N-A-A Page 337
Page 337
Seeing that his opponent's field was empty, Yuki knew his chance had come. "My turn, draw a card!"
The card he drew was—[Super Saiyan God Descent]!
"Activate the Spell Card [Super Saiyan God Descent]!" Yuuki used it immediately. "Special Summon 1 [Super Saiyan God] Synchronous Monster from the Graveyard! Revive! [Super Saiyan God Son Goku]!"
The Red-Clad Warriors of the Third Division Ling'er (Part Two) (Part Four): The Warriors Return! (ATK3500)
"Direct attack! Super Saiyan God Son Goku!"
Sun Wukong unleashed a powerful energy wave, blasting it directly at [MetalFang]!
【MetalFang】LP: 3600→3600-3500=100
Health has dropped to its lowest point again!
"Set one card face down, end turn." Yuki ended his turn. On the field was a Super Saiyan God with 3500 ATK, and in the back row was a face-down card (【Sense Sense】 had already been used earlier).
【MetalFang】Looking at his remaining 100 life points and hand, and then at the Super Saiyan God on Yuji's field, his face turned ashen. He knew that he had no chance of turning the tide.
“I… surrender.” He managed to say those words with difficulty.
The duel is over! Yuuki wins!
A notification appeared stating "[Points +300]", and at the same time, 300 points from [MetalFang] were transferred to the Youji account.
A burst of enthusiastic discussion erupted around them. This duel, full of twists and turns, had all the onlookers thoroughly entertained.
"That's incredible! That [S-Cell]!" "It actually beat [MetalFang]'s dinosaur!" "That Saiyan deck's resilience is terrifying!" "The resource utilization and combo connections are dazzling!"
Yuji let out a long sigh, savoring the joy of victory and the solid feeling of points being earned. He put away his duel disk, glanced at the ashen-faced [MetalFang], said nothing, and turned to squeeze out of the crowd.
This adventure propelled his score to new heights, propelling him into the top 9500. He was now a significant step closer to qualifying for the Darkmoon Tournament. More importantly, he gained invaluable practical experience, particularly in making accurate judgments and managing resources under immense pressure.
He left the bustling underground market and returned to the night air above ground. A gust of cold wind cleared his head, which had been feverish from the fierce duel.
The road ahead is long, but he is moving in the right direction. The Saiyan's power is becoming stronger and more controllable through repeated battles.
Next goal: top 8000! He absolutely must participate in the Darkmoon Tournament!
He also had a vague feeling that as his ranking improved, the probability of encountering truly formidable opponents would increase. Kaito, or other monsters like the Joker, might be waiting for him not far ahead.
This evolutionary journey is becoming increasingly anticipated.
Chapter 417 Custom Cards
The hustle and bustle of the underground market was left behind, and the cool night air filled his lungs, slightly cooling Yuki's blood, which had been boiling from the intense duel. He gripped the Duel Disk in his pocket, his fingertips able to feel the hard edge of the newly acquired [Dragon Breaker] card, and the sense of security brought by the considerable points in his account. But he didn't linger in the joy of victory for long. Hawkeye's warning, [Craftman's] reminder, and [MetalFang's] final, unwilling, and gloomy gaze were like tiny ice spikes, reminding him that this world was not just about hot-blooded battles.
Back in his cramped room, he logged back into the underground alliance platform. His points had increased, his ranking had soared, and he was now around 9100th. He was only a little over a thousand points away from the 8000th-rank threshold of the Darkmoon Tournament—seemingly within reach, yet seemingly an insurmountable chasm. The higher he climbed, the more difficult each ranking became, as the strength of his opponents increased exponentially.
He opened the Darkmoon Tournament page and carefully read the detailed rules. Besides the ranking requirements, registration also required paying a substantial amount of points as an "entry ticket," which would be lost entirely if eliminated early in the tournament. High risk, high reward. The champion's rewards included the mysterious banned card exchange voucher, a massive amount of points, and… the opportunity to create a "custom card."
"Custom cards?" Yuji's heart skipped a beat. What did this mean? Did the Alliance possess the ability to create new cards? Could they bring his envisioned [Ultra Instinct] or [Super Saiyan God Destruction Mode] to life? This possibility made his mouth dry, but at the same time, he felt a chill. The power and resources wielded by this underground alliance were far more terrifying than he had imagined.
He closed the page, took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm down. Thinking about those things now was too far off; his immediate priority was to earn enough points and improve his ranking.
