[Snippet] Climbing the Ladder (Yugioh Gx): Chapter 1

It was weird, for him, waking up to this ceiling again.

Though, after well over a month of seeing it every day, he was almost used to it now. For as far as one can get used to waking up in a different reality, he could consider himself coping well enough.

If anything, the days of panic had turned into excitement.

Before, he would admit, he didn’t have many prospects in life. He was average in grades, family, school, career, etc. There was never really anything that set him apart or something he felt like he could have leveraged to get a leg up in the world.

He did alright in high school, he graduated from a middle-tier college, and he got a job and became a faceless member of a company that not many would recognize by name.

Average.

But he had been given a chance now to be different, to be better.

And what better way in a world that treats card games as sacrosanct?

Theodore Blackwell had decided that he would no longer be another faceless name in the crowd.

He was going to be somebody.

Of course, he missed his family heavily and the few friends he had. One day, he would work on seeing if he could return home. But rationally, he knew that was a near impossible goal.

So, he would just make the best of things.

It calmed him to look at it from a different perspective. If it was one of his family members that had been given this kind of ‘opportunity,’ would he not want them to grasp it as firmly as possible?

Even if his family was no longer here to cheer him on in the background, he knew that they would have done so without hesitation.

He took out his phone as he giggled to himself before fully waking up.

It was funny to him still that the city—nearly the entire world—recognized DP as a currency.

Duel Points.

But what could you say when the world treated a card game so religiously? Companies would hire duelists to settle disputes with other companies. Countries would wage war in proxy through duelists. It had become such an ingrained part of life that more than half the people walking down the street had a Duel Disk strapped to their arm.

Granted, that was mostly for older kids and adults.

He could somewhat liken it to getting a driver’s license, as far as modern rituals relate. Once a child came of age, their family usually saved up to buy them a Duel Disk—if they were into that sort of thing.

Vaguely, he recalled watching something on TV where the news mentioned that less than 15% of the population of the city didn’t play Duel Monsters.

Play, of course, being the word.

Almost everyone still followed the scene.

It was why Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions were two of the richest and most powerful companies in the world despite the fact that they cater to a card game.

Lucky for him, he didn’t only arrive here with the shirt on his back.

He did have some of his own collection with him.

Some.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have his high-powered future cards—mostly, that could win on turn one consistently, which made him stop playing years ago.

Though, that isn’t to say all his cards were…canon to this era.

Still, the decks he could make were a bit wonky. They were missing the meat to them, the neutral cards that filled it out.

Along with the cards he arrived with, he also apparently had an identity and an invitation to participate in the Duel Academy enrollment. That is, many students were invited to participate in the initial tests, where one dueled a professor.

That is two days from now.

He hadn’t been sitting on his hands this whole time; he had been bouncing around various card shops trying to fill up his deck properly, and he had something in a playable format. The only unfortunate thing is that his deck right now is a bit of a hodgepodge of two separate decks, but they somewhat work together.

Regardless, he still found it strong enough.

As for money….

He looked out his apartment window with the gorgeous view of Domino City.

He then went to his closet and looked at a handful of tailored suits that he chose as his wardrobe for the dueling persona he went with.

Suffice to say, he had a bit of money.

Some people would pay top dollar—or DP in this case—for cards that they’ve never heard of.

Theodore wasn’t stupid enough to trade or sell cards that could be used against him that come from a different ‘era’ of dueling. But even still, archetype cards for an archetype they’ve never heard of? It was enough to get a significant amount of DP in a world where card games are law.

He checked his phone and logged into his accounts.

He had 1,157,950 DP left.

Which sounded like a lot, and admittedly it was, but it wasn't the same as proclaiming himself a millionaire.

There are cards, things he would consider staples, that he still can’t afford.

And surprisingly, the world was somewhat like Pokémon, he had come to find out. When you dueled someone, you generally put up 100-500 DP as a wager.

Of course, there are plenty of friendly duels where people don’t observe that. But likewise, it’s very common to play with wagers in this day and age.

There are people who hang around some card shops who live off that kind of money earning.

More than a few had tried to force him into a duel before his deck was ready.

The culture around Duel Monsters was still something he was wrapping his head around. He found out very quickly that refusing a duel from someone was apparently enough to get them pissed off for no reason.

