Yu-Gi-Oh!: Starting with a Hellish Deck, Depressing the World, Part 47
"The second effect of the Trap Card [Magical Cylinders] activates! When I activate the Trap Card [Magic Cylinder], I can banish this card from the Graveyard after it was activated to double the damage that [Magic Cylinder] inflicts on my opponents!"
Jiang He said.
"What?!"
Seeing Jiang He's bright, beaming smile and hearing him say that while giving them a thumbs-up, both Paradox Brothers stared wide-eyed in shock, their expressions falling apart!
"5.2 Two-twice the damage from Magic Cylinder?!"
"[Gate Guardian] has 3,750 attack points. If the damage is doubled and sent back at us, won't that be 7,500 points of damage?!"
The brothers calculated the damage between them, then stared at Jiang He as cold sweat broke out on their foreheads. In particular, after the trap depicting a processing plant absorbed their [Gate Guardian]'s shockwave attack, Jiang He banished it from the Graveyard.
A massive energy shockwave now glowed inside the enormous purplish-red Magic Cylinder, which had suddenly doubled in size!
[Ding! Emotion Points from the Paradox Brothers (both) +1,200!]
"Your Gate Guardian has a lot of attack points, but now they're mine!"
With a wicked sense of humor, Jiang He raised one hand and struck a firing pose.
Chapter 72: They're Not Smiling Anymore, and However You Look at It, It's Your Fault [Please Subscribe]
"Double [Gate Guardian], demon god shockwave!"
As Jiang He's words fell, energy burst from the purplish-red Magic Cylinder on his right, now twice its original size!
A tremendous shockwave, a waterspout laced with golden arcs of electricity, erupted from it and engulfed both Paradox Brothers on the far side of the duel field! "Aah!!"
The swirling column of water and the painful electrical current carried by its golden arcs struck the Paradox Brothers, making both of them grunt in pain as electricity numbed their bodies!
Their Life Points, already down to just [4,600 LP], beeped rapidly as they dropped to zero!
The monsters and set cards on the duel field instantly faded away and vanished.
Only the two rather disheveled Paradox Brothers remained, down on one knee and leaning against each other.
"He defeated the legendary dueling duo who once dueled the King of Games, Yugi Muto, in less than two full rounds of turns, without losing a single Life Point..." Zane Truesdale said, watching Jiang He with a hint of surprise and interest in his eyes.
"As expected of him. He's shown me another kind of strategy," Bastion Misawa said with a slight smile.
"That was amazing, Jiang He!" Jaden Yuki cheered enthusiastically.
Quite a few Duel Academy students in the spectator areas around the arena also nodded in unconscious agreement. They were reluctant to admit it, but in this duel, their Obelisk Blue senior Alexis seemed to have contributed far less than Jiang He, the Slifer Red guy who had previously beaten Professor Crowler through luck. "Mamma mia! As a professor at Duel Academy, I finally don't have to be expelled along with them..."
Seeing Jiang He and Alexis Rhodes win, Crowler let out a huge sigh of relief and collapsed onto the floor below the duel platform. "The winners of this duel against the legendary dueling duo are Jiang He and Alexis." The bald Chancellor Sheppard smiled and raised a hand as he made the announcement from below the platform.
"They made perfect use of their opponents' monster's strength to turn the tables and defeat them easily. That was indeed an impressive dueling strategy. Now then, let's prepare for the next tag duel..."
Before the bald chancellor could say anything more, Jiang He raised a hand to interrupt him.
"Chancellor Sheppard, sorry for the trouble, but please wait a moment. There's something very important I still need to say to our two senior opponents. After all, the ceremony of showing respect to your dueling opponents is very important," Jiang He said with a thoroughly solemn expression.
"Uh, of course."
After a brief pause, the bald chancellor watched Jiang He with evident relief and delight, then continued talking at length.
"After all, respecting one's dueling opponents has always been the Duel Academy way. It seems you've done an excellent job of carrying on our Duel Academy's... Pfft! I won! That was a fun duel!"
Jiang He put on a solemn air and struck the classic pose, complete with the line that the hot-blooded idiot Jaden Yuki always used after winning a duel.
The bald Chancellor Sheppard, who had picked up his teacup with relief and was about to take a smiling sip, suddenly sprayed out the tea!
Then he stared blankly at the scene.
"Thud, thud, thud!!" Several of the other people around the arena, who had been watching curiously, also fell over at Jiang He's outrageous stunt.
Then they all stared at Jiang He with dark lines across their foreheads. He was always good at taunting.jpg Alexis Rhodes couldn't help wanting to cover her face too.
"..." The Paradox Brothers watched Jiang He's outrageous stunt, their faces flushed a deep purple, looking as miserable as if they had swallowed a dead fly.
Especially after hearing what the bald Chancellor Sheppard had just said, they couldn't help wanting to ask:
So the Duel Academy way is to rub your victory in your opponents' faces?!
[Ding! Emotion Points from the Paradox Brothers +100.]
"That felt good!"
Having cleared his mind by performing his post-duel ritual and bringing the Paradox Brothers even more laughter,
Jiang He listened to the system notification and happily stepped down from the duel field, concealing his achievements and his name!
He declared that he had always been the sort of person who gladly helped others without leaving his name.
But Jiang He's insistence on rubbing his victory in their faces naturally wasn't entirely due to his wicked sense of humor. During the time he had spent studying his system, he had discovered that if he rubbed a victory in his opponent's face right after a duel ended, the system would sometimes still count it as part of the duel.
It just didn't yield many Emotion Points.
But however small a mosquito's leg was, it was still meat.
As a frugal person who was keen on bringing his opponents "warmth," Jiang He didn't mind putting in a little extra effort. 597 After Jiang He stepped down, greeted Jaden Yuki and the others, and prepared to find a seat to watch,
the bald Chancellor Sheppard wiped away his cold sweat with an awkward smile and rubbed his fingers together at the Paradox Brothers onstage.
He indicated that he would add a little to their appearance fee.
At the sight of money, the Paradox Brothers immediately perked up and even felt they could take another round of taunting, making them easy to pacify!
Their tag duel against Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale began.
But from the moment the duel started, the Paradox Brothers' faces never again showed their crooked-mouthed Dragon King smiles.
Even when they repeatedly held the advantage, they were never seen smiling again. "The Paradox Brothers don't smile anymore. However you look at it, that's your fault."
Jiang He was watching as Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale were easily suppressed right from the start by the Paradox Brothers' old trick of summoning Kazejin. Alexis, who had greeted and chatted with her two attendant girlfriends after stepping down with him, had come over at some point. She joked with him as she sat down in the seat beside him!
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Chapter 73: Why the Bubble Teapot Are You Blushing? [Please Subscribe]
"I was the one bringing them laughter. How can you blame me if they're not smiling now?"
In response to Alexis's teasing, Jiang He remained sprawled lazily in his spectator seat, not wanting to move as he corrected her and defended himself.
Alexis Rhodes couldn't help letting out a soft chuckle.
"Still, it really is a shame. Even though we won the duel against the Paradox Brothers, I never got to use this Counter Trap I prepared especially for it."
As she spoke, she casually drew a card between two fingers from the deck holder at her waist.
She showed it to Jiang He.
It was a Trap Card depicting a figure with a handlebar mustache slipping gold as a bribe into another person's sleeve.
[Dark Bribe] negated and destroyed an opponent's Spell or Trap effect, at the cost of letting that opponent draw one card from their own Deck.
Jiang He immediately understood what Alexis had been thinking.
She had apparently prepared it to protect his Trap Cards in coordination with him if their opponents tried to destroy the cards he had set on the field.
He had already more or less guessed that Alexis had set this kind of Trap Card or Quick-Play Spell.
But there were quite a few cards with effects like that, so Jiang He hadn't been sure exactly which one it was.
"That was a thoughtful choice," Jiang He said, nodding in praise.
