What Do You Mean I'm Already Dead?

Yu Ming suddenly felt a little awkward.

He had been complaining about his "transmigrator treatment" before, about how he had run into some damn Shadow Game before he could even warm up with a few card matches.

He had already prepared himself to have a life on his conscience, only to turn around and realize this guy was not dead at all.

How should he put it?

I was all mentally prepared, and this is it?

"Seriously, you might as well have just died."

"Hah, I think so too. Too bad I can't die."

Keith forced himself up from the floor and grinned.

"But obviously, dying is a very difficult thing in this world."

"Difficult? You just still want to live."

Listening to Keith's shameless thug talk, Yu Ming could not help curling his lip.

"If you really wanted to die, how could it be that hard?"

"That's hard to say."

Although Yu Ming still remained somewhat wary, Keith casually pulled out the bag he had been carrying and started rummaging through it.

That relaxed, almost completely resigned posture made him seem less like an enemy Yu Ming had just been fighting.

"But whatever. I'll take things one day at a time."

At last, he took out a small bottle. Smoke swirled inside the transparent glass container, making it impossible to see what exactly was stored within.

It was not until Keith started guzzling it down that Yu Ming confirmed it was liquid.

But...

"What are you drinking?"

As he spoke, Yu Ming could even see Keith's injuries rapidly healing.

"This? It's good stuff here. One sip replenishes your 'soul power.' It's essential for survival."

"Then why does something like that even exist?"

At that moment, Yu Ming even felt like he had not transmigrated into Yu-Gi-Oh!, but into some game series about stiff-knee paralysis battling mad dogs with fast and slow blades.

But... whatever. This was Yu-Gi-Oh!, after all. Anything could appear and still be normal.

"I suggest you throw common sense away, like I did."

"Hm?"

"Because this is not the world we know."

Yu Ming, who had thought he could accept all manner of monsters and freaks, froze on the spot.

"In a place like this, even severe injuries do not necessarily kill you. And even death does not mean you can rest in peace forever."

Hearing Keith's unhurried reflection, Yu Ming could not help widening his eyes.

Shock spread outward from his heart without warning, turning into an uncontrollable cry:

"What did you say?!"

And that shock drew confusion.

"Why are you so surprised?"

Keith's eyes beneath his sunglasses swept over him, carrying the same look teachers used to give students in the office back in school.

"Don't tell me you know nothing?"

Damn it, I really don't know anything.

"That's impossible. Don't tell me you don't have any memories at all?"

When Keith casually asked that, Yu Ming inexplicably felt a little guilty.

Bro, I just transmigrated here. I don't even know whose body this is. How about introducing me to the local customs?

Naturally, he could not say such thoughts out loud. Yu Ming could only shrug and give the all-purpose formulaic answer:

"I really don't remember much."

Under Keith's increasingly strange gaze, Yu Ming sighed.

"I don't know what happened either. I just woke up and found myself here."

"Whoa, then you really are miserable. You don't even know how you died, yet you still ended up in this hellhole."

It was impossible to tell whether he believed such an extremely vague explanation. Keith merely raised an eyebrow.

How he died?

"What do you mean, how I died?"

Yu Ming was stunned.

He instinctively wanted to ask further, but a frenzied sound came from the distance.

Footsteps, panting, dripping water.

By the time he came back to himself, a huge figure had appeared around the corner.

It wore a tattered green cloak and held an enormous cleaver, while its face could only be described as savage and horrifying.

"Guh... ooooooh!!"

In the candlelight, Yu Ming could even see drool at the corner of that humanoid monster's mouth.

"That is..."

"Damn it! That thing actually circled back!"

Keith reacted swiftly and slapped a card onto his Duel Disk.

The next moment, the phantom of a mechanical spider appeared behind him.

"TM-1 Rocket Spider."

"Stop it!"

The steel spider carrying rocket launchers instantly fired a barrage of missiles.

Amid the sound of collapse, the doorway that had already been blasted open was quickly buried beneath rubble once more.

But before they could relax, a mad roar terrifying enough to make one panic came from the other side of the rubble.

"Oooooooooh—"

"So what exactly is that thing?"

"Isn't it obvious? A ghoul."

Keith spoke.

"Just like those urban legends you heard as a kid. It has no reason at all and feeds on flesh and blood."

"Then why is it in a place like this?"

"Because it was already guarding this place..."

