Chapter 99: Spirit Adventure (5)
by AfuhfuihgsSpirit Adventure (5)
And so, the new card game using the IP of “Spirit Adventure” that Ragna created.
It became wildly popular among the citizens of the Empire as soon as it was released.
The reason didn’t even need to be explained.
Because all humans are instinctively destined to become addicted to dueling.
There might be humans who don’t know about dueling, but.
There can’t exist in this world someone who has only dueled once.
Therefore, it was a very natural progression for the citizens of the Empire to become addicted to the TCG Ragna had released as if they were possessed, and.
Accordingly, the first booster pack, “Legend of the Red-Eyed Dinosaur”, sold like hotcakes throughout the Empire, literally as if it had grown wings.
At this point, the people buying booster packs were largely divided into two groups.
First, those who found “Spirit Adventure” very enjoyable and bought card packs with a very light heart.
They were closer to collectors who bought booster packs purely to collect the illustrations drawn on the cards rather than to enjoy the card game.
And secondly, none other than-
“Hahaha! Finally, I’ve finally pulled it! After opening 13 packs of “Legend of the Red-Eyed Dinosaur”, I’ve finally pulled the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’!”
“What…! Could it be that guy has pulled the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’?”
“Huh, I’m crazy with envy. From what I heard, the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ boasts an extremely low pull rate where you might get one if you’re lucky after opening 10 booster packs…!”
“I heard some noble lord ended up buying it directly at an auction after failing to get the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ even after opening 40 booster packs.”
“From what I’ve heard, the current price of the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ prismatic rare is… over 500 gold.”
“Hey! I’ll give you 500 gold right now, how about handing over that card to me?”
“Huh? What did you say? Not a chance! With the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’, I can strengthen my deck even further than before, why would I sell it? Right?”
None other than those who buy booster packs to truly enjoy dueling.
They could be said to be beings worthy of being called ‘duelists’ in the true sense.
That’s because they were practicing ‘dueling’ directly in their own lives.
“Let’s see… The total price of the items you’ve purchased is 3 gold. Then, how will you pay-“
“Hmm. I’m short on money right now, so could I possibly pay with a rare card?”
“…Pardon?”
“This card I have, an option card called ‘Dark Wave’, currently has a market value of about 4 gold. So if I pay with this card, it wouldn’t be a loss for you, would it?”
“…?”
Like this, trying to pay with cards after purchasing items from a store, or.
“Umm… It’s a bit awkward to say this, but it seems the young lord has been suffering from severe addiction symptoms recently.”
“…What? What do you mean?”
“I mean, recently, you’ve been investing too much money in card purchases or staying up late making decks. If this continues, I’ll have no choice but to report this to the Duke-“
“Hmph, nonsense. Prove whether your words are right or wrong with power. It’s a duel right now.”
“…..”
If not that, the number of people who had fallen into so-called ‘duel omnipotentism’, trying to solve everything in the world through duels, had greatly increased.
And among those who had fallen into duel omnipotentism, those at the very top were none other than-
“I activate the mana card, ‘Spirit Voice’! I’ll evolve Arkmon on the field into ‘Red-Eyed Dinosaur – Grandmon’!”
“Guooooo-!”
Along with Deneb’s shout, a red-eyed dinosaur with a huge body is summoned in front of him.
It was as if a scene from “Spirit Adventure” had been materialized in reality.
And seeing this sight, the people watching the duel from around exclaimed in admiration.
“A-Amazing…. Is this the power of the ‘Duel Disk’ that materializes cards into reality…?”
“I heard that Duel Disks were only distributed to a very small number of people who participated in the “Sky of Destiny” side story crowdfunding last time. That means it’s something you can’t easily get no matter how much money you have.”
“But how did that person get such an amazing thing…?”
Listening to the sweet BGM of the small fry muttering around him, Deneb felt an incredibly thrilling emotion.
This is it.
This is exactly it.
The sight of those trash being unable to hide their surprise at seeing him and ending up worshipping him.
He could so easily obtain dopamine here that he could never get even if he went to gatherings of peer nobles and mingled with idiots.
That’s why Deneb couldn’t quit dueling.
No, to be more precise, he couldn’t quit all the subculture that Ragna Tersion created.
How could he dislike the medium of animation that so easily concretized into reality something he had to scribble alone through his ‘self-made setting notes’ in the past?
…Of course, separately from that, he absolutely couldn’t like Ragna, who was busily exploiting his younger sister like a slave after hypnotizing and brainwashing her.
But now is not the time to be thinking about such things.
Although rescuing his sister who had fallen into Ragna’s clutches was a very important task.
All of that could only be accomplished after winning this duel.
‘Kaisel.’
