Chapter 356: The Apostle's Joy
Chapter 356: The Apostle's Joy
Francis initially hesitated at the suggestion, but as You Xuan continued to guide and expand his thinking, his eyes lit up and he gradually became excited.
In addition to the "Winged Divine Dragon in Other Forms" cards, You Xuan also proposed a series of supportive cards with god-like powers and some that facilitated the search and deployment of gods.
In fact, they had experimented with similar cards in the past. For example, the exclusive associated card used by Francis in the anime to summon the Winged Divine Dragon, "Apostle of the Sun God."
This card also received a physical release, but with significant differences from its anime counterpart.
In the anime, the effect of "Apostle of the Sun God" allowed the player to add two more cards with the same name from their deck to their hand when it was successfully summoned.
The physical card's effect was upgraded; when the Apostle was summoned, the player could not only search for two more copies from their deck but also special summon them directly onto the field, instantly providing the three tributes required to summon a God.
However, what seemed like a powerful effect at first glance came with a painful restriction. As long as the Apostle remained in the Monster Zone, its controller could not perform any form of Special Summon other than the Apostle's effect.
This severe restriction rendered the physical card version of the Sun God's Apostle nearly useless in serious strategies, with little opportunity for it to see play.
In contrast, the anime effect was incredibly powerful by the standards of the past environment. Being able to generate two extra cards upon a successful summon was a brutally efficient resource generation ability that was very rare in the Yu-Gi-Oh! world for a long time.
"To be honest, I think the 'Apostle of the Sun God' that you developed has a lot of potential as well," You Xuan said seriously. "If possible, could you provide our lab with a copy for research purposes?"
"That can be arranged," Francis replied, feeling a little puzzled.
"But this card was originally designed for the quick summoning of the Winged Divine Dragon. With the issue of summoning the Divine Illusion Beast still unresolved, what use is there in having this card?"
You Xuan smiled mysteriously. "While this card was indeed designed as a derivative for the Winged Divine Dragon, I believe it may possess some unexpected potential."
Although the physical card version of the Sun God's Apostle had little tactical value due to its harsh restriction, the creatively inclined players in the broader Dueling World community soon discovered its potential.
The restrictive effect—"As long as this card exists in the Monster Zone, its controller cannot perform any Special Summons"—essentially prevented the card from being useful in any positive way for one's own strategy.
However, the creatively twisted players quickly thought, "What if I give this to my opponent? Then they won't be able to perform any Special Summons, and that would be incredibly frustrating for them!"
And so, what was originally intended as a derivative card for summoning a God ended up birthing an entirely new underground style of play: Apostle Lockdown. The strategy revolved around using various means to send this Apostle to the opponent's field, leaving them seething with rage as they stared helplessly at the Apostle, unable to do anything.
The inability to Special Summon meant that even in the future iterations of Yu-Gi-Oh!, they couldn't use it as material for Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Summons.
Moreover, you couldn't even use it as a Tribute for a Normal Summon because the painful Apostle effect stated, "This card cannot be used as Tribute, except for the Tribute Summon of the Winged Divine Dragon of Ra."
In other words, this Apostle was a devout believer, recognizing only the Winged Divine Dragon. In all other situations, whether it be card effects or Tribute Summons, it refused to acknowledge anything else. It was like a stubborn nail that, once successfully driven into the opponent's field, would easily push them to the brink of a mental breakdown.
Hence, the Winged Divine Dragon was the most underground of the Divine Illusions, regardless of the fact that it was the strongest Divine Illusion possessed by Malik, the sunny boy from Battle City.
Nowadays, You Xuan was quite famous in the card designing realm, and many teams hoped to collaborate with him to gain some inspiration and guidance. Moreover, the Sun God's Apostle was originally just an ordinary four-star monster card, and aside from its association with the Sun God, which gave it a slight boost in value, it didn't hold much worth on its own.
Thus, Francis was quite generous, readily offering to give You Xuan three copies of the card for research purposes.
You Xuan was satisfied; meeting the Winged Divine Dragon's team's main designer had been a fruitful endeavor.
Even if, in the end, they couldn't figure out the correct way to harness the power of the Divine Illusion Beast, and they only managed to obtain a Winged Divine Dragon's egg along with a Traitorous Apostle card, it would still be a remarkable achievement.
These two cards should be enough to make their opponents understand the true power of the strongest Divine Illusion Beast.
When he returned, You Xuan found Gui Ping in the midst of an intense phone call, his voice filled with agitation as if he were engaged in an argument.
After hanging up, Gui Ping turned and saw You Xuan, letting out a long sigh.
"What a headache. It's never-ending."
"Is it about the competition?" You Xuan asked.
"Yes. During the Duel City tournament, such a massive disaster occurred, and quite a few people were injured. Fortunately, there haven't been any reported deaths yet.
But it's still a massive headache. Some people are already pressuring us to terminate the Duel City tournament, saying that continuing would be too dangerous."
"Hmm, but I assume it will continue?"
"Of course," Gui Ping said matter-of-factly.
After all, it was a tournament organized by the CEO, and he wouldn't allow it to be abruptly canceled halfway through.
"So, in the coming days, I'll be quite busy, and my brother has been forced to return to meet with the board of directors. That being said, there's something I'd like to ask of you."
Gui Ping hesitated for a moment.
"But I'm not sure if it's appropriate."
"It's fine, go ahead."
You Xuan waved his hand, indicating that they were close enough that there was nothing that couldn't be said.
"Alright then. It's about that guy, Luca, the new Doma Swordsman. After his duel with my brother, we became quite interested in him, so we conducted an investigation.
Although we don't have any definitive leads, the clues point to a small town called Clear Water Town. Have you heard of it?"
You Xuan shook his head. "No. Is there something special about that place?"
"That's the problem; we don't know of anything special about it. But if the clues are reliable, and that Doma Swordsman truly went there, especially at this critical juncture…"
"You suspect that there might be something there," You Xuan said, understanding.
"Not exactly," Gui Ping hesitated. "It's more of a guess."
You Xuan nodded. "You want to send a powerful duelist to investigate, but if it's just to confirm the situation, you should have enough people for that."
"Yes, but due to certain reasons, I'd feel more assured sending a powerful duelist. Because…"
Gui Ping paused for a moment before continuing.
"To be honest, there used to be a duelist we were quite familiar with in that area. If it were him, we shouldn't have anything to worry about. When I first noticed that town, I tried to contact him.
But for some reason, I haven't been able to reach him, and I have a bad feeling about it."
"Oh? Who's the big shot? Do I know him?" You Xuan asked.
"You might not know him personally, but you've definitely heard of his name," Gui Ping said, "He's Katsuya Jounouchi, one of the finalists in the first Duel City tournament."
(End of Chapter)
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