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.
After five minutes, he shook off the sleepiness, got out of bed, and quickly finished dressing and washing up. He then began a new day of study and practice.
You could never underestimate a disciplined card player. With one month left before the Duel Academy entrance exam, it was time to start preparing.
At first, he thought the duel exam would be simple. He assumed it was just learning and applying K-language, things like targeting rules, chain resolution order, and timing. None of those appeared at all.
There were no advanced real-card rules unique to Yu-Gi-Oh!. The concept questions were basic, such as explaining normal spell cards, equip spell cards, and field spell cards. It felt like questions straight out of a GX classroom.
Then came memorization of card effects. This part turned out to be unexpectedly difficult, because Yugen could not possibly remember the categories and effects of many ancient cards that had not been used for decades. On top of that, this world also had many anime and manga cards that never existed as real cards.
He quickly noticed other differences from the real-card environment he remembered. Many cards that only became real decades later already existed here. Thinking about it, this was not strange at all.
Even Judai's key Neo-Spacian card, "Miracle Contact," had appeared in animation long before becoming real, leaving players waiting for years. Naturally, this world contained many cards that never existed back then.
Looking through the entire question bank, Yugen felt most of it lacked substance. The core awareness and techniques of real card skill were barely mentioned at all.
This reminded him of an explanation he had once seen online. In many films and animations, reality was treated as a higher dimension, while in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, cards were the foundation of creation. Duels represented the most basic laws of the world, not just a game.
For people in that world, exploring duel rules was like conducting cutting-edge research. In reality, learning to play cards was not that hard, but in the animated world, understanding these rules required great talent and effort.
Yugen bought textbooks like "Foundations of Duel Theory" and "Duel Academy Past Exam Question Bank." He spent most of the day doing practice questions and also took time to learn about card creation.
Across the history of Yu-Gi-Oh! animation, stories focused on duelists, while card design was rarely explained. It was only known that Maximillion Pegasus, called the father of Duel Monsters, discovered ancient Duel Monsters stone tablets in Egypt and turned them into cards, creating the modern system.
Later, card production was mainly handled by Maximillion Pegasus's Industrial Illusions, though it was not a complete monopoly. Kaiba Corporation also printed many cards that circulated on the market.
Later still, duelists like Yugi Muto and Judai appeared, each with the talent to create cards on the spot based on the situation. Some went so far as to print themselves and their opponents directly into the card art, without hiding it at all.
Clearly, such private card creation was also recognized by the system and duel rules, and was not considered illegal. In a world where dueling itself was extraordinary, this was simply another expression of power.
So-called lucky draws and card creation were just part of dueling. If you did not like it, you did not have to play.