Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"Does that kind of feeling really work? And I feel like the other person looks dangerous..." Marufuji Sho said weakly, looking at Edogawa Yuri, who didn't seem like a student at all, but rather like a thug.

"Trust Jaden's intuition, just trust it. Trust doesn't need a reason." Maeda Hayato agreed with Jaden's intuition. "This is the conclusion I came to after losing to Jaden more than ten times in a game of Joker."

"As for rankings... after all, the elimination rounds only rank people based on the final points they get, which doesn't accurately represent the strength of each selected contestant. For example, Tenjouin Fubuki, who gave Judai a tough fight, only came in eighth place, didn't she?"

After a pause, Maeda added with a smile, "Besides, even if rankings represent the level of strength, Judai is still above that person, isn't he?"

"The second place winner is... tsk, the first-year student from the Osiris-Red Dormitory, Jaden Yuki." Professor Chronos's tone was still somewhat displeased when he announced Jaden's name, even seemingly unwilling to give him the same amount of time to showcase his abilities as the others. After a brief pause following the name, he exclaimed excitedly, "And the one everyone's been waiting for, 'Kaiser' from the Duel Academy, who advanced to the main tournament in first place!"

"Obelisk Blue, Ryo Marufuji, a third-year student!"

As soon as Professor Chronos called out Ryo Marufuji's name, before he even stood up, an extremely enthusiastic cheer erupted from the audience:

"Wow! It's Caesar! It's Lord Caesar!"

"Lord Caesar, we love you!"

"Being able to witness Lord Caesar's duel is worth the price of admission, even if I die!"

Hearing the cheers that came from almost the entire arena, Marufuji Ryo sighed inwardly. In truth, he was not good at handling such situations at all. The longer he stayed at school, the more he missed the peaceful life he had when he first entered school and had not yet made a name for himself. Even though he was later called "Kaiser" because of his outstanding abilities, at least back then he had Fujiwara Yusuke and Tenjouin Fubuki to share the burden with him.

After the two of them disappeared one after the other, he gradually became the only "top star" in Duel Academy. He didn't want this kind of popularity at all. Only Fubuki liked this kind of lively scene. If he could, he would like to transfer this popularity to Fubuki, but unfortunately he couldn't.

However, even if he wasn't good at dealing with it, he had been in school for three years after all, and he knew that the best reaction for him right now was to keep a straight face and not say or do anything. Whether he responded gently or refused firmly, it would only arouse more heat. After all, no one could say how strange these fans' preferences were. There were definitely some masochists among them who would shout "Let me scold you a few more times" after being scolded.

Tenjouin Fubuki, who had been dragged away and forcibly changed back into her school uniform, returned to the scene. Looking at the audience cheering for "Caesar," she whistled and said flippantly, "What amazing popularity! It's amazing how popular I've become after three years. Well, to live up to the fans who have supported me all this time, I'll have to show my true skills in the quarterfinals."

The names and portraits of all eight contestants were displayed on the surrounding screens above the central dueling arena, scrolling continuously for viewers to view. After the cheers subsided slightly, Professor Chronos continued his announcement: "The eight advancing contestants are all ready, so the Duel Academy Exchange Tournament for this academic year will officially begin. The first event will be the duels to advance from the quarterfinals to the semifinals."

"The world of Duel Monsters is cruel. If even one person can laugh, that's about it, right? And the same goes for the top eight. If you lose a duel against your assigned opponent, there are no revival matches or anything like that~"

Looking at the "underachiever" Jaden Yuki who had made it into the top eight, Professor Chronos chuckled sinisterly, but quickly remembered that he was currently hosting an exchange competition. After a light cough, he continued, "Well then, let the machine draw the first and second players for the first round of the qualifying matches."

One by one, the avatars of the top eight contestants disappeared from the screen, leaving only two avatar frames that were still rotating, with the black silhouettes in the frames constantly changing. The speed at which the silhouettes in the rotating avatar frames changed slowed down, and with a "ding" sound, the two avatar frames locked simultaneously, lighting up to reveal the avatars of the selected contestants.

The rotating avatar frames displayed the information of both players to everyone, and Professor Chronos raised an eyebrow, suddenly becoming somewhat displeased: "The first qualifying match already features exchange students from other branch campuses? And of course, it's the ones from Osiris-Red Dormitory who are... cough cough, anyway, since the result is as it is, then I declare—"

"The first duel will be between Judai Yuki, who finished second in the qualifying rounds, and Yuri Edogawa, who finished third in the qualifying rounds!"

