In the vast stadium, the dueling arena was crowned with a magnificent ancient castle. Although the competition hadn't started yet, the stands were already bustling with people.
Yugen arrived at the entrance of the arena with his dojo senior, Sato Koji. As they got out of the car, he immediately noticed a sculpture of the Dark Magician standing majestically at the main entrance.
Although the Dark Magician became a rare card that rarely saw play in official tournaments after Yugi Muto's retirement, as the King of Games' ace monster, it still served as a prominent figurehead at many dueling arenas.
"Alright, I'm going to do my pre-match preparations. The qualifiers should start very soon," Sato Koji told him.
"Junior, you should go prepare quickly too."
"Understood. I look forward to seeing you again on the dueling field," Yugen said politely.
But upon hearing these words, the senior's expression became strange, as if he wanted to say something but held back.
I don't want to see you again at all.
But he ultimately couldn't bring himself to say it.
Ignoring his senior, Yugen received his competitor's certificate and number card from the receptionist. He took the number card and examined it, noting it was clearly number 39.
For a card player, this was a rather lucky number. Yugen put away his number card, nodding in satisfaction.
It seems my luck is good today. I should definitely win my first match.
"This year's Moonflower Cup feels like it has a very high quality," he heard spectators chatting as he entered the arena lobby.
"I just saw Kajiki Makoto from the Psychic-style dojo; it seems he's also participating in this year's tournament."
"Kajiki? The new dueling prodigy of the Psychic style? Wow, that's something to watch!"
Then he heard someone else say: "I don't care about Psychic-style dueling; I just hope my friend who plays Spellcaster decks can advance."
"Are you saying you want to see your friend advance? Pfft, I'm not even going to expose you. You just want to see her summon Magician's Valkyria, don't you?"
Magician's Valkyria, possessing cool spellcaster attire similar to the legendary Dark Magician Girl from Yugi's deck, a pure face, tender small arms, yet unexpectedly carrying weight in some areas that her small frame shouldn't, was one of the "waifu" cards favored by gentlemen duelists for a long time.
The person exposed immediately blushed: "But she's really big!"
His companions, hearing this, stopped arguing and nodded in agreement.
"Honestly, yes."
"Indeed, it's hard to refute."
"..."
Yugen passed through the arena. After a few steps, he heard a young girl exclaim.
"Oh my god, really? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"
"100% certain!" The girl next to her said with absolute conviction, "Absolutely, that's Dinosaur Ryuzaki! The legendary duelist!"
Hearing this, Yugen paused slightly.
Dinosaur Ryuzaki? The one from "Yu-Gi-Oh! DM?"
When he first appeared, he was portrayed as a master, once the national runner-up of a dueling tournament in a situation where Yugi, Kaiba, and a series of other powerhouses from the later DM era weren't participating.
"Really? But the Moonflower Cup isn't a secondary professional tournament, is it? Why would a legendary duelist like him..."
"I heard that Ryuzaki has been in secluded training for many years and hasn't made any public appearances. Now he's out of training; this is his comeback tournament."
"Wow, then this year's Moonflower Cup participants are really unlucky, running into the great demon lord."
"Yeah, it's almost as if the champion is already decided."
"..."
Yugen tried to recall. He didn't have a deep impression of Ryuzaki, but he did remember his inseparable best friend from the anime, Insector Haga. Both of them were unscrupulous in their pursuit of victory, but Ryuzaki was slightly stronger than Haga. After all, the latter even went so far as to throw Yugi's entire Exodia the Forbidden One deck into the sea.
However, in a way, his action could also be said to be the savior of all the late-DM era bosses.
Just imagine if the five pieces of Exodia hadn't been thrown away by that guy, then with Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi Atem)'s "whatever I want, I get" hack-level god-drawing ability in the later stages, what Egyptian God cards, Legendary Dragons, Orichalcos, would all just stand by and watch.
Marik, Dartz, and Dark Bakura all owe Haga three full bows; it's absolutely not too much.
However, these two, ever since they were defeated by Dark Yugi and the "common bone" Jonouchi respectively, seemed to have transitioned from tournament players to comedic entertainers. Their dueling style also kept evolving towards more absurd directions.
Speaking of which, Jonouchi's soul card, "Red-Eyes Black Dragon," was even won from Ryuzaki. From then on, Ryuzaki genuinely hadn't won a single match.
The end of DM didn't specify what happened to him, and he didn't appear in the sequel anime, GX. But thinking about it now, the GX timeline was set only 8 years after the end of DM, so encountering him now wasn't surprising.
This implied that although Dark Yugi had returned to the Afterlife, DM-era characters like Yugi and Jonouchi should still be around in this era; it just wasn't explicitly stated where they were or what they were doing.
