Duels should be played with a smile.

With great effort, Leyou lifted her eyelids and slowly opened her eyes.

Looking around, he realized he was still on Long Ke's sofa, and there was no one else around.

"Stop looking, it's right here."

The voice in his heart rang out again, and a phantom appeared before his eyes.

It was the Snow Woman.

But... something seems off about her?

The Snow Woman floated in front of Leyou, but her body felt nothing. After regaining consciousness, she took about ten seconds to figure out her situation and then spread her hands in front of Leyou.

"Oh no, I've become a stand-in."

Chapter Sixteen: What's wrong with stockpiling weapons before a war?

"I understand the logic, but what exactly is your current state?"

After staring wide-eyed at the phantom of what was roughly a miniature version of the Snow Woman for a long time, Leyou could only describe his feelings with one emoji.

What the hell is this thing? .JPG

Why don't you ask the magical conch shell? JGP

Leyou didn't have the magical conch shell, so he could only hope that the Snow Maiden could give him an answer.

After all... rubbing his kidneys, Leyou thought the Snow Woman was quite strange, always using her fighting power in odd ways.

"As you can see~" The snow woman floated in the air, half-lying down, one hand still drawing circles randomly in the air, her eyes looking rather strange, making Leyou feel very uncomfortable.

"When I fought that thing before, I was overexerted, and the damage from that dark duel really affected me. Then, due to some other miscellaneous reasons, I got stuck. After your blood transfusion, I temporarily woke up, but I haven't fully recovered yet."

"So... this is the only way to appear until you recover?" Le You raised an eyebrow, sensing that something was amiss.

"That's right. By the way, you can see me because of our connection; other people can't see me... In other words, I've been clinging to you all this time."

Leyou pouted and muttered, "It's like you've been clinging to me all this time... Goodness, so you weren't just saying that casually. You've really become my substitute now?"

Trying to control the current snow woman with her mind, Leyou felt she could have a bold idea.

But this idea was quickly put to rest.

When he tried to control the snow woman with his mind, he clearly saw that she did react somewhat, but the reaction was not what he expected.

"What are you thinking about? Have you been watching too much unhealthy stuff?"

As the snow woman adjusted her posture from a semi-reclining position to a side-sitting position, she inadvertently, or perhaps intentionally, revealed a touch of captivating charm.

It has a flirtatious undertone—but it's something that can only be admired from afar and cannot be attained.

Seeing that the Snow Woman was in a playful mood, and after confirming that she was indeed alright, Leyou relaxed and started bickering and teasing her.

"Tsk tsk tsk, can I return this? This stand is so disobedient."

Upon hearing this, the Snow Woman transformed once more, now in her full elven form, allowing her to easily accomplish things she couldn't do in her normal human form.

For example, one-click outfit change.

In an instant, she changed into a standard white-on-top, black-on-bottom business suit. More beauty is hard to describe, but her smooth, long hair is also noteworthy. It was piled up behind her head, revealing her pink neck. Her face had a standard professional smile, and her eyes were full of provocation. Except for the front armor, which was a bit of a disappointment due to its own quality, she could be said to be almost perfect.

Standing quietly upright, hands clasped at her waist, the Snow Woman, with a gentle smile in her eyes, said softly, "Hello, sir~ Isn't it normal for a long-range controlled Stand to have its own thoughts? Return request rejected~ Please use this product responsibly, enjoy life, enjoy the fun~"

Leyou was slightly taken aback, not expecting the Snow Woman to pull this stunt: "Tsk, what you said makes so much sense, I'm speechless... But if this substitute doesn't obey, I can't enjoy life properly, and I miss out on a lot of fun."

"But you can enjoy me~"

A voice as beautiful as heavenly music rang in her ears, and a warm breath brushed against her earlobe. Leyou felt her heart beating faster.

Oh no, when did this nobody level up to such a high rank?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Snow Woman, who had changed back into her original attire, leaning silently against his shoulder, and the slightly warm earlobe was thanks to her.

