Hand Destruction

4800 and 4500.

A 300-point gap might not have been decisive in other games; the pros could often make up for it with skill.

But this was a card game. A momentary difference in attack power was enough to determine victory or defeat.

And so, the undisputed result appeared.

Boom!

Before Keith's vacant eyes, the crimson war machine came crashing down.

The explosion swept through the field with a fierce gust, whipping up the warrior's black cape.

He stood at the very front, like an indestructible blade and the strongest of bulwarks.

Watching this scene, Yu Ming suddenly felt that he understood something.

It was a thrill that playing physical cards—or even online duels—could never provide.

He did not know whether it was the sensory stimulation brought by those so-called battle effects, or simply the feeling of fighting side by side.

But...

"Thank you, Dark Blade."

Staring at the warrior's towering back, Yu Ming spoke.

"..."

At that moment, he felt as though the warrior had turned around.

Beneath the silver battle helmet, a pair of eyes glowed red, as if conveying goodwill.

"Let's end this once and for all."

After meeting his gaze, Yu Ming looked ahead.

Beyond the shining swords that still blocked the battle line was the smoke and dust raised by the explosion.

And once the smoke cleared, Keith's body was hunched over from the damage.

"No... That's impossible."

Keith LP: 3000→2700

Three hundred points of damage was admittedly not much, especially compared to Cannon Soldier's previous bombardment.

Yet Keith's face had turned pale as paper, and his body swayed as though he could collapse at any moment.

After all, the situation had now been reversed.

"You have no cards in your hand now, and aside from Swords of Revealing Light, there are no other cards on your field."

Yu Ming calmly looked at Keith's empty field.

"Under the blockade of Shadow Virus, you can no longer make any moves..."

"So what?!"

Before Yu Ming could finish, Keith shouted as though by reflex.

"You're still blocked by Swords of Revealing Light and still can't attack. We're the same!"

But were they really the same?

"My turn, draw."

When Yu Ming drew his card, Keith's already ragged breathing briefly stopped.

Amid the eerie silence, only the young man's voice rang out:

"I set one card in my back row and end my turn."

After a brief silence, Keith's trembling hand touched his deck.

"My turn..."

At that moment, he seemed to hear an eerie, vicious laugh.

Accompanied by the wail of metal, the virus that should have dissipated somehow spread across the field once more.

Then...

"Draw."

Crack!

Before he could even look at the card he had drawn, a shattering sound rang out, and the card was swallowed by the virus.

"Sphere Time Bomb"

"DEF/1400"

The monster's phantom flashed past, only for the corrosive shadow to drag it into the Graveyard like a merciless hand.

Watching this, the former champion felt dizzy.

"The virus..."

Unlike Yu Ming's simple attack lockdown, the virus surrounding him could continue lingering on his field without relying on any cards.

More importantly, this effect would last for a while—three turns counted from his own turn. That might have seemed both long and short to card players.

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

By the time Keith came back to his senses, the turn was nearly over.

With the declaration of the end phase, the Swords of Revealing Light restraining Yu Ming shattered completely.

As for Keith...

"I..."

As he placed his hand on the deck once more, even Keith's voice had become hoarse.

He could still see the lingering virus.

No one had said it aloud, but everyone knew one thing—this was the final draw.

Am I going to lose?

The moment that thought surfaced in his mind, Keith's breathing became rapid.

"No way. I can't lose!"

Veins bulged on his right hand as Keith's fingers clenched tightly around the top card of his deck.

"I swore it the moment I fell into this hell!! Before I get revenge on that bastard Maximillion Pegasus, I will never lose again—especially not to some nobody brat like you!"

Keith suddenly raised his head. Beneath his dark sunglasses, flames seemed to flicker.

"My turn!!"

he roared.

"Draw!!!"

At that moment, Yu Ming even sensed a subtle change.

The atmosphere?

The mood?

It seemed that, in that instant, Keith's fingers and the card really did give off some sort of glow.

Don't tell me you're going to shout about dignity and pride, then magically print yourself a card?

"The card I drew is the Spell Card—Card of Demise!"

Huh?

You actually printed one?

"Ha—hahahahahaha! As expected, the Goddess of Victory is on my side!"

Seeing the card he had drawn, Keith suddenly burst into loud laughter.

"Brat! You're still far from defeating me!"

Keith did have the right to say that.

After all, in the anime, Card of Demise was not the trash it had become after being nerfed.

The physical-card version of Card of Demise not only reduced the draw count to three, but also came with all sorts of drawbacks, such as having to send all cards in hand to the Graveyard at the end of the current turn, reducing damage dealt to the opponent to zero, and being unable to Special Summon.

