Ryo Nakamuta slowly exhaled, his gaze blankly sweeping over the surroundings that felt both unfamiliar and oddly familiar.
Photos of a starfish-headed duelist clutching a trophy adorned the walls, a Blue-Eyes White Dragon figurine sat proudly on the desk, and the computer screen blared the latest major dueling news of this world.
Rubbing his temples, fragments of memories and images not belonging to his own world flickered through his mind like a carousel.
Ryo Nakamuta's heart sank as realization dawned.
He had transmigrated.
He had crossed into a world centered around Yu-Gi-Oh! card games, where every matter, big or small, was decided by the outcome of a duel.
Though he could hardly believe it, the memory fragments in his mind and the dueling news playing on the computer didn't lie.
From the news, he learned:
The DM (Duel Monsters) legacy world, the GX fusion world, the 5D's synchro world,
The ZEXAL xyz world, the ARC-V pendulum world, and the VRAINS link world—
A total of six summoning methods, six dueling worlds.
Just one month ago, they had all been successfully connected!
For duelists from the earlier "legacy" worlds, this was nothing short of a worldview-shattering, paradigm-rebuilding event.
They now had to adapt their dueling styles, embrace new summoning methods and combo techniques, and explore unprecedented chemical reactions in dueling strategies.
For instance, when Muto Yugi learned that advanced summoning was gradually phased out in later worlds, he immediately secluded himself to cram knowledge of other summoning methods, eager to experience the allure of xyz, synchro, pendulum, and link dueling.
Jaden Yuki, on the other hand, seemed more obsessed with riding duels, specifically seeking out Yusei Fudo to learn how one could duel while riding a motorcycle.
Yuma Tsukumo and Astral were reportedly on their honeymoon, their whereabouts unknown.
Yuya Sakaki was teaching elementary school kids how to use Smile World to bring joy to duel monsters.
Yusaku Fujiki… was busy stomping noobs.
"What the heck?"
"No way, for real?!"
"Six generations under one roof? Muto Yugi? Yuma Tsukumo? Yuya Sakaki? Yusaku Fujiki?"
"Hold on, hold on—they're all in this dueling world?"
After finishing the news, Ryo Nakamuta had no choice but to accept that this "six generations under one roof" referred to the six anime protagonists he knew so well!
Beyond that, what shocked him even more was how Kaiba Corporation's technology had soared to new heights, successfully linking all the dueling worlds.
It was somewhat akin to the Duel Links game in his own world—a system that connected duelists from various worlds to live and duel in this unified dueling world.
With the right technology, some could even freely traverse between dimensional worlds, which sounded a bit like magical realism.
As for his own identity? Just an ordinary college student preparing to enroll at the Phantom God Dimension Academy. Why he had transmigrated here, he had no clue.
Clearly, he wasn't from any of these six dimensional worlds…
"Alright, let's see."
"What cards do I even have?"
"I hope I've got some cards that modern Yu-Gi-Oh! players can't get their hands on."
"Let me have some fun in this world!"
"Maybe something like Pot of Greed or Graceful Charity?"
Muttering to himself, Ryo Nakamuta opened the card box inside his backpack on the bed, dumping all the cards out in a heap.
After rummaging through them, his initially hopeful expression gradually cooled to calm disappointment.
Not a single card in his deck was a powerhouse. The only highlight was a lineup of high-attack vanilla monsters.
A bloated sixty-card deck, and not even a single Pot of Greed—a staple every duelist should have!
Holding a noble 4-star Earth Warrior monster with 1700 ATK, Axe Raider, Ryo Nakamuta fell into deep thought.
No way.
This starter deck can't be right, can it?
They're talking about six major dimensions, yet his deck was filled with vanilla trash mobs, not even an extra deck in sight!
Where was Number 39: Utopia? Red Dragon Archfiend? Decode Talker?
No Mermail Abyssmegalo? No Thunder Dragon Colossus? No Knightmare Unicorn?
Fine, forget those—where was Black Magician or Blue-Eyes White Dragon?
His deck had zero cards capable of synergy or combos. Drawing and playing one card at a time—how was this supposed to get him into college?
The only remotely interesting high-attack vanilla monster was Red-Eyes Black Dragon!
Yes, the ace monster of Joey Wheeler.
But the problem was—
What was this fish-eyed dragon good for?
2400 ATK? Summoned Skull would just laugh in its face.
Without support cards, using this in a duel was, frankly, clown behavior.
He'd be better off tossing Summoned Skull into the deck instead!
"Looks like I need to grab some cards to beef up my deck."
"With a deck like this…"
"How am I supposed to ace the entrance exam?"
With a darkened expression, Ryo Nakamuta closed the news and opened the International Illusion Society's official website to check out new and past card packs.
As expected, after the six dimensional worlds merged, Pegasus had already released plenty of up-to-date dueling cards through the International Illusion Society.
For example, synchro-related packs like Junk Synchron, Red Dragon Archfiend, and Blackwings.
Though the cards in these packs weren't exactly meta-defining—not as strong as the decks in Ryo Nakamuta's original world.
There were also xyz-related packs like Utopia, Shark, and Galaxy-Eyes.
Even pendulum Odd-Eyes and link Code Talker packs had hit the market.
It was clear that in the past month, Pegasus had been working overtime to help legacy duelists catch up with modern dueling trends.
Unfortunately, the complexity and unfamiliarity of these new decks made many legacy duelists resistant to adopting them.
For advanced-summoning legacy duelists, the idea of using two 4-star monsters to xyz summon instead of tributing for a higher-level monster was unthinkable.
For link-era duelists, using two monsters for an advanced summon instead of climbing the link ladder was equally absurd.
In short, new-era duelists looked down on legacy duelists, while legacy duelists scoffed at learning modern summoning methods.
It seemed the six dimensional dueling communities still needed time to mesh.
Of course, some duelists embraced these new summoning methods, purchasing the packs and giving them glowing reviews.
To them, the more summoning methods available, the more infinite the possibilities in dueling.
That was the true charm of Yu-Gi-Oh!dueling.
"Phew, good thing."
"The Phantom God Dimension Academy includes courses on all summoning methods."
"So, there shouldn't be this kind of polarization."
"But… these card pack prices…"
Ryo Nakamuta's mouth twitched as he eyed the prices of the packs and preconstructed decks. After checking his empty pockets, reality hit him.
Maybe, with his vanilla monster deck and his modern Yu-Gi-Oh! dueling mindset, passing the entrance exam wasn't entirely impossible?
With a bitter smile of self-consolation, Ryo Nakamuta packed up his deck, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and prepared to head to the Phantom God Dimension Academy.
If he didn't leave soon, forget passing the entrance exam with vanilla monsters—he might not even qualify to take it!