Spectators

The image from the projector in front of Ning Yifan drew gasps from the scattered crowd that had been watching.

The images were clearly on the ground, but from the audience's viewing angle beside Ning Yifan, the five cards seemed to be floating motionless in front of him. The enormous images made everything look so lifelike!

With 3D images, if you found the right viewing angle, they could look real. Online, there were often skilled artists who painted in cities, on roads, and on tree trunks and walls.

They painted broken roads to make cars drive around them, puddles to make pedestrians avoid them, and adorable pets on tree trunks and walls to make passersby stop and watch. Anyone who saw them might mistake them for the real thing.

The game in front of Ning Yifan worked the same way. The cards bearing monster illustrations didn't look like projected images at all; they seemed to be truly floating in front of Ning Yifan and the audience.

"Is this game really that amazing?"

"Or has the Phantom Projector gotten this powerful? It's not a holographic projection yet, just glasses-free 3D, but it's still incredible! Cards appearing out of thin air!"

"Whoa, this is unbelievable!"

"Woohoo, here we go! I hope we get to see some Monster Battles next. I can't wait!"

"Th-this is glasses-free 3D technology! The best viewing angle should be right behind that really handsome young guy!"

A tourist passing by walked up behind Ning Yifan. He stared at the astonishing scene before him, utterly amazed.

"Impressive, impressive! This glasses-free 3D is unbelievably good. I've seen plenty of 3D movies in theaters. They're much better than regular movies, but they still have their limitations. You can clearly tell they're fake. This game looks more realistic than those blockbuster movies!"

"If you find the right viewing angle, it looks real. If you don't look closely, people might think those cards are real!"

It was a busy street, already teeming with pedestrians. Before long, a crowd gathered around Ning Yifan, especially near the best viewing spot beside him.

People jostled for a view, rising onto their tiptoes to see what happened next. Some shouted excitedly from within the crowd, letting their enthusiasm spill out.

"I know, I know! This is Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Battle! I loved that anime when I was a kid!"

"They're dueling right now! Let me see—their hand has Baby Dragon, Iron Knight Gearfried, Right Leg of the Forbidden Dark Mage, a Spell Card called Cost Down, and a Trap Card called Time Stop. Those Spell and Trap Cards are pretty good!"

A young man on a date turned excitedly to his girlfriend. "This is so thrilling! With glasses-free 3D technology, this game is absolutely unbeatable. I hope we get to see the scenes I used to imagine as a kid!"

"Yu-Gi-Oh!? What's that?" His girlfriend was confused, but it didn't matter. If he wanted to watch, she could stay and watch too. The handsome guy standing up front looked great, even from behind!

She secretly glanced at her boyfriend. Seeing him staring avidly at the game, she breathed a sigh of relief and turned her full attention to Ning Yifan.

"Come on, let's see a Yu-Gi-Oh! scene already! I can't wait!"

"Will monsters like the ones in the anime really appear? I want to see if my childhood goddess, Dark Magician Girl, is in it! Haha!"

"Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

Those who hadn't seen the anime asked the people around them what it was, while those who had talked about things like Yugi Muto and the Millennium Puzzle, leaving the others baffled.

One guy in the crowd explained it all quite clearly: if you didn't understand, just look it up on Baidu!

As the crowd watched in anticipation, the battle soon began.

Ning Yifan pointed the remote at the cards in front of him, like a wizard tapping them with his staff. He summoned the cards from his hand.

"Summon Baby Dragon in Defense Position. Level 3, WIND Attribute, Dragon-Type, ATK 1200, DEF 700."

"Summon Iron Knight Gearfried in Attack Position. Level 4, EARTH Attribute, Warrior-Type, ATK 1800, DEF 1600."

As Ning Yifan operated the Second Generation Phantom Projector, the duel field appeared. An adorable orange dinosaur with two legs stood upright as it was summoned. With a loud roar, Baby Dragon flapped its wings and took to the air.

At the same time, a warrior appeared beside Baby Dragon. He wore black iron armor, his cape billowing, and held a longsword. He fixed his gaze on his opponent.

"I'll set one card and end my turn."

Most of the audience didn't notice Ning Yifan's moves, and those who did didn't think much of them.

Everyone's attention was fixed on the two monsters projected by the Second Generation Phantom Projector.

"Oh my god, they're really here! The monsters are really here!" A young man with a backpack turned bright red, almost moved to tears by his excitement!

Someone watched the two monsters and exclaimed, "This 3D technology is incredible. They're just 3D images, but they look real!"

"That warrior looks so cool. His murderous aura is captured perfectly!"

"This is magic! Magic! It's just like the game has come to life!"

"I can't believe I'm seeing something like this in my lifetime. It's so cool!"

"Here it comes! The battle's about to start!"

It was the opponent's turn. On their side of the field, a monster was summoned in Defense Position: a Cyclops, its body rippling with muscles and a single eye in the middle of its forehead. It held a shield and a broadsword, raising its shield in a guarded stance.

A face-down card appeared on the opponent's side of the field as well.

The game had only just begun, and the players didn't have many cards in their hands. They couldn't build a particularly good deck, so they mostly had to make do with whatever cards they had.

The second turn began. After drawing a card, Ning Yifan ordered an attack.

Iron Knight Gearfried leaped into the air and slashed at the Cyclops, but at the same time, the opponent flipped over the face-down card and negated the attack.

Ning Yifan's attack had no effect. The Cyclops stayed right where it was, still guarding its post.

The turn ended, the opponent drew a card, and the battle continued.

