Chapter 29: Professional Examiners Do Not Get Angry
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Upon entering the examination hall, Yu Xuan stood high in the stands and looked around. He soon spotted several familiar faces.
For instance, there was Zane Truesdale of Duel Academy, also watching from the elevated platform, as well as the female passerby who appeared most frequently throughout GX and was almost always by his side in the early episodes: Alexis Rhodes.
Nearby in the stands sat Chazz Princeton and his lackeys, already dressed in the Obelisk Blue uniform.
Both Chazz and Alexis were scholarship students. They had been top students at Duel Academy’s middle school. Only students admitted through this recommendation system could advance directly into the highest-ranking dormitory, Obelisk Blue.
Students who entered through the examination, on the other hand, could only be assigned to Ra Yellow, even if they achieved perfect scores in every subject. That was why, in the anime, Bastion Misawa entered with the highest marks yet was still placed in Ra Yellow. Only outstanding performance after enrollment could earn a student promotion to Obelisk Blue.
Yu Xuan looked around once more. Although the examination had already begun, he still saw no sign of a familiar jellyfish head.
If nothing unexpected had happened, Jaden Yuki’s train must have been delayed today. At this moment, he should have encountered Yugi Muto on the way and received a Winged Kuriboh from him—the first Spirit Partner card in Jaden’s main story, which would protect him through all manner of dark duels in the early part of the series.
If one only considered the GX storyline, there was no explanation at the beginning for why Yugi had happened to run into Jaden on the road and randomly chosen to give him a Spirit Partner.
However, taking the later film Bonds Beyond Time into account, one could speculate that Yugi had already met Jaden years earlier, when Jaden had traveled back from the future. Thus, in the present day, Yugi already regarded Jaden as a comrade-in-arms he had never officially met.
“Candidate number 001, Yu Xuan Fujiki.”
At last, it was beginning.
Yu Xuan rose and walked toward the dueling arena.
While watching from above a moment earlier, he had already observed the examiners. They were rotating through several examination decks. Every candidate who took the field faced one of only a few decks, and Yu Xuan had more or less figured them all out.
Nothing he couldn’t handle.
...
...
One minute earlier, Chazz Princeton and his two lackeys had been sitting leisurely in the stands.
“According to the grouping, candidate number 001 should be taking the field soon,” Lackey One said. “I wonder who this year’s top student will be.”
Lackey Two snorted. “Hmph. Whoever it is doesn’t matter. The emperor of this year’s freshmen has already been decided. It’s going to be Big Brother Chazz.”
The corners of Chazz’s mouth curled upward as he let out a cold, smug chuckle.
“There can only be one ruler of the academy. As the saying goes, two tigers cannot share one mountain... Still, if that fellow is good enough, having him as my opponent to kill some time wouldn’t be so bad. After all, if conquering the academy is too easy, these three years are going to be unbearably dull. Heh heh...”
“Big Brother is absolutely right! Hahaha!”
The three of them burst into laughter together.
Then the announcement came over the speakers.
“Candidate number 001, Yu Xuan Fujiki, report immediately to Arena One for your examination... Candidate number 001...”
The laughter stopped dead.
Lackey One stared blankly. “What? That name... Could it be...?”
Lackey Two cried out, “Big Brother!”
The two of them turned toward Chazz at the same time...
Only to find that he was no longer in his seat.
“Huh? Big Brother, how did you end up under the bench?”
Although the fall had hurt, Chazz had no time to care. He scrambled out from beneath the seat on all fours, his eyes wide as he stared fixedly at Arena One.
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Then he saw a familiar figure walk into the arena.
The self-proclaimed emperor of the academy, Chazz Princeton, had met an untimely end before even setting out. His dream of ruling the academy had shattered before he had even enrolled, replaced by a terror that seemed to come straight from the underworld...
Why is it you again?!
...
...
“Good afternoon, sir.”
Yu Xuan stopped in position and greeted the examiner politely.
The examiner was a stern, hard-faced man wearing sunglasses. He showed no expression as he said, “Prepare to duel.”
“Yes, sir.”
Yu Xuan unfolded his Duel Disk, but just before the duel began, he seemed to think of something and frowned slightly.
“Wait a moment, sir. Hypothetically speaking... purely hypothetically—if I win, but you happen to become displeased during the duel, or find something unsatisfactory about the process itself... would it be possible for you to fail me?”
