Chapter 63: The Strong's Choice

A few days later, Mokuba sent the list of rare cards he had mentioned, originally intended for Duel Academy, as promised.

As Yugen expected, he immediately saw the "VWXYZ" series prominently featured. He naturally wasted no time in acquiring this series first.

Since the original plan was to sell through Duel Academy's internal distribution channels, the prices were absolutely unbeatable in the outside market. Additionally, the bonus money Yugen had received from Kaiba Corporation earlier hadn't been spent much, so his current budget was quite generous.

Next, he was interested in "Magical Mallet," which Manjome used in the Anime. The Anime effect allowed one to shuffle any number of cards from their hand, including Magical Mallet itself, back into the deck, then draw the same number of cards.

It was a hand-fixing card that could replace any card in hand when needed.

The real-life card, however, was nerfed to "shuffle cards from your hand, excluding this card, back into the deck and draw the same number." This immediately meant a card disadvantage, significantly reducing its practicality.

Yugen thought about it. If it maintained the Anime effect of swapping cards without losing hand advantage, it could still be useful. But in this Anime setting, where "luck" or "fate power" was paramount, even deck-checking effects weren't very popular, let alone this kind of card.

Besides, he already had a large stash of Anime-limited, filtered cards, so normally, he wouldn't even need Magical Mallet.

However, looking at the price, Magical Mallet seemed to be the cheapest card in the entire box. And even though he wouldn't usually need it for dueling, it seemed necessary for some specific gimmick decks, so he still bought three copies.

He also spotted the key plot card, "Transcendent Wings." This card allowed Winged Kuriboh to evolve into a Lv10 rare card by discarding two cards from hand.

However, only one person in the entire Duel Academy had Winged Kuriboh, so this card practically had "Jaden's exclusive" written all over it.

Yugen had Kuriboh, not Winged Kuriboh, so this card was utterly useless to him. Thus, he decided to gift it to his classmate, Judai (Jaden).

But after splashing out like this, it seemed there wasn't much left for Manjome.

"Don't worry, before sending them to Duel Academy, we'll arrange for other rare cards as supplements," Mokuba told him.

"Alright," Yugen thought. "Anyway, these good cards would probably end up soaking wet and ruined in Manjome's hands anyway. To prevent waste, I'll happily accept them."

There were only two days left until Duel Academy's orientation.

The day before he was to depart for the island, he made one last visit to the dojo to bid farewell to the master and the other students.

Upon entering, he saw all the students kneeling on the floor, heads bowed low. Meanwhile, Master Takeuchi was standing in front, spewing out a passionate speech.

Yugen grew curious. He listened for a while and generally pieced together what had happened.

Simply put, the master was dissatisfied with the current prevalence of "Shadow Duels" in the dojo. All the students had started taking pleasure in "social revenge."

And that wasn't all. The students soon realized that all their dojo brothers had become "Shadow Duelists." However, when "Shadow Duels" met "Shadow Duels," the fun diminished. So, they changed their targets, shifting their focus to the nearby duel arenas.

Thus, rumors about the Silent Art Dojo began to spread in several surrounding arenas. It was said that the duelists in this entire dojo were messengers from hell, and they enjoyed dragging everyone they dueled into the "Shadow Realm." It didn't matter if their own cards could win; as long as the opponent couldn't play the game, that was all that mattered.

Even more terrifying was that this trend was spreading like a plague, showing signs of further propagation wherever these people went.

Master Takeuchi probably never dreamed that one day their Silent Art would truly flourish, but not in the way he envisioned, but by "silencing opponents through dueling."

At this point, the deck structure Yugen used in the Moon Blossom Cup had been thoroughly researched by the dojo students. Now, everyone in the dojo had their decks stuffed with Mirror Force, Bottomless Trap Hole, and Torrential Tribute, as well as the three "hand destruction artifacts" (presumably Confiscation, Delinquent Duo, and The Forceful Sentry). The emphasis was on copying the homework.

Of course, Yugen had long expected this to happen sooner or later. It was just that he was still an unknown nobody. At most, his unexpected victory over Ryuzaki in an amateur cup might have gained some local attention, so for now, only people near him would study his deck structure. But if one day he became as famous as Yugi or Kaiba, his deck would certainly be studied by countless people. Some would study it to counter him, and others would imitate it; both were inevitable.

However, with recent continuous duels and research, and a deeper understanding of the Anime environment, Yugen also began to have some insights. The decks used by duelists in this world weren't just about deck strength.

For example, in the early stages of GX, Ra Yellow student Kagurazaka stole Yugi's deck and dueled Jaden, but Jaden defeated him. Then, Jaden and Kaiser Ryo each explained this theory in their own ways.

According to Kaiser, a duelist must use a deck they've poured their emotions into and built themselves. Only then can the deck respond to the duelist's will and unleash its strongest power. Dueling with someone else's deck, no matter how perfectly the strategy is mimicked, is ultimately not one's own, and cannot win duels.

Yugen's understanding of this statement was roughly that the act of copying homework would reduce a duelist's own "fate power." Perhaps the copied deck is strong, but the hand rate increases while the "god draw" rate decreases, and ultimately, it might not significantly improve personal strength.

Therefore, many times in the Anime, dueling requires pursuing "soul" as much as possible. Sometimes it's not just for flashy coolness and aesthetics, but because a soulless deck might easily suffer losses against top duelists.

So, Yugen had also been considering this for the past two days. The ideal state should be to maintain the flow of the duel, using methods including, but not limited to, affecting the opponent's mindset to gain an advantage, while also finding ways to unleash the spirit's advantage.

In other words, it was about finding a balance between strategy and "soul."

But that was only for duels between top players.

However, for the level of these little companions in the dojo, he felt that there was nothing wrong with relying on copied decks to duel.

After all, from his observations, the students' "fate power" levels were originally just so-so. Most people had no talent and might never make much progress in their lives. However, switching to a powerful deck structure could indeed visibly increase their win rate.

Weren't the brothers who copied homework doing pretty well in their duels in the arena these past two days?

It just slightly affected the dojo's reputation.

"As duelists, we should all believe in our own decks!"

Master Takeuchi was reprimanding the students' behavior.

"A deck imbued with one's own heart is unique to each person!"

Though he spoke with righteous indignation, at this moment, a student couldn't help but meekly whisper.

"But Master, I just saw you acquire 'Confiscation' the other day, and 'Delinquent Duo' three days ago."

Master Takeuchi: "..."

He pondered for a few seconds.

Then, he put his hands on his hips, head held high, chest out.

"That's just me happening to have the same view as classmate Yugen, a hero! Strong duelists even have similar choices in cards; that's perfectly normal."

All students: "..."