Chapter 11 Rule Adjustment

Over the past month, it was not only Jonouchi who had changed; the decks of both Yugi and Hayato had undergone tremendous transformations. The underlying reason was that Industrial Illusions had recently released numerous new card packs, introducing a completely new card type: Trap Cards.

At the same time, Pegasus had issued a notice regarding card adjustments, reclassifying older cards such as "Mesmeric Control" as Trap Cards. Duelists could either purchase new card packs or visit game shops across various regions to exchange their old cards for the updated versions.

Naturally, there were those who chose not to make the exchange, but Pegasus came up with a "very cool" idea to handle this situation: he partnered with several corporations to install duel stands equipped with virtual projection technology in stadiums across major cities. Only cards readable by these duel stands could be projected virtually.

Needless to say, these "several corporations" included Kaiba Corporation, the holder of the virtual projection system patents, alongside a large number of medium-sized enterprises responsible for manufacturing the high-tech duel stands, such as the Vormacht Financial Group owned by Johji Vormacht's family.

It was worth mentioning that ever since his defeat in the duel against Yugi, Kaiba had not appeared at school once, reportedly having dropped out.

With new cards released, Yugi—whose grandfather ran a game shop—naturally did not let this advantage go to waste, acquiring many "interesting" trap cards early on, such as [Mirror Wall], [Light of Intervention], and, speaking of the Knights of Hanoi—I mean—[Mirror Force].

As a result, Jonouchi, who repeatedly challenged Yugi, found many new ways to lose: losing with an empty field after having his monsters turned against him by [Mirror Wall], or having a massive army of monsters blown back and his Life Points wiped out in one go by [Mirror Force], among others.

At first, Hayato also wondered whether he should go and exchange the cards in his hand that were still classified as magic cards into trap cards, such as [Time Machine] or [Ojama Trio]. However, the system showed unprecedented benevolence by providing a free function to upgrade to the new versions, saving Hayato some trouble.

Meanwhile, over the course of the month, Hayato had also dueled several others multiple times, accumulating a considerable number of DP points. He used them all to open card packs, significantly increasing the strength of his deck. Even in Hayato's most frequently used mixed deck, the only monsters with an attack power below 1000 left were [Death Stalker] and the [Ojama] brothers.

He also discovered something: the basic card packs in the system [Shop] seemed to undergo slight adjustments based on his deck composition, just like the [Custom Booster Pack] he had purchased before. At the very beginning, the cards Hayato opened were mostly Warrior-type monsters, but as the card pool deepened, the numbers of Beast-type and Dragon-type monsters gradually began to increase.

The only regret Hayato had was that Pegasus could not be persuaded to implement the rules from the later Battle City era. 4000 starting LP, hand fusion, tribute requirements for high-level monsters, and direct attacks—dueling like that would have made things so much more interesting.

"Whether it's Weevil Underwood or Rex Raptor, both of them are quite formidable duelists," Yugi said, watching the match on television with a sigh. "Just with the addition of Trap Cards, Duel Monsters has become so interesting. I really look forward to seeing how much Duel Monsters will evolve in the future."

Of course, it would evolve through the emergence of Synchro summoning, constantly accelerating the environment until it speeds right toward world destruction.

"Speaking of which, why didn't Hayato and Yugi participate in the preliminary tournament?" Anzu noticed something, turned around, and asked.

Hayato was just taking his deck out of the system and slotting five cards onto his person. Hearing Anzu's question, he thought for a moment and gave his answer: "Probably because I feel like the scale of something like 'Nationals' is just too small. Even though I still can't beat Yugi yet, my goal is to be the strongest duelist in the entire world."

"Hayato, you can definitely do it," Yugi encouraged with a smile, and then replied to Anzu, "As for me, it's because I want to duel that person again."

Jonouchi frowned: "That person—are you talking about that bastard Kaiba?"

"Yeah," Yugi nodded. "Kaiba didn't truly grasp the power of the 'heart' contained within the cards before. I want to have a fair and honorable duel with Kaiba once he understands the 'heart' of the cards."

Jonouchi, however, was rather skeptical of Yugi's words: "That guy Kaiba, can he really understand the 'heart' of the cards? I just can't bring myself to trust him."

"Hey, looks like it's about to be decided." Honda viewed Duel Monsters mostly as a fun game and had not elevated it to the level of "a duelist's honor and dignity" like Yugi and Jonouchi did, let alone esoteric concepts like the power of the "heart," so he did not join their discussion. Still, the materialized duel monsters on TV were undeniably cool.

Reminded by Honda, everyone shifted their attention back to the television screen.

On Weevil's field, there was only a single remaining [Larva Moth] with a mere 500 attack power and one face-down card, while Rex had summoned a powerful Dinosaur-type [Two-Headed King Rex] with 1800 attack power to his field, and equipped it with the Magic Card [Raise Body Heat], pushing its attack power all the way up to 2100.

[Rex Raptor: 100 LP]

[Weevil Underwood: 600 LP]

"Judging by our Life Points, you have the advantage, but my monster is going to wipe out your Life Points in one fell swoop, Weevil!" Rex laughed excitedly, victory seemingly within his grasp. "[Two-Headed King Rex], attack [Larva Moth]!"

Weevil chuckled slyly and flipped over his face-down card: "You never learn from your mistakes, Rex. I activate my face-down card, [Mesmeric Control]!"

A whirlwind of dust swept across the field, and the massive [Two-Headed King Rex] was trapped by a sudden surge of quicksand before it could even take a single step, leaving it completely immobilized.

"My [Two-Headed King Rex]!"

"That leaves you completely like a fish on a cutting board, Rex." Wearing a sinister smile, Weevil played two Magic Cards in succession. "[Laser Cannon Armor] and [Insect Armor with Laser Cannon] will be equipped to [Larva Moth], and then, attack the helpless [Two-Headed King Rex]!"

Two rays of light flew out from the cards Weevil played, landing on [Larva Moth] and transforming into two sets of formidable-looking artillery combinations, vastly boosting [Larva Moth]'s attack power.

Accompanied by a beam of laser fire erupting from the cannons on [Larva Moth]'s back, [Two-Headed King Rex] was destroyed, Rex's Life Points dropped completely to zero, and the match was decided. In the end, Weevil Underwood, the "Insector," emerged as the champion of the Japan National Duel Monsters Championship.