“Catapult all green! Beast of the wind, destroy all! Go, scramble summon! Machine Dragon of the Storm Winds, Jenus Eleven!”
“A scramble summon?! You didn’t do anything in the last turn while having the Machine Dragon of the Storm Winds in your hand, Duelist Yumiella!”
“By summoning it at this point, I’ve activated the effect of Machine Dragon of the Storm Winds, Jenus Eleven!”
“M-My Ultra Beast Fortress! Nooo!”
My opponent had focused solely on the offensive and had his guard down. Thanks to that, I had an opening. He’d fallen for my scramble summon, and all that was left to do was chip away at his remaining life points.
The game had taken a turn, and I was at an advantage now, but my victory wasn’t guaranteed yet. My opponent hadn’t given up yet, and he was staring at his hand with bloodshot eyes.
“Should you really just be looking at your hand?” I asked.
“What are you...? No, you didn’t!”
“Activate spell card: Strategic Bombing of Pity and Sorrow! With this, my Machine Dragon of the Storm Winds has additional attack power!”
“I-It matches my remaining life points perfectly. Did you plan this far...?”
I did it. A calculated blow. My opponent is at exactly zero life points.
What we were doing wasn’t a game but a real duel. My opponent had lost all his life points and was naturally frustrated at his loss.
“Thank you, that was a good game.”
“GG. Wow, you were impressive, Duelist Yumiella.”
“If you’d waited a turn to set things up, I probably would’ve lost.”
“My mistake was not seeing through what you’d held back, knowing you might lose doing so.”
A duel began and ended with thanking your opponent. After praising each other for a good match, I remembered I had a spectator. My opponent was a proper adult, so he was being considerate of the person I’d brought with me.
“I’d like to battle him next,” he said, looking at Patrick. “I don’t believe we’ve met before.”
“I’m sorry. Patrick doesn’t have any cards yet.”
Following the “visit a store that relates to one of your hobbies” part of Eleanora’s plans, we’d come to a card shop. The battle that had just taken place was done at a duel space provided by the card shop.
After seeing that dramatic comeback, surely Patrick would have learned the allure of Yugimaster, even if he only had a vague understanding of the rules.
I turned to Patrick and asked, “Doesn’t it look fun?”
“What was I watching? From start to finish, I had no idea.”
“I told you. It’s called Yugimaster.”
The official name of the game was Yugimaster Gatheringverse, but it was shortened to Yugimaster. To give a basic overview, it was a turn-based trading card game...or rather, a precursor of one.
This was probably common for the starting environment of trading cards, but the game balance was nonexistent. You could draw two cards at no cost, and the cards that were difficult to play and easy to play were at times equally strong. It was the early days of this game, and there was almost no competitive playability. Despite that, the player who properly strategized would be the stronger one. Man, card games sure are fun.
This card shop had a unique smell to it for some reason. Perhaps it was because of the ink used for the cards.
The dimly lit, stuffy card shop was filled with Yugimaster players. Also, all the players were adults. Yugimaster cards were quite expensive for children. All these people were getting into card games despite being adults, including myself. Our resolve towards cards was just different.
After seeing my match and the rest of the card shop, Patrick was...speechless.
“I didn’t know you came to such a place.”
“Yeah, ever since I was a student at the Academy. Haven’t I shown you my deck before?”
“I thought it was just a thing you collected.”
“I’m pretty sure I explained that we use them to fight.”
“I remember you saying that, but I never imagined there were this many people who did it.”
Oh, yeah. A card game with no opponents is no fun.
Despite having seen such a fun-looking match, Patrick still seemed uncomfortable.
“Oh, are you worried that you won’t be able to remember the rules? Don’t worry, you can learn as you play.”
“That’s not it.”
“I’ll lend you one of my decks, so you’ll be able to play right away. The easiest to use would probably be...”
“Why do you have multiple bundles of forty cards?”
It’s normal to build multiple decks. As I explained that it was normal to Patrick, I thought about which deck of the five I had brought with me would be easiest for a beginner to use. Exo is definitely out of the question, and the deck I was using earlier is a bit difficult to handle... But Patrick might be okay?
As I stood there thinking, the store suddenly started buzzing.
“What’s going on?” I wondered aloud.
“People started buzzing after that guy came in,” Patrick said, pointing at someone.
I turned to look and saw a man with a shaved head surrounded by the other patrons. Even the employees were giving him a warm welcome...or rather, they were excessively bowing their heads to him.
I’ve never seen him before. Who is that? The people around me were saying, “It’s Yunico, it’s Yunico.”
“What?! Yunico?!”
“Is he famous?”
“Yeah, he’s the guy who created Yugimaster.”
The man with the shaved head was Yunico Xyloford. He was the developer of Yugimaster Gatheringverse. I only knew of his name and accomplishments, and I didn’t know much else. He scanned the card shop and stopped when he saw us. He then made his way towards us.
“Je suis Warrior Yunico Xyloford. Would you be interested in un match against me, mademoiselle?”
Eugh. I guess that rumor that he speaks in a strange way that almost sounds foreign is true. But, I’d be honored to have a match against the creator of this card game. I stood there, moved, and someone on the other side of Patrick whispered at me. It was the guy I’d fought earlier.
“Duelist Yumiella, be careful of Warrior Yunico. He has some incredibly strong cards.”
“Are the cards the only strong thing?”
I could understand if his playstyle itself was skilled, but saying that his cards were strong felt strange. My previous opponent then explained the situation to me.
Yunico apparently used a card called True World, which was limited to developers and unbelievably strong players. He’d visited other card shops to say hello, but his visits had become more frequent in recent times. He would visit card shops, then obliterate his opponents by using this card, which was like a cheat code.
“What a troublesome person.”
“Exactly. He’s the creator, so we all respect him and treat him with politeness, but I can’t just go along with it. I’ve fought him once, but True World is incredibly strong.”
In the world of Yugimaster, which was overflowing with cards that were too strong, True World must’ve been on another level with the way he was describing it.
All right, then... I’m going to actually try and win this thing. I prepared a deck I would never use in normal circumstances and headed to the table for dueling. Yunico then headed to the seat across from me on the same table and flashed a nasty grin.