Billy lifted his mask briefly, wiping his mouth as he had to resist the urge to drool as the aroma of delicious food filled the house as I cooked up a storm in the kitchen.
After the duel, Billy and I both returned home and I'd immediately begun to cook while Billy told me all about his day. He'd gone to meet with Miss Fudo- Tabane Fudo- and had helped her with adding parts to her Duel Runner.
Yes, Turbo Duels existed in this world- though they were just like Arc-V Turbo Duels- no Speed Spells present.
After helping Tabane with her Duel Runner, Billy had decided to come home- only to find a lone card that was either missing or abandoned. He'd quickly picked it up and scanned it with his terminal, learning that it was unowned.
Billy, being Billy, had of course exclaimed happily- which was when those guys had found him and attacked him, trying to take the card from Billy for themselves.
The card in question?
Power Bond.
An extremely powerful fusion spell card specifically for Machine-Type Monsters, which did leave me confused as to why Zack wanted it since it seemed he'd built his deck around running Red-Eyes.
But, at the very least, I understood that Power Bond was an expensive card. Even in the System, the card cost 5000 VE.
"Oh man," Billy swallowed. "Bro, that food smells amazing... I really hope Anby and Nicole get back soon; they're so missing out right now!"
"They should be back home soon," I told him, "So long as they didn't get into any trouble along the way..."
As soon as I said that the door opened and both of us looked as both Nicole and Anby walked in together.
"We're hooome-!" Nicole called out before she and Anby both stopped dead, inhaling deeply before they shuddered as the smell of delicious food filled their noses.
"W- What's that scent...?" Anby asked, her eyes sparkling and her stomach growling eagerly.
"Guys, guys, listen!" Billy perked up. "Earlier today, little bro finished his deck!!"
Both girls gasped, looking at me for confirmation before I silently nodded with a smile.
"And!" Billy continued, completely undeterred. "Not only that, but he duelled against this guy who jumped me, and he ended up not only winning a thousand Lumins- but he also got a Red-Eyes Black Dragon!"
"A thousand-!" Nicole exclaimed and ran forwards, making me quickly put down a pan before she hugged me tightly. "Ohhh, that's my little brother!!" She declared proudly, pulling my face into her chest. "Beating down bad guys, finishing your deck! With that, we don't need to worry about living day to day anymore- we're set!"
Anby nodded rapidly, "You finished your Deck and already had a duel... Yu is just too amazing. Never thought when Nicole brought you back ten years ago, you'd be the first one to finish your Deck."
"Even better, Bro used the Junkuriboh I gave him to win," Billy declared happily. "I told you guys- even in duels, I can still protect little bro with no problems!"
Nicole finally let go of me and stepped back. "Then, all this food is-?"
"To celebrate," I told Nicole. "Obviously we won't eat like this every day, but at the very least we'll be eating better food from now on- we can even afford to eat take out once a week from now on. But we are officially out of the red from today onwards. Barely out of the red, but still out of the red."
Hearing the words 'out of the red' were like a magic word for Nicole, who visibly looked as though she were relaxing just hearing those words. "Ahh... We're finally out of the red," she sighed happily. "You've worked hard over these last ten years, Yu. As your older sister, I'm so proud of you!"
"I won't get overconfident or cocky just yet," I said hastily, eyes darkening. "I haven't forgotten that just becoming a Duelist is the starting line. The end goal is the Academy."
Duel Academy.
Funded and created by Seto Kaiba- purely for the purpose of guiding Duelists who might one day be able to give him a good battle. They had gone through numerous changes and evolutions over the years, until there were now five Duel Academies in Eden City- the city I lived in.
Fusion Academy. Ritual Academy. Synchro Academy. Xyz Academy.
And Central Academy.
As the names suggested- each school was focused on a different summoning method. The only conditions for enrolment in one of the other four schools was simple.
First, you needed to have a card of the relevant type in your Deck or Extra Deck. If you went to Ritual, you needed a Ritual Card. If you went to Fusion, you needed Fusion, and so on.
Second, during the entrance exam, you were required to use the summoning method at least once and could not use any other type of summoning method during the exam- and win the duel on top of that.
On paper it sounded easy, but building a 40-card deck was hard enough. To then find a Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, or Xyz monster, and then successfully use them and win in an exam situation wasn't easy. Especially if the card just didn't match up with your deck... You couldn't exactly Xyz for Level 1 if you only had Level 4 monsters, after all.
Besides that, there were no other requirements to enter those four academies. They accepted people of any age from any background- so long as you passed the exam, you could enrol.
The conditions for Central Academy were much more strict, however. You needed to be capable of using three summoning methods and then perform all three during the entrance exam.
However, there was also a rumour that there was a secret condition for attending Central Academy- that you needed to be able to communicate with Duel Spirits.
A lot of information about Central Academy was completely shrouded in mystery, and information about it was scarce... But even still, everyone who had graduated from Central Academy had gone on to become top tier players in the pro leagues. As a result, everyone wanted to attend and graduate from Central.
