"How about it? Want to give it a try?" Youye looked at the three stunned people, finally settling his gaze on Luo Hao as he asked with an undisguised teasing smile.
Gulp~
Luo Hao swallowed and fell into thought. It was impossible to say he was not afraid after Youye had put it that way, but did he want to give up? Not really. This was a chance to see a powerful deck in action—normally, he would not even get the opportunity to see one.
"Will it be like going to prison?" Luo Hao asked after a long while, his expression complicated.
"Not prison. It'll just be a little unpleasant," Youye said with a smile.
"Then I'm willing to try this Drytron deck." After hearing Youye's answer, Luo Hao considered it briefly and agreed. Feeling bad was fine; as long as it was not the kind of prison experience that shattered his mentality, it was acceptable.
Under Chang Xingge's lead, they went to a separate room furnished with several computer setups. Youye and Luo Hao casually picked two and logged into their accounts.
"Senior really isn't Platinum Rank." After logging in, Wang Cheng looked at the account Youye had signed into this time. It was ranked 533rd in King Rank, and he exclaimed in amazement.
At his exclamation, everyone turned to look at Youye's Master Duel home screen. Seeing the displayed rank, even though they had already suspected it, they still could not hide the admiration and surprise in their eyes.
Weak Heaven-level Duelists were in Diamond, average ones were in Grandmaster Rank, and the strong could break into King Rank, which had only six hundred spots!
Master Duel used random matchmaking, and a single game determined victory or defeat, so it could not reveal a duelist's full strength. But who would dare underestimate an expert who had reached Grandmaster Rank or higher?
"You all guessed it. If I kept using a Platinum Rank account, it would be a little hard to justify." Youye smiled and did not deny it, though he also did not say this was his highest-ranked account. He then opened the account's deck list and prepared to select Drytron.
The reason he used this account was not merely because its rank matched the level everyone believed he had. More importantly, this account had a completed Drytron deck. As a meta deck from 2021 in his previous life, it was much weaker than later meta decks, but it had still been meta. Naturally, he had built it long ago.
"Eh? Senior, you also have three championship decks—Blackwing, Raidraptor, and Infernoid?" Once Youye opened his deck list, the decks besides Drytron naturally came into view. The moment Chang Xingge saw the decks she recognized, she was rendered speechless.
The others noticed them as well, their eyes widening just like hers. These were championship decks. Although most card information had been revealed due to the tournaments, quite a lot was still missing, making it extremely difficult to assemble a full set.
"Those championship decks aren't even Senior's usual decks? What archetypes are Thunder Frog and Enlightenment Paladin?" Wang Cheng's pupils contracted. He noticed that the three decks were ranked rather far back. Being further back did not mean they were weaker than those ahead of them, but it showed that these three were not Youye's commonly used decks. The ones Youye used most often were at the very front, named Thunder Frog and Enlightenment Paladin.
Wang Cheng's words made Chang Xingge and Munin realize this as well. Compared with Wang Cheng and Chang Xingge's surprise, Munin's expression was somewhat strange.
Were the three championship decks strong? Yes, they were. But based on the duelists of those three archetypes she had encountered in Master Duel, all three were far inferior to her Runick archetype. Yet her Runick archetype could not even beat Kashtira, let alone the Ishizu Tearlaments Youye had mentioned.
That raised a question. If archetypes weaker than her Runick archetype were here, why were those two heavyweight options absent from Youye's deck pool?
Though puzzled, Munin said nothing. She was Youye's spirit and had already decided to cling to him. If those decks were not in his account, it meant he had his own plans. She would not question him.
"Yeah, I rarely use championship decks. Mainly because they're too weak. These two are for climbing." Youye did not deny it and only gave a simple explanation without elaborating. After selecting the Drytron deck, he began creating a duel room.
Wang Cheng was not the only one. His eyes flickered as he wisely refrained from asking further questions. Aside from the two climbing decks Youye had mentioned, the Kashtira deck Sheng Ning had reported was not there, Runick was not there, and even his own Tearlaments archetype was absent. One missing deck could be explained as hiding one's strength, but two or three?
Clearly, Youye was still holding back!
"A normal room, or should I set a fixed order for you?" Drawing on his previous experience with Sheng Ning, and mainly wanting Chang Xingge to see Drytron's strength, Youye asked Luo Hao.
"Fixed order." Luo Hao thought about it before answering. It was admittedly a little embarrassing for an Earth-level Master Duelist, but against a King Rank duelist, there was nothing wrong with making that request.
What if he won? If an Earth-level Duelist defeated a King Rank duelist, he could brag about it for the rest of his life!
"Alright, the room's set up. The name is: Simple Negation Board." Youye nodded, set up the room, and told Luo Hao its name.
"I'm in. Let's begin." Luo Hao entered the room name and joined, his gaze growing increasingly serious and cautious. After what had just been said, he did not believe the Drytron deck Youye was using would be simple.
"Alright." Youye nodded and started the duel.
Youye (8000 LP) vs. Luo Hao (8000 LP)
Youye won the choice and chose to go first. Both sides drew five cards, and the duel began.
Looking at his hand, Youye looked at Luo Hao with a hint of pity. This luck was genuinely terrible. With this hand, he could easily put up eight or nine negates. Without exaggeration, he could negate Luo Hao's entire hand.
As an Earth-level Duelist, Luo Hao's instincts were long beyond those of ordinary people. Naturally, Youye's pitying gaze did not escape him. In an instant, goosebumps rose all over his body, as if he were about to encounter some great terror.
At the same time, Wang Cheng and Munin, standing beside Youye, looked at his hand with strange expressions but did not say a word. Chang Xingge's head, meanwhile, was filled with question marks, and she instinctively asked, "Senior, I know this breaks the rules, but could you tell us what cards you have in your hand?"
She did not directly ask about the cards. Youye was in the middle of a duel, and asking without his permission would reveal information about his cards to Luo Hao. That was a major taboo in dueling. Unless the person being asked agreed, the duel would not be recognized.
"I know what you want to ask. I'm using a Drytron deck, so why did I open five cards without a single Drytron card among them, right?" Youye smiled faintly and voiced her confusion.
"Yes. I considered that you might be running engines, but isn't this a bit too many? You don't even have a single Drytron card..." Chang Xingge weakly confirmed.
What she really wanted to say was, wasn't this a Drytron deck? Had Youye optimized every single Drytron card out of it?
"You'll have them soon enough!" Youye smiled. Since Luo Hao had no effects during the Draw Phase or Standby Phase, he immediately made his move. "I activate the Spell Card Cyber Emergency, adding one Cyber Dragon monster or one LIGHT Machine-Type monster that cannot be Normal Summoned from my deck to my hand."
"???"
"Huh? That's a card from my Cyber archetype! Senior, aren't you playing Drytron? Why are you using Cyber Emergency to search Cyber Dragon?" At that moment, one more person became utterly bewildered—Luo Hao, who was currently dueling Youye.
Before you continue