The one who took second place in sponsorship after the Emperor in the “Sky of Destiny” side story crowdfunding that happened recently.
Therefore, the thief-like guy who quickly snatched away the ‘Holy Sword’, the weapon of the Knight King who was Deneb’s favorite character, which Deneb had been secretly aiming for.
Of course, Deneb personally considered Kaisel a close friend and knew well enough that he wasn’t a bad person, but.
Nevertheless, he just couldn’t tolerate the sight of him taking away everything he had been aiming for.
That’s why Deneb wanted to resolve this frustration through a duel.
Not just any duel, but through a ‘Shadow Duel’ using a Duel Disk.
A ‘Shadow Duel’ that not only visualizes fantasies but adds mass to them, allowing real impacts to be given to duelists.
Of course, it was officially banned because it carried too many risks, but.
For duelists who wanted to solve everything in the world through duels, such things weren’t even a consideration.
That’s why now, Kaisel and Deneb were in the middle of dueling through a shadow game as if it were the most natural thing, and.
‘In the past, that guy defeated my Machine Spirit deck with a bizarre deck mixing shrine maidens, dinosaurs, and aliens….’
In fact, within the booster pack “Legend of the Red-Eyed Dinosaur”, the ‘Shrine Maiden’ and ‘Alien’ cards were evaluated as so-called ‘junk cards’ that seemed rather useless on the surface, but.
Kaisel had shattered Deneb’s ace card ‘Artificial Satellite – Yggdrasil’ through a combo using those shrine maidens, aliens, and dinosaurs.
But through that defeat, Deneb was able to grasp both the strengths and weaknesses of Kaisel’s deck, and.
He had composed a new deck that could perfectly counter his deck.
And as a result, Deneb had been pushing Kaisel throughout this duel.
Perfect.
This time, Deneb will be able to return the humiliation he suffered from his previous defeat to Kaisel!
“This is the finish. I banish one Light attribute spirit and one Dark attribute spirit from my graveyard, and special summon ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ from my hand!”
And so, Deneb summoned the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’, which he had bought three copies of at an enormous cost, to put an end to this duel, and-
“…Hm?”
…Nothing happened.
What’s going on?
Could it be that the Duel Disk is broken?
No, that can’t be.
Other monsters have been summoning just fine until now, so there’s no way only the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ would cause an error, right?
Just as Deneb was unable to hide his bewilderment at this unexpected situation.
“Hey, look there! Look at that television!”
Suddenly, someone pointed at the television installed in the middle of the square, and.
Bzzt-
Although it wasn’t Sunday night at 9 PM, the television suddenly turned on, and the screen began to show the image of a person known to all citizens of the Empire.
“I would like to quickly convey one thing to all those who have loved Spirit Adventure TCG so far.”
It was none other than Ragna.
“What I want to tell you all this time is none other than news about the limit regulation related to Spirit Adventure TCG.”
“…Limit regulation?”
“What’s that?”
People showing puzzled looks at those somewhat abrupt words.
But Deneb felt an inexplicable ominousness hearing Ragna’s voice.
Could it be that the reason the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ wasn’t summoned on the Duel Disk just now was none other than-
“The ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ has been a card loved by all duelists so far. The problem was that because the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ had such powerful abilities, other cards were easily nullified by it.”
“So we felt the need to impose restrictions on the card ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ to balance the TCG.”
“Accordingly, we have designated the card ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ as a limited card, adjusting the rules so that only one copy can be included in a deck. If you include 3 copies as usual, that duel will be immediately invalidated and you will lose.”
“Of course, there isn’t only sad news like this. With the production of the sequel to Spirit Adventure, the ‘Dark Continent’ arc, confirmed, the release of booster pack 2, ‘Invaders of Darkness’ is also scheduled soon.”
“The main monster appearing in ‘Invaders of Darkness’, ‘Singing Monkey – Monkeymon’, has its own destruction immunity and contains powerful effects that can counter the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ among other things.”
“So with this ban and restriction, and the release of the new pack, duelists who have loved the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ so far will need to make more difficult ‘choices’-“
“…..”
After that, Ragna mumbled on for a long time, but Deneb didn’t hear such voices, and.
Thud.
And finally, unable to bear the shock, Deneb collapsed powerlessly onto the ground.
Because his deck was built on the premise of having 3 copies of the ‘Transcendent Dragon of Light and Darkness’ in the deck, and.
Now that the Transcendent Dragon was limited, it was no different than his deck’s power being reduced by more than half.
“Ragna… You’ve taken away a deck more precious to me than my life…!”
Drip.
In the end, something flowed down from Deneb’s eyes.
It wasn’t tears.
It was the burning soul of a duelist.
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