Duels should be played with a smile.

Past experiences resurfaced in his mind. If one lacks the ability to protect everything, the result of trying to protect nothing is that one ends up protecting nothing. The current Overlord has learned to make choices when necessary.

Of course, he did not forget that everything that could be protected should be protected with all his might.

"To reiterate, you must guarantee the safety of every participant."

"Every single one!"

……

"This ability is really powerful!"

After Shangmo personally demonstrated his abilities, Leyou was truly astonished.

The Chronicle records all the decks that have ever appeared. Due to some well-known reasons, there are a lot of strange decks among the countless decks. Many of these decks are impossible to understand in terms of gameplay based on the cards in hand and the Extra Deck. Of course, there are also decks that are immediately obvious upon first glance, or decks that directly break the rules.

For example, saying something like a deck with 55 copies of the Holy Grail Ace and 5 copies of Old Man Aiolos, or a deck with 60 cards all of Mind Change, etc.

Of course, many decks are simply incomplete, such as a deck with no Extra Deck in Rank 4, or a deck that only draws without Elder Titan.

However, if those strange decks are placed in front of Shangmo, he can talk to the decks and let the decks tell him how to adjust those strange decks and transform them into normal decks.

Just now, Leyou witnessed Shangmo pick out 55 cards from a pile of messy cards and put them into a deck that could be built with that pile of cards and was relatively powerful.

If someone is maintaining the Chronicles deck, this ability must be something he's been dreaming of, right?

"With such powerful abilities, your dueling skills must be quite strong as well. However, I have a question I'd like to ask you."

Looking at the energetic young man in front of him, in Leyou's eyes, Shangmo and the young Judai overlapped once again.

So, what's the current state of the Overlord Judai?

"A problem?" Shang Mo blinked curiously. "What problem?"

"Didn't you say you could talk to the decks?" Leyou casually pointed to one of the dozen or so decks on the table. "So I'm curious, given that you can talk to so many decks, what are your thoughts on duels?"

"What are the elves' own thoughts on dueling?"

Leyou's own ideas about dueling have been changing ever since he came to this world, so he is quite curious about the people in this world's ideas about dueling.

Leyou had asked Philvo, Snow Maiden, and Ella similar questions before, but their answers were, to put it simply, very casual.

Philvo gave Leyou a strange look and had no intention of answering the question. The Snow Woman dismissed the question with the words, "Your thoughts are my thoughts."

As for Ella... her answer was simply, "I have no idea."

"What are your thoughts on duels?" Shang Mo was a little confused for a moment.

This question might be a bit advanced for a junior high school student.

"I don't quite understand what you mean... but I think dueling is a fun thing, right?"

As he spoke, Shangmo unzipped his uniform, revealing four pockets inside the jacket, all filled with card decks.

Shangmo took out the card decks one by one, and carefully placed them on the table as if they were his own treasures.

“I lived in the countryside when I was a child, and there was no one to play with. My sister was busy with her studies and work, so I could only play by myself.”

"When I first encountered duels, I was immediately immersed in that mysterious world. Through duels, I could communicate with the deck and the spirits, who were my first friends."

"But... if you're alone, you probably won't be able to duel, right?"

Leyou increasingly felt that Shōma and Jūdai were similar.

Judai's parents were also busy with work. Although they met Judai's material needs when he was young, his spiritual world was very empty.

Duel and Hubel were Jaden's first and only friends.

Perhaps it was because he lacked friends in his childhood that Jaden cherished friendship so much as an adult.

"That's right, so I'll duel with myself!"

With a maturity beyond his years on his still somewhat childish face, Shang Mo spoke in a calm tone about a fact that was somewhat heartbreaking.

"Although my sister is busy with work and studies, she always brings me a lot of cards when she comes back. Every time I get a new card, I put all my cards together and rebuild my deck."

"This way, every duel is a completely different experience for me, which is a lot of fun! And every time I build a deck, I can go into the world inside the deck and talk to the spirits in the deck, which is really interesting!"

He genuinely enjoyed the duel, and the smile on his face proved that his words were not false.

"Later, my sister brought me up from the countryside, and I had the opportunity to duel with other people and made many friends. However, even after making new friends, I still enjoy building decks with the elves in my deck and then using those decks to duel with myself."

"Dueling is something that brings me great joy and enjoyment."

Seeing Shangmo's optimism, Leyou couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle, even feeling a sense of resonance.

"Your mindset... really appeals to me!"

Leyou is a very optimistic person, and I like people who are equally optimistic.

"Speaking of which, your experience is quite similar to mine. When I was a child, I also played by myself."

After thinking for a moment, Leyou took a card from his Duel Disk and placed it in front of Shangmo.

"I have high hopes for you. Here, this card is for you."

A card that has nothing to do with strength, but is very meaningful.

Shang Mo took the card, gently stroking the card sleeve that protected it with his not-so-large hand. He stared at the card, lost in thought.

"By the way, you only talked about your own views on duels, you haven't talked about the views of the elves in your deck on duels yet."

Leyou was already quite satisfied with Shangmo's answer, but what he wanted to know more about was the world's elves' views on duels.

His own spirits weren't very useful as references, because they were probably all influenced by him, and their answers weren't much better than those of the Snow Woman and the others.

