Playing Yu-Gi-Oh! Without Money?

On an island at sea, Duel Academy headquarters.

After being busy for most of the day, Principal Samejima finally found a moment of respite. He went to his office, leisurely brewed himself a cup of tea, and used this rare break to review this year's entrance exam results, along with several duels that interested him.

He had not expected Professor Chronos to personally step in. It was obvious that he had deliberately been making things difficult for some Jellyfish Head freshman. But this student named Judai Yuki was truly formidable—he had actually taken down the academy's highest-ranking practical duel official, who had been using his own deck, during the Entrance Exam.

Principal Samejima took a sip of tea and was quite pleased with the extraordinary potential Judai had displayed.

Naturally, he next looked at the practical duel of this year's first place. It was said that, aside from the open-ended subjective questions, this person's written test score had been perfect. He had even surpassed Daichi Misawa, who had also nearly received full marks, making for a truly outstanding performance.

So, how had this person's practical performance and Deck Building been?

What on earth was this?

Principal Samejima could not help scratching his shiny bald head.

He figured he had been around the Dueling World for many years and could be considered well-informed. Yet he truly had not seen a build like this very often.

No, if he had to say, the deck used during the later years of the legendary Duel King Yugi Mutou's career—the one Principal Samejima had once been fortunate enough to witness at an invitational hosted by Kaiba in his youth—seemed to have carried somewhat of the same flavor.

It was said that in the later stages of Duel King Yugi's career, many challengers who tried to face him ended up furious and frustrated. By the end, their twisted expressions practically looked like they were cosplaying Marik Ishtar from the Battle City days.

A little like that unfortunate examiner on the other side of the exam duel right now.

However, the evolution of the Dueling World over all these years had long since proven that this was the Duel King's unique specialty, not something others could easily imitate. For years, mainstream deck construction had continued moving in the direction Seto Kaiba had led, while such unorthodox techniques had become rare after the Duel King sealed his cards and retired, if not entirely extinct.

Unlike traditional professors represented by Chronos, Principal Samejima did not insist that students had to follow textbooks and build decks according to standard tactics.

It was simply that ordinary students lacked the ability to innovate and develop their own strategies. Yet based on his many years of teaching experience, Principal Samejima could tell at a glance that this student named Kira might possess such ability.

Could the academy have recruited a newcomer with such rare talent this year?

As the thought occurred to him, Principal Samejima could not help feeling rather expectant.

Looking at Judai Yuki on the roster, then at Fujiki Kira beside him, the principal leaned back in his chair and leisurely took another sip of tea, a gratified smile appearing on his face.

Little Duel Academy had recruited both a crouching dragon and a fledgling phoenix this year.

What a cause for celebration.

Duel Academy was quite efficient. Within days of the exams ending, applicants could already check their scores, results, and admission information.

Just as expected, Kira received his acceptance notice.

There was still a month before school started, so there was no rush to head to the island immediately. However, the academy's new class had already completed registration, and students like them who had passed the threshold were now officially counted as this year's reserve freshmen.

With his newly assigned student ID information, Kira logged back into KaibaCorp's card search system through the Academy Division channel. Sure enough, there were now more cards available for purchase.

He quickly looked through them, recording every in-stock card that seemed potentially useful and making a list. Then he reviewed and analyzed them one by one.

Most of them seemed as though they might be useful, but would likely require a specific build or be used for combo plays. He listed those aside for later consideration.

The cards he immediately decided to buy were generally staples that could work in most decks, mainly cheerful red Hand Traps.

For example, Karma Cut, which could send an opponent's monster to the Different Dimension by discarding one card from hand, as well as the eternally banned card that had not yet been butchered back then—Destruction Ring. It could destroy a monster and deal damage equal to that monster's attack power to both players. It was the ultimate table-flipping weapon for when you could not win, known across the community as the Draw Ring.

What delighted him even more was discovering that the all-powerful in-app purchase channel actually had Hand Traps.

As the saying went, you could defend against a thousand things, but Hand Traps were impossible to guard against. Unlike Trap Cards set On the Field, which were easy to anticipate and clear away, Hand Traps could be discarded directly from the hand to activate their effects. They had been mainstream in Yu-Gi-Oh! ever since their birth, even continuing into the present day.

