Ah, I know someone

For a moment, Yu Ming felt as though he had woken from a dream before he was done sleeping.

But reality forcibly dragged him along, refusing to let him fall asleep again.

When he came back to his senses, his vision was already filled with text from the system:

Your annual report is as follows:

This year, you participated in 0 duels. Every duel left a deep impression on you.

This year, you earned 0 Duel Points. Every bit of income brought generous returns.

This year, you learned 0 abilities. Every piece of knowledge would become motivation.

This year, you made 0 friends. Every friendship was precious.

This year, you completed 0 scenarios. Every story would reach a perfect conclusion.

Are you satisfied with your performance this year?

Looking at that long string of zeroes and the final question mark, Yu Ming felt like laughing in anger.

"Am I satisfied..."

Did I sleep here for ten years or something?

Or was this system actually bound to the original owner?

Boom!

Bang!

This time, it sounded almost like artillery fire.

The tremors drew closer and closer, violent enough to shake loose bits of dust from the ceiling.

"Forget it."

Yu Ming reached up and brushed the dust from himself, letting out a soft sigh.

No matter what, having a system now was a good thing. Why care how many hands it had passed through?

"Anyway, let's check the functions first."

After sweeping all those messy thoughts aside, Yu Ming finally saw the main interface.

Personal Information

Career Mode

Exchange Shop

Deck Editor

Plain, simple, traditional, and classic.

There were no flashy decorations or embellishments, yet the basic functions were displayed perfectly.

He could view his personal information, and there was both a story mode and a separate shop.

More importantly, this was not a shop that could only exchange cards or draw card packs.

Welcome to the Exchange Shop. Here, you may use Duel Points to exchange for cards, knowledge, and abilities. You may also use Duel Points to open the 'Dimensional Gate' and randomly draw scenarios.

Considering Yu-Gi-Oh!'s high-intensity setting involving gods, demons, and even multidimensional worlds, this shop was extremely comprehensive. After all, only all-around improvement could guarantee survival.

But there was one problem... it seemed to still be in its initial stage.

Pass through the Dimensional Gate and fight alongside warriors from other dimensions as a traveler between worlds!

Witness the darkness within and use the power of Darkness Virus to unleash merciless attacks upon your enemies!

Although the wording sounded impressively grand, and there were indeed some items that caught the eye,

what Yu Ming felt more strongly was a sense of bleakness.

The cards displayed beneath those cool titles did not even fill a single page—there were simply far too few of them.

The other pages were no better. The ability interface looked like this:

You have no knowledge or abilities available for exchange. Please unlock them through Career Mode.

And that was not all. When he clicked into Career Mode, this was what he saw:

You have no unlocked scenarios. Stories may be obtained through career encounters, increasing card bonds, or opening the Dimensional Gate.

In plain language: get them through the story, get them through bonds, or just gamble and pull cards.

And after that whole combination, Yu Ming had basically given up on exploring those functions any further.

That was just how it was for a broke newbie. He could not afford a single thing in the shop.

"Forget it. None of that matters much right now."

What mattered now was this!

Welcome to the Deck Editor. You may edit your own deck, and you may also use system functions to register cards acquired through other means.

When the deck interface appeared before him, Yu Ming could not help but smile.

Starter Deck

Just like in games, even if the host had absolutely nothing, the system would usually provide some starting capital—like a beginner's starter set in a newbie village.

The only thing worth complaining about was probably the deck's name.

The End of Despair

Just from the name alone, Yu Ming could not tell what the deck was actually about. It was nothing like those decks with names containing "spell" or "country," where one glance gave you a rough idea of the build.

But that did not matter. This was a starter deck, after all!

And what was a starter deck?

Made for beginners, with a reasonable distribution.

At a glance, the reds, greens, and yellows were distributed so evenly.

It was nothing like the completely unplayable deck Shadi had left behind. Just looking at it was pleasing to the eye.

"Hmm, 'Tri-Horn Dragon.'"

Then, that rare feeling of comfort came to a complete end.

Staring at the utterly unfamiliar name, Yu Ming could not help pursing his lips.

He flipped through a few more cards.

"'Red-Eyes Black Dragon,' 'Warrior of Zera,' 'Warrior of Darkworld,' 'Spirit of the Books'... Huh, why is there even a 'Kaiser Seahorse'?"

