Who asked him to play Yu-Gi-Oh!

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Tsubasa Nakamura was practically howling as he left the field.

First blood in the preliminary round. Yuugen was very satisfied with his performance. He had once again let someone experience the true essence of Yu-Gi-Oh! firsthand.
He believed that after reviewing the replay, this player would definitely gain a lot of insights and be grateful to him in the end.
Yuugen played several matches that day, a high match density to say the least. However, the Gekka Cup wasn't a competition with a high entry threshold in the first place. There were a lot of players of all kinds participating. The preliminary rounds were held simultaneously in many venues, which greatly saved the tournament time.

But nothing was out of his expectations. He hadn't run into any recognizable characters in the preliminary rounds. Based on the anime, most of the ordinary, random duelist passersby outside the protagonist's perspective had rather ordinary strength. He hadn't seen any builds that made his eyes light up yet.
Of course, Yuugen wouldn't underestimate his opponents because of this. After the matches on the first day, he still briefly looked at other matches and learned a little about the advanced players' games.
Although the chances of choking against most of those opponents weren't high, Yuugen figured he should play it safe. As the art of war says, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated." The same was true for Yu-Gi-Oh!

If he could understand his opponent's deck configuration and tactical style in advance, and make targeted adjustments before the competition, he could effectively increase his win rate.
Before the Gekka Cup, the dojo had already given him part of the subsidy in advance, saying it was to strengthen his deck and upgrade his configuration.
Yuugen was not polite and directly accepted it. With this budget, he was able to readjust his original strategy, and he went on a buying spree these days, trying to piece together a few more decks.

Though, he’s not solely relying on one deck this time around.
Although Hand Destruction may have been the world champion back then, it was clearly unrealistic to rely on this one trick to eat all over the world in the anime world. Once people knew that he only had this one trick, it would be easily targeted, and that was definitely something he didn't want to see.
So, after Yuugen went to the market to purchase before the competition, he tried to piece together two or three more decks based on the cards he could get that he felt were more playable and could bring more joy.

He constantly changed his deck and adjusted his build based on the opponent's deck and tactical type, making his tactics more flexible and difficult to grasp. On the one hand, it allowed him to always have a matchup advantage in front of his opponents, and on the other hand, it also made it harder for him to be targeted by others.
...
...

Master Takeuchi made himself a cup of coffee and comfortably sat in the soft sofa in the afternoon sun, casually flipping through the latest issue of the Duelist Times.
The Duelist Times was a newspaper belonging to the Kaiba Corporation, reporting on all kinds of anecdotes in the dueling world.
He had been busy with family matters these past two days and couldn't find time to watch his students' matches. But he had heard that the dojo's two students had successfully passed the first day of the preliminary rounds, which made him quite gratified.
Opening the newspaper, there was a report about the preliminary rounds of the Gekka Cup.

[There was a near instance of malicious assault on an opponent duelist at the Gekka Cup preliminary round.]
[A participating player lost control of his emotions during a duel and angrily tried to directly harm the opposing duelist, but was unsuccessful and was disqualified from the competition...]
"Hmm?"

Master Takeuchi was a little curious and carefully looked at the report.
There was such a thing?
The quality of duelists these days was getting worse and worse. There were even people who would get angry and directly resort to violence when they couldn't win. They didn't have the basic dignity of a duelist.

He briefly looked at the report. Real names were not used in it, and pseudonyms were used instead, seemingly to intentionally protect the privacy of the participating players. One pseudonym was Kento, and the other was Tomoki.
Then he looked further.
[On the third day of the Gekka Cup, player Shota (pseudonym) unexpectedly suffered a hemorrhagic stroke during a duel with player Kento (pseudonym). Fortunately, he was rescued in time, and player Shota is now out of danger...]

Playing cards to the point of a cerebral hemorrhage?
Master Takeuchi was surprised. Was this year's Gekka Cup so dangerous?
Wait... He suddenly felt like he had discovered something important.

The pseudonyms of the opposing duelists in the two incidents were both called Kento. It couldn't be the same person, right?
If it was true, then one time was an accident, but two times in a row...
Could it be ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ that the problem was actually with this guy?

Master Takeuchi immediately thought of the phenomenon that his blood pressure magically rose with the progress of the duel when he dueled with that student named Yuugen in the dojo a few days ago...
He suddenly had a bad feeling.
It shouldn't... be that coincidental, right?

...
...
Three days later.

