Advancement

"Big Brother Manjoume lost?"

In the stands, Little Brother A and Little Brother B were both completely dumbfounded.

As classmates from the Middle School Division of Duel Academy, they were both clear on Big Brother Manjoume's strength. It was no exaggeration to say that even in the elite-filled Middle School Division, Manjoume was definitely the top student of their year.

And Manjoume, someone like that, actually just casually lost to a rookie participating for the first time?

Is this rookie a monster?

The Red-haired Girl next to them was also surprised for quite a while, then looked at the two and said, "It seems your Big Brother lost."

The two little brothers exchanged glances, pondered for a moment, and then said.

"Oh, we just got it wrong. At first glance, this person looked a bit like him, but looking closer, it turns out it's not our Big Brother," said Little Brother A.

"Yeah, yeah, he really does look alike, haha," Little Brother B also said.

The Red-haired Girl narrowed her eyes. "So, by chance, his name is also the same?"

"Y-yeah."

The two little brothers forced themselves, gritting their teeth.

"That really is quite a coincidence."

.

This match was a huge upset, and the audience was greatly surprised. However, perhaps no one felt more like spitting up blood than Manjoume, who was the one involved.

Losing was one thing, but the key was that he even had a strange feeling, as if the opponent hadn't put in any effort at all.

Throughout the entire match, he felt like the other side was effortlessly handling things, as if they had just stepped onto the field with a casual "just playing around with you" kind of attitude, not taking it seriously at all.

The opponent hadn't even summoned a single Tribute Monster!

Manjoume felt he had completely dominated the field and applied sufficient pressure. But the opponent handled it with ease, as if casually deflecting his full power—no, to be more accurate, it felt like hitting cotton.

Throughout the match, Manjoume felt as if the atmosphere had been building and building, setting the stage repeatedly, accumulating power until it was about to explode—yet there was nowhere to release it.

In short, he had never encountered such a frustrating match.

"Wait."

As the opponent put away his Duel Disk and turned to leave the field, he couldn't help but call out to him.

Kira stopped and turned around.

"Who exactly are you?" Manjoume asked, gritting his teeth, unwilling to accept defeat.

Kira met his gaze and simply smiled slightly.

"Just a passing One-star Duelist."

After saying that, he turned and left gracefully, but Manjoume only felt as if his heart had been stabbed again, making him want to spit up blood.

One-star?

What kind of idiotic system and idiotic evaluation mechanism is this? You call this Level One?

Regardless, Manjoume's journey ended here in the Top 8, and he would likely be lectured by his two older brothers when he got back. Moreover, it would have been fine if he had lost to Ryuzaki, but he lost to such a nobody, and the key thing was that the way he played was enough to give someone a brain hemorrhage.

It was like having eight lifetimes of bad luck just to run into this guy.

Leaving aside everything else, there was one thing Manjoume was certain of.

He would never, ever, ever want to see this sly old bastard again in his life.

Kira reviewed his matches over the past few days, gaining experience and summarizing lessons learned through practical duels with the local Duelists.

Although he hadn't encountered any tough opponents in this tournament yet, the matches had made him realize a slight flaw in his previous thinking.

That was, he couldn't directly apply the Real Card Environment of that period to the Anime Environment.

Although Hand Destruction was a Deck that dominated the competitive scene back then and possessed strong oppressive power here as well, relying solely on this move was fine against average Duelists, but its effectiveness might be reduced against experts from the Anime.

Firstly, the Anime had incredibly powerful Draw Engines that didn't exist in the Real Card Environment, making it possible for a single card to speed up deck thinning and draw five or six cards.

Secondly, it was commonplace for strong individuals in the Anime to turn the game around with just one card, even with an empty hand and field.

This wasn't some kind of mysticism; there was an explanation for it. To use the words from the Original Work, this was called "Everything about a True Duelist is inevitable; even the Draw can be created."

For example, in the later stages of the Anime, Judai Yuki always wore colored contacts during tough duels, and that wasn't just for looks. In the form where he activated the Power of the Supreme King, Judai could possess God Draw Power at a higher rank than usual, classifying him as a high-tier expert within the Anime Supernatural System.

In his Supreme King Form, Judai, even with a random pile of forty cards drawn from the Card Pool, might be able to crush ordinary people using top-tier Deck builds.

"It would still be great if I had a chance to get some kind of God Draw Skill..." Kira sighed.

At first glance, it seemed like transmigrating into Yu-Gi-Oh! meant you could take off as long as you knew how to duel, but without some Supernatural Foundation, it really wasn't easy to get by in later environments where Gods and Immortals were flying everywhere.

As everyone knows, the simplest and most direct way to get a Supernatural Rank in Yu-Gi-Oh! isn't through training, but by finding a way to get Spirit Possession. But as far as he knew, most of the spirits in the Original Work were already taken; where was he supposed to trick one into joining him?

For now, he should stop thinking about these things. All he could do was research the environment as much as possible and optimize his Deck for tactical improvements.

Kira was currently in the stage of exploring while practicing, and his Deck hadn't been completely finalized.

His next opponent was named Kajimoto Makoto, Duelist Level Five. His background listed several public match records and noted him as a True Disciple of the "Psychic Style Duel Dojo."

Psychic Style. Kira saw this and thought hard for a moment.

If he remembered correctly, this style seemed to have briefly appeared in the later stages of the GX Anime. It was in competition with the Cyber Style Duel Dojo inherited by Zane Truesdale. At the end of the Anime, a master with Menkyo Kaiden in the Psychic Style even showed up to challenge the Dojo, playing Jinzo.

Half a day before the match, he watched recordings of his opponent's recent public matches. The Deck Kajimoto Makoto used seemed to be centered around "Mechanical King", which is the Ace Monster series of one of the "Big Five", villains who defected from KaibaCorp in the DM Anime.

According to the Psychic Style Duelist from the Anime who came to challenge Zane Truesdale's Dojo, their Psychic Style's Ace Monster seemed to be Jinzo, but clearly, it wasn't in Kajimoto Makoto's Deck.

But on second thought, that makes sense. Cyber End Dragon is said to be the Cyber Style's Ace Monster, but there's only one in the Dojo; it's only passed down to the style's sole legitimate successor, and also serves as proof of the style's identity.

Kajimoto Makoto is only an apprentice of the Psychic Style; clearly, he couldn't possibly be qualified to inherit the style's Ace Monster yet.

Having watched recordings of his opponent's previous matches, Kira already had a handle on his opponent's tactics. He had also adjusted his counter-Deck.

He checked his Deck one last time before the match, confirming everything was in order. He stood up, inserted his Deck into his Duel Disk, put it on properly, and walked through the dimly lit passage to the arena.

The host had already finished warming up the crowd and announcing. Kira walked up the stairs onto the stage, only to see his opponent had also appeared on the opposite field. Their gazes met across the space, striking invisible sparks in the air.

Kira stood still on the field, and his Duel Disk activated.

He felt this match should be no problem.