Kagurazaka stared blankly at the Duel Disc's display as the numbers jumped to "0", as if he couldn't accept reality for a long time.
Just like that... I lost?
Using the Card Deck of the strongest Duelist in history, copying the god‑tier tactics of the top of the top, and I actually got OTK'd?
No, it's not just that.
He was OTK'd during his own turn!
The whole Duel felt like a joke to him, as if the other side hadn't even gotten serious. This "Muto Yugi‑lookalike" with the starfish hair in front of him hadn't even Summoned a single decent Monster from beginning to end.
What was the only Monster he Summoned this Duel again?
Watapon, a pathetic little scrub with only 200 ATK...
And he actually got instantly killed by that kind of scrub!?
It made him feel like the arrogant, swollen‑headed self from just a few minutes ago had been nothing but a clown on stage in the other guy's eyes.
But why?
Kagurazaka couldn't figure it out, no matter how he tried.
He'd clearly studied Muto Yugi's Duels carefully, not missing a single detail of any match.
The guy clearly also liked to start by slapping down three cards and directly fusing into Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast, right? So how come he had never seen the Duel King get OTK'd?
I clearly did the exact same plays as him, so how come in just one turn—no, to be more precise, it seems like half a turn—I got blown up?
What's the actual gap between me and the real Duel King?
"Clap clap clap clap..."
Applause echoed rhythmically. The dazed Kagurazaka turned toward the sound and almost let out another scream.
The Duel King... Youyu!
...And who's that blond dude behind him again? He looks familiar but I just can't place him...
"As expected of Mr. Yugi. Even after so many years away from the official tournament scene, you're still as sharp as ever." Youyu leapt down from a big rock.
Yugi smiled. "Not really, I'm already a bit rusty."
He paused, glanced at Kagurazaka, and said, "Your school does have some very excellent and interesting students. His Duel really did feel pretty nostalgic..."
Kagurazaka listened in a daze. His brain took ages to process the information he'd just received.
...Wait a sec, what did Principal Youyu just call him?
Seemed like... Mr. Yugi?
Nani? This guy is actually Muto Yugi!?
Kagurazaka snapped his head up, staring blankly at Yugi, his brain going straight to blue screen.
Then when he mentally replayed all those self‑important, idiotic remarks he'd made earlier, Kagurazaka felt like he'd been struck by Raigeki.
Fortunately, Muto Yugi looked like a good‑tempered, easy‑going Duel King, and seemed not to mind Kagurazaka's earlier disrespect at all.
Not only that, he even walked up to Kagurazaka and patiently enlightened him. "Classmate, like I just said, what you lack isn't tactical thinking, or even Card Deck construction.
Those are indeed all essential qualities for a Duelist, compulsory courses... but they aren't what's truly most fundamental to a real Duelist."
Kagurazaka stared at him blankly, mechanically repeating the line: "A real Duelist's... most fundamental thing?"
"Mm." Yugi patted his shoulder and said gently, "No matter whose Card Deck it is, once it's in your hands it will never be the best version.
Only a Card Deck where every single Card is one you carefully picked yourself out of tens of thousands, a Deck into which the Duelist has poured all their feelings, can possibly truly connect with a Duelist's heart."
Honestly, although it sounds a bit metaphysical, what Yugi said really is how it works.
Deckbuilding and play awareness are just icing on the cake; what you really need to train is top‑decking.
You see in recordings Yugi often opens with Chimera, but do you believe that if the opponent's opening hand can OTK him, his starting hand absolutely won't be Chimera?
What's that called? That's called Bonds with your Card Deck! Proof of a true powerhouse!
The longer Youyu spent in this world, the more he understood how this Card‑centric world operated, and the more certain he became of one thing—
—Simply holding a well‑built, power‑packed top‑tier Card Deck might make you a first‑rate expert in this world, but it still won't make you a top‑class powerhouse.
He could even picture what would happen if some player took the famous Exchange of the Spirit deck to challenge Yugi.
Player A: "According to the effect of 'Makyura the Destructor', I activate the Trap Card 'Exchange of the Spirit' from my hand! Both players exchange all Cards in their Card Deck and Graveyard! Then since you'll have no cards to draw next turn, I win!"
Yugi: "I pay half my Life Points and activate the Counter Trap 'Red Reboot' from my hand, negating 'Exchange of the Spirit'!"
Player A: *@!# (loses all remaining functional power in the Card Deck and drops dead on the spot)
Okay, that's just an example. But that's roughly the idea.
To a Duelist, a Card Deck is equivalent to a weapon—of course you'll be stronger if you have a better Divine Artifact in hand. But the Duelist's level is what reflects the Duelist's own strength; when your level is high, the same Deck will perform far better in your hands.
And in this world, a Duelist's level can be ground out through long years of continuous cultivation.
For example, Marufuji Ryo, whose 502‑style Divine Skill has already reached the entry‑hall level; and like in the GX Animation, Duel Academy even had a background extra student who holed up in the mountains like a wild man to cultivate in seclusion, and somehow trained his top‑decking to be on par with Judai's...
So just like cultivation in xianxia fantasies, this thing depends first on talent, and second on diligent, hard work.
As long as you're extraordinarily gifted, have some "spirit‑medium constitution" that lets you talk to spirits, then meet a great teacher, and on top of that study hard and cultivate bitterly day after day for years, you'll eventually discover...
...you still can't beat someone who's cheating.
Yes, that's how brutally real it is.
Take our second‑gen protagonist Yuki Judai for instance, he doesn't even count; he's a big‑shot reincarnator with a built‑in grandpa, leveling up while lying down.
The First Duel King Muto Yugi doesn't have that much flashy stuff. His cheat is your classic "old‑grandpa" type golden finger—a certain ancient bigshot survives a world‑ending catastrophe, leaving only a wisp of soul lodged in some Divine Artifact. Later that artifact ends up in the protagonist's hands, and the bigshot's remnant soul becomes the protagonist's plug‑in.
Only, the "old grandpa" for fantasy protagonists is usually helpless for some special reason, having lost his cultivation and power, and can only give the protagonist Cultivation Techniques and guide him to grow stronger and face powerful enemies.
But the one Yugi ran into is a bit different. His "grandpa" personally handled everything big and small, personally fought the bosses, personally went out to bully small fry; from beginning to end it basically had nothing to do with Yugi...
Yet only at the very end did everyone realize that the power‑leveled account might not actually be better at fighting than the original owner.
The only reason he hired a power‑leveler was because the boss was too lazy to play.
Or, from another angle, maybe everyone's been misunderstanding it.
Maybe the King was actually the real protagonist all along, using the "reincarnated‑to‑retrain" template, with the ultimate goal of defeating the World‑Ending Evil God he couldn't beat in his previous life. And Muto Yugi was actually the grandpa...
Now that he'd gotten a personal lecture from the Duel King, Kagurazaka's eyes were shining, like he'd suddenly found his direction forward.
"Thank you, Mr. Yugi!" He took a deep breath, stood up, and said firmly, "I've learned it all!"
More like learned it wrong, Youyu muttered on the side.
Kid, you're neither reincarnated nor do you have any guardian spirit; odds are you've totally learned it wrong...