He noticed something—the colors of these Monster Cards seemed off.

The Monster Cards he was familiar with should have been reddish yellow, or rather, orange.

But the cards before him were astonishingly bright. That vivid yellow led Yu Ming's gaze directly to their text.

Above the varied descriptions, which had no unified standard whatsoever, the system clearly stated their type—Normal Monster.

In his previous life, Yu Ming had been more familiar with the popular fan term, one that originated from a certain President's catchphrase.

"Vanilla monsters..."

Yu Ming suddenly felt a little dizzy.

After finally recovering, he could only look at the text descriptions with a bitter smile.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon: Its rage-filled black flames burn all who meet its gaze to ashes.

Warrior of Darkworld: The slashing attacks unleashed by its evil power are incredibly destructive.

Although their card art might contain all sorts of absurdly overpowered descriptions, and during the early anime era jokingly called "made-up nonsense," they could shine through RPG-style gameplay,

from Duel City onward, once the rules had been fully established, these Normal Monsters could only rely on their own stats.

That was how things like King of Yamimakai and Dark Ruler Ha Des ended up being single-handedly held off by a little rabbit standing on a tree stump.

So, to sum it up...

"They're useless."

Seriously, this was too ridiculous. Yu Ming could not even figure out how he was supposed to play this.

"No core engine, no searching, no synergy. With five cards in hand, every one of them just does its own thing..."

Although, from a certain perspective, it did make the basic rules crystal clear, in Yu Ming's eyes it was an entirely different matter:

This is a Monster Card. Summon it and it can attack the opponent.

This is a Spell Card. It can produce all kinds of effects.

This is a Trap Card. Set it, and you can use it during the opponent's turn.

All right, you have now learned Yu-Gi-Oh! Go use this deck to defeat your opponent: Tearlaments!

So that was what the "despair" referred to, right?

Silently turning his gaze toward the starter deck's name, Yu Ming fell quiet.

However, that soundless silence could not stop time from passing.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Listening to the footsteps just beyond the wall, Yu Ming took a deep breath.

Although this should have been a tense moment, he found that his mind had suddenly gone blank.

As though nothing mattered anymore.

Of course, calling it resignation would not have been wrong either.

"All right, this will do."

After putting away the scales on the table, he reached for the deck lying there.

"Vanilla monsters have their own way of fighting."

Registered Deck—Price of Vigilance

Staring at the system-given deck name, as abstract as ever and impossible to identify by its build, Yu Ming no longer felt like complaining.

But it was fine. It did not affect the plan already taking shape in his mind.

More than three duplicate cards detected. Would you like to exchange the excess cards for Duel Points?

Beep.

Would you like to exchange for the card pack 'Darkness Virus'?

Beep.

Would you like to exchange for the card pack 'Transcending Dimensions'?

"Hmm?"

After opening the card packs completely, Yu Ming froze at the cards that emerged from within.

"Forbidden Cards can come out of these too?"

But now, he had no time for hesitation or joy.

Expressionless, Yu Ming stuffed all those cards into his deck in one go and took a deep breath.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep.

Would you like to save this deck build?

"Yes."

Amid sounds that seemed like a death knell, a system-materialized deck condensed in Yu Ming's hand.

Then...

"'Absorb Shield.'"

Bang!

The moment Yu Ming casually slapped the Trap Card onto his Duel Disk, a violent explosion suddenly erupted.

The explosive gust, carrying a thick smell of gunpowder, rushed toward him, only to be completely absorbed by the green barrier.

Through the green shield, Yu Ming looked toward the main entrance and saw that the pile of rubble blocking the path had been blasted apart.

A figure gradually emerged from the smoke and dust.

"Ha, I knew this place had to be unusual."

Clang.

With the sound of a tossed coin, a burly man appeared before Yu Ming.

"Tsk, tsk. Let's see what kind of treasure is hidden behind these ruins."

"This guy..."

His voice was rough, his clothes were bold, and the wristguards on both hands were enough to prove that he possessed considerable physical strength.

Yet the most eye-catching thing about him was neither his build nor his black sunglasses, but the American flag bandana wrapped around his blond hair.

Yu Ming recognized that outfit.

It could even be said that, in a certain sense, this look was more famous than some members of the protagonist group.

"Hey, brat over there, where did you hide the treasure of the great Bandit Keith?"