Duels should be played with a smile.

A shower of Draco meteors fell, their dazzling brilliance captivating Leyou and all the spectators.

Amidst the countless wishes of the people, the electronic angel Benten, representing "good fortune," descended upon this place.

"There are two Level 6 monsters on the field! They're coming!" Shangmo shouted excitedly.

"It's coming!" Leyou shouted at the same time, "but it's coming from my side!"

"The effect of Skeleton King Zeta! Special Summon your Benten in face-up Attack Position and banish this card until my next Standby Phase!"

In the blink of an eye, emerald green psychic power kidnapped Benten, and he disappeared into another dimension along with Skeleton King.

All that remained was Leyou's raised voice as he reprimanded her.

"Remember this! If you're not planning to attack, don't use Attack Signal to Special Summon a monster!"

And the adorable witch who can stay on stage indefinitely because she can't be stacked as a lady.

Chapter Sixty-Five: Those Who Embrace the Restraint Will Ultimately Become the Restrainers

"People choose the decks they use, so the question is, do decks also choose the people who use them?"

"What do you mean? Wait, I think I understand what you mean, but I don't think this is a problem between the deck and the player, but rather a problem between the decks themselves."

"That's true... Even though Long Huiqiao's interrupt resistance isn't actually weak, if he encounters a targeted hand trap like the Bird Lock, or a situation like this guy's opponent with a lot of interrupts, there really isn't much he can do..."

"Yeah, speaking of which, we don't seem to have seen Long Huiqiao's internal conflict? Now that I think about it, if Long Huiqiao had a backup plan, his situation probably wouldn't be much better than this guy's current situation!"

"No, quite the opposite, I think Long Huiqiao's civil war might be even cleaner and more efficient."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"If you fail to get a kill by throwing a G or locking the bird, just surrender! Isn't that much simpler than this guy's situation? Much better than this jail experience?"

"...I can't refute that."

Regardless of whether the audience is familiar with Ryuki Takumi's deck, anyone who knows anything about duels can see that Shomo's current situation is not optimistic.

Shang Mo himself has a deeper understanding of this situation.

That was real jail time!

If one word could be used to describe Shang Mo's feelings, it would only be regret.

I really regret it. Why did I have to be so foolish as to challenge Leyou, and I didn't even get the first move!

"I...have nothing else to do. Turn over. The Shaman's effect is nullified, and the level returns to 2."

With only one card in hand, Shangmo had no opportunity to set a face-down card. In fact, there were very few cards in his entire deck that he could set face-down.

“You can do whatever you want, but I do!” Leyou said, pointing to the skeleton king on his field that was currently glowing green.

"I'm handling the effect of Skeleton King Lambda by adding Skeleton Equipment Alpha to my hand."

"Then, it's my turn!"

"Draw a card!"

A card that brings smiles to people's faces has come into Leyou's hands.

Meanwhile, after the card draw ended and the preparation phase began, the two kidnappers returned to the field due to their respective effects—Skeleton King Omega and Skeleton King Zeta.

At the same time, their respective kidnapping targets also returned: a Zhu Guang announcement and a Bian Tian.

"Enter the Main Phase, change the two Skeleton Kings on the field to Attack Position, and activate the effect of a Continuous Trap Card to send 'Soaring Lop-Eared Rabbit Team' from your hand to the Graveyard, and draw 1 card."

Flying Squadron is a Level 2 Tuner monster that can be played from the hand during the opponent's Main Phase and Synchro Summoned with one of your own monsters.

With the addition of the 8-star Skeleton King Omega on the field, Leyou can perform the action of calling for foreign friends during Shangmo's turn.

However... compared to the Baroness who is loyal to Cao Cao but has flexible nationality, Leyou still prefers the simple and direct Skeleton King who kidnaps his opponent's cards while riding his beloved electric scooter.

"Hmm... You have a powerful Ritual Monster with an ATK of 1800 on your field. In that case, I'll summon this monster that's slightly stronger than her to break through!"

Suppressing a laugh, Rakuyo summoned Kaguya, whose attack power was 1850, from his hand. Even Rakuyo felt a little sorry for Shomo.

Of course, they won't soften their blows.

That's called respecting your opponent!

"Normal Summon Kaguya. Kaguya's effect: Search the Deck for a Spellcaster monster with 1850 ATK. Does this have a chain?"

Holding Zhu Guang in his hand, but with only two cards left in total, Shang Mo shook his head helplessly. Even though he knew what was going to happen next, he could only pretend not to see it.

This feeling is very subtle...

So... given this situation, do Yu-Gi-Oh! players experience the same cycle every day: "I do bad things in front of my opponent and they can't do anything about it," "My opponent does bad things in front of me and I can't do anything about it," or even "My opponent does bad things and I stop them, but they still beat me and continue to do bad things in front of me, and even get angry."

Thinking about it carefully, it's really weird!

No wonder Yu-Gi-Oh! players love to steal their opponents' items, so that's why!

Wagarimas!

"Based on the effect, I search for a second Kaguya and draw it into my hand. Then I activate Kaguya's second effect, targeting Benten on your field, and return Kaguya and Benten to your hand. Alternatively, you can send a Benten from your Deck to the Graveyard to negate this effect."

Benten is a crucial part of the Dragon's Glory resource operation. Being sent to the graveyard would be extremely painful for him. If he were to be bounced back to his hand at this moment, Shōma, who only has one lone God of War on the field, would probably have to consider whether he could be defeated by three Skeleton Kings with a combined attack of 7000, along with any monster with a slightly higher attack.

For Shangmo at this moment, the choice is between compromising and letting his opponent do something predictable bad, or not compromising and letting his opponent do something unpredictable.

This kind of situation, putting the opponent in a dilemma, is something Leyou is very happy to see. Unfortunately, the current opponent is not Yuki-onna or Philvo, but this little boy, Shomo.

This even made Leyou feel a little guilty.

As for why I wouldn't expect it to be Ella, I can only say that when Leyou and Ella fight, there's basically no chance of that happening; it's almost always a one-sided crushing defeat—like the Great Outer God of Color and so on. Those who know, know.

Incidentally, outside of duels, Ella is incredibly "kind" to Leyou.

Therefore, cards like "Mental Manipulation" are generally only used by Leyou to torment Yuki Onna.

"Achoo!" The Snow Woman rubbed her nose and looked around in confusion, but she didn't find anyone else around except Ella, or even a Faceless One.

"What's wrong?" Ella placed her hand on the snow woman's forehead and felt a chill.

Ella was a head taller than the Snow Woman, but when she squatted down slightly, she was just level with the Snow Woman.

They are now the same height, but the size of the front armor is simply overwhelming. Coupled with their distinctly different temperaments, Ella and Yuki-onna now look like a mother and daughter, or rather, sisters.

Hmm... saying they're best friends doesn't seem like a problem.

The Snow Woman rolled her eyes, gently pushed Ella's hand away, and said irritably, "It's probably someone thinking about how to torment me again... I'm a Snow Woman, how could I possibly catch a cold!"

"Since we've run into each other here, how about we have a game?"

"Huh?" Ella was a little taken aback. She touched the snow woman's forehead again and still only felt a chill.

"If you don't want to participate in the next round, you can just forfeit, right? There's no rule against forfeiting in this competition, is there?"

Recalling her zero-percentage win rate against the Snow Woman in their duel, Ella could only attribute the Snow Woman's behavior to her not wanting to play anymore.

Surely Yuki-onna can't be hiding a masochistic side, right?

"Oh, never mind that, just tell me if you want to fight me or not!" The Snow Woman slapped Ella's hand away again, then took out her Duel Disk, neatly set up her deck, and made a gesture to initiate a duel.

"Hmm... I don't really care."

Ella always only cared about two things, and the Snow Woman's somewhat unusual behavior was not among them, so she also took out her Duel Disk to accept the challenge.

Replacing your deck with a weaker one to let the opponent win is also not included in those two things.

"However... if possible, after you lose to me, I still want to hear your reasons for being so 'reckless'."

The snow woman's already snow-white face turned even paler. She composed herself slightly and said, "Everything else is negotiable. In short, let's duel! This time, I've prepared a secret weapon to deal with you!"

"Oh?" Ella suddenly became interested. "Then I'll be watching with bated breath!"

……

"I choose not to send it to the graveyard, and return Benten to my hand."

Leyou thought Shangmo's decision was a bit bold. Choosing to let Benten take back his turn instead of acting as a shield would indeed make his next turn run more smoothly, but it would also greatly increase the probability of him not surviving to the next turn.

After all, it can't be a ridiculous excuse like "Shomo's deck only includes one Benten".

Benten isn't a restricted card, and there's no banned card list in this world.

"You've got some guts, but you made the right bet. I really don't have any killing techniques... Enter battle mode!"

Card players in duels are ruthless. Even though the witch looked pitiful all alone, Leyou showed no mercy and ordered his three skeleton kings to attack.

Anyway, he's already used countless magic witches to build up his collection, so it doesn't matter if he destroys one magic witch.

Skeleton King Lambda forced the Shamaness into her battle-damaged form, making her already tattered robe look even more alluring... no, even more pitiful.

The other two skeleton kings followed closely behind, giving the poor little boy a brutal beating. After the ordeal, Shangmo was left with only 1500LP, like a candle flickering in the wind.

"Entering Main Phase 2, I set a backrow card... and then, I activate the effect of Skeleton King Omega!"

"Hand over your card!"

Skeleton King strikes again, and coincidentally, the card kidnapped this time is once again a Crimson Announcer.

If nothing unexpected happens, it's the same one as last time. It can only be said that it has a special connection with the Skeleton King.

"Skeleton King Omega was banished, triggering Skeleton King Lambda's effect, so I can search for a [PSY Skeleton] card at the end of my turn."

"I end my turn and search for [PSY Skeleton Gear - δ]!"

All five cards in my hand are face up, but it is precisely because they are all face up that the pressure they bring is exceptionally strong.

"My turn... Draw a card!"

As if he had used up all his strength, Shang Mo was now somewhat exhausted from the previous duel and this one. This duel, which was only the fourth round, made him feel more tired than the entire previous duel.

Mainly because I'm tired.

"The effect of Dragon's Glamour Gamma in my hand allows me to Special Summon Benten from my hand."

Perhaps due to mental exhaustion, Shangmo lacked the energy to summon cards, and the cards he drew this time were not very good.

"Chain your Gamma, I activate the effect of my Gamma, Special Summon Skeleton Driver from the Graveyard, nullify and destroy your Gamma!"

Shang Mo suddenly shuddered, his already heavy breathing momentarily halting due to Le You's shout.

He suddenly had a question—when he was chatting with Brother Leyou before, his voice had made him feel very comfortable, so why did it sound like the tolling of the apocalypse now?

"The effect of Dragon Radiance Gamma has been nullified, but I activated the effect of Benten in the graveyard to perform a search."