Either that, or plenty of people had inflated egos.

Which, considering the world he found himself in, was a very probable conclusion as well.

He stretched his arms and went into his closet, changing into one of his suits for the day.

Then, he found his Duel Disk, sliding it onto his arm and clasping it shut tight. He didn’t keep his deck inside the Duel Disk; apparently there are enough of those ‘warnings’ around that say that it’s easy for a thief to swipe a card from a Duel Disk on someone’s arm when they’re walking down the street.

Thus, he kept his deck on the inside of his jacket pocket.

He stepped out the door, and behind him, his shadow crept out as well, a little too long, and if you looked carefully, you could see eyes glowing in the dark.

A serpent with two mouths wrapped around him protectively.

A warrior with sword and shield stood unwavering behind him.

And lastly, a massive dragon threatened any would-be malevolent shadows from even daring to approach.

[Line Break]

There was a question Theodore had when he first arrived and watched people playing in the streets.

It was compounded by the fact that he had seen a Pot of Greed up for sale for two million DP in a store across town.

If Pot of Greed is such a rare and expensive card, then why does everyone have one?

Come to find out, Industrial Illusion subsidizes it.

Well, a little more complicated than that.

Industrial Illusions: When you formally register as a Duelist, you’re sent a Pot of Greed, a Monster Reborn, and a Mystical Space Typhoon.

They are the three cards that everyone decided were needed for every duelist, the staples, as it were.

It’s the reason that every person in the world had at least one of those, but never a full set. Because outside of that, the cards are obscenely expensive and rare.

The most obvious question is, why not just buy or trade for the ones that everyone has? 

Because they’re different.

They’re a special print run that won’t work if there’s another of their kind in the same deck. One of the security features of the Duel Disk that prevents cheating and fake cards.

They’re essentially worthless, but at the same time, incredibly powerful and mandatory for probably every deck in existence.

And you can’t even cheat people with them by trying to say they’re not the ‘fake’ ones; you just have to scan a card with your duel disk, and it will be able to tell if it’s a ‘fake’ or not.

Theodore was thankful that all his cards registered as ‘real.’

Even the cards that didn’t exist.

But then again, being ‘real’ and ‘existing’ were not always mutually exclusive. In this universe, cards can spontaneously come into existence through bullshit magic and whatnot. Yet, Duel Disks will register them as ‘real’ even if it’s the first time the systems have ever seen the cards in question.

Cards were just too valuable not to have some kind of in-built system to catch fakes.

There were some cards worth tens of millions of DP, cards that only had one or a limited number of copies. Kaiba’s infamous Blue-Eyes White Dragons, for instance. There were only three in the entire world. 

Theodore had looked it up, and someone once tried to evaluate their worth through the metrics that most card shops use to price cards, and he said that each one would be worth around 50 million DP each, but as a set, easily over 300 million.

With the amount of DP Theodore had, he could buy a modest house in a decent neighborhood with a little bit left over to probably buy a car.

That was how ridiculous the card market in this world was.

Theodore had been scouring the city for cards since he had understood his situation.

But there was one last shop he hadn’t visited yet.

Maybe the most famous shop in the city.

Usually, there were lines out the door due to fans.

That is, the Kame Game shop, the one owned by Yugi Moto’s grandfather, and the place where the King of Games had lived for years.

It was more of a tourist attraction these days, from what Theodore understood. But combined with it being the first thing in the morning and a big tournament happening downtown that had everyone in a tizzy, there wasn’t anyone in sight as he approached the doors.

Maybe he was nervous; he didn’t know what mystical might this place held. One could imagine that Yugi made sure that his grandfather was ‘safe’ from any nefarious individuals, leaving a Duel Spirit or two here.

And Theodore didn’t know how he would register to others with his odd existence.

Still, he pushed open the door; the jingle of the bell alerted the owner.

To Theodore’s eyes, he looked older than when he saw the man through a screen. He could see that time had taken its toll since the previous era and until now.

Solomon Moto was definitely getting on in the years.

“Welcome.” He smiled warmly as Theodore entered. “Did you come to shop, or did you want to buy a commemorative gift?”

There was a section of the wall that was basically a gift shop.