As an old-timer from the DM era, Ryuzaki, with the title "Having dueled Katsuya Jonouchi," had even become a "Legendary Duelist."
These days, even a fodder character who was instantly defeated by Yugi back then dared to declare themselves a legend. Some of them might truly have skill, but some were just taking advantage of the hype. The "dueled the King of Games" title's prestige was generally not much higher than the "fought the First Hokage back in the day" claim from a certain character with a "horn" on his head.
Haga and Ryuzaki didn't appear in GX, so their current strength was hard to say. However, Yugen took note, thinking that if he encountered them later in the tournament, he should still show them some respect and make some targeted adjustments to his deck.
Yugen bought a cup of milk tea, found a seat, and conveniently flipped through the list of registered participants.
The participants' levels were generally higher than those at the dueling dojo. This tournament should allow him to smoothly reach four stars, so he wouldn't have to worry about the academy's registration requirements.
He scanned the list at a glance. Apart from Dinosaur Ryuzaki, most were unfamiliar faces; it seemed there were no other recognizable characters.
Huh?
Yugen's eyes fell on a familiar-looking name.
Manjome Jun?
The "number two" of GX for a thousand years, who completed the transformation from elite to comedic relief in one year, and dragged his master along with him?
He conveniently checked Manjome's personal information.
Duel Academy's affiliated Junior High Elite Academy, expected to be promoted to Duel Academy's Senior High this year.
Hmm. So, in terms of age, the GX main cast should be the same age as him.
No problem.
He then checked his own first-round qualifier match information.
Nakamura Tsubasa, Duelist Level Four.
It seems there shouldn't be any pressure.
In fact, when Nakamura Tsubasa walked to the qualifier arena and stood across from Yugen, he thought the same thing.
Fujiki Yugen: Level One, no tournament experience, no awards, blank record.
Just a few short lines of personal information. Nakamura reread it for a long time, seeing only two words between the lines.
Free win.
Sometimes, on the dueling field, with good luck, you'd get matched against such an opponent. These types of people were often called "charitable duelists" among the ranks. They were terrible, but somehow loved to play, their main purpose being to give away wins.
This should be a sure thing.
But Nakamura didn't know that when Yugen stood across from him and drew his starting five cards, he immediately apologized to his opponent in his heart.
Sorry, buddy, but I opened the nuts.
It seems only one of us can play Yu-Gi-Oh this time.
Yugen went first. He started with the Spell Card "Confiscation," paying 1000 Life Points to look at the opponent's hand and discard one card. This was followed by "The Forceful Sentry," which allowed him to look at the opponent's hand and return one card to their deck. Then, he activated "Delinquent Duo," paying another 1000 Life Points to continue the combo with a third attack, randomly discarding one card from the opponent's hand and then having the opponent discard one more of their choice, totaling two cards discarded.
The legendary "Hand Destruction" trio, played in one smooth, high-quality combo.
It hadn't even reached the opponent's turn yet, and the opponent was still in a daze, with only one card left in his hand.
Because he had seen the opponent's hand, Yugen knew very well that the only card left was the Spell Card "Double Spell." It allowed the user to use an opponent's Graveyard Spell Card by discarding one card from their hand.
Not very useful.
The "quality trio" combo was completed seamlessly. Then, Yugen didn't summon any monsters, set one more card, and ended his turn, looking extremely cool.
Finally, he elegantly made a "please" gesture.
I'm done. You're welcome to play.
Nakamura Tsubasa was completely distraught.
It's not even my turn, and I only have one card in hand. What the hell am I supposed to play?
But upholding the principles of a duelist, he didn't give up so easily. Nakamura Tsubasa steadied his mind and drew a card from his deck.
Then, he saw the opponent elegantly flip a Trap Card: "Drop Off."
The card he had just drawn, without even being warmed up, immediately went to the Graveyard.
Nakamura was in chaos.
This motherf*er is determined not to let people play cards, isn't he?
There was no way around it. With "Double Spell" in hand, he couldn't use it as a cost to discard a card. He could only dejectedly end his turn.
He somehow felt like his turn ended before it even began. He didn't know if it was an illusion.
Then it was Yugen's turn again. Yugen activated the Spell Card "Reinforcement of the Army," which allowed him to search for a Warrior-Type monster from his deck. Yugen immediately took a "Don Zaloog," then Normal Summoned Zaloog and attacked directly.
Following that, he activated Zaloog's effect: when it inflicts battle damage to the opponent, he can discard one card from the opponent's hand.
Nakamura Tsubasa: "..."
Now he had no cards left.
No...
What kind of karma did he accumulate in his past life to be matched with this kind of infuriating player?