Chapter 7: Wait, Where's My Duel King System?
That day, under the slum district's setting sun, a super-giant girl's form bloomed in the sky, drawing everyone's gaze upward.
With the duel's conclusion, the colossal priestess's figure vanished accordingly, leaving only the two duelists who'd determined victory.
The duel contract floating in the sky also shattered and dispersed after Amano Rei's victory.
"I—I actually lost? Wait, wait!"
Launched skyward by Eva's staff strike, Nikaido sat sprawled on the ground, frantically checking the Eva Terminal on his wrist.
After yesterday's bar-hopping expenses, his remaining 3,200 Eva Points vanished at a terrifying, visible rate.
Even after hitting zero, the descent didn't stop.
[-5300]
This was Nikaido's remaining Eva Points after being overkilled by Amano Rei.
5,300 points in debt.
If he couldn't somehow plug this hole within one week, what awaited Nikaido would be expulsion from Eden.
Earning 5,300 Eva Points in one week—even with Nikaido's income, extremely dangerous.
Conversely, the Eva Terminal on Amano Rei's wrist skyrocketed from its initial 1 point to 8,501 points.
"(✧ω✧) Amazing!" Stars of admiration sparkled in Shio's eyes. "I've never seen so much money! Brother, can we eat grilled tofu tonight? Please?"
"I want some too!" Kikawayu and Yui chimed in unison.
Wait—you three want grilled tofu because you watched Yuyu get sliced crispy-outside-tender-inside by flaming swords in the duel, didn't you?
That's way too food-motivated.
"Whew!" While the trio enthusiastically discussed tonight's celebratory meal, post-duel Amano finally relaxed completely, legs giving out as he sat directly on the ground.
"Rei, you okay?" Kikawayu quickly tried helping Amano up.
"I'm fine. Just suddenly relaxing made me a bit..."
A bit terrified, actually.
His supernatural luck had truly reached extremes to perfectly secure this duel victory.
This garbage deck had exactly one method to win—surprise defensive reversal.
Four combo pieces, needing at least three to win.
Even though the difficulty was lower than first-generation anime where Yugi Muto assembled all five Exodia pieces...
The actual completion rate, without Amano's supernatural draw luck, remained incredibly difficult.
Of course, assembling all four pieces created the terrifying scene of 8,000 Overkill points.
At least the outcome was perfect. As his debut duel after becoming a duelist, he'd not only resolved his old man's debt problem but also earned enough Eva Points to upgrade his deck.
8,500 Eva Points—already sufficient to apply for duel gene identification through Eva Terminal.
Mainframe Eva would match different people's genes and identities with corresponding monster deck series, opening exclusive purchase channels for those series.
This was Eden Tower's primary method for most duelists to obtain monster cards.
What series would mainframe Eva identify for him?
If it matched one of the powerful archetypes from Amano's previous life knowledge, he might truly achieve a heaven-defying fate reversal!
Wait—speaking of heaven-defying fate reversals, Amano suddenly remembered he'd forgotten something.
The system!
The duel had been too intense—Amano completely forgot about the system.
This extremely slow-loading system hadn't helped at all during the duel.
Amano tried accessing the system interface.
[System Loading Progress: 98%]
Oh, almost ready!
Though it hadn't helped during the recent duel, with so many duels awaiting him, having system support would definitely double efficiency.
Especially with such a cool system name—what was it called? Duel King System?
======
Meanwhile—
Eden Tower's top level, within the AI central management zone, countless translucent screens were being flooded with large, crimson 'WARNING' signs.
The elite engineers responsible for daily mainframe Eva system maintenance and cleanup had descended into chaos.
"Virus data is invading mainframe Eva's system?"
"External invasion from outside the Tower? Impossible—the outside isn't habitable for humans anymore!"
The team leader calmly analyzed: "Probably not human. Just some residual virus data fragments."
"Then—then what do we do, team leader?"
"Nothing. Let Eva handle it."
Mainframe Eva possessed the most exceptional performance of any generation. The Eden Tower rising from flat ground proved its capabilities.
After hundreds of years of self-upgrades, these elite human engineers could only maintain daily cleanup work. In all other aspects, Eva no longer required excessive human interference.
Sure enough, matching the team leader's prediction.
The flashing red warning signs disappeared and calmed within minutes, everything as if it had never happened.
"It's—it's fixed?" The young engineer sounded incredulous.
"The invading data was undoubtedly completely eliminated by Eva." The team leader spoke proudly. "Alright everyone, quit slacking—back to work!"
Seemingly, this was merely a minor incident that caused no ripples whatsoever.
======
[System Loading Progress: 99%]
At the dinner table, Amano's brow furrowed, expression grave.
'Why's it stuck at the final stage so long?'
After reaching 99%, nearly three hours had passed with no progress.
Exactly like when Amano installed pirated games on his computer in his previous life—the progress bar moved smoothly until getting stuck at 99%, making him anxious and irritated.
Based on Amano's experience, when installation progress froze at 99%, it very likely would display "Installation Failed," all efforts wasted. (facts lol)
'A future world system can't be this janky too, right? You're not some pirated software!'
Thinking this, Amano finally heard that pleasant notification sound.
[System Loading Progress: 100%]
[System Loading Complete]
"Success!"
Amano suddenly jumped up excitedly at the dinner table, startling Kikawayu who'd just picked up tofu. He fumbled and crushed the tofu block, which plopped onto the table surface.
"Wh-what's wrong suddenly, Rei?"
Kikawayu naturally couldn't understand Amano's excitement.
Eighteen years of waiting—finally possessing a system.
Amano couldn't resist checking the system interface.
[Welcome to the Romance Development System.]
[Host can use this system to romance desired targets and obtain affection rewards~]
[Current System Skills: Affection Level Check.]
Instant petrification. Amano's pupils dilated, even forgetting to blink, staring fixedly at the gaudy pink system interface before him.
Hold up—isn't this wrong somehow?
If Amano remembered correctly, initially you were called the [Duel King System], right?!
How did the aesthetic completely change after loading finished?
Damn, encountered telecommunications fraud.
These two systems—dueling and romance—were complete opposites!
The famous Duel King, Jack Atlas, once said: "I will become world number one. Women are just obstacles."
Romance?
Hmph!
Women only slow down card players' draw speed.