“Don’t worry.” The examiner’s expression remained as blank as a poker face. “All of us examiners have undergone professional training. We are not low-class, third-rate duelists. No matter what kind of duel it is, I will not lose my temper.”
After a pause, he added, “Besides, the final grade is determined by Professor Crowler, the chief examiner, not by me.”
“I see.”
Yu Xuan finally relaxed.
He still remembered Professor Vellian Crowler, the man known as the Spirit of Greed because his appearance was nearly identical to the artwork on Pot of Greed.
Although the professor looked like a villain during the early part of the anime, he only targeted underachieving students. When it came to outstanding students—such as Bastion Misawa, who once drove a baseball straight into the professor’s eye—he could still laugh it off and say, “It’s fine, it’s fine. Just keep your grades up, and your teacher will recover soon enough...”
Since Yu Xuan had ranked first in the written examination, he figured that Professor Greed would probably not make things difficult for him.
“Duel!” x2
[Yuxuan, LP 4000]
[Examiner, LP 4000]
“I’ll be going first. I draw.”
Yu Xuan immediately played three cards from his hand.
“I Set one monster in the front row and Set two cards in the back row. I end my turn.”
The moment Chazz saw that opening from the elevated stands, he began to suffocate.
That familiar feeling.
That atmosphere straight from the underworld...
“Then it’s my turn. I draw,” the examiner said. “I Normal Summon Gene-Warped Warwolf in Attack Position.”
[Gene-Warped Warwolf, ATK 2000]
The moment he saw the card, Yu Xuan recognized which of the examination decks it belonged to.
It was an aggressive Beatdown deck centered mainly around Level Four monsters. Most of them had more than 2,000 Attack Points, and with Equip Cards added, they could easily reach 2,000 or even 3,000 Attack Points, allowing them to overwhelm the field.
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It was considered one of the more troublesome decks for new students during the entrance examination.
At that moment, a student watching from the stands remarked, “Oh, look over there. Number One got matched against that aggressive Beatdown deck.”
“Yeah. Good thing I didn’t draw that one. What an unlucky guy...”
Only Chazz clenched all ten fingers, saying nothing.
Unlucky? No, no, no.
The unlucky one was the examiner.
To happen to be holding an aggressive Beatdown deck and run into this kind of bastard was practically eight lifetimes’ worth of bad luck...
“Gene-Warped Warwolf, attack!”
Yu Xuan’s Set card flipped face-up, revealing an old magician holding a green staff.
[Old Vindictive Magician, DEF 600]
“Old Vindictive Magician’s effect activates,” Yu Xuan said. “When this card is flipped face-up, I can target one monster on your field and destroy it.
“I destroy your Gene-Warped Warwolf.”
With one last wave of his hand, the old magician hurled a magical projectile. Gene-Warped Warwolf exploded with a thunderous crash.
The wolf had been destroyed by a trap before remaining on the field for even ten seconds, but this still fell within the bounds of a normal duel. The examiner had not yet noticed anything unusual.
“So it’s a monster with a flip-destruction effect. In that case, I end my Battle Phase.”
The examiner drew a card and inserted it into his Duel Disk.
“Then I activate the Spell Card Monster Reborn. It can revive one monster destroyed this turn in Attack Position.”
—Anime effect
The Spell Card’s effect activated, and a vortex leading to the underworld opened. After a burst of golden light, the battered Gene-Warped Warwolf returned to the field.
“I activate my Set Card: the Trap Card Dark Deal.”
Yu Xuan pressed the button on his Duel Disk and flipped his Set Card face-up.
“When my opponent activates a Spell Card, I can pay 1,000 Life Points to randomly discard one card from my opponent’s hand.”
[Yu Xuan, LP 4000 → LP 3000]
“What?”
The examiner was startled. When he looked down at his hand again, one of his cards had vanished into thin air amid a burst of golden light.
“It’s not over yet. In response, I chain another Trap Card: Torrential Tribute.”
Yu Xuan waved his hand and flipped over another card in his back row.
“When a monster is Normal Summoned, Special Summoned, or Flip Summoned, this card can be activated.
“Destroy every monster on the field!”
A flood roared out from the card and swept across the entire arena. Poor Gene-Warped Warwolf had barely regained its footing before being dragged into the raging whirlpool once more and crushed to pieces.
Examiner: “...”