The First Battle

The Starting Deck he brought from his transmigration had taken shape. After checking and confirming everything was in order, Kira naturally found his hands itching.

No Duelist who just finished building a deck could resist the urge to test it out.

So, for him, the primary target was obviously the Dojo where his predecessor belonged. He intended to randomly find a fellow member of the Dojo to bring him the joy of a Duel.

Arriving at the Dojo, he stepped inside and saw a group of students gathered in one spot, making a lot of noise.

"As expected of Brother Sato, he actually Successfully Leveled Up!"

Kira raised an eyebrow and looked over with some curiosity.

He saw that the person surrounded by the apprentices was a blond man with a hairstyle that looked like he'd be good at card games. He sounded humble, but his face couldn't hide his pride. "Oh, it was nothing, nothing at all. I just barely made it to Three Stars by luck. It's just so-so, haha."

"Level Three! Brother Sato must be the first Level Three in our Dojo, right?"

"So strong!"

Kira frowned and searched through his predecessor's memories before understanding what they were talking about.

The Duelist Star Rating System was a strength assessment metric adjusted in real-time by KaibaCorp based on each Duelist's registered battle records within the company's system. It was the same system that appeared in the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM anime.

Normally, the Duelist Star Rating ranged from Level One to Level 8, a total of eight tiers. In the DM anime's Battle City arc, the Duel King Yugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba himself were rated Level 8.

However, it was also clear that this system wasn't absolutely authoritative and sometimes included personal factors. For instance, Katsuya Jonouchi, the man scornfully called a "Vanilla Monster" by Kaiba.

Jonouchi was called the "World's Third Best Duelist, second only to Yugi and Kaiba" by Pegasus. Yet, in KaibaCorp's system rating, he was only Level Two, considered an amateur.

It was hard to say there wasn't some personal animosity between the President and the Vanilla Monster involved.

But that was already during the Battle City period. By now, Katsuya Jonouchi had long been adjusted to Level 8, which was generally the highest level among Duelists, known to the world as a "Legendary Duelist."

And President Seto Kaiba, being incredibly arrogant, had adjusted himself to Level Ten.

There were only two Level Ten Duelists currently existing in the world. One was Seto Kaiba himself, and the other was Yugi Mutou, who had long since retired from Dueling.

Setting it up this way was partly because President Kaiba believed he was a tier above all other existing Duelists, and also because it represented Yugi Mutou as the only opponent he acknowledged in the world as worthy of being his equal.

Okay, saying "equal" was actually a bit of an exaggeration. As everyone knew, President Kaiba had dueled Duel King Yugi Mutou countless times throughout his life, yet he had never won a single match to this day.

And Kira's predecessor's rating in the system was...

One Star.

The best of the noobs.

Kira: (groans)

Evidently, because his predecessor was both bad and loved to play, he often went to the Arena under KaibaCorp to play ranked matches, but lost more than he won. Over time, his star rating naturally plummeted to the bottom of the abyss.

Most people had to play ranked matches in the Arena to raise their star rating. However, it seemed the Arena matches could only raise one's rating up to Four Stars at most; to climb higher, one had to participate in public tournaments.

Only then did he remember that when he was searching for the entry requirements for Duel Academy, it seemed there was a rule stating that the KaibaCorp certified Duelist Star Rating had to be at least Level Three or higher.

In this system, Level Seven and Eight were either Legendary Duelists or top-tier professionals. Most professional players were Level Six, with a few lower-tier professionals at Level Five.

Amateur Duelists were mostly clustered at Level Two. Level One was below average; Level Three was already considered skilled.

So, the requirement for Duel Academy admission being Three Stars or higher was actually quite high.

However, this was also understandable. At this stage, Duel education in this world was still in its nascent phase, and there weren't many academic options. And the academy founded by Kaiba was among the top ones, with its quality and the massive resources invested being plain for all to see.

At the beginning of the GX anime, the principal also mentioned in his school-wide speech that the academy's admissions were rigorous, and therefore, all the students present were elites. In the anime, even the background students in the academy, even the bottom-rung underachievers in the Slifer Red dormitory, were theoretically speaking, more skilled than most Duelists outside.

So, to get into the academy, I have to climb the ranks first... Kira's mouth twitched.

The student currently surrounded by everyone was named Koji Sato, and he was already considered the Big Brother of this small Dojo. It seemed he had gotten lucky this week and climbed to Three Stars, and everyone was congratulating him.

Kira happened to be looking for someone to Duel at the moment. Thinking of this, he decided he might as well challenge the Big Brother.

Although the background characters who appeared in the anime often seemed weak, Kira knew the principle that practice makes perfect. He couldn't make conclusions based on inherent impressions without testing it himself.

It was a good chance to test the skill level of Duelists in this world.

The Dojo itself encouraged students to Duel and spar often. At this time, Sato, who had just gained significant rank, was in high spirits. Seeing a challenge offered, there was no reason for him to refuse.

Students scattered throughout the Dojo heard there was a Duel to watch and immediately gathered at the Duel Field to observe.

"Seriously? That Kira? Challenging Brother Sato?"

"I remember he's only One Star? Isn't he just looking for a beating?"