If nothing else, Theodore acknowledged Solomon Moto’s business moxie.

Capitalizing on the fact that the Game Shop was a cultural icon at this point and selling merchandise like hats or pins or what have you with the face of Yugi or things indicating that you had visited the Game Shop.

“Good morning.” Theodore greeted back politely. He chose to adopt the persona of a gentleman duelist. Everyone had a persona; some didn’t care, and it came naturally, but it helped build up their presence for professional dueling. “I would not mind purchasing a pin for the sake of obtaining a memento. However, my purpose is to pursue your cards.”

He picked a pen with the words ‘Kame Game Shop’ on it and set it on the counter in front of the elderly man.

Theodore looked up at the screen; it was covering the tournament downtown. The sound was off, but the subtitles were on display.

It was Rex Raptor; apparently he was doing a comeback tour that culminated in this moment. He was in the semifinals, and he was the dark horse after he had fallen off some years ago.

Something about spending all his money on drugs and…well, women.

But he had cleaned himself up, and now…everyone loved a comeback story.

“Good for him.” Theodore said absentmindedly.

Solomon smiled a bit more naturally. “Yes, that young man certainly earned back his pride as a duelist, did he not?”

Theodore nodded. “It’s easy to fall into a hole, but hard to climb out of it.”

The elderly man let out a chuckle. “What can I do for you, young man?”

“I’m looking for some cards.” Theodore hummed. “Sangan, Witch of the Black Forest, Book of Moon, and Chaos Sorcerer.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Chaos Sorcerer?”

Theodore shrugged helplessly. “It doesn’t hurt to ask.”

“So very true, my young friend.” Solomon tapped his finger on the glass case that displayed a wide array of cards. “I’m afraid I don’t have a Chaos Sorcerer, such a card…. I can’t recall if I’ve ever heard of one being put up for sale.”

It was why people used such suboptimal cards in this era. It wasn’t because they were stupid or they couldn’t math out that, say, Summoned Skull was better than a two-tribute 2400 vanilla monster they may run; it’s just that getting a Summoned Skull was damn near impossible unless you ripped it from a pack.

Which packs didn’t have the concept of ‘rarity assurance’ even for boxes. You could open a hundred packs, and it wouldn’t be strange if you didn’t pull a single rare or uncommon card.

Truthfully, Theodore had a Chaos Sorcerer already, from his own binder; he just wanted another.

When he came here, the multiple copies of rare cards he had disappeared. No three copies of anything beyond common.

It was one of the big reasons his deck was missing a bit of meat to it.

“Oh well.” Theodore said simply. “And the others?”

“Book of Moon… I believe I sold my last one about two months ago.” It was on the lower end of rare cards. Obtainable, but annoying to get your hands on, and probably costing more money than it’s worth. “Sangan, that’s not an easy one either; I don’t have one. But Witch of the Black Forest, you’re in luck.”

He bent over behind the counter, shifting through some boxes before he made a noise of success and quickly put the card in question on the glass counter.

“I’ve had this for about a year. I’m surprised myself; no one seems to appreciate the classics much these days, what with all their archetype-focused deck building.” 

That was true, Theodore could agree.

From what he had seen, people seemed to overly focus on an archetype and ignored a great many neutral cards.

They see Kaiba and Yugi, who based their whole decks around their ace monster, and they just follow suit.

The door opened again; another gentleman walked in and started browsing while Solomon attended to me.

“Do you have any other floaters?” Theodore asked.

“Floaters?” Solomon questioned.

“Sorry, it’s just the shorthand where I’m from. Cards that fetch other cards when they die. Witch of the Black Forest, Sagan, Mother Grizzly, Shining Angel, Pyramid Turtle, etc.”

Solomon’s eyes lit up. “Oh hoh! I didn’t know you kids gave those cards a name.” He stroked his beard. “I’m afraid that I don’t have any other except for the Witch of the Black Forest here. All of those are relatively rare.”

Theodore just nodded.

He didn’t need any more in particular, other than the ones he mentioned, but he didn’t plan on only having one deck in the future.

“How much for the Witch of the Black Forest, DP?” Theodore asked.

“How about… hmmm, I could let it go for 150,000 DP.”