"Good, keep your eyes on the prize," Nicole ruffled my hair before she made her way back to the table and took a seat, casting her eyes over to Anby and Billy. "Remember though you two- just because Yu has money now doesn't mean you can slack off. This just supplements our income, understand?"
"Of course," Anby nodded. "Yu worked hard, so we all have to work hard too."
Billy gave a thumbs up. "Of course! But this is good, because now with Bro being a Duelist we can finally start saving up money to actually buy cards- meaning our Decks will be completed soon!"
"And I'll be happy to help you finish them," I told them, bringing out the delicious spread of food and setting it on the table for them.
All of them audibly gulped.
"Burgers..." Anby's eyes zeroed in on the homemade burgers I'd prepared, while Billy was eyeing the chicken tenders. Nicole was completely focused on the cooked fish.
I just smiled at them, "Dig in."
They didn't hesitate as they happily began to eat their fill- after all, we hadn't had a meal like this before in our lives.
As we chat and laughed and ate, I directed part of my attention towards the System's screen.
Random Red-Eyes Ticket x 1
Using this ticket will gift the user 1 "Red-Eyes" monster for either the Main or Extra Deck. Standard Duel Spirit rates apply.
Standard Duel Spirit rates... In other words, there was a chance with any card I created that they would develop a Duel Spirit without me needing to spend Void Energy- and the same applied to this ticket.
That was something the system hadn't told me, but it wasn't unusual for a system to have some hidden features it just didn't mention- standard even.
Still, a random Red-Eyes monster? That was a pretty deep pool- Baby Dragon, Black Chick, Retro Dragon, Black Skull Dragon, Archfiend...
Well, there was no harm in using it, and so I directed the system to use it directly.
[You have obtained Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon.]
HOLY SHIT-!
I had to stop dead and make sure to swallow properly so I didn't choke on my food from pure shock.
Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon was, as you might expect, an extremely infamous and powerful card. A once per turn omni-negate that gave a permanent 1000 ATK buff each time it was used. Immunity to effect destruction and targeting. Destroying monsters the opponent controls and inflicting damage equal to their ATK- with capabilities of doing it twice a turn if you summoned it using both Dark Magician and Red-Eyes.
An extremely powerful card...
That I could not use.
Yes, I did indeed have a Red-Eyes Black Dragon... But Dark Magician? That was a Legendary Card for a reason.
Even if this was the future, this was still the Yu-Gi-Oh World. Only four Blue-Eyes White Dragons were ever printed. Kaiba tore up one, which meant there were only three.
While more than four Dark Magicians had been printed, it was a card belonging to the original King of Games in the history books- Yugi Muto. Any copies of Dark Magician still around were almost certainly being kept as collector's items.
However, it wasn't as if I would never be able to use it... King of the Swamp was a viable card, just a bit rare given its age. Plus, I could always create Dark Magician using my System- it was only around 5,000 VE.
I wouldn't be creating the card any time soon though. I needed to save up my points for more powerful cards like Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity... Card Advantage meant you could do more plays, meaning what I really needed was draw power.
On top of that, I also needed Void Energy to start converting Vanguard cards.
Therefore, at least for now, Dragoon would sleep in the Extra Deck. The bright side, however, was that with Dragoon I was eligible to take the exam for Fusion Academy. The only downside was that I was missing Polymerization and a King of the Swamp to make Dragoon usable.
I would try and find them normally before I dipped into my VE reserves- I didn't have much VE to go around just yet. Plus, there was really no rush- I would prefer to start attending school the same time as all my siblings anyway.
Taking another bite of food, I pondered what I would need to do next...
Though, thinking about it, I already knew the answer.
The Яeverse System was a System for building up an army- building forces that were loyal to me. Therefore, the answer as to what I should do was extremely clear...
Reverse.
I wasn't so naive that I thought that I would just be able to attend an academy without some form of backing. Sure, I could apply to and attend the school... But I would almost certainly end up having a rough time- not even mentioning my siblings, especially since we were from the lower districts.
Despite the place I lived being called Eden City, it was certainly no paradise. While the divide between 'commoners' and 'rich' wasn't nearly as extreme as it was in 5Ds, there was still certainly a disparity. The lower number the district you lived in, the worse the conditions were- with District 1 being a Trash Heap where most of the Trash jobs ended up originating from.
My siblings and I lived in District 3- very low on the totem pole, as you could imagine. And there came a social stigma that would follow you based on the District you lived in, and it would certainly follow us to the academies as well.
Even if I didn't build my own force- I still needed to duel in order to obtain Void Energy so that I could create and convert cards. And since winning duels would ultimately end up Reversing people... I might as well just take advantage of it and start building up my forces.
On top of that, I was certain that a Reversed Duelist was also capable of Reversing other Duelists- I just wasn't sure if it was permanent like my own was.
Starting tomorrow, I would start finding people and Dueling them... No matter how many people I had to brainwash in order to achieve my goals, I would do it.
I clenched my fist under the table and took a bite of food, all while Alice's malicious laughter echoed in my ears.