Pack Opening!

"Hey kid, you want some cards?"

Now that might have sounded incredibly shady. Scratch that, a hooded person selling random cards in an alley is the literal definition of shady.

But hey, she needed to start doing her job somewhere. And apparently her dumb brain thought that the best start for her reputation is to sell them cards in a dim back alley.

Smart move Yuuna, you truly are an inspiration to card traders everywhere around the multiverse.

Obviously, the yellow and dark green haired kid, which was really anime like if she was being honest, glanced at her like she was the sketchiest thing that he had ever seen in his life. It seemed like he would just ignore her and just continue walking too. He's like, what? Thirteen? Fifteen at most? He probably had always bought his cards through hard opening packs or maybe even buying some Structure Deck and sticking with it without even making any modifications to it.

No, no, the kid looks like he plays cards games for real. And she says that because of the extravagant hair that the kid has. He even has the whole edgy rival character look down to a T! Long coat, hair that looks like it can rival the main character, an angsty and evil look fit for an E rated rival character.

She wouldn't really be surprised if he was really, this was a world where a card game was the big thing after all.

Which, to be fair, if you were playing uncompetitively then it's certainly acceptable. Playground card games and competitive card games are completely different beasts after all.

He looked like he was about to leave, crap she had to do something to actually lure him so that she can scam- sell some cards! She would never scam a thirteen year old out of their money for some random cards! She would never do such a thing!

As expected the yellow haired boy opted to avoid eye contact with her and walk away, ignoring her existence entirely.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! At least see the wares that I sell first before actually leaving!" she begged as she grabbed the kid by legs, practically begging him to stay and be her very first customer. He tried to keep walking, still attempting to not acknowledge her existence, all while trying to force her off of his leg by dragging her.

She kept begging though, her determination did not waver whatsoever from his attempts. "Please, please, please, please, please, please-" she kept repeating. The boy eventually relented, sighing and relenting himself to her whims. She smiled brightly and performed a fist pump and let out an internal scream of victory.

She then turned to him and put on her merchant smile in order for him to lower his guard, though from his reaction of him lurching back, it might have had the total opposite of the desired effect.

She'll push on though! For the sake of actually selling cards enough for her to actually get dinner! Her stomach was already growling at this point after all!

"Well, I did say that I want you to see my wares first, but if you don't mind me asking, can you tell me what deck you're playing?" she asked, holding her book of cards on her side. The boy looked even more suspicious of her, and she had to wave her hands repeatedly to assuage his suspicion.

"Wait! I swear I'm not planning anything suspicious! I mean, I totally am suspicious, I'm just- I just want to filter my wares to what cards that would suit you alright!" she hastily assured him. "Or if not then I could just give you some generic support cards! You know what, I'll just show you some generic support cards!"

She opened her book and flipped it to open a certain page where she kept all the cards that were generic support. She glanced at the kid, specifically his hair, trying to decipher what kind of cards that the kid would probably want.

"How bout this one!" She showed him a particular card in her collection book. "It's a generic backrow removal that can be used again to remove face up backrow cards on the turn after it was sent to the graveyard!"

The boy took a few seconds to process her explanation, and took the card into his hands, probably trying to see how his own deck would mesh with said card.

Yes! He's interested! She just needs to give him a few more push so that he'll actually buy it!

"The carnival is almost here isn't it?" she said as she got closer to him. "The competition is surely going to be tough, you know. Most of them would be quite skilled wouldn't they~? Then they would most surely be using some strong traps right~? Then isn't it better if you have some spell trap removal to take care of that~?"

She snapped her fingers, just remembering something. "Oh! I know!" she then flipped the pages in her collection book once more, gaining his attention, and making him look away from the card in his hand.

"Recently backrow cards also have graveyard effect right? Maybe that's what you're worried about. So how about this one!" This time she showed another card in her collection. Similar to the last one, it was also a spell card, but this time it is a quick play one.

"This one cost a hefty amount of life points to actually use, but I can guarantee that the payment is quite worth the effect!" she boldly declared. "After all, this card doesn't destroy the set card, but banishes it instead!" his eyes widened a bit from her declaration.

"Banishes?" he asked, and she couldn't help but smile at his show of interest. "Yep! Yep! This quick play spell banishes a spell or trap card from the field! Making it so that it won't be able to activate it's graveyard effect!"

"How much."

"Heh?" she let out a strange noise at his question, then realizing what he meant she smiled brightly. "Oh! The price! Yes, yes, the price! It's umm… crap never thought I'd get this far." she murmured the last part, trying to actually randomly pick a price.

"Uhh, a normal pack with five cards would cost about 150DP, a legend pack costed me about 500DP for five cards, Galaxy Cyclone was a Super Rare so it was quite the hassle to actually get it, though I actually bought it through farming the Machine Reactor structure deck… Ah, but he's asking about Cosmic Cyclone that's a bit harder to actually buy, since the cost for the Cyberse Link Structure Deck was quite costly..." she murmured under her breath all that in the span of a few seconds.

