Alucard Stella

In the outskirts of Kalamar, a port city serving as a border city on the far east of the Pacific Kingdom in a world known as Erudyte, a young man hustled inside a run-down two-story building. Once satisfied with rearranging the furniture, he collapsed on the floor, soaked in sweat and gasping for air. This tall, frail-looking individual had light tan skin, a pale countenance, messy black hair, and pupils as crimson as blood.

Meet Alucard Stella, considered worthless by the esteemed Stella family of Wizardry and Mage-knights. With no talent in magic, no inclination for knighthood, no bloodline inheritance, it appeared that the only thing he inherited from his parents was his height and looks. The family even went so far as to hire martial art masters from the northern kingdom of Drur to assess his potential for at least something. All they concluded was that his physique and constitution would ensure a healthy life, which was code for "your boy is destined to be a salary man." At the age of adulthood, 15, he was kicked out of the family.

Despite his older brother, Alastor's, efforts to plead for him to live at least within the capital of the Pacific Kingdom, Cruceda, the council of Elders in the family rejected the plea emphasizing on maintaining the Family's prestigious bloodline that all who are unfit must be kicked out as they have done in the past even with their own kin. Alastor, in an attempt to ensure Alucard's safe journey to Kalamar, mobilized the family's special ops unit, the Brightguards in secret, while providing him with money, protective measures, and a way to contact him before bidding farewell.

"Haaaah… System! I've finished setting up the shop! I've got the business permit, shelves, and tables up as well. The name of this shop shall be Milky's Card shop! The clerk in charge of registering my business was quite confused about the name but I quite like it."

"Ding! Quest 'First step' completed! The store will receive its first bonus upgrade, and Host will now be allowed to sell Booster Packs: Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon, Metal Raiders, and Spell Ruler! Posters and Promo cards have been sent to shop inventory."

"Bonus store upgrade commencing, host please exit the shop in 3… 2…"

"Wait! Ahhh!" Alucard scrambled to his feet, fortunately positioned in front of the store's door. Before he could fully exit, an explosive force hit him from behind, sending him flying across the deserted street.

"Upgrade in progress, please wait a few seconds…"

This damned system! "Hey! At least warn me before you do something like that!"

Alucard witnessed a remarkable transformation of the once-dilapidated building. The walls shifted from simple daub to transparent glass panels, and the store counter underwent the same change. The floor converted into marbled tile, and the tables and chairs underwent a metamorphosis into intricate iron oak pieces, a special and robust wood native to this world that complemented the design with both durability and comfort. The shelves also underwent a makeover, featuring standard shelves, gondola shelves, and glass panel cases. There were dimmable LED lights hanging on the ceiling and an air conditioning system, giving the store ample lighting and a cool breezy temperature during all hours of the day.

The store looked out of place in the abandoned outskirts street, contrasting sharply with its medieval design. Despite its initial appearance of low-quality daub walls, a thatched roof, and a wooden foundation, the building was, in fact, constructed from reinforced concrete blocks with rebar. The thatched roof was made from special golden reeds sourced from the volcanic plains of this world, rendering it fireproof.

"Whoa! System, this store looks really sharp! I'm just wondering why you had me buy and assemble all those cheap wooden fixtures…"

"Well, Host, I needed to keep you occupied while I surveyed this world and gathered the materials."

"I could've taken a nap, you know?"

"Applying correctional behavior to instill discipline in the host is one of the system's responsibilities; giving quests is a common method we systems use. Also please check out the tables later on, we've installed it with Hyper realistic duel features such as automated coin flips, deck shuffle, card search, Holographic effects, and more. Right now it can be set to YGO duel formats but in the future other card games can be set as well."

"Oh my god system, You brought Kaiba's black tech here?"

"We've improved upon other things as well to ensure smoother gameplay for users."

"While that's pretty awesome, I'm kinda suspicious that this is my true dream. I mean, I only got into trading cards, specifically YGO and Pokemon, a year before my transmigration, and I've been living in this world for 14 years. Shouldn't my true dream be something grand, like commanding a thousand kingdoms and having women succumb to my charms and join my harem with just a wink?"

"Host, you know that you're not an overly ambitious individual. I've scanned your inner thoughts, and despite your desire for unmatched power and influence, all you really want is to make K-corp and other companies in the card, games, and collectibles business hand over their products. At the end of the day, you just want to be a laid-back consumer, a salted fish, if you will."

"Also, even if you were transmigrated into this magical alternate world, you were unfortunate to be born without any talents for magic, knighthood, martial arts, nor the bloodline inheritance of a highly prestigious and competitive family. Even though you did not give up on your training and were really enthusiastic and hopeful when you got here, your family gave up on you and kicked you out instead, which made you indignant and depressed for a while. Your feelings of going back to the good old times, which you associate with these products you had in your childhood back on Earth, amplified this longing for this dream," the System continued.

"Ehh… let's not talk about this. Anyway, let me check the booster packs."

