Yu-Gi-Oh!: Starting With a Hellish Deck, Depressing the World

He looked every bit the spiritual mentor.

He patiently lectured Syrus Truesdale. "If you can draw a Trap Card like [Lightforce Sword] in your opening hand next time, one that banishes a card from your opponent's hand for four turns,

then you can reproduce the way the King of Games, Yugi Muto, defeated an Exodia the Forbidden One deck back in the day!"

Nearby, Jaden Yuki nodded in agreement. Drawing the card that best countered an Exodia the Forbidden One deck on the first turn

really wasn't hard!

In his view, if Syrus could improve, perhaps he could do it too.

"I have a chance to win the way Yugi Muto beat an Exodia the Forbidden One deck...!" Syrus Truesdale immediately grew excited when he heard that.

He was full of determination again!

"Please duel me one more time!" Syrus Truesdale said, his face serious.

"Ganbatte! You can do it!" Jiang He smiled and nodded encouragingly.

He even raised a clenched fist to cheer Syrus Truesdale on!

"Yeah!" Syrus Truesdale nodded solemnly, determined not to let Jiang He's care go to waste!

Until another minute later.

In the room, the familiar "boom" of an explosion rang out, followed by flames and smoke...

After once again watching Jiang He talk through his plays for a minute and being instantly defeated in a first-turn kill, Syrus Truesdale fell to his knees, looking as though he had nothing left to live for.

[Ding, Syrus Truesdale's emotion points +100.]

He was numb.

Completely numb.

After drawing his opening hand and getting only one Trap Card that destroyed a single monster on the opponent's field,

and after Jiang He once again used Double Summon to summon a second [Royal Magical Library] monster,

Syrus Truesdale had watched Jiang He blankly, looking as though he had nothing left to live for, as Jiang He talked through his plays and told a ghost story called "Liar"!

He had actually thought Jiang He was a good person.

Boohoohoo!

Liars, they were all liars!

His emotion points actually went down instead... Looks like I can't farm any more emotion points from Jaden's little bro for a while.

Listening to the changes in emotion points announced by the system, Jiang He muttered to himself.

He had originally thought he could earn even more emotion points the third time.

Who would have thought Syrus Truesdale would go numb, leaving him with smaller and smaller emotional fluctuations instead?

"Tsk, what a shame..." Jiang He clicked his tongue in disappointment.

If Syrus Truesdale knew what he was thinking, he would probably have been unable to resist getting up and PKing him in real life!

Even though he couldn't possibly win!

Although it was a shame, Jiang He realized after tallying it up

that he had successfully earned 700 emotion points from Syrus Truesdale this time.

Added to the 800 from before, he now had 1,500!

He could exchange them with the system for a new hellish deck!

He had also taken the opportunity to test another use for the Duel Spirit Sight Ability he had just received from the system yesterday!

Although there were no awakened spirits in his One-Turn Kill Exodia the Forbidden One Deck,

when he used it to duel again,

his ability to sense spirits allowed Jiang He to clearly perceive fluctuations of power and a special sensation coming from some of the cards in his deck.

It was as though he could call out to those cards in his heart and, to some extent, draw them in the order he wanted!

Even if he wasn't a lucky-draw dog like Jaden Yuki, who had a one-hundred-percent bond with his deck's Duel Spirits and could pull off a godly draw every time,

he could at least have his wishes come true to some extent and get a relatively favorable draw order!

He wouldn't run into a situation like his duel with Chazz Princeton, when two pieces of Exodia the Forbidden One had been almost at the bottom of the deck!

If he were up against someone else with strong dueling skills, like Alexis, and they specifically countered him,

Jiang He might not have been certain he could still win.

But against someone like Syrus Truesdale, Jaden's little bro, whose dueling skills were relatively weak and who still couldn't see spirits at all,

even if he knew the weakness of Jiang He's first-turn-kill Exodia the Forbidden One deck and put in cards to counter it,

Jiang He still wasn't worried.

After all, even if you put counter cards in your deck, you still had to be able to draw them!

And now that he had the ability to see spirits, combined with Clear Mind's ability to guarantee one godly draw per duel,

he could be one hundred percent certain of summoning two [Royal Magical Library] monsters in his opening turn to get his plays going and defeat Syrus Truesdale with a first-turn kill!

He had successfully stopped acting human for once.

Chapter 22: This Time, the Poor-Student Boy Will Definitely Take the Bait

"Syrus, are you okay?" Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Jaden Yuki tried to comfort Syrus Truesdale.

Still, he didn't think Jiang He had lied.

After all, although all three practice duels had ended with Syrus being defeated on the first turn, they really could give him some experience in dealing with it.

And he had also seen a little of Syrus's improvement.

That power of a duelist's belief in his bond with his deck.

Of course, what he had mainly seen was Jiang He's strength.

"Jiang He, you really are amazing!" Jaden Yuki said excitedly to Jiang He, full of enthusiasm.

That special power he had sensed several times before.

He definitely wasn't mistaken!

Jiang He had a special power too, and he could definitely see Duel Monsters spirits!

"Kuriboh, kuriboh...!" Just then, a little furry monster with a pair of white wings suddenly flew out of the deck at Jaden Yuki's waist as a streak of white light invisible to ordinary people.

Its form was ghostlike and extremely indistinct.

Syrus Truesdale noticed nothing at all, nor did he hear a sound.

Jiang He, however, heard and saw it quite clearly.

"So this is what Winged Kuriboh really looks like..." Jiang He couldn't help raising an eyebrow as he looked with some interest at the little winged furball.

Although he had seen it plenty of times in his previous life, seeing a Duel Spirit with his own eyes like this

was still a first!

He had to admit, it was quite a novel experience!

If he later had the chance to exchange for the power to materialize spirits and touch them himself through the system,

and even use the power of spirits in reality,

wouldn't that be really awesome...!

"So you can see my partner too!" Seeing Jiang He's reaction, Jaden Yuki immediately spoke up happily.

"Big bro... what do you mean, see your partner?" Syrus Truesdale looked at Jaden Yuki in bewilderment, then at Jiang He, before glancing around.

But he didn't see anything.

"If you mean him, then yes, I can see him," Jiang He said to Jaden with a nod, glancing at Winged Kuriboh, who had flown over and was looking at him curiously from a short distance away.

He maintained a calm expression.

He had to stay calm. He didn't have any spirits at all right now...

It looked like he would have to take a good look at which deck to exchange for with the system later.

Jiang He grumbled inwardly.

It absolutely couldn't be another ridiculous deck like his One-Turn Kill Exodia the Forbidden One Deck, with nothing but a few body parts and two lousy libraries.

Seven monster cards, and he couldn't even put together a single Duel Spirit...

But then again,

Jiang He was a little surprised that Jaden Yuki, that hot-blooded idiot so obsessed with dueling, had never once suggested a duel with him.

Originally, he had been thinking that this guy already knew the weakness of his One-Turn Kill Exodia the Forbidden One Deck.

If he suddenly got the urge to play cards and wanted to duel him, Jiang He would need to find an excuse to stall for a little while.

Then he could decide after choosing which new hellish deck to exchange for.

Yet unexpectedly, Jaden Yuki, that duel maniac, hadn't even brought it up to him once so far...?

Jiang He was puzzled.

In fact,

Jaden Yuki really had entertained the idea at first.

But after watching Jiang He duel Chazz Princeton last night, he had immediately abandoned it.

Because he had also realized

that if he dueled Jiang He's One-Turn Kill Exodia the Forbidden One Deck without putting in counter cards, he could only watch Jiang He "talk through his plays" and tell a ghost story, then stand there waiting to die in frustration.

And if he specifically put in cards to counter that deck, drew them, and got to go first,

then he would definitely be the one to win.

Jaden Yuki really didn't want to have a duel like that, where the outcome was decided outright like a coin toss and there was no fun in the duel at all.

But a person wouldn't switch decks lightly, either.

Jaden Yuki felt he could only wait and see whether some special situation arose in the future, and talk about it after Jiang He changed decks.

After all, if he couldn't duel someone like Jiang He, who could also see Duel Spirits and possessed great strength,

that would be too much of a shame!

Jiang He didn't know what Jaden Yuki was thinking, nor did he pay it any attention.

But he was also considering when he could find a chance to duel Jaden Yuki after exchanging for a new deck.

He would bring a depressing grin to this dueling world's chosen one too!

And see how many emotion points he could earn!