Prepare to Strike Back
In the night, William's consciousness sat within Zhang Chun Wu's mind, eyes closed, as if he were considering some matter of great importance. A moment later, he opened his eyes. Before him sat the enlarged screen of the Master Duel System, which stood at the size of a human.
"I didn't realize the system would grow bigger during the night," he thought, still sitting on the void that was Chun Wu's consciousness. Moments before Zhang Chun Wu had gone to sleep, William had decided to conduct an interesting experiment, after the young master of the Zhang family had pointed out an interesting idea.
<~>
"Only one of us can sleep at a time?" William asked quizzically. The warm interior of the Red Jade Pavilion cast an orange glow around him, as he sat questioning his other self.
"It shouldn't make any sense, but it's the only explanation for how I managed to stay awake for 72 hours without feeling any sense of fatigue." The voice inside answered. It was not only William who had been perturbed by the lack of sleep in Zhang Chun Wu's mind. This morning, he had attempted to remedy the lack of unconsciousness by trying to sleep while William had been in control of the body, and yet...
"It feels like I've gotten all the sleep I needed to," was the description of the sensation that acted upon Zhang Chun Wu's mind.
Upon hearing his explanation, William stayed motionless, considering the plausibility of such a hypothesis. As strange as the idea sounded, perhaps such an idea was possible. After all, he had been told that cultivators at a higher level could stay awake for longer periods of time. It could be possible that his intrusion into Zhang Chun Wu's body had caused a side effect in his constitution, since William didn't originate from this world. William did not forget the lines that the system had spoken to him on the first day he had arrived here.
[the Duelling Master System functions outside the world's laws]
"Well, let's test this theory of yours out. You go to sleep first, and then I'll try to stay awake for as long as I can. If I manage to stay up until dawn breaks, then your theory should be sound. Otherwise..." Well, he didn't want to think about how troubling it would be for the child if he could no longer sleep. Rest, after all, was rather important for a healthy lifestyle, even if it wasn't necessary.
It was now some hours into the midnight, and through the calm breathing noises of their body, William could more or less guess that Zhang Chun Wu had managed to fall asleep naturally. Strangely, he didn't feel much need to go to sleep himself, and became rather bored as a result.
As he pondered what to do, William decided to take a look at the rewards he had obtained earlier in the day. Mentally opening the system, William was greeted not by a small screen on the side of his vision, but rather, a widescreen.
<~>
"I didn't realize the system would grow bigger during the night,"
The momentary surprise quickly wore off, and William quickly got back on track. He opened his mailbox to collect his daily rewards, as well as to take a look at the special gift that the system had given him for completing that special quest.
William calmly collected the coins from the earlier quests. Altogether, that gave him 7100 World Currency, which was a little less than what he wanted, but it would have to do for now. The fight today had surely alerted the elders of the other major clans in the county. To better prepare for the journey, he would need to work hard to earn as much World Currency as possible in the next few days.
After staring his World Currency for a few more seconds, he turned to looked at the other reward he had received.
"Secret Rare Edition?" He tilted his head. William naturally knew that the "First Forage into Greatness" pack was just a normal card pack, but the words at the end interested him.
"Let's see what's inside of you." William thought, opening the card pack.
Monsters
Common-
1x Mammoth Graveyard
1x Queen Bird
1x Metal Fish
1x Feral Imp
Rare-
1x Flame Swordsman
Spells
Common-
1x Darkness Approaches
1x The Cheerful Coffin
Rare-
1x 7 Completed
Traps
Common-
1x Riryoku Field
Secret Rare-
1x Mirror Force
As the contents of the card pack revealed itself, William's questions were answered. Although most of the cards weren't too useful, the 'star' card of the pack caught his attention.
"Mirror Force?" Opening up the description of the card, William saw an old card, one that he hasn't used for a long time.
[Mirror Force
Normal Trap: When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Destroy all Monsters your opponent controls.]
Although he didn't use the trap card much after middle school, William was no stranger to the card. After all, he had seen it used a number of times by players who played it in local tournaments. He had even lost to the card a few times. Seeing the effect of the card once again, a small smile broke out on his face.
"This card might be useful later," he thought, before he used the card to replace the Koumori Dragon that he had given away earlier in the day.
