Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

David Labbour: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand

Although he wanted to refute David Rabe, the problem was that Marufuji Sho himself genuinely believed that what the other said seemed to be true. However, as a poor student in the Red Dorm, he had absolutely no chance of defeating the other, who was the best exchange student.

But the thought of being expelled from school because of this innocent incident was unbearable for him, and he forced a smile and said, "If the duel doesn't end, nobody knows what the outcome will be."

"Duel".

【Marufuji Sho: 4000LP, 5 card in hand】

"Is that a joke unique to your area? You should go get a proper pair of glasses," David Labb said with a sneer, not intending to preemptively strike. "No, perhaps not being able to see how badly you'll fail in the future will at least give you a little more time to cling to that false hope?"

"Don't be shy, just take the first strike. Consider it a courtesy from the challenger. I don't want to waste too much time on someone as weak as you, so I want to defeat you as quickly as possible in the second round when I'm second."

Seeing David's sinister grin, Marufuji Sho's face turned deathly pale. His fingers trembled as he barely managed to draw a card from his deck: "Th-in that case, I get to go first. My turn, draw!"

Upon seeing the card he had drawn, Marufuji Sho's eyes widened, a mixture of surprise and delight. Looking at the card in his hand, he suddenly felt that he wasn't entirely without a chance of winning. Then he thought again, after all, he was someone who could defeat a student from the Yellow Dormitory like Kagurazaka.

Regardless of whose deck Kagurazaka used, he was able to go toe-to-toe with his older brother, Jaden Yuki, with Jaden ultimately winning by a narrow margin. This leads to the conclusion that "Jaden Yuki ≥ Kagurazaka," and he himself had also defeated Kagurazaka.

Rounding up, "Marufudo Sho ≈ Yuki Judai"!

The conclusion, imbued with a touch of Ah Q mentality, gave Marufuji Sho a bit more confidence. He also felt less afraid than before and was starting to get into the mindset he needed for a duel.

"Discard [Dragon Machine] from my hand to activate one of its effects. I choose the first effect: add a [Machine] monster other than a WIND monster from my Deck to my hand."

After discarding his monster cards to the graveyard, Marufuji Sho retrieved a card from his deck and showed it to David, saying, "This is the card I added to my hand, the EARTH [First Aid Machine]."

"【Machine】 deck? Heh, a deck that suits you quite well, but I mean in terms of its weakness."

Seeing the two cards played by Marufuji Sho, David knew which deck Marufuji Sho was using. Marufuji Sho was also using a Machine-type deck, so David had specifically searched for other Machine-type cards among the cards released by the International Illusion Society that he could add to his deck, and in doing so, he learned about the [Machine] deck.

However, the reason he was so impressed with the [Machine] deck was not because it had the power of [Cyber ​​Dragon], but because it was so weak. After all, he had learned about so many cards, and it was rare to see a deck like [Machine] that mostly had high levels but no powerful effects and extremely low attack and defense stats.

Even the feeling he got from [Machine] was not as good as [Disruption], which is also a monster with relatively low strength. After all, the most famous duelist today - King of Duel - Hayato Kobayashi often used the [Disruption] deck in the early days, in combination with the other two decks [Armed Dragon] and [VWXYZ], which also had a considerable strength.

As for "Machine"? There are very few lower-level monsters with an attack power exceeding 1500, and there are a bunch of higher-level monsters with unclear effects. In fact, there are some bizarre monsters among the fusion monsters that are not even as strong as the lower-level monsters in other decks.

This anthropomorphic Mech deck thinks it can fight itself? It's not capable of that.

Once he got into the zone, Marufuji Sho wasn't as easily frightened as he was before the duel. Rather, it was the threat of being expelled from school that Marufuji Sho, who absolutely didn't want that to happen, had to muster his courage. Without responding to David's words, he played another card from his hand and said, "Next is this card, the monster card 'Swamp Demon King.' I'll discard this card from my hand to the graveyard and add one 'Fusion' card from my deck to my hand."

"And now, the necessary conditions have been met!" Having retrieved the [Fusion] card, Marufuji Sho eagerly played it from his hand and placed it in the Spell & Trap Zone, then drew two cards and showed them to David Labborg. "I activate the Spell Card [Fusion] from my hand, using [First Aid Robot] and [Rescue Robot] from my hand as Fusion Materials!"

