On the screen, just as the three elders thought Ryo Nakamuta's 55 attacks were over, the final card fused another Chimeratech Overdragon with 24,000 ATK.
The three couldn't hold it together—they were utterly floored!
"I've seen countless pro duels in my day!"
"But I've never seen anyone turn this test into a spectacle like this!"
"30 more consecutive attacks to pile on battle damage?"
"How much damage is this gonna rack up?!"
Sun Taihiroshi swallowed hard, reflecting on his life's duels and feeling they paled in comparison.
This was true dueling!
"2,885,000 points."
"If my math's right, that's the number."
"Where's his profile?"
"I need to take a good look."
Liu Tenjo pulled out his reading glasses, squinting at Ryo Nakamuta's duel profile on the computer.
When he saw the Red-Eyes infinite loop, he let out a heavy breath!
Unbeatable—this kid was unbeatable!
He'd pulled off an infinite loop!
Even for old-timers like them, crafting an infinite loop took days of intense brainstorming.
This kid just whipped it up like it was nothing?
"It's over. Let me catch my breath."
"Catch my breath…"
"This isn't a dream, right?"
Gao Tianli rubbed his temples, wondering if he was still asleep.
Uncertain, he pinched his backside.
The pain surged through him, but still unsure, he replayed Ryo Nakamuta's duel recording.
The three watched it again, start to finish.
The result didn't change.
The staggering 2,885,000 points lingered, impossible to dismiss.
Was he really just an ordinary college student?
…
"Phew, finally grinded enough spell cards?"
Lying on his bed, Ryo Nakamuta had spent the afternoon practicing with Ikeda Hiromu.
He'd finally completed the system task requiring 100 spell card activations.
The toughest task—dealing 100,000 battle damage—had been conveniently cleared during the Duel Alliance test.
Without the test, he could've rigged a duel disk with Ikeda to grind life points.
Either way, it was all doable in a day.
"Let's see if I can unlock a new deck."
"With 1,000 duel points…"
"…Here we go."
Ryo Nakamuta opened the system shop, where the deck categories were now clearer than before.
For example, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, and Link-focused decks were neatly sorted.
Strong individual cards had their own page, requiring more duel points.
Like the Red-Eyes archetype's ultimate fusion ace, Archfiend Black Skull Dragon - Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, which cost 99,999 duel points.
The anime-effect Egyptian God cards also demanded 99,999 points!
Seeing these daunting costs, Ryo Nakamuta was at a loss.
Should he spend points on a new deck or save up to unlock these powerhouse cards later?
Don't unlock them, and he couldn't play the fun cards in this world yet.
Unlock them, and he'd run out of interesting decks to explore.
After mulling it over, Ryo decided to unlock a third Synchro-focused deck first.
Blackwing!
[Ding! Congratulations, host, for successfully unlocking the Blackwing deck!]
[Black Whirlwind x3, Blackwing - Bora the Spear x3, Black-winged Dragon x3, Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow x3…]
Unlock complete, the new Blackwing build was acquired.
Ryo Nakamuta skimmed the deck, confirming it followed standard OCG strategies, and felt a wave of relief.
Could he finally have some fun "monologuing" with this deck?
[Ding! Congratulations, host, for acquiring three prebuilt decks.]
[More functions are being revealed…]
[Functions revealed!]
More functions?
Ryo quickly exited the shop to check the system's basic features, discovering several intriguing locked functions.
Clicking their descriptions, the details emerged.
First: Spirit Bonding Function
In short, duel coins could unlock card spirits, like Judai Yuki talking to Kuriboh or Manjoume chatting with Ojama monsters.
Raising a spirit's affinity could unlock decks and related backstory lore.
"Pretty broad scope."
"Backstory? Bonding with spirits?"
"Tearlaments!"
"Wait, I could bond with those frail mermaids?"
Ryo Nakamuta's eyes lit up with excitement at the thought.
But the excitement faded as he saw the "Locked" status.
Unlocking the spirit function required meeting specific conditions.
Second: World Traversal Function
Like spatial wormholes, each representing a dimension—DM World, GX World, 5DS World, ZEXAL World, and the other six dimensional worlds.
It also included the Spirit World, meaning once unlocked, he could freely travel between these six dimensions and the Spirit World.
"Huh, so where's my Blue Star?"
"Can't get back to my old home, huh?"
Ryo Nakamuta gave a wry smile. Though powerful, the traversal function fell short if it couldn't take him home.
But it sparked an idea.
Since dark duel losers were reborn in the Spirit World, couldn't this function let him rescue them?
Like Senior Ryuten, for instance?!
Third: Card Art World Function
Unlocking this let him explore card art worlds to uncover card secrets. It tied to the spirit function—unlocking spirit backstories indirectly unlocked card art worlds.
"Card art worlds, huh."
"Reminds me of World Legacy, Fallen of Albaz, Star Relic, DT…"
"Could I step into those card art stories someday?"
Ryo Nakamuta blinked, mulling it over before dismissing these pie-in-the-sky ideas.
All three functions were tempting, but they were locked with no clear unlock conditions.
Why bother dreaming when he could just sleep?
In dreams, anything's possible!
…
Morning broke.
A dreamless night.
It was the weekend, and Ikeda Hiromu and Kito Saku were still snoring away.
Ryo Nakamuta, as usual, rose at 8 a.m., washed up, and prepped for a morning jog.
Opening the door, a letter fell to the floor.
Spotting a familiar yet strange logo on the envelope, Ryo's brows furrowed.
His mind flashed to his duel with Mina Suzuki and the logo on her clothes.
"Ugh, what's coming will come."
"Can't escape it."
"The Suzuki Group's found me."
Taking a deep breath, Ryo picked up the envelope.
For some reason, an ominous feeling stirred in his heart.
This wasn't… a challenge letter, was it?