Chapter 47: Rule Adjustment

Over this past month, it wasn't just Joey who had changed; both Yugi's and Hayato's decks had undergone massive transformations. The reason for this was that Industrial Illusions had recently released many new card packs, introducing a brand-new card type—Trap Cards.

At the same time, Pegasus issued a notice regarding card adjustments, converting original cards like "Savior Ant Hell" into Trap Cards. Duelists could either purchase new packs to pull them or visit various card shops to exchange their old cards for the new versions.

It wasn't that people refused to exchange them, but Pegasus had come up with a "very cool" idea to handle the situation—he had partnered with several corporations to install Duel Disks equipped with virtual projection technology in stadiums across major cities. Only cards readable by these Duel Disks could be virtually projected.

One needn't guess who these "certain corporations" were; it was the holder of the virtual projection system patent—KaibaCorp—along with a large number of medium-sized enterprises that took on the production of these high-tech Duel Disks, such as the "Majaku Conglomerate" owned by Manjoume Seiji's family.

It is worth mentioning that Kaiba had not appeared at school once since the day he lost his duel to Yugi; word was that he had already dropped out.

With the release of new cards, Yugi—whose grandfather ran a card shop—naturally wouldn't let this advantage go to waste. He had early on acquired many "interesting" Trap Cards, such as [Angel's Hand Mirror], [Sword of Light Seal], and the Hanon's... I mean, [Sacred Protection—Mirror Force].

Consequently, Joey, who repeatedly challenged Yugi, faced many new ways to lose—failing after his field was cleared of monsters by [Angel's Hand Mirror], or failing after having a massive amount of monsters reflected back at him by [Mirror Force], draining his Life Points in one go, and so on.

At first, Hayato also considered whether he should exchange his current Trap Cards that were still classified as Spell Cards, such as [Time Machine] and the [Tricky Trio]. However, the system uncharacteristically showed some mercy by providing a free conversion function for the new version, saving Hayato some trouble.

Meanwhile, during this month, Hayato had dueled others several times, accumulating a significant amount of DP. He used all of it to open packs, greatly increasing the strength of his deck. In fact, in Hayato's most frequently used mixed deck, the only monsters with an attack power below 1000 left were [Death Stalker] and the [Tricky] brothers.

He also discovered something: the basic packs in the system's [Shop] seemed to undergo micro-adjustments based on his deck composition, much like the [Custom Supplement Pack] he had purchased. Initially, most of what Hayato pulled were Warrior-type monsters, but as the card pool deepened, the number of Beast-type and Dragon-type monsters gradually increased.

The only thing that left Hayato feeling regretful was that Pegasus never agreed to implement the rules from the later Duel City era. 4000 LP, Fusion from the hand, Tribute Summoning, Direct Attacks, and so on—dueling would have clearly become much more interesting that way.

"Whether it's Moths' insect or Ryuzaki's dinosaur, both are quite powerful duelists," Yugi remarked while watching the match on TV. "Just because Trap Cards were added, Duel Monsters have become so much more interesting. I really look forward to seeing how much Duel Monsters will evolve in the future."

Of course, the environment would eventually accelerate due to the emergence of Synchro, resulting in a fast-forward to the destruction of the world.

"Speaking of which, why didn't Hayato and Yugi participate in the qualifiers?" Téa noticed something and turned around to ask.

Hayato was currently retrieving his deck from the system and taking five cards to keep on his person. Hearing Téa's question, he thought for a moment before giving his answer: "Probably because I feel like a 'national' scale is too small. Although I can't defeat Yugi yet, my goal is to be the strongest duelist in the world."

"Hayato, I know you can do it," Yugi encouraged with a smile, then replied to Téa, "As for me, it's because I want to duel *that person*."

Joey frowned. "That person... you mean that Kaiba guy?"

"Yeah," Yugi nodded. "Kaiba... before, he didn't grasp the power of the 'Heart' contained within the cards. I want to have a proper duel with a Kaiba who has realized the 'Heart' of the cards."

Joey, however, didn't quite agree with Yugi. "That Kaiba guy... can he really grasp the 'Heart' of the cards? I really can't believe in that guy."

"Hey, it looks like the match is about to end." Tristan viewed Duel Monsters more as an interesting game; it hadn't risen to the level of "duelist's honor and dignity" that Yugi and Joey felt, let alone the mystical "power of the Heart," so he didn't join their discussion. However, the materialized Duel Monsters on the TV were indeed very cool.

Prompted by Tristan, everyone shifted their attention back to the television screen.

On Moths' field, there was only one remaining monster, an [Insect Man] with only 500 ATK, and one face-down card. Ryuzaki, on the other hand, had summoned a powerful 1800 ATK Dragon-type [Horned Dragon] to his field and equipped it with the Spell Card [Temperature Rise], boosting its attack power to a full 2100.

[Ryuzaki: 100 LP] [Moths: 600 LP]

"You have the advantage in base points, but my monster will soon wipe out your Life Points in one go, Moths!" Ryuzaki laughed excitedly, victory seemingly within his grasp. "[Horned Dragon], attack [Insect Man]!"

Moths gave a sly grin and flipped his face-down card. "You never learn, do you, Ryuzaki? I activate my face-down card, [Savior Ant Hell]!"

A whirlwind of sand swept in, and before the massive [Horned Dragon] could take a single step, it was trapped by sudden quicksand, rendered immobile.

"My [Horned Dragon]!"

"Now you're just fish on a chopping block, Ryuzaki." Wearing a sinister smile, Moths played two Spell Cards in succession. "[Laser Cannon Mecha Armor] and [Fire-Attached Mecha Armor] are equipped to [Insect Man], and then we launch an attack on the defenseless [Horned Dragon]!"

Two beams of light flew from the cards Moths activated, landing on [Insect Man] and transforming into two sets of high-powered artillery, significantly boosting [Insect Man]'s attack power.

Accompanied by a laser blast from the cannons on [Insect Man]'s back, [Horned Dragon] was destroyed. Ryuzaki's Life Points dropped to zero, and the match was decided. In the end, "Insect" Moths became the champion of the Japan National Duel Monsters Tournament.

(By the way, the advertisers in the comments section are truly relentless.)

(End of Chapter)