It was a worthless card that even Dark World would never consider running.

But its original effect was not like that!

Swish!

When Yu Ming looked ahead, he saw a guillotine already hanging high in the air.

"The effect of Card of Demise—I can draw until I have five cards in my hand!"

Keith shouted.

"But after five turns, I must discard every card in my hand!"

If Yu Ming had to evaluate it, he could only call it absurdly broken.

Drawing up five cards at once made the two-card advantage created by the virus look like a joke.

As for that so-called drawback, it was laughable even in the DM era.

Five turns? Who couldn't knock someone out in one hit by then?

Was that really a drawback worth taking seriously?

Oh, apparently it was.

At least, the anime characters thought it was a drawback.

"This is a card that borrows against the future."

Keith spoke coldly.

He slowly raised his hand, and the hand he used to draw passed through the guillotine's execution platform before pressing down on his deck.

"But a true champion always has the courage to put the future on the gambling table!"

Watching the champion's apparently determined expression, Yu Ming covered his face.

So what the hell are you even borrowing against?!

"Five turns..."

Wasn't a drawback that only took effect after five turns basically the same as having no drawback at all?

Even the anime could not come up with a way to drag things out for five turns!

However, Keith paid no heed to Yu Ming's complaint, which was practically about to slip out.

Or rather, in his frenzy, he had not noticed it at all.

"Now, witness the power of the champion, you little brat—draw!!!"

As if venting all the suppression in his heart at once, he roared loudly.

The instant he pulled his drawing hand out from beneath the guillotine blade, the two-card gap created by the virus vanished completely.

In the environment Yu Ming had been familiar with in his previous life, if someone played such a violent draw engine without any way to stop it, that was basically GG.

But this was still an early-era environment.

And at the same time, the man he faced was an anime character.

"Keith Howard."

And he had an identity:

"Champion..."

Yu Ming murmured softly.

"I can tell that you value that identity greatly."

In fact, both the manga and anime offered clues about this. Whenever his underlings praised him as the "American Champion," he would be pleased.

And whether he faced Joey Wheeler or Maximillion Pegasus, he always emphasized that identity.

"This is your dignity, your pride."

But then Yu Ming's eyes sharpened.

"But at the same time, the identity of champion is also your greatest weakness."

"What?!"

Clearly, Keith still did not understand where the problem lay.

That was fine. He would soon find out.

"Hehe."

An eerie laugh shattered the frenzy that should have continued.

"What's going on?"

Then, accompanied by that now-familiar eerie laughter, the virus coiled around the cards in his hand.

Before Keith could look at them himself, those cards revealed themselves one after another.

"Though this is the final turn, Crush Card Virus is still in effect. I will inspect your hand."

"Land Battle Ship"

"TM-1 Rocket Spider"

"Machine Soldier of the Underworld"

"Cyber Jar"

"Machine Hunter"

"These cards..."

Staring at the steel phantoms that emerged, Keith's breathing stopped for a moment.

"They're all monsters?"

Looking at the familiar monsters in his hand, he seemed to hear their mournful cries.

"And nearly all of them have less than 1500 Defense."

"No!"

Amid Keith's stunned yet terrified cry, the mechanical monsters let out their unique wails.

"Land Battle Ship has 1000 Defense."

Parts began to fall from the battle ship, and its hull gradually crumbled.

"Machine Soldier of the Underworld has 1200 Defense."

The mechanical soldier was gradually corroded and fell to the ground.

But it was not over yet.

"Cyber Jar has 900 DEF, and Machine Hunter has 800 DEF."

Clang.

Clang.

"No..."

Listening to the sound of decay and collapse, Keith looked around frantically.

Hee hee.

Yet that eerie laughter seemed to come from everywhere; he could not even tell where it was coming from.

"This kind of thing..."

At last, his gaze pierced through the black fog that seemed to envelop everything and settled on the one responsible for it all.

"You brat..."

As the voice gradually faded away, he merely saw the boy at the heart of the deep shadows slowly raise his hand and clench it into a fist.

Crash.

The next instant, a pitch-black storm mixed with shrill, eerie screams swept forth, blotting out the sky and sun.

Within that abyss that nearly obscured his vision, Keith heard only a pronouncement like a judgment:

"All the above monsters are destroyed."

Boom.

The remaining Shadow Virus took the monsters from his hand, along with the hope that had never truly existed—like a reflection in a mirror, like a flower in the moonlight.

"It's over, Keith."

"How could this be..."