Chapter 32: What's the point of playing Yu-Gi-Oh! If you don't have money?

On the island in the sea, Duel Academy headquarters.

After a busy half-day, Principal Samejima finally found some rare free time. He went to his office, leisurely brewed a cup of tea, and used this precious break to check the results of this year's enrollment exam and some duels that interested him.

He hadn't expected Professor Cronos to personally participate in the duel, clearly intending to make things difficult for a certain jellyfish-haired freshman. But this student named Yuki Judai was truly formidable, having defeated the academy's head of practical dueling, who used his own deck, in the entrance exam.

Principal Samejima took a sip of tea, quite satisfied with the exceptional potential demonstrated by Judai.

Naturally, he then looked at the top-ranked student's practical duel this year. He heard that this person had achieved perfect scores in all objective parts of the written exam, surpassing even Misawa Daichi, who also scored near-perfect, showing a very bright performance.

So, he looked at this person's practical performance and deck structure...

What in the world is this?

Principal Samejima couldn't help but scratch his bald head.

He mused that he had been involved in the dueling world for many years and considered himself quite knowledgeable. But he really hadn't seen such a deck structure before.

No, if he had to say, he had once, when he was young, had the chance to witness it at an invitational tournament hosted by Kaiba. The deck used by the legendary Duel King Yugi Muto in the later stages of his career seemed to have a similar feel.

It was said that in the final stages of Duel King Yugi's dueling career, many of his challengers ended up furious, their twisted expressions at the end of their duels resembling Marik Ishtar during the Battle City arc.

It was just like that unfortunate judge in the current assessment duel.

However, the evolution of the dueling world over many years had long since proven that it was the Duel King's unique skill, one that others could not easily imitate. For many years, the mainstream deck structures in dueling had still leaned towards the direction guided by Seto Kaiba. While such eccentric techniques weren't entirely absent after the Duel King's retirement, they were very rarely seen.

Unlike traditional professors like Cronos, Principal Samejima didn't insist that students had to strictly follow the textbook standards for learning tactical deck construction.

It was just that ordinary students didn't have the self-research capabilities for such creative innovation. But Principal Samejima, based on his many years of teaching experience, immediately felt that this student named Yugen might just possess that.

Could it be that the academy had recruited another newcomer with such rare talent this year?

At this thought, Principal Samejima couldn't help but feel a surge of anticipation.

Looking at Yuki Judai on the list, and then at Fujiki Yugen next to him, the principal leaned back in his chair, leisurely sipping his tea, and couldn't help but smile with delight.

This little Duel Academy had simultaneously recruited two great talents, a sleeping dragon and a young phoenix, this year.

It was truly something to be happy about.

Duel Academy's efficiency was quite high. Within a few days of the exam, candidates could already check their scores and results, along with admission information.

Completely unsurprised, Yugen received his admission notice.

Of course, there was still a month until the start of the semester, so there was no rush to go to the island immediately. However, the academy's new batch of freshmen had already completed their registration, and those who passed the initial screening were already considered this year's reserve freshmen.

Yugen held his newly acquired student ID information and, through the academy's department portal, logged into Kaiba Corporation's card verification system. Indeed, the options for purchasing and delivering cards had increased.

He quickly scanned through, first noting down all the cards from the available inventory that he thought might be useful, creating a list. Then he meticulously reviewed and analyzed them one by one.

Most of them were cards he felt might be useful, but possibly required specific deck structures or combos to be effective. These were listed for later consideration and discussion.

He immediately decided to purchase cards that could be used universally in most decks, prioritizing fun-oriented "trap holes."

For example, "Karma Cut," which could directly banish an opponent's monster from the field by discarding a card from hand, and the "Ring of Destruction," a banned card from the old days that had not yet been cruelly restricted—it could destroy one monster and inflict damage to both players equal to the monster's ATK, a powerful tool for stalemates, known in the dueling world as a "draw ring."

Beyond that, he was even more pleasantly surprised to find that the versatile purchase options included "hand traps."