Of course, early Hand Traps were not as vicious as modern ones. They were mostly defensive cards used to block attacks. Their origin naturally traced back to the mascot carried over from the Duel Monsters era: the Kuriboh in Yugi's hand, which could be discarded to directly negate Battle Damage.

So when Kira spotted a Kuriboh in the Rare Card section, he purchased it without hesitation. He was somewhat surprised that such a rare card was still available and had not already been snatched up.

Then again, that made sense. Judging from the anime, duelists did not seem particularly interested in low-level monsters with weak battle power that could only block one hit. Aside from being rare and uncommon itself, most of Kuriboh's added value came from being the "First Generation Duel King's mascot."

Next, he discovered a section in the Academy Division called "Theme Structure Deck." Opening it, he found that it consisted of prebuilt decks with specific themes, sold as complete packages at a fixed price.

Among them, he even saw the legendary Elemental HERO.

But that was only natural. In the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Chronos had called Judai's deck "a very common HERO Deck." In this era, HERO Decks themselves were commoner builds. It was only as more and more of Judai's new cards were printed later on that they gradually left the ranks of budget decks.

Every card player had some sort of HERO dream in their heart. Since he had come to the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX era, Kira curiously searched for them.

Then he instantly gave up on his HERO dream.

The monsters were basically just the notorious Four Useless Heroes. There were only two or three Fusion HEROes in stock, followed by a pile of dedicated support for the various useless heroes—Spark Blaster, Feather Shot, Burst Return, and so on.

They were all cards that even Judai had only used once in the anime before they vanished without a trace, their purpose utterly incomprehensible.

After a quick glance, he realized this was not a deck ordinary people could handle at all. Nearly every Spell or Trap required a particular useless HERO monster to activate, and even if you used 502 glue to forcibly bind the pieces together and drew them at the same time, each combo was far too limited in its applications. In actual duels, it was the kind of Hand Brick that made you question your life.

So the fact that Judai could use these things to win battle after battle and carve through half of Duel Academy in the early stages already placed his skill beyond the reach of ninety-nine percent of duelists.

Elemental HERO was out of consideration for now. Kira continued browsing.

Then he found that the Vehicroid series, the Vehicle Deck used by Judai's little brother Sho Marufuji, was also included.

His eyes lit up, and he hurriedly checked the card list in the build.

Sho Marufuji's Vehicroid Deck was not a Rare Card deck in the current environment either. It had performed poorly in the Real Card Environment for years and never had much competitive strength, making it a relatively fringe entertainment deck.

But this deck contained an early god-tier card that Sho Marufuji had used in the anime, yet which Konami still had not given a Physical Card Adaptation nearly twenty years later.

Just as I thought!

Kira's gaze immediately locked onto that specific card in the deck, and he bought the build without a second thought.

The cards in the build could not be sold individually. To buy them, he had to purchase the entire deck. But that was fine—the build itself was not expensive, and in the current environment, buying the entire thing for this one card alone was still worth it.

Kiteroid, Level 1, ATK 200, DEF 400.

Effect:

1) You could discard this card from your hand to make the Battle Damage from one Direct Attack against a player become 0.

2) While this card was in the Graveyard, you could make the Battle Damage from one Direct Attack against a player become 0, only once. (Anime effect)

This card had never received a Physical Card Adaptation in reality. Historically, it had only appeared exclusively in the two games Tag Force 3 on PSP and Duel Links. It could serve as a Hand Trap once and a graveyard trap once, blocking two attacks with a single card. In the GX Era, where Hand Traps were incredibly scarce, it was undoubtedly a lifesaving treasure.

Immersed in the thrill of buying, buying, buying, Kira strengthened his collection once again. His card inventory grew increasingly full and his deck configuration options increasingly flexible, but the wallet that had only just begun to bulge was rapidly being drained.

Kira decided to keep some money on hand rather than spend it all. He exited the interface, sighed softly, and gazed gloomily at the sky.

Sure enough, the veterans had been right about one thing.

How could you play Yu-Gi-Oh! without money?