"Give me a UR! Give me a UR! If not, an SR will do... Pear Syrup!!!"
With his eyes closed, Jianan Tao prayed softly for ages before finally tearing open the dossier in front of him, pulling out the document he held such high hopes for with trembling hands.
He slowly opened his eyes, braced himself, and looked at the cover page of the document. On the cover, a large, colorful, glowing "UR" symbol appeared before him.
It worked!
Jianan Tao almost shouted out in excitement with a hoarse voice.
Looking further down, in the name column on the cover page, the large characters clearly read, Mitsuzawa Daichi.
That's right, the very student he, as a mentor, would be responsible for next.
Jianan Tao let out a long sigh.
Not bad, acceptable.
Although Mitsuzawa Daichi is nearly invisible among the main cast and literally disappears in the later parts of the animation, at least he's a recognizable character in the academy.
If there were character panels, Mitsuzawa's base stats would certainly not be low, deserving of a "UR" title among all the academy students. He's still better than those passersby students you might never have heard of.
Today is the day mentors confirm their students. The sealed dossiers were handed to the mentors, causing a commotion among the players, excitedly opening the documents like drawing cards from a card pool in a mobile game.
Lady Yue Hua, full of excitement, tore open the dossier, looked at the document, and her face immediately fell.
An inconspicuous "N" symbol, indicating the student she drew had very average talent and potential. As she looked at the photo attached to the dossier, she found it was of a second-year male student she had no impression of, looking... as plain as her mentor's chest.
Lady Yue Hua immediately puffed her cheeks in anger.
So frustrating! Why can't I draw a high-rarity student?
But actually, it's normal. After all, high-rarity students are basically recognizable characters from the animation, and there are only a few of them. Most players are paired with passersby characters from the show.
Also, although it seemed like players randomly opened the dossiers, they were actually pre-assigned by Youyu.
The main purpose of Lady Yue Hua was actually as a filming tool. What Youyu fancied was her inherent popularity. In terms of card skills, she's far inferior to many professional competitive players. The reason she was able to get in at all was purely because Youyu opened the backdoor for her.
Therefore, Youyu certainly wouldn't give a truly talented and potential student to her, hence why she was only assigned an insignificant side character...
Over at Cola Sprite's side, a splash of colorful light shone brightly, attracting a lot of attention. When she pulled out the document with the big "UR" printed on it, an exclamation erupted from the dumbfounded crowd nearby.
Tenjouin Asuka!
The student every mentor wanted the most.
Unwavering, clutching his "R" rated document, his face turned green.
After all, he had traded a precious Axe King to win Asuka's favor!
This time, all his investment went down the drain!
Unwavering felt his heart bleeding...
Jianan Tao drew a UR and was in an excellent mood. He couldn't wait to flaunt it to his best buddy in town, Nora Tatsu, waving Mitsuzawa Daichi's UR dossier around and jumping around like a seal just out of water.
Local Nora Tatsu glanced at him disdainfully and snorted derisively.
Tch, getting one tiny Fivezeocean and you're showing off like this, wow, aren't you proud!
Isn't it just a UR? I can do it too!
Nora Tatsu held his breath, widened his eyes, and slowly pulled out the thin dossier from the envelope he opened.
As the seal was torn, colorful glowing light spilled from the bag's opening. Watching the shimmering brightness, Local Nora Tatsu's breathing nearly halted, barely resisting the urge to shout in joy—
—Oh, wow, it really happened! UR!
Nora Tatsu couldn't contain his excitement, even wanting to perform a "tactical lean back" for the stunned Jianan Tao beside him—
—What's it called when you speak and it happens?
However, when he pulled out the document completely and saw the name on it, he was dumbfounded.
Oh crap, why is it Marufuji Shou?
The previously dumbfounded seal next to Jianan Tao burst into laughter upon seeing the name, slapping his leg and laughing, "Hahaha, a UR! A true UR! Congratulations, Nora Tatsu!"
Local Nora Tatsu's face darkened.
