The Big Darling

When Yūki woke up, it was already light outside.

He stared at the ceiling for three seconds, his eyes feeling a little sore.

He had stayed up past two last night.

The reason was simple.

Building a HERO Deck.

After opening all twenty-five packs, he had gotten a pile of HERO-related cards.

The artwork alone was so sunny it could have purified his hand destruction deck on the spot.

Yūki had originally only wanted to throw a deck together to test the waters.

But once a Duelist got his hands on new cards, those hands developed a mind of their own.

First, he sorted out the low-level Normal Monsters.

Then he checked the Fusion Materials.

Then the corresponding lines for the Fusion Monsters.

Then he considered how accepted Fusion Summoning was in this world's environment, and how intimidating it would be in actual duels.

By the time he came to his senses, he had filled three sheets of scratch paper.

Just like that, he had painstakingly hammered out a playable HERO Deck.

Of course, relying solely on HERO cards left something to be desired.

The biggest problem with this era's Elemental HEROs was that they played too fair.

Without drawing Polymerization, you could only sit there helplessly; Fusion Summoning cost you cards in hand, and one Mirror Force could easily wipe out your entire board.

Looking at that pile of upright, honorable HERO cards, Yūki finally couldn't help opening a webpage.

Kaiba's online store.

The International Fantasy Society's trading section.

He would buy a batch of generic Spells and Traps first.

He also needed a few defensive traps to keep himself alive.

HEROs were an honorable deck.

The Duelist himself could afford to be a little less honorable.

It was only at 2:17 a.m. that Yūki finally closed his deck box.

One hand destruction deck.

One HERO Deck.

Plus the Needle Worm Card Milling deck Sato Renshan was helping him put together at school.

Three decks.

Although he wouldn't get the last one until Monday.

Hand control, Fusion, Card Milling.

Three completely different directions.

Even if the others in the league countered his first deck, they would have a hard time guessing what he would pull out the next day.

What if they countered all of them?

Even better.

His opponents only had so many card slots; the harder they tried to defend against everything, the more likely they were to turn their own decks into mush.

Yūki rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed.

He was just about to get out of bed and wash up when a light suddenly flashed before his eyes.

The translucent system panel popped up automatically.

The familiar blue-and-white screen hovered on the right side of his vision, tiny specks of light flowing along its edges.

[System shop refreshed]

[Bronze shop]

[Three cards refreshed weekly]

Yūki froze for a moment.

Then he realized.

Sunday.

Today was the system's Bronze Shop refresh day.

This was the first time since transmigrating that he had waited for the shop to refresh naturally.

The system panel had been empty before, though the archetype packs had already offered him a HERO pack.

Instead, the regular shop was only officially opening for the first time today.

Yūki immediately perked up a little.

Half his sleepiness vanished.

"First refresh."

He stared at the panel, his finger hovering in midair.

"Shouldn't you give me a beginner's gift?"

Although, judging by the system's earlier card pulls, the words "beginner's gift" were something of a fantasy.

The sight of three Normal Monster HEROs in his first pack was still fresh in his mind.

But a person had to have dreams.

What if?

What if the Bronze Shop's first refresh gave him a god-tier card outright?

Like [Harpie's Feather Duster].

Or [Super Polymerization].

At the thought of that last card, even Yūki shook his head.

With a mental command, he activated it.

In the center of the panel, a shimmering Booster Pack slowly appeared.

There was no archetype symbol on the back of the Booster Pack, only the system's default silver-gray pattern.

A bronze glow rimmed its edges, making it look like a cheap pack just dug out from the bottom shelf of a card shop.

The Booster Pack hovered for half a second.

Pop!

The seal split open.

Three cards flew out and flipped over one after another on the system interface.

The first, white light.

The second, white light.

The third.

Red light.

Very red.

So red it looked as though someone had poured magma into the system panel.

Yūki's eyes, which had still been a little sleepy, suddenly widened.

The card in the very middle was enveloped in a searing red glow.

Its artwork gradually became clear.

Blazing red magma erupted from underground, and the dark brown volcanic rock was scorched with orange-yellow cracks.

In the center of the image, an enormous fiend rose from the magma.

Its whole body looked pieced together from lava and charred rock, fire flowed through the cracks in its chest, curved horns spread to either side of its head, and its face was as ferocious as a boss who had just crawled out of a volcano to demand his wages.

Its two thick arms were raised, gripping the iron cage between them, magma dripping down from its elbows.

A sea of fire churned behind it, the red glow making the entire card look scorching hot.

ATK, 3000!

Exactly equal to a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Powerful! Mighty!

Intimidation maxed out!

From the artwork to the stats, everything about it screamed, "I'm a boss monster."

Then Yūki made out its name.

[Lava Golem]

Yūki said, "Holy shit."

He stared at the card for a full five seconds.

"Why did this thing show up?"

Lava Golem.

Commonly known as the Big Baby.

In DM, this card belonged to Marik.

In GX, Yubel had used it too.

After that, it rarely appeared.

Its rarity was high, and very few copies were in circulation.

Yūki had specifically looked this thing up while searching for cards online a few days earlier.

The search results had been so empty that he suspected it hadn't even been released yet.

Nobody had listed it in the trading section.

Nobody mentioned it in the wanted section.

He couldn't even find two useful pieces of information in the discussion threads.

It was the kind of card you knew existed but couldn't find a trace of on the market.

Yet the system's Bronze Shop had tossed it out on its very first refresh.

For a moment, Yūki wore a somewhat complicated expression.

If you called it a beginner's gift...

It really did seem to count.

But if you called it wholesome...

This thing had nothing to do with that word.

Every Duelist knew Lava Golem's effect.

Tribute two monsters on your opponent's field to Special Summon it to their field.

Three thousand ATK.

It looked like you were giving your opponent a Blue-Eyes White Dragon-class boss monster for free.

If duelists in this world saw it for the first time, they would probably grab his hand on the spot.

Thanks, bro.

You're actually pretty nice.

Then came the opponent's Standby Phase.

Its controller took one thousand damage.

More importantly, those two Tributed monsters were already gone.

It didn't matter whether they were a linked pair of defensive walls or a high-ATK ace.

It didn't matter whether they were carefully summoned Fusion Monsters or end-board monsters built with three cards from hand.

As long as they could be Tributed, they all went to the Graveyard together.

One card for two.

With a volcanic debt collector that burned them for a thousand every turn thrown onto their field for good measure.

Among the degenerate strategies of later years, this card was a founding-father-level menace.

Especially in this GX environment.

Everyone worked so hard to summon boss monsters, calling them partners; the more magnificent their monsters looked on the field, the kinder Lava Golem's face seemed.

Yūki could already picture the scene.

His opponent went to enormous lengths to summon two aces and was just about to declare an attack.

He lowered his head and slapped down a Lava Golem.

Thanks.

I'll be using those two monsters of yours.

Here's a Big Baby with three thousand ATK for you.

So polite.

Yūki pinched the bridge of his nose.

Duelists in this world had always placed great importance on soul.

Having their ace destroyed by battle was acceptable.

Having their ace caught in a trap was something they could grit their teeth and accept too.

But having their opponent use their ace as material to bring out Lava Golem...

This form of attack was a little ahead of its time.

He shifted his gaze to the other two cards.

The first.

[Divine Dragon Ragnarok]

A Level 4 Normal Monster.

Its name was very imposing.

Divine dragon.

Doomsday Dragon.

Just hearing the name, you would think it was about to destroy the world in the next second.

Then came the stats.

ATK 1500.

DEF 1200.

Yūki fell silent for a moment.

That name was trying way too hard.

Its actual power was very restrained.

The second card.

[Wasteland]

Field Spell.

Its effect increased the ATK and DEF of Dinosaur, Zombie, and Rock monsters on the field by 200.

Yūki glanced at it.

Yep.

Trash card.

A two-hundred-point boost.

Restricted to three specific types.

This world loved big monsters with high ATK, so someone might actually treasure it.

But for Yūki, it could basically go into the "maybe I can prop up a table leg with this someday" category.

Three cards from the first refresh.

One absolute god-tier Big Baby.

One vanilla monster with an impressive-sounding name.

One Field Spell that added two hundred.

The bronze shop's first refresh had a very strange mix of quality.

But it was enough.

Lava Golem alone made it worthwhile.

Besides, this refresh came with an extra benefit.

A system notification soon popped up.

[Refreshed cards will automatically be recorded in the regular card pool]

[They can subsequently be purchased with Duel Coins]

Looking at the notification, Yūki perked up even more.

In other words, refreshing the shop was essentially unlocking entries in a collection.

Any cards that appeared would go straight into his purchasable card pool.

Even though the HERO packs had drained his Duel Coins and he could not afford them for now.

Once he saved up enough coins later, he would have a reliable way to buy Lava Golem from the system.

That was the key.

A single Big Baby was great.

A reliable supply of Big Babies was something else entirely.

Yūki leaned back against the headboard, his mind already turning.

A stall deck built around Lava Golem.

He needed cards that could block attacks.

[Torture Wheel] would be ideal.

[Nightmare's Steelcage] would work too.

Then he could add burn and attack-lock components like [Stealth Bird], [Wave-Motion Cannon], [Messenger of Peace], and [Gravity Bind].

As soon as his opponent brought out monsters, he would trade them in for his Big Baby.

His Big Baby would stand on the opponent's field, burning them for a thousand each turn.

All he had to do was hang on.

Four thousand LP, four standby phases.

His opponent would burn themselves out all on their own.

With a few burn traps stacked on top, it could be even quicker.

Of course, he had not collected all those cards yet.

But he had a direction now.

Hand destruction left his opponent with no cards to play.

Needle Worm Card Milling left his opponent with no cards to draw.

The HERO Deck would take the stage whenever a little sunshine was needed.

Lava Golem stall, meanwhile, would send the ace his opponent had painstakingly nurtured off to a volcano for further education.

Just like that, the outline of a fourth deck emerged in his mind.

Yūki looked at the card glowing a scorching red in the middle of the system panel, his drowsiness completely gone.

Suddenly, staying up past two last night did not seem like a big deal.

He was a Duelist, after all.

Staying up late to build decks was only natural.

Besides, it was Sunday.

He could still catch up on sleep.

Yūki lay back down, but his eyes remained fixed on Lava Golem in the panel.

The magma demon stood amid a sea of flames, its three thousand ATK glaringly bright.

In this world that worshipped big monsters with high ATK, three thousand ATK usually meant an ace, power, a declaration of victory.

But in Yūki's hands.

A big monster with three thousand ATK could also be a time bomb delivered to his opponent.

He stared at the card art for a long while, then finally let out a soft breath.

"Now even my Big Baby is here."

"I wonder if the HERO Deck alone will be enough to uphold my good name in the future."