Who Let Him Play Yu-Gi-Oh!-Chapter 84: Mascot

Silence.

Until Watanabe Shuichi's LP hit zero and he was blasted flat on his back, no one spoke for a long time.

Even the Host had his mouth hanging open, stunned and speechless.

Mama Mia, what the heck just happened!?

He was almost shocked enough to blurt out Professor Crowler's catchphrase.

It wasn't unheard of for genius freshmen to take down the defending members during recruitment events. The Host thought that after more than two years in the Duel Club, he'd seen it all.

But a duel like this? He'd never seen anything like it!

"Uh..." The big-busted senpai on the stands was at a loss for words.

Kira showed off both a "you're not allowed to play today" stall style and a theoretically infinite-ATK loop in the same duel... It was hard to imagine such wildly different playstyles could come from the same person in one match.

How could there be a duelist like this in the world?

Even Chazz was out of his seat, eyes glued to Kira on stage, not looking away for a second.

He already knew that guy was a troll, and strong as hell. But even so, this duel went way beyond his expectations.

How does this guy keep coming up with so many bizarre combos!?

Watching Kira duel, Chazz felt like he was watching a genius solving math problems: problems that regular students rack their brains over, the genius casually solves in a few strokes, leaving everyone else dumbfounded—like, "So that's possible?!"

Sometimes, you want to open up a genius's head and see how it works—why is it so different from yours?

Of course, even if Kira knew this, he'd just smile and say he was simply standing on the shoulders of giants.

Even with the card game is life rules in this world—where locals need a hundred times more effort to discover patterns that real-world duelists take for granted—Kira, as a dimension-hopper, could see even more combos and deck ideas with ease. But even for him, this game was still huge.

So many card combos, so many tricks, and tactics—especially the ones that endured and were handed down for twenty years—they were all the crystallization of the wisdom of duelists of the past. He could only do so much because he was building on what others had figured out.

Finding possibilities in the vast card pool, creating wild and unexpected synergies that surprise or delight, that's always been part of Yu-Gi-Oh's charm.

"Congratulations, Fujiki Kira, you passed the assessment."

At last, the Duel Club president spoke up.

"That's enough, Shuichi. Come back."

From the look on the president's face, Shuichi knew he wasn't happy with his performance—he was in for a scolding.

Shuichi wanted to cry but had no tears. He wanted to say, "President, it wasn't my fault! I did my best."

But what do you do when your opponent's not even human?

Even when Kira stepped off the stage, everyone's eyes were still locked on him.

He's just a freshman...

At this rate, won't the Duel Club have to change presidents soon?

"..."

"This is your welcome gift."

The busty senpai smiled and handed Kira a badge.

"This is the Duel Club member badge, keep it safe. New members get five extra credits, and you can pick one card for free from this box."

She held out a box for Kira to choose from.

When he opened it, rows of cards were neatly arranged inside.

So, it does pay to sign up early—if you come late, the good cards will already be gone.

Kira glanced over them. Honestly, nothing caught his eye—maybe because they were freebies, the selection was kind of meh.

Huh?

He spotted one card that was odd.

Meteor Black Dragon.

The fusion of Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Meteor Dragon, level 8, 3500 ATK—a useless card in the real game.

But Kira was surprised—wasn't Red-Eyes Black Dragon supposed to be super rare in this world?

In DM, only Joey had one, and it was his signature card. By the GX era, maybe they were a bit more common—Atticus Rhodes had two in one duel, possibly a third in his deck.

But even then, it was a top-tier rare—not something you'd see in circulation.

"This one's valuable! The club paid a lot to get it!" The busty senpai grinned. "It's the evolved form of a legendary monster!"

Kira asked, "But the club doesn't have 'Red-Eyes Black Dragon' in stock, right? So, you can't summon this card..."

"Right, you can't summon it," she said as if it were obvious.

Kira: "?"

"C'mon, Red-Eyes is a legendary monster! If we could summon it, there's no way we could afford it!" She laughed, her whole body shaking. "Meteor Black Dragon is a fusion upgrade, but not as rare as the base card. Plus, it's not that strong in actual duels, so it's mostly a collector's item.

Oh, but I did hear that some duelists use it as their ace, just using 'King of the Swamp' to substitute for Red-Eyes as fusion material. But 'King of the Swamp' is rare too..."

Kira: "..."

So, it's a mascot after all.

Hmm, wait—

Now that he thought about it, he'd recently picked up a certain versatile card from the Academy collection.

If he combined it with that, maybe this thing could be useful...

"I'll take 'Meteor Black Dragon'," Kira said.

Nothing else in the box looked useful anyway.

"Alright!"

The busty senpai handed him the card.

Kira took his reward and exchanged contact info with the busty senpai for future communication.

She seemed very happy to have his info.

"Oh, by the way, senpai, where are the recruitment events for other clubs?" Kira asked. "Are they also happening soon?"

She looked a bit weirded out.

You're asking a Duel Club member about other clubs' recruitment sites—aren't you a bit out of line?

Still, she answered, "Each club's recruitment event is at a different time, but they should all be within the next two weeks. But as your senpai, I'd advise you not to join too many clubs—energy is limited, after all."

"Thanks for the advice, but don't worry," Kira said with a confident smile. "I know my limits."