And it still was not over. At the end of the turn, Yugen dramatically flipped open another set card.
"Time Seal."
The effect would skip the opponent's next Draw Phase entirely. This card had once belonged to Duel King Yugi Muto.
With his hand gone and even his draw taken away, Master Takeuchi stared at his empty field. Then he looked at the two eager Gadgets on the opposite side and seriously began considering the feasibility of physical combat.
One minute later, his Life Points hit zero. The hall master stepped down from the duel platform, tilted his head back, and took a deep breath.
He began to reflect on what exactly had possessed him to duel something like this. The apprentices watching nearby all wore expressions of shared grief.
Even the master had fallen. Before the duel began, many of them had still held some hope for the outcome.
They thought that their own helplessness against Yugen came from a lack of skill. Surely, if a true expert stepped in, the result would be different.
Reality proved otherwise. The master summoned, the master attacked, and the master still lost.
The entire process was almost identical to what each of them had experienced over the past few days. It shook their understanding of dueling to the core.
The invincible master had lost to this oppressive style, and they could not help wondering why they would even dream of such a scene. The future of the dueling world suddenly felt very uncertain.
In truth, Yugen's test build was very simple. It combined early-style trap beatdown with hand destruction.
Anyone who had played Yu-Gi-Oh! in its early days knew that monster effects were far weaker back then. Powerful spells and traps played a much more important role in mainstream decks.
The red, green, and yellow Gadgets all searched each other on summon, keeping monsters flowing and preventing dead hands. Strong traps and spells steadily broke down the opponent's resources until the gap became impossible to overcome.
Still, Yugen asked humbly, "Master, what do you think of my deck? Is there anything you could point out for improvement?" His tone was sincere.
Master Takeuchi finally snapped out of his reflection and gave him a long look. For some reason, despite the young man's bright appearance, the sight of his face now made the master uneasy.
"Advice?" he thought to himself. If anything, it felt like the roles should be reversed.
Aloud, he said, "There is nothing more I can teach you." He let out a long sigh, sounding drained.
"Oh right, Master, there is one more thing I would like to ask," Yugen said. "What is it?" the master replied.
"I want to apply for the entrance exam at Duel Academy," Yugen said. "I was hoping to ask whether I could apply for a subsidy from Duel Dojo."
"Do you want to go to Duel Academy?"
Kageru Takeuchi froze for a moment. Thinking about it, the enrollment period for Duel Academy really was coming up soon.
For young duelists, Duel Academy was almost a holy place. Top students gathered there, and graduates were nearly all destined to become elite figures. Under Seto Kaiba's management, it did not matter whether someone came from a powerful family or had endless money, because without talent there was no chance at all.
Who was Seto Kaiba? He was recognized as the strongest active duelist in the world, commanding the duel spirit known as the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", said to rival the old Egyptian God Cards. There were even rumors that he was developing technology to cross dimensions and time, hoping to reach the Underworld to duel the long-sleeping Nameless Pharaoh.
He was not only the richest man in the world, but also a figure standing at the peak of both technology and the extraordinary. After Yugi Muto sealed his cards, he became the publicly acknowledged number one duelist. More importantly, he recognized nothing except card skill.
Because of that, when Seto Kaiba said there were no back doors and only strength mattered, it truly meant only strength. No matter how powerful or influential someone was, they had to take the exam properly. There was no room for hidden deals at all.
He also valued strength and elite education. This could be seen clearly in GX, where Duel Academy had a strict hierarchy and a clear contempt for low-performing students. Many Dueling Dojo offered subsidies for students applying to Duel Academy, since successful candidates would become valuable alumni and good publicity for the Duel Dojo.
Kageru Takeuchi's Duel Dojo also had such a subsidy, but the slots were limited each year. Considering that Yugen had beaten everyone in the hall, including his master, within three days, he clearly met the qualifications.
If the application was approved, the student would receive tuition support, and Duel Dojo would also provide deck funding. The hall master would personally give one-on-one guidance to help with buying new cards and optimizing the deck. In Yugen's case, the guidance could obviously be skipped, since money alone would be enough.
"Wait a second."
Just as the hall master agreed, he suddenly thought of something. "What is your duelist rating again?"
"One star."
The hall master fell silent. Even though he had seen it with his own eyes, he still could not understand how a one-star student had improved to this level so suddenly.
Still, after personally experiencing Yugen's current strength, he felt the chances of success were quite high. "But one star does not meet the registration requirement." "I know," Yugen nodded. "That is why I plan to go to the arena tomorrow and raise it as fast as possible."
"There is only one month left before the entrance exam," the hall master said after thinking. "The time is a bit tight. If you could place in a public tournament, it would be much easier."
Placing in a public tournament allowed a direct jump to a higher star rating, instead of slowly grinding matches in a regular arena. It also added a tournament record, which was helpful for a future duelist career.
"How about this," the hall master said, looking at Koji Sato. "If I remember correctly, Koji is preparing for this year's Moonlight Cup. The registration window should be closed, but I know someone on the organizer side, so adding one more person to the preliminaries should not be a problem. The registration fee will be covered by Duel Dojo. What do you think?"
This year, only Koji had reached three stars in the entire Duel Dojo. He had planned to apply to Duel Academy and wanted tournament experience before the exam. If he could place, that would be even better.
"Thank you, Hall Master," Yugen said.
Standing nearby, Koji Sato could not help but inhale sharply. He was entering too? If he ended up matched against him again in the tournament, just imagining that scene made his body feel uncomfortable.
Then he thought about it again. There would be many participants, so the chances were not that high. Or perhaps, at the tournament, he would get to see more confused duelists being crushed by his junior just like he had been.
The thought made the corners of his mouth rise despite himself. His smile slowly became strange. After all, dueling did bring happiness, it just depended on who was experiencing it.
Early morning light entered the room, replacing the darkness of night. The air felt fresh, and the room was bright and quiet. Everything looked calm and clear.
At 6:20 a.m., Yugen lazily woke up from his bed. Sunlight came through the thin curtains and fell across the sheets and blankets.
He had gone to sleep late and did not rest well, dreaming a lot. He vaguely remembered seeing two figures in black and white, telling him his life was over and it was time to go. Then they suddenly pulled out Duel Disks and decks, saying he could extend his life if he won a duel.
"Why would I have a dream like that?" Yugen rubbed his temples. It seemed he was already starting to think in this world's logic, where nothing could not be solved by a duel.