"Is it really my brother who's going first? Is everything alright?" Marufuji Sho looked at Edogawa Youli, who had gotten up from his seat in the distance and was already popping champagne and shouting strange things like "I've never had such a wonderful start" because he was going to be up against a student from the Red Dorm. He looked at Judai with concern and said, "Although you said you had a feeling that the other person wasn't very strong, what if he suddenly gets upset? We can't be careless. After all, he was the third-place finisher in the qualifiers."

"Don't worry, Sho, it'll be over soon." Judai chuckled, stood up from his seat, and walked towards the central dueling arena.

Manjoume watched as Edogawa Yuri arrogantly walked towards the dueling arena, then glanced at Judai not far away, and stood up to call out, "Hey, Yuki Judai!"

"I'll settle the score with you later for taking my chance to teach this guy a lesson, but since you've taken my place, Mr. Manjoume, then show that country bumpkin something in the duel and teach him a lesson he's not to be trifled with!"

Upon hearing Manjoume's words, Judai turned around, smiled, and waved his hand to indicate that he understood.

Walking onto the central dueling arena, Edogawa looked at Judai with considerable delight and said, "It wasn't for nothing that I mobilized my subordinates to work so hard to improve my ranking. It really does bring good luck when you're ranked higher."

"Among the top eight contestants, there's actually a mediocre student from the Red Dorm. If my ranking were any lower, that arrogant brat might have been the one to duel you, right? But now I've managed to snag a bargain, and I'm really in a good mood."

"Never before has there been such a wonderful start! Cheers for me! Applause for me!" As he spoke, Edogawa Yuri completely disregarded Jaden, turning around confidently as if he had already won the duel, shouting at the audience. The exchange students from the same Northern Branch School immediately responded and cheered.

"Eh~ So confident?" Jaden scratched his head and said strangely, "It would be great if you could really switch places with Manjoume, because I feel that Manjoume is indeed stronger than you. A duel with him might be very interesting."

“But even though you seem a bit weak, Uncle, just like Sho said, maybe you can put on an interesting duel with me?” A smile of excitement crept onto Jaden’s lips, and his eyes shone with light. “Alright, let’s duel, Uncle Edogawa.”

"Uncle...who are you calling that, you brat!" Edogawa's detached smile vanished, replaced by a gloomy tone. "I just look a little older than I am, I'm only eighteen. You're such a detestable student! Why should the weak fight!"

"Be crushed before my invincible 'survival of the fittest' deck, and become my stepping stones to advancement!"

Both sides raised the academy's standard duel disks, and the signals were amplified and strengthened through the duel arena beneath their feet, simultaneously entering duel mode.

"Duel!" x2

[Yujo Judai: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

[Edogawa Wanderer: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

Chapter 1300 Duel Academy Secret Techniques: The Classic Five-for-One Exchange

Edogawa Yuri felt he had a great advantage, not only because he was lucky enough to be matched with the only student from the Osiris-Red dormitory among the top eight contestants.

He called the deck he used a "survival of the fittest" deck, which sounds impressive, but it's actually just an aggressive deck.

The ace monsters are [Demon-Zoa] with 2600 attack power and [Steel Demon-Zoa] with 3000 attack power, which is evolved through [Metallic Magic Reflection Armor]. At least in Edogawa Yuu's opinion, the monsters are quite powerful and clearly belong to the aggressive deck type.

Now, he has not only drawn the cards [Demon-Zoa] and [Metalized Magic Reflection Armor] into his hand, but also [Trap Booster], which allows Trap Cards to be activated directly from his hand, and [Ancient Rule], which can directly Special Summon [Demon-Zoa]!

In other words, at the start of his turn, he can Special Summon [Demon-Zoa] directly onto the field, and then use [Trap Booster] to equip [Metalize Magic Reflect Armor] directly to [Demon-Zoa], allowing it to evolve into its strongest form, [Metal Demon-Zoa], on the first turn!

The advantage lies with me!

In addition to this, another source of Edogawa's belief is that he recently spent a lot of money to find a fortune teller named "Mijuchi" to predict the upcoming academy exchange competition. The result of the divination is that a person whose name contains "Yu" will have an outstanding performance, shine brightly, and even change the impression that his former faction has given to others.

Edogawa glanced around and realized that among the top eight contestants, only two people had the sound "Yu" in their names: the underachiever Yuki Judai from the red dormitory in front of him and himself. So without a doubt, it could only be him. Otherwise, it could be this underachiever in front of him.

The idea of ​​reversing the impression others have of one's affiliation also applies to myself. The performance of the Northern Branch in the previous inter-school exchange competition could only be described as terrible, which led to the impression that the Northern Branch was not very strong. But if I win the championship, wouldn't I be able to successfully reverse other people's impressions?

Although I've said it once before, it's worth repeating: the advantage lies with me!

