Chapter 6: Talk After Winning a Championship
Chapter 6: Talk After Winning a Championship
"You want to go to Duel Academy?"
Curator Takeuchi was taken aback.
Now that he mentioned it, it seemed that the time for Duel Academy's enrollment was indeed approaching.
Duel Academy was akin to a holy land for the new generation of duelists. It was a place where the best and brightest gathered, and its graduates were almost invariably destined for greatness. Under Kaiba Seto's management, whether one was the scion of a global conglomerate or a high-ranking official's offspring, none could gain entry solely based on their connections or wealth. Only dueling prowess mattered.
Who was Kaiba Seto?
He was the strongest duelist in the world, wielding the most powerful Duel Monster in the modern era, the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon," comparable to the three Egyptian God Cards of old. Rumor had it that he was even developing interdimensional and temporal technology, aiming to use scientific means to open a portal to the underworld to challenge the long-slumbering Nameless Pharaoh. Not only was he the richest man in the world, but he also stood at the pinnacle of both the supernatural and technological realms. After Mutou Yuugi's retirement, Kaiba was undisputed as the top duelist of his time.
And he valued only one thing—skill in dueling.
So, if Kaiba Seto said there would be no backdoor deals, then there truly wouldn't be any. Regardless of status or influence, anyone who wanted to enter his school would have to take the entrance exam, with absolutely no room for underhanded dealings.
Furthermore, he advocated strength and elite education. This was evident from the strict hierarchy within Duel Academy in GX, where the entire student body looked down on underachievers.
Many Duel Arenas offered scholarships for students applying to Duel Academy. Once enrolled, these students would become outstanding alumni and serve as excellent publicity for the arenas.
Curator Takeuchi's arena also provided such scholarships, but the number of slots was limited each year.
Considering that You Xuan had defeated everyone in the arena, including the curator himself, within three days, he was undoubtedly qualified for this opportunity.
If the application was accepted, the student would receive not only a scholarship but also a sum of money for a card deck from the arena. The curator would personally provide one-on-one guidance to help the student purchase new cards and optimize their deck.
Of course, in You Xuan's case, the guidance could be skipped, and he would only need the financial support.
"Wait a moment."
Curator Takeuchi, who had just agreed, suddenly paused as if he had just thought of something.
"What's your duelist rank?"
"One star."
Curator: ". . ."
To be honest, even though he had witnessed it with his own eyes, he still found it hard to comprehend how a one-star duelist could have improved so drastically, as if enlightenment had struck him.
However, having personally experienced You Xuan's dueling prowess, he believed that You Xuan had a good chance of getting into Duel Academy.
"But a one-star rank doesn't meet the enrollment requirement."
"I know," You Xuan nodded, "That's why I plan to head to the arena tomorrow and climb the ranks as quickly as possible."
"Hmm, but there's only a month left until the entrance exam. It's a bit tight on time." Curator Takeuchi pondered for a moment, "It would be much more convenient if you could get a ranking in an open competition."
Obtaining a ranking in an open competition would allow one to leap directly to a higher star rank instead of slowly accumulating points in the regular arena. Moreover, it would add a prestigious competition record to one's dueling resume, beneficial for their future dueling career.
"How about this," Curator Takeuchi turned to Sato Koji, "If I recall, Koji, you were planning to participate in this year's Moonflower Cup, right?"
Since Sato was the only one in the entire arena who had reached the three-star rank this year, he was naturally the one slated to apply for Duel Academy. His participation in the Moonflower Cup was intended to boost his resume before the entrance exam, and it would be even better if he could secure a ranking.
"Then, thank you, Curator." You Xuan said.
Sato Koji, standing beside them, couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.
This guy wants to compete too?
What if I end up facing him in the tournament again?
Just imagining that scenario sent shivers down his spine, and he felt uncomfortable all over.
However, he quickly thought that with so many participants, the chances of facing You Xuan were slim. Or, one could even say that the tournament would provide an opportunity to witness more mysterious duelists like himself getting their faces ripped off by their junior's dueling prowess.
As he envisioned that scene, he couldn't suppress the upward curl of his lips.
The smile gradually turned sinister.
Indeed, dueling brought joy.
It just depended on who was experiencing the joy.
The first rays of morning sunlight, like gentle verses of poetry, bathed the quiet world in a golden veil. The night faded away, replaced by a fresh and bright morning, with the air filled with the subtle scent of dawn and the fragrance of flowers.
At 6:20 a.m., You Xuan lazily woke up from his comfortable bed. Sunlight filtered through the sheer curtains, casting dappled patterns on the white sheets and soft bedding.
Having slept late the previous night and not getting the best quality sleep, he had some strange dreams. He vaguely remembered encountering the Black and White Impermanence in his dream. The duo first spoke sinisterly about how his lifespan had come to an end, but then, they whipped out two sets of duel cards and said that if he won the duel, he could extend his life.
"Why am I having such dreams?" You Xuan rubbed his temples.
It seemed that he was gradually internalizing the fundamental concept of this card-playing world—that there was nothing that couldn't be solved by dueling.
It took You Xuan only five minutes to shake off his sleepiness. He jumped out of bed, quickly got dressed and washed up, and began a new day of studying and training.
