Ideas and New Cards

The group found a table and gathered around it.

Everyone held a few card packs in their hands. Some had more, some less. The least, unsurprisingly, was Jesse, who had lost. Next was Alexis, who had faced Rin. Her life-gain and monster-control Deck had some advantage against Rin's burn strategy, but her performance wasn't great, so her score was the second-lowest.

Around the table, Hikaru sat beside Alexis, hugging a pack of cards as he curiously peeked toward Yugi. Some of the card packs were even ones Yugi had helped him pick.

Yugi carefully tore open a pack, expertly ensuring the cards were undamaged, and pulled them out.

He had come to this world for its cards, therefore, KaibaCorp had generously given him lots of "points." Technically, if he wanted, he could have taken every Security Bureau card pack back for study.

But he wouldn't do that.

He looked across the table at Chazz, noting his anxious expression, then smiled. "You're Chazz, right?"

"Y-Yes! Mr. Yugi Muto!"

"No need to be formal. Just call me Yugi."

"Then, Mr. Yugi!"

Yugi chuckled and shook his head. Looking from the cards in his hand to the packs Chazz held, he suggested, "How about this: let's build a Deck right here using only the cards from our packs. Just on this table."

"R-Really?! I get to duel you."

Chazz was shocked.

Ever since Yugi Muto turned to game design and expanded into other games, he has rarely been seen Dueling. Not even his own mentor had Dueled him since.

"It's just a friendly game, no need to overthink it," Yugi said. "Let's enjoy it."

"Yes! Absolutely!!" Chazz was thrilled.

Across from Hikaru, Jaden and Jesse had their arms around each other. Seeing this unfold, Jaden blurted out enviously, "Man, I wanna Duel Mr. Yugi too."

As he opened another pack, Yugi casually glanced at the cards, stacked them together, and gently shuffled.

"You're one of Kaiba's students, right, Chazz?"

"Y-Yes!"

"You looked pretty frustrated about your score."

"Totally! I should've scored the same as Jaden, no, the same as Hikaru!"

"Hmm..." Yugi didn't argue with Chazz's passionate response. As they set up their field, Yugi said, "Actually, Kaiba wasn't happy either."

"!!!" Chazz's eyes widened.

'W-What?'

"Ah, not about you. Sorry, I didn't phrase that well," Yugi coughed, then clarified, "He wasn't satisfied with the overall Duel results."

"Ugh..." Jesse sighed.

"From your perspective, we won most of the Duels against the S-Dimension, and did well. But to Kaiba, it wasn't good enough."

"Why?" Chazz asked.

He'd always wanted to understand how his teacher thought, what he aimed for. But Kaiba was like an ultra-intensified version of himself, so he'd never dared ask. That left him confused whenever they spoke.

Yugi moved one of his cards forward, declaring an attack on one of Chazz's monsters, dropping his LP as he explained:

"This world only made contact with other dimensions about half a year ago. Until then, it was isolated, developing only within itself.

"But our world has been exploring other dimensions for years. The students who came to this Friendship Cup all did so under KaibaCorp's support, most having already traveled through dimensional gates to the Spirit World. In that sense, we're more 'advanced.'"

Yugi set four cards on his field. "And yet, despite that, our students had mediocre results against supposedly weaker Duelists from this world's Satellite District, some even lost."

Jesse scratched his head awkwardly.

Only he and one other person had lost, but that other person lost to Jack, which didn't count as embarrassing.

Of course, both Yugi and Kaiba could tell that Yusei wasn't an ordinary Duelist; regardless, that wasn't the point.

To Kaiba, their world had years of a head start. In an exchange event like this, they should've dominated. Instead, the Duels felt... evenly matched.

Which meant...

The S-Dimension was inherently stronger.

And their world's dimensional exploration had fallen behind.

"So that's it... I get it now," Chazz nodded.

At first glance, it seemed like they had all won. However, besides certain standouts, Yugo, Yusei, and Rin, the rest of their opponents were just tagalongs.

Some of those Duelists were even younger. How could that be satisfying?

"You've seen it too, Kaiba wants to chase the endless summit of Dueling."

Everyone nodded.

In this universe, no, in human history, the peak must be that legendary Pharaoh in the Underworld.

So that was the real reason...

Everyone finally understood.

"Hmm, it's getting late," Yugi checked the time. He had other business to attend to.

Looking at the table, he smiled. "I should probably tell you about this world's cards now.

"From what I've observed, whether it's the X-Dimension or this world, their cards are more advanced than ours. The development paths differ, but overall, they're like evolved versions of our world's designs."

"What do you mean?" Jaden asked instinctively.

Yugi grinned, offering no explanation. Instead, he played a card.

"Quick-Play Spell, Mask Change II."

Hikaru suddenly stood up.

"Those cards..." he was excited.

He had searched for them endlessly, even across many dimensions. And now they were here, right in front of him!

"That's right." Yugi nodded. "They exist here."

He chuckled again. "You recognized it right away. Guess the rumors weren't exaggerating, you really do know your Fusion stuff. That's impressive."

"To activate it: discard one card, send one face-up monster to the Graveyard, then Special Summon a "Masked HERO" of the same Attribute and higher Level from the Extra Deck."

"Masked HERO?! Other HEROES?!" Jaden jumped up, stunned.

Yugi sent a WATER monster from the field to the Graveyard, then selected a blue-sleeved Extra Deck card and placed it on the field.

"This way, I can Special Summon Masked HERO Vapor without Fusion Summon."

"Ah...Woooah!!" Jaden gasped. "A brand-new HERO!"

Then, with Chazz gaping, Yugi used Torrential Tribute, wiping the field. Thanks to Vapor's immunity to effects, it survived and attacked directly for the win.

After the match, Yugi packed up his cards and waved goodbye to Hikaru and the others.

Before he left, he even picked out a few packs for each of them.

Only after he left did Hikaru and the others look down at their gifted packs.

These might not just contain Synchro Monsters native to this world, they might even contain all-new evolutions of familiar series!

With a grin, Hikaru started tearing them open. The first one he opened was the one Yugi had personally picked.

And the moment he saw the card inside, both he and Tierra's eyes went wide with excitement.

The first card, an amazing one:

Genex Spare!

A Genex card, vital to Tierra-related fusion card synthesis!

Hikaru rushed to open the rest of the packs.

And wouldn't you know, Yugi really had picked well. Even Hikaru, usually unlucky with draws, was suddenly on fire.

The second pack wasn't special, but the third;

Purple frame. Tierra gasped with a joyful "Wow!"

Inside was a brand-new card:

Trishula, the Dragon of Icy Imprisonment!

...

Bonus Chapter

Stones Plzz