Leyou opened his mouth, about to retaliate, but then noticed the Snow Maiden's slightly upturned lips and her mischievous eyes.

Goodness... I almost got caught!

Taking a deep breath and calming himself, Yueyou gently pushed the snow woman away from him, turned around, and faced the somewhat astonished snow woman. With his eyes lowered, he asked in a deep voice.

"So... what is the price?"

Hehehehe~~~

A series of silver bell sounds rang out, and the Snow Woman was amused by the sudden antics. She immediately moved closer and pressed her forehead against Leyou's.

"Everything about you"

Leyou felt a bit of toothache, liver pain, back pain, and testicular pain.

However, adhering to the principle of not suffering losses, we must not let such a good opportunity slip by.

So he moved closer.

He tasted the delicious cherries.

……

"This enemy who suddenly appeared is very difficult to deal with, and he also has underhanded methods in addition to duels. No matter what his reason is for coming to us, we must remain vigilant for the next period of time until this matter is completely over."

With Yuki-onna regaining consciousness, and after waiting for a long time without seeing Jack, and Kiryu also saying that he couldn't contact him, the postponed discussions finally began.

After learning what had happened from the Snow Woman, even someone as carefree as Leyou found himself in a difficult situation.

Putting aside how troublesome it would be for others to relay Yuki-onna's words, explaining the enemy's identity to Yusei and the others is no easy task.

The biggest challenge is whether unexpected things will happen when Yusei and the others, as natives of this world, face their new opponents.

Through the Snow Woman's account, Leyou basically confirmed the enemy's identity. Although it was utter nonsense, the facts were undeniable.

Faced with such a special enemy, most conventional methods are simply ineffective—not only are our own methods ineffective, but we also have to endure external interference from the enemy. In this back-and-forth, before the game even begins, we are already on the road to a comeback.

Fortunately, there was no disagreement on the point of classifying K as an enemy, otherwise the meeting would not have been able to continue.

All I can say is, no wonder it's DogK? Even if it's just the tip of the iceberg, it's enough for these main characters to consider it an enemy?

"The only thing to be thankful for is that although the enemy has special characteristics, everything will ultimately be decided through a duel. And as true duelists, I believe you all have no problem with that, right?"

The others remained silent for a moment, not answering immediately, until Yusei nodded first, and then they all said they had no problem.

Seeing this, Leyou felt a bit annoyed. He had only known Youxing and the others for a little over a month, but when the meeting started, Youxing insisted that he take the lead. Now that he had done what he was supposed to do, the others were just following Youxing's lead, leaving him feeling awkward and indecisive.

Tired.

Leyou wasn't really surprised by this situation, since everyone else had a life-or-death relationship with Youxing. However, it was puzzling that Leyou would insist on appointing himself when he was clearly thinking of having Youxing find someone else.

Fortunately, Leyou always had a good attitude and knew that everyone else was used to listening to Youxing's opinions, so he pretended not to have seen what had just happened and prepared to move on to the next topic.

"Well... the duel itself is fine, but the enemy seems to have the ability to banish some cards before the duel begins, and some cards also cannot return after the duel ends. Shouldn't we address this issue first?"

Looking in the direction of the sound, I saw Qiu raising her hand in greeting.

“That’s true. Only by understanding the enemy’s capabilities can we prepare a response,” Yusei agreed.

This is a case of the wife leading and the husband following suit.

Leyou nodded and used the projector at Long Ke's house to project some information he had obtained from the Snow Woman and show it to everyone.

"That's what I was just about to say. A duelist's cards are a shield and a sword. Only by ensuring your weapons and armor before the battle can you unleash your full potential during the fight."

Pressing the remote control in their hands, the PPT projected on the wall automatically switched to the next page, and the image that appeared on the projector caused the expressions of the duelists present to change slightly.

Leyou looked around and beckoned to Long Ke: "Long Ke? Can you explain this to Kro and Guiliu?"

Long Ke was somewhat surprised to be called on, but he immediately stood up and explained the significance of the card being shown.