Darn it, why does Marufuji Shou count as a UR?
In GX, everyone knows that Judai's sidekick, Marufuji Shou, is the character most viewers want to drag out of the screen for a beating, bar none—even more than the villains.
The portrayal of this character's growth in the animation is extremely lacking. Throughout the series, he plays the role of a deadweight, with poor ability, frequently captured as a hostage, rescued by Judai innumerable times, carried to victory, and even ends up questioning Judai during the otherworldly arc (though he was influenced by special powers).
Because of these terrible performances, the mentors didn't want to see him at all.
Nora Tatsu dejectedly put away the "UR" file, determined in his heart —
— to give this kid a hard time!
He couldn't believe this student couldn't be taught!
Among the remaining players, there was still that one who luckily drew the "UR" player.
It was the guild leader of Cola Sprite, "Just a Sandbag."
He drew the last "UR" student file, Izayoi Sakura.
The guild leader's card skills were considered average among players, and in terms of skills, he wasn't even as good as their guild's only girl, Cola Sprite — in fact, Sprite's skills were pretty good.
But he couldn't match up to being rich!
Just a Sandbag, upon drawing this student, excitedly whistled and the first thing he did was —
— take a screenshot, show off!
A few seconds later, the character he drew posted a picture on the forum, with a ten thousand big red envelope attached.
Nobody knew whether the screenshot was more effective or the red envelope was more effective, but the post quickly became popular, with countless replies, some thanking the boss for being generous, others congratulating and celebrating...
Not long after, these mentors were organized to meet their students.
Izayoi Sakura was a somewhat shy little girl, appearing quite restrained in front of the teacher.
She greeted her new teacher politely and cautiously — but soon she realized she didn't even know what to call this teacher.
"Don't be nervous." Just a Sandbag appeared very amiable, "Just call me 'Sandbag'."
Sakura: "?"
Even as a nickname, she thought the teacher's name sounded weird...
Of course, she didn't dare say that.
She heard that these mentors were all experts with unique skills, big figures in the Duel World. As a newbie, she just kept her head down, dared not say anything, and whatever the teacher said was what it was.
But she didn't know that, in the eyes of this "teacher," she was the little princess of the entire Hanno Knight Guild — the kind you'd wish to put up in a palace!
Drawing a rare character, the Sandbag leader was in a great mood, made a big spend in the game, quickly converted it into Crystal Stones, and ran to Youyu to convert all the useful cards he currently could.
Then he turned around and dumped a bunch of Rare Cards into his cute student's hands.
Izayoi Sakura was shocked: "Teacher, this is..."
"Just a small token, just a gesture, take it, take it, don't be shy!"
The Sandbag leader loved showing off, especially in front of girls — even in virtual games with cute girls, this made him feel good and thought he was great.
Sakura held a bunch of cards, a bit dumbfounded.
Just giving a welcome gift... shouldn't it be the student's responsibility?
Teacher giving students gifts, could this be?
And she glanced over and found some cards that she hadn't even seen or heard of, clearly very rare and precious Rare Cards.
This teacher is too good, isn't he?
"Tha... Thank you, teacher." She almost couldn't say a word out of nervousness.
"You're welcome, you're welcome." Sandbag leader chuckled, "Take them all, anything else you need just tell me, and I'll find a way!
If you can study well and improve every day, that's the best reward for me!"
"Yes, teacher!" Sakura quickly thanked.
Indeed, she encountered a good teacher! She thought.
In sharp contrast, was Marufuji Shou's side.
"Trash! How are you so bad!? With this skill and these grades, is the Duel Academy's admission standard so low now?" The local Nora Tatsu spat venom, "You're the worst student I've ever taught! No, the worst student ever, hands down!"
Well, because Shou was Nora Tatsu's first-ever student, so his words were indeed true, completely fair.
Marufuji Shou bowed his head, trembling, didn't dare to breathe, his heart filled with tears —
— It's over, the mentor he was assigned seems to have a bad temper, the future three years seem bleak...