"Alright!" she said loudly. "That'll cost you around 2000DP for a card! Cosmic Cyclone is quite a hard card for even a card trader of MY level after all. So-"

"I was asking about the life point cost." he said looking at me coldly.

"Oh." she said, quite dejectedly. "Uh, well. Cosmic Cyclone has a cost of 1000 life points, which is kind of a lot when I think about it in a 4000 life point format. But! The effect is with it isn't it, so it's fine!" she declared with a smile that was quite strained this time.

The boy crossed his arms, looking unamused, and her smile strained even more. "How much is the other one." he demanded. She was taken aback at first by his tone of voice, but put herself together and managed to answer eventually.

"Oh, uh, Galaxy Cyclone! Right, that would cost you about like, 1800 DP. yep! 1800DP for a card!" she said. Certainly the price was incredibly bloated, heck the Structure Deck that she bought only cost 1000DP. And once she already got her DPs worth of selling Ancient Gears on the Fusion Dimension.

Idiots would pay 10000DP for a copy of Ancient Gear Golem, she got her money's worth and more back there! If only she could bring that DP to this dimension, then she could have been rich! But for some reason her ass of a system had to differentiate which DP came from which dimension and make it only usable there!

She was getting off track again, she needed to sell something for dinner! Her stomach was already growling!

The boy narrows his eyes, probably thinking about the amount of DP that he'll have to spend just for some backrow removal card. He looked like he was about to walk away so she decided to lower the price just a bit. "Just joking! Just joking! Galaxy Cyclone is 1500DP, for a card each of course."

The boy frowned, putting a hand on his chin and seemingly debating whether or not he should buy the card. It didn't take a while before he decided that he would relieve her of the card, three of them even!

Nice! Now she can actually afford dinner! And probably actually rent a room in a cheap hotel somewhere instead of sleeping in a sleeping bag in an alley somewhere!

She couldn't help but grin and giggle as the boy transferred his DP to her duel disk. Seeing the 4500DP appear on her account, she imagined what kind of food that she could actually buy in this dimension. And she has had enough of the infamous 'Fusion Rations' thank you very much.

The only good food in the Fusion Dimension was that eggwich, which was literally an egg sandwich. And she even rarely got that because the dumb accursed academy uses a real life gacha system to decide which food you get! She wasn't even an academy student and she also has to go through that! It's pure idiocy!

She just wanted to get some good food damn it! And she sure as hell is going to get some in Heartland!

And so with that out of the way, and with the boy leaving silently without saying anything else, she maintained that bright smile on her face and waved at his retreating form. "I'll be here every weekend so if you have any card that you want then you can contact me kay~!"

And with that she skipped onto a well known restaurant to finally get some good fucking food.

From the corner of her eye, or rather the hud that was the visual that she has to live with for the rest of her life, she saw that there was a notification of her completing a mission. Wait, she completed a mission? She hadn't even seen what kind of missions that this dimension had to offer for her, so she doesn't even know what kind of mission she just accomplished.

With a wave of her hand, a translucent blue screen appeared before her, listing the mission that she had just completed.

-

Missions

[Prominent Seller (ZEXAL)]

Sell 3 cards to one of the main cast of ZEXAL

Rewards: 1000DP, Reputation (XYZ Dimension) Up, Number 39: Utopia x1

[Galaxy Expansion]

Sell 3 cards to Kaito Tenjo

Rewards: Reputation (Kaito Tenjo) Up, Galaxy Expansion Pack Unlocked, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon x1

-

"Wait, hold up, that kid was Kaito!?" she exclaimed as she turned around to the direction where the yellow haired boy had disappeared to. Of course the boy, or rather teen now that she thinks about it, was nowhere to be seen, much to her frustration.

"Dang..." she scratched her head as she continued her way towards a random restaurant in Heartland. "I thought that he'll be taller."

-

One day, she died.

And soon after that, she realized that the world that she had lived in was small.

Small in the multiversal scale at least, for a person at the age of 28 year old office lady and having the whooping height of 156 cm, the world was a place that was already big for her in the first place.

She really meant that! She couldn't even reach the top shelf of most shelves that she finds for goodness sake!

She of course, came into this realization when the big G accidentally forgot to pick up her soul after she died, and left her soul to accidentally wander around into the endless reaches of the void. There, of course, she saw what she can only call as the cauldron of creation or whatever you want to call it, and the creation of many, many, MANY, multiverses being created and destroyed with her own two eyes.

Wait, did she even have eyes at that point? Wasn't she just a formless soul floating around? Ah whatever, details, details, who cares about them? Not me, that's who.