You could never imagine how terrifying a disciplined duelist could be.
With a month left until the Duel Academy entrance exam, it was time to start some preliminary review.
Initially, he had thought, how difficult could the dueling exam be? It's probably just learning and applying the K language.
What proved to be unexpectedly challenging was the memory test involving various card effects. It was unrealistic to expect him to remember the classifications and effects of a plethora of antiquated cards that hadn't seen competitive play in two decades. Not to mention, this world also boasted an abundance of cards that had never been physically released, existing only in the realms of animation and manga.
He also swiftly noticed that there were quite a few differences between this world and the real-life card game environment from two decades ago. Many cards might have been released two decades later in the real world, but they were already present here and now.
Of course, it wasn't surprising. Even the key card of Judai's Neo-Spacian deck, "Contact Out," had left players salivating for years after its debut in the anime, and it felt like an eternity before it finally materialized as a physical card. So, it was only natural that this world had many cards that didn't exist in the real-life game.
As he perused the entire question bank, Yu Xuan found the content rather uninspiring, devoid of any profound insights into the core skills and techniques of dueling.
This reminded him of a theory he had come across in his previous life, which posited that for many movies and animations, reality exists in a higher dimension, and in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, cards are the foundation of creation, with duels representing the most fundamental laws of this world, rather than merely being a card game as they are in our reality.
Thus, for the inhabitants of this animated world, exploring the rules of dueling is akin to engaging in cutting-edge research, a quest for truth. While learning to play the game in our reality isn't overly challenging, it demands exceptional talent and dedication in the animated world to unravel these mysteries.
Yu Xuan purchased a set of textbooks, including "Fundamentals of Duel Theory" and "Past Exam Papers for Duel Academy," and spent most of the day engrossed in solving practice questions. He also took the time to familiarize himself with the card creation domain.
While the various Yu-Gi-Oh! animations primarily focused on the stories of duelists, the card creation aspect was often glossed over. It was known that Pegasus J. Crawford, known as the "Father of Duel Monsters," had first discovered ancient stone tablets depicting Duel Monsters in Egypt and transformed them into the modern card game system.
Subsequently, card creation was mainly handled by Pegasus' Industrial Illusions company, but they didn't have a complete monopoly. KaibaCorp, for instance, had also printed and circulated numerous cards.
Later on, there were individuals like Yugi Muto and Judai Yuki, who possessed the extraordinary talent to print cards on the spot, tailoring them to the needs of the situation. Their prowess was such that they would sometimes go as far as printing themselves and their opponents directly onto the card art, unabashedly flaunting their abilities.
It was evident that these privately printed cards were also recognized by the system and the dueling rules, considered perfectly legal.
After all, the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! is extraordinary, and dueling is the embodiment of that extraordinariness. Thus, when a certain seafood-headed duelist from the Yu family shouts about friendship and bonds, brandishing a blank card and inscribing its text and effect on the spot, it can be seen as an application of the world's laws and a demonstration of their transcendent power.
When the King of Games does something extraordinary, you don't call it cheating; you call it skill.
Divine draws and card creation are all part of the duel, and if you don't like it, don't play the game.
However, it's understandable that card creation in such a world wouldn't be entirely unrestrained. Even the designers at Industrial Illusions would likely need to adhere to certain rules and couldn't create cards at their whim.
Yu Xuan's curiosity piqued, he wondered about the prerequisites for card creation and the criteria for a card to be recognized by the system.
Assuming he could create cards that existed in the real-life card pool, he mused about bringing some modern Yu-Gi-Oh! flair to this overly saccharine card world and giving it a much-needed shock.
Here, too, Yu Xuan acquired a range of textbooks and study guides, though he didn't expect to master the art of card creation solely from these resources. He intended to gain a preliminary understanding first.
- "Basics of Field Spell Construction: An Introduction to Environmental Modeling"
- "Nine Common Pitfalls in Monster Card Design"
As expected, card creation in this world was an exceedingly profound discipline. Numerous university laboratories and cutting-edge research institutes were dedicated to researching and developing Duel Monsters.
Even many of the older cards still held untapped potential for further development.
One notable example was the renowned "Blue-Eyes White Dragon," which had an independent research team led by Kaiba himself exploring its evolutionary forms. This team was considered the world's premier Duel Monsters research group, rumored to have developed cards like "Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon," "Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon," and various other evolutions of the iconic dragon.
Another example was "Chaos Sorcerer," which, in its early days, was just a blank eight-star monster with 3000 ATK. However, it had since been developed into "Chaos Sorcerer - Envoy of the Beginning," known in the real-world card game as "Chaos Sorcerer - the Creation," an ultra-rare and immensely powerful monster in the eyes of duelists.
"It would be amazing if I could learn to create my own cards," Yu Xuan thought.
For the time being, it remained a distant aspiration. He recalled that in the first season of the anime, Hayato Maeda, Judai Yuki's roommate at Duel Academy, had joined Industrial Illusions as a card designer after graduating, and Yu Xuan surmised that the academy might offer specialized courses in card creation. He made a mental note to explore this further if the opportunity arose.
For now, he set himself a new, more immediate goal.
He decided to aim for the championship at the Moonflower Cup.
(End of Chapter)
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