Theodore winced but could only relent. “You—”

“Hold up!” The other patron pushed past me. “Old man, you have a Witch of the Black Forest!? I’ll buy it!”

Theodore frowned slightly at his rude behavior. “Excuse me, I’m currently purchasing this card.”

The other man scrunched his nose. “So what? You didn’t buy it yet; that means it’s not yours.” He turned back to Solomon. “Hey, old man, how much? I’ll buy it for more than he’s paying.” He jabbed his thumb at me.

“I’m sorry, young man. But I already said I would sell it to this other gentleman.” Solomon rejected him.

“Oh come on, what kind of crap is that?”

“He was here first.” Solomon said firmly. 

“Then let’s duel for it!” He held up his own duel disk armed, declaring loudly as he pointed at me. “Winner gets to buy the card.”

They both silently waited for his response.

The thing is, they both seemed to just assume he would accept.

Which…is kind of the mindset here. Your pride as a duelist was just as important as a good deck. If you got challenged to a duel, you generally accepted; otherwise, people would look down on you.

It was bothersome to Theodore, he would admit.

But he let out a sigh. “If I may? How is that fair to me? I already have the right to purchase it, as the owner stated. This duel only benefits you.”

“He’s right.” Solomon interjected. “Young man, if you want to challenge him to a duel with a wager, you need to offer something in return.”

The other person scowled. “Fine, I’ll throw in some DP.”

“5,000.” Theodore threw out.

“What!? 5000!? Are you crazy?”

“I would be losing the opportunity to buy a rare card that’s worth far more than 5,000 DP. I’m being generous.” Theodore countered.

The man grumbled. “Fine, you got a deal. No backing out, you got it!?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be the judge.” Solomon smiled. “But please duel outside; it’s too cramped here.”

[Line Break]

“A duel between Theodore Blackwell and Adam Fronte.” Solomon declared.

The man had introduced himself, but Theodore would probably forget after the duel was over. He was surprised that Solomon turned out to be a registered judge, and a high-level one at that. 

Well, in hindsight, it made sense, considering who he is.

It was just not something Theodore had thought about until Solomon said so.

Theodore eyed his opponent.

A man, perhaps two or three years older than him, so about in his twenties.

He dressed pretty normally, and his hair wasn’t anything crazy.

Just…another face in the crowd, as he would say, even if that phrase left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Both held up their Duel Disks.

“Duel.” They both declared at the same time.

Theodore Blackwell – 4000 LP

Adam Fronte – 4000 LP

“I’ll go first.” Adam immediately shouted. As in this world, it was apparently the same as calling dibs. “I play Goblin Attack Force!”

[Goblin Attack Force: Level 4]

[2300/0]

“And then I set one card and end my turn!” He said enthusiastically. “Let’s see if you can get over my 2300 monster! I bet you don’t even have a strong enough card in your deck.”

Theodore ignored him as he focused on his own hand.

“Draw.” He spoke, drawing for the turn since he went second. “I place one creature face down in a defense position, then I set two cards and pass my turn.”

“Hah!” The man snorted. “Just what I thought—turtle up, newbie.”

Solomon raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Seeing an arrogant young man like Adam was nothing new. But he was curious as to why his opponent—Theodore—didn’t show any anxiousness or uncertainty.

Goblin Attack Force was a strong monster; it was enough to win the game against lesser duelists. Even with the downside that it switched to the defense position after the battle phase.

“Draw!” He pulled his next card and then smiled like he just won. “I play Battle Ox in attack position! Then I’ll play the rare spell card, Axe of Despair!”

[Battle Ox: Level 4]

[1700/1000]

“And I’ll equip the Axe of Despair to my Battle Ox! This raises my Battle Ox’s attack by 1000 points!”

[Battle Ox: Level 4]

[1700/1000] → [2700/1000]

“That’s a good card.” Theodore praised. And he wasn’t just saying it mindlessly. It was one of the best equipped spells of this era.

As far as rarity went, it didn’t lose out to the Witch of the Black Forest they were fighting over; it was maybe even more rare.

Adam scoffed. “I don’t need you to tell me that. Goblin Attack Force, attack his face-down monster!”

The Goblin Attack Force stabbed into his monster as it was flipped face up.

