Yūki looked at Jaden, who was so excited he was practically bouncing, but his mind wasn't on the duel ahead.
It was on something else.
The [Archetype Pack] option that remained grayed out on his system panel.
Unlocking an Archetype Pack in his cheat system required defeating a named character.
And Jaden Yuki.
An Elemental HERO user, a future King of Games!
Without question, the central character of GX!
Winning this match would unlock the HERO Archetype Pack.
A HERO Deck.
Honestly, Yūki had seen plenty of individual HERO cards at the card shop.
They were ridiculously cheap.
It wasn't that the shop owner didn't know their worth.
HERO Decks simply weren't rated very highly in this world.
Yūki had watched the GX anime in his previous life and remembered it clearly.
During the entrance exam, Professor Crowler had told Jaden that HERO Decks were dime-a-dozen, mediocre in strength, and not remotely competitive.
Crowler's words had been harsh, but strictly speaking, they weren't entirely wrong.
The low-level Elemental HERO monsters were all low-attack Normal Monsters.
No searching, no draw filtering. Their plays depended entirely on fusion, and fusion inherently meant card disadvantage.
It only worked because Jaden was the protagonist.
If someone else used that deck, they might brick themselves to death, taking a constant beating whenever they failed to draw Polymerization.
But many of the ace Fusion Monsters Jaden acquired later weren't sold anywhere.
The guy had simply printed them himself.
After all, Jaden Yuki had a spirit backing him.
Yubel was no joke.
At that thought, the corner of Yūki's mouth twitched.
In the GX world, printing cards on the spot during a duel wasn't called cheating.
It was called strength.
This world's rules recognized the dueling power that duelists naturally awakened when pushed to their limits.
Duelists with powerful dueling power could draw a card that had never existed from thin air at a critical moment, accepted by the spirits and acknowledged by the world.
What kind of powerful duelist couldn't print cards?
And the strength of the printed card depended entirely on the caliber of the spirit backing them, or the depth of their own dueling power.
Yūki's system panel clearly read Soul Power Lv2.
What this world called dueling power, the system called Soul Power.
They were the same thing.
Maybe one day he could enjoy the thrill of printing a card on the spot too.
If he could print those unbeatable cards from his previous life's OCG that he remembered...
"Hey, hello? You spacing out?"
Jaden's voice brought him back.
The jellyfish-haired boy had already taken his place opposite him, his Duel Disk extended and his freshly shuffled deck held in his left hand.
"I'm ready! How about you?"
Yūki gathered his thoughts.
"Sure. Let's register first."
When the two entered Court Eleven, the spectators who hadn't quite dispersed gathered again in small groups.
Every standard court in Kaiba Land had real-time projection screens, one on either side.
The staff member, a young man in a Kaiba Corporation uniform, took their duelist IDs and scanned them at the terminal.
"Jaden Yuki, two stars."
"Fujiwara Yūki, 3 Stars."
"Everything checks out."
The projection screens lit up.
Left: [Jaden Yuki LP: 4000] Right: [Fujiwara Yūki LP: 4000]
Someone in the audience recognized Jaden.
"Hey, isn't that the guy who used Flame Wingman earlier?"
"Who's his opponent? 3 Stars? That's a rank above him."
"It's only 3 Stars. 3 Stars are everywhere in Kaiba Land. But Flame Wingman's effect is way too broken. Who can take twenty-six hundred damage?"
Yūki listened to the chatter around him without much change in his expression.
Was Jaden's Flame Wingman effect strong?
No protection, no effect destruction, and low attack to boot!
Absolute trash!
He opened his Duel Disk, and his forty nasty cards were automatically shuffled and cut.
"Let's get started!"
Jaden's eyes shone like two high-rarity cards fresh out of a Booster Pack.
"Then I'll go first?"
Yūki asked, showing the future King of Games a little respect first.
"Sure!"
Jaden waved a hand, completely unconcerned about going first or second.
Yūki nodded.
All right!
You said it.
"My turn! I draw!"
Yūki's right hand traced a short arc, and his sixth card slid neatly into his hand.
On the projection screen, his turn indicator lit up with a blue glow.
He glanced over his opening six cards.
Confiscation, The Forceful Sentry, Mischievous Twins, Mystic Tomato, Drop Off, and Pot of Greed.
Yūki nearly laughed aloud.
All three pieces of the hand-destruction trio were here.
Plus a perennial-banlist-level draw card, and a Drop Off for insurance.
In his previous life's OCG environment, an opponent who saw this opening hand could surrender on the spot.
In this world?
He raised his eyes and glanced across the court.
Jaden was swaying back and forth where he stood, completely unaware of what he was about to face.
"I activate Pot of Greed."
Yūki slapped the Spell Card into his Duel Disk.
A dark green, pot-shaped phantom appeared on the field, pouring two streams of golden light from its mouth into his hand.
"I draw two cards from my deck."
The top two cards of his deck slid into his hand.
Mystical Space Typhoon and Drop Off.
Seven cards fanned out between the fingers of his left hand, their backs gleaming coldly in the projection light.
"I activate Confiscation."
Yūki slapped the first core card into his Spell & Trap Zone.
The instant he paid his Life Points, a purple blade of light shot from his Duel Disk, pointing straight at Jaden.
"I pay one thousand Life Points."
Yūki LP: 4000 → 3000.
"I look at your hand and choose one card to discard-come on, let me see what you've got."
Jaden blinked.
"Huh? You get to look at my hand?"
"Yep. Reveal all of it."
Jaden scratched his jellyfish hair, but offered no resistance, readily turning over the five cards in his hand.
"Look! My partners are all raring to go!"
Images of Jaden's hand immediately popped up on the projection screen.
Five cards lined up neatly in midair.
Avian's blue-green border, Burstinatrix's flame patterns, Polymerization's swirling design, Skyscraper's golden radiance, and Clayman's thick brown armor.
Every card was enlarged on display.
A low murmur rose from the audience.
Seeing an opponent's entire hand this early was uncommon in Kaiba Land's public duels.
"His whole hand's exposed... What kind of Spell Card is that? That effect is ridiculous."
"Tsk, tsk. A thousand points just to look at his hand? Even if he discards one, isn't that a huge loss? Why doesn't he run something with an even bigger cost?"
Yūki swept his gaze over them.
Elemental HERO Avian, Elemental HERO Burstinatrix, Polymerization, Skyscraper, and Elemental HERO Clayman.
A standard Jaden opening hand.
Polymerization, two materials, and a Field Spell.
In other words, without hand disruption, Jaden could bring out Flame Wingman next turn and use Skyscraper's attack boost to dominate the field.
But that was without disruption.
Yūki's gaze stopped on Polymerization.
"Discard Polymerization."
Jaden looked down at his hand, pulled out the Polymerization Spell Card, and sent it to the Graveyard.
"Aw! There goes Polymerization!"
There was a hint of regret in his voice.
Before you continue