"Emergency response team, mobilize! GOGOV! Emergency combination, burning emergency response spirit!"

As he recited the name, Marufuji Sho's monster appeared behind him and was combined together by the power of [Fusion]. A fire truck that looked like a human with eyes and extended tires as limbs appeared on the field.

"Fusion Summoning! [Rescue Type Emergency Healer]!"

[Rescue-type First Aid Robot] [6☆/Flame]

[Mechanical Race/Fusion/Effect]

[2300/1800]

Marufuji Sho looked at the monster he had summoned and was about to feel happy when he suddenly heard David Labb's laughter coming from the other side.

"Two searches, then consuming three cards, and all you get in the end is a Fusion Summon with a mere 2300 attack? That's really laughable." Pointing at [Rescue First Aid Robot], David Luber made no attempt to hide his contempt. "And then what? You're not planning to just stand on the field with that kind of monster and end your turn, are you?"

"I haven't performed a Normal Summon this turn. I'll Normal Summon [Decoy] to my field in Defense Position." Sho Marufuji said weakly, having used his Normal Summon opportunity this turn, after David's words had somewhat diminished his confidence. He played another card from his hand.

An extremely tiny toy remote-controlled car appeared on Marufuji Shojo's field. If it weren't for the card underneath it, people might mistake it for a toy that a child had accidentally left behind after playing with it. Moreover, because it was so small, the [Decoy Machine] was one of the few [Machine] monsters that didn't have eyes, since there simply wasn't enough space for one.

【Decoy Robot】【2☆/Wind】

[Mechanical Race/Effect]

[300/500]

"I'll place two cards face-down on the back row, and my turn ends." Marufuji Sho, having exhausted his hand, declared the end of his turn and let out a long sigh. He had done everything he could to create the best possible field he could think of; he just needed the defenses on the field to hold out a little longer and not be breached by David Raab in a single turn.

【Marufuji Sho: 4000LP, 5 card in hand】

[Rescue and Emergency Medical Robot] [ATK2300]

[Decoy Robot] [DEF500]

[GaiK] X2

"You've just summoned another weakling. I can imagine how weak you are, but this level of performance easily makes me feel looked down upon." David Luber's lips curled into a smile. "I haven't even vented my frustration about almost being fired yet... So, are you ready to be utterly crushed by me?"

"Remember the name that gave you your crushing defeat, David Labbour, and now it's my turn: Draw!"

Watching David draw a card from his deck, Marufuji Sho gritted his teeth and stared directly at him, saying, "Don't talk like I've already lost. At least I haven't lost yet..."

"Also, my name is—"

Marufuji Sho's voice was really lacking in power. David Rabb, whom he was looking at, hadn't actually glanced at him since he pulled out the card. When he heard that Marufuji Sho was going to introduce himself, he even waved his hand impatiently: "There's no need for that. I don't want to waste my memory on a meaningless name when it comes to defeating 'Fubkin Tingjoin'."

Judai, watching from the sidelines, said with some confusion, "'Fubkin Tingjoin'? Why does this name sound familiar, yet I've never heard of it before?"

“It’s not ‘Fubuki Tenjoin,’ it’s ‘Fubuki Tenjoin.’” Ryo Marufuji looked helpless. “Because he’s an American, his Japanese pronunciation is so bad it can only be described as tragic.”

"That's quite the opposite of another fake American I know who speaks fluent Japanese but always misuses English," Hayato said, shrugging.

"What? She says she doesn't want people to waste their memories, but she can't even remember the name of the opponent she wants to defeat." Saotome Rei's retort was even more scathing. "Is it because she's an idiot that she doesn't want others to tell her her name, because she's afraid she won't remember it?"

“Those things don’t matter!” David Labb said irritably upon hearing the comments from the audience, drawing a card from his hand and playing it. “This island is so annoying, I’ll use this card to wash away my frustration!”

"Spell Card [Black Hole] activated! Destroy all monsters on both players' fields indiscriminately!"

Chapter 1250 Being persistent and entangled will make you disliked.

