Yu-Gi-Oh.
Also known as: The King of Cards, The King of Bricks, The King of BS, The Homo King of Games.
Thanks to the discrepancies between the anime plotlines and the effects of the physical cards released later, the series has earned all sorts of weird nicknames—but at its core, it's always about one thing: dueling.
No matter what happens, it all boils down to a duel. Sword fights? Fistfights? Who needs those anymore? In this world, dueling has replaced all forms of battle and become the mainstream form of entertainment—and conflict resolution.
Sounds unbelievable? But it's true. In this world, the police don't carry guns—they carry duel disks and cards.
When punks on the street shout that they want to throw down, they're not reaching for bricks or bats—they're pulling out their duel disks and challenging you to a card game.
So, if someone transmigrated into this kind of world, that'd be… kind of reassuring, right?
But of course, things aren't that simple.
As we all know, Yu-Gi-Oh! is your classic "high-magic" world. All kinds of freaks and eldritch horrors pop out of nowhere in the name of "Shadow Games."
Three-thousand-year-old Egyptian pharaohs. Ancient sources of darkness. Demon gods from the underworld. And that's just the beginning. Later series started bringing in tropes straight out of fantasy B-movies—emerald grimoires, dimension-level crises, conflicts between the light and darkness of the universe…
And that's not even counting the card illustrations themselves—some of those look like they could wipe out entire planets.
—Of course, if that were all, it might still be manageable.
But there's one big problem: every Yu-Gi-Oh! world has something called a "main character." And these main characters? Yeah… they're not normal people.
Take the original series for example:
The protagonist is a resurrected ancient pharaoh, steeped in Egyptian black magic and mysterious powers. Shadow Games are his playground.
Then there's Judai from GX—he might look like a regular high schooler, but aside from being the reincarnation of a dark overlord, he's also a 15-year-old prodigy who can forge the Philosopher's Stone and inherit ancient grimoires. Put him in any other fantasy setting and he'd be the "once-in-a-millennium" genius.
When the sky falls, these are the guys who hold it up. Since the series is made for teens, all the world-ending threats end up being resolved by the main characters anyway.
So, if you're not trying to force yourself into the spotlight, hiding in a hole until everything blows over is actually a pretty good survival plan.
But there's a catch—this only works if you're truly a nobody.
You Ming had no idea whether he—or his current body's original owner—was just a nobody. But one thing was for sure:
He isn't anymore.
"The Millennium Item…"
Staring at the glowing golden artifact in his hands, You Ming couldn't help but twitch at the corners of his mouth.
"I should've realized it right away. I should've recognized who that guy was the moment I saw him."
Shadi—full name: Shadi Shin.
On the surface, he's just another tomb keeper, guardian of three Millennium Items. But later, the movies revealed he was also a dimension traveler.
Not that that part matters much. What matters is that, aside from filler arcs, he was the guy pushing most of the main plot in the original anime.
He forced Pegasus, the father of Duel Monsters, to take the Millennium Eye—causing the card game to go global. He fed Malik riddles that twisted his mind and turned him against the Pharaoh.
Even after disappearing completely, the children he adopted—those self-proclaimed "Prana"—almost pulled off a world-ending stunt themselves.
From a certain point of view… the guy's basically the source of all evil.
And now, this guy… handed his own Millennium Scale over to You Ming?
So what does that mean?
Scenario 1:
> "I sacrifice two monsters to summon Obelisk the Tormentor! Let his fury rain down!"
Scenario 2:
> "This is the only combo in my deck that can beat you: Dimensional Triangle Pyramid! Activate!"
Just thinking of those insane anime duels made You Ming shudder.
Don't ask why it always has to involve going against the main characters. When you're involved with someone like Shadi, that's just how it goes.
Look at the so-called "Blue God" from the manga—total maniac. And the tomb keepers Shadi kept talking about and their "destiny"? Completely deranged.
So here's the real question: What did Shadi mean by "save the world"?
"…Yeah, not my problem."
After thinking it over, You Ming came to this conclusion.
The current timeline was already fairly clear. The world-ending events in the original series? There were only a few.