"I don't know what they're thinking... but I can ask them for you!"

It seemed that the card had put Shangmo in a "perfect mood," so he gathered his deck together in front of Leyou, placed his hand on it, closed his eyes, and began to "feel the tranquility."

Leyou was somewhat amused and exasperated by Shangmo's completely unguarded attitude. They were still on the street, but fortunately, the street was already quite lively today, so not many people noticed what was happening.

A moment later, Shangmo opened his eyes, his previous joy gone, replaced by confusion.

"What? What did they say?" Leyou was eager to get a different answer from the other elves.

He always felt that understanding the thoughts of these elves would be helpful in what he was going to do later.

"They...they said it, but I don't quite understand." Shangmo recalled the words he had just spoken with the elves and repeated them word by word.

"They say they are the spirits of dueling, born to duel. They have no particular opinion on dueling, because dueling is the meaning of their existence."

"They also said that elves were born from duels, and duels were born from humans."

After relaying the elf's words to Leyou, Shangmo fell silent, trying to understand the meaning behind them with his limited experience.

"I see... I think I understand."

Leyou nodded thoughtfully. Elves and humans are connected through the bridge of duels, but if duels are removed, there is no other interaction between elves and humans, even though elves have completely integrated into human life in this world today.

At this moment, Leyou understood why sometimes a duel could help them understand each other's thoughts.

A duel is a connection, a connection unique to duelists and between duelists and spirits.

Just as Leyou was pondering, someone suddenly called out Shangmo's name from not far away. Looking up, he saw it was his sister, Youzuo Yangyu.

"I thought I was just going to wander around today, but I ended up having a very fruitful day... By the way, are you going to participate in the upcoming entertainment tour? Then I'll see you at the competition."

Judging from the anger on Yang Yu's face, Shang Mo was likely to receive some "education through love" next. Le You didn't intend to interfere with the "friendly exchange" between the siblings, so after greeting Yang Yu and helping Shang Mo out of the predicament, she also prepared to slip away.

He figured he needed to start preparing the decks he'd use for the upcoming matches.

This duel will definitely be reported. If he drowns in the planning stage, he'll probably be ridiculed to death by the Snow Woman later.

"Oh, right, there's one last question I want to ask you." Leyou, who was about to leave, suddenly had a sudden inspiration and turned back to Shang Mofa to ask, "If one day, dueling no longer brings you joy, and you can no longer duel with a smile, what would you do?"

Shang Mo was not aware of the significance of Le You's question; he simply gave his answer subconsciously, according to his own thoughts.

"In those situations, it's best to just avoid dueling."

"..."

"Is that so... You really are a very special duelist."

"Yuzuo Shangmo".

Chapter 48 Have you heard the story of "The Spinning Top"?

"First strike is mine, my turn..."

"Don't be too hasty!"

A clear, melodious female voice interrupted Yuu's turn declaration. Yuu, who had failed to gain the first move, revealed a card that even the first player wouldn't want to see.

"During your preparation phase, I activate the effect of [G Multiplier] in my hand."

Yang Yu smiled, his face was gentle, but he showed no mercy when he struck.

"It seems we're quite destined to meet. We've run into each other so many times these past few days, and we both happened to be participating in this competition, and we just happened to bump into each other in such a large area."

"Ah... if that's the case, it really is quite a coincidence... it would have been even better if you hadn't thrown a gold at the start."

With a pained expression, Leyou scratched his head, finding the situation somewhat surreal.

After parting ways with the monk, he went back to prepare for the competition. Shortly after he returned, news of a temporary change to the competition rules reached his duel board.

At the same time, everyone who managed to survive the competition received this notification.

According to the news, due to new research findings on virtual worlds from various dimensions, the upcoming competition will be temporarily moved to the virtual world. All participants only need to go to the designated location during the competition to use the official equipment to log in to the designated competition area in the virtual world.

This competition differs from previous one-on-one duels that determined the final winner. In the first half of the competition, more than one hundred people will participate in a battle royale mode duel tournament in a designated area in the virtual world.

According to the official statement, in addition to the duels between the regular participants, there will also be randomly assigned NPC duelists in this competition. These NPCs will indiscriminately seek out duelists to fight. Being defeated will be treated as a normal defeat, but if you defeat these NPCs, you will receive additional rewards after the competition.

This battle royale format will continue until only 16 people remain, who will be the top 16 in the second stage. After entering the second stage, the format of the competition will be no different from before. However, the four players who defeated the most other duelists in the first stage will have the right to freely choose their opponents in the second stage.

This rule change doesn't seem to be a spur-of-the-moment decision, because at the end of the announcement, the official team also attached a video titled "Celebrity Player's Declaration of Participation".

Upon entering, Leyou saw a gray-haired girl who looked somewhat familiar, but her memory wasn't very clear, and she couldn't immediately recall where she had seen her before.

However, her declaration of participation was incredibly arrogant.

"This means that our Hyperdimensional Dimension is the strongest dimension!"

Behind her, four-colored lightning flashed faintly, and as the thunder roared, it was accompanied by the sound of surging tides. A long tongue stirred the tides in the waves.

Two adorable chibi-style girls, one in red and one in blue, jumped around on either side of her, slightly cooling down her incredibly arrogant declaration of competition and preventing her aura from becoming too fierce.