When Youyu came back to his senses, he realized he had been staring blankly at a new batch of card packs in the store for ten minutes.
He snapped out of it only because of a "Favorability +1" prompt that floated by in the corner of his vision...
Youyu looked speechlessly in that direction and, unsurprisingly, saw the expressionless Chinai girl. Noticing his gaze, she hurriedly looked away and busied herself with something.
Youyu approached and saw she was intensely focused on studying an educational workbook.
After all, she's a high school student, and even on vacation, she can't completely slack off; she still needs to carve out some time to study.
Hmm, wait a minute, isn't her book upside down...
But as the saying goes, tough situations are best left unmentioned, so Youyu pretended not to notice.
Chinai suddenly looked up, "Do you... want to buy cards?"
Youyu was caught off guard.
"Because you've been staring at those card packs for a long time." She pointed with a pen at the batch of card packs Youyu had been fixated on.
Youyu glanced in the direction she had indicated. In the brief moment, Chinai skillfully turned her book back to its correct orientation.
"...Yeah, I kind of want them." Youyu turned his head and shrugged helplessly.
He seemed not to have noticed Chinai's little trick—or at least Chinai believed he hadn't.
Of course, Youyu wanted them. Because in the box description for those cards, he saw a Divine Card called "Pot of Greed."
Pot of Greed allows the player to draw two cards from their deck.
A simple yet powerful effect, it's so strong it's practically unreasonable, offering a massive card draw with no cost, akin to eating or drinking—an overwhelmingly powerful card in the Duel Monster Realm.
...Of course, Duelists in the DM World clearly hadn't realized this.
The pitiful "N" rarity marked on the box was enough to show that no one really cared about this card.
Yet even so, in the Linked World, such a Divine Card as Pot of Greed was an NPC's exclusive; players couldn't obtain it. Neither the system card pool nor special missions provided any chance of obtaining this Divine Card, leaving players green with envy every time an NPC used Pot of Greed against them.
Once upon a time, Youyu was also one of those players who would get envious and furious every time he saw NPCs shamelessly using Pot of Greed.
But now it's different!
Now he's also a native resident protected by the world's rules! He felt he deserved the right to fill his deck with three copies of Pot of Greed for the fun of it!
But...
"I'll wait until I get paid," Youyu said helplessly.
Yes, it was a very real issue—he was broke...
"I see." Chinai tilted her head and thought for a moment, then said, "How about I lend you some money, and you can pay me back when you get paid?"
"Huh?" Youyu was taken aback but quickly waved his hands, "Thanks, but it's alright."
After all, they hadn't known each other for long, and borrowing money from a girl he'd just met didn't feel quite right.
"It's fine," Chinai said, expressionless. "Besides, if you wait until you get paid, it won't be good if another customer buys the card you want before then, right?"
...That made sense.
Although Pot of Greed was just an N Card, there should theoretically be plenty in the new card packs... but who could really say?
"Well... okay, lend me a little for now."
After all, he was just planning to draw an N Card.
It shouldn't cost too much... right?
So Youyu got his hands on his first card pack since his journey to this world.
"Here goes," he said.
Chinai crossed her arms on the counter, resting her chin on her pale arms, her neck extended as she watched eagerly from the sidelines.
Youyu opened the first card pack and took out the five cards inside.
"Ah," Chinai immediately spotted a "Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress" in his hand and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, you got a rare card in the first pack!"
Youyu: "..."
Are you kidding me?
This low-attack Normal Monster is considered a rare card?
(Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress, Level 4, ATK 1400, DEF 1200, no effect.)
He guessed he'd probably never have a use for this "rare card" in his lifetime.
He continued to open packs.
After three consecutive packs yielded nothing useful, Chinai was surprised again when she saw what Youyu got from the fifth pack: "Huh? Lightforce Sword? Another rare card... You're really lucky."
"...Sort of," Youyu said, looking pained.
(Lightforce Sword, Trap Card. Randomly banish one card from your opponent's hand face-down. During your opponent's fourth Standby Phase after activation, that card returns to their hand.)
By the tenth pack, Chinai's gaze toward him had changed.
"Battle Steer! Another rare card!"
(Battle Steer, Level 4, ATK 1800, DEF 1300, no effect.)
Youyu knew that in Chinai's eyes, he probably seemed like one of those ultimate European players who pulled three URs in one ten-pack draw, his luck blindingly bright.
But the problem was... who the heck wanted these useless rare cards? What good was a Battle Ox?
Is it so hard to ask for a common Pot of Greed?
Chinai asked, "Are you going to keep drawing?"
"Of course I am."
At worst, he could sell these so-called "rare cards" to recoup his money.
Even after twenty packs, there was still no trace of the N Card "Pot of Greed."
At least he found some consolation in obtaining a Magic Card - Polymerization, which would actually be useful to him.
After thirty packs, he still hadn't pulled Pot of Greed.
Youyu was starting to feel stubborn toward this batch of new cards, wanting to see just how many packs it would take to finally draw that damn Pot of Greed.
The only issue was that all these packs were being bought with the girl's money, which made him feel a bit guilty...
However, Chinai herself seemed unbothered, silently observing him open pack after pack, like a relentless opening machine...
Finally, on the fiftieth pack, the "Pot of Greed" he had been yearning for finally appeared.
Looking at this green Magic Card with a grinning green jar, showing its yellow teeth in a sleazy smile, Youyu suddenly felt like he was going to burst into tears.
It might have been the first time in his life that pulling an N Card brought him more joy than all those rare cards before...
Chinai curiously leaned in to take a look.
"That's what you were trying to get?"
"Yes."
Chinai was puzzled, "But you just pulled so many rare cards. Why would you insist on... something useless like this?"
Useless?
Haha, the young girl is still so naive, clearly having never been beaten to understand the terror of the jar.
But he realized the local residents of this world had a completely different understanding of Duel Monster Cards than players did. Educating them on concepts like "card advantage" and "card efficiency" seemed impractical.
Youyu was pondering how to explain it when a customer walked in.
"Hello, anyone here?" The newcomer was a blonde young man, wearing a white T-shirt with blue stripes, layered under a blue long-sleeved jacket.
"I wanted to ask... do you have the latest Duel Disc released by Kaiba Company here?"
Both people in the store turned to look at him.
Youyu raised an eyebrow.
Jonouchi Katsuya?