As the saying goes, "you can guard against everything but not a hand trap." Unlike set trap cards that are easily anticipated and cleared from the field, hand traps, which can be activated directly from the hand, have been a mainstream element in Yu-Gi-Oh! since their inception, even extending to the present day.

Of course, early hand traps weren't as devastating as modern ones; they were generally used for defensive purposes or to block attacks. Their origin, of course, was the enduring mascot from the DM era, the "Kuriboh" in Yugi's hand, which could directly negate battle damage by discarding itself.

So, when he found another "Kuriboh" in the rare card section, Yugen bought it without hesitation, feeling somewhat surprised that such a rare item could still be found and hadn't been snatched up.

But it made sense. From the anime, it seemed that duelists weren't particularly fond of weak monsters that could only block one attack. Even "Kuriboh," aside from its inherent rarity, mostly derived its additional value from being the "first-generation Duel King's mascot."

Next, he discovered that within the academy's department, there was also a section called "Theme Pre-built Decks." He opened it and saw that it generally consisted of pre-built decks with specific themes, sold as complete packages for a single price.

Among them, he even saw the legendary "Elemental HERO" series.

But of course, it made sense. In GX Episode 1, when Cronos saw Jaden's deck, he called it a "very common Hero deck." In this era, Hero decks themselves were considered common deck builds. However, as Jaden received more and more new cards in the later stages, they gradually began to move away from the common ranks.

Every duelist, more or less, has a hero dream. Since he was in the GX era, Yugen was curious to check it out.

Then he abandoned his hero dream at light speed.

The monsters were basically just the famous "four waste heroes," and the Fusion Heroes currently in stock were only two or three cards. Then there was a pile of various specialized components for "waste heroes," such as "Spark Blaster," "Feather Shot," "Burst Return," and so on.

All sorts of cards that even Jaden only used once in the anime before they mysteriously disappeared, just utterly meaningless.

A cursory glance revealed that it was simply not a deck that a normal person could handle. Almost every spell and trap card required a specific "Hero" normal monster to be used, and even if he forced them into his hand with a "Super Polymerization"-like effect, the scenarios for each combination were too limited. In actual play, it would definitely lead to dead hands and make him question his life.

Therefore, the fact that Jaden could use these cards in the early stages to sweep through most of Duel Academy already meant that 99% of duelists couldn't keep up with him.

Elemental HERO was temporarily out of consideration. Yugen continued Browse.

Then he discovered that Jaden's junior, Marufuji Ryo's "Roid" archetype, was also listed there.

His eyes lit up, and he quickly browsed the list of cards in the archetype.

Marufuji Ryo's Roid deck was not a rare archetype in the current environment. In the physical card environment, it had consistently performed mediocrely for many years, never showing any competitive strength, belonging to a relatively niche and entertainment-oriented archetype.

But within this deck was one card that Marufuji Ryo used in the anime, a card that Konami, nearly 20 years later, still hadn't physically released. It was an original god card.

Indeed!

Yugen's eyes immediately locked onto that special card within the archetype, and he bought the entire archetype without hesitation.

Cards within an archetype could not be sold individually; if you wanted to buy it, you had to buy the entire package at once. But that was fine, the archetype itself wasn't expensive, and in the current environment, even buying the entire archetype just for this one card was not a loss.

[Kiteroid, 1 star, ATK 200, DEF 400.

Effect:

* You can discard this card from your hand; the battle damage from one direct attack becomes 0.

* While this card is in the Graveyard, you can banish it; the battle damage from one direct attack becomes 0.](Anime effect)

This card was never physically released in reality; historically, it was exclusive to two games: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX: Tag Force 3 on PSP and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links. It could function as a hand trap once and a graveyard trap once, meaning one card could block two attacks. In the GX era, where hand traps were extremely scarce, this was undoubtedly a lifesaver.

Yugen immersed himself in the joy of purchasing, making another strong acquisition. His card inventory became even more abundant, and his deck configurations became more flexible, but his recently replenished wallet rapidly depleted.

Yugen temporarily decided to keep some cash and not spend it all. He exited the interface with a light sigh, looking weakly at the sky.

Indeed, the seniors were right.

What's the point of playing Yu-Gi-Oh! if you don't have money?