Chapter 55: How strong is this card? Attack power is 0

Not long after Ryuzaki left in a fit of rage, Pegasus felt that he had almost finished his "game" with Yugi. He departed with a smile on his face, making a show of suggesting that if anyone was interested in those "new rules," they could come find him.

Jonouchi, who was looking forward to the luxurious "VIP Suite," was about to follow the man in black out of the cabin when Hayato stopped him.

"What is it, Hayato?"

"Regarding these cabins, haven't you noticed something?" Hayato didn't state his reason directly; instead, he pointed toward the duelists behind them, who had already found their respective spots in the cabins.

Jonouchi looked around the cabin and asked in confusion, "Noticed what? All I see are a bunch of people chatting. That dinosaur guy wasn't wrong; this place isn't really suitable for resting. We should just get moving."

Unlike Jonouchi, Yugi noticed: "I see. In that case, Jonouchi, we might be able to stay here a little longer. Look over there."

Following Yugi's gaze, Jonouchi finally noticed that the duelists gathered in groups were holding their respective decks. As they chatted, they would occasionally draw cards from their decks to exchange them with one another.

"Are they... exchanging cards?" While Jonouchi was still too slow to catch on, Honda and Anzu had already realized it. "I see. This place is a dormitory and not very convenient for resting, but it has also become a very convenient place for card trading."

"Exactly. Although exchanging cards before a tournament might make one seem lacking in confidence in their own deck, the reality is that strengthening your deck is what matters," Hayato said, pulling out a deck of his own. "I have quite a few cards I want to trade away. I might even find some powerful cards."

This wasn't just Hayato talking nonsense. In the original timeline, Jonouchi had used the "junk" cards from his Time Wizard deck to successfully trade for four cards: [Chain Breaker], [Baby Dragon], [Flying Dragon, Firewing], and [Sword and Shield]. Every single one of them was quite practical.

Although the duelists gathered here were stronger than amateurs, most of them focused solely on pursuing raw, powerful monsters. There were many who didn't know value, much like the people in the future Duel Academy who would discard [Nekogami] just because it had 0 ATK.

Before Hayato could start trading, Jonouchi followed suit, pulling out his deck and moving even faster than him to approach the duelists and begin conversing to exchange cards.

"Hayato-kun, you actually have a spare deck?" Yugi looked at the thick stack of cards in Hayato's hand with some surprise.

"It's nothing, just some discarded cards. Some were even won through card duels," Hayato replied. Looking at the [TM-1 Rocket Launcher Spider] at the very top of the pile—which he had swindled from the convict Lucky—Hayato felt a slight annoyance recalling the system's response.

Although the system's [Shop] provided a recycling function, it was limited to R-rank cards and above. Consequently, he was still left with a thick stack of N-rank "trash" cards. While many of these N-rank cards were actually quite powerful under the current rules, Hayato had learned of his plan from Pegasus in advance, so he intended to trade these off as quickly as possible to avoid being stuck with them.

He could have given them to Honda to optimize his rarely-used deck, but Honda didn't really want to accept them, feeling that Hayato's cards were "so rare and powerful that it would be awkward to take them."

————A Pleasant Trading Session————

That night, after taking a comfortable hot bath and stepping out of his room, Hayato let the cool sea breeze dry his hair. He saw Yugi and Jonouchi sitting at a round table on the deck outside their rooms, discussing their respective gains from the day.

"Ah, Hayato-kun, aren't you going to rest?"

Yugi was the first to notice Hayato's arrival, making room for him to sit down.

"We arrive at Duel Kingdom tomorrow. How could I possibly sleep in this situation?" Hayato sat down with a smile and looked at Yugi and Jonouchi's cards. "So, how were your gains today?"

Because Hayato and Jonouchi had been trading so actively, Yugi had eventually used cards from his spare deck to exchange for two as well: [Lightning Vortex] in exchange for [Water Magician], and [Absorption Shield] in exchange for [Lion Wizard]. Jonouchi, meanwhile, had traded for the same four cards from the original timeline.

"My haul is pretty good, isn't it?" Jonouchi boasted. Hayato had to admit that the four cards he traded for were indeed quite strong.

"Yeah, they are all quite powerful cards." Hayato also pulled his day's gains from his pocket. "However, my haul is better than yours. Quite a few people traded their powerful cards to me."

Curious, Jonouchi leaned in to see what Hayato had traded for, but he pulled back after seeing a sea of red and green. "What? Hayato, why are you just like Yugi? You only traded for some Spell and Trap cards."

"That's because the people willing to trade have the same mindset as you—they think as long as they have monster cards, they're fine for Duel Monsters." As Hayato spoke, he pulled the only monster card out of a pile of Spells and Traps. "Besides, I also traded for a very good monster card~"

"[Unfortunate Maiden]? This monster looks weak and fragile; it doesn't look strong at all." Jonouchi couldn't understand what use a monster with only 0 ATK could possibly have.

"You can't judge Duel Monsters just by their appearance; their true abilities are hidden behind the scenes. Oh, speaking of which," Yugi, who had recognized the strength of Hayato's [Unfortunate Maiden], said to Jonouchi. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he pulled a card from the golden deck in front of him and handed it to Jonouchi.

"Jonouchi-kun, why don't you use this card?"

"Eh, [Time Wizard]? The ATK is so weak." Jonouchi looked at the card Yugi gave him with some disdain. Just as he was about to say something, Hayato interrupted him. "If I give it to you, just keep it. You'll realize how powerful this card is. Even if you don't believe in the card, at least believe in me and Yugi, right?"

"If you put it that way... fine." Hearing Hayato speak so earnestly, Jonouchi reluctantly tucked [Time Wizard] away. Just as he placed the card into his deck, a familiar voice drifted from behind them

"My, what a coincidence. Yugi-kun, I didn't expect you to be awake at this hour either."

Hayato turned his head to see the green-clad Pegasus approaching them on the third-floor deck with a smile. "Yes, quite a coincidence, Pegasus."