Chapter 39: This guy wants to go to your place

The real reason Hayato handed the 【Man-Eating Bug】 to Kaiba was, of course, not what he told him. That was merely a pretext to make the gesture acceptable. This story begins with the purchase of that 【Custom Expansion Pack】—a decision he would regret to this day.

In the description of that expansion pack, it was clearly stated that all cards in the box were supplementary cards that could be added to Hayato's existing card pool. Furthermore, it guaranteed at least one UR and three SR rarity cards, and even the 100-pack bundle had a guaranteed R rarity.

In other words, no matter how bad Hayato's luck was, he was guaranteed to pull at least 100 R cards, 3 SRs, and one UR, all of which were types that could be added to his card pool. This ensured he wouldn't end up playing a Sky Striker deck only to pull a pile of Chaos Warrior support cards.

Hayato had thought so too, but to his utter dismay, the very thing he valued most—“supplementary cards based on the current card pool”—turned out to be the biggest trap. Because the basis for the pack was not the "deck," but the "card pool."

When Hayato bought the pack, the largest component of his card pool consisted of Warrior-type monsters, followed by four Dragon-type monsters and the "Three Disruptors," with "Earth" being his most frequent attribute.

Consequently, the very first pack Hayato opened yielded an extremely powerful SR card: 【Gransole, the Earth Spirit】.

【Gransole, the Earth Spirit】【8☆/Earth】【Beast-Warrior/Effect】【2800/2200】

Although this well-built monster came with restrictions—it "cannot be Normal Summoned" and "can only be Special Summoned when there are exactly 5 Earth monsters in the Graveyard"—and carried a negative effect where "skipping your next Battle Phase" occurred after leaving the field, its first effect was powerful enough

It could revive a monster from either player's Graveyard to his own field—essentially a monster-effect version of 【Monster Reborn】.

Drawing such a card as an opening highlight naturally made Hayato quite happy. However, starting from the very second pack, the smile vanished from his face.

He opened thirty packs in one go, and without exception, every single guaranteed R card was an Earth-attribute Normal monster, ranging from Insect and Warrior to Machine, Rock, and even a few Dragons.

The only small consolation for Hayato was that in the thirty-first pack, he finally pulled a card he had been eyeing: 【Gaia the Dragon Knight】.

Though it was merely a Normal Fusion monster, it was the first Fusion monster Hayato had obtained so far, and since it was a Dragon, his 【Dragon's Mirror】—which had been gathering dust in his storage—finally had a use.

The subsequent packs followed a pattern of one good pack followed by one bad pack. In the end, Hayato had to recycle about fifty cards from the pile he pulled, gaining only 500 DP. However, the remaining cards weren't entirely useless; the 【Giantization】 he had used previously and the 【Man-Eating Bug】 he gave to Kaiba were two UR cards he had pulled.

While he had pulled two URs despite the one-card guarantee, the number of SR cards was exactly ten. Aside from 【Gaia the Dragon Knight】 and 【Gransole, the Earth Spirit】, there were a few versatile Warrior support cards and one 【Disruptor Village】 useful for his "Disruptor" deck. It was worth noting that the system also classified the 【Fusion】 Spell card as SR rarity, and Hayato had pulled one of those as well.

As Hayato opened his fortieth pack, he remembered he had a mission to "Collect R-grade or higher cards." After claiming the 1000 DP reward, the 【Mission】 refreshed, presenting a new task

【This guy wants to go to your side】 Gift a card of UR rarity or higher to another person. Reward: 1000 DP, one random 【Kuriboh】 series card.

After claiming the reward from the system, Hayato didn't bother checking which 【Kuriboh】 he had received. After confirming his DP had returned to 4500, he looked at the figure on the television screen.

"So, shall we continue our previous interrupted topic, Mr. Kaiba? What did you think of my previous suggestions?" He swirled his glass of soda as if it were red wine, but realizing this would only accelerate the escape of the bubbles, he immediately set the glass back down.

"Oh, Hayato boy~, truly, I am amazed by those novel ideas in your head." What was playing on Hayato's television was clearly a pre-recorded video, yet the Kaiba in the footage spoke to Hayato as if they were on a video call. "Continuous Spells, Equip and Field Spells, and Quick-Play Spells that reflect the speed of incantations."

"What surprises me most is the 'Trap Card' you came up with. I have always felt that Duel Monsters was missing something, and that was the existence of Traps! Interference against the opponent and counter-interference; the emergence of Traps will make Duel Monsters even more tactical. It is truly subarashii!"

"However, ideas alone are not enough to realize them. On one hand, I am thrilled by your novel ideas, Hayato boy, but on the other, I am suffering from a headache trying to design the inspiration for these Trap cards. It is quite a dilemma~"

As he spoke, the Kaiba in the image feigned a headache, clutching his head.

"Although the preliminary work is hard, considering Duel Monsters will become much more interesting, I imagine you are also looking forward to seeing how it evolves, Mr. Kaiba?" Hayato said with a smile. "As for designing the cards? I have absolutely no doubt in your title as the 'Father of Duel Monsters'."

"Talking to you is truly an interesting thing, Hayato boy~" The Kaiba in the image smiled elegantly. "I originally sent that gift out of mere curiosity, but I didn't expect to encounter such a grand surprise. Are you interested in joining Industrial Illusions? I can offer you a very high salary~"

"While I would love to accept, my interest lies more in using the cards rather than designing them. Besides, it took me a long time studying Duel Monsters to come up with these few ideas. Even if you tempt me with a high salary, there isn't much more 'oil' left for you to squeeze out of me, Mr. Kaiba."

"To provide such exquisite ideas for free... it is clear that you are also a person who deeply loves the game, Hayato boy~" Kaiba looked at Hayato and nodded with satisfaction. "Do you have any wishes you want to realize? My Industrial Illusions has quite a bit of financial strength, you know?"

Hayato smiled. "You are quite amazing, Mr. Kaiba, it's almost as if you have the ability to read minds. I actually happen to have one thing I would like to ask your help with."

"I heard from someone I know... do you happen to have a project called 'Duel Kingdom'?"