Who asked him to play Yu-Gi-Oh!

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A vast arena, the duel stadium stood like a majestic ancient city. The competition hadn't even started yet, but the stands were already packed.

Yuugen and his dojo senior, Sato Koji, arrived together outside the stadium. Getting out of the car, the first thing he saw was a Dark Magician statue erected at the main entrance of the stadium.
Although the Dark Magician's appearance rate in the main tournament had plummeted since Yugi Muto's retirement, as a rare card, the former Duel King's ace monster still served as a mascot in many competition venues.
"Well, I need to go prepare for the competition. The preliminaries should be starting soon."

Sato Koji said to him.
"Junior brother, you should also prepare as soon as possible."
"Okay. I look forward to seeing you again in the arena, Senior Brother," Yuugen said politely.

But upon hearing these words, his senior's expression became strange, wanting to say something but stopping, stopping but wanting to say something.
I really don't want to see you again at all...
But in the end, he couldn't say it.

After parting with his senior, Yuugen received his credentials and number plate as a participating player at the reception desk. He picked up the number plate and saw that it was number 39.
"A pretty lucky number for a card player." Yuugen put away his number plate, nodding in satisfaction.
It seemed his luck was good today. He figured he should get off to a flying start.

"This year's Gekka Cup feels like it's high quality."
Just walking into the arena lobby, he heard the voices of spectators talking.
"I think I just saw that Kajiki of the Psychic Stream Dojo. It looks like he's also participating in this year's competition..."

"Kajiki? The emerging dueling genius of the Psychic Stream? Good stuff, that feels like it's worth watching..."
Then he heard someone say, "I don't really care about Psychic Stream dueling. I just hope my buddy who plays the Magician-type deck can advance..."
"You're saying you want to see your buddy advance? Pshaw, I'm too embarrassed to expose you. You just want to see him summon Magician Valkyria, right?"
Magician Valkyria, with a cool mage outfit similar to the "Dark Magician Girl" from the legendary Yugi's deck, a pure face, and delicate little arms, unexpectedly bore a weight that those small shoulders shouldn't bear in certain areas. She was one of the popular waifu cards favored by gentleman duelists.

(Note: Waifu Card: "Waifu" is Internet slang for a fictional character, usually in anime or manga, that someone has a strong attachment to. A "waifu card" would be a card featuring such a character.)
The person who was exposed blushed instantly: "But she's really big!"
Several companions heard the words and stopped arguing, nodding in agreement.

"You have a point, indeed."
"It is indeed difficult to refute."
"..."

Yuugen walked through the arena. He hadn't taken a few steps when he heard a little girl exclaim.
"Oh my god, really? Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
"Absolutely sure!" The girl next to her said with utmost certainty. "There's absolutely no mistake. That's Dinosaur Ryuzaki! The legendary duelist!"

Hearing this, Yuugen's steps paused slightly.
Dinosaur Ryuzaki? The one from Yu-Gi-Oh! DM?
He was initially portrayed as a top player, and was once the national runner-up in a dueling tournament... in a situation where Yugi, Kaiba, and a series of big shots in the later stages of DM didn't participate.

"Really? But the Gekka Cup isn't a non-professional sub-level competition? Why would a legendary duelist like that..."
"I heard that Ryuzaki has been in seclusion for several years without appearing in public. Now that he's come out of seclusion, this is his revival match."
"Good stuff, then the players in this year's Gekka Cup are really unlucky, running into a great demon king."

"Yeah, wouldn't that mean the champion is already set in stone?"
"..."
Yuugen tried hard to recall. He didn't have a deep impression of Ryuzaki, but he did remember his good buddy Insect Haga, who was always inseparable in the anime. Both of them had despicable personalities who didn't choose their means to win, but Ryuzaki was slightly stronger than Haga. After all, the latter had even done something like dumping Yugi's entire set of Exodia cards into the sea...

...However, to some extent, his behavior could be said to be the savior of all the BOSSes in the later stages of DM.
Just imagine, if the Exodia set hadn't been dumped by this guy, with the "close my eyes and get whatever I want" cheat-level god-draw ability of Dark Yugi in the later stages, what Three Phantom Gods, Legendary Dragon, Orichalcos would all have to stand aside.
Marik, Dartz, and Dark Bakura should all kowtow three times to Haga, it definitely wouldn't be too much.

However, since losing to Yugi and Joey Wheeler respectively, it seemed that these two had transitioned from competitive players to entertainment comedians, and their dueling routes had also been developing in an increasingly comedic direction.
Speaking of which, Joey's soul card, "Red-Eyes Black Dragon," was even won from Ryuzaki. Since then, Ryuzaki really hadn't won a single match.
DM didn't explain what happened to him in the end. He didn't appear in the sequel, GX. But thinking about it now, the timeline setting of GX was only eight years after the ending of DM, so encountering him now wasn't too strange.

