The Transmigrated Duelist

"Release Obelisk the Tormentor and Slifer the Sky Dragon on your field!

I bestow this powerful monster upon you! Heh heh heh heh heh!"

"Kisama!!!"

He watched as the Three Phantom Gods he had summoned at great expense of gems were turned into that big Lava Golem baby before he could even warm them up.

If not for the screen between them, You Ling would already have summoned his fist in Attack Position.

"Hahahaha! Ki mo ji~ You Ling! How does it feel to see the Three Phantom Gods you insisted on running even though they brick your hand get used as tributes?"

Even through the screen, You Ling could tell that his childhood friend was definitely wearing the same deranged expression as Marik right now.

"You bastard, you actually brought cards like that? What happened to the wholesome duel between real men?"

"A wholesome duel? Sorry, this is a 'Shadow Game' where the loser has to agree to one condition from the winner!

For victory, of course I have to discard useless things!

I only respect victory!"

"And what era is this? You're still running relics from the old age like the 'Three Phantom Gods.'

You old fossils, there's no ship left in the new era that can carry you. Get off the stage!"

The icy words came through the microphone. Though You Ling remained defiant on the surface, his heart had already gone cold.

[It's over. I was going to pull off a trick, but now I've turned it into a circus.]

He looked at the intimidating face-down card that had been sitting in his back row for ages, then at the "Final Kami" in his hand that fit the opponent's style perfectly, as well as the card that had been in his opening hand from the very start and made no sense at all...

Eh~ Maybe he should just buy a ticket back to Gotham.

[No! It's not over yet. I still have Life Points. As long as I survive the next turn, I'll definitely...]

You Ling shook his head and steeled his resolve again.

"Oho~ Don't forget, compared to your flickering-candle Life Points, your deck might run out first~"

The perfectly timed remark made You Ling wonder whether the other side could hear his thoughts.

[Did this guy go to Egypt and secretly swap in a pair of golden eyes?]

But since his opponent had mentioned his deck, You Ling glanced at it from the corner of his eye.

"Hmm, isn't there still... one card left?!"

It was over. Now he did not even have time to buy a ticket.

Next time: The Death of You Ling!

Duel standby!

"End turn. Enjoy your final turn, You↑ Ling↓."

"Nyehehe~~ What condition should I ask for later~"

As everyone knew, the closer Yu-Gi-Oh players got to victory, the less human they became.

The other side's voice was becoming increasingly unhinged, as if he was already imagining the wonderful resolution screen after his victory.

Second by second, You Ling passed the time as though he had resigned himself to fate.

However, just as his opponent was growing impatient, an impassioned BGM suddenly began playing. Then, a famous line delivered in a powerful voice came through the microphone.

"Sore wa dou kana!"

"Holy shit! You scared me! Don't tell me you dragged this out just to put on that weird BGM!"

You Ling ignored him completely and kept talking to himself.

"You just said 'a flickering candle in the wind,' didn't you?"

"Hm? So what~ This isn't an anime. There's no such thing as a shining draw."

Seeing You Ling like this, his opponent also returned to duel mode.

"And with my Life Points and back row, there's no way you can break through in a single turn!

And once the turn ends, you lose. That's right, all I have to do is wait for the turn to end!"

"Thanks for the reminder. But don't forget, there's only one card left in my deck!

In other words, I already know exactly what my next draw will be!"

"So what? You can't possibly rely on a single card to—"

"For a duelist, nothing is impossible! I'll win right now and show you!"

"My turn! Draw!"

As though it were a draw ordained by fate, golden light flashed as You Ling looked at the card he had drawn.

"YA☆ DA☆ ZE!

I activate my face-down card, Monster Reborn! Return, Obelisk the Tormentor!"

"Huh?! You kept a Monster Reborn face-down for that long without flipping it?"

His opponent clearly had not expected to be bluffed for so long by a Normal Spell Card.

"Is this your first day playing cards with me?"

"Fair enough~ That really is your style. But so what? Even if you revive every monster in your graveyard, you still can't kill me in one turn."