Well long story short, she had been given the front row seat of watching the construction and destruction of many universes and their inhabitants that happens for how long she doesn't know.

Eventually, big G managed to pick me up and took me to where I was supposed to go, like I was a child lost in the grocery store who was looking for their mom, which I basically was at that point. He explained that he basically took a nap for a yoctosecond, which is unimaginably short, and she managed to accidentally pass through his surveillance net because of that.

Though it felt as if she saw it for way, WAY longer than a yoctosecond.

She had expected to meet a divine being that was lazy, or a god-like being that had made a careless mistake and accidentally killed her like those from the isekai mangas and light novels that she had read, but from the way that the big G told me, being a divine being sounds like torture more than anything.

Not being able to die, not needing to actually sleep and not being able to feel hunger is cool and all, but at the cost of working tirelessly 24/7 micromanaging any and all things that happens in the world and the over seven billion people that inhabit it? Not to mention that there's also plants and animals, then also future stuff to actually prepare and take care of?

That's torture no doubt about it.

So big G personally apologized to her, something that was definitely unneeded for her. There wasn't even a need for big G to apologize to her anyway, he just took the first break in what he explained was a millennia of tirelessly working like a cog of society, compared to her who worked in a black company that at least still gives her time to actually sleep.

But apparently big G apologized for a whole different thing, because apparently since she saw what was basically the beginning and the end, her soul could no longer be inserted to the cycle of reincarnation of her old world.

Which, while some might think to be a bad thing, she saw as a blessing.

The world that she came from was bad! Incredibly bad! She was indeed glad that she at least had a stable income and a good place to sleep in her apartment, the world around her was basically on fire.

At one point one of the continents was indeed on fire, but that was irrelevant.

There was pollution, crime, a plague at one point that was elongated by the numerous number of idiots that basically ran one of the superpower nations, and people generally being idiots in general making life in the place she was in quite harsh.

And she at least had time to do her hobbies though, which was playing card games.

A hobby of hers which she wasn't able to do physically during that one plague outbreak, but online gaming was a thing and she was incredibly thankful for that.

The media of card game that was Yu-Gi-Oh! Was something that she held quite dear, being an avid fan ever since she had been drawn in by that awfully gravity defying hair of Yugi Muto. And she even had fun watching the series itself, what with some of the characters being extremely endearing and all.

And then she actually played the card game and all love that she had from watching the series disappeared into thin air.

Wll, not entirely. A part of her still had fun whenever she played an episode of the series, and she would still feel giddy every time one of the main cast would summon their ace monster or manage to turn around the situation against the big bad.

But that part of her brain lost against the pure logic and fanatic part of her that would always scream 'why would you run that card!' every time she saw a character use a card that has ten better counterparts, or whenever she just saw someone in the series winning with a deck that was basically unplayable in the metagame.

The character would explain that it was the power of friendship, or the heart of the cards, or spirit shenanigans and that 'luck is part of what makes a great duelist'.

Plot armor and bullshit is what that is.

And after the mess that was ZEXAL, she just decided to stop watching the show and only consume the media through the card game instead.

At one point, the big G decided that since she couldn't join the cycle of reincarnation of her old world, she'll get sent to another one and start over there. And he even let her choose which world she was going to be sent to! Something that was certainly more than enough for her!

There was a moment where she wanted to say that she wanted to go to a world where her favourite card game was all the jam, with it basically being the main entertainment of the world and all.

But then she also remembered the crap that such a world would also entail.

Crappy people having basically luck that was enough for them to win the lottery, spirits running around that can literally suck the soul out of your mortal coil, and the end of the world ever looming

So she just made her decision sound vague, a world where she'll live happily doing what she liked and what not.

And also to be taller! She doesn't want to be a midget anymore!

So that was how she ended up in the fusion dimension.

With a card game specific gamer system at that.

-

She never bothered to watch Arc-V, she did know a bit of the story from her friends that actually enjoyed the series, but at most the only thing that she knew about it was that pepe was broken and it deserved to be banned and that pendulum was a mistake.

She barely knew the story, let alone the characters. All that she knew was that there were four worlds representing each summoning mechanic barring rituals because no one thought that they were going to be tier one until Draitrons came out, and that the main character was a kid that won't stop talking about 'egao' or whatever.

But in any case, now that she was in the world where a card game of all things is going to be the source of mass murder, her first priority was to get some good cards and make a good deck that can let her live and survive whatever the hell the plot throws at her.

After growing up from being a baby first of course, you have to go through that after being reincarnated after all.

-

She was an orphan this time.

No curfews, yeet.

That was a lie, the orphanage head and the sister that took care of them still enforced curfews.

But in all seriousness, growing up in an orphanage wasn't half bad. At least not when the world revolved around card games and having the mind of an adult and being able to decimate a child through verbal beatdown. Just like what she just did, banishing the bully that had tried to… well, bully, a kid that couldn't defend himself by using an ability that rivals parsel tongue.

