Chapter 5: The Joyful Duel

Yu Xuan began to discover the joy of playing cards in the otherworld. However, he soon realized that happiness in this world must be conserved. As he grew happier, his fellow disciples in the dojo seemed to lose interest in dueling.

Within just three days, no one was willing to challenge him to a match...

Yu Xuan could only tilt his head to the sky and sigh softly.

Now, he somewhat understood why the card game community said you couldn't make friends before meeting the Pharaoh. Truly, the underworld dwellers were unworthy of friendship.

Eventually, the matter even caught the attention of the dojo master.

The dojo’s head, Takeuchi Kageru, was said to have once been among the top thirty-two in the town’s dueling tournament in his youth. Upon hearing that one of his apprentices had recently made remarkable progress in dueling, defeating the proud eldest senior disciple in a single blow, and that within three days all the other apprentices had become withdrawn and no longer wished to challenge—Takeuchi felt compelled to intervene.

He immediately gathered all the apprentices, first praising Yu Xuan for his diligent study and rapid improvement, then admonishing the others for their passive attitudes.

The master lectured them: challenges and friendly matches exist to foster growth and improvement; a strong opponent is clearly a blessing. Otherwise, if all you do is prey on the weak like beating up an elderly home or kicking a kindergarten, what’s the point?

The apprentices bowed their heads, silent and chastened.

“Enough,” the master waved his hand with a smile and beckoned Yu Xuan over.

“If they won’t come, then I’ll personally test your progress and guide your deck,” he said.

Finally having found someone willing to duel, Yu Xuan, who had several deck modifications to test, gladly accepted.

Today’s duel would be against his master.

The master was handsome and graciously yielded the first move to Yu Xuan, showing the demeanor of a true expert. Yu Xuan didn’t hesitate and took the first turn.

He immediately paid 1000 life points and revealed the spell card “Detention.” The familiar opening made the apprentices, who had suffered from this in the past three days, shudder in near PTSD.

Then the effect of Detention activated.

What’s in the hand? Let’s see.

Yu Xuan glanced over and immediately targeted the master’s “Monster Reborn,” discarding it. Then he normal summoned “Green Gear,” activating its effect to search the deck for “Red Gear.” He set three cards face-down and passed the turn with flair.

On the master’s turn, he summoned “Iron Knight – Kya Fried,” a level four with 1800 attack, very cool-looking. But it was useless, as the Iron Knight was destroyed by Yu Xuan’s “Trap Hole” as soon as it appeared, sent straight to the underworld.

[Trap Hole: When a monster with 1000 or more attack is summoned, it is destroyed immediately.]

But the master was still masterful. Although he lost his normal summon for the turn, he activated the effect of “Rock Spirit – Titan” in his hand, which could special summon by banishing an Earth attribute monster from the graveyard. He banished the Iron Knight from the grave and summoned Titan directly.

Then, with a wave of his hand, Takeuchi attacked the Green Gear with Titan. Yu Xuan snapped his fingers, flipping a bright red trap card face-up.

“I invoke the noble power of Hanno!”

[Divine Protection Shield – Mirror Force: When the opponent declares an attack, destroy all attack position monsters on their field.]

Takeuchi was speechless.

After falling into two traps, the master had no choice but to pass.

Yu Xuan drew a card and immediately played “Mischievous Twin Sprite,” paying 1000 life points and forcing the opponent to discard two cards.

Takeuchi lowered his head, staring at his hand, instantly reduced to a single card, lost in contemplation about life...

Yu Xuan then summoned the “Red Gear” he had searched the previous turn. Upon its successful summon, its effect allowed him to search for “Yellow Gear” from the deck. In the battle phase, Red and Green Gears attacked directly, dealing a combined 2700 damage to the master.

But that wasn’t all. At the end phase, Yu Xuan dramatically flipped another set card.

[Seal of Time]

[Trap/Effect: Skip the opponent’s next draw phase.]

You might not believe it, but this devastating card was also from the Duel King Yugi’s game. It was printed during the Duel City Dark Games when battling Grous, the fake card dealer who wielded the dark mage “Exodia”...

With his hand depleted and his draw phase stolen, Takeuchi looked at his clean, empty field and then at the two eager Gears on Yu Xuan’s side. He seriously began to consider the feasibility of physical dueling...

Silence.

One minute later.

With life points reduced to zero, the master stepped down from the dueling arena, looked up to the sky, and took a deep breath.

He began reflecting on what had gone wrong, wondering why he had bothered to duel such a shadowy trickster...

The watching apprentices looked on with sorrow.

Even the master had fallen!

Before the duel began, they all still held hope for a different outcome. Each of them, to some degree, felt that while they were powerless against this mysterious player, feeling frustrated and unable to fully utilize their strength or cards, it was mostly due to their own lack of skill. Surely, facing a master would be different.

But reality was harsh: the master rose, attacked, and also met defeat.

The process was nearly identical to what each of them had experienced when facing Yu Xuan over the past few days.

This was a blow to their worldview, a collapse of their beliefs, leaving the entire dueling community shrouded in darkness and uncertainty. And in their hearts flickered a similar thought—

The invincible master was defeated by a socially withdrawn avenger. Why was this their nightmare?

In truth, Yu Xuan’s deck strategy was simple: a traditional early combination of traps, beatdown tactics, and hand disruption.

Those who had played Duel Monsters in earlier days knew that when monster effects were far weaker and deck mechanics less extreme than today, powerful spell and trap cards occupied a crucial role in mainstream decks.

Red, Green, and Yellow Gears each had effects triggering upon summon to search each other, replenishing the hand and preventing a lack of monsters. Meanwhile, strong traps and spells continuously broke down the opponent’s resources. As the resource gap widened, victory became inevitable.

Yu Xuan humbly asked, “Master, what do you think of my deck? Is there any advice you can offer?”

The master snapped out of his existential reverie, looking at him with a meaningful gaze. Oddly enough, though he was a handsome, radiant young man, now just seeing that face made the master feel uneasy...

Advice? Ha, what advice could I possibly give?

You’re so amazing; shouldn’t you be teaching me?

To be honest, if not for pride, he might have entertained that thought himself.

He wanted to learn dueling from Yu Xuan.

Especially this kind of duel that could bring a grimace to one’s face.

“I have nothing more to teach you,” Takeuchi sighed, a bit helplessly.

“By the way, master, there’s one more favor I’d like to ask,” Yu Xuan said.

“What is it?”

“I want to register for the dueling academy entrance exam,” Yu Xuan said. “Could I apply for the dojo’s sponsorship?”