The students chattered amongst themselves, while the two combatants stood ready on opposite sides of the stadium.

Koji Sato felt relaxed at this moment. Having gained rank and now back to Duel at the Dojo, looking at all these junior students, he felt a sense of arrogant superiority, like viewing the world from a mountaintop.

He felt like a master expert guiding a junior. Playing this game wasn't for sparring or improvement anymore; it was partly to give some pointers to a junior, and partly to satisfy his need to show off and look cool in front of his junior students.

Hmm, the latter might be slightly more dominant.

Why else?

He, a Three-Star expert, going up against a One-Star junior student – could he possibly lose?

The two unfolded their Duel Disks and each drew five cards into their Hand.

"Duel!" x2

[Kira, LP 4000]

[Koji, LP 4000]

"I'll take the First Turn. Draw!"

Kira drew a card from his Deck.

In the era of the anime, you could still Draw on the First Turn. In his previous life, that rule had been changed many years ago.

Whether you went first or second was usually decided randomly by the Duel Disks, but the person who got the First Turn could choose to pass it.

Glancing at his six starting cards, he couldn't help but nod slightly. While not a "perfect Hand," it was decent enough.

"First, this card."

He drew the first card and inserted it into his Duel Disk.

"I pay 1000 Life Points to activate the Spell Card from my Hand - Mischievous Twins!"

[Kira, LP 4000 → LP 3000]

As the card was inserted, a holographic projection of the green Spell Card appeared before Kira. Two little demons, one red and one blue, flew out together, with the numbers "1" and "2" floating above their heads respectively.

"This card's Effect lets my opponent randomly discard one card from their Hand, and then choose another card from their Hand to discard."

This was a brutal, straightforward Hand Destruction powerhouse in early tournaments. A violent 2-for-1 trade, playing it immediately put the opponent down 2 cards in their starting Hand.

It was easy to see why such a vicious card, like Pot of Greed, received the same treatment; it had been a Permanently Banned Card ever since Kira started playing. So, after playing for so many years, this was his first time personally playing something like this.

The demons flew out, grabbed a card from Koji's Hand without a word, as if saying, Gimme that.

Koji frowned, then chose another card himself and sent it to the Graveyard.

Kira then made no further plays, simply drawing three cards from his Hand with a flourish—

—Set Three, Pass.

He then gestured for Koji to go ahead.

Alright, now it's your turn to play Yu-Gi-Oh.

Any Real-life Card Player facing those three Ominous Backrow cards would likely already be feeling the oppressive aura and breaking out in a cold sweat. However, as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. The Duelists in this bright, anime world were completely unaware of the severity of the situation.

Koji even maintained his friendly, senior-student-like gentle smile, instructing, "Couldn't Draw a Monster Card on the first turn, Junior? You need to pay attention to balancing Monsters and Spells/Traps when Deck Building.

Alright, My Turn! Draw!"

"Hold on."

Kira interrupted him, waving his hand.

"The moment you Draw, the Trap is triggered. Reveal Set Card, Trap Card - Confiscation!

Activate during your Draw Phase. Send the card you just Drew directly to the Graveyard."

Koji: "!"

He hesitated for a moment, then sent the card he had just Drawn, which hadn't even been warmed up in his Hand yet, to the Duel Disk's Graveyard. He looked down at his Hand again and finally started to realize something was wrong.

So far, neither side had played a single monster, and it seemed like the Duel hadn't even truly begun, yet Koji had already lost half of his starting Hand of six cards, leaving only three.

And he faced an even more frustrating problem.

He didn't have any monsters left in his Hand.

One Lower-Level Monster was among the two cards discarded by Twin Demons, and the card just sent by Confiscation was another. Now he only had three cards total in his Hand, and not a single playable monster.

But it didn't matter.

"Tch, if that's the case, then I activate a Spell Card from my Hand!"

Koji waved his hand and played another card from his remaining three.

Monster Reborn!

A Revival Spell that can Revive a monster from the Graveyard. From the DM era to GX, both in real life and the anime, it was a highly sought-after Comeback God Card.

"With Monster Reborn, I Revive this guy from the Graveyard - Zera the Warrior! Revive in Attack Position!"

This time, a warrior in green armor wielding a greatsword appeared, standing proudly in the center of the Duel Field, becoming the first monster to appear in this Duel.

[Zera the Warrior, ATK 1600]

Honestly, if Koji had a choice, he wouldn't want to waste the precious Monster Reborn on such a weak monster, but he had no other cards to play. Hesitation leads to defeat in a Duel; he had to seize the opportunity to establish an offensive tempo—

"Reveal Set Card - Bottomless Trap Hole." Kira calmly flipped over a card from his backrow. "When your opponent Summons a monster with 1500 ATK or more, that monster is destroyed and Banished."

And so, Zera the Warrior, who had just been brought out at the cost of a Monster Reborn, didn't even have time to find his footing before stepping into a black hole that opened beneath him. He fell in with a boom, exploding into a cloud of smoke and disappearing without a trace.

Koji: "."

With only two cards left in his Hand, his field was still completely empty.

Perhaps it was just his imagination.

But Koji Sato felt like his blood pressure was starting to rise.