"I'm already in the top eight?"
The top-eight ticket was obtained a little too easily, so much so that Yuugen even felt a little unfulfilled.
As expected, the level of competition in this kind of tournament was just like this. He couldn't expect too much. Most of his opponents were just so-called folk masters. He didn't know if the intensity would increase a little after entering the top-eight competition.

Watching Yuugen's expression of successful advancement while still regretting it, Koji had an urge to hit him again.
Yes, unlike Yuugen, who was like a cheat code, pushing straight to the top eight, Sato Koji was eliminated on the second day of the preliminary rounds.
He had no matches to play and nothing to prepare, so he had to come to his junior brother's side, who had advanced from the same dojo, to eat lemons.

But the good news was that at least he hadn't had time to run into Yuugen before being eliminated, so he didn't have to be tormented in the public arena again.
And at least now he could watch from the front row and enjoy the sight of other players being destroyed.
It was strange to say. When he was tormented by his junior brother's underworld cards, his blood pressure would rise involuntarily, but when he saw others being treated in the same way on the court, he would feel very happy.

Indeed, humans were strange and contradictory creatures.
"By the way, junior brother, have you seen your match list?" he asked from the side. "Who is your top-eight opponent?"
He was very eager to have the first victim come forward.

"Oh, it's a student from Duel Academy Middle School."
Yuugen said.
"His name is Jun Manjoume (Chazz Princeton)."

...
...
"Manjoume-bro is so strong, it's insane!"

Jun Manjoume, from Duel Academy Affiliated Middle School, was currently sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, enjoying the flattering words of his two underlings.
Jun Manjoume, from the famous Manjoume Group, was the third young master of the Manjoume Group. He was currently the number one in the elite class of the middle school and was granted permission to be directly recommended to the Duel Academy High School this year without examination.
Manjoume had been nurtured as a dueling elite by his family since he was a child. According to the family's plan, his two older brothers were arranged to be business tycoons and high-ranking politicians, while his expectations were to become the Duel King in the future, reigning over the dueling world and becoming the pillar of the Manjoume Group's future.

At first glance, this "man who will become the King of Games" seemed a bit ridiculous compared to his two older brothers, but looking at Seto Kaiba, you could understand that playing cards well in this world was more promising than doing business or politics.
So, it was conceivable that Manjoume had been arranged to participate in various competitions since he was a child, and had won so many championships and medals that his hands were sore.
This time, participating in the Gekka Cup was also the family's intention, which was his last training before going to Duel Academy High School.

As with many previous competitions, the instructions given by his two older brothers were also very clear. He was participating in order to win the championship.
To the family, a runner-up was equivalent to defeat. A competition that didn't win first place was meaningless.
But even Manjoume felt a little pressure this time.

Because among the participating players this time, there was actually Dinosaur Ryuzaki. That legendary former national runner-up, the man who had even fought against the legendary Joey Wheeler!
Could he really win against such a legend?
Manjoume rubbed his fingers together, staring at the floor in a daze.

"But speaking of which, Manjoume-bro's opponent in the top eight is someone I've never heard of. What's his name... Yugen Fujiki. Is he a rookie?"
"Hmm?"
Manjoume came back to his senses and checked his opponent's information.

Duelist Level...
...One star?
He even wondered if he was seeing things.

One star? Wasn't that the ace of noobs? Could a guy like that even participate? And even reach the top eight??
Looking again at the major competition experience and public honors... it was a blank slate.
"His resume is a blank sheet of paper. He seems to be a cannon fodder," Underling A said disdainfully, "How did a guy like that make it to the top-eight competition?"

"Maybe he's just lucky?" Underling B said.
"Even with luck, you still have to have some strength to get this far, right..."
And no matter what, being able to reach the top eight after participating in a public competition for the first time meant that he definitely wouldn't still be a one-star after this competition.

"Maybe he's the kind of dark horse who's making his debut. There are sometimes talented players like that," Underling B said. "Well, it's all cannon fodder in front of Manjoume-bro anyway."
"That makes sense."
Underling A nodded in agreement and then smiled again.

"But speaking of which, this guy named Yugen is really miserable. He ran into Manjoume-bro so quickly. It looks like he can only stop at the top eight."
Manjoume smiled slightly, not saying anything, seemingly wanting to appear cool and act like a master. However, the corners of his mouth that couldn't be stopped from rising and the instinctive tactical lean-back had already exposed the smugness in his heart.
Although Manjoume didn't speak, he agreed with his underling's prediction in his heart.

Yugen Fujiki... He had never heard of him.
Even if he was a dark horse, he was still participating for the first time. Could he really OTK beat me, the NO.1 in the elite class of the middle school?