"Guh! We'll remember this Yuuna!" one of the three bullies whose name I still can't remember said before running away with his tail between his legs accompanied by his two lackeys.

She scoffed, knowing that it was basically his catchphrase as he had been saying that since last month and knowing that he was basically all bark and no bite. She patted off the dirt from her dirtied clothes and proceeded to walk towards the girl that was hiding behind the tree that she had chased the bullies off from.

Seeing that she had driven the bullies away, the small girl with violet hair came out from behind the tree with her hands close to her chest and teary amber eyes. She sniffled as she hurriedly approached her to see what was wrong, but before she could say anything regarding their situation the small girl spoke "Uuu-. I'm sorry Yuuna… something like this happened again..."

The girl, Mei, then began to wail, making her panic in trying to calm her down.

In the eight years of her new life, she became a sort of guardian against annoying bullies or assholes in general to most of the children of the orphanage. She did so by her cunning and colorful choice of words, and by also continuously running to the sister and the head of the orphanage to complain and snitch on the bullies.

She even managed to get quite fit! For a eight year old that is. Running away from bullies does that to you. She did get beat up a few times though, something that was unfortunate sadly.

The small violet haired girl that was crying before her, was the main bullying target of the three bullies of the orphanage. Said bullies were kids of their age group, the older kids were too brainwashed by the teachings of the Academia to bother bullying people, unless they have some rare cards that is.

And seeing that no one in the orphanage basically has any of them, or any cards at all for that matter,bullying wasn't that much of a problem really. Disregarding the three idiots that do it regularly that is, thankfully their bullying never escalated to anything too much for her to handle, at most they would shove but never straight up escalate into a fight.

Who knew that a world that focuses on card games would be this civil? Disregarding the dimension invasion and basically mass murder and all.

She did eventually get Mei to calm down, though she still kept sniffling and was constantly stuck at her side not wanting to part away even after she got to sister Claire to inform her of the happenings. Humu, it was somewhat annoying but since Mei clinging to her is cute she deems it as fine.

She eventually did part with her though, much to the smaller girl's chagrin, and she returned to her room. Which was basically all the girl's room, but since sister Claire still wanted to talk a bit with Mei she went to sit on her bed, thinking back on the events that had happened the past eight years.

She sat at the side of her bed, twirling her waist length red hair and letting out a low sigh.

She died, missed the afterlife and saw the beginning and the end, then big G sent her to be reincarnated in a whole other world.

Big G mentioned something about giving her a system, but it's been eight years and she hadn't received anything of the sort. If anything it was more like she was simply reincarnated, just like that.

She didn't know her parents, being an orphan and all, but that didn't really matter to her that much since she was an adult in mind after all. The orphanage head and sister Claire were really nice too, and so were most of the children here.

Other than the fact that most of them were brainwashed by the Academia that is.

And wherever she goes she could see people playing the main source of this world's entertainment too! It was great! Even though their plays basically reminded her of old school Yu-Gi-Oh! More than anything, what with their strategies not being spamming one hundred negate cards and their deck basically being brickfests left and right.

But it was still fun, seeing many types of strategies were fun for her, even if every single one of the duelists she sees only uses fusion. She had fun playing with Mei too, since she was also interested in dueling she took it as her job to teach her some of the logic of dueling that she carried from her world.

Which means that the point of dueling wasn't spitting out a big beat stick, but to not let the other player play the game. She taught her of cards like Lose One Turn and the Solemns series. Mirror Forces evolution like Drowning Mirror and some better cards that you can run than the cards that people play here. Cards like Book of Moon and MST had also been something that she had taught the smaller girl.

If anything, she thinks that Mei had become quite adept at the game even without her actually playing it, not to mention that the smaller girl would always attentively listen to her commenting on whatever duel she saw, something that she had gotten as a habit from not being able to actually duel for eight long years.

Knowing that her dueling logic was way out of the norm, she thinks that she had accidentally raised Mei to become someone whose logic was also out of the norm, and that's not mentioning that she had been the girl who hadn't been brainwashed too much by the Academia.

She did attempt to help others from not falling into the blatant brainwash of the Academia, but who would kids believe anyway? A girl around their age that they see as tomboyish and strange or cool teenagers that can play amazing duels and summon sick monsters.

Ah well, as long as nothing bad happens right? And if anything does happen that'll be a problem for future Yuuna to solve.

Life was indeed good, that was what she thought until she heard someone knocking on the door snapping her from her episode of reflection.

"Yuuna? Are you in there?" asked a voice that she knew quite well. "Ah, yes Claire nee-san. Is something wrong?" she asked in response as she opened the door to greet the blonde sister.

