Dark Insect's True Ace: Stirring the Snake

"You're the one who needs to step it up!" Looking at the three red cards in his hand, Dark Insect's cold smile became even more chilling. After speaking, he drew a card.

After glancing at the drawn card, the look in Dark Insect's eyes as he stared at Youye became even colder and more excited. His hoarse voice asked, "Is there any... asking is pointless anyway. You've crippled yourself, you can't use Monster Hand Traps, and my Runick Quick-Plays are sealed. You can't even object if you wanted to."

Youye smiled slightly, neither angry nor in denial. Indeed, he didn't have a single card in his hand that he could activate right now. However, whether he had crippled himself or not wasn't something Dark Insect got to decide.

"I set three, End Phase. Now it's your turn to slowly struggle," Dark Insect glanced at his Hand, set three cards, and chose to end his turn.

Youye drew a card for his turn. The Effect of his Demonic Eyes allowed him to draw two. Looking at the Infinite Impermanence he drew, combined with the Blazing Fire in his hand, it felt somewhat anticlimactic. He hadn't drawn the Effect Veiler and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring he had included in his Deck specifically to make Saya, Baronne, and Anaconda, but instead, he drew Infinite Impermanence.

Just then, Dark Insect's low and smug voice came through: "During your Draw Phase, I activate my Set card, Built-in Machine Gun! It inflicts damage to you equal to the total number of cards on your field and in your Hand multiplied by 200. You have a total of six cards, so you take 1200 points of damage!"

Youye LP: 8000 → 6800

Countless bullets rained down on Youye. Seeing this, just as he expected to feel pain, imperceptible Ghosts appeared within the Black Mist around him. The Ghosts blended into the Black Mist, shielding him from the bullets, preventing him from feeling any pain.

And this scene went unnoticed by everyone, including the Spirits like Munin.

Looking at Youye, who was covered in bullets, Dark Insect eagerly anticipated seeing Youye display panic, fear, and terror due to the pain. Thinking about this made him even more gleeful.

However, he found that Youye's eyes and expression showed none of these emotions. He looked at Dark Insect with a calm demeanor, as if asking, Are you still burning? If not, it's my turn.

"Hmph, you can still tough it out while your LP is high, but let's see if you still have that expression later!" Seeing Youye's appearance, Dark Insect let out a puzzled low哼, assuming Youye was just pretending to be unfazed.

"Then I'll activate Fountain, and set one. If you don't have anything else, End Phase." Youye was a bit puzzled; he hadn't actually endured anything. However, he didn't explain and went straight to Main Phase 1, activating Fountain and setting one card before ending his turn.

"???"

"No way, you drew Infinite Impermanence on your second turn?"

Seeing Youye immediately activate Fountain and set one, Dark Insect, although he wanted to see Youye's miserable state, hadn't stopped calculating. He naturally understood that Youye's action meant the card he Set was Infinite Impermanence, and he still had Blazing Fire in his Hand. In the next turn, he would break through his Chaos Hunter.

"Yeah, actually, I could show you something even more interesting, but unfortunately, the weather isn't cooperating!" Youye sighed lightly, his face full of regret.

"Something even more interesting?" Dark Insect looked at Youye in confusion, a bad premonition in his heart.

Also, how did he feel that Youye in front of him wasn't stuck at all, but rather, he himself was stuck because his Deck was specialized for Burn Damage and he could only draw and use one card at a time?

The Black-robed Figure, who had been observing silently, also felt that Youye wasn't just bluffing; he genuinely had more up his sleeve.

Just as he was about to worry about potentially losing because of this, he saw a subtle upward curve at the corner of Dark Insect's mouth. In that moment, he seemed to understand something. Not only did he not worry, but the mouth under his black robe began to curve upwards uncontrollably.

Dark Insect, being the most suitable opponent for Youye, naturally wouldn't rely solely on Chaos Hunter from the Chaos Archetype. Rather, Dark Insect's original Archetype was very effective against Runick, and Chaos Hunter was just an addition.

"Yeah, I drew it." Youye nodded, not hiding it. There wasn't much to hide anyway. He wasn't afraid of the Set Infinite Impermanence being destroyed. If the stalemate continued like this, he had too many ways to win.

Old-era Unfair Play Burn Damage Decks and new-era mainstream Unfair Play Stall Decks were not on the same level at all. The performance gap between their Decks was too large.

"..." Seeing Youye so nonchalant, completely lacking the excitement of drawing a card that could break the situation, Dark Insect's face immediately twitched with veins, and he almost ground his teeth.

