Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Not only because of Hayato's sudden appearance and his status as the principal, but also because they remembered that earlier that day, he had reminded everyone in a video not to use the dueling arena. However, they ended up dueling here because Manjoume had finished the last part of the dueling arena ahead of time, and were even caught red-handed by Hayato, who was their teacher.

Hayato could immediately sense their tension—mainly Marufuji Sho and Maeda Hayato, whose duel was still in progress. Jaden even waved to him smugly, saying, "Oh! Long time no see, Mr. Hayato!"

"You've improved a lot compared to before, Jaden. You even added three 'Sky Heroes' cards to your deck?" Hayato said, smiling at Jaden. Compared to his previous ordinary card deck, Jaden's current 'E·Hero' is definitely more than what he showed during the practical test that day.

The [E·hero] deck that Hayato gave to Jaden didn't even include Bubble Boy, nicknamed "Little Greed." However, Jaden, whose deck had a very high synergy with it, managed to "print" [E·hero Bubble Boy] within a month of receiving the deck. Before leaving Domino City, Jaden's deck already included other [E·hero] support cards such as [Hero Boy] and [Machine Dog].

Now, so many years have passed, and Jaden's deck is naturally no longer the same as before; it has become even stronger. However, it's a pity that Manjoume still doesn't seem to have been able to fully unleash Jaden's improvements over the years.

Noticing the somewhat flustered Marufuji Sho and Maeda, Hayato grinned maliciously: "I actually caught you disobedient bad students, using this unfinished and dangerous dueling arena without permission, completely disregarding my words as the principal with supreme authority."

"Bad students like you were born to be expelled by me, hehehehe..."

Hearing Hayato's words, Asuka, who was following behind him, teased, "If that's the case, then you, the principal, are also responsible for standing by and watching instead of stopping them earlier, only coming out to punish them after the duel was over."

“Hmm…that’s true.” Hayato stroked his chin, nodded, and snapped his fingers. “In that case, I’ll pretend I didn’t see you, and everyone can pretend nothing happened.”

"Really? That's great!" Upon hearing Hayato's words, Marufuji Sho and Maeda excitedly hugged each other, relieved that Hayato had really let them off the hook. One of them was at the bottom of the class, and the other had repeated a year, so they were terrified of being disciplined.

Seeing that the two actually believed it, Asuka sighed at the low intelligence of her peers. Wasn't Principal Kobayashi's behavior quite obvious? From the beginning, he had no intention of punishing them, and she had only casually agreed. How could these two not understand Hayato's meaning at all and actually believe him?

Bypassing Marufuji Sho and Maeda, Hayato stepped onto the dueling platform, pulled out a card from his person, and said, "Although the card betting rules don't apply in the school, as the principal, I still have to reward a student who has put on a good duel. This can also serve as a gift for your enrollment in the Duel Academy."

"This guy wants to come to your place."

As Hayato threw the card in his hand, Jaden instinctively caught it as it flew in a spiral trajectory, and saw that the card contained a powerful monster with a level of 8 stars: "[Lava Demon]?"

"The most feared thing for the [E·hero] deck is powerful monsters with excessively high attack power or troublesome effects. Other monsters, whether traps or spells, can be countered, but the former is too troublesome for [E·hero]. Therefore, [Lava Demon], which can transform other monsters into targets that can be dealt with, is the most suitable partner for [E·hero].

Hayato casually rambled on, refusing to admit that his fondness for cards like [Lava Demon] and [Turtle Kaiju - Gamesiale] was purely due to the thrill of releasing the cards. "Besides, the heroes really do need to fight opponents that look like [Lava Demon] to make it feel right," he said.

“Now that you mention it, it’s true. The ‘E’ in ‘E·hero’ stands for ‘Elemental.’ Compared to giant robots and dragons, giant elemental monsters definitely feel more like nemesis.” Jaden clenched his fist and tapped his palm. Completely convinced by Hayato, he immediately stuffed the newly acquired ‘Lava Demon’ into his deck without even looking at its specific effects.

This has always been the style of Jaden's deck. For him, deck building has never been important. He only needs to consider whether he likes a certain card or not. If he likes it, he will put it in the deck. As for effects and combos, he only needs to consider them while dueling. He is the most intuitive of the intuitive.

However, due to the deck's limit of sixty cards, Jaden often has to make choices. For example, in order to add "Lava Demon" to his deck, he considered it for a while and then removed the monster card "Wandering Hero - Freed" from his deck and temporarily put it into his spare card pool.