Doma was one. If the anime plot was still canon, then Dark Bakura's Ultimate RPG arc was another. But all of those were problems that Yugi Mutou, the protagonist, could definitely solve.
So that made You Ming's job simple:
"I just need to deliver this thing to the King and his little buddy."
But before that…
Boom!
> "AAAAHHH!! Help me! Somebody help me!!"
Crunch.
Wailing. Sobbing. Chewing.
All kinds of terrifying sounds echoed from just beyond the wall, making You Ming's skin crawl.
Honestly, he still didn't know where the hell he was.
A primitive cave? A dungeon?
Or maybe… some weird evil cult's hideout?
Whatever it was, one thing was clear:
"I need to get out of this hellhole."
But that didn't mean he should act impulsively.
He needed to be fully prepared to face whatever might come next.
And the first thing to secure… was his own safety.
"Weapons..."
Thinking through his limited options, You Ming looked down at the duel disk and deck in his hands.
In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, "weapons" didn't mean swords or guns. It meant these ordinary-looking little cards.
"Let's test the basics first."
He casually slapped a card onto his duel disk.
> "Axe of Despair."
With a flash of light, a sinister battle axe appeared in his hands—he could almost hear its maniacal laughter.
The weight told him this wasn't some illusion—it was very much real.
Next…
> "Gilasaurus."
He hadn't gone through any formal summoning process, but a huge, monstrous beast appeared, nearly smashing through the ceiling.
"Nice… I don't know if it's the duel disk or my own ability, but at least I can materialize cards."
That made things a whole lot easier.
"Now I just need to work on my deck build."
In this world, card games decide everything—so building his own deck was crucial.
"Let's see what Shadi left me…"
He started flipping through the rest of the cards.
> "Necklace of Command, Advanced Ritual Art, Supermagic Sword of Raptinus…"
But as he went through them one by one, his face started to freeze.
"Shadi, what the hell are these? Sixty cards and not a single monster? Wait—no, there's one."
Staring at the Gilasaurus still on his duel disk, You Ming fell into a strange silence.
Then, he noticed something—the cards, apart from the ritual spells, were all identical to the weapons and armor he saw earlier. Even the card art matched exactly.
"So you really are a cheap bastard, huh? Not even one normal summonable monster? No tributes? How the hell am I supposed to ritual summon anything?"
Oh, right. Shadi didn't even duel in the show.
"Never mind then."
> "One day I'm launching your mom into space…"
> "Please, I'm begging you! Please let me go—AAAHHH!!"
Crunch.
Splatter.
"…"
You Ming had more complaints to yell, but the sounds of bones and flesh being gnawed on behind the door made him go silent.
He tiptoed over to the pile of rubble, peeking through a gap.
All he saw was a muscular, monstrous figure.
With a disgusting stench in the air, the creature—its flesh rotting—crawled across the ground, tearing into shredded limbs.
Gulp.
A broken head rolled in his direction, locking its dead, bloodied eyes right onto his.
"…"
He quietly backed away—and returned to his seat.
"Deck-building takes priority."
But even so, just this handful of cards wasn't nearly enough to build a proper deck. Not even close.
Unless… he could find more card sources somehow.
Could he?
The answer was obvious:
Absolutely.
Easily.
Because as a transmigrator, You Ming still had one ace up his sleeve—his ultimate trump card.
No matter how desperate the situation, he could turn the tides.
Its name was…
"The System."
Ding-dong!
As he set the pile of equip cards aside, that world-shaking word left his mouth—and in that moment, a beautiful prompt appeared before his eyes:
> [Dear Host, welcome back.]
Yes. That's more like it.
If transmigration happened, then that weird dream definitely wasn't just a dream.
Screw you, Shadi. You can set him up all you want—but You Ming had a system!
But before he could celebrate, new text floated into view, and his smile began to freeze.
> [This marks your 10th year with the system.]
"…Huh?"
Did you just say how many years?
> [Through storm and stress, we've journeyed together. Your annual report has been generated. Please review it.]
"…?"
Do you even hear yourself right now?