[Witch of the Black Forest: Level 4]

[1100/1200]

“The effect of my Witch of the Black Forest activates when it hits the graveyard.” Theodore told him. “I get to search for a monster with 1500 or less defense and add it to my hand.”

“What!?” He shouted back. “You already have a Witch of the Black Forest!? Then why are you trying to buy another!?”

“Because two is better than one in this case.” Theodore said evenly. “I choose Thunder Dragon and add it to my hand.” 

[Thunder Dragon: 5 Stars]

[1600/1500]

The man sneered. “Thunder dragon? Seriously? That pathetic card? You have to tribute for it, and it’s only 1600 attack.”

Theodore said nothing, only gesturing for him to continue. “Please.”

“Whatever, it’s an easy win for me. Battle Ox, attack him directly!”

“Reveal face down.” Theodore called out. “I activate the trap card, Drowning Mirror Force.”

Neither of them had heard of the card before.

Theodore knew that.

It wasn’t a card that would come out until Syncros and Pendulums were a thing.

“Drowning Mirror Force?” Adam repeated, the confusion apparent in his tone.

“Allow me to explain: when an opponent's monster declares a direct attack, shuffle all of their attack position monsters into their deck.”

“What!?”

“Goodbye, Goblin Attack Force and Battle Ox, as well as Axe of Despair.” Theodore waved at them as their holograms dissipated and the cards returned to his deck and shuffled, while Axe of Despair was sent to the graveyard.

“Do you have anything else?” He continued.

Adam scowled. “I end my turn.”

“Draw.” Theodore looked at the card and smiled. “I activate Thunder Dragon’s effect in my hand. I can send it to the graveyard, and then I can search up to two Thunder Dragons and add them to my hand.”

“So what? Two more useless cards won’t matter.” He crossed his arms.

“I would hardly call them useless, even if nothing else happened. They’re a self-contained graveyard engine as well as deck thinning, but I digress.” He pulled a card out of his hand and slapped it onto his Duel Disk. “I activate Polymerization!”

Solomon’s eyes widened as his neutral expression shifted into a grin. “Oh, this takes me back. I haven't seen this card in years, not since the third world champion retired. What a rare sight to see.”

“With this card, I fuse together the two Thunder Dragons in my hand to bring out the fusion monster, Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon!” 

[Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon: 7 Stars]

[2800/2100]

If a select group of people were watching, they may have noted that the new monster was perhaps just a tad more animated than normal holograms.

Though Theodore wasn’t surprised.

Maybe it was just his love for the card; it was one of his all-time favorites and perhaps his favorite ‘combo’ ever since the game was released. It was far from the ‘strongest’ card, but it held a special place in his heart.

So he wasn’t surprised that said dragon welcomed him upon his arrival here as a Duel Spirit.

“Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon!? It has 2800 attack! That’s almost as strong as Blue-Eyes White Dragon!”

Theodore’s lips twitched, and he bit back a chastisement. A lot of people here were too focused on monster stats.

Granted, Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon was in fact a beat stick; it had no special effects.

But still.

“Next I’ll play Monster Reborn! Bringing back my Thunder Dragon to the field.”

[Thunder Dragon: 5 Star]

[1600/1500]

“Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, attack him directly!”

“Not so fast!” Adam declared. “I activate my trap card, Negate Attack!”

“I respond by chaining my own Trap Card—Seven Tools of the Bandit. By paying 1000 life points, I can negate the activation of your trap card!”

“No! That means—”

“Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, go for it!” It let out a blast of lightning that struck Adam.

Adam Fonte 4000 LP → 1200 LP

“Now, Thunder Dragon, finish him off.” The card that he called pathetic. “Thunder strike!”

The Thunder Dragon did its best Pikachu impression and sent a bolt of lightning right at Adam.

Adam fell backwards, even if no harm was actually done to him.

The holograms were very realistic.

Adam Fonte 1200 LP → Adam Fonte 0 LP

“Well played.” Theodore walked over as the holograms disappeared and held his hand out.

“Screw off.” Adam smacked his hand away. “You only won because of your rare cards!” He got up and muttered under his breath, shoving his hands into his pockets as he left.

Theodore just sighed helplessly.

He took out his phone and saw that his DP increased by 5000.