"Th-thoughtful?!" Alexis Rhodes suddenly blushed, then quickly recovered and turned her head toward the duel field to hide it. With a soft huff, she explained, "I just didn't want to lose a tag duel and get expelled in disgrace, that's all!"
Jiang He was a little surprised by Alexis's reaction.
He knew that Alexis Rhodes was the typical cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside type, appearing extremely aloof and proud toward others but actually being fairly helpful.
But...
Hadn't he just given her a perfectly normal compliment about the thought she'd put into her deck?
Why the bubble teapot are you blushing...?!
Was this really the Ice Queen of the Obelisk Blue girls' dorm?
Something wasn't right. Something was a little off!
Come to think of it, during the duel, Jiang He had also vaguely felt that Alexis's attitude seemed a little different from how he remembered her treating an ordinary Duel Academy classmate.
Jiang He couldn't help stroking his chin and falling into thought. Was it possible...
That Alexis Rhodes treated him a little differently?
Surely he couldn't be that lucky.
Jiang He decided to take his time observing her later! "Kuri, kuri!"
While he was considering it, Sphere Kuriboh appeared and called softly to remind him.
Sphere Kuriboh indicated that he had indeed noticed the blonde woman beside Jiang He paying him a tiny bit more special attention than she did ordinary people.
"A little more than ordinary people...?" Jiang He murmured, summing up the little fellow's description.
Didn't that just mean she was a little interested?
But Sphere Kuriboh had noticed that over the previous few days, so it didn't necessarily reflect how things stood now.
"It looks like Jaden and Truesdale were badly suppressed at first, but they're about to make a desperate counterattack and turn the duel around," Alexis Rhodes suddenly said, looking toward the duel field while Jiang He was mulling things over. Hearing her, Jiang He shook his head and put the delicate matter he had been considering aside, deciding to let things take their natural course.
He turned his attention back to the duel field.
He soon saw that, encouraged by the hot-blooded idiot Jaden Yuki, Syrus Truesdale had completely pulled himself together and drawn a card. Upon seeing it, he visibly perked up!
"Judging by that reaction, did he draw his deck's ace, [Power Bond]?" Jiang He immediately guessed what had happened.
Although he hadn't redeemed the Vehicroid Deck belonging to Syrus Truesdale, one of the three decks newly refreshed in the system that day,
he did know something about the cards in Jaden's sidekick's deck.
Its ace was the Spell Card [Power Bond].
It could send the Fusion Materials needed for a Machine Fusion Monster from the hand and field to the Graveyard, then Special Summon that Machine Fusion Monster and double its attack points.
But at the end of the turn, the user had to take damage equal to that attack value as the cost.
Although the card had a significant drawback, as long as the duel could be ended on the turn it was used, or the damage avoided by another method,
it was still quite useful.
Especially in the current situation on the duel field, where the Paradox Brothers had once again summoned their usual three monsters and combined them into [Gate Guardian], with no other cards present.
Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale only needed to use [Power Bond]'s powerful boost to charge straight through.
And in fact, things went just as Jiang He had expected!
The next second, Syrus Truesdale activated the Spell Card [Power Bond] directly from his hand, sending the two Fusion Materials, [Elemental HERO Tempest] on Jaden Yuki's field and the Machine monster [UFO] in his own hand, to the Graveyard.
He successfully summoned [UFO Warrior] with 4,000 attack points.
With Power Bond's effect doubling its attack, it reached 8,000 attack points and easily destroyed the Paradox Brothers' [Gate Guardian], which had 3,750 attack points.
Then Jaden Yuki activated his set Quick-Play Spell [De-Fusion], splitting [UFO Warrior] back into its two Fusion Material monsters.
They wiped out all the Paradox Brothers' remaining Life Points in one blow!
They had pulled off an OTK comeback from 8,000 LP!
"...W-we lost again?!" The Paradox Brothers knelt on the ground, leaning against each other with mortified expressions, finding it hard to accept.