Sister Claire the blonde haired nun,as if it wasn't already evident by her clothing, who was one of the only two adults that run this orphanage, the other one being the orphanage head who is either cooking in the kitchen or in her own room. From what she heard of rumours, sister Claire used to be a duelist from the Academia, a graduate of Osiris Red that had forgone the duelist life to become a nun.

She would always see the kids who wanted to get into the Academia ask her what life as a duelist on the famous Academia was like, and whenever she did she would see that sister Claire's eyes would get slightly glossy before telling them her time at the Academia, albeit it looked like she was telling them reluctantly.

Strangely, she looked quite nervous unlike her usual cheery self as evident by the smile on her face looking strained. "Can you come outside for a bit?" she asked, averting her eyes from her. She frowned, but nodded and followed sister Claire to the courtyard where apparently every other child was also gathered.

She saw Mei and waved at her, receiving a smile from the smaller girl who immediately rushed to her side and clung to her.

She looked around to find where sister Claire was, only to find that she was nowhere to be found in the courtyard. Seeing that, she decided to ask Mei if she had seen where she went. "Mei, did you see where sister Claire went?" the smaller girl shook her head before both of them heard loud cheers from the other children and directed their focus to the source.

What she saw was a gaggle of children surrounding Academia students, they all came from Osiris Red as depicted from their red wardrobe.

She wondered why they were here of all places, so she decided to get closer to the crowd with Mei still clinging to her. One of them managed to calm them all down and explained as to why they were here.

To put it shortly, and cutting off the bit where they were the glorious student of the Academia and you should pledge your life to our evil overlords part, they were her to give them their Academia mandated deck and duel disk as they are aspiring duelist from Academy Island's one and only orphanage.

Life was good, but it did get better when everyone got their Academia mandated deck.

The way they give out the deck was… quite normal if she was being honest. Normal in that a bunch of people in the red Academia uniforms, a sign that they were mere lackeys of Osiris Red, came into the orphanage and just started handing out a bunch of kids a bunch of decks.

She accepted the deck with the grace of an adult in an eight year old's body.

With glee. Extreme glee. Just like the other kids that had received their government mandated deck she was grinning from ear to ear. Then she actually read the cards that she had received for free and frowned.

Which was interesting, in that it runs tons, and by that she meant TONS of uselessly bricky cards. Why would you run Gadjiltron Dragon anyway? But hey, at least they did give us gadgets, those were some good cards at the very least.

The duel disks were also free and also given by the Academia for free, and they do a bunch of stuff too! Doing double duty as a phone and a wallet since DP is stored there as well. And while the screen was small and the controls were all janky, but connection to the internet was great! It can't really play videos or play games, anything other than the main card game of the world anyway.

Oh, did she manage to explain that the world she lived in was governed by what is essentially a tyranny that forcefully enlist children to play card games, scary isn't it? Well, those that have good dueling skills are forced to attend at least, normal people who aren't skillful or aren't interested can still go out of their way and enlist however.

But since she was born in the infamous land of Academy Island, and being an orphan of the local orphanage to boot, she had no other choice but to enlist. Well, not now obviously, she was still an eight year old after all. But if she doesn't do something she'll eventually be drafted.

But back to the deck that they were giving out for free, she doesn't think that she'll play it.

There are several reasons after all, for one since it is basically a super common deck with super common cards so it's strategy is basically super well known. And since everyone plays it, every duel would basically be a mirror match, which means that victory would be decided by the players skill and the luck of the draw.

And from what she had seen from just watching a bunch of the so-called Academia duelists actually duel, most of their turns would end with Hound burn pass or fusing into one of their archetypal fusions, which was the free Double Ancient Gear Hunting Hound and passing.

Which wasn't much compared to the atrocities that she had seen from the degenerates that had played Mystic Mine deck out or Pole Position and most of all Gishki hand loop. She shuddered as she remembered that one, playing old school Yu-Gi-Oh! On the format where three of Evigishki Gustkraken was legal and having to hand trap was hell.

She did ponder a bit on what to do with the deck, only to be snapped out of her pondering as she heard someone shout at her.

"Yuuna! This time I'm definitely going to beat you!" She wondered who it was that had shouted at her, but it was none other than the head of the bully trio, glaring at her with a wide grin with his lackeys behind him. Ah, she forgot what his name was. Was it Ralph? Arufu? She can't quite remember even if she did meet him on a daily basis.

"What is it this time?" she asked after letting out a sigh. She could tell that Mei was already cowering behind her just from the bullies being around them. Oh dear, maybe she should teach the little girl how to be more confident, her secret was not giving a fuck so that might work on her too.

"I'll beat you in a duel!" the black haired boy declared. "I've been watching a bunch of the people at the Academia duel! So I can definitely beat you!" he boasted, receiving confirmation from his lackeys giving him more confidence.