Part of the Duel Disk’s mechanism allows you to sync it up with accounts to do the auto transfer after the duel is finished so someone can’t welch on their bet.

Theodore let out a breath.

It wasn’t his first duel in this world, but the excitement of it still hadn’t worn off. He couldn’t imagine how the duelists felt during Battle City when they had to put their rarest card up for grabs.

[Line Break]

“I apologize for making you miss the matches.” Theodore told Solomon as they went back inside the shop.

Both of them saw on the TV where Rex Raptor was advancing to the finals.

“I can always catch back up later.” He hummed. “Watching young duelists is much more fun for me these days anyways.”

He fished the card back out, putting it back on the counter. “150,000 DP then, as we agreed.” 

The funny thing is, Theodore felt like he was getting a good deal for it. “Thank you, Mr. Moto.” He could easily scan his phone, and it deducted the DP.

It was still wild to him that this place used Duel Points as currency.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon.” He said I picked my card up and put it away protectively. “I believe it was the third World Champion, who had the nickname of Thunder King due to his Thunder Deck, that played it. After he retired, I hadn’t seen it since.”

Theodore smiled faintly. “It’s a wonderful Monster, and I’m glad to have it in my deck with me.”

“It will be a good backbone of your deck, young man!” Solomon laughed happily. “Your Deck’s Ace shouldn’t be just about power; it should be the foundation of your heart. Without putting your heart into building your deck, how is it supposed to answer back to you?”

It sounded…..loony to hear.

But then again, in this world, you can do things like Destiny Draw—magically draw the card from your deck that you need in that moment—if you believe in your cards enough.

Hell, Destiny Drawing was a skill that all the professionals and big names had to master.

Granted, it wasn’t really called that in a general sense, but everyone knew what it was if you talked to them.

Theodore smiled politely.

He didn’t want to contradict Solomon for running into the wrong conclusion.

Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon was one of his most beloved cards from his childhood, but it wasn’t his ace monster.

Though his True Ace, he felt, wouldn’t be making an appearance unless very specific conditions were met.

The kind where things like Shadow Games are on the menu.

“Now, Witch of the Black Forest will also make a good addition as well.” Theodore said happily. “Thank you again for the card, Mr. Solomon.”

The elderly man waved it off. “I run a card shop; it’s what I do. Though, I’m confused about something, if you wouldn’t mind indulging an old man like me.”

Theodore blinked. “Yes, how may I assist?”

“I’ve seen young men get angry enough when their decks are insulted, but when your opponent claimed you only won because of rare cards, you didn’t say a word in your defense.”

“That?” Theodore was confused as to why he was asking. “Well, he isn’t exactly wrong. I can guarantee that my deck is significantly more valuable—from a monetary perspective—than his is. It’s not something I can simply change. What’s the point in getting angry? I don’t need to prove myself to him.”

Theodore didn’t know what the elderly man was thinking by the expression on his face.

“Do you agree with him? Do you think rare cards are what’s important for a duelist?”

“I can’t say that rare cards are irrelevant. If that were the case, not everyone would have the three staples. However, if duels only came down to who had the rarest cards, then I believe Joey Wheeler would never have gotten to where he was. I believe he still uses Swordsman of Landstar, and his favorite card that he still plays is Flame Swordsman—an 1800 attack fusion monster that has no additional effects. From just a mathematical perspective, he’s wasting three cards to fusion summon something that only has 1800 attack, which is illogical. But just as well, it’s his favorite card and has won him several critical games before he went on to win his own world championship.”

The smile on Solomon’s face returned. “So you’re saying that what matters most is the Duelist?”

“Well, you can’t expect to win if you don’t put the effort into deck building and hope to just skate by on vibes and Heart. I doubt your deck would appreciate it if you didn’t put in the effort on your end as well. But at the end of the day, a strong duelist will be a strong duelist regardless of what deck they’re using.”

His eyes nearly sparkled. “Exactly! A strong duelist will be a strong duelist regardless of their deck!”

Theodore noted that he seemed very happy about his reply.

“Since you liked my answer, can I get a discount if I buy some card packs?”

“Sure, 5% off if you buy 10 packs!” Solomon said with an innocent look.

Theodore’s eye twitched slightly, but he resigned himself. He was hoping for a ‘you have potential, kid; here’s a bunch of free stuff’ moment, but that’s not exactly something that happens in real life.

