64 64. Run! Zombie Girl! Run!
September, 1st.
It's been 3 days since the manga shop started being renovated. Currently, Ryūhei and the others are occupying a new building that was supposed to be purchased to serve as a game company.
Ryūhei has yet to release the latest volumes of his three manga despite having Nibi and Eni backing him up. It's not without reason that Ryūhei still hasn't released them. Besides the unfinished volume, he himself is busy sorting out the cards that need to be released for the Yu★Gi★Oh TCG.
He planned to print cards that were simple to play first and ruled out Extra Deck cards like Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, and Link. In other words, he would only print Normal Monsters, Effect Monsters, Token, Fusion, Ritual, Spell, and Trap cards. This also includes cards that can only be Special Summoned which of course have nothing to do with Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, and Link.
He didn't forget the field. The field is the area where Players, usually called Duelists, place their cards. The field is divided into two halves, one for each player, with each half having 5 Main Monster Zones, 5 Spell & Trap Zones, a Field Zone, a Deck Zone, an Extra Deck Zone, and a Graveyard.
The field is the combination of each duelist's Monster Zones, Spell & Trap Zones, Extra Deck Zones, Field Zones, Deck Zones, and Graveyards. Thus, the field is shared and each duelist controls only one side of it.
As for the Zones; the top left Zone is the Field Zone, the top right Zone is the Graveyard, the top 5 Zones in the middle are the Monster Zones, the bottom left Zone is the Extra Deck Zone, the bottom right Zone is the Deck Zone, the bottom 5 Zones in the middle are the Spell & Trap Zones.
As for the format and rules of the match, every player must have exactly 40 cards in their Main Deck excluding Extra Deck cards and 8000 Life Points for each. Throughout the course of a Duel, each duelist's turn consists of six phases. These six phases continually cycle, alternating between duelists until the Duel ends. Strictly speaking, one must declare when they are entering or leaving a phase, and a phase can only be left if both duelists agree.
A turn is broken down into the following phases and steps:
Draw Phase
Standby Phase
Main Phase 1
Battle Phase
Main Phase 2
End Phase
Ryūhei wrote down all of the basic gameplay FAQs, especially designed to be for duelists with little to no prior knowledge of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. To be honest, he didn't expect that just making one game would be such a hassle. However, the reward kinda motivated him to complete the task by selling the cards.
Ryūhei took a short break by exiting his shop. However, he noticed a girl reading the recruitment poster he drew a while back.
The girl is quite tall with a height of around 160 cm. She has a sharp gaze and fierce appearance, amber eyes, dark skin, and shoulder-length dark brown hair with dark red streaks and some orange undersides, making her look like some sort of heinous villain in the eyes of some people. She wears a black-brown tank top fastened by knots and white shorts, with a red and white vest with flared red, black, and white sleeves. And more importantly, she looks like a musician as she carries a sort of Chinese musical instrument similar to a ruan with a rhombus-like body.
Even though the girl's appearance looked sinister, Ryūhei didn't feel that way because he had seen many people with vicious hearts.
"Are you perhaps interested in it? I need a person who can play the instruments on the list." He said.
"Ah… You want to participate in this festival?"
"What else do you think? If you want to—" Just as he wanted to offer to join his group to perform at the festival, someone, or rather Hu Tao interrupted him.
"Qiqi, stop! Let me bury you properly!"
Apparently, Hu Tao chased a little girl wearing a Chinese vampire costume with a talisman hanging in front of her head.
Hu Tao chased after her regardless of the passers-by looking at them strangely.
And not long after, she caught the little girl.
"Tehehe, caught you."
"No! Leave Qiqi be!"
The little girl called Qiqi struggled to get away from her. However, it was futile since Hu Tao was stronger.
"What the fuck is she doing?" Ryūhei rubbed his temple while approaching them. His hands reached forward and grabbed her twin-tails.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch, that hurts." Hu Tao whimpered. Her head was also pulled back with force so she released Qiqi. Then, she saw Ryūhei's face.
"Geh…"
"What's with "geh"? Isn't it natural for you to see me here since you were near my shop?" Ryūhei released her, causing her to fall to the ground. Then he said, "In the first place, you, why did you chase a little girl while screaming to bury her? You went too far, you know."
Hu Tao rubbed her head before answering. "What do you know? Take a good look at her! She's a zombie! A zombie! You know! As a person who guides spirits to the afterlife, it's my duty to send Qiqi to the afterlife!" Hu Tao yelled at him while pointing in Qiqi's direction. However, the moment she turned to Qiqi, her figure already disappeared.
"Eh…"
"She's there already." Ryūhei pointed at the Feiyun Slope with his thumb while letting out a chuckle. On the other hand, his mind thought about Qiqi. He thought that the little girl was too strange with the energy in her body, and it turned out that she was a zombie.
It turned out that things like bringing the dead back to life existed in this world. If he could learn the technique, he might be able to get an army of zombies working his game company tirelessly.
"Ah, she got away!" Hu Tao exclaimed.
Hu Tao got up as she prepared to chase her once again. However, Ryūhei immediately grabbed her.
"Stop it! Don't you think that her will to live is too strong? If she wanted to live that badly, why don't you leave her be?"
He wrapped his arm around her waist, preventing her from chasing Qiqi. She tried to break free, causing her to slip from Ryūhei's wrap. However, she suddenly stopped. He could see her ears reddened as well. When he saw where his arm wrapped around her, he immediately withdrew his hand while laughing.
"Hahaha, my bad. I didn't feel any oddity in my arm at all. So…"
Hu Tao covered her breast with her arms while looking at him with her reddened and angry face.
"Ah, if you have a problem with 'that', you can consult me. I might have a way to develop it."
After Ryūhei said that, she immediately ran away while gritting her teeth.
"That bastard! How could he say that like nothing? This is so infuriating." She said inwardly.
Looking at her disappearing figure, his gaze turned to his hand as he motioned it like squeezing something. "I thought they were flat like a board, it turns out there is a little springiness."
It was actually an accident. After all, he didn't use his power at all and only used his physical strength only. If Hu Tao didn't try to break free, there wouldn't be such an awkward moment like that.
"Forget it!"
He walked back to where the musician girl was. However, the girl took a guard as she covered her breasts.
"Hey, that was an accident. I just saved a little girl from being buried by her. You're a native of this nation, right? Then, you should know how eccentric she is. By the way, do you want to join us to perform at the festival?"
Ryūhei tried to change the subject. And mentioning music to her, the girl actually asked back.
"What kind of music do you like?"
"Hmmm. You could say I don't have a preference because I've tried playing a lot of genres of music. Right, what's your name? My name is Niwa Ryūhei."
"I'm Xinyan. If you've tried playing many genres of music, does that mean you play rock too?"
"Well, something like that. If you ask that, it means you like rock music, right? If you can play one of these instruments, how about we bring rock music to the festival?" Ryūhei pointed at the poster. And in that instant, Xinyan's eyes sparked in excitement.
"Let me in!" She declared.