She glanced at the duel disk attached to her left arm, and the deck that was in it. They had the same deck, so it'll be a mirror match. She didn't know a few cards in her deck too, them probably being anime only cards and what not.

She really saw no merit in actually dueling him, other than actually being able to duel that is. If anything she at least wanted to familiarize with her new deck more first before actually dueling.

She had wanted to refuse at first, that was until a certain something popped up in her vision.

-

Urgent Mission!

[Otherworlder's First Duel]

Defeat Haru at a duel

Rewards: 10000DP, Starter Deck Selection, Menu Unlocked, Reputation (Mei) Up, Reputation (Haru) Change to Rival

Failure: Menu Unlocked, Reputation (Mei) Down, Reputation (Haru) Down

-

She was shocked, absolutely shocked she tell you!

After eight years of silence the gamer system that big G had promised to give her finally actually worked! She guessed that the trigger for it to actually start working was to get a deck of her own, and she guessed that an Academia mandated one fits the bill.

"What's wrong? So scared that you'll lose that you can't speak?" taunted the black haired boy.

"Y-Yuuna isn't scared!" The one that replied, much to the shock of everyone, was Mei who spoke on her behalf. "Yuuna is smart! She can definitely beat you at dueling!" the violet haired girl declared.

That only provoked Haru and his goons apparently, as evident by his frown. "What did you say! You-"

"Hey now." she said, trying to defuse this situation after calming herself down. "You want me to duel? Fine then, when are we dueling then?"

The boy grinned as he activated his duel disk, making a holographic sword appear around his duel disk. "Right here! Right now! I'm going to show everyone that I can beat you Yuuna!"

She glanced at the Osiris Red students who were still here, hoping that they could somehow calm the black haired boy down first. But instead what she saw was them nodding to the boy's action. "That kind of attitude is exactly something that the professors at Academia would approve of!" one of them exclaimed.

"Such energy, maybe we have an upcoming great duelist at our hands here."

"Right, right! Though it depends if he has the skill to back it up."

Seeing that she will receive no help, she couldn't help but sigh. She thought that she could postpone the duel to at least familiarize with the deck first, mostly the anime cards that she knows nothing about, but since she's played Ancient Gears many moons ago, she could definitely do it again.

And besides, it is an Urgent Mission, so she probably won't get another one like this.

"Fine then." she said as she fired up her own duel disk. "Let's start."

""DUEL!""

Haru: 4000LP

Yuuna: 4000LP

"I'll go first!" the boy declared, much to her chagrin. They didn't even do rock, paper, scissors to decide! That's not how you're supposed to do this! At least flip a coin or something!

He looked at the cards on his hand and grinned. "What does this do again? Oh, right! I'll summon Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!"

As soon as he slapped the card on the holographic board, a mechanical hound with gears appeared in front of him, baring its fangs at her and growling.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1000

She heard a cry of astonishment from the crowd at the appearance of the mechanical beast, and she herself couldn't help but left her jaw open at seeing the hologram so closely.

This was it, this was a duel. She's seen the monsters appear before from afar, but never this close. She felt a shiver of excitement run through her body, and now she herself couldn't stop grinning.

"When this card is normally summoned I get to deal 600 damage to your Life Point! Go! Hunting Hound!" as he said that, the mechanical hound pounced at her making her flinch and reflexively put her arms up. She felt a bit of shock from her duel disk as her Life Points decreased.

Yuuna: 3400LP

"Hehehe! How's that! Might as well give up right now Yuuna!" the boy said with that grin. Though much to his surprise he saw that she herself was grinning too. She scoffed, "If that's how your play is going to end then I'm not impressed." she said much to his frustration.

"Why you-! I'll put the equip spell Ancient Gear Tank to my Hunting Hound! Increasing its attack by 600!" a giant round mechanical canon then appeared on the machine beast's back, making it roar as its attack point went up.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1600/1000

"I'll set a card face down. With that I'll end my turn." With that said, a facedown card appeared behind the mechanical hound, and the turn passed to her.

"Guess it's my turn then. I'll draw." She drew the top card of her deck and checked her hand and couldn't help but grin. She hadn't seen all the cards in her deck, but she was sure that she could pull a combo with the cards she had on hand.

"First off, I'll set a card." she said as a facedown card appeared on her side of the field. Haru scoffed at her, thinking that she had nothing to play. "What's this? Giving up already Yuuna? You should at least struggle before I defeat you!"

"It's called playing the game correctly, now if you'll let me continue my turn, I'll activate the field spell Gear Town!" The area around them then turned into a city, one filled with buildings made out of and themed after it's namesake, gears.

Ignoring the cheers of the crowds, she continued her play. "I'll then activate Ancient Gear Catapult, targeting Gear Town and destroying it.'' The giant mechanical city was then destroyed by the appearance of a modern mechanical catapult, shattering the scenery and returning it to the courtyard that they were actually on.