“Give me 5 Invasion of Chaos, 2 Metal Raiders, 1 Spell Ruler, and 2 Legacy of Darkness.” I picked them out quickly.

He was quick to set them down on the table; he had been doing this for decades.

“Good choice; Metal Raiders is going to stop being released next year. It’s best to get them while they last.”

That was just going to make prices go up.

“How much?”

“20,000 DP.” He winked.

Theodore snorted, mostly because he knew he was getting a bit over a 5% discount there.

It should have been closer to 25,000 DP.

Just as he said, Metal Raiders had hit a premium since the reveal that they were going to stop their release soon.

The same thing happened with Legend of Blue Eyes. They stopped releasing Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon, and the price skyrocketed overnight.

People started hoarding it and scalping. It was a whole mess, to the point where Industrial Illusions had to get involved to level it all out. Of course you can’t fight against the market’s supply and demand when something becomes a limited commodity, but at least the pack prices didn’t shoot up over 100,000 DP like they were at their worst.

But still, he probably wouldn’t have been able to get a single pack for less than 20,000 DP these days, if he found a deal.

It was funny to him how the packs correlated to what he knew from back in his old world, yet the cover images were completely different.

Solomon looked at him expectantly.

It was sort of a tradition to open packs up as soon as you got them. One of those weird, albeit fake, rituals in this world.

Something like, if you wait too long, any good luck will run out.

He tore open the first Invasion of Chaos.

Jade Insect Whistle, Don Turtle, Cannonball Spear Shellfish, Recycle, and Gale Lizard.

Bust, all lower-end commons.

Next pack. “Oh, a Giga Gagago, that’s a fine card, young man.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not a card that’s meant for me. How much?” Theodore offered.

“Hmm, 1500 DP.” 

“Deal.” Theodore slid it to him for a sale.

It was a good pull, a common on the cusp of being uncommon. One of the more common cards that anyone walking down the street might play.

One tribute summon had 2450 attack; it wasn’t bad in this era.

Barely worse than Summoned Skull.

He opened the next pack; same as before, nothing good.

In the fourth pack, the best was a Sea Serpent Warrior of Darkness, an 1800 vanilla beater 4-star, worth 500 DP.

Last back of Invasion of Chaos.

A bust again.

The best was an Energy Drain, a not unplayable card, but certainly earning its place as a common.

“Metal Raiders next.” Theodore muttered. “A Cheerful Coffin—that’s not a bad one.”

The first card he saw was the common Cheerful Coffin, a spell card that let you send three cards from your hand to the graveyard.

It had its fringe uses, especially in his deck if he couldn’t find other things to fill certain gaps.

The other cards were useless to him, though.

He opened the next pack: Jelly Fish, Armored Lizard, Pale Beast, Tainted Wisdom, and lastly Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1.

“That one’s worth a fair bit.” Solomon peeked over at it. “People seem to like collecting all the cards my grandson used in every tournament he’s been to.”

Theodore did recall that it was a card Yugi played at various points.

“How much?”

“I can take it from you for 1000 DP.”

Not too much, not too little.

What you would expect from a card that basically only was sought after for nostalgia and collecting purposes.

Next was spell ruler.

“Stone Ogre Grotto, Hungry Burger.” Theodore paused. “That’s nostalgic; I think I’ll keep that one just for that.”

Solomon chuckled. “All the children used to love that card; it’s a shame that Pegasus never released any support for it.”

“Ceremonial Bell, Malevolent Nuzzler.”

Two cards that would probably never see play in my hands.

But Theodore paused on the last one. “Senju of the Thousand Hands.”

Solomon’s eyes widened before laughing happily and smacking him on the shoulder. “Good pull, young man. That’s a rare one. How about I give you 50,000 DP for it?”

Theodore was smiling happily as he held the card up. “Sorry, Mr. Moto, I’ll be keeping this one.”

It would be perfect for this second deck. He just hadn’t had time or resources to start building it yet, considering his main deck was still in the state it was in.

“Lastly, Legacy of Darkness.” He ripped open the first pack but quickly frowned as all the cards were useless to him. “And my last pack.”

