Wanna Duel? I've Got the Pharaoh's Deck! [2]

Iizumi Yuuhi, half-Chinese, half-Japanese. Sixteen years old. A transmigrator.

As for the exact cause of his transmigration—well, let’s be honest, no one really cares. So let’s not waste ink on it. Truthfully, even Yuuhi himself had no idea how it had happened.

All he remembered was that when he came to his senses, he was standing in the middle of a strange street.

People bustled past him—many of them sporting hairstyles so bizarre they looked like resurrections of early 2000s subcultures. They spoke in a language he’d never heard before. The signs and banners plastered across buildings bore scripts and slogans entirely unfamiliar to him.

Taking all this in, unless he was in the middle of a psychotic break or the victim of a massively elaborate prank show, there was really only one possibility left—he’d transmigrated, just like in a webnovel.

It took several long minutes for Yuuhi to finally calm the chaos in his heart. And only after that did he start to notice something else—this seemed to be a world where dueling was everything, like Yu-Gi-Oh!

A good number of people on the street wore devices that looked just like duel disks. And the public screens nearby were broadcasting footage of so-and-so dueling so-and-so.

That alone told him everything he needed to know about the setting of this world.

And Yuuhi wasn’t unfamiliar with Yu-Gi-Oh!

Back when he and his older brother were growing up in an orphanage, he’d caught a few episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters on the TV there. Later, with help from the school’s computer lab, he binged the full DM series, as well as GX and others. Especially DM—he’d rewatched that one multiple times.

To be honest, having read plenty of webnovels, Yuuhi had fantasized about something like this before. About being transported into the anime world, standing side by side with his favorite protagonist, Mutou Yugi, and saving the world together.

But judging from the current situation… that fantasy probably hadn’t come true.

Or maybe… something had gone wrong?

Putting aside the crazy fashion choices, the settings in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime were still fundamentally Earth-based.

And based on what little Yuuhi knew, there wasn’t a single country on Earth that used a language or writing system like the one he was seeing now.

And yet, somehow…

Even though he had no memory of learning it, Yuuhi could understand the language being spoken around him. He could read the text on signs. Communicating with the locals posed no problem whatsoever.

That, at least, was a relief.

At least he wasn’t in danger of becoming a mute outcast in the middle of civilized society.

Unfortunately, that bit of good news came with two pieces of bad news.

Going off the anime, the Yu-Gi-Oh! world was always teetering on the edge of disaster—whether it was mind control, corporate evil, shadow duels, or full-blown apocalypses. If you wanted to survive in a place like that, you needed either a cheat system or serious dueling chops.

But after a preliminary self-check, Yuuhi hadn’t found any sort of all-card-unlock or full-deck-summon cheat hanging around. Whether it just hadn’t activated yet or didn’t exist at all, he couldn’t say.

Either way, it didn’t look like he’d be living the easy life as some overpowered chosen one.

Still, there was one silver lining—he had his soul deck.

The one he'd carried with him for years, rarely ever leaving his side. So he wasn't completely defenseless.

The problem was, a deck alone wouldn’t get him far. Without a duel disk, he was still stuck.

Which led him to one conclusion—

I need to get a duel disk here. If I miss this chance, who knows how long I’ll have to wait for the next one.

Hand raised high, Yuuhi locked his eyes on the girl standing on stage… or more precisely, on the sleek, gorgeous duel disk on her left arm.

The sudden transmigration had dumped way too much new information on him at once. He hadn’t had time to think through everything else yet. But no matter what, getting a duel disk had to be priority number one.

Not just for survival.

But also, because for someone who loved dueling—someone who loved Yu-Gi-Oh!—how many people could resist the chance to become a real Duelist?

At the same time, while Yuuhi stared up at the platform, Hoshino Mai was also eyeing him with curiosity.

What she saw was a soft, clean-cut face—almost doll-like in its smooth features.

There was no sharpness in his expression. He stood near the back of the crowd, quiet and unremarkable.

But ironically, next to the colorful, absurd hairstyles of everyone else around him, Yuuhi’s black hair and dark eyes made him stand out more.

All in all, a pretty good first impression. In a different way, he was unexpectedly eye-catching.

The only issue… was that he didn’t seem all that strong.

Years of dueling experience had sharpened Mai’s instincts, and she didn’t sense any powerful aura or deck pressure coming off him. Just a normal, average kid.

Hmm… is this really okay?

Is he going to go down in one turn again? That’d make this a waste of time.

But even so—

“Of course! We welcome every brave challenger! Please, come on up.”

Hoshino Mai nodded, giving Yuuhi a warm, encouraging smile and motioning for the crowd to make way.

“Tch, beat me to it.”

“Eh, whatever. There’ll be more chances later.”

As voices of annoyance and nonchalance murmured around him, Yuuhi stepped through the gap in the crowd, climbed up onto the stage, and offered a heartfelt—

“Thank you.”

A few others had raised their hands right after him, hoping to catch Mai’s attention. If she’d picked someone else instead, Yuuhi honestly wouldn’t have had a plan B.

“No need to thank me. Like I said—no Demon King ever turns down a hero’s challenge. And as an idol? Even less so.”

Power gaps aside, Yuuhi had been the one to lift his hand and answer her call when the crowd had gone cold. No matter how strict she was, Mai wasn’t the kind of person who’d ignore something like that.

“By the way, if you want to thank me, how about this—Hero, would you mind telling us your name? Introduce yourself to everyone!”

“…Iizumi Yuuhi. Just Yuuhi is fine.”

“I see—Yuuhi-kun, huh? That’s a lovely name.”

Mai skillfully guided the conversation, keeping the energy up while also trying to build some rapport with him. Unfortunately, Yuuