His first deck after transmigration was thus formed. After checking and confirming it was correct, Yugen naturally began to feel a bit itchy to play.
It was impossible for any player not to want to test out a newly completed deck.
So, for him, the primary target was naturally to go straight to the dojo his predecessor belonged to, ready to randomly find a fellow dojo member to bring him the joy of dueling.
Upon arriving at the dojo, as soon as he entered, he saw a group of students gathered together, making a commotion.
"As expected of Sato, he actually succeeded in crossing the tribulation!"
Yugen raised an eyebrow, looking over with some curiosity.
He saw that the one surrounded by the apprentices was a guy with yellow hair, sporting a hairstyle that seemed like he might be good at card games. He sounded modest, but his face couldn't hide his pride: "Oh, it's nothing, I just luckily reached three stars, it's just average, haha."
"Level three! You're probably the first in our dojo to reach level three, right?"
"So strong."
Yugen furrowed his brow and searched through his predecessor's memories, finally understanding what they were talking about.
The Duelist Star System is a strength evaluation index adjusted in real-time by Kaiba Corporation based on each duelist's registered performance within the company's system, which is the system that appeared in the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM anime.
Normally, the duelist star levels range from level one to level eight, with eight tiers in total. In the DM anime Battle City arc, both the Duel King Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba were rated at level eight.
However, it was also clear that this system wasn't absolutely authoritative and sometimes included personal factors. For example, Joey Wheeler, the man contemptuously called "mediocre" by Kaiba.
Joey was called "the world's third-best duelist, second only to Yugi and Kaiba" by Pegasus, yet in Kaiba Corporation's system, he was only rated at level two, which was basically amateur level.
It was hard to say that this didn't include some personal grudge between the president and the "mediocre" Joey.
But that was during the Battle City period. Now, Joey has long been adjusted to level eight, the highest tier among duelists in the general sense, known as a "legendary duelist."
Meanwhile, President Seto Kaiba arrogantly adjusted himself to level ten.
Among the current duelists, only two are at level ten: Seto Kaiba himself and the retired Yugi Muto.
This setting was partly because President Kaiba believed he was a cut above all existing duelists, and it also signified that Yugi Muto was the only opponent in the world he acknowledges as worthy of matching him.
Well, saying "matching" might be an exaggeration because, as everyone knew, Kaiba has dueled against Duel King Yugi Muto countless times in his life, yet he has never won a single duel.
As for Yugen's predecessor, his rating in the system was:
One star.
A complete novice.
'Unbelievable.'
Clearly, because his predecessor was both bad at the game and loved to play, he often went to Kaiba Corporation's arenas to play matches but lost more than he won, causing his star level to plummet to the bottom over time.
For ordinary people to increase their star level, they needed to play matches in the arena, but it seemed that the maximum you could reach through arena matches was four stars. To go higher, you had to participate in public tournaments.
He then remembered that when he was searching for the enrollment requirements for the Duel Academy, there was a stipulation that the duelist star level certified by Kaiba Corporation must be at least level three.
In this system, levels seven and eight were either legendary duelists or top professionals in the industry. Most professional players were at level six, with a few lower-tier professionals at level five.
Amateur duelists were mostly clustered at level two. Level one was for below-average rookies, while level three was considered skilled.
Therefore, the Duel Academy's enrollment requirement of level three or above was actually quite high.
But this was understandable. At this stage, dueling education in this world was still in its infancy, and there weren't many institutions to choose from. The academy run by Kaiba was the top among them, with its quality and massive resource investment being evident to all.
In the opening of the GX anime, the principal mentioned during a school-wide speech that the academy had strict admission standards, so all the students present were elites. Even the background students in the academy, including the underachievers in the Slifer Red dormitory, were theoretically at a level higher than most duelists outside.
"So, to get into the academy, I still need to rank up first?" Yugen's mouth twitched.
The apprentice surrounded by everyone was named Sato Koji, who was already the big brother in this small dojo. It seemed that he had good luck this week and reached three stars, and everyone was congratulating him.
Yugen happened to be looking for someone to duel at that moment, so he decided to simply challenge him.
Although the background characters in the anime seemed weak, Yugen knew that practice was the sole criterion for testing truth. Without personal testing, one shouldn't jump to conclusions based on preconceived notions.
It was a good opportunity to test the strength of duelists in this world.
The dojo encouraged students to frequently duel and spar. At this time, Sato had just ranked up and was in a good mood, so naturally, he had no reason to refuse a duel challenge.
The students scattered around the dojo, upon hearing there was a duel to watch, immediately gathered around the duel field to spectate.
"For real? That Yugen? Challenging Sato?"
"I remember he's only one star? Isn't this just asking for a beating?"
The students were laughing and joking on the side, while the two duelists had already taken their positions on either side of the arena.