Speaking of which, although Dark Yugi had returned to the underworld, DM-era characters ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) like Yugi and Joey should still be around in this era, but it hadn't been explained where they had gone or what they were doing.
As a veteran of the DM era, Ryuzaki had even mixed into a "legendary duelist" with the title of "having fought against Joey Wheeler"...
These days, even scrubby noobs who were OTK'd by Yugi back then dared to call themselves legends, and some of them actually relied on this gimmick to make a name for themselves.

Among them, some might really have strength, but some were just muddying the waters. The value of their "battle against the Duel King" was probably no higher than that of Kakuzu from next door, who would tell people he met, "I fought against the First Hokage back in the day..."
Haga and Ryuzaki hadn't appeared in GX, and it was difficult to say what their strength was now. But Yuugen tentatively kept an eye out, thinking that if he encountered them in later matches, he would give them some basic respect and make some targeted adjustments to his deck.
Yuugen bought a cup of milk tea, found a seat, and casually looked at the list of registered players.

The level of participating players was generally higher than in the duel arena. This trip to the competition should allow him to successfully reach four stars, so he wouldn't have to worry about the academy's application requirements.
Scanning down the list, most of the faces were unfamiliar except for Dinosaur Ryuzaki. It seemed that there were no other recognizable characters...
...Huh?

Yuugen's gaze fell on a familiar name.
Jun Manjoume? (Chazz Princeton)
The perennial runner-up of GX, the anti-carry master who completed the reverse scoring from elite to comedian within a year?

He casually checked Manjoume's personal information.
Elite Academy of Duel Academy Affiliated Middle School. Expected to be recommended to Duel Academy High School this year at the start of the school year.
Hmm... So, judging from the enrollment age, the GX protagonist group should be the same age as him.

Not a big deal.
He then checked his first-round match information.
Tsubasa Nakamura, Duelist Level 4...

It seemed there shouldn't be any pressure.
...
...

In fact, when Tsubasa Nakamura walked onto the preliminary duel field and came across Yuugen, he thought the same thing.
Yugen Fujiki, Level 1, no major competition experience, no honorary awards, a blank resume...
A few short lines of personal information. Nakamura looked back and forth for a long time, and only saw two words between the lines.

Free win.
Sometimes you would occasionally be matched with opponents like this in the arena. People in the industry call these charitable duelists. They're terribly bad, but they just love to play, mainly to give away points.
This match was stable.

But Nakamura didn't know that when Yuugen stood opposite him, drew his starting hand of five cards, he apologized to his opponent in his heart.
Sorry, buddy, but I FTK'd (First Turn Kill).
It seemed that only one of them would be playing Yu-Gi-Oh! this game.

It was Yuugen's turn to go first. So, first he played the magic card "The Forceful Sentry," paying 1000 life points to look at the opponent's hand and discard one card. Then he played "The Tyrant Neptune," viewing the hand and choosing one card to return to the deck. Then he followed up with "Mischief of the Time Goddess", paying 1000 LP to follow up with a third combo, randomly discarding one card from the opponent's hand and then having the opponent discard one card themselves, discarding a total of two cards from the opponent’s hand...
The legendary Hand Destruction Trinity, unleashing a combo of quality.
It hadn't even reached the opponent's turn yet, and the opponent was still stunned, with only one card left in his hand.

Then, because he had seen the opponent's hand, Yuugen knew very well that the only remaining card was the magic card "Double Spell." By discarding a hand card, you could use a magic card in the opponent's graveyard.
Not very useful.
The three-hit combo was completed in one go. Then Yuugen didn't summon a single monster, and ended his turn after setting one card face-down. He was very handsome.

Finally, he elegantly made a "please" gesture.
I'm ready. Go ahead.
Tsubasa Nakamura was not feeling well at all.

It hadn't even reached his turn yet, and he only had one card in his hand. What was he supposed to do?
But adhering to the principles of a duelist, he didn't give up. Tsubasa Nakamura steadied his mind and drew a card from the deck...
...Then he saw the opponent flip open a trap card, "Drop Off".

The card he had just drawn hadn't even warmed up before it went to the Graveyard...
Nakamura was a mess.
Was this guy determined not to let anyone play a card?

There was no way. He was holding a "Double Spell" in his hand, but there was no card he could discard as a cost to activate. He could only end this turn in frustration.
It felt like his turn hadn't even started before it ended. Was it just his imagination...?
Then it was Yuugen's turn again. Yuugen activated the magic card "Reinforcement of the Army," which allowed him to search for a Warrior-type monster from the deck. Yuugen directly took a "Marauding Captain", and then Normal Summoned "Marauding Captain" and directly attacked.

Then he triggered the effect of "Marauding Captain", discarding one card from the opponent's hand when dealing battle damage...
Tsubasa Nakamura: "..."
He didn't have any cards now.

No...
What kind of sins had he committed in his previous life to be matched with this kind of shut-in opponent?