As soon as the Contract Duel was accepted, the world shifted.
The alley darkened—not by nightfall, but by the Duel System itself. The lights overhead dimmed unnaturally, and even the distant sounds of traffic and city life faded into a low, echoing hum.
Then it appeared.
A card—black as midnight and rimmed in glitching crimson—formed in the air in front of Shin, hovering just above his outstretched hand.
[Sin Card Generated: First-Time Contractant]
The holographic voice echoed inside his HUD.
Shin grabbed it without hesitation.
Its surface was warm. Too warm. The symbol in the center—some kind of jagged crown with chains—flickered once, then faded into his duel interface. The card merged into his opening hand with a pulse.
"One Sin Card minimum per Contract Duel," he muttered to himself. "Right. Let's see what all the hype's about."
Across from him, Ral Brimm—the scarred thug—grinned wide. "You're in it now, boy."
From the sidelines, Juno squinted. "What is this? It's not a regular duel."
Rex folded his arms, watching tensely. "Nope. It's a Contract Duel. Real stakes. Loser forfeits their entire deck. System locks it and everything."
Juno blinked. "That's… insane."
"Yeah, well, it's legal. Barely. Only those with Rank Silver 3 and up can even register for one. Shin qualified earlier today." He pointed as the shadows deepened around them. "Contract Duels also activate a 'Sin Card' for each duelist. They're like corrupted spells—high risk, high reward. But if you lose… your HUD flags you. Limits access. Marks you a fallen Duelist."
Juno looked alarmed. "So why would anyone agree to it?!"
"Because if you win," Rex said, a little quieter now, "you climb faster than anyone else."
---
[Duel Start]
Shin Yukari vs. Ral Brimm
Duel Type: Contract
HP: 6000 Each
Wager: Full Decks
Sin Penalty Enabled
---
Shin drew his starting five.
Monster: [Fiendling – Murkmutt]
Spell: [Grave Whisper]
Trap: [Phantom Cage]
Monster: [Ghoul of the Iron Veil]
Sin Spell: [Vow of the Hollow King]
His eyes flicked to the last card. The Sin Card.
It pulsed faintly red in the corner of his HUD.
Ral drew too, already cackling. "I'll go first."
The system flickered.
Ral Brimm – Turn 1
Draw Phase… Start.
"I summon Chain Vulture in Attack Mode!"
A skeletal bird, wings of hooked wires and rusted blades, burst from red lightning. [ATK 1600/ DEF 900]
"I set one card face down. Your move, street prince."
---
Shin Yukari – Turn 2
Draw Phase… Start.
He pulled his sixth card: [Fiendling – Dustrot].
"I summon Murkmutt in Attack Position!"
A small, hunched dog-like fiend with stitched shadows and leaking eyes formed beside him. [ATK 800 / DEF 1200]
"Then I activate Grave Whisper! I discard a Fiend from my hand to search my deck for a Spectral-type monster and send it to the Grave."
He discarded [Dustrot], shuffled, and picked a card.
"Dustrots graveyard effect activates! On the turn Dustrot is sent to the graveyard, one monster card I own gains 1000 ATK."
Ral tilted his head. "Already playing from the shadows, huh?"
"Always," Shin said.
"Battle Phase! Murkmutt attacks Chain Vulture!"
Ral laughed. "Trap card: Spear Of Dominance! The attacking monster gets destroyed, and I receive zero damage. That mutt gets fried."
Chains snapped from the trap card and Murkmutt was impaled mid-leap.
"End turn," Shin muttered.
---
The duel raged on.
Back and forth.
Ral summoned a beast called Abyss Howler and whittled Shin's LP to 2000. Shin responded with Ghoul of the Iron Veil, whose passive drained 300 LP from the opponent each turn he stayed on the field. Then he dropped Phantom Cage to stall the next summon.
It was tight. Every move calculated.
Then came Turn 6.
Shin was down to 1400 HP.
Ral still had 2000.
Shin had only Ghoul on the field. Meanwhile Ral had two monsters.
And one final card in his hand.
The Sin Card.
"Let me guess," Ral sneered. "You're outta ghosts, outta cards, and outta time."
Shin smirked.
"Wrong."
He held the card aloft.
"I activate my Sin Card… Vow of the Hollow King."
The arena shuddered. A wave of red energy exploded outward, casting both duelists in black and crimson light.
Rex gasped. "He's actually using it—!"
Juno turned sharply. "What's it do?"
"Sin Cards always have a cost," Rex muttered. "Life Points, discards, sometimes system penalties. But their effects… are wild."
Shin's HUD blared:
Sin Activation Cost:
Pay Half Current LP
Sacrifice All Active Monsters
Sin Effect:
Summon [Hollow King – Revenant Shade]
Rank 5 / ATK 2500 / DEF 2400
If summoned by this card's effect, cannot be destroyed this turn.
Gains ATK equal to 500x number of Fiends in Graveyard.
"I sacrifice Ghoul, and I give up half my life…"
[Shin HP: 700]
"Come forth… Hollow King – Revenant Shade!"
The ground cracked open.
A towering phantom in a shredded cloak, wearing a jagged crown of bone and flame, rose in silence. Its presence drained the heat from the air.
[ATK: 2500 + (500 x 5 Fiends) = 5000]
"FIVE THOUSAND?!" Ral shouted, panic rising.
"Battle Phase," Shin said, stepping forward. "Revenant Shade—end it."
With a silent sweep of its skeletal hand, the Hollow King descended in a storm of violet flame.
Ral's field exploded.
His HP dropped to zero in a blink.
