Chapter 24: Shadow Duel

You Xuan, on his way to find a meal, took a moment to reflect on his actions and couldn't help but feel that his approach might be slightly flawed.

In other schools of thought—take the Electronic Style from the anime, for example—progress relies on diligent practice. Practitioners train day and night, working as hard as if they were cultivating martial arts just to master the art of drawing cards. Only through such sincerity can they eventually move the Electronic End Dragon and earn a spirit's recognition.

Yet, at this very moment, Silent Magician was probably wondering how she ended up with a master whose thought process was so uniquely peculiar. The way he summoned spirits was essentially by pestering her until she surrendered.

However, from another perspective, if you look at the results, you have to admit: he did manage to summon her, didn't he? It seemed he would need to reconsider the proper way to cultivate bonds in the future.

As You Xuan walked along, lost in thought, he suddenly sensed something amiss.

The alley at night was quietly tucked away behind the bustling city lights. It was a shortcut to the commercial district, no more than six or seven hundred meters long, with the street behind it lined with snacks and late-night eateries. The air was damp, carrying a faint, unidentified odor. The stone path beneath his feet looked uneven under the dim light, and a cold breeze rustled the leaves of an old tree at the entrance of the alley.

After walking only a few steps, the dim light revealed a wall ahead.

A dead end.

You Xuan frowned. That shouldn't be right; according to his predecessor's memories, this path was definitely a throughway. Could it be that his memory inheritance was glitchy, and he had taken a wrong turn?

Feeling puzzled, he turned around to head back the way he came. But after reaching the other end, he discovered something even more wrong.

Under the faint light, another wall appeared. Even though he had turned around, it looked identical to the one before. A closer inspection revealed that the environment on both sides looked remarkably familiar.

Could this be the legendary "ghost wall"?

Fear naturally began to set in, and for a moment, every shadow he saw looked as if it were hiding a vengeful spirit or a grotesque demon looking to claim his life.

However, You Xuan quickly did his best to calm down.

If he were in any other plane, this supernatural situation might be a matter of life and death. But this wasn't just anywhere—this was Yu-Gi-Oh.

Since he had arrived in this world, regardless of whether it was some celestial demon or a supernatural entity, if they wanted to claim his life, surely they couldn't bypass a duel, right?

You Xuan stood his ground, scanning his surroundings with heightened vigilance, when he suddenly heard a heavy roar in the darkness that seemed to come from the abyss. Then, a dark light pierced the shadows, and a formless ripple swept toward him like a sharp blade.

He was caught by surprise. Alarm bells rang in his heart, and he instinctively took a half-step back, raising his Duel Disk to protect himself. A flash of white light erupted from the device as a translucent, ice-crystal-like magic circle unfolded, firmly absorbing the invisible impact. The formless shockwave rippled outward, carving cracks into the ground and walls.

A transparent phantom appeared by his side; Silent Magician stood with robes as white as snow, her cold-glinting staff spinning in her hands.

You Xuan let out a long breath. He was once again convinced that having a spirit here was an absolute necessity for daily life and travel; he wouldn't dare go out without at least two or three spirits in his deck.

"A spirit wielder, after all?"

A rough voice echoed from the darkness as a figure in a black robe slowly stepped out from the misty environment.

"And a high-level spellcaster spirit at that... Heh, I've really hit the jackpot today."

You Xuan narrowed his eyes. He couldn't see the person's face clearly, only the faint green glow in the eyes beneath the hood.

"A Shadow Duelist?" he asked tentatively.

But he was fairly certain this was a character he hadn't seen in the original work. After all, there were countless Shadow Duelists in the Yu-Gi-Oh world; the ones in the anime were merely the tip of the iceberg.

"Heh, you've got some knowledge, kid."

The robed man sneered and unfolded his Duel Disk. Its design was one You Xuan hadn't seen before—a black model where five square zones rotated and clicked into place to form the Monster Zone.

"Since you know the rules, that makes things easy. That's right, I am a Shadow Duelist, and..."

He slowly pulled back his hood, revealing a weathered face with dull green flashes in his eyes. An aura of dominance seemed to spread along with his invisible presence.

"I am Genichiro Onizuka."

You Xuan racked his brain, but he truly couldn't recall ever hearing that name. He had no choice but to ask, "Sorry, should I know you?"

Genichiro Onizuka: "..."

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward.

"Ahem." Genichiro frowned. "The Genichiro who reached the Top 64 in the Third Duel City Tournament in New Domino City, known in the underworld as the 'Dinosaur Overlord'—no memory of that?"

Duel City Tournament... Sorry, the anime only showed the first one, and You Xuan hadn't watched the subsequent ones. Besides, when it came to dinosaurs, shouldn't the first person to come to mind be Rex Raptor, who had just been beaten down?

"By the time I rose to power, that legendary duelist Rex Raptor had already retired and vanished without a trace. Some ignorant people always said that if Raptor were still around, I would surely be no match for him... Heh, utterly ridiculous."

Genichiro gave a cold, sinister laugh.

"I have obtained the power of darkness, a power strong enough to defeat any duelist. I heard that Raptor was planning a comeback, and I immediately realized this was the opportunity I had been waiting for."

Genichiro shouted loudly.

"I am the true Dragon Tamer! And as a relic of the past generation, he is destined only to be swallowed by the darkness and destroyed!"

You Xuan: "..."

If that's the case, why don't you go find Rex Raptor instead of stopping me?

"Well, good luck with that, buddy," You Xuan said. "I have things to do, so I'll be on my way..."

"It's useless. You cannot leave this domain. Only one of us will walk out of here alive."

Genichiro said coldly.

"I saw it. You defeated him on the field, that Rex Raptor. And you did it with absolute dominance; he didn't even manage to touch your LP from start to finish. That was when I changed my mind. You are more worth defeating than Rex Raptor, and more worth sacrificing to the darkness. If I can swallow you into my darkness, I will surely advance further on the path of a Shadow Duelist!"

You Xuan: "..."

"Enough talk."

Genichiro had already readied his Duel Disk.

"Once a Shadow Duel has begun, it cannot be easily stopped. We settle our score and decide who lives and who dies! Come, wager your soul as a duelist!"

In truth, based on his knowledge of the original work, You Xuan knew that Shadow Duels weren't strictly impossible to stop. If someone with a much stronger dark power than the person who initiated the duel intervened, they could force a stop or even alter the rules and wagers. The Pharaoh’s Millennium Puzzle, for instance, could achieve this. Or, in special circumstances—like halfway through a Turbo Duel—one could simply pull a screw out of their D-Wheel; if the bike crashed, the duel ended, too...

But as things stood, it seemed there was no escaping this match. You Xuan took a deep breath and unfolded his Duel Disk.

"Duel!" x2