By the third turn, Wuping was staring at Youye's field: Messenger of Peace on the left, There Can Be Only One and a set Pendulum Scale on the right, Rivalry of Warlords in the middle, and Munin in the Extra Monster Zone. Her face was filled with despair.
Bai Yun'er and the other two women looked at Wuping with pity. They all wished they could find her a legendary Harpie's Feather Duster, if only so she could have some fun.
Unfortunately, there were no what-ifs. Wuping could do nothing but draw the rest of her cards and end the duel.
After the duel ended, her eyes were vacant, but her face showed relief—and even gratitude.
Because if Youye had banished all her key cards from the start, she would not even have needed to duel. She would have been locked up from her second or third turn onward.
"Senior, this is the card list the Family Head prepared for you. You may choose any five cards as the Bai family's apology and thanks for building Miss's deck." Wuping truly deserved to be called a maid trained by a great family. She quickly composed herself, opened another card list on her tablet, handed it to Youye, and spoke respectfully.
As soon as Youye took it, Wuping quietly returned behind Bai Yun'er and lowered her head without another word.
Seeing Wuping like this, Youye's eyes flashed with helplessness. She had steadied her emotions, but the shadow remained. He then turned his attention to the card list.
It had to be said that the Bai family truly deserved its former status as one of the Dragon Nation's ten great Duelist families. This card list was far richer than the Duel Inspectorate's.
Aside from various loose cards, this Card Pool contained nearly complete sets for archetypes such as Red-Eyes and Cyber Angel, at least half the cards for archetypes like Cyber Dragon, Dark Magician, and Crystal Beast, as well as one or two scattered cards from countless other archetypes.
What surprised Youye most was that the Bai family was still holding back. This Card Pool did not contain a single card from the Blue-Eyes Archetype, and if Blue-Eyes was absent, then other cards could be absent as well.
Youye understood the Bai family's behavior.
Not a single card he had sold or traded had been obtained through designated acquisition within the last four years.
Often, an information gap could determine victory or defeat in a duel. Take Munin's duel with him, for example. If she had known Kashtira's effects, she still would not have won, but she definitely would not have lost to Munin when he had barely even used Kashtira's effects.
Simply put, unless your deck was already so powerful that it fully embodied the kind of resilience Ishizu Tearlaments had against any countermeasure, keeping cards secret was the normal thing to do.
After looking through the list for an hour, Youye selected five cards: King of the Swamp, Predaplant Chimerafflesia, Shaddoll Beast, Magical Eyes Skill Drain, and Evenly Matched.
With the first three, plus his Wheelchair Tearlaments and some generic cards, he could at least make his deck's Extra Deck more complete and barely keep the wheelchair moving forward.
As for the latter two, they were what Runick liked. Board-breaking plus drawing cards. Add Pachycephalo, Skill Drain, and Megalith Aratron afterward, and things would become even more comfortable. He could also optimize the Effect Veiler in his deck.
"Senior, are the Original Cards for Baronne de Fleur, Effect Veiler, and Infinite Impermanence available for trade?" After seeing Youye's selections, Bai Yun'er glanced at them curiously before asking with great respect.
"The Original Cards for those three are not up for trade." Youye refused immediately. Anyone who played Yu-Gi-Oh! understood the value of those cards. How could he possibly sell or trade them?
Hearing Youye refuse without even a moment's hesitation, Bai Yun'er's face filled with helplessness. Setting aside the latter two for now, she had a feeling that Baronne de Fleur could raise her Tenyi Swordsoul deck by an entire level. The generic Level 10 Synchro Youye had mentioned earlier was probably her!
Sheng Ning, standing nearby, was equally regretful. She had little interest in Baronne de Fleur, but Effect Veiler and Infinite Impermanence were cards that could only be encountered by chance. Every deck she had ever seen could use them. Their versatility was simply absurd.
But if Youye would not give them up, what could they do? Duel him for the cards? That was the kind of thing Dark Duelists did. More importantly, they did not believe they could beat Youye.