For the next few days, Yuki's life became a monotonous routine of school, home, and the underground league. He frantically engaged in ranked duels. His record was mixed, with wins and losses, and his points slowly climbed amidst fluctuations.
He once lost to an extremely unorthodox "Demon Rescue" deck. His opponent's first-move "Rock Relic: Arbore" completely blocked his Special Summon, leaving him with a powerful Saiyan deck but unable to activate it, ultimately leading to his agonizing defeat. He also narrowly defeated a skilled player using "Dragon Link," whose aggressive play resulted in a terrifying board presence with "Loader Barrel Savage Dragon" and "Guardian Dragon: Elpis." However, he managed to disrupt the crucial moments with "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring" and "Infinite Impermanence," and then used "Super Saiyan 2: Son Gohan" to breach the defenses. He has become increasingly familiar with strategies for dealing with various mainstream decks, and his sideeck deck has been carefully adjusted, incorporating "DD Raven" and "Cosmic Cyclone" to counter specific decks. His "Dragon Breaker" deck also proved invaluable against a "Cosmic" deck.
His codename, [S-Cell], began to attract attention in a small circle. Discussion threads about him and his peculiar "Saiyan" deck occasionally appeared on forums. Most people were curious and wait-and-see, while some mocked him as a "nostalgia-driven entertainment player." However, those who had played against him, especially those who had witnessed his comeback, remained silent or left comments such as "extremely resilient" and "not to be underestimated."
That night, he was matched with an opponent ranked around 8500, codenamed [WhiteLily]. The opponent was using the extremely rare and ancient [Lyrical Robin] deck.
The duel begins. WhiteLily's movements are elegant and precise, and Lyrical Nightingale dances lightly across the field, constantly accumulating Xyz Material.
"I activate the effect of [Gathering Nightingale], remove 1 Xyz Material, and Special Summon 1 [Lyrical Bird] monster from my Deck." "I activate the effect of [Lyrical Bird/Singing Starling], return 1 monster on the field to my Extra Deck, and Special Summon it from my Graveyard..." "I then overlay my Level 1 [Starling] and Level 1 [Singing Bird]! Xyz Summon! A second [Gathering Nightingale]!"
With fluid and skillful maneuvers, WhiteLily quickly filled the field with three Nightingales whose attack power kept rising. And because of the effect of the Continuous Spell Lyric Robin's Nest, they would not become the target of the opponent's effects, nor would they be destroyed by the opponent's effects!
"The battle has begun." WhiteLily's voice, processed through a voice changer, sounded calm and ethereal. "Three Gathering Nightingales, attack directly!"
The three nightingales transformed into three streaks of light, instantly piercing through Yuji's empty field!
游纪LP：4000→4000-2000-2000-2000=0
A complete defeat! They didn't even have a chance to fight back!
Yuki was stunned, staring at the word "LOSE" on the screen and the deducted points, momentarily speechless. It was too fast, too smooth; the opponent's combo was like a precise machine, each link seamlessly connected, leaving no chance to interrupt.
He took a deep breath, not immediately starting the next match, but instead pulled up the replay of the previous game, replaying it repeatedly to carefully study the workings of [Lyrical Bird]. He discovered that while this deck had a long development chain, it was extremely reliant on its initial development point, and was also very vulnerable to…
“I see…” A flash of understanding crossed Yuki’s eyes. He immediately adjusted his sidedeck, replacing one of the [Primal Life Form Nibiru] cards into his main deck. [Nibiru], commonly known as “Meteor,” is a powerful weapon against decks that rely on large-scale expansions.
A few days later, he was matched with [WhiteLily] again!
"It's you again?" WhiteLily's voice remained calm. "Your deck is interesting, but it seems unable to handle my perfect opening."
"Give it a try," You Ji said in a deep voice.
This time, WhiteLily seems to have a more perfect starting hand, and the board is about to be filled with Nightingales again.
"When I Special Summon five monsters on my field," Yugi calmly declared, "I activate the effect of [Primal Lifeform Nibiru] from my hand! Tribute all monsters on both players' fields, and Special Summon one [Primal Lifeform Token] to my opponent's field!"
"What?!" For the first time, WhiteLily's calm voice faltered!
A massive meteorite phantom descended from the sky, its irresistible force annihilating all the dancing nightingales on the field, while leaving behind a token with a defense of 3000 on [WhiteLily]'s field!
WhiteLily's development was completely interrupted, and her resources were exhausted. Yuki's turn arrived. He successfully developed his strategy, summoning Super Saiyan God Son Goku, easily defeating the incapable token and securing victory.
