A week later, in Tono Shi City, at a duel venue.
"It's my turn!"
Youyu drew a card from his deck and swept his arm dramatically.
"I offer Elemental Hero Sparkman and Elemental Hero Clayman on the field as a tribute... Come forth! Elemental Hero Edgeman!"
A warrior clad in pure gold alloy appeared from the holographic card image. His eyes were green, his physique was like steel muscles, reflecting a unique metallic sheen under the venue's lights.
[Elemental Hero Edgeman, ATK 2600]
The opposing random duelist in front of Youyu: "Wha... What!? A monster with an attack power of 2600?"
The surrounding spectators also began to stir: "A card with an attack power higher than the legendary Rare Cards Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Dark Magician!"
Youyu: "..."
The local duelists in this world have an amusingly simplistic standard for judging the strength of cards. What players deem most important—the monster effects—are seen as basically optional by the local NPCs, and even Magic Traps aren't highly regarded.
What they care about is mainly the attack power of the monsters.
And honestly, the card pool from the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM era wasn't very extensive, with the Normal Blue-Eyes White Dragon having an attack power of 3000, being a monster that many duelists could only dream of obtaining.
However, from a player's perspective, attack power is just a small factor. Even the Five-Headed Dragon, known as having the "highest attack power in Duel Monsters" at 5000, is seen by players as little more than a "small fry" not even worth a wall.
Of course, for now, Youyu, who is still in a severe card shortage, isn't in a position to say that...
But defeating these nameless NPCs is still hardly a challenge.
"Battle!" Youyu directly entered the Battle Phase, "Elemental Hero Edgeman, attack 'Marauding Captain'!"
[Marauding Captain, ATK 1200]
The golden metal hero ignited engine flames from his back, transforming into a golden afterimage that swooped down before the warrior wielding a longsword.
Marauding Captain gritted his teeth and raised his sword in an attempt to defend, but his strength was almost negligible against Edgeman, a High-Level Monster.
The golden blade easily cut the silver-white sword in the captain's hand into two, and he let out a cry before being instantly wiped out.
Random Duelist A: "Ugh ahhhh!!!"
[Random Duelist A, LP 1400 → LP 0]
The crowd around erupted in cheers.
"Elemental Heroes... I've never heard of this deck, so strong!"
"What's the background of this new duelist?"
"With this, hasn't he already cut through twenty people in one go?"
"So strong, he's almost at a professional level..."
Yes, throughout this week, every bit of Youyu's free time after work was spent indulging in duels at this venue, dueling different duelists from the venue.
It is well known that Tono Shi City is basically a duel-centric city in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Thanks to the extensive promotion by President Haima, half of the city's population has developed a "duel brain."
For this reason, many dueling venues were established in this city. Duelists can go to any venue to duel with other local duelists. Occasionally, there might be small privately held tournaments at the venues, and winning could earn you some side rewards.
However, that was secondary to Youyu.
His main goal in coming here to play every day, rain or shine, was to gain experience and level up quickly, so he could earn more Crystal Stones to exchange for desired cards in the System Card Pool...
It's common knowledge that leveling up in the early stages of an account is the easiest; although the Crystal Stones earned per level are pitiful compared to the later stages, at least it accumulates quickly.
After these days, Youyu has achieved a 20-win streak... The reason it's only a 20-win streak is that, one, he still has work to do, leaving limited free time, and two, there's a limit on stamina for consecutive duels.
Grinding NPCs in the duel hall is one of the most common methods for players to level up early on. Because the local duelists' decks are basically all Normal Monsters, and they like to add a bunch of cool-looking but practically vague Magic Traps, most are complete useless piles of cards.
For players, even a pure Performapal Deck not intended for ranking could easily crush these NPCs.
So throughout the week, although in the eyes of the onlookers, Youyu's image has soared to mythical proportions, approaching the stature of a War God, he himself didn't feel much sense of accomplishment.
What's the sense of accomplishment in bullying simple machines?
...Well, okay, maybe President Haima is an exception.
From what we see in the Yu-Gi-Oh! DM anime, President Seto Kaiba, who could never seem to win against Dark Yugi in card games, passionately developed AI mimicking Dark Yugi to have matches with him, thus earning the honorable title of "King of Humanoid"...
Youyu spent the entire week playing cards, and all the Crystal Stones he saved were thrown into the System Card Pool, but most of what he drew were either cards of unclear significance or cards that seemed impressive but were impractical for real matches.
The only useful card he got was this Elemental Hero Edgeman with an attack power of 2600, which barely counts as a big monster in this era (a time when even Edgeman is considered a big monster seems really pure), and most of the other cards are basically just sitting in his deck gathering dust for now.
With this duel over, his stamina for the day was almost depleted too.
Youyu packed up his Duel Disc and left the venue to head back to his dormitory.
By now, the sky had darkened, and the streets outside were chilly. Pedestrians strolled in groups of threes and twos along the streets, cars zoomed by on the road, leaving trails of taillights in the air.
When Youyu returned to the store's entrance, he saw a maid standing at the door, trying hard on her tiptoes to stick up a poster.
But unfortunately, she was... a bit too petite, and without a stool, it seemed she couldn't manage to stick it up no matter what.
Youyu approached her from behind, "Let me do it."
Only then did Ito Chinai notice him, her cheeks turning a slight red, she acknowledged with a hum and stepped aside.
[Favorability +2]
Youyu was already numb to this.
Taking the poster from her, Youyu neatly stuck it on the door and stepped back to assess the result.
It was a promotional poster for a new card release. The background featured a large array of newly stocked cards, centered around a Dark Magician wearing a black robe.
Youyu was a bit puzzled, "Is there a Dark Magician in the new cards?"
He remembered that the Dark Magician card was not only highly sought after among players, but should also be considered a top Rare Card among this world's local residents.
"Of course not," Chinai remarked flatly.
"So the image on this poster..."
"When you're eating instant noodles, do you really get the beef and vegetables pictured on the package?"
Youyu: "..."
Whoa, that's such a good point, I can't even retort.