Once more, the cards were what you expect, all common cards that were less than a couple hundred DP if someone were willing to take them.

“Oh well, I’m happy with my pulls.” He carefully put away his new prizes. “Thank you again, Mr. Moto.”

“It’s no trouble, young man. Better than watching some pretentious tournament, I enjoy watching you up-and-comers dueling; it’s much more invigorating.” He smiled warmly. “Aiming for the professional leagues yourself?”

“Who knows?” Theodore glanced at the TV again. “Maybe in the future. Right now, I’m just preparing for my Duel Academy entry test.”

Solomon perked up. “Duel Academy! Why, that’s a wonderful thing to hear! That Kaiba has always been a…..” He coughed into his hand. “But you can’t deny what he’s been doing with that academy of his. Nothing bad to say, nothing bad to say at all.”

Well, Theodore was happy that it had Solomon Moto’s seal of approval at least.

“I wish you luck, young man. I look forward to seeing you on the TV one day.”

“Thank you again, Mr. Solomon.” Theodore said politely before leaving the shop.

Solomon’s expression slowly changed as he watched the retreating back of the young man.

He wasn’t always so talkative to every new customer. Nor did he usually go out of his way to play referee to any duel that happened outside his doors.

He would call it a professional curiosity.

He wasn’t his grandson, but he had his own ancient connections and mystic might from a period long past, even if it wasn’t a conscious one.

He could see several figures following him around, if barely.

They were being polite and not causing a commotion in the former house of the king.

Solomon was happy that a group of powerful Duel Spirits like that wasn’t attached to someone with the wrong mindset when it came to dueling.

Beyond wanting to take his measure, he had no other motives.

It wasn’t his place to tell the young man how to live his life, for good or ill.

[Line Break]

A/N

I mentioned in another post that I was not doing very well a few days ago for reasons involving gummies and a substance that may not be legal in most places.

Anyways, I wrote part of this up during that, and the rest after I was recovering. Just a random idea I had; I don’t know if I’ll do more or when, etc., etc. You guys know how snippets go, got the random urge to do this and it doesn't take precedence over anything else, just something extra.

For some more background, yes, MC has cards that don’t exist here, and yes, he does have some synchro and XYZ stuff. I’m not doing pendulum or links, most likely. It could change, but don’t count on it. MC’s current deck, for lacking a lot of cards that make the spine of it, is basically a hodgepodge of Thunder Dragons, a few Chaos pieces, and some random things like a Jinzo, a couple Bystials, and otherwise good traps/spells for the era. 

Anime rules do sort of take precedence here. Only one copy of ‘boss’ cards, and even getting multiple copies of other cards is difficult. He has three thunder dragons, of course, but only has two thunder dragondarks and 1 copy of other thunder dragon pieces. Now he has two Witch of the Black Forest cards and 1 Sangan. If someone wants, I can post a link to the deck; I built it on DuelingBook just to make it easier.

Also, I planned on multiple decks. I also love Black Luster Soldier, so expect that to be one of his second decks, the ritual version.

Another thing I thought about was, like, the cards he brought with him when he ‘isekai’d’—well, some of them are very, very dangerous. So they’re being sealed away by his Duel Spirits atm and aren’t seeing the light of day unless he fights something really nasty and he needs to match it in mystical weight. One of the cards may or may not be the Seal of Orichalcos, and maybe an Earthbound Immortal.

Keep in mind that the cards he brought were ‘mostly’ just cards he kept because he liked them or they were nostalgic. 

Twin-Headed is one of my all-time favorite cards and engines, so that was an easy include. The deck also has the other two Thunder Dragon fusions; they just haven’t been relevant yet. MC won’t just flex just to flex, most of the time. Since he knows how dangerous the world actually is, he’s fine with letting everyone think that his Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon is his ‘ace’ monster.

Some other thoughts, like addressing how everyone in the world seemed to have one copy of Pot of Greed, Monster Reborn, and Mystical Space Typhoon, I thought maybe a sort of ‘free’ version of that card being sent to all duelists who register would be a good way to explain it without doing a ban list.

The idea of a ban list in the actual Yu-Gi-Oh setting seemed contradictory to the whole concept. And I wanted them to retain their rarity, which aligned well considering we never see someone in the show have more than one of those cards either.