Chapter 19: How Strong Is This Card? Its Attack Power Is Zero

Not long after Dinosaur Ryuzaki left in a huff, Weevil felt he had gotten close enough to Yugi and took his leave with a smile, pausing briefly before departing to insinuate that if they were interested in the "new rules," they could come looking for him.

Jonouchi, who had been eagerly anticipating a luxurious "VIP suite," made to follow the black-suited crew member away from the cabin, but Hayato stopped him.

"What is it, Hayato?"

"Regarding the cabins here, didn't you notice something?" Hayato did not explain right away, instead gesturing toward the duelists behind them who were already settling into spots around the cabin.

Jonouchi glanced around the cabin and asked in confusion, "Notice what? I just see a bunch of people chatting? That dinosaur guy wasn't really wrong, this place isn't great for resting, we should hurry up and leave."

Unlike Jonouchi, Yugi picked up on it immediately: "I see. In that case, Jonouchi, maybe we should stay here a little longer. Look over there."

Following the direction of Yugi's gaze, Jonouchi finally noticed that the duelists gathered together were holding their respective decks in their hands. Amidst their chatter, they would occasionally draw cards from their decks to trade with one another.

"Are they... trading cards?" Although Jonouchi was still slow on the uptake, Honda and Anzu had already figured it out. "Ah, I understand. This place might be a crowded open berth and not very convenient for resting, but at the same time, it's become a very convenient card-trading hub."

"Precisely. While trading cards right before a tournament might make it seem like someone lacks confidence in their own deck, being able to strengthen your deck's power is what actually matters," Hayato said, pulling out a deck of his own. "I have quite a few cards I want to trade away myself; who knows, I might unearth some powerful cards."

Hayato wasn't just making things up. In the original timeline, Jonouchi used discarded cards from his gamble-warrior deck to pull off trades for four rather useful cards: [Rocket Arrow Wafus], [Baby Dragon], [Flame Swordsman], and [Shield & Sword].

Although the duelists gathered here were stronger than amateurs, their focus was mostly on chasing purely powerful monsters, and many of them didn't know true value. They weren't much different from the people at the future Duel Academy who threw away the 0-attack [Relinquished] thinking it was trash.

Before Hayato even went to trade, Jonouchi followed his example and pulled out his deck, moving even faster than Hayato to approach the duelists and strike up conversations to exchange cards.

***

"Hayato-kun, do you actually have a spare deck?" Yugi asked, looking somewhat surprised at the thick stack of cards in Hayato's hand.

"Not really, just some eliminated cards, and a 'few' that I won from others through gambling." Glancing at the top card of his stack—the [TM-1 Rocket Ronin] he had swiped from the escaped convict Rachid—Hayato recalled the system's reply and felt a slight twinge of annoyance.

Although the system's [Shop] provided a recycling function for Hayato, it only accepted cards of R-rarity and above, leaving him with a thick stack of miscellaneous N-rarity chaff. While many of these N-cards were still quite powerful under the current rules, Hayato had learned of Pegasus's plans beforehand, so he intended to trade these goods away as soon as possible to avoid getting stuck with them.

He could have given them to Honda to optimize his rarely used deck, but Honda was reluctant to accept them, feeling that Hayato's cards were "so rare and powerful that he would be too embarrassed to take them."

————A Pleasant Trading Session————

Late that night, after stepping out of his room following a comfortable hot shower and letting the cool sea breeze dry his hair, Hayato saw Yugi and Jonouchi sitting at a round table on the deck outside their room, discussing their harvests from the day.

"Ah, Hayato-kun, aren't you going to rest?"

Yugi was the first to notice Hayato's appearance, making room for him to sit down.

"We'll be arriving at Duelist Kingdom tomorrow, how could anyone sleep at a time like this?" Hayato sat down with a smile and looked at the cards Yugi and Jonouchi had. "So, how was the haul today?"

Because Hayato and Jonouchi had been trading so enthusiastically, Yugi eventually used cards from his own spare deck to trade for two cards: [Lightning Vortex], obtained in exchange for [Water Magician], and [Absorbing Shield], obtained in exchange for [Lao-Tzu]. Jonouchi, meanwhile, had traded for the four cards from the original timeline.

"Pretty good haul for me, right?"

Jonouchi bragged, and Hayato had to admit that the four cards he traded for were indeed quite decent in terms of strength.

***

"Yeah, they're all pretty powerful cards." Hayato also pulled out today's haul from his pocket. "However, my haul is even better than yours. Quite a few people traded their powerful cards to me."

Jonouchi leaned in curiously, wanting to see what cards Hayato had traded for, but upon seeing a sea of red and green spell and trap cards, he recoiled. "What the heck, Hayato? How come you're just like Yugi, only trading for magic and trap cards?"

"Naturally, it's because the people willing to trade shared your mindset—thinking Duel Monsters only need monster cards," Hayato said, pulling the single monster card out from the pile of magic and trap cards. "Besides, I did trade for a pretty fantastic monster card too~"

"[Maiden in Love]? This monster looks so frail and doesn't seem strong at all." Jonouchi couldn't quite understand what use Hayato's card with 0 attack points could possibly have.

"You can't just judge Duel Monsters by their appearance; their true abilities are hidden behind the scenes. Ah, speaking of which," Yugi said, having recognized the strength of Hayato's [Maiden in Love], and turned to Jonouchi. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he pulled a card from the golden chest placed before him and handed it to Jonouchi.

"Jonouchi-kun, why don't you use this card?"

"Huh, [Time Wizard]? Its attack is so weak." Jonouchi looked at the card Yugi gave him with mild disdain and was about to say something when Hayato interrupted him:

"Since he gave it to you, just take good care of it. You'll find out just how powerful this card is. Even if you don't trust the card itself, at least trust me and Yugi, right?"

"Since you're putting it that way, fine." Hearing Hayato speak so earnestly, Jonouchi reluctantly accepted the [Time Wizard]. Just as he slipped the card into his deck, a familiar voice drifted from behind them:

"Oh my, what a coincidence. Yugi-kun, I didn't expect you guys to be up so late either."

Hayato turned his head to see Weevil, dressed in green and wearing a smile, walking up to the third-floor deck where they were sitting. "Yeah, what a coincidence indeed, Weevil Underwood."