"Come on, draw a card, draw a card!"
In the Fusion Department, Tenjo Hikari gathered with his friends around a table, Serena sitting beside him, curiously joining in the fun.
"The first person to draw a rare card today will treat us!" Judai raised his hand, laughed heartily, and just decided on it.
"Hahaha, it looks like I'll be treating everyone to dinner today!" Fubuki gently combed his hair and said confidently, "Don't judge by my looks; I used to be known as the King of the Academy, and my drawing skills are tops in the grade!"
"I've heard from Ryo that you've never drawn the egg bread, brother?" Asuka confidently smiled at this moment, "I managed to draw three egg breads in a row!"
As an academy that teaches dueling, the Duel Academy's bread fillings are random, so many students try daily to draw the "most rare" bread to prove their card-drawing luck.
Both Judai and Manjome have tried this before.
"What! Asuka, you've become such a strong duelist!" Fubuki was shocked.
Nearby, some students who hadn't returned to their dorms started to jeer, making the entire activity room quite lively.
Tenjo Hikari wasn't very confident in his luck.
After all, this was something proven.
Before becoming first in the grade, Tenjo Hikari bought bread every day but never got anything strange in the fillings; they were always chestnut bread, and even after, he occasionally bought bread but never drew rare ones.
He went to Domino City, bought card packs from stores, and though Cronos and Marufuji Ryo said the stores there only had "leftover cards from the other side of the world," no rare cards, he was still disappointed.
Even when playing random duels with friends in the Activity Department, he mostly didn't draw any particularly cool combos, sometimes even losing to other students because of it.
In unserious duels and pure entertainment, his "supernatural" power doesn't assist, showing his less-than-lucky nature.
It's precisely because he hasn't drawn many rare cards that Tenjo Hikari is more focused on alchemy, card crafting, and direct acquisition.
At least this way, he won't be heartbroken.
Amidst some noise, Tenjo Hikari and the others stacked the card packs together, carefully opened the card slots with their hands, then pressed down the top of the packs and gently cut them open with scissors.
Tenjo Hikari opened a pack; first glance, a Normal Monster, Flame Manipulator.
Tenjo Hikari's mouth twitched.
"I'm sorry, Master." Flame Swordsman's awkward voice sounded in Tenjo Hikari's ear.
"Hahaha, why are you apologizing? His luck has nothing to do with you." Tierra simply spectated, seeing Tenjo Hikari draw a Flame Swordsman's Fusion Material, she laughed, "Moreover, the first card being your Fusion Material, you should feel honored."
Flame Swordsman awkwardly coughed twice.
"Oh, it's a Flame Manipulator." Mitsuzawa Daichi, who also had a less useful low-level Normal Monster as his first card, remarked, "It's a Fusion Material for Flame Swordsman. Hikari, your luck isn't too bad."
Murmuring, everyone had finished their first five packs—25 cards in total—mostly Normal Monsters, with a few green and purple Trap Cards that weren't very useful either.
Just as everyone lamented their lack of rare finds, Asuka suddenly raised her hand excitedly, shouting, "Yes!"
???
The group turned to look at her.
Excited, Asuka didn't notice everyone's expression, closed her eyes, raised her hand cheering, while her unscrupulous brother immediately picked up his camera and snapped two photos.
"Hmm... These photos should sell well to Asuka's fans."
"Brother!" Asuka returned to her senses, irritatedly pushing him aside, then realizing everyone was watching her, quickly blushed, lowered her head, made a fist with her hand to cover her mouth, peeked around, and coughed before saying, "Uh... I drew a very rare card!"
She turned it over to show everyone.
It was a distinctive blue card, quite a rare Monster Card—Ritual Monster!
Cyber Angel Natasha—
Everyone looked at each other.
The match just started, and it's over?
"It's surprisingly a card from the Cyber Angel series." Mitsuzawa was a bit surprised.
"You're amazing, Tenjouin!" Judai cheered, "The effect looks so strong, too!"
Indeed.
Tenjo Hikari remembered the card's effect.
Combining life recovery, attack hindrance, and a "heavy duty" monster, in this world, its power level is already quite high.
Moreover, duelists like Asuka wouldn't concern themselves with "dead hands," so the Ritual Summon restriction wasn't significant for her.
"Such good luck!" Tenjo Hikari remarked.
"Hahaha, see that, it's Tenjouin's card-draw ability!" Fubuki, lacking any self-consciousness, seeing his sister draw a rare card, acted pleased, "I'll treat, I'll treat!"
In this world, treating when you draw a rare card is never a loss because the value of a rare card is enough to treat countless times.
Since Asuka drew a rare card, everyone didn't need to hold back too much, celebrating for a bit before continuing to draw cards.
Gradually, Judai, Manjome, who have extremely strong card-draw luck, also drew rare cards, though not necessarily useful, drawing is drawing. Soon, Mitsuzawa Daichi drew a rather powerful card, couldn't help but hide it, coughed, claiming he would use it against Tenjo Hikari in exams.
"What's going on?" Tierra, who earlier watched with an amused expression, was now perplexed, "No, it's impossible!"
Seeing Tenjo Hikari continue to draw piles of so-so cards, Tierra couldn't help wanting to join the fun. As a newcomer with a lively spirit, midway she had Tenjo Hikari accept her attachment, using Puppet Strings to guide his hand in drawing a few packs.
The result...
Clearly, both her and Tenjo Hikari's luck weren't great.
Down to the last pack now.
"Well, not bad, I did draw two usable Fusion Materials." Tenjo Hikari didn't mind, as long as the initial goal—Genex Controller was in hand, even if there weren't any strong cards, they could still be used as Fusion Materials.
"Master, may I try?" Serena, unable to hold back, raised her hand hoping to catch Tenjo Hikari's attention.
"You want to try?" Tenjo Hikari handed the pack to her casually.
For a duelist, watching cards opened before them but being unable to do anything can be distressing.
Especially for Serena, who had a massive itch for cards.
Serena had been watching for a long time, itching inside, seeing Tenjo Hikari unbothered, cheerfully stretched out her hands to take the pack, treating it reverently and carefully placing it on the table.
The students around couldn't help but show knowing smiles.
Thinking about it, Serena had always been confined, with cards forcibly given to her; this really seemed like her first card draw.
Serena delicately cut open the pack, gently slid the cards out.
The first card.
Normal Monster, Adjuster Warrior, though a Normal Monster, at least an Adjuster, quite lucky.
Second card, third card, continued with ordinary cards, Tenjo Hikari had nothing to mind, but Serena showed some disappointment.
Until—
The last card.
As Serena drew the card, a faint glow flickered on the card, Tenjo Hikari blinked slightly, seeing the card Serena drew, excitedly jumped straight up.
"How amazing, Serena!" Tenjo Hikari couldn't help praising, "Your card-draw luck is tenfold, even ninefold mine! From now on, drawing new cards is up to you! This is Master's only request!"
"Eh, ah, okay, okay!" Serena couldn't resist clenching her fist, suddenly feeling very excited.
This was the first time she heard Tenjo Hikari genuinely call himself "Master!"
Tenjo Hikari's excitement was justified.
She had drawn—The Dark - Hex-Sealed Fusion!
This was the card of Universal Fusion Material!