Wuping also sighed regretfully behind Bai Yun'er. Only Munin looked completely unconcerned, sitting there with the expression of someone watching a show.
She was different from the other three. After Youye obtained her archetype, she became his spirit. Once their relationship improved, getting cards from Youye would be as difficult as doing nothing at all.
Youye swept his gaze across the four women's varied expressions, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. He spoke again. "I won't sell them, but if you can provide cards I specify, I can let you manage them on my behalf and communicate with the spirits for free."
"Please tell us, Senior. I'll contact the family as soon as I return and have them look for the cards you need!" Bai Yun'er's eyes lit up. Management rights were not the same as ownership, but for her family, the result was effectively identical. Sheng Ning was also expectant, already determined to find a way to search for them after returning.
"I'll make a group chat later and post them there. I need quite a lot of cards." Youye smiled.
When they heard the words "quite a lot," the excitement in the three women's eyes grew even stronger!
Youye was pleased to see them looking so eager to work for him, though he did not hold much hope.
After all, the Duel Academy principal also knew he had the two generic cards, Infinite Impermanence and Effect Veiler. The principal had offered the same terms back then, yet nearly two years had passed, and of the dozens of cards Youye wanted, the principal had not found a single one.
Afterward, Bai Yun'er took Youye's card list and hurried off with Wuping. In her words, helping Youye find cards could not be delayed.
Sheng Ning remained for the time being because she needed to record the Ancient Gear deck build. About an hour later, Youye gave her a revised version. With this build, the deck was at least less prone to bad hands, though the cost had risen significantly.
As for overall performance, Sheng Ning tried it out on the spot and immediately claimed five straight wins in Platinum Rank. The smile on her face grew wider, and she even began to feel that she might be able to make a push and become an Earth-rank Master Duelist using the Ancient Gear archetype!
After seeing Sheng Ning off, Youye closed up shop and went home with Munin. Yes, he was taking Munin home with him.
According to Sheng Ning, after he obtained Munin's archetype, Munin was no longer an ownerless spirit. She was his spirit, and he was responsible for caring for her. If anything happened to her in the Human World, he would also be responsible.
Of course, since Munin had not been summoned into this world by him, Youye had the right to send her back to the Spirit World.
"Come to think of it, I never had the chance to ask. Munin, why did you come to the Human World? Isn't the spirit world bigger and more expansive?"
Along the way, Youye stopped and looked at the countless glowing stars in the night sky.
"Because it's boring~ The moment spirits in the Spirit World see one of us Runick spirits, they run away. We can't even find other spirits to duel. All we can do every day is raise Hugin, raise lions, and ride horses." Munin answered without any hesitation.
Hearing that answer, Youye showed understanding. Generally speaking, no spirit would choose to duel Runick. Just like people in his previous life, no one wanted to test their blood pressure control against Runick.
"Youye, I'm actually curious about something. Are Tearlaments strong? How do they compare to Kashtira?"
Munin suddenly spoke, her eyes fixed on Youye with curiosity.
One was the archetype that had defeated her, while the other was the archetype that had beaten her in competing for Youye. She was curious which of the two was stronger.
"Pure Tearlaments versus pure Kashtira is a six-four matchup. Tearlaments gets four, Kashtira gets six."
Youye glanced at Munin as he answered. Just as she was about to think Tearlaments were nothing special, Youye's voice sounded again.
"Fully built Ishizu Tearlaments versus fully built Kashtira is close to a nine-one matchup in BO1. Tearlaments gets nine, Kashtira gets one. In BO3, it's ten-zero. Tearlaments gets ten, Kashtira gets zero."
"Nine-one? Ten-zero?"
Munin stopped walking and stared wide-eyed at Youye's back, utterly incredulous.
What kind of cards were Tearlaments? Kashtira had defeated her in most games before it had even activated its effects. Just how absurd did Tearlaments have to be?
"Don't just stand there. We still need to go to the Duel Inspectorate tomorrow to certify our ranks."
"You'll see Tearlaments soon enough. I have a feeling that after ten years of stagnation in the Archetype Card Pool, it's calling to me!"
Before you continue