Regret.
So much regret.
Ryo Nakamuta was drowning in regret.
Rubbing his temples, he had zero desire to accept Asuka's class mission.
It wasn't that he was scared of dark duels—on the contrary, he'd be thrilled to try one out and see what the fuss was about.
What really piqued his curiosity was the Zorc wish. Could winning a dark duel actually grant a wish?
Could he wish to return to his own world?
"Ryo Nakamuta-kun, are you unwilling?"
"Or do you lack confidence in your dueling skills?"
"Think this mission's too dangerous and don't want to take it on?"
Asuka gave a faint smile, sensing Ryo's displeasure and deliberately prodding him to take the bait.
"Uh, yeah."
"Sensei, you're absolutely right!"
"Something this dangerous? How could I possibly do it?"
"I'm still in the prime of my youth!"
Asuka: "…"
What was this? This guy wasn't falling for it? He wasn't playing by the script!
Even saying the task was too troublesome would've been fine!
His response left her momentarily speechless.
"Ahem, Ryo Nakamuta-kun, don't worry."
"It's just an investigation, not actually fighting in a dark duel."
"Plus, you can pick other classmates to go with you."
"There's strength in numbers, right?"
With no other choice, Asuka switched to a gentle, big-sister tone to persuade Ryo. She couldn't exactly let him off the hook—her original intent was to avoid putting students in danger.
But this class mission came straight from higher-ups, specifically naming Ryo Nakamuta, serving as both a class president test and a secondary evaluation of his skills.
Skipping it wasn't an option.
"Ugh, fine, fine."
"I won't make things hard for you, sensei."
"I'll do it."
"As for the team, my dorm mates will do."
"Ikeda Hiromu and Kito Saku."
Seeing Asuka's almost pleading look, Ryo Nakamuta sighed helplessly and agreed, guessing she had her own difficulties.
Besides, as he'd thought earlier, while the task was a hassle and he'd rather not deal with it, he was genuinely curious about dark duels.
Maybe he'd uncover something interesting?
Ikeda Hiromu nearly fell out of his chair, staring at Ryo in shock.
This dangerous mission—Ryo-bro actually accepted it?
And not only that, he dragged him into it?!
Kito Saku, on the other hand, remained expressionless, as if he didn't care either way.
"Phew! Great, great!"
"Thank you, you three!"
"Let's wrap up, and I'll go over some precautions!"
"Ryo Nakamuta-kun, listen carefully…"
In the final minutes of the class meeting, Asuka diligently explained the investigation aspects of dark duels, sharing insights from past survivors' experiences and other relevant details.
Ryo Nakamuta listened halfheartedly until Asuka finished and dismissed the class.
He then hurriedly dragged Ikeda Hiromu and Kito Saku out of the classroom.
Back at the dorm, the trio panted heavily.
The whole ordeal could be summed up in two words:
Pure torture.
Absolutely grueling.
It was their first time realizing just how much Asuka could talk. No matter how beautiful a woman was, once she became a homeroom teacher, that beauty seemed to vanish—or at least, they couldn't appreciate it anymore.
"Ryo-bro!"
"Are we really going out tonight to investigate?"
"Can't we just half-ass it and call it a day to get sensei off our backs?"
Ikeda Hiromu still had no desire to investigate dark duels, but seeing Ryo's look, his heart sank, knowing there was no wiggling out of this.
"Fatty, what're you scared of?"
"You said you wanted to be a
Salamangreat pro!"
"This is your attitude? How're you gonna improve?"
Kito Saku smirked at Ikeda Hiromu, pulling out his deck from his backpack to start sorting it.
"Little Kito's right."
"Sensei said Salamangreat's fire-based deck has some advantage against darkness!"
"Fire Fatty, you have to go—whether you like it or not."
Hearing this, Ikeda Hiromu's face fell even further. So if they ran into trouble, he'd be the cannon fodder sent out first?
Playing Salamangreat was literally setting him on fire!
Ryo Nakamuta patted Ikeda's shoulder, giving him a reassuring look before starting to tinker with his own deck.
According to Asuka, to attract dark duelists, a deck needed monsters with strong dark energy.
Dark attribute monsters, for instance, carried more dark power than other attributes.
Ryo was chosen partly because of his high dueling skill and partly because his Red-Eyes deck was almost entirely Dark attribute.
Additionally, including duel spirits in the deck increased the chances of drawing dark duelists—the first common trait among victims.
Finally, they could consider the opposite approach: adding monsters that darkness feared, like Divine or Light attribute monsters, followed by Fire attribute ones.
Their task now was to tweak their decks to make them appealing to dark duelists.
"Eh, messing with this is fine, but I might as well check my system tasks."
"If I'm not mistaken, I should have 1000 Duel Points by now, right?"
Ryo Nakamuta muttered to himself, and with a thought, the familiar YGO interface appeared, confirming his Duel Points had indeed reached 1000.
Only one system task remained:
[2. Obtain one new preconstructed deck.]
Unlocking the next preconstructed deck cost exactly 1000 Duel Points.
"Well, might as well unlock it."
"Could refresh the tasks too."
After a moment's thought, Ryo Nakamuta spent the 1000 Duel Points, and information about the unlocked deck flooded his mind.
Cyber Dragon x3, Cyber Dragon Core x3, Machine Duplication x3, Power Bond x3…
Yup, it was a Cyber Dragon preconstructed deck.
He'd considered unlocking Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but on second thought, Cyber Dragon seemed better.
For one, Cyber Dragon had strong explosive power, more than enough to handle many decks in this dueling world.
For another, Cyber Dragon was fast, enabling a high-ATK rush strategy that could save time.
[Congratulations, host, for completing the task. Tasks have been refreshed!]
[1. Successfully defeat any duelist.]
[2. Successfully defeat a dark duelist.]
The system tasks refreshed successfully. The first task remained unchanged, but the second now read "defeat a dark duelist."
The timing of this task, just as he was about to investigate dark duelists tonight, made Ryo Nakamuta pause.
This couldn't be a coincidence, could it?