Meanwhile, Hayato looked at Manjoume, who was still lying on the ground with his butt sticking out, and said, "Jun, you've only lost once. Anyway, you've never beaten Jaden since you were kids, so why are you so dejected?"

“That’s not the case. That guy always won before, just because he started playing Duel Monsters earlier than me, whose time was taken up by various extracurricular classes and etiquette lessons. I just started later.” Getting up and sitting on the ground, Manjoume looked at Jaden with displeasure. “But I’ve been working hard at Duel Academy Middle School for the past few years. How come I can’t even compare to this guy who didn’t go to Duel Academy? I was the top student in the Obelisk Blue dormitory.”

"Isn't it normal for the Blue Dorm to lose to the Red Dorm? Look at Kaiba, how many games has he won if he doesn't cheat? But the strongest one is still [Ra]." Hayato said with a smile, patting Manjoume on the shoulder. "It's good that you learned a lesson. You got arrogant after being number one among those weaklings in the middle school. Do you really think you can challenge Caesar in the first semester if you keep pushing your luck?"

"Ahem!" Upon hearing Hayato call the middle school students "weaklings," Asuka immediately coughed twice. "Principal Kobayashi, please don't misunderstand. While the middle school students are certainly not as good as professional duelists, not all of them are weak. Although Jun Manjoume is the top student in the middle school, that doesn't mean my strength is inferior to his."

"Misunderstanding? I didn't misunderstand. In my opinion, even Manjoume's strength is at the 'rookie' level." Hayato spread his hands and said in a flippant tone, "In fact, I would say that even many of the students who have graduated are just at the rookie level in my eyes, just like how a certain fighter who narrowly lost to the doorknob sees everyone as female."

Hayato's tone was quite irritating, but his words reminded everyone present that besides being the principal of the Duel Academy, he was also the strongest duelist in the world. He really did have the right to say those things.

But compared to the strong-willed Asuka, Marufuji Sho was more concerned about something else: "Entrance gift... Why would the principal give something like that to Judai-nii? Did you two know each other before?"

"Big brother? Why do you call me that?" Jaden asked, somewhat puzzled.

Marufuji Sho, of course, didn't want to tell Judai that he thought Judai was a great ally and wanted to latch onto him. He quickly explained, "Because your duel was so dazzling, big brother. That kind of will to never give up even in the face of adversity makes people's blood boil and their hearts surge just by watching it. It makes people want to become as strong as you."

"Right, Maeda?"

Hayato Maeda scratched the back of his head. Although he didn't actually want to ride on Jaden's coattails like Sho Marufuji, it was true that he envied Jaden's duels: "That's right. Watching your duels, Jaden, I was a little envious and wanted to be brave enough to stand on the stage like you."

"Haha, I'm not that great." Hearing his roommates' praise, Jaden felt a mix of envy, though Marufuji Sho and Maeda Hayato's envy was different. He didn't seem to mind, but instead wiped his nose a little embarrassedly and said with a smile, "Anyway, let's all work hard together from now on to become the Duel King, and try to defeat Hayato-san before graduation!"

"You actually dared to say you'd defeat me to my face? You brats really underestimate me." Hayato patted Jaden's shoulder lightly. "Alright, hurry back to your dorms. I remember your dorm leader, Daitokuji-sensei, spent a month's salary to prepare a welcome party for you new students. You'll have plenty of time to explore the school for the next three years. Now go back and help Daitokuji."

"Whenever that 'Pharaoh' dog kept at Daitoku-ji Temple runs around, his attention will be immediately diverted. I can't let that guy burn the food again."

Upon hearing Hayato's words, the three immediately remembered that before they left the Red Dormitory, Daitokuji-sensei had come to their dormitory because of the Pharaoh who was running around everywhere. Fearing that they would eat burnt food that night, their faces changed drastically. They immediately waved to Hayato, Manjoume, and Asuka and ran away to their dormitory as fast as they could.

After the group left, Manjoume asked curiously, "By the way, Mr. Hayato, I suddenly remembered that you haven't answered that bespectacled guy's question yet. Why did that jellyfish-headed guy have a so-called 'entrance gift'?"

"To be more precise, every new student actually receives an entrance gift. Which company do you think provided that pack of cards you got on the cruise ship?" Hayato said casually, reaching into the card box at his waist. "During the practical assessment, the academy collects information on the decks students use and sends it to the International Illusion Society for organization. Before you board the ship, they will create so-called 'limited edition card packs' corresponding to the decks you use. Although some of the cards in the packs are just to fill the quota, there will definitely be enhancement cards for the decks you use among the cards that are in circulation."