He laughed arrogantly, but Edogawa Yuri didn't get carried away and try to seize the first turn. After all, he knew that the advantage of his "aggressive deck" was that it could only be maximized when going second, even though the first player could draw cards. Although his ace monster was very "powerful," it was also true that it had no resistance. It would be terrible if it were destroyed by some strange card.

"I'll let you have the first strike, you inferior student," Edogawa said arrogantly, looking at Judai with a smirk. "After all, a weakling like you won't even have a chance to fight back once I launch an attack. You only have room to perform before my turn begins."

"I'm a very compassionate person, so I'll take the first strike and then struggle as much as I can before my invincible ace arrives!"

"Eh~ An invincible ace?" Jaden said with a smile. "I think this confidence in your own Duel Monster is great, but I don't think it's necessary to 'struggle' or anything like that, because I have the same, or even greater, confidence in my own cards as you do."

"However, since you've voluntarily given me the first turn, I happen to have a combo I've never tried before that I'd like to give it a shot." After glancing at the five cards in his hand, Jaden accepted the first turn that Edogawa Yuri had voluntarily relinquished.

"According to the rules, the dueling system should normally decide who gets the first move, but since both sides have reached an agreement, then Jaden Yuki from the Duel Academy headquarters will have the first move," Professor Chronos, the referee, announced. He then moved closer to the edge of the dueling arena where Jaden was, and whispered to him, "Jaden, are you even capable?"

"This is the first match of the inter-college competition, a chance to directly showcase our department's strength. If we lose to them, I'll give them a piece of my mind!"

Jaden turned around with some surprise and looked at Professor Chronos: "I thought you were expecting me to lose the duel, teacher?"

"Hmph! Losing a duel is one thing, but wait until you make a mistake again and have to duel to decide whether you get expelled." Without directly responding to Judai, Professor Chronos turned and returned to the judges' table.

Watching Professor Chronos's retreating figure, Jaden muttered to himself, "Could this be what they call 'tsundere'?"

"Hmm, whatever, let's start the duel anyway. Ready? Aibo?" Jaden called out to his deck, looking at a card in his hand, and then drew the top card from the deck. "My turn, draw!"

"Then I Normal Summon [E·Hero Bubble Man] from my hand in Defense Position, and since I only have [E·Hero Bubble Man] on my field, I can activate its effect!"

"When 【E·hero Bubble Man】 is successfully Summoned, Special Summoned, or Flip Summoned, if I have no other cards on my field, I can activate this effect and draw two cards from my deck."

【E·hero Bubble Warrior】【DEF1200】

As he spoke, Jaden drew two cards and added them to his hand, then played another card from his hand. "Next up is this Quick-Play Spell Card, [Kuriboh's Calling Flute]!"

"From my deck, I can either add a single [Kuriboo] or [Winged Kuriboh] to my hand, or Special Summon it to the field. I've chosen to Special Summon [Winged Kuriboh] to my field in Defense Position as well!"

“Since Professor Chronos has said this is the academy’s debut, then you will represent me on stage, Aibo!”

A melodious flute tune rang out on Jaden's field. In the midst of that melody, a fluffy monster with pure white wings flew out of Jaden's deck. It circled around Jaden twice and even affectionately rubbed against his cheek before Winged Kuriboh lightly landed on her card, which was lying horizontally on the field. It crossed its short claws in front of it in a defensive stance.

【Winged Kuriboh】【DEF200】

Most students at the Duel Academy headquarters have seen Jaden's card. After all, Jaden's passion for dueling is quite rare even in the Duel Academy, which specializes in training duelists and related talents. With so many duels, everyone knows what cards Jaden has.

However, this card is still quite rare for exchange students from other branch campuses. They didn't expect that Jaden Yuki, a poor student from the Red Dorm, would be able to pull out such a rare card as Winged Kuriboh, even though the previous card he used was the very common [E·hero] monster.

"What an adorable monster..." Even Riki Mackenzie couldn't help but be moved when she saw the cute [Winged Kuriboh]. After regaining her senses, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Even the students from the Red Dorm can produce such a rare card. The Headquarters is indeed full of hidden talents and should not be underestimated."

During the month-long selection process, although she did have duels and exchanges with students from the main campus, she mainly fought with the top students from the Obelisk-Blue dormitory. Even the students from the Yellow dormitory were relatively few. After all, those who came to exchange were definitely looking for strong opponents, and the weaker ones could be found at the Western branch campus even if they didn't come to exchange.

Although she had heard that there was an amazing guy in the Red Dorm who could easily get into the Blue Dorm based on his strength alone, it wasn't until she saw Jaden take out the [Winged Kuriboh] card today that she realized Jaden might actually have some skill.

"Hmm, that's pretty much it." Jaden looked at the Winged Kuriboh and E-Hero Bubble on the field, nodded in satisfaction, and inserted two cards from his hand into the Spell & Trap Zone in his back row. "Next, I'll put two more cards face down in my back row and end my turn like that."

【游城十代：4000LP，手牌6→7→6→4】

With two monsters in defense position and two face-down cards, Jaden's defense in the first turn wasn't bad, but it looked mediocre and somewhat out of place for the level of the competitive tournament he was in.

While other players and spectators were speculating about what kind of combination Jaden's face cards would be, Edogawa Yuri completely disregarded his face cards and instead laughed arrogantly: "Hmph, hahahaha! I told you to show off before my turn starts. These are just baby-level weak monsters. Their combined defense is less than 1500 points."

"I was a little worried that you might be the kind of cunning guy who pretends to be weak but is actually a wolf in sheep's clothing. Now it seems I was overthinking it. You're just a weakling who looks like you're on par with the uniform you're wearing. I don't know what kind of luck got you into the top eight, and even ranked above me?"

"You know, my third place was earned by my subordinates working hard for a long time to collect points and support me. You wouldn't have used the same method to boost your score, would you?"

The selection competition uses a points system, but it's not the kind of points that can be traded between participants. Instead, it's a comprehensive performance score based on each person's performance. However, even with such a system, there are still loopholes.

Because of the implicit rule that "fighting powerful duelists can increase points faster," Edogawa Yuri had his subordinates duel with others to increase their points. Then, in the last few days, he had his subordinates who also had high points duel with each other. Through this method, he obtained several "stakes" that were extremely efficient at increasing points, which enabled him to overtake others at the last moment, enter the top eight, and even rank higher than Manjoume who was in fourth place.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. It's enough that a weakling like you has had one turn to show your strength. You should get off the field and hand over the victory to me." With a sneer, Edogawa Yuuri drew a card. "My turn, draw!"

Seeing the card he had drawn, he paused for a moment, then burst into wild laughter, becoming increasingly arrogant. It was obvious he had drawn a card that he considered extremely good. However, before using that card, he first executed the combo he had planned.

"I activate the Spell Card [Ancient Rules]. This card allows me to Special Summon a Normal Monster of Level 5 or higher directly from my hand without any Tributes."

An ancient piece of parchment slowly unfurled in front of Edogawa Youli. The abstract drawing of the monster printed on it twisted and then flew off the paper, landing on his field and transforming into a hideous demon that resembled both a bat and a bull.

【Demon-Zoya】【7☆/Dark】

[Demon Race/Normal]

[2600/1900]

"This is my ace monster, [Demon-Zoa]. As a Level 7 monster, it is not only a powerful DARK monster with many support cards (Demon-Type), but its ATK is also as high as 2600 points, even higher than cards like [Dark Magician] and [Red-Eyes Black Dragon]!"

Proudly introducing his monster, Edogawa Yuri played another card, "And that's not all, [Demon-Zoa] can also unleash its true power through [Metalization]!"

"Quick-Play Spell Card [Trap Booster]! Discard one card from my hand to activate this card. Under the effect of [Trap Booster], I can activate a Trap Card from my hand without setting it!"

"And the trap card I'm going to activate is this [Metalization Magic Reflection Armor]!"

Edogawa inserts the Trap Card [Metalize & Spell Reflect Armor] into the Spell & Trap Zone, then points it at [Demon-Zoa] on his field. "Target one face-up monster on the field—that is, [Demon-Zoa]—and activate this [Metalize & Spell Reflect Armor], equipping it to [Demon-Zoa] as an Equip Card that increases the equipped monster's ATK and DEF by 300!"

"Then I Tribute [Demon-Zoa] equipped with [Metallic Armor/Magic Reflection] on my field to Special Summon this monster!" Removing two cards from the Duel Disk and sending them to the Graveyard, Edogawa Yuuri laughed as he drew the monster card retrieved from the Duel Disk. "Come forth, my strongest ace, [Steel Demon-Zoa]!"

After being covered by the Metallized Magic Reflection Armor, [Demon-Zoa]'s body twisted and distorted, transforming into a steel monster whose flesh and blood were completely replaced by metal. It stood upright and stared menacingly at the monsters on the field.

【Steel Demon - Zoa】【8☆/Dark】

[Machine Race/Special Summon/Effect]

[3000/2300]

After what he considered an extremely cool combo, Edogawa Yuri closed his eyes, anticipating the applause the students in the arena would utter for his powerful performance.

After all, [Steel Demon Zoa] is an incredibly powerful monster with a level of 8☆ and attack power comparable to the legendary [Blue-Eyes White Dragon], isn't it? And I Special Summoned it in just one turn, without even using a Normal Summon!

However, after waiting for a long time, he didn't hear anything, only the muttering of Jaden counting on his fingers: