Yu-Gi-Oh!: Starting with an Underworld Deck, Depressing the World, Part 39

Alexis Rhodes, Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale all looked grim!

Beads of cold sweat appeared on their faces.

"Tsk, tsk, how miserable..." Even Jiang He couldn't help taking another look before shaking his head with a cluck of sympathy.

Hearing that, Titan's forehead bulged with veins, and he nearly suffered excessive blood loss.

Who the hell had caused all this?!

And the monster this brat had set was actually [Stealth Bird], not Celtic Guardian of Noble Arms!

What that short, blue-haired hedgehog had let slip earlier had to be a trap this brat Jiang He had deliberately laid for him, right?

Titan immediately felt he had guessed the "truth"!

[Beep, Titan's Emotion Points +200!]

"I've already earned Emotion Points from that..."

Jiang He couldn't help raising an eyebrow in surprise.

Still, he naturally wouldn't turn down something so good!

"I set one card and end my turn!"

After swallowing his frustration, Titan could only take one of his two remaining cards and place it on his Duel Disk, ending his turn.

With [Doomking Balerdroch]'s attack reduced to 1,400, it obviously couldn't destroy the [Stealth Bird] on Jiang He's field in Defense Position.

"My turn. Draw."

It was Jiang He's turn to draw a card from the deck on his Duel Disk.

He glanced at the card he had drawn and saw that it was another Stealth Bird. He couldn't help feeling a little sorry for his opponent.

Then he placed the card he had just drawn directly on his Duel Disk. "I summon [Stealth Bird] in attack position!"

A faint light flashed, and another blue-winged bird with a strange, batlike head appeared on the field in front of Jiang He.

"Huh? In attack position?!" Syrus Truesdale cried out.

Alexis, Jaden Yuki and the other person also watched in surprise and confusion.

"Heh heh heh, brat, you really are still too green! [Stealth Bird] is a monster that has to be flip summoned to activate its effect. Don't you even know that yourself?"

Titan chuckled smugly as he taunted Jiang He.

"This card can only activate its effect and reduce its opponent's life points by 1,000 LP when it's in face-down Defense Position and flip summoned during your own turn!"

"If you summon it directly in attack position like that, or flip it when it's attacked by my [Shadowknight Archfiend] like before, you can't activate the effect that reduces your opponent's life points by 1,000 LP!"

"Of course I know that. That's why I'm activating the second effect of both [Stealth Birds]. Once per turn, they can automatically change to face-down Defense Position."

Jiang He snapped his fingers and spoke with a faint smile, not surprised in the least.

"Thud, thud!"

The sound of two cards being set rang out on the field. Both Stealth Birds instantly disappeared with sinister grins beneath the shadows of their face-down cards.

They had returned to face-down Defense Position.

"..." Titan was dumbfounded.

This brat had deliberately summoned [Stealth Bird] in attack position, then used its effect to turn it face-down.

Was he provoking Titan by making it perfectly obvious that both set monsters were [Stealth Bird]?!

"Damn it! Brat, you've succeeded in rousing the anger of Titan, a Shadow Duelist! Now I'll show you the true horror of a Shadow Duel!"

Titan spoke in a fury.

"My turn. Draw!"

As an enraged Titan caught a card that automatically popped out of the deck on the device in front of him,

Alexis Rhodes, Jaden, Chumley and the fourth member of their group were all left speechless by Jiang He's outrageous move.

"But what's the point of provoking him like that? Now he knows right away that the set monster is [Stealth Bird]," Syrus Truesdale said.

As soon as he said that, Alexis Rhodes and the others felt the same way and began to wonder.

Originally, by setting and summoning a monster in face-down Defense Position, Jiang He could have kept his opponent from guessing what it was.

That could have misled his opponent and affected his tactics.

Now he had made it perfectly obvious that the set monster was Stealth Bird.

Aside from provoking his opponent, what practical purpose could that serve?

Wait!

A thought suddenly struck Alexis Rhodes. She looked at the two set cards on Jiang He's field, and an idea flashed through her mind!

Could it be...?!

"I see!" A faint smile appeared on Alexis's face, as though she had guessed something.

She seemed to understand Jiang He's tactics now!

This was an entirely open scheme!

Jaden Yuki and even Titan, who had just angrily finished drawing his card across from Jiang He, suddenly shuddered.

It was as if they had suddenly thought of something!

Titan in particular, as Jiang He's opponent, began to break out in a cold sweat!

The crimson eyes on his pitch-black mask passed over the two face-down Stealth Birds on Jiang He's field and landed on the two set cards in his back row!

Could one of the two cards this brat Jiang He had set in his back row

be another trap like the [Wall of Disruption] from before?!

If so, this was an entirely open scheme, and a particularly heartless one at that!

"Huh? Titan looked really angry just now. Why has he suddenly stopped moving?"

Seeing Titan's state, Syrus Truesdale couldn't help asking in confusion.

"And he seems to be sweating a lot. Did he lose too much blood from the damage the Shadow Duel did to him earlier?"

Chumley, the simpleminded fat boy, chimed in, equally puzzled.

"It's not that simple. That Shadow Duelist Titan was probably frightened by Jiang He's brilliant open scheme. Now he's caught in a dilemma!"

Jaden Yuki scratched his head with a very strange expression.

Even he seemed to feel his scalp tingle at the sight!

PS: I accidentally made a mistake at the end of the previous chapter. [Stealth Bird] in Defense Position wouldn't be destroyed when attacked by Shadowknight Archfiend, so it's still on the field. I've already corrected it.

Chapter 58: What a wicked open scheme! [Please subscribe]

"He's frightened by Jiang He's open scheme?"

Syrus Truesdale asked in utter confusion after hearing Jaden Yuki.

"You mean when he summoned [Stealth Bird] in attack position, showed it to his opponent, then used its effect to set it?"

"But what good does that do?" Chumley asked, looking just as confused.

"If one of the two cards Jiang He has set on his field is another copy of the trap [Wall of Disruption] he used earlier, then telling his opponent that the second monster is also [Stealth Bird] leaves his opponent with a very difficult choice."

Alexis Rhodes smiled as she spoke, watching Jiang He and the state of the field from a short distance away.

"Once [Stealth Bird] is successfully flip summoned, it can reduce its opponent's life points by 1,000 LP."

"But if he attacks [Stealth Bird] once every turn, just like Titan did with [Shadowknight Archfiend] earlier, he'll force it to flip without activating its effect, preventing that effect from ever triggering."

Syrus Truesdale and Chumley nodded repeatedly as they listened.

"But the problem is, if Jiang He might still have a trap like the [Wall of Disruption] he used earlier on his field, then attacking [Stealth Bird], which has 1,700 defense, might cause his opponent to take even more damage than its flip summon effect would."

Alexis Rhodes explained her analysis fluently.

"It... really does look that way!" Syrus Truesdale and Chumley both froze, immediately beginning to understand!

Didn't that mean Jiang He had left the Shadow Duelist Titan completely unsure what to choose?!

If he didn't attack the two face-down [Stealth Birds] on Jiang He's field, he would inevitably take a full 2,000 LP of damage next turn!

With only [2,300 LP] left, that would obviously be a devastating blow to him.

And on the following turn, Titan would still face the same dilemma.

If he chose to attack the two face-down [Stealth Birds] on Jiang He's field, and one of the two cards set in Jiang He's back row was a powerful attack-reducing trap like [Wall of Disruption], which could lower the attack of every monster on his opponent's field by 800 times the number of monsters in attack position...

Given the monsters on the Shadow Duelist Titan's field, he might take even more damage than he would from the effect of a successfully flip summoned [Stealth Bird]...!

When Syrus Truesdale and Chumley realized this, their scalps immediately began to tingle.

Of course, if Titan could destroy the two face-down [Stealth Birds] on Jiang He's field or the two set cards, he could easily break Jiang He's open scheme at once.

But the fiend deck his opponent used had a powerful effect: when its monsters were targeted, a die was rolled, giving them a considerable chance to negate and destroy that effect.

As a result, such a fiend deck should contain very few special Spell or Trap Cards that could negate an opponent's Spell or Trap effects!

Most were Spells or Traps that revived monsters or allowed its fiend monsters to attack the opponent directly.

In other words, for the unlucky Shadow Duelist Titan, Jiang He's open scheme was almost completely impossible to counter.

What a wicked open scheme...!

Syrus Truesdale and Chumley, along with Jaden Yuki, who had guessed it early on, all complained furiously in their hearts.

Why does a tactic called an "open" scheme feel so wicked?!

"Damn it...!" Hearing Alexis Rhodes and the others, Titan was clearly under even more pressure!

More and more cold sweat formed on his forehead!

Watching him, Jiang He really wanted to say something.

If this were a Yu-Gi-Oh! dueling game, you'd almost be out of time to play your card!

"I summon [Archfiend General] in attack position!" Titan finally clenched his fist fiercely.

Then he placed the card he had just drawn on his Duel Disk!

"Roar!!"

Amid a dim, dark light, another ugly fiend monster appeared with a roar, its orange-yellow muscles exposed across its body, as though it wore bone armor, and a pair of black bat wings on its back!

It appeared on the field in front of Titan, holding a bone sword.

[Archfiend General]

[Level: 4]

[Attribute: dark]

[Attack: 2100]