"I activate the Spell Card, [Black Hole]! Destroy all monsters on both sides of the field indiscriminately!"

David Labs felt there was no need to understand the effects of Marufuji Sho's [Machine] monsters, since his starting hand of [Black Hole] could easily destroy all the monsters his opponent had painstakingly summoned.

The Black Hole, which destroys all monsters on the field without targeting any monster, is completely useless if you go first. Even if you use it in your second turn counterattack, you'll often find yourself restricted by the presence of other monsters on your field.

The effectiveness of [Black Hole] can only be maximized in the first round when going second. Otherwise, why would David be so kind as to give the first turn to Marufuji Sho? Of course, it's because after drawing his first five cards, he realized that his hand was more suitable for going second.

The real duel was already underway long before it even began!

A pitch-black singularity appeared in the center of both fields. Since David's field monster was also absent, it naturally had no effect on him. The only monsters that were pulled into the black hole and crushed by gravity were the two monsters on Marufuji's field.

However, Marufuji Sho's two cards in the back row were no mere decorations. Seeing that David Rabb was greedily trying to destroy all the cards on his field, he immediately pressed the button to activate his face-down cards, saying, "I won't let you succeed! Chain [Black Hole], I'm going to activate my face-down cards in the back row too!"

"Counterattack the Trap Card [Red Robot Call]!"

The counter-trap card of the [Machine] family, [Red Machine Call], was activated, and a red light shone from the card art, reflecting onto the [Black Hole] card activated by David.

Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, helicopters, and even jets—a series of anthropomorphic vehicles sped out in a red light and crashed into the [Black Hole] card, shattering it to pieces. The gravitational singularity that had attempted to destroy the monsters on Marufuji's field naturally vanished without a trace.

Having successfully countered [Black Hole], Marufuji Sho said with some pride, "[Red Machine Call] can only be activated when there is a [Machine] Fusion Monster on my field and a monster's effect, Spell Card, or Trap Card is activated. Its effect is to negate that activation and, after that, send all cards with the same name as the activated card from the player's Deck or Fusion Deck to the Graveyard."

"In other words, David Rabber, not only is the [Black Hole] on the field negated, but you also need to send the [Black Hole] from your deck to the graveyard!"

"Tsk, don't you dare order me around!"

With a disgruntled grumble, David Labb retrieved two more Black Holes from his deck and sent them to the graveyard. He disliked Lightning Vortex, a substitute for Lightning Bolt, and since he didn't have three Lightning Bolts, he, being somewhat obsessive-compulsive, simply included three Black Holes in his deck without even one Lightning Bolt. As a result, Marufuji Sho's single card rendered all three Black Holes useless.

Even so, there's nothing to be afraid of. Let those two weak monsters stay. In fact, the Black Hole helped me use up one troublesome counter-trap, which is good enough. Anyway, I have a perfect hand!

"The effect of [Trickster] in my hand is activated! I discard one card from my hand and Special Summon this card from my hand. Since discarding a card is a procedure for Special Summoning rather than a cost, [Young Bird of the Valley of Mist] sent from my hand to the Graveyard satisfies the effect activation condition, so I Special Summon it to my field as well!"

He casually played two cards, but then used a skillful combo to Special Summon both cards to his field. David Rabbon sneered as he placed the cards on the Duel Disk and summoned the two monsters.

[The Trickster] [5 stars/Wind]

[Mage Race/Effect]

[2000/1200]

【The Young Monster Bird of the Valley of Mist】【2☆/Wind】

[Bird/Beast Race/Effect]

[400/600]

"The Mage race, and the Winged Beast race?" Ryo Marufuji frowned. "Although I didn't duel David Rabber two years ago, but Fubuki defeated him, I remember he should have used Machine-type cards, right?"

Hearing Marufuji Ryo's words, David Labbour smirked and said, "It was because of that crushing defeat that I realized something, Xi Sa Liang: using only pure Machine-type decks won't work. The more you specialize in Machine-type decks, the easier they are to counter. Pure Machine-type decks have their limits!"

"I'm no longer the same person who specialized in WIND Machine-Type monsters. Now I've added a lot of WIND cards to my deck, all in order to beat Fubukin Tingjoin in the WIND category!"