The last time he was this underestimated was against a Heaven-tier Duelist? And Youye was just a newly certified Yellow-level Duelist with a bit more Dueling knowledge. Just because his Master Duel Rank was slightly higher, he was facing him with such composure?!

"My turn, draw!" Seeing the card he drew, Dark Insect glanced at it, then looked at Youye.

Youye grinned, and slowly said, "I activate my Set card, Infinite Impermanence, targeting your Chaos Hunter on the field!"

Dark Insect didn't negate or Chain, choosing to let it resolve.

Seeing this, Youye was slightly surprised. With three face-down cards in the back row, not a single Chain was activated. After considering the possibilities of what those cards could be, he continued, "You know the effect of Fountain, so I won't explain it. I activate the effect of the Quick-Play Spell Blazing Fire in my Hand, targeting your Chaos Hunter on the field. It will be destroyed, then Banish two cards."

"I activate the effect of Fountain, adding Spellbook and Blazing Fire from the Graveyard to my Hand, then drawing two cards."

"You continue," Youye looked at his Hand, then extended his hand, signaling Dark Insect that it was his turn.

"I set one, End Phase!" Dark Insect's face darkened. He was using a specialized Red Trap Burn Damage Deck. Other than setting cards, what else could he do?

However, Youye wouldn't be happy next turn. He had already set up. Youye was merely a prey in his spiderweb!

"My turn, draw two!" Seeing that he drew Effect Veiler this time, Youye's eyes narrowed slightly. Since Dark Insect had no objections, he went straight to Main Phase 1 and Normal Summoned the Effect Veiler from his Hand.

Seeing this, the excitement on Dark Insect's face reappeared. Although he didn't know what Youye was doing by summoning Effect Veiler, it didn't stop him from dealing Burn Damage!

"I activate my Set Trap Card, Just Deserts! You take 500 LP damage for each monster on your field. You have two monsters, so you take 1000 damage!"

"And then, I Chain a second Just Deserts as Chain Link 2!"

Effect resolution: Just Deserts activated successfully as Chain Link 2; Just Deserts activated successfully as Chain Link 1;

Youye LP: 6800 → 4800!

"Kid, now your LP is just over half! Are you feeling scared!?"

Having cut off 2000 LP in one go, Dark Insect became excited and smug again.

"...I was wondering just now, what's there to be smug about cutting off this much LP?" Looking at Dark Insect, who was getting smug again, Youye was puzzled.

Burning 3200 over six turns. If this were before the穿越, let alone the former mainstream Burn Damage Deck Trickstar, even a regular Burn Damage Deck would likely be mocked in Card Player communities for saying they burned 3200 over six turns.

How bad do you have to be to only burn 3200 over six turns?

"Heh heh, I know you have at least Grandmaster Rank in Master Duel. You understand Archetype combinations and Deck Builds better than me, you understand various combos better than me, and you understand the Dueling Rules better than me. In a normal Duel, I probably wouldn't be your opponent!" Dark Insect sneered and slowly spoke. After saying this, he paused slightly, then declared with certainty!

"But you don't understand Burn Damage. You don't understand that the amount of damage I'm dealing in this situation is almost the fastest possible."

"...Awesome. Whatever makes you happy." Hearing Dark Insect's certain words, Youye couldn't help but lose his composure a bit. Another person living in their own world.

He wasn't planning to waste any more words on Dark Insect. He decided to first clear Dark Insect's back row, which hadn't moved, then make Anaconda to summon Dragon Knight and end the Duel.

"I set Effect Veiler and Hugin as Link Materials! Link Summon, Link-2 S:P Little Knight! Since the Link Material Hugin is a Fusion Monster, I activate S:P Little Knight's first effect upon Link Summon! I target and Banish your face-down card in the back row! Then I enter a Self-Restriction that prevents direct attacks!"

"Oh? A new card?" Dark Insect and the Black-robed Figure hadn't received any news about S:P Little Knight, so they didn't know she existed. But at this moment, the corners of their mouths were harder to suppress than an AK.

Youye's move immediately brought out the Monster that could truly shut down his Deck!

"The card you banished is my true ace Trap Card, [Stirring the Snake]. If this Set card leaves the field due to an opponent's effect and is sent to the Graveyard or banished, I can activate its effect. I Special Summon 1 monster from my Deck or Extra Deck."

"The monster I summon is the strongest boss monster of my Naturia archetype!"

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