You Ling ignored him and continued explaining his moves.

"Next, I banish Revived Sky Dragon from my graveyard to recover Monster Reborn from my graveyard.

Then, the same way, return, Slifer the Sky Dragon!

And then, I activate the card I just drew—Millennium Revelation! I send The Winged Dragon of Ra from my hand to the graveyard and recover Monster Reborn again."

"M-Masaka!"

"That's right!

Millennium Revelation activates again! I send it to the graveyard, allowing me to ignore the conditions and use Monster Reborn to revive the Sun God from my graveyard!

Ra! Burn my enemy to ashes! I Special Summon The Winged Dragon of Ra!!!"

"?!"

"Y-You're not going to summon that, are you?"

The person on the other end seemed to know what You Ling was about to do. A hint of panic had already entered his voice.

"That's right!

When Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and The Winged Dragon of Ra are all on the field at once, the puzzle pieces of victory are complete!"

The "meaningless" card that had been in his hand since the beginning of the duel finally began to glow faintly, as if responding to the duelist who had insisted on summoning it even at the risk of bricking his hand.

And You Ling responded to Its expectations without hesitation.

He straightened the genderbent Three Phantom Gods figurines he had sculpted himself on the table and gripped the Millennium Puzzle model he had just finished assembling around his neck. Since it was rare to get a chance to pull off something so fancy, You Ling was full of ritualistic flair.

"In the Pharaoh's name, I unite the Three Phantom Gods!

Descend, The Creator God of Light - Horakhty!"

He shouted the summoning chant without the slightest embarrassment. Immersed in excitement, You Ling did not notice that the Eye of Uagdo at the center of the Millennium Puzzle on his chest was shining in sync.

"Take this, Toilet Cleaner—YEAH!"

His excited voice abruptly stopped. You Ling himself, along with the three figurines on the table, vanished within the light, leaving only the chair toppled to one side as proof that someone had been sitting there moments ago.

The microphone icon on the screen continued blinking, but no one could answer anymore.

"Hello! Fuck, that light is way too bright! Bro, why is your animation different?"

"Why did it stop moving? Don't tell me you messed around with mods and crashed the game?"

"Hey, are you still there? If anyone's supposed to unscrew something, it should be me!"

"Bro, I'm an upright duelist. Even though the game glitched, this round still counts as your win."

"By the way, did you finish putting together the Millennium Puzzle I sent you? That wasn't some plastic junk from Bandai. I traded for it with a fellow fan when I was touring Egypt.

It even felt like it was made of some special material. If there had been instructions, I never would have managed to assemble it, and if it hadn't happened to be your birthday, I wouldn't have let you have it so cheaply."

"By the way, did you finish that genderbent Three Phantom Gods figurine? How did it turn out? Thinking about it, your godfather's birthday is coming up too.

Ahem!

You know I've always been a diehard fan of Dark Magician. Hehe~"

"Bro?"

"Still there? Lava Golem would work too."

"You Ling?"

"Old You?"

"..."

"..."

In the depths of an unknown space, in a place no instrument could detect.

Within a ball of light radiating brilliance, You Ling, who had been swallowed by it, felt as though his soul had been shattered apart. His individual consciousness was already beginning to blur.

Well, not as though. You Ling's soul really had been shattered into three fragments of roughly equal size, with only the slightly larger one barely retaining the last trace of consciousness.

"Could that 'Toilet Cleaner' move have been aimed at me?

Tch, looks like ancient Egyptian Pharaohs really can't take a joke. 'Disrespect' really does get you punished...

It's all that guy's fault for always calling me 'Ghost, Ghost.' Now look, I'm really about to become a ghost."

As the last remnants of his consciousness gradually faded, You Ling's soul slowly sank into darkness.

The pure white light gradually contracted, then separated into two beams that became red and blue balls of light, wrapping around two of the soul fragments.

The remaining light transformed into sacred gold and surged toward the largest soul fragment before leading the other two orbs deeper into the unknown.

PS: I'm a new author, so just enjoy it for what it is.