As the duel began on the bustling streets of Chunxi Road, more and more people stopped to watch. They gathered in a circle behind Ning Yifan, occasionally exclaiming in awe.

"Cool, cool, so cool! You can control Monster Cards and make them fight!"

"This 3D technology is insanely good! The monster's jumping attack looks so smooth, with no distortion at all. When it attacked the Cyclops, even its facial expression changed—it looked angry!"

"The Phantom Projector is amazing. Playing a game like this on a big screen is incredible! You'd never get an experience like this on a phone or computer!"

"This game is incredible! What kind of device is that? I want to buy one and take it home. Is it a dedicated gaming console?"

"This is the Second Generation Phantom Projector. I just searched online for information about Monster Battles, and it turns out the Second Generation Phantom Projector comes with a game built in. The 3D projection looks unbelievably realistic. I have to buy one!"

"Buy one? Absolutely. This was my childhood dream!"

"Back then, game cards at the corner store cost fifty cents a pack. I spent so much of my pocket money just to put together a few decks."

"Weren't those cards for playing games? Like tossing them into three piles or something? A classmate gave me a dozen or so, and with just those cards, I made a fortune. In the end, I won a whole thick stack and took it home. I won a little every day, and now I've still got hundreds, maybe even a thousand, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards at home! Those days bring back such fond memories. After school, we'd lie on the floor and play so seriously!"

"I remember cards used to be sold in tin boxes too. They came with a duel mat. We'd put it down, each set out a pile of cards we'd thrown together, and play for the whole afternoon."

The battle went on, with the two sides trading blows and monsters repeatedly appearing and being destroyed, accompanied by the projector's sound effects and music.

Gradually, the crowd around Ning Yifan grew so dense that not even a gap remained. People watched him play and chatted among themselves.

A man in his late twenties sighed, "I remember going home a while ago and finding loads of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in my old collection: the Sky Dragon, God Soldier, Exodia the Forbidden One, and the later ones like Electric Light Warrior and Clay Warrior. We had them all at home. They were counterfeit cards, but they're still part of our childhood memories!"

"I remember watching the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime on the TV at home with a few classmates. Afterwards, we were so fired up we could hardly contain ourselves. We used cards to battle too—drawing, summoning monsters, taking turns playing Monster Cards, Trap Cards, and Spell Cards. The rules were pretty vague, but we still had a great time!"

"That was our childhood, gone now. The friends we used to play cards with have all grown up, and we're in touch less and less. I haven't heard from some of them in years. I wonder how they're doing now."

The crowd buzzed with conversation, and it kept growing.

A pretty young woman who had been livestreaming herself singing and dancing nearby noticed the commotion and came over to take a look. She immediately understood what was going on.

"Hey, everyone! Look what I found. This game looks like so much fun!

"The 3D technology is insanely good. Come on, let's show everyone!"

Holding up her recording device, the streamer squeezed through the crowd and pointed it at the duel in the center.

After several turns, Ning Yifan and his opponent were locked in a fierce back-and-forth. One monster after another was summoned and destroyed on the battlefield. The Second Generation Phantom Projector's powerful hardware made everything look smooth and seamless.

When the streamer switched her livestream to the Yu-Gi-Oh! battle, the roughly one hundred viewers in her room suddenly started flooding the chat with comments, and the new viewers stayed instead of leaving.

"I came to watch the pretty streamer, but now I think the game's even better!"

"Forget the streamer, I want to watch the game! Even through a screen, you can tell how amazing the 3D technology is!"

"Whoa, is this the Yu-Gi-Oh! game? Hurry up, everyone! Go grab one from the Phantom Projector official store! Buy early and enjoy it early—wait too long and you won't get one!"

"No question about it, everyone should own a Phantom Projector. It's way better than a TV or monitor! Even without this game, the Second Generation Phantom Projector would still be a fantastic upgrade!"

"Everyone's talking about Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Phantom Projector, but is no one else noticing how handsome that guy playing the game is?"

"Wait, you're a girl? Girls watch streamers dancing too? What?"

"Streamer, hurry up and ask the handsome guy for his WeChat! If you get it, I'll send you a rocket!"

"He's handsome from every angle. I wish I had a boyfriend that handsome!"

"Girl, now that you mention it, I'm noticing him too. Eye candy! I guess 'eye candy' doesn't just describe women. It works for some men too. He looks like he's in great shape!"

"Wait, there's more than one girl lurking in the livestream!"

"Let's play cards! Come on, everyone, let's play!"

"I just ordered a Second Generation Phantom Projector from Shenma Technology Company. You can play games on it, watch movies, and use it as a monitor!"

"What a twist. I thought this was just a super cost-effective, high-performance projector. I never imagined its biggest use would be playing games!"

"But honestly, the 8K ultra-high-definition image quality, combined with god-tier programming and art, produces an absolutely stunning result! The battles look real! And the monsters look so cool!"

"I wonder if Dark Magician Girl is in it. I had a Dark Magician Girl card when I was in school. I kissed her so much her face wore off! She was fair-skinned, beautiful, cute, and had a great figure. Dark Magician Girl was my dream girl. I wonder what she'll look like in 3D!"

In the middle of the crowd, Ning Yifan calmly played his game. Countless audience members recorded the scene on their phones and other devices.

Meanwhile, many of the spectators were swept up in the excitement. Some of them ordered a Phantom Projector on the spot.

Ning Yifan kept playing until nine thirty that night. Only then did he wrap up the promotional event, pick up his equipment, and take a taxi home.