"Although you said it with great force, and it makes me want to say, 'It's all Kobayashi Hayato's fault that more and more people are stuffing weird cards into their decks.'"

Seeing Hayato standing to the side with his hands outstretched, looking rather innocent, Saotome Rei glanced at him and then looked away, continuing, "But what the heck is 'Shisa Ryo'? It's 'Kaiser Ryo', isn't it? And everyone just corrected me, it's 'Tenjōin Fubuki' not 'Fubukin Tingjoin', I just can't remember it at all!"

"Hmph, you brat's chattering is too noisy. I'll deal with you after I secure the victory." David Labb said contemptuously, checking the three cards remaining in his hand. He drew one and said, "The magic card [Pot of Greed] is activated. Now that I think about it, I'm so glad that [Black Hole] tricked [Call of the Red Machine], otherwise I wouldn't be able to draw cards with this card now?"

“Then, I draw two cards from my deck because of the effect of [Pot of Greed].” With his head held high arrogantly, David Rabb looked at Marufuji Sho and the monsters on his field with nothing but disdain and contempt. “It’s already a funny joke that these little minions think they can beat me, but anthropomorphizing vehicles is a joke among jokes.”

"What combat capability can vehicles like fire trucks and ambulances have? They should be modeled after military fighter jets to be considered decent. Anthropomorphism is laughable. If we're going to give machines life, we should enhance their ferocity and make them more savage and animalistic!"

"Let me show you what a real machine race should look like!" After holding the card up for so long, David Luber finally placed it into the Duel Disk and shouted, "AH-64, codename 'Apache'! Attack!"

"I usually summon the [Phantom Beast Machine - Rope Wolf]!"

The roar of the high-speed spinning propellers reached the ears of everyone present. Marufuji Sho and the others subconsciously looked towards the helipad not far from the dock, but no helicopter appeared there. The sound actually came from the direction above David Labb's head.

A modified helicopter, resembling a wolf in appearance, landed. Special weapon systems with long cables were mounted under the short wings on the sides of the fuselage. The nose of the helicopter was even painted with bright yellow wolf eyes and fangs tightly gripping tactical equipment.

However, even with numerous modifications, the prototype was so famous that not only Ryo Marufuji and Sho Marufuji, but also Jaden, who was obsessed with "heroes" all day long, and even Rei Saotome, who was obsessed with love, recognized the prototype of the helicopter. It was clearly the world's most famous armed helicopter - the Boeing AH-64 "Apache"!

【Phantom Beast Machine - Rope Wolf】【4☆/Wind】

[Mechanical Race/Effect]

[1700/1200]

"Apache attack helicopters!? Is that the opponent's real deck?"

Upon hearing Marufuji Sho's words, David arrogantly declared, "That's right, my deck is called 'Phantom Beast Machine,' a deck created by combining the most ferocious beasts with dangerous military aircraft. It's a completely different world from your childish anthropomorphic vehicles!"

"Even so, let alone the Hundred-Headed Dragon which is the best match for the Water Machine, the crippled [Phantom Beast Machine] which doesn't even have a Cossack Dragon, is it really that strong?" Hayato, who was on the sidelines, commented after recalling which cards the [Phantom Beast Machine] had without Link, Xyz, or Synchro.

Since he couldn't understand what Hayato said, David simply pretended not to hear it and continued, "If [Phantom Beast Machine - Rope Wolf] is successfully summoned, its effect will activate. It will Special Summon one [Phantom Beast Machine Token] to my field. Then, the second effect of [Phantom Beast Machine - Rope Wolf] is that its Level increases by the sum of the Levels of [Phantom Beast Machine Tokens] on my field, and the third effect is that as long as I have a Token on my field, this card cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects!"

"Compared to your [Mechs], my [Phantom Beast Machine] far surpasses them in terms of effect duration alone, by a factor of 1000! Hahahaha..."

Amid David's sinister laughter, a phantom machine was projected next to the [Phantom Beast Machine - Rope Wolf]. Although it had no physical form and could not assist in attack or defense, it could serve as a wingman to support combat.

【Phantom Beast Machine Derivative】【3☆/Wind】

[Machine Family/Derivatives]