After making that quick edit, he returned to the Shop Interface. Besides opening the special card pack, William also intended to buy a few normal card packs to prepare for the inevitable fight to come.
He was not, however, looking at the "First Forage into Greatness" card packs however, but rather at the other pack next to it.
[Return of the Forgotten, 900 World Currency per Pack]
The last time William had bought cards, he had neglected to open any of these card packs because he felt that they were too expensive. Of course, it made perfect sense that this pack was more expensive, since it contained cards from a slightly more modern period of the game.
"Legacy of Darkness, Magician's Force, Dark Crisis, damn! Even cards from Invasion of Chaos are in here!" William exclaimed, looking at the list of cards that were in this card pack. Originally, William had been hesitant to use World Currency to buy from this set of cards, since there were some overlap in terms of cards between this card pack the other one. For some reason, cards from the 'Labyrinth of Nightmare' and 'Legacy of Darkness' sets in the original Yu-Gi-Oh game were both in 'First Forage into Greatness and 'Return of the Forgotten'.
"Of course, if I can pull a C.E.D, all the coins I'd spent on this pack would be worth it!" William thought to himself as he bought 7 of the packs, leaving him with 800 World Currency.
As he began to open the card packs, William's fingers still twitched in excitement. Something about opening cards was always mesmerizing to him. Perhaps it was the randomness aspect of the game, but he had always been transfixed by the act of opening card packs.
Minutes passed by in silence, as he opened the packs one by one. As time went on, William's face would change from excitement to annoyance, to joy, and then to irritation. Finally, after the seventh pack, he took a look at the cards he had received.
Monsters
Common-
1x Swordsman of Landstar
1x Humanoid Slime
1x Worm Drake
2x Flying Fish
2x Gadget Soldier
1x Grand Tiki Elder
1x Melchid the Four-Face Beast
1x Nuvia the Wicked
1x Fire Sorceror
1x Robolady
1x The Illusory Gentleman
1x Inaba White Rabbit
1x Molten Behemoth
1x Shapesnatch
1x Souleater
1x Mucus Yolk
1x Sonic Duck
1x Amazoness Blowpiper
1x Zolga
1x D.D. Trainer
1x Ojama Green
1x Fire Footballer
1x Gigobyte
1x Mokey Mokey
1x Des Lacooda
1x White Magical Hat
Rare-
1x Humanoid Worm Drake
1x Lady Panther
1x Mantis Empress
Super Rare-
1x Darklord Marie
1x Timeater
Ultra Rare-
1x Giga Gagagigo
Spells
Common-
1x Delta Attacker
1x The Law of the Normal
1x Butterfly Dagger- Elma
2x Gravity Axe- Grarl
1x Cyclon Laser
1x Bait Doll
2x Miracle Dig
2x Dragon's Gunfire
1x Spring of Rebirth
1x Heart of Clear Water
1x Poison of the Old Man
Rare-
1x Offerings to the Doomed
1x Scroll of Bewitchment
Super Rare-
1x Mage Power
Traps
Common-
1x Needle Ceiling
1x Riryoku Field
1x Graverobber's Retribution
1x The Emperor's Holiday
1x Disappear
1x Bubble Crash
1x Bad Reaction to Simochi
1x Pitch-Black Power Stone
1x Dramatic Rescue
1x Exhausting Spell
1x Remove Brainwashing
1x Ojama Trio
1x Pharoah's Treasure
1x Disturbance Strategy
Rare-
1x Dark Spirit of the Silent
1x Final Attack Orders
1x Fairy Box
Super Rare-
1x Royal Command
Ultra Rare-
1x Reckless Greed
William had been hoping for a good monster card to appear in these seven new packs, but the results had greatly disappointed him. Melchid the Four-Face Beast and The Illusory Gentleman were decent replacements for the Koumori Dragon that he had given away, and D.D. Trainer was a good side-grade to either Aqua Madoor or Mystic Elf as a high-defence point monster. Giga Gagagigo was a really good tribute monster, with an attack value of 2450, surpassing the Red-Eyes Black Dragon despite only being a level 6. Other than that however, William didn't see any new upgrades in the monster card department.
Although there were a few monsters with good attack points like Sonic Duck, William felt that he needed deck-thinning monster cards or monsters that could be special summoned. He had originally left the Koumori Dragons in his stronger deck because they were the only targets for his Mystic Tomato. Therefore, even when there was a monster with stronger attack points than the Mystic Tomato Targets, he wouldn't be replacing them anytime soon.
