Chapter Seventeen: Why Are There Only Goblins in the XP System? / No, There Are Clearly Tentacles and Orcs Too

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Holding a bowl and slurping instant noodles, Hayato prepared to open the second pack of cards, the SR pack. Compared to the barely useful R-level packs, the SR packs were of much higher quality—after all, even the guaranteed minimum was five SR cards. Hayato guessed that the achievement tied to this SR pack was probably something like a "new player bonus," since all it required was to have dueled against the Mutou game, without any win or loss conditions—virtually no challenge at all.

[You have opened an SR-level card pack. Congratulations on obtaining the following cards:
Goblin Assault Squad, Goblin Feint Squad, Goblin Thief, Goblin Feint Attack Squad, Goblin Thief]

Had he just stirred up a nest of goblins!?

Hayato hadn’t expected much—he would have been happy even with something like a "Charge Captain," since it was one of the well-known warrior tribes. But why were all the cards in this SR pack from the goblin series?

It wasn’t that he disliked the cards’ strength; in all fairness, the goblin cards were a prime example of trading appearance for power. The Assault Squad boasted 2300 attack points, the Feint Squad’s ability to draw cards after dealing damage was quite useful, and the Goblin Thief had an effect dealing 500 damage and restoring 500 life points—effective both for finishing blows and survivability.

Still, what Hayato truly wanted from the SR pack was the “Dragon Knight Gaia,” a fused monster made from normal bones.

Yes, although it was just a normal fusion monster with no special effects and had only 300 more attack points than one of its materials, the Dark Knight Gaia, it was classified as a higher-tier SR card than both Gaia and Cursed Dragon. To purchase this specific card required a staggering 3000 DP points—enough to clear a full thirty-card draw from a basic pack.

Thanks to previous achievements, Hayato currently had 2600 DP points (1100 + 1500), still 400 points short of buying it. He suspected the reason the Dragon Knight was priced as an SR was that one of the core support cards for Gaia decks, the Spiral Spear Shot, was based on Dragon Knight Gaia.

In Hayato’s previous life, it was well known that the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" card publisher KONAMI loved to play jokes. Many physical cards never appeared in the anime but still incorporated references from it. The most famous example was the "Moon Slash Sword," a gag that became a classic move in the anime.

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The Spiral Spear Shot, which was always included in Gaia decks, was also a reference from the anime. In fact, the card’s name came from the attack move Gaia used in the show.

Spiral Spear Shot had two effects: first, it gave the Gaia cards piercing defense, and second, after dealing damage with the first effect, it allowed the activation of Angel Baton—drawing two cards and discarding one. As everyone knew, any card that generated card advantage was a good card.

Finishing the last sip of broth from his instant noodles, Hayato proceeded to use his final R-level card selection voucher. Unlike previous packs that drew random cards from a vast pool (though Hayato suspected there was some rigging), this voucher gave him the power to choose freely.

From the immense card pool, he could select any R-level card. Looking at the thousands of cards filling the screen before him, Hayato took a deep breath. Not only were the cards from his current Duel Monsters era available, but even future cards appeared, as long as their effects and types did not exceed the era’s limits.

“This is overwhelming. Even Scumbag Ale is an R? And there’s Rapid Attack Raptor, even the Inferno Machine.” Hesitant and anxious, Hayato bit his nails, torn over his choice. No matter which card he wanted, he could only select one.

After scanning through the seemingly endless pool for a while, Hayato sighed deeply and activated the built-in filter function.

[Category—Spell]
[Keyword—Destruction]

Though regretful, Hayato knew that the best choice now was to pick cards that would most benefit his deck, maximizing his strength. With enough power, he could later acquire those tempting cards.

His deck was still dominated by numerous normal monsters. Even after supplementing with magic cards from the Turtle Game Store, the number of spells remained low. He wanted to raise the proportion of spell cards in his deck as much as possible. His biggest problem now was a shortage of destruction effects. If he faced a mindless shield like the Millennium Shield, he would be helpless.

With the filter active, the card pool quickly shrank, but many cards remained. Hayato began to carefully select. Soon, he found a suitable card.

“What’s this card...?” Looking at the three figures depicted, Hayato didn’t expect it to be classified under “destruction.” Yet its effect description did include the word “destroy.” “Interesting, things are getting more fun.”

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———— Deck Arrangement Break ————

It was another bright and sunny morning. Hayato Kobayashi, alone at home but still obediently avoiding staying up late, left early for school. After all, only children recklessly stayed up all night; having experienced it once, Hayato didn’t want to lose his thick hair.

Waiting at the bus stop for the school bus, on the ride, Hayato overheard two female classmates chatting.

“Ugh, such bad luck. The magazine says my star sign’s luck is awful right now, and yet we have a surprise quiz today.”

The speaker was fashionably dressed and sounded like she truly believed in horoscopes and fortune-telling. Such people existed worldwide, but astrology was subjective—essentially like a daily almanac. Different publishers had varying taboos and auspicious days; different interpreters could produce different results for the same star sign.

“Should I find that famous school fortune teller, Kitsunezo, to check my luck?”

Her companion pushed up her glasses and replied calmly, “Instead of all that unscientific stuff, Hatsuya, you should focus more on the test right in front of you.”

“True, Nagato, you’re really mature.” The first girl sighed, noticing her friend reading a newspaper. “Even reading the paper like that makes you look like my dad—so old-fashioned. Any big news lately? Probably some celebrity scandal again—so boring—”

“Apparently, a murderer has escaped prison.”

“Akazuki!?”