The thrill of victory didn't last long. Yu Ji understood that this was merely a targeted victory. The underground alliance's environment was complex and ever-changing; he had to constantly learn and adapt.
His ranking finally climbed to around 8200, successfully meeting the entry requirements for the Darkmoon Tournament! Without hesitation, he immediately paid the expensive points to complete the registration.
The moment the system notification popped up that he had successfully registered, Yuji felt a surge of overwhelming excitement. He had done it! He had earned the right to compete against truly strong opponents!
However, almost the very next second after he successfully registered, a special system message popped up, and the sender's code made his pupils shrink abruptly—
【Joker】.
The message was extremely brief, consisting of only one word and one emoji:
"expect.??"
Yuki's heart felt as if it had been gripped by an icy hand. The Joker, the number one ranked, mysterious figure with a despair-inducingly high score, had actually noticed a newcomer like him who had just barely made it in? This was no friendly greeting; it was more like… a mark locking onto its prey.
A chill ran down his spine, but what followed was an uncontrollable excitement and fighting spirit brought about by being noticed by the strongest king!
Saiyans have never been afraid of challenges! The stronger the opponent, the more their potential is unleashed!
Just as he was feeling excited, another private message arrived. It was from [Craftman].
"【Craftman】: Congratulations on your successful registration. But the real test is just beginning. I saw the news about 【Joker】, be careful, he is far more dangerous than you think. Also, please note that the tournament uses a 'Swiss Round' + 'Knockout' format. The BO1 (one-game-decides-all) Swiss Round requires extremely high deck stability and sidedeck counters. Your deck still has obvious weaknesses."
Yuji took a deep breath and replied to the message: "[S-Cell]: Thank you for the reminder. I will do my best to prepare. Do you have any suggestions regarding weaknesses?"
A moment later, 【Craftman】 replied with a long message, providing a detailed analysis of the potential weaknesses of the Saiyan deck: its reliance on Normal Summon, its vulnerability to negating initial moves, its relatively limited Extra Deck solutions, and its weak resistance to certain stickers (Continuous Spells/Trap Cards). The message also included several specific suggestions for sideck adjustments and main deck tweaks, as well as some specific side-swap strategies for potential meta decks in the current meta.
Yuji was overjoyed, studying the cards carefully and throwing himself into the final optimization and adjustments to the deck. He redeemed more sidedeck cards, and 373 even reluctantly used points to exchange for a [Lightning Storm] to deal with heavy backline decks.
There's only one week left until the Darkmoon Tournament begins. Yuuki's points are almost depleted again, and his deck has been adjusted to its maximum potential.
That evening, he was warming up for his final ranked match against a player ranked around 7800 who was using a [Thunder Dragon] deck. The battle was reaching its climax, with his opponent's [Super Thunder Dragon - Thunder Dragon] blocking his Extra Deck, resulting in a stalemate.
Suddenly, a bold, red, platform-wide announcement popped up, interrupting everyone's duel!
"Urgent Announcement: An abnormal data stream has been detected! Security protocol activated! Some duels are forcibly interrupted! All players, please temporarily exit ranked matchmaking mode! Repeat..."
Yu Ji was taken aback; his duel was forcibly interrupted and counted as a draw. The platform instantly erupted in chaos, with the forum flooded with posts asking various questions.
"What's going on?" "Abnormal data stream? Hacker attack?" "Was it [Joker]? What new thing is he testing this time?" "Did the server crash?"
You Ji frowned, a sense of foreboding creeping into his heart. He tried refreshing the page, only to find a strange garbled pop-up window appearing on his personal information interface. It flashed by so quickly that it was almost invisible, but the shape of the garbled text vaguely resembled a... distorted smiley face.
Immediately afterwards, an unsigned and unsourced email appeared in a secret email address linked to his underground alliance platform.
The email subject line contained only one symbol: "??".
The email was blank except for an automatically loading attachment—which appeared to be an encrypted duel recording data packet.
Yuki's finger hovered over the mouse, his heart inexplicably racing.
What is the connection between this strange email, the abnormal interruption just now, the message from [Joker], and the other email?
His Saiyan instincts told him that this was no prank.
An even greater storm seems to have already quietly descended before the Darkmoon Tournament.
He took a deep breath, his eyes sharpened, and slowly moved the mouse, clicking on the encrypted attachment.
The decryption progress bar has started reading slowly...
Unknown challenges have already arrived.