Ryan: “My turn, draw.” He’d gotten caught by a small dirty trick last turn, but by now Arbiter Ryan had cooled back down.
Sure, that baffling trap had caught him off guard, but beyond giving him a minor headache, it hadn’t really accomplished much.
His ace, Rare Metal Dragon, was still on the field.
That Satellite trash across from him was still nothing more than a rat scurrying for cover, not worth worrying about.
The advantage was still his!
Arbiter Ryan declared, “I activate my set Spell Card, Cost Reduction!
This card activates by discarding one card from my hand, and lowers the Level of every monster in my hand by 2 this turn.” He picked out a card from his hand and sent it to the Graveyard, then played another Monster Card.
“With its Level lowered by 2, my Level 5 Handcuffs Dragon is now Level 3, which means I can Normal Summon it without a Tribute.
I Normal Summon Handcuffs Dragon!” [Handcuffs Dragon, ATK 1800] “Battle.
Handcuffs Dragon first,” Arbiter Ryan said.
“Handcuffs Dragon, attack the face-down Defense Position monster!” The manacles built into Handcuffs Dragon’s jaws opened and shut like a pair of shears, snapping shut on Yushin’s set card with a sharp crack.
A green fairy’s silhouette flickered briefly out of the flipped card before it was destroyed.
[Petit Angel, DEF 1400] Another perfectly unremarkable vanilla monster.
“Now, Rare Metal Dragon,” Arbiter Ryan pressed his advantage, “direct attack!” A heavy vortex once again roared out of the metal dragon’s mouth and tore straight through Yushin.
His slight frame swayed like a small boat caught in a storm, looking for a moment like the raging breath might sweep him clean off his feet.
But he stubbornly held his footing, his expression still unchanged, as if the Shadow Game’s damage meant nothing to him at all.
[Yushin, LP 2500 → LP 100] The whole crowd of cultists started stirring up excitement again.
“Just as expected of Arbiter Ryan, total domination!” “Ha, trash from the Satellite is still trash.
With power that pathetic, and he’s still dreaming about winning?
Should’ve taken a good look at himself first…” “Your Life Points are hanging on by a thread.
Surrender now and spare yourself some suffering!” The cultists outside the duel were already halfway to popping champagne, jeering him on, but Arbiter Ryan, right there in the thick of it, was frowning slightly.
This guy…
why was he still so calm?
No reaction whatsoever to the agonizing pain of the Shadow Game, not a trace of tension even backed into a corner with no way out.
That kind of unshakable calm was starting to unsettle Arbiter Ryan himself.
For a moment, he had the strange illusion that the person across from him wasn’t some low-level scum from the Satellite at all, but something else entirely.
Something far more terrifying, something he couldn’t quite get a read on.
But he quickly shook his head and pushed the ridiculous thought aside.
Whatever the case, his opponent had only 100 Life Points left, and was definitely running a trash deck straight out of the Satellite.
There was simply no path for the cult’s glorious Arbiter to lose here.
Next turn, victory would be his without a doubt!
“My turn…” Yushin glanced down at the deck sitting in his Duel Disk.
This might well be his final draw of the entire duel.
This single draw would decide the whole outcome of the match.
If he didn’t pull something capable of turning things around, he’d probably really have to just pull the plug and bail.
But even though he could always run, this was still, technically, the first real game of Yu-Gi-Oh!
he’d ever gotten to play.
For a card game addict who’d been deeply into dueling in his past life, losing a precious first like this would still be a little disappointing.
So he wasn’t ready to give up easily.
Yushin rested his fingers on the deck in his Duel Disk.
He remembered a piece of anime lore: unlike real-world decks, decks in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!
genuinely had souls of their own.
Come on, vanilla monsters.
Show me what you’ve got, Yushin said silently to himself.
“Draw!” The top card of the deck slid free.
The instant he drew it, he caught a glimpse of the card’s artwork out of the corner of his eye.
And couldn’t help the corner of his mouth twitching upward.
Looked like he wouldn’t need to pull the plug after all.
“I activate the Spell Card— —Ancient Rules!” An old, tattered scroll unrolled in midair, ancient text engraved on it rippling with golden light.
“Ancient Rules lets me Special Summon one Level 5 or higher Normal Monster from my hand.” The ace card he’d been stuck holding since the very first turn finally had room to shine.
He raised the card in his hand, and in that instant, endless golden bolts of light seemed to converge on the raised vanilla monster.
“Level 6— —Summoned Skull!” [Summoned Skull, ATK 2500] “Summoned…
Skull?!” Arbiter Ryan’s expression shifted.
“He actually Summoned a high-level vanilla monster in a dead-end situation like this?” Yushin said, “Next, I activate the Equip Spell Dark Energy.
This card raises a Fiend-Type monster’s ATK and DEF by 300 points each.” [Summoned Skull, ATK 2500 → ATK 2800] A Fiend-Type-only Equip Card that only bumped ATK by 300?
In his past life, he’d genuinely never even heard of an Equip Card that mediocre, and he certainly never imagined he’d end up actually using one someday.
Yushin shifted into counterattack mode.