Solid vision was really amazing, it made her wonder how they managed to turn such a technological marvel into a weapon. Then again, most technological marvels are usually exploited to do crimes, this one was just apparently war crimes and crimes against humanity, or rather another dimension's humanity.

"Huh!? Are you stupid or something Yuuna!? Why would you do something as dumb as that!?" cried her opponent.

She ignored him and continued on. "With the effect of Catapult I can then special summon an Ancient Gear monster from my deck ignoring it's summoning condition. Come!! Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon!"

As she said so, a giant mechanical winged dragon with a glowing reactor on it's chest appeared on the field, sparkling with purple electricity and letting out a mechanical roar as it did so.

Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon - Earth/Machine/Level 9/Effect: 3000/3000

"Wha! How!" Haru cried out and the people watching them also gasped and cheered at the dragon's appearance.

"I'll then activate the effect of Gear Town." she said calmly in contrast to her now panicking opponent. "When it's destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one Ancient Gear monster from my hand, deck, or graveyard. I'll special summon Ancient Gear Wyvern from my deck in attack position!"

This time a smaller mechanical wyvern hit her field, letting out a mechanical screech as it flew to her side.

Ancient Gear Wyvern - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1200

"I'll then activate its effect. If it's normal or special summoned, I can add one Ancient Gear card from my deck to my hand except another copy of Wyvern, though I can't set cards for the rest of this turn. I'll add Ancient Gear Box to my hand." She showed her opponent the card that she added and immediately activated it's effect.

"Of course Ancient Gear Box's effect resolves, since it's added I can add an earth machine monster with 500 attack or defence except a copy of itself. I'll add Ancient Gear Gadget to my hand." she said as she added the card to her hand.

"Well then, I'll summon Green Gadget."

A green mechanical gear with arms and legs then appeared on her field, it's red monoeye shining as the monster appeared. And with this she has lethal.

Green Gadget - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1400/600

"Since it's normal summoned I get to add a Red Gadget to my hand. Now let's proceed to the battle phase shall we? I'll start with Reactor Dragon, attack Hunting Hound!" obeying her command the giant mechanical dragon let out a roar as sparks of purple electricity flew off it, the reactor on it's chest glowed brighter and then shot out a bolt of purple lightning towards the mechanical hound who was obliterated.

"Gah!" Haru cried out as his only monster was destroyed.

Haru: 2400LP

"N-no way! This isn't how it's supposed to-'

"I'll continue, Wyvern attack directly." the mechanical beast then screeched as it pounced towards the black haired boy.

Panickingly, he activated the set card that he had. "I-I'll activate Unfinished Ancient Gear!" The facedown card revealed to be a card depicting what she remembers as Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem that was still in construction, though only it's bottom half. "With this I can special summon an Ancient Gear monster from my hand in defence position ignoring it's summoning condition! But it's attack and defence becomes halved and this turn it can't be destroyed by battle! Protect me Ancient Gear Beast!"

A mechanical beast shaped like a wolf appeared on Haru's field suddenly protectively defending the black haired boy from the attack, making her Wyvern fly back and return to her side.

Ancient Gear Beast- Earth/Machine/Level 6/Effect: 1000/1000

"Ah, so that's what it does. I guess that's a misplay on my part, I should have attacked with Wyvern first since Reactor deals piercing, or maybe played something instead of Green Gadget..." she said as rubbed her chin looking at the cards on her hand.

"Then I guess on my main phase 2 I'll activate Ancient Gear Inspection, allowing me to target one Ancient Gear on the field to return it to the hand then drawing a card. I'll return your Ancient Gear Beast and draw one." if she had used this card earlier targeting Hunting Hound she could have dealt lethal if she had added Ancient Gear Cannon and activated its effect, since then her opponent wouldn't have been able to activate the trap during the battle phase like he just did.

She needed to polish her dueling skills again, such rookie mistake like this could allow her opponent to make a comeback. She shouldn't have added Ancient Gear Gadget to her hand as a defensive option anyway since she already had Box.

As fast as it came, the mechanical beast on Haru's field disappeared, returning back to the hand from where it once came much to the boy's panic. "Y-you can't do that! You can only return one of your monsters!"

She frowned at his outburst. "It's in the card text, I did just said that it was one Ancient Gear of the field right? It doesn't specify which field it was. With that I end my turn."

"Y-you!" the boy growled "I'll draw!" he said angrily as he added a card to his hand. It seemed that it was a good one, as he was now grinning. "I'll activate Ancient Gear Castle! And normal summon Ancient Gear Wyvern!"

On Haru's side of the field, a towering brick castle with gears and cannon appeared alongside an identical copy of her own Wyvern that let out it's own screech.

