You Chen had just come across a promotional video for an Underground Duel Tournament while browsing the Coin site.
The video went like this.
A seductive young woman in a red cheongsam pointed at the screen with a smile. "Want to get rich overnight?"
"Want to become a Duel King admired by millions overnight?"
"Want to become everyone's dream lover overnight?"
"If you do, wash up and go to sleep. Is that even possible?"
You Chen had nearly been unable to stop himself from mocking it when he first saw that.
Damn, was this really how people advertised?
But after watching the rest, he immediately realized he was still too young.
"Impossible?"
At that moment, another young woman—her twin—walked out in a blue cheongsam and said with a smile, "That's right. Everything my little sister just mentioned sounds like pure fantasy."
"But there really is a place where it can all come true."
"That place is the Dream Underground Duel Tournament!"
"Here, you can indulge in a life of luxury and compete in no-rules duels!"
"As long as both sides agree to the rules, you can duel however you want!"
"You can even place bets on yourself here, though you can only bet on your own victory!"
"As long as you win, you'll gain both fame and fortune!"
"But if you lose, that'll be embarrassing."
"Still, it doesn't matter. Masks are allowed, and there's no real-name registration. Opponents come from all over the world—you'll never know whether your opponent is a scrub or an expert!"
"Of course, you can also choose Challenge Mode!"
"At the Dream Underground Duel Tournament, there are twelve duelists of different levels. Their strength rises step by step, from Level 1 to Level 12!"
"As long as you complete a duel, you can take the prize money and leave. Or, if you don't leave and keep challenging, your rewards can double!"
"So, if you're confident in your strength—"
"Come to the Dream Underground Duel Tournament!"
"This place has things beyond anything you could ever dream of!"
After hearing that, You Chen fell silent.
This Dream Underground Duel Tournament was, as its name implied, rather like an underground boxing match.
Except it wasn't illegal prizefighting, since it could operate openly.
He had to admit, You Chen was tempted after hearing all that. He was short on money right now, and in this world where dueling reigned supreme, that determined the value of cards.
Without enough cash, how could he possibly keep improving his deck?
Get a job?
Give him a break. In his previous world, working a job might at least have let someone become a mortgage slave. If they gritted their teeth, they could still hang on.
But in this duel-obsessed world, if you wanted a good deck, even grinding your teeth to dust might not accomplish anything.
Many Rare Cards cost as much as a house.
Not all forty cards, perhaps, but around ten of them could easily equal ten houses.
Just thinking about it made the difficulty obvious.
So getting a job was impossible. He would never work a job in this lifetime.
There were only two paths before You Chen now.
One was to spruce himself up, practice licking the bottom of a cup with his tongue, then buy a book on how to win over rich older women.
If he succeeded, selling his looks to put together a decent deck was still possible.
The other path was this Underground Duel Tournament.
And naturally, You Chen chose the second path.
It wasn't that he rejected the first one. He simply couldn't learn how to lick the bottom of a cup with his tongue.
"This registration probably costs money, right?"
You Chen scrolled down and, sure enough, saw the fee at the end. Registration alone cost five thousand.
Well, damn. They really knew how to squeeze money out of people.
And the Challenge Mode rules weren't simple either.
First, whatever your level was, you could only challenge duelists at the same level or higher.
For example, if your Duel Level was five stars, you could only challenge opponents at five stars or above.
In K Language, that meant five stars were included.
You Chen also checked the list. Damn, every one of them was a duelist who had won awards before and had some reputation.
But capitalists were capitalists. They wouldn't invite champions, because then no one would dare challenge them. Instead, they brought in top-ranked competitors from various tournaments to hold the fort.
In the world of capitalists, you might not lose money, but they would always make a profit.
Still, You Chen didn't care about that. As long as he didn't lose money, it was fine.
Having learned enough, You Chen finally closed his laptop.
"But how am I supposed to earn the five-thousand registration fee?"
"Don't tell me I have to ask that lunatic again?"
You Chen pinched the bridge of his nose, his head throbbing.
Then his gaze shifted to the card packs on the table. He would first see what they contained.
You Wushuang had tossed him three packs. Five cards per pack, for a total of fifteen cards.
"Maybe I'll pull some valuable cards."
You Chen knew that whenever anything depended on luck, he would never be among the luckiest. Of course, he would never be the unluckiest either.
He was always just painfully ordinary.
But people were like that. They always held onto a sliver of hope.
As long as the packs remained unopened, there were endless possibilities.
Once opened, they might just turn into trash.
You Chen tore open the first pack.
Card players almost never spread out an entire pack and look at everything at once.
They habitually covered part of the cards, then slowly revealed them one by one.
As though that could make them manipulate cards like the God of Gamblers.
"A surprise on the first card? It's Mirror Shatter!"
You Chen was surprised to see the dazzling foil. It had to be worth more than an ordinary card.
But when he saw the Normal Monster color—
He frowned.
"A Normal Monster. It's okay! A Normal Monster could still be Dark Magician or Blue-Eyes White Dragon. If it's either of those, I'll take off on the spot."
Holding onto hope, You Chen slowly moved the card aside.
When he saw the name—
He blinked, his expression freezing.
"Damn it! A god card!"
"Lion Wizard."
You Chen shook his head and collected himself before continuing to open packs.
The next card was Sky Dragon!
But it had no prefix.
"Sure enough, I can never be the luckiest person alive."
"Is luck always someone else's?"
After pulling two Normal Monsters, You Chen gradually began to lose confidence.
He wondered whether his Emotion Value could provide something for him. If it could, then this round of pack opening might bring in more than five thousand.
This was seriously depressing.
But reality was like that. Just when you stopped hoping—
After opening two packs of garbage in a row—
You Chen finally pulled two Rare Cards from the third pack!
And they were enough to make him so excited that he rolled around laughing on the sofa.
"Holy shit?!"
"Is this real? Hahaha!"
You Chen was already grinning so hard he couldn't close his mouth.
At that moment, You Wushuang had just finished showering and come downstairs. As she dried her dripping wet long hair, she froze at the sight.
"Damn it, are you having another episode in the middle of the night?" You Wushuang said.
Under normal circumstances, You Chen would definitely have snapped back at her.
But at that moment, he had already sat upright.
"Yes! I'm having an episode! I just pulled Pot of Greed and Monster Reborn!"
"Help me calculate how much they're worth, will you? Who wouldn't lose their mind after pulling these?"
Upon hearing that, You Wushuang was stunned on the spot. Her cherry lips parted in disbelief, as though she had been frozen in place.
Before you continue