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Suddenly, violent impacts shattered their already brief conversation.

"Roar—"

Shing.

A primitive blade was forcibly driven through the pile of rubble that seemed to have completely sealed the doorway.

Through the gap that looked as if it had been pierced straight through, a vicious, seemingly glowing eye and half a nearly rotten face came into view, just like in the famous film The Shining.

Staring at that savage, cruel face, Yu Ming felt his heart clench as if someone had gripped it tightly, and his breathing inexplicably quickened.

This thing...

"Tch. It's still as troublesome as ever."

Before Yu Ming could think further, Keith turned directly toward him.

"Hey, kid. This isn't a place to talk. We need to get out of here."

But Yu Ming did not move immediately.

"Let me confirm something first."

"Go ahead."

"You knew that explosion, that duel, couldn't kill me, right?"

"Of course. That's common sense in this world."

Keith rolled his eyes.

"As long as your 'soul power' remains, you can survive no matter what happens."

"So you were just a bad-tempered thug looking for an excuse to pick a fight on the street, and then I beat the crap out of you instead... Is that an accurate understanding of our earlier conflict?"

Suppressing the inexplicable turmoil in his heart, Yu Ming nodded.

"Hey..."

Before Keith could argue, Yu Ming pointed at the floor.

"There's a trapdoor here, but I don't know what's below."

"Forget it. Whatever's down there doesn't matter. This shitty place is all the same anyway."

Still cursing, Keith flipped open the trapdoor and jumped straight in without the slightest hesitation, delay, or probing.

Then...

"Ow, fuck! Why is it so damn high down here?"

His voice sounded somewhat distant and contained an impressive amount of profanity.

"But there's actually a passage here that leads straight out of these damn ruins?"

Silently estimating the possible height, Yu Ming merely walked to the edge of the trapdoor.

Honestly, he felt completely numb by now.

What the hell was all this?

He had somehow transmigrated into this place, somehow played a Shadow Game, and now he was somehow teaming up with his former opponent to escape.

Worse still, it seemed he had not had any choice from beginning to end.

"...I'll just take things as they come."

Looking around the room he had transmigrated into, Yu Ming could not help fixing his gaze on the savage scratches along the wall.

He had not noticed them before, but now he could vaguely make out a distorted set of words.

'Safe and sound.'

He did not know who had left them here, but...

"I'll take that blessing."

"Hey, kid! What are you standing around for? Get down here!"

Rumble.

The pile of rubble was finally blasted apart, and the vicious ghoul entered the room.

After exchanging a glance with the brutal creature, Yu Ming jumped into the trapdoor, which was only wide enough for one person to pass through.

It was high, higher than he had expected.

But very quickly, he stopped paying attention to that so-called height.

Thud.

After landing safely, a landscape beyond anything he had ever imagined appeared before his eyes:

Miasmic storm clouds blanketed the sky, while the earth was piled high with bloody flesh and bone.

Within a murky shadow visible to the naked eye wandered demons and wandering souls that constantly challenged humanity's sense of aesthetics.

Gazing at that apocalyptic landscape, Yu Ming turned his eyes toward the only human present who gave him even the faintest instinctive sense of familiarity.

Keith Howard.

The man simply stood beneath those miasmic clouds and burst into laughter.

"Surprised, aren't you? Never seen scenery like this before, have you? This is a sight only dead people like us can see!"

"...Where exactly is this?"

"Where else could this be?"

At that, Keith could not help laughing wildly.

"Welcome to hell, kid."

As he laughed softly, his expression gradually became crazed, as if he were mocking something.

Perhaps he was mocking Yu Ming, the "newcomer," or perhaps he was mocking himself.

"Welcome to the Undying World... where only unlucky fools swallowed by darkness end up!"

A new Life Script has been detected. Please write your story.

"Huh?"

A game-like prompt suddenly echoed beside his ears, and Yu Ming could not help looking around.

Amid the scenery shrouded in miasma and storm clouds, he suddenly felt a chill wind rise behind him.

He instinctively turned around and saw the corpse of a giant dragon lying silently there, its enormous head hanging before him.

Location discovered—Crimson Ruins

Immediately afterward, a huge logo appeared before his eyes:

"Dimensional Duel: Crimson Undying Legend"

Amid ghostly wails that sounded like background music, Yu Ming felt an emotion brewing deep inside him.

In the end, it became an uncontrollable, heartfelt sigh:

"Fuck!"