Ancient Gear Wyvern - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 2000/1200

"With its effect I'll add one Ancient Gear Card from my deck to my hand! If you can do it then so can I! I'll add an Ancient Gear Box! And then with its effect I'll add Ancient Gear Gadget!" the black haired boy said as he essentially drawed two cards.

"I'll then set- huh! Why can't I set a card!" he cried in outrage once more. She let out a sigh as she explained.

"It's Wyvern's effect. If you activate it you can't set any cards for the rest of the turn. Didn't I already explained that when I used it's effect?"

"Shut up! I'll attack your Green Gadget with my Wyvern!" his mechanical wyvern screeched as it took flight and scrapped her Green Gadget and destroyed it. She let out a sigh as she received the damage that was dealt.

Yuuna: 2800LP

"I-I'll end my turn..." the black haired boy said dejectedly. Seeing his sorry state, she couldn't help but feel sorry at what she was going to do, but shook her head and focused on the duel. She'll end it then, no need to flex to deal more psychological damage to the kid.

"My turn, I'll draw. Battle. I'll attack your Wyvern with my Reactor Dragon." her dragon let out a mechanical roar once more as it blasted a spark of purple electricity towards the opposing wyvern, destroying it.

"Guh!" Haru grunted from the attack.

Haru: 1100LP

"Finish it, Wyvern." With her command, the mechanical wyvern took flight. Haru looked at the looming Wyvern and accepted the attack with closed eyes, and with that he lost the duel as he received the attack.

Haru: 0LP

With the duel over, she turned off her duel disk and the projection of her monsters disappeared. Seeing that the boy was still slumped to the ground, she let out a sigh as she approached him and let out a hand.

"There are better places to sleep than the ground you know?" she said as she offered her hand. He looked at it and scowled, looking teary eyed, before eventually closing his eyes and accepting her help to stand up.

"That was a great duel. Thank you." she said much to his surprise.

"Huh? But I lost! I had no chance when-"

"That was your first duel too wasn't it? And you were unfamiliar with the cards from the looks of it, so it was fine. I myself had watched a lot of Academia students duel with the deck so I know how it mostly works." she then smiled at him for the first time "I'm sure if you put more effort into it you can make a great duelist."

And that was ture. The best thing that she could say about this world's dueling, was that while it was slow and ends up on standing with a big bungus, was that it was genuinely fun and can be played by anyone that has a deck.

Back in her old world, unless you vomit your whole extra deck and set up a field of a million negates and interaction, then you are definitely playing it wrong.

And while there are some duels that can go back and forth, none would last as long as a back and forth of the duels here, since even in her old world a back and forth would only last until somewhere around the eighth turn.

In here unless you run a consistent OTK deck or unless you're dueling against an incompetent duelist, a back and forth can run untill turn 30.

It felt incredibly refreshing, it was like she was playing old school Yu-Gi-Oh! A feeling that she hadn't had in years.

"Y-you think so?" the boy asked shyly without his usual bravado.

She nodded, and this time, he smiled as well.

Not a second later she felt a strong force hit her behind, and looking at the source it was none other that Mei who was smiling smugly at the black haired boy in front of her.

"See! I told you that Yuuna will win! She's amazing after all!" the violet haired girl boasted, much to her embarrassment. She just dueled like normal though? She did see a few of the Academia students pull off the same combo that she did, so isn't it normal?

Not long after the both of them also got swarmed by the other kids of the orphanage, fawning over them about the duel that they had just conducted. She wasn't used to this sort of attention! Someone help her!

But instead of receiving the help that she wanted, instead she received another notification from the system that big G had given to her.

-

Urgent Mission!

[Otherworlder's First Duel] [COMPLETE]

Defeat Haru at a duel

Rewards: 10000DP, Starter Deck Selection, Menu Unlocked, Reputation (Mei) Up, Reputation (Haru) Change to Rival

-

Did she just do the turn someone into her friend, or in this case into a rival, after defeating them in a duel cliche!? She thought that those only happen in the anime!? But then again, she is technically in the anime, or if what big G said was correct, a world similar to it.

Big G mentioned that with her interference, space and time itself would try to repair itself, making it possible that there are anomalies where the world deviates from the story that it was based on. Then again, she barely knew the story anyway, so she'll have to ride the wave of whatever comes at her.

But first she'll have to survive the wave of people that was surrounding her, she doesn't need all this attention damn it!

Unbeknownst to the internally troubled crimson haired girl, the gaggle of Academia students that had been observing her duel stood back silently away from the crowd.

-

"And you said that she was incredibly skilled?"

"Yes Professor, she had managed to perform a special summon of Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon on her very first duel, she said that she had watched Academia students perform that combo, but the one that she had performed with Ancient Gear Wyvern was something that even the students at Obelisk Blue has ever performed."

Receiving the report, the professor of Obelisk Blue, Doctor Cronos de Medici smiled. "Perhaps we have a dueling genius on our hands."