want the shop to be lively?
Looking at the empty card shop, Luo Bai couldn't help but recall the past liveliness, remembering those lovely and friendly shop assistants giving up one by one. A pang of sadness welled up in his eyes, and his voice choked slightly: "Set four, my turn, ends..."
After saying that, he no longer had the mood to go to the opposite table to continue playing cards with himself.
He slumped onto the table, his face buried in exhaustion, not wanting anyone to see his feelings.
"Meow?"
The fat cat, Tony, seemed to understand his emotions. He slowly walked over, raised his soft, chubby paw, and gently patted his head as if to comfort him.
"Smack!"
One swipe of his paw knocked Luo Bai unconscious.
...
[Program implantation in progress...]
He remained in a daze for an unknown amount of time until the broken blank card around his neck merged into his body, finally bringing him back to consciousness.
"Huh? Where am I..."
Opening his blurry eyes, he found himself in a dark, damp...garbage dump?
Scrap parts, old tires, broken glass bottles, rusty steel bars, rotting animal hides, and piles of animal entrails scattered about.
Above were chandeliers and wire mesh supported by steel bars. In the dim light, the brownish-black cave walls replaced the sky, and all around were large and small, glowing red-hot iron furnaces.
A mine? Or an underground city?
"Still dreaming? Transmigrated?"
Luo Bai said, looking completely bewildered.
The dim light illuminated his body: a pair of sturdy shorts, tattered white clothes, covered in whip marks, his hands bruised and red, something dripping from his hair onto his crotch.
"Oh, it's blood."
"That's alright."
It wasn't some strange liquid.
Luo Bai touched his forehead; there was indeed a wound, but he felt no pain.
"I even cleaned up my shop…"
People always like to use pain to determine if they're dreaming, but what if the person has never experienced pain?
[Ding]
A cold, mechanical voice sounded. Luo Bai narrowed his eyes, knowing it must be that thing.
That thing that always comes with transmigrating!
But the expected "system," "newbie gift pack," and "cute girl" were nowhere to be found.
Three solid-colored crystal cards fell from the void: one orange, one green, and one red.
Three words were projected above them:
[Survive]
Below was blank.
???
That's it?
What does this mean?
Luo Bai's mind was filled with question marks.
"Hey, hey, hey, System, is it System?"
"Where's the quest walkthrough? Where are the quest hints? At the very least, there should be a character attribute panel."
He only knew that his body was the one he was familiar with, but he seemed to have been beaten up; his clothes were stained with blood, and his head had a hole in it.
He knew nothing else, not even a map.
"And what are these cards… there's no picture…"
Luo Bai sighed, about to stand up.
A beastly growl came from all around, and three alien wolfhounds slowly emerged, baring their teeth.
Each of the alien wolves was over a meter tall. One was blind in one eye, another was lame in one leg, and the missing parts of the two had grown into the third.
"So this is what 'survival' means."
Luo Bai took a deep breath and picked up a rusty steel bar beside him.
"Pfft!"
A wolf pounced!
With his extensive experience in virtual reality RPG games, Luo Bai accurately struck it on the head with the stick, producing a pleasant wail.
However, after several minutes of maneuvering and fighting, he realized that the tools around him were hardly effective in inflicting fatal damage.
Suddenly remembering something, Luo Bai glanced at the three cards tied to his underwear. The green card finally revealed its image, looking very much like an axe.
The card's name was [Axe of Despair]:
Axe of Despair
(1): The equipped monster gains 1000 ATK.
(2): When this card is sent to the Graveyard, you can Tribute 1 monster to return this card to the top of your Deck.
"Holy crap, it's Yu-Gi-Oh!!"
The wolves pounced again, but this time, Luo Bai reflexively crushed the [Axe of Despair], and a giant axe appeared in his hand, its embedded skull emitting a chilling green light.
With a swift cleave, he severed the three-eyed wolf's head.
He swung his axe to kill another, but as he tried to pull it away, he found it stuck in the wolf's neck.
At that moment, a third wolf seized the opportunity to pounce on Luo Bai, biting his shoulder and tearing off a chunk of flesh.
Given no chance to catch its breath, it pounced again after landing.
The initial bite was insignificant; however, after a chunk of flesh was bitten off, Luo Bai seemed to awaken something. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he abandoned the axe, shielding his face with his arm, letting the wolf bite him.
"Heh, is that all..."
Luo Bai scoffed, coldly watching the wolf biting his arm. He felt no pain as expected, only a sense of disillusionment.
He indifferently pulled the wolf to his mouth, tearing at its wound with his nails, then bit it to death.
Afterwards, he spat out a mouthful of bloody, raw flesh as if nothing had happened, then tossed the wolf's carcass to the ground.
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How was the first chapter? Exciting, right?