Sato Koji was relaxed at this moment. Having ranked up, he returned to the dojo to boast, looking at his juniors with a sense of superiority.
Now, he felt like a grandmaster coming to guide the younger generation. Dueling was no longer about sparring or improving; it was partly to give some pointers to the juniors and partly to satisfy his desire to show off in front of them.
Well, the latter might've be a bit more predominant.
What else?
A three-star big shot against a one-star junior—could he possibly lose?
Both unfolded their Duel Disks and drew five cards each.
"Duel!" x2
[Yugen, LP 4000]
[Koji, LP 4000]
"I'll take the first turn, draw."
Yugen drew a card from his deck.
In the anime, it was still an era where the first player could draw a card. In his previous life, starting many years ago, the first player couldn't draw.
The turn order was generally randomly decided by the Duel Disks, but the one who got the first turn could also choose to forfeit it.
Glancing at his six starting cards, he couldn't help but nod slightly. Although it wasn't a "perfect hand," it was decent enough.
"First, I play this card."
He drew the first card and inserted it into the Duel Disk.
"I pay 1000 Life Points to activate the Spell Card from my hand—'Delinquent Duo'!"
[Yugen, LP 4000 → LP 3000]
As the card was inserted, a holographic projection of the green Spell Card appeared in front of Yugen. Two small demons, one red and one blue, flew out, with the numbers "1" and "2" on their heads respectively.
"This card's effect forces the opponent to discard one card at random from their hand, and then they choose and discard another card."
In early tournaments, it was a simple and brutal hand destruction powerhouse. A violent one-for-two exchange, immediately reducing the opponent's starting hand by two cards.
It was easy to imagine that such a savage card received the same treatment as Pot of Greed—banned since Yugen started playing Yu-Gi-Oh. So, despite playing for many years, this was the first time he had ever played such a card himself.
The demons swooped in and snatched a card from Koji's hand without hesitation, as if saying, "Hand it over."
Koji frowned, then chose another card to send to the graveyard.
Then, without any further actions, Yugen casually drew three cards from his hand—
—he set the three cards face-down, and ended his turn.
Then, he made a gesture inviting his opponent to proceed.
"Alright, now it's your turn to play Yu-Gi-Oh!."
Any real card game player facing those three ominous face-down cards would already be feeling the "shady" aura and breaking out in a cold sweat. However, as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss; duelists in this sunny anime environment were completely unaware of the severity of the situation.
Koji even maintained his kind senior brother-like gentle smile, saying in an instructive tone, "Couldn't draw a monster card on the first turn? Junior, when building your deck, you need to pay attention to the proper balance of monsters and spells/traps."
"Then, it's my turn, draw!"
"Wait."
Yugen interrupted him, waving his hand grandly.
"At the moment you draw, my trap has already been triggered. I flip-up my set card, the Trap Card—'Drop Off'!"
"This card can be activated during the opponent's Draw Phase, making them send the card they drew directly to the graveyard."
Koji: "!"
He hesitated for a moment, then sent the card he had just drawn, still warm in his hand, to the graveyard slot of the Duel Disk. Looking down at his hand again, he finally began to realize something was wrong.
Up to this point, neither side had summoned a single monster; it seemed like the duel had barely started, yet Koji's starting six cards had already been halved, leaving him with only three.
Moreover, he faced an even more painful problem.
That is, he had no monsters left in his hand.
Among the two cards discarded by Delinquent Duo was a low-level monster, and the one just sent away by Drop Off was another. Now, with only three cards left in hand, none of them were monsters he could summon.
But it didn't matter.
"Tch, if that's the case, then I'll activate a Spell Card from my hand."
Koji waved his hand grandly, playing another card from his remaining three.
"Monster Reborn"!
A revival Spell that could bring back a monster from the graveyard, highly sought after from the DM to GX eras, both in reality and in the anime, as an impactful card.
"I'll use Monster Reborn to revive this guy from the graveyard—'Warrior of Zera,' in Attack Position!"
This time, a warrior in green armor wielding a greatsword appeared, standing majestically in the center of the field, becoming the first monster to be summoned in this duel.
[Warrior of Zera, ATK 1600]
In truth, if he had a choice, Koji definitely wouldn't want to use his precious Monster Reborn to revive such a weak monster, but he had no other cards to play. In duels, hesitation led to defeat; he had to seize the opportunity to start his offensive rhythm.
"I reveal the set card—'Bottomless Trap Hole.' When the opponent summons a monster with 1500 or more ATK, I can destroy and banish that monster."
Thus, the Warrior of Zera, who had just been revived with Monster Reborn, hadn't even stabilized his footing when he stepped into a dark pit that opened beneath him, falling in and exploding into a cloud of smoke, disappearing without a trace.
Koji: "..."
With only two cards left in hand and an empty field.
He wasn't sure if it was an illusion.
Sato Koji felt like his blood pressure was starting to rise.