After Kaiba finished his business, he quickly went off to attend to his own matters, while Yugen continued to follow Mokuba to the Kaiba Corp branch office.
When he left, he was carrying a large box full of cards.
Yugen thought that even if he couldn't use them, keeping them for now and selling them later was a good option.
After a careful selection process, Yugen broadly categorized the chosen cards into three types.
The first type were cards he recognized as having immediate value in this environment, though there weren't many rare ones among them. The higher market value cards were simply common ones like "Magic Cylinder."
The second type were cards that seemed to have no immediate value at first glance, but which he could associate with specific combos, special decks, or situations where they might be useful. Some cards might feel like dead draws most of the time, but once he mastered "divine draw" theory, these cards could subtly resolve situations that current popular cards couldn't.
The third type was purely useless but expensive, much like many of the cards in his original body's deck when he first transmigrated.
Not long after arriving, he naturally immediately sold the expensive, useless common cards from his original body's deck. Before the Moonlight Cup tournament, these, combined with the academy's subsidies, became his starting capital, selling for a good price. So now, he naturally followed this line of thinking: if he didn't see cards he needed, he would just pick the expensive ones, sell them for money, and buy the cards he needed later when he had the chance.
So, in summary, this haul was quite good. Among them, he immediately felt were amazing and most representative were these few cards:
[Ultimate Offering, Continuous Trap Card]
Effect: Pay 500 LP; you can Normal Summon 1 monster. This effect can be activated during your Main Phase or your opponent's Battle Phase.
Needless to say, a perennial banned card. It's well-known in the Yu-Gi-Oh world that any card that ends up rotting in prison has undergone a kind of ritualistic training. Cards that can consistently stay in the ban list are all extraordinary, none of them are weak.
However, this card was officially imprisoned in 2014. In the GX era's real card game, it wasn't actually banned. It's a typical example of a card whose effect seems simple and crude at first glance, but as the game environment evolved into later stages, its overpowered nature became apparent, becoming an ancient banned card.
[Makyura the Destructor, Level 4, ATK 1600]
Effect: During the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard, its owner can activate Trap Cards from their hand.
Originally, it was also an ultimate banned card rotting in prison. After many years, its effect was eventually cut in the real game, allowing it to be released from prison. Its power is self-evident; its years of punishment in the ban list are its most glorious resume.
[Lava Golem, Level 8, ATK 3000]
Effect: Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) to your opponent's side of the field by Tributing 2 monsters they control. You cannot Normal Summon/Set the turn you Special Summon this card. During each of your Standby Phases, take 1000 damage.
Needless to say, ever since its first appearance in the early anime in the hands of 6-year-old Marik, it became the progenitor of the Tribute Summoning strategy. Although it doesn't have the illustrious ban list history of the previous two big brothers, it can still occasionally be seen in modern Yu-Gi-Oh environments even today, even taking down gods without fail.
Especially when the opponent spends three minutes narrating their strategy, finally managing to bring out two powerful, high-resistance monsters, and then on your turn, Lava Golem devours them, the opponent's expression can often make a "dark duelist" happy for a whole week.
It's a monster that can bring great joy.
Feeling the joy of a bountiful harvest, Yugen carried the box out with satisfaction. However, Mokuba's expression at the entrance was a bit strange.
"Do I feel like I'm wrong? You seem to really like Marik's cards..."
Yugen pondered.
He hadn't noticed it himself, but with Mokuba's reminder, it did seem to be true.
How do I explain that?
As expected of the brilliant young Marik, his consciousness is exceptionally advanced... No, it should be said that including his sister and his servant Rishid, each of those three Gravekeepers is no pushover.
A bunch of ancient dark cards all came from their family; they truly had profound family teachings.
This made Yugen suddenly have another thought.
The Ishtar family, at the end of DM, successfully completed their family mission of returning the Pharaoh to the afterlife and then retired from the dueling world, never to be seen again. But if they hadn't given up dueling all these years, it's hard to say what those three dark figures would have become after 8 years.
If he could have the chance to meet them in the future, exchange the most advanced dark techniques, and even get some unreleased newspaper cards, that would be even better.
Of course, for now, it was just a thought. The Gravekeeper clan is hidden, and who knows where they are now.
Additionally, Yugen was very interested in the new type of duel disk that the President revealed today and conveniently asked Mokuba if he had one.
However, unfortunately, it seemed it wasn't for sale.
Apparently, it was classified as a "weapon system" and therefore could not be easily distributed.
Yugen thought it made sense. If everyone could buy duel disks that directly summoned physical monsters for personal attacks, then traditional weapons like bullets would immediately seem incredibly weak in comparison.
"However, the newest type of duel disk isn't a problem; it's also not officially for sale, though," Mokuba said with a smile. "Of course, it won't have the weapon system."
So, Yugen happily got another new duel disk.
Returning victoriously, Yugen planned to thoroughly inventory his gains tonight and hang the sellable items on the academy's trading platform before classes ended. He also planned to review his insights from these days and adjust his deck based on the new cards.
Through these days of dueling and review, Yugen had also started to notice something.
Although he wasn't sure if it was because he, as a transmigrated duelist, had an inherent talent, or simply because of the increased power he gained from the spirits.
But Yugen felt that he had acquired a certain ability of "destiny draw."
This kind of thing was invisible and intangible; he had only concluded it through actual combat and repeated practice tests.
Although he didn't feel as exaggerated as the anime protagonists who casually one-shotted multiple passersby, and he still didn't dare to stuff several completely unrelated archetypes into one deck like the protagonists, he could probably achieve at least the most basic level of divine draws.
Based on his own not necessarily accurate estimation, it was probably enough to keep up with ordinary top-tier duelists in the dueling world, which meant the level of ordinary passersby in the Duel Academy's single-episode arcs.
It sounded very ordinary, but for a common duelist, this was enough for him to make some bold adjustments to his deck strategy.
For example, the most basic point: he felt he could now try to break a habit formed over many years—
—expanding his deck to more than forty cards.
At night, on the city outskirts.
The helicopter slowly descended, like a giant steel eagle gently touching the ground, its rotors spinning in the night, emitting a droning roar.
The blonde man, with a cigarette in his mouth and sunglasses on, calmly jumped out of the cabin, hands tucked into his pockets.
He pulled out his phone, dialed a string of numbers, and leisurely exhaled two smoke rings while waiting for the connection.
The call connected quickly.
"It's me," the man said lazily. "Get off the plane."
"Very good. Our people have already gathered some basic intelligence on the ruins from the periphery. We'll send it to you before tonight."
"Alright."
The blonde man took another deep drag from his cigarette.
The cold voice on the other end of the line said: "Be careful. I just received a report that 'Bloodmoon' has been dealt with."
The blonde man paused: "By whom?"
"A dark duelist group subordinate to the 'Bloodmoon' organization."
"Oh, those are just pawns, aren't they? You wouldn't think those weaklings could be compared to me, would you?" the blonde man chuckled.
"The report said Kaiba Seto personally came to deal with it," the voice on the phone said coldly.
The man's smile immediately vanished.
"Kaiba is in the city?"
"It seems so. That's why I told you to be careful, don't get caught."
"Hmph, so what if I get caught? I've been wanting to try it anyway, to see how I compare to that Kaiba now," the blonde man grunted heavily. "I'm a completely different person from back then."
"Mission priority," the voice on the phone said indifferently. "Don't die."
"Alright, alright, got it."
The blonde man muttered a few curses, hung up, and extinguished his cigarette.
"Kaiba Seto. Tch, what a hassle."