Chapter 12: Advancement

“Brother Manzeme... did he lose?”

In the audience, Disciple A and Disciple B wore expressions of disbelief. As fellow students in the Duel Academy’s intermediate division, they were well aware of Brother Manzeme’s strength. Without exaggeration, even among the elite gathering in the intermediate division, Manzeme was undoubtedly the top-ranked peer.

And yet, this very Manzeme had casually lost to a newcomer competing for the first time?

Was this newcomer some kind of monster?

The red-haired girl nearby was equally astonished, glancing over at the two. “It looks like your big brother lost.”

The two disciples exchanged glances, hesitated briefly, then responded.

“Oh, we mistook him just now. At first glance, he looks a bit like our brother, but on closer look, it’s not him,” said Disciple A.

“Yeah, yeah, they really do look alike, haha...” Disciple B added.

The red-haired girl feigned wide eyes. “So, could their names be the same too?”

“Y-yes...” they stammered, forcing a smile.

“What a coincidence,” they muttered through gritted teeth.

“...”

The upset result shocked the audience, but none more so than Manzeme himself, the participant. Losing was one thing, but he was plagued by a strange feeling—it was as if his opponent hadn’t even tried.

Throughout the duel, the opponent exhibited an effortless mastery, as if standing opposite him was just a casual pastime, not a serious contest. Not once had the opponent summoned even an advanced monster!

Manzeme had given his all, pushing the limits and exerting full pressure. Yet the opponent seemed to counter everything with ease, as if his strongest attacks were absorbed by soft cotton.

Throughout the match, Manzeme felt the tension building, the atmosphere thick with anticipation, only to find no outlet for release—frustrating beyond words.

In short, it was a baffling, infuriating experience unlike any he had ever faced.

---

“Wait.”

As the opponent packed away his duel disk and turned to leave, Manzeme couldn’t help but call out.

You Xuan paused, turning back.

“Who... exactly are you?” Manzeme asked through clenched teeth, unwilling to accept defeat.

You Xuan met his gaze and smiled faintly.

“Just a passerby, a one-star duelist.”

With that, he turned and walked away, leaving Manzeme feeling as if his heart had been stabbed anew, blood about to burst from his chest.

One star?

What kind of absurd ranking system was this, calling that one star?

Regardless, Manzeme had been stopped at the quarterfinals and would no doubt be scolded by his older brothers upon returning. Losing to Ryuzaki might have been excusable, but being beaten by such an unknown rookie, and in such a bewildering fashion...

It felt like an unimaginable stroke of bad luck, as if eight generations of misfortune had converged on him.

One thing was certain: Manzeme vowed never, ever to face that sly fellow again in his life.

...

...

You Xuan reviewed his matches over the past few days. Through practical dueling against local players, he had learned valuable lessons.

Although he hadn’t yet encountered any formidable opponents, the competition revealed a flaw in his previous approach.

He realized he could not simply transplant the real-card meta from his own era directly into the animated duel environment.

While hand disruption decks once dominated the competitive scene and remained powerful here, relying on that tactic alone might suffice against average duelists but would falter against the masters of the animated realm.

For one, the animation featured card-drawing engines nonexistent in real life—cards that could filter and draw five or six at a time.

Moreover, skilled duelists in the animation often turned matches around with a single card even when their hands and fields were empty. This was not mere superstition but a recognized principle. As the original series states, “For true duelists, everything is inevitable—even the card draw can be created.”

---

In the animation, for example, Yusei Fudo in his late GX arc always wore colored contact lenses during serious matches—not for looks, but because activating his “Overlord Power” form granted him extraordinary drawing ability, placing him among the high-tier prodigies in the animated universe.

In that form, even if he randomly drew forty cards from a ragtag deck, he might still crush an ordinary duelist wielding a top-tier deck.

“I wish I could get some kind of divine draw skill...” You Xuan sighed.

At first glance, it seemed that crossing into the Yu-Gi-Oh! world meant anyone who knew how to play cards could soar. But without some transcendent foundation, surviving in an environment teeming with such prodigies was no simple matter.

As is well known, the easiest way to reach an extraordinary rank in Yu-Gi-Oh! wasn’t through training but by acquiring a spiritual entity to possess you. Yet, as far as he knew, most of these spirits in the original series were already claimed by others. Where was he supposed to find one?

For now, he pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on studying the environment and optimizing his deck tactically.

You Xuan was still experimenting, his deck not yet finalized.

His next opponent was Makoto Kajimoto, a level five duelist. His background listed several public tournament achievements and identified him as a true disciple of the Psychokinesis Duel Dojo.

Psychokinesis style. You Xuan pondered carefully.

If memory served, the GX anime briefly featured this style in its later episodes. It was a rival to the Electron Flow Dojo inherited by Ryo Marufuji. Near the end, a psychokinesis master even challenged the dojo, wielding the android Soga.

He spent half a day before the match reviewing Kajimoto’s recent public duels. Kajimoto’s deck seemed centered around the “Mechanical King,” the ace monster series of one of the five major villains who defected from Kaiba Corporation in the DM anime.

According to the psychokinesis duelist who challenged Marufuji, their ace monster should have been the android Soga, which was absent from Kajimoto’s deck.

But that made sense. The Electronic End Dragon was the ace of the Electron style, but the dojo only had one copy, passed down to the sole legitimate inheritor as proof of the style’s identity.

Kajimoto was merely a psychokinesis apprentice and clearly had no right to inherit the style’s ace.

Having studied his opponent’s tactics, You Xuan had already adjusted his deck for the upcoming match.

After a final deck check confirming everything was in order, he stood, inserted his deck into his duel disk, secured his gear, and strode through the dim corridor to the arena.

The announcer had finished the warm-up and introductions. You Xuan ascended the steps onto the stage and saw his opponent already waiting on the opposite side.

Their eyes met, sparks igniting invisibly in the air.

You Xuan took his position, activating his duel disk.

He felt confident—this match should pose no problem.