"The enemy can destroy some cards, but some cards don't seem to disappear completely. After discovering that her deck was missing a card, Yuki-onna searched through all her decks and found a Meteorite. According to Yuki-onna, each of her decks has at least two Meteors."

Upon hearing this, everyone's lips twitched. As duelists of Synchro Dimension, they were deeply threatened by this card. The appearance of Synchro Monsters was not simple; often, more than five monsters were summoned before the story was even halfway through.

It can be said that nine out of ten duels between synchronized dimensions are fought under the constant threat of meteorites.

Leyou tapped the table, drawing everyone's attention back from the threat of the meteorite, and spoke again.

"The simplest solution is probably something everyone has already thought of: when you go out, everyone should bring a suitcase."

"The box?" Crowe asked, somewhat confused.

"What's there to doubt... Bring a box, and fill the box with a ton of cards, including your side deck, backup deck, fun deck, and any cards you think you can use and replace. In short, whatever deck you know how to play, whether or not there are any synergies, put it all in the box!"

"That way... even if some cards disappear, you can find some to replace them from the cards that haven't been taken by the host, so it won't affect your combat power too much."

"And then there's the situation Long Ke mentioned, where not all the cards with the same name disappeared. So, remember not to bring only 3 or even 1 of each card. If you can, bring 10 or 8 of them. That way, if 5 or 6 of them disappear at once, it'll be as if they never disappeared. Then the enemy's methods will be completely wasted."

Another silence followed.

This time, it wasn't that Yusei needed to agree; it was just that Leyou's method was somewhat unexpected for them.

I thought Leyou would have some profound insights, but the method he proposed was so simple... but I must say, it seems to be quite effective.

Their respective trump cards are indeed very rare, and some people only have one. However, trump cards only maximize synergy. Sometimes, powerful general-purpose cards or auxiliary cards can still play a surprising role when trump cards are not effective.

At this point, Guiliu was already coming up with some wild ideas—sometimes he would add some strange and powerful small cards to his Infernal Fire deck, and there were even times when he failed to hit the enemy with his bare hands and accidentally killed him with a small card.

If things are really done as Leyou suggested, this situation may even become the norm in the future.

After all, once the Infernal Flame deck can no longer play without a hand, or if some key cards disappear, the power of the entire system becomes almost nonexistent.

“It’s a bit too simple and crude, but it feels incredibly effective…” Kro continued, pondering for a moment. After a while, he looked at Yusei and smiled. “Speaking of which, when Yusei was fighting against the Earthbound Gods, he helped quite a few elf races along with us. Some of our cards were actually obtained from the elves.”

"If we are to do as Leyou says, the first thing we need to do is to purchase a large number of cards... Yusei can take care of part of the supply issue."

Upon hearing this, Yusei nodded, acknowledging that he had accepted the task.

After considering the possible future directions of his Infernal Flame deck, Guiliu also spoke up: "There are quite a few card shops in my territory. I can notify them to stock up in advance so they can purchase what they need."

"Then we'll cover the cost of purchasing them, right? Buying a large number of cards must cost quite a bit of money."

Everyone looked over, and it was Long Ke who had just spoken—along with Long Ya, whom she was pulling along.

That's alright. You can tell how wealthy these twins are just by looking at the meeting room they're having their meetings in now—how could an average family afford to have a fully equipped meeting room in their big villa?

No, ordinary families wouldn't live in the upper-level areas, let alone the villa areas, much less the central area of ​​a villa district.

"Uh... I'll cover part of the expenses too. Even though your family is wealthy, you can't just spend money recklessly," Yusei said somewhat awkwardly. He knew that Ryuk and his sister wanted to help, so he didn't say he would cover all the expenses, but he couldn't let the two children bear such a large expense.

Thanks to the significant contributions their 5DS team had made to the city, they were actually able to obtain some team funding from the city's public funds, although the amount was not large and no one else had paid much attention to it, so for a while, no one except Yusei thought of it.