Alucard accessed the shop panel in the System and found that booster packs, each containing 9 cards, were priced at 5 gold coins, a bundle of 10 packs was priced at 45 gold coins or 4 magicoins and 5 gold coins, a booster box of 30 packs was listed at 135 gold coins or 13 magicoins and 5 gold coins, while a case of 30 boxes came with a hefty price tag of 3825 gold coins or 382 magicoins and five gold coins. Booster boxes even come with a small opening knife keychain that's based on the chase monster, which he thought was a pretty cool freebie. Despite his initial perception, being a former Scion of a wealthy house, Alucard began to question the fairness of these prices. He recalled a friend he made while traveling, an apprentice mage from a commoner family, who mentioned that 1 magicoin was equivalent to 10 gold coins. For most commoner families, magicoins were a rare commodity, and they primarily used gold coins. Alucard's friend was ecstatic to receive an allowance of 100 magicoins per month as a beginner apprentice in the academy.

"System, this seems like a scam! These are just collectible and play cards! How can they be valued at 5 gold coins per pack? Even K-corp isn't as profit-hungry as you are! And let's not forget, magicoins are refined mana stones – how on earth can these cardboard cards be worth gold coins, let alone magicoins?"

"Host, do not slander the system! This pricing is fair, considering the various improvements and features that have been applied to them! The artwork has been polished! The effects for special cards like Holos have been streamlined, refined, and now have more wow factor, and for YGO, we even included full art and special and secret illustrations for some chase cards! Also-"

"Don't even start with me, System! Those features are really cool and all, but it seems that you're only targeting the wealthy with nothing to do. My brother gave me a lot of money, so I'm starting to think that the target customer here is only me because only I have the itch to buy! What would ordinary people even want this for? They can barely eke out a living in these medieval times. Mages and Knights need all the resources they can get and wouldn't even have a hobby this expensive! If you appeared earlier, maybe we could've tricked my wealthy degenerate friends who have nothing better to do back in the capital!"

"Don't cut me off, Host! Also, these cards have special effects that can be applied in real life. Spell and trap cards can be used for various situations, and monsters can be summoned as long as the conditions are met."

"What kind of various situations can Pot of Greed help anyone with if it's not a duel? So people can just shout out 'Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon!' and decimate their opponents? These are just cardboard, let me remind you" Alucard asked with half doubt and expectancy, since being able to use the cards like that would give him unprecedented power in this world. He could just have his monster army deal with anyone bothering him.

"That is incorrect, Host. As mentioned, we've made various improvements to these cards, including the material they're made from. They are crafted from synthesized ether, enabling them to absorb all types of energies from Ona, Mana, Chakra, Reiatsu, Haki, and more! Even a kid with no mana or any type of energy can summon Kuriboh to negate any damage done to them."

This shameless system even referenced the studios next door... "So I can just bring a bunch of Kuribohs and Exodias, and I will rule this world then?"

"Nope, in order for you to summon a card it needs to be in a deck first, you don't necessarily have to draw it but cards need to be in a deck. You can have only three of each card, and for classic Exodia, its effects are different in real life than in a duel, just like other cards with special winning conditions. And while you can spam 3 Kuribohs every time you're in danger. Once a monster has been summoned, it will act based on what effect you want it to activate or if you just want to summon them to the real world. If the effect says something like 'discard this card' in order to resolve it then it goes on cooldown and will need to be recharged."

"That still seems pretty overpowered. What do you mean by recharging a card's cooldown?"

"In YGO cards, you can think of 1-4 star cards, even those with many effects, as something ordinary people can summon in real life. However, they might feel fatigued if they tried to use too many cards, if the effect is too complex or overpowered, or not be able to use the card at all. The more stars and effects a card has, the more resources like mana it would require for summoning. But as a general basis, for 1-2 star cards, ordinary people and tier G people can use them, and the summoning would have a cooldown of 7–9 days. 3-4 star cards can be used by tier F people and would require a cooldown of 10–15 days of cooldown. They can use spell cards, but the resources required would again depend on the effect it has, for example, Pot of Greed in-game will allow you to draw 2 cards while its real-life effect will allow a user to summon an extra monster based on their energy level without any cost. Trap cards need to set by a user in real life by using stamina or mana; they can be triggered automatically like Trap Hole or be activated consciously like Robbin' Goblin.

Effect monsters monsters and other monsters that need special summoning would have more requirements and complex methods of summoning. Anyway, a lot of cards have different effects when used in real life; it's up to the users to experiment and see what happens."

"So basically people here can summon monsters in real life as long as their life order is at a sufficient level. Huh... Is there any other way to recharge the cards aside from waiting, like using magicoins or mana stones?"

"Hmmph, bringing your Pay to Win mindset here, Host? How shameful! As of now, you can provide recharge services, but all profits for recharging go solely to me, the System. You would need to raise the shop level for you to get a cut. I strongly suggest you focus on the upcoming tasks so that you can unlock more benefits and have more control over the shop. Remember, this is your dream, and it would be a shame to just be a glorified clerk in a shop you dreamed of owning."

"Don't worry about it System... Ugh by the way... can I buy some packs or cases for myself?" Alucard asked, while scratching his neck.

I might've been paired with a host that needs to go to rehab... "You may, but let me inform you that as a level 1 store owner, you get no discounts for now."