[Victory: Shin Yukari]
+1000 XP | +250 V-Coins | Rank Up: Silver 4
Sin Penalty: Neutralized
Wager Claimed: Deck Absorbed
Contract Complete
The shadows receded. The sounds of the city returned.
Ral collapsed to his knees, panting, visor cracked even further.
"No… no no no…"
His deck dissolved into light and transferred directly into Shin's HUD, stored in a locked tab labeled [Acquired].
Shin tucked his cards back into his holster, calm.
"You picked the wrong ghost to mess with."
Ral didn't speak. Just crawled away, humiliated.
His gang? Already gone.
Rex ran up. "Bro, you insane ghost freak! That Sin card was nuts!"
Juno, still wide-eyed, stepped up beside them. "You really could've lost everything."
Shin didn't answer right away. He looked down at his hand—still tingling from the Sin Card's power.
"…Guess I didn't."
He slid his deck into his holster, shut it and started walking.
"C'mon. I'm starving."
Juno and Rex exchanged glances.
Then followed him down the alley.
And far behind them, in the shadows of a rooftop—a drone lens blinked.
Recording.
Streaming.
Watching
—
The elevator to their building groaned as it ascended. Rusted panels rattled in rhythm, making every floor feel like a gamble. But for once, Shin didn't mind the noise. He leaned against the back wall, arms crossed, visor dimmed, and something unshakable lingering behind his eyes.
Juno, her arms still folded from the walk home, finally broke the silence.
"You're lucky he didn't have a backup Sin Card."
"I'm lucky?" Shin muttered. "He's the one who walked away without a deck."
Rex chuckled from the corner. "Ain't even gonna lie, though. That Sin Card? Cold. Like, goosebumps. Literal undead royalty levels of cool."
The elevator dinged, sliding open with a slow wheeze.
The apartment greeted them with the smell of stir-fry and fried scallion dumplings.
Home.
Small, worn-in, but alive with warmth.
Naomi was already plating food, her sleeves rolled and her System Interface half-lit, a recipe window flickering beside her. Yui—blonde, barely ten, and riding her hover mop in circles—zoomed past them with a crash.
"Welcome home!" she yelled before disappearing into the hallway.
"Don't run indoors," Naomi called calmly.
"We fought criminals in the alley," Juno said, dropping her bag on the table.
"Oh," Naomi said, turning. "Did you win?"
"Of course," Shin and Rex said in unison.
Naomi raised a brow.
"Figures."
They gathered around the circular floor table, plates passed, chopsticks clinking. The apartment's holo-TV hovered from the corner, showing a slow rotation of music videos and weather reports. Outside the windows, Eastside lights flickered like dim stars.
"So…" Naomi finally asked, taking a sip of broth. "This wasn't a normal duel, was it?"
Shin chewed slowly, then shook his head. "Contract Duel."
Naomi's spoon froze midair. "Seriously!?" She was about to go off on him but before she could Shin spoke over her.
"Had to. Guy tried to rob Juno," he said.
"I could've handled it," Juno muttered.
"You were mid-kidnapping."
"Allegedly."
Naomi sighed, rubbing her temples. "Shin, you've had your Interface upgraded for less than a year. You just started at West Prep—"
"—And already Silver 3," Rex cut in proudly. "Man's eating his way up the ladder."
"You're going to get yourself flagged, Shin," Naomi warned. "One more Contract Duel and the System logs you into Active Tier. You'll be seen by sponsors. Syndicates. People who don't like getting beaten by kids from the Eastside."
"Good," Shin said, calmly. "Maybe they'll pay me to do it more."
There was a silence at that.
Then—
The TV's audio spiked.
"ATTENTION DUELISTS!"
The image flickered into a full-screen broadcast.
A man in a sharp silver vest stood before a glowing coliseum, his voice booming like a game show host on too much caffeine.
"Do YOU have what it takes to rise through the ranks and be crowned King of Genesis? Then sign up now for the VYSTORIA UNDERCITY OPEN!"
"Open entry. Prelim matches to determine the Final 10! Winner chooses between one of two legendary prizes—A custom deck built entirely from the National Pool…Or a direct payout of 500,000 V-Coins and 10,000 XP."
The TV sparkled with highlights of past tournaments—cards slamming down in neon arenas, monsters howling from rooftops, crowds going wild.
Shin's chopsticks dropped into his bowl.
Rex straightened up like someone had just plugged his brain into an energy grid. "Yo."
"Yo." Shin echoed.
"That's half a million V-Coins," Juno muttered. "That's… rent for a year. Tuition for five."
"Enough to move out of Eastside," Naomi said quietly.
Yui popped her head in from the hall. "Are we rich now?"
"No," Naomi replied instantly. "And come eat your food!" She shouted.
Shin leaned forward, eyes glued to the screen.
"SIGN-UPS OPEN NEXT CYCLE. ALL RANKS ABOVE BRONZE 5 ELIGIBLE."
[Personal Eligibility: Shin Yukari – Status: Eligible]
[Prelim Location: West Vystoria Coliseum | Date: 6 Days]
The prompt blinked faintly in the corner of his HUD.
He didn't say anything right away.
But he could feel it.
The hum in his chest.
The pull.
Like the card game wasn't just a game anymore—but a door.
A way out.
Rex elbowed him. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"If you're thinking 'win the prize, leave this dump, and maybe buy dumplings that don't squeak when you bite them'... then yeah."
Naomi scoffed. "That prize comes with strings. Those tournaments always do."
Shin shrugged. "Better to grip the strings than live under them."
And there it was again—that quiet, stubborn fire Naomi remembered from someone else.
She didn't push. Just sighed, finishing her tea.
"Then you better start training," she said. "Because if you're going to sign up…"
She looked at Shin, and for a moment, her eyes softened.
"…You better win."