Whether you can get the cards that match your deck depends on your communication skills and luck.

"Why do we need to watch that kind of stuff? Shouldn't we come to the Duel Academy to learn how to become a duelist?"

Asuka was puzzled, but Manjoume shook his head. "No, these two abilities are actually quite important, but it seems you don't understand them very well, Tenjouin."

"But that's not right, Mr. Hayato. Yuki not only got powerful cards that matched his deck, but his luck was off the charts. Why was he still able to get the cards you gave him?"

Hearing Manjoume's words, Hayato said nonchalantly, "The answer is that I just happened to have an extra [Lava Demon]. This card might be quite rare for other people, but I happen to know an unlucky guy who can get several [Lava Demon] cards just by buying a few packs. That guy is also a shut-in who doesn't care about interpersonal relationships at all. His sister and stepbrother don't like using [Lava Demon] either, so he gave me the [Lava Demon] as soon as he got it."

“At first, I was able to sell the [Lava Demon], but then even the ‘shop’ stopped accepting it, saying I was maliciously using a bug. Besides, Jaden’s deck is actually really suited to the [Lava Demon], so I gave it to him.” Having found the card he wanted to take out, Hayato took it out of the warehouse and handed it to Manjoume. “Here, this is your entrance gift. It’s quite strong, you know.”

Manjoume was surprised to find he had a card too. He took it and looked at it, discovering that the image in the center of the card depicted a massive black dragon covered in sharp blades: "[Armed Dragon]? No, [Dark Armed Dragon]?"

"I remember, Mr. Hayato, you often used the LV monster [Armed Dragon] series in your early duels. This card, although not an LV monster, is still an [Armed Dragon]. Is it a tribute to that series?"

At the same time, Hayato handed Asuka a card: "【The Proclaimer's Shaman】?"

"These two cards were actually made and mixed into the 'limited packs,' but you didn't get them. Including the [Lava Demon] that Jaden got, this is the true nature of the so-called 'entrance gift,' a special custom card that outstanding freshmen didn't get," Hayato said with a smile. "Take them. I'm really looking forward to seeing how far you all go on the path of Duel Monsters."

Looking at the card Hayato gave her, Asuka felt grateful to him. However, Hayato's mention of "outstanding performance" reminded her of her brother. She looked up at Hayato and said, "Principal Kobayashi, can I exchange this 'gift' for this card? I'd rather go to the abandoned old school building than use this card."

"The old school building?"

Seeing Manjoume's puzzled expression, Hayato didn't explain in detail about Asuka's brother, Tenjōin Fubuki, and the others going missing: "Well, you don't need to know too much about the duelists. Anyway, go back to the Obelisk-Blue dorm and help out, okay? As for Tenjōin-kun, let's talk about your matter somewhere where no one will bother you."

Hayato took Tenjouin Asuka elsewhere, and Manjoume subconsciously followed Hayato's advice and planned to go back to the Obelisk-Blue dormitory to help. However, as soon as he left the dueling arena, he suddenly remembered that the Blue dormitory was not the Red dormitory, and it seemed that Professor Chronos had paid for a team of chefs to take care of the freshman welcome party, so he didn't need to help at all.

Realizing he'd been tricked by Hayato, Manjoume shrugged, glanced at the Dark Armed Dragon in his hand, added it to his deck, and planned to go back to his dorm for a nap. A student from the Sun God-Yellow dorm brushed past him.

"Was someone dueling here just now?" Looking at the empty dueling platform with a "Unfinished" sign on it, Misawa Daichi, who had completely missed everything, scratched his head. "I probably saw it wrong."

Chapter 1072 The rain stopped, the sky cleared, and Manjoume felt he was back to his old self.

"The types of monster cards in Duel Monsters include Fusion Monsters, Ritual Monsters, Normal Monsters, Effect Monsters, as well as Soul Monsters, Toon Monsters, Gemini Monsters..."

In the lecture hall, Asuka Tenjouin, whose name was called upon by the teacher, calmly answered the question. Professor Chronos listened to her answer and nodded in satisfaction.

"They're all students from the same year, so how can there be such a big difference between their different dorm rooms?"

With a somewhat dejected expression, Marufuji Sho rested his chin on his open textbook and slumped over the table, saying listlessly, "It's practically a microcosm of a unequal society, with its unequal treatment in the academy."