“Battle Phase.
Summoned Skull, attack Handcuffs Dragon!” Electricity crackled across the demon’s skeletal frame, golden bolts radiating outward and gathering into a thundercloud overhead, before a torrent of lightning surged down toward Handcuffs Dragon.
Handcuffs Dragon, destroyed!
[Arbiter Ryan, LP 3100 → LP 2100] The real damage made Arbiter Ryan wince and grit his teeth.
But instead of getting angry, he laughed.
“Attacking Handcuffs Dragon just to greedily grab some damage, huh?
But that’s exactly what walked you right into my trap!
Right now, Handcuffs Dragon’s effect activates!
When Handcuffs Dragon is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, it can attach itself as an Equip Card to the monster that destroyed it.
The equipped monster’s ATK drops by 1800!” The destroyed Handcuffs Dragon reappeared like a ghost, a massive pair of manacles clamping tight around Summoned Skull.
The powerful demon slumped visibly, the electricity crackling over its body dimming noticeably.
[Summoned Skull, ATK 2800 → ATK 1000] “Didn’t see that coming, did you, kid!
I had a second play ready!” Arbiter Ryan said.
“I already accounted for the possibility of you summoning a strong monster to fight back.
You never had a chance from the start!” The cultists outside chimed in right on cue.
“As expected of Arbiter Ryan, no plan left uncovered!” “No matter how much he struggles, trash is still trash!
Just be a good little sacrifice for our lord!” Arbiter Ryan might have talked a big game, but deep down, he wasn’t nearly as confident as he sounded.
Because the sacrifice across from him…
was still smiling.
“I already knew about Handcuffs Dragon’s effect,” Yushin said.
Arbiter Ryan: “…!” Startled, and a little unnerved, he said, “You…
you knew?
If you knew, why attack it anyway?” Dueling in this world worked differently than in the real one; duelists couldn’t just look up an opponent’s monster effects.
The only way to get intel on what an opponent might play was through experience, built up over time.
Yushin said, “Because this was the only way I could activate this— —the Trap Card, Equip Ejector!” The set card in the back row flipped up, revealing another bright, vivid Trap Card.
Yushin said, “Equip Ejector lets me move an Equip Card attached to one of my own Attack Position monsters onto an opponent’s monster instead!” Yushin pointed across the field at Rare Metal Dragon.
“I’m moving Handcuffs Dragon off of Summoned Skull, and onto Rare Metal Dragon!” He said it with a bright, sunny grin.
“It’d be rude not to return the favor.
Here’s your Handcuffs Dragon back.
Call it a gift in return.
No need to thank me.” And with that, the Handcuffs Dragon that had only just clamped onto Summoned Skull swung around and locked itself onto Rare Metal Dragon instead.
[Summoned Skull, ATK 1000 → ATK 2800] [Rare Metal Dragon, ATK 2400 → ATK 600] Arbiter Ryan was thrown for a loop.
What kind of nonsensical trap card even was this?
Moving an Equip Card from one monster to another, but only ever allowed to move your own Equip Card onto the opponent’s monster.
Under normal circumstances, the Equip Cards on your own monsters were usually buffs, things that raised ATK, not the kind of thing you’d want to hand over.
And even if you did have some Equip Card that debuffed the monster it was attached to, you could just equip it directly onto the opponent’s monster in the first place.
Equipping it to yourself first and then transferring it over was completely redundant, like taking your pants off just to fart.
He genuinely couldn’t imagine why a card like that would even be in this guy’s deck.
He almost wanted to ask, out of a hundred duels, could you actually get real use out of this thing even once?
Yushin couldn’t have answered that question even if he’d wanted to.
Because this deck wasn’t one he’d built himself, and this baffling card wasn’t something he’d chosen to run.
Maybe that was just how dueling in the Satellite worked.
In the slums, you played whatever you had.
You couldn’t exactly afford to be choosy.
But honestly, pulling out a card this baffling every once in a while?
However annoyed it made the other guy, that was exactly how satisfying it felt on his end…
Yushin said, “It’s not over yet.
Equip Ejector’s follow-up effect forces the now-equipped opponent’s monster into another mandatory battle against my monster.” Ryan: “Wait, what?!” What was that?!
Another forced battle?!
Under normal rules, each monster could only attack once per turn.
But thanks to this card’s effect, Summoned Skull, which had already attacked once this turn, gained permission to battle again.
Yushin declared, “Summoned Skull, attack Rare Metal Dragon!
Descending Thunder!” The cultists outside the duel were equally stunned, unable to accept what they were seeing.
Their great Ritual Arbiter…
could actually lose?
Lose to the ritual’s own sacrifice?
Some piece of trash from the Satellite?
Descending Thunder struck a second time, lightning pouring down onto Rare Metal Dragon without mercy.
The metal dragon had never stood a chance against the demon to begin with, and with its own ally’s manacles locking it down on top of that, it had no way to fight back at all.
It was blasted straight into scrap.
Arbiter Ryan’s eyes went wide, his mind flooded with disbelief.
“Waaaaaaahhh—” [Arbiter Ryan, LP 2100 → LP 0]