“Activate face-down card!” Li Guanqi shouted in a low, forceful voice, laced with authority.
“<Big Welcome Labrynth>!”
“Chaining with the effect of <Lady Labrynth of the Silver Castle>!
I set a Normal Trap from the deck!”
“I’m setting———–”
“<Eradicator Epidemic Virus>!”
“<Eradicator Epidemic Virus>?!” Shuang Shenghua flinched.
She recognized that card.
It could wipe out Spell or Trap cards from both the hand and field.
She had four Spell Cards in hand!
If they were destroyed now, how could she even go on?
Holding onto her composure by a thread, she forced herself to protest, “But…
you just set it!
You can’t activate it right away!”
“No———” Li Guanqi’s face darkened as he leaned in with mock mystique.
“Didn’t you hear it?
The fiend’s whisper.”
Shuang Shenghua frowned sharply and scanned her surroundings warily, genuinely trying to listen.
“Hmm…
There is a weird sound.”
“It’s the cursed chant from the abyss!” Li Guanqi adjusted his glasses, grinning like a villain.
“The moment <Big Welcome Labrynth> resolves, the formula for victory has already been written!”
“What?!” Shuang Shenghua gasped.
Li Guanqi lowered his voice, intense.
“Processing <Big Welcome>, Special Summon <Arias>, then return her to the hand.”
“At that moment!”
“Chain 1, <Big Dumb White>’s effect, randomly destroy one card in your opponent’s hand.”
“Chain 2, <Ariane>’s effect, draw a card, then I can Special Summon a Fiend from my hand or set a Spell/Trap.”
“Chain 3, Graveyard <Stovie Torbie> activates, Special Summon it.”
“Chain 4, Graveyard <Chandraglier> effect, add it to my hand!”
“Four chains?!” Shuang Shenghua cried out, three parts panic, seven parts disarray.
And the remaining ninety percent was pure prayer.
Prayer that <Big Dumb White> wouldn’t destroy her key cards.
“Harvest time!” Li Guanqi grinned wide, completely in the zone.
Oh, the joy!
This is what playing Silver Castle was all about——— recycling from the grave, chain summons, and Arianna’s draw and summon combos.
But the real fun was———–
“Big Dumb White, charge!”
Li Guanqi’s voice suddenly faltered.
Something had caught his eye, his gaze turning vacant.
He stared at his computer screen, dazed, his thoughts unraveling.
It was her again.
That silhouette. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
A noble woman in a pure white gown, hem billowing in the storm like a blooming lily.
With a thunderous roar, the white-garbed lady transformed into a flash of silver lightning, dashing toward the enemy.
So dashing!
She passed through a sea of soldiers, brushed shoulders with a mermaid, and lunged straight for the duelist behind him, striking down toward the enemy’s hand.
CRACK———
A tear opened in the void.
A card’s projection flickered within it.
<Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard>!
“Holy cr*p!” Li Guanqi jolted, snapping out of it with a start, realizing he was still at his computer.
He gasped for breath, heartbeat racing.
“What the heck…”
He shook his head slightly and muttered, “What kind of bizarre hallucination…
Am I just that tired?”
Shouldn’t daydreams be more…
normal?
Other people dreamed of beautiful women, wealth, status, or anime worlds.
And him?
Big Dumb White cleaving <Kelbek> out of the hand of a guy with a mermaid?
A Yu-Gi-Oh dream?
Maybe the stress was getting to him, if even his hallucinations were this abstract.
“Hey, hey, what’s the holdup?” Shuang Shenghua jeered.
“Didn’t hit my key cards, look how shaken you got?”
At that, Li Guanqi clicked to check her graveyard, the destroyed card was <Rose Lover>, not <Kelbek>.
It was just a hallucination.
He rubbed his eyes, steadied his breath, and resumed play: “On the field, <Stovie Torbie>’s effect, sending it to Graveyard.
Discard <Chandraglier> to set <Welcome Labrynth> from the Deck.”
“Graveyard <Cooclock>’s effect, I add it to hand.”
“Discard <Cooclock> to activate: This turn, I can activate a Normal Trap on the same turn it’s set.”
“Hiss——–” Shuang Shenghua gasped, eyes now sharp with clarity, head shrinking into her shoulders.
“Still…
not too late to apologize, right?”
“Repent!” Li Guanqi sneered coldly.
“Activate face-down ———- <Eradicator Epidemic Virus>!”
“Tribute…”
His voice faltered.
His pupils trembled slightly, a strange sorrow rising in his chest.
“Tribute <Lovely Labrynth>…”
This time, he didn’t call her “Big Silly White”, calling the master of Silver Castle by her real name———— Lovely Labrynth.
“Declare: Spell Card.”
“Check the opponent’s field and hand, and the next three draws.
Destroy all cards of that declared type.” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
BOOM———-
“Noooooo!” Shuang Shenghua howled in agony, eyes wide as her cards flipped up one by one.
<Lightning Storm>, <Harpie’s Feather Duster>, <Sangen Summoning>, <Swordsoul Emergence>———- all sent to the Grave.
She reached out for her graveyard as if she could physically retrieve them, dazed and heartbroken.
Only one card left in hand: <Evenly Matched>.
Li Guanqi remained steeped in that strange grief, taking a long while before he finally snapped back to reality.
He hadn’t noticed what had happened just now and asked casually, “What’s wrong?”
“Why did you stop moving?”
“It’s your turn, right?”
In the air, there was a faint sound of knuckles cracking.
“So you did know it was my turn!” Shuang Shenghua gritted her teeth and glared at him viciously.
“I’ll die with you, as*hole!”
“Battle Phase!”
“Wait a second.” Li Guanqi interrupted, “I didn’t catch what happened with <Epidemic Virus> earlier.
What other card do you have in your hand?”
“<Evenly Matched>.” Shuang Shenghua replied honestly, then raised a venomous smile.
“You don’t have any negation cards, right?”
“I’m going to blow you up!”
“Why, thanks for letting me know.” Li Guanqi said softly.
“Paying half of my Life Points, I activate the graveyard effect of <Transaction Rollback>.”
“I banish this card, target <Eradication Epidemic Virus>, and gain its effect.”
“I declare———–”
He smiled slightly, like a friendly devil.
“Trap Card.”
“No need to repeat the effect again, right?”
“You———-” Shuang Shenghua’s expression twisted instantly.
The only card left in her hand, <Evenly Matched>, was automatically revealed and sent to the graveyard.
Six cards in hand, she hadn’t played a single one.
She stared daggers at Li Guanqi, cheeks puffed up, on the verge of tears, but feeling too humiliated to cry, so she held it in.
She didn’t want to say a word.
No words could express her current emotions better than her clenched fists.
She just wanted to glare this b*stard to death.
Glare until he felt guilty.
Glare until he got creeped out.
Glare until his conscience ached!
“Uhh———” Faced with the intense gaze of a stunning beauty, Li Guanqi felt a little awkward.
“Oops.
Knocked another one out of the game.”
Whose kid got hooked on Yu-Gi-Oh?
Just trust Dr.
Li (Intern).
Full-service treatment guaranteed.