Sitting next to him, Judai, twirling a pen, asked with some confusion, "What is 'Gakucha'? Does it mean something like 'did something' or 'caught something'?"

"It's 'Gecha' not 'Gecha'. Dude, you should watch less tokusatsu shows. They're so badly made and use so much low-quality CG that even kids wouldn't watch."

"Even if you say that, I'm interested in any hero's story, and I'm really looking forward to how the plot will develop. Besides, there have been cases of starting slowly and then improving, so I'm more willing to accept it than starting strong and then having a 'wonderful start'."

As Judai spoke, he nodded affirmatively and said, "In short, let's wait and have hope."

"Wait a minute, wasn't I just asking you, Sho, what is 'gecha'?" Realizing the topic had gone off track, Jaden asked again.

"The so-called 'gap' simply means 'disparity' in its original sense. However, in its derived meaning, gap refers to the difference in resources, status, and even class." The answer to Judai came from Misawa Daichi, who was sitting in front of him. "It means, in a more extreme sense, that the social phenomenon is that it is extremely difficult to change one's social status because the gap between classes is too large."

Although Duel Academy has dormitories of different levels for students, the seating arrangement in class is not based on dormitory areas. Instead, students are allowed to freely choose their preferred seats in the large classroom. After all, the number of students in each dormitory is not fixed every year, and there are always changes in the number of students at the end of each month before the monthly exams. It would be too much trouble to arrange the seating every month.

—At least that's true for most courses, but some teachers, like Professor Chronos, who is a bit of a perfectionist, don't like messy colors and will require students from the same dormitory to sit in one area during class to keep the colors distinct.

Unlike the Osiris-Red dormitory, the Apollo-Yellow and Obelisk-Blue dormitories are not shared rooms; each person has a single room. The only differences are room size and surrounding environment. The advantage is that you are less likely to be disturbed and have your own private space, which is very important for a duelist. However, this arrangement also reduces the social interaction of having "roommates."

Misawa Daichi has a reserved and quiet personality. While he possesses the arrogance of a duelist, he also harbors a degree of inferiority complex that is difficult for others to perceive. Not good at socializing, he is more familiar with Jaden and his classmates from the Red Dorm than with the other students from the Yellow Dorm. When choosing seats, he simply sat next to Jaden and his group.

Another reason is that Jaden, who was able to defeat Professor Chronos in a real-world test, is not just limited to Osiris-Red Dormitory. Misawa believes that Jaden will soon be able to advance to Sun God-Yellow Dormitory.

"I see, that's what 'Gecha' means. Thank you, Gosawa."

"It's not five lakes, it's three lakes."

"Okay, No. 3."

When Misawa heard that Judai had changed his name after Misawa corrected him, he didn't complain. He just continued to take notes diligently. At the same time, he wasn't surprised that Marufuji Sho suddenly lamented the unequal treatment at Duel Academy.

The incident stemmed from Jaden and the others mentioning the "freshman welcome party" the previous night. Obelisk-Blue dormitory had hosted a grand banquet and arranged a dance party afterwards, while Sun God-Yellow dormitory had also prepared a sumptuous dinner last night, followed by numerous games for the freshmen to integrate into the school. The information about Blue dormitory came from Manjoume, who had deliberately gone to Jaden to show off before leaving, while the information about Yellow dormitory was provided by Misawa after Marufuji Sho asked him.

In the Osiris-Red dormitory, the German stew that was supposed to be the main dish was burnt due to the negligence of the dormitory head teacher. As a result, the students at the freshman welcome party could only eat white rice with dried fish and pickled radishes. When they were thirsty, they could only drink some miso soup made from instant meal kits. They finally found a bag of fried shrimp in the cold storage to have as a snack. A bag of ten fried shrimp had to be shared by three people to eat one.

Compared to the treatment in the Red Dorm, it's no wonder that Marufuji Sho made that remark.

"However, I think the pickled radish and dried fish taste pretty good too, and the miso soup tastes great. Master Daitokuji's cooking skills are actually quite good."

"That's just because you haven't eaten much of these foods that can barely be called 'cuisine' before, right, big brother?" Marufuji Sho retorted upon hearing Judai's words. "The only things that Daitokuji-sensei personally cooked were fried shrimp and miso soup, but one was a semi-finished product and the other was instant. How did you come to the conclusion that Daitokuji-sensei's cooking skills were good?"

"Of course, it's the love that Master Daitokuji put into the food."