The spell cards that he obtained saw a few interesting targets as well. Mage Power was a card that allowed an equipped monster to gain 500 Attack and Defense points for each spell or trap card on the field, and William had a decent number of equip cards already. Unfortunately, he didn't intend on playing any equip spell-centric decks until he could get cards that could allow him to recur existing or add new equip cards to his hand, like 'Ironsmith Kotetsu', so the several equip cards he got from the new pack would have to sit inside his storage for a while.
Of course, he didn't completely flop in the spell card pulls either. Poison of the Old Man, a card that allowed him to either gain 1200 life points, or deal 800 points of damage to an enemy might have been a useless card in the regular game, but based on what he had experienced in Shadow Duels, this card could turn a battle around if he was in a tight spot. Delta Attack was also a spell that he would need to experiment with in the Shadow Duel Mode.
Finally, Reckless Greed, Fairy Box, and Final Attack Orders were all cards that he was willing to put into his main deck in the trap card section. He'd have to experiment with them first to see if they worked like he expected in a Shadow Duel, but given the last few fights he had experienced, these cards would probably be the most safe out of all the trap cards to include. As for the rest of them, he'd have to take the chance to test some of them out in the coming few days.
Sometime later, William looked at the Deck-Building Interface. Before him stood a brand new set of cards.
< Shadow Duel #1>
Monsters
Common-
1x Mystic Elf
1x Aqua Madoor
1x D.D. Trainer
3x Bubonic Vermin
2x Gilasaurus
1x Koumori Dragon
1x Seven Coloured Fish
1x The Illusory Gentleman
Rare-
2x Skull Redbird
1x Kuriboh
1x Mystic Tomato
Super Rare-
1x Luster Dragon #2
1x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
Ultra Rare-
1x Giga Gagagigo
1x Red-Eyes Black Dragon
Secret Rare-
1x Barrel Dragon
Spells
Common-
2x Block Attack
1x Shield and Sword
1x Black Pendant
1x Poison of the Old Man
Rare-
1x Rush Recklessly
1x Magical Mallet
Super Rare-
1x Swords of Revealing Light
Ultra Rare-
1x Pot of Greed
Secret Rare-
1x Monster Reborn
Traps
Common-
2x Reinforcements
Rare-
2x Trap Hole
1x Fairy Box
1x Final Attack Orders
Super Rare-
1x Magic Cylinder
1x Blast With Chain
Ultra Rare-
1x Reckless Greed
Secret Rare-
1x Mirror Force
Instead of adjusting his previous deck, William had decided to make a new one. Of course, he had made a few changes, and he had also left a few areas untouched.
The new Trap, Spells, and Monster Cards were all obviously put in, with D.D. Trainer taking up one slot that originally belonged to a Mystic Elf, and Giga Gagagigo taking one of the Seven-Coloured Fish's spots.
Because he had put in Final Attack Orders, William decided to remove the Block Defence Spell Cards. He didn't think he would need it for the journey anyway, since it wasn't the Zhang Clan that were planning on ambushing the other families.
He had also gotten rid of the Upstart Goblin after realizing that Life Point gain had significantly exaggerated healing capabilities from the test he had conducted the previous day, as well as Jar of Greed, since he had an upgrade for the card now.
Finally, he had kept the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, which could be considered a relatively weaker card in William's new deck. He didn't actually keep it because he had any nostalgic feelings for the card, however. William's reasoning for keeping the under-powered card in the main deck was two-fold. Firstly, he felt like Four Tribute Monsters were a decent number of high-level cards in his deck, with all of his card generation. More importantly though, he had noticed earlier in the day that everyone in the market fight had exhibited an intense reaction when he had summoned the Koumori Dragon. William was quite interested to see if the Red-Eyes Black Dragon could evoke a similar effect, since it was by all means, quite a scary looking dragon.
After arranging his new deck, William temporarily took control of one of Zhang Chun Wu's eyes. Opening it slightly, he noticed that it was still quite dark outside, before he returned back to the Shop Interface.
"I guess I need fo wait a few more hours," slightly bored now that he had accomplished his original goals, William decided to start browsing through the card descriptions for the