Note: If you want the continuity of this story consider to join Pãtreon/Flokixy to access advance Chapters and To Support The Daily Update
Pay one time and unlock the full story and Future Chapters from the Shop
"I lost..."
Asuka let out a long breath.
Although she felt a bit defeated, she wasn't someone who couldn't handle a loss. Her opponent had thoroughly outplayed her in every aspect, whether it was the use of traps, disrupting her dueling rhythm, or dominating the field.
She accepted her defeat; there was nothing more to say.
"You won," Asuka stood up and said. "But I won't give up just like this. I will work hard to become stronger in the next three years and then challenge you again."
You Xuan kind of wanted to say, Sounds good, sounds good, let's double the academic credits next time, thanks for your patronage...
Hmm, but looking at the current atmosphere, it didn't seem very appropriate. Best to save that for the next duel.
Easily acquiring ten more academic credits, he felt he wouldn't mind a few more duels like this.
The student council member, Nakamura, cautiously appeared at this moment: "Um... so in that case, You Xuan, who will you be voting for?"
Only then did You Xuan suddenly remember. Ah, right, today's duel was initially for this election, not for his academic credits...
He didn't particularly care who he voted for; he hadn't paid attention to this event from the start. However, Asuka spoke before him: "Let's vote for Upperclassman Hinata. She needs this vote more than I do."
"Don't be ridiculous," Kohinata Seika said from outside the field, arms crossed, looking away awkwardly, pouting. "After that duel just now, who the remaining votes go to is already meaningless..."
Asuka: "?"
Kohinata Seika turned and waved her hand: "Forget it, I'll just withdraw myself."
This unexpected development left Asuka a bit bewildered. She hesitated for a moment and said, "But I hoped to be recognized as a duelist, not..."
Upperclassman Seika paused, then shot her a glance: "Idiot. Why do you think I chose to withdraw?"
"Eh?"
"This is Duel Academy. All titles are only meaningful if won through dueling. Precisely because of that... I lost to you."
Asuka was silent for a moment.
When she turned to try and find her opponent who had given her such a profoundly instructive duel, she found he had already disappeared.
It seemed he only cared about the duel itself, showing no interest in any subsequent negotiations or the election results.
Asuka: "..."
This guy... might also be a pure duelist.
And at this moment, no one noticed that within the surging crowd in the venue, a certain jellyfish-haired individual from Osiris Red was looking around with his Duel Disk: "Huh? Has anyone seen where You Xuan went? I want to duel him!"
Also, no one knew that Kohinata Seika, who had voluntarily withdrawn from the election and left the venue, found an unnoticed corner, secretly took out her student terminal, opened the competition interface, and cast a vote for her junior, Tenjoin Asuka.
Then she revealed a satisfied expression.
Perhaps this was what they called "hater turning into a fan."
"..."
Squeezing out of the venue, You Xuan contentedly counted his newly acquired academic credits. While walking, he continued to use the academy's student-exclusive terminal to check if any new cards had been stocked in the academy's inventory today.
Then, with one glance, he spotted a new card that had just been restocked.
Chaos Sorcerer!
He had his eye on this card before the entrance exam, but unfortunately, after completing his enrollment, he found that the only one in stock had already been bought. It wasn't until today that a new one suddenly appeared.
Naturally, without further ado, You Xuan directly pre-ordered this Chaos Sorcerer.
Now with The Creator and Chaos Sorcerer, the next World Champion deck he had envisioned could pretty much be put on the agenda.
The [Chaos] theme had consecutively won three World Championship titles, holding a dominant position back in the day. You Xuan naturally couldn't remember the entire build; he only recalled the general strategy and considered modifying it based on the cards he currently had.
He was still missing a few cards he had in mind, but none were particularly rare. He still had a good amount of money, and the academic credits he had earned recently had also been converted into a lot of DP, so he should be able to acquire them quickly by purchasing from the academy.
As You Xuan was walking, he suddenly heard someone beside him say: "Yo, First Place."
He stopped and looked up, only to find it was none other than the well-known Ra Yellow passerby, Arithmetic—no, Misawa Daichi.
"That was an amazing duel, truly worthy of First Place," Misawa greeted him with a smile. "It's been a week since the exchange match, and now it seems only we two are still maintaining a perfect winning streak."
"You're very strong too," You Xuan returned the business-like compliment, then asked, "What, are you saying we should try it out?"
At the same time, he mentally calculated whether they could wager a few more academic credits this time...
But Misawa shook his head: "No. We haven't met in the match pairings yet, and I'm not ready either. My duel with you must be with my strongest deck, one fused with my blood and soul, and that deck isn't complete yet."
You Xuan raised an eyebrow. This reminded him; he just now remembered that Misawa also seemed to be a "counter-picking dog."
In the original story, during his first duel against Manjoume, he saw through the fact that his opponent was using a FIRE Attribute deck. So, he specifically pulled out a WATER Attribute deck from his so-called "Six Attribute Deck," whose ace monster "Water Dragon" had the effect of changing the ATK of all FIRE monsters and FIRE Attribute monsters on the field to 0, countering Manjoume to the point of an existential crisis.
When dueling Judai Yuki, he even researched and concluded that the Elemental HERO deck without Fusion was a toothless tiger. So, he printed a "Spell-Stopping Seal" overnight, directly banning Judai's Polymerization Spell Card, prohibiting its use for the entire duel.
You Xuan sensed the elements.
Is he a Stand user of a similar type to me?
Then the "strongest deck designed to counter himself" that Misawa mentioned, could it be...
"Don't worry, First Place, it'll be soon," Misawa smiled confidently. "You should know, it won't be long before the first round of practical assessments for new students, right?"
Practical assessments?
You Xuan quickly recalled; it was what happened in the fourth episode of the anime's opening. New students needed to undergo phased practical combat tests, and the opponents assigned were generally classmates from the same dorm with comparable skill rankings.
However, in the original story, Professor Chronos pulled some strings behind the scenes. Using the excuse that "Judai's strength is too outstanding, having him fight within the Red dorm is completely like shooting fish in a barrel," he arranged for Judai to duel against Manjoume, a top elite from Obelisk Blue.
Hmm, of course, in the end, Manjoume was the one who got "fish-barreled."
But if there were no behind-the-scenes manipulations, and matches were made within the same dorm based on grades...
"Indeed. At that time, we will most likely face each other in the practical assessment," Misawa smiled slightly. "I heard that winning the phased assessment grants a large amount of academic credits, so I won't go easy on you.
Let me witness it then, the duel of the First Place."
You Xuan felt like he hadn't clearly heard anything else; he only heard "large amount of academic credits."
He originally thought it was just a phased assessment.
Now it seemed, wasn't winning absolutely necessary?