"Don't add random, non-existent things to the food!"

Misawa didn't turn around to look at Judai and the others. He wrote a few words in his notebook and said, "The essence of the differential treatment is to encourage students to improve. As long as you are promoted from Osiris-Red Dormitory to Sun God-Yellow Dormitory or even Obelisk-Blue Dormitory, your treatment will definitely improve visibly."

“However, before you even have a chance to improve, Professor Chronos has been watching you for a long time.”

Upon hearing Misawa's words, Judai and the others instinctively looked towards the podium at the front of the classroom, where they met Professor Chronos's gaze, who was staring at them with obvious displeasure. As if to confirm Misawa's words, the next moment, Professor Chronos waved his pointer, pointing it in Judai's direction.

"Then the next question will be answered by Sho Marufuji over there."

"Huh? Me!?"

When his name was called, Marufuji Sho quickly stood up, adjusted his glasses, and looked at the podium. The screen behind Professor Chronos displayed a blank magic card, but nothing else. Having been distracted since the beginning, Marufuji Sho had no idea what Chronos meant by "the next question."

"What's wrong? Do I have to repeat the question again?"

Professor Chronos had a sour look on his face. He looked at Marufuji Sho, who was already at the bottom of the class, had poor dueling skills, and didn't even pay attention in class. Even Yuki Jaden, although he had embarrassed himself, at least had some merits in actual dueling, unlike this Marufuji Sho who was completely useless.

Especially since this Marufuji Sho happened to be sitting behind the student in the dormitory of the Sun God-Huang, whom he greatly admired, Kronos's impression of him was even worse in comparison. This bad student actually had to whisper and daydream in class. Couldn't he learn from the student in the four arithmetic operations class, who didn't even forget to pay attention while whispering to each other?

"Within the broad category of Spell Cards in Duel Monsters, besides Normal Spell Cards, Quick-Play Spell Cards, and Ritual Spell Cards which are normally sent to the Graveyard after activation, there are three types of Spell Cards that remain on the field after activation: Continuous Spell Cards, Equip Spell Cards, and—"

Chronos's initial question was about the six categories of spell cards, but given Marufuji Sho's 119th place ranking on the entrance exam, he had no hope of him answering many of the questions, so he simply lowered the difficulty to almost zero. Even a complete idiot who knew nothing about Duel Monsters should be able to answer this level of question, right? After all, the other poor student next to him had defeated him with that Field Spell Card, "Skyscraper."

However, even though Chronos had gone to such lengths to remind Marufuji Sho not to continue daydreaming, the panicked Marufuji Sho's mind went completely blank, and he couldn't say anything. He stood there stammering with his head down, making Chronos's gaze towards him even more disappointed.

"It's a Field Spell Card, Sho, a Field Spell Card!"

"Don't be nervous, calm down, Sho!" Judai kept reminding Marufuji Sho in a low voice. After calling him four or five times, Marufuji Sho finally understood what Judai was saying and was about to muster up the courage to answer.

"Even a kindergartener could probably answer that, right?" A follower with boundless eyes, sitting in the back row of the classroom, looked at Marufuji Sho, who had been called on by Chronos, and said disdainfully, "It's a Field Spell Card!"

"Uh, um..." Hearing this, Marufuji Sho swallowed his reply. His face flushed with shame, he lowered his head and chose to play dumb, like a wooden doll that couldn't speak.

"Tsk, what a disgrace. Sit down, Marufuji Sho." Shaking his head, Chronos waved his hand, gesturing for Marufuji Sho to sit down. "You can't even answer the most basic questions. In all my years of teaching, this is the first time I've seen such an astonishing student. Now, listen carefully to the lesson, noonae."

"...I know that already..." Marufuji Sho sat back down, head down, trying to hide behind the students in front of him, still somewhat unconvinced by Chronos's words. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough not to be able to answer such a question; he just panicked and forgot everything the moment he stood up.

"Hey, don't worry about it too much, Sho. You only need to know the general idea of ​​the theory. Knowledge and practice have nothing to do with each other." Judai patted Sho Marufuji on the shoulder when he saw how dejected he was. "You see, I also couldn't answer a lot of questions during the written test, but I naturally understood them when it came to the duel. I even defeated Professor Chronos in the duel."

Jaden didn't lower his voice at all when he said this, so Chronos, who hadn't yet taken his attention away, heard it clearly. Looking at Jaden, Chronos was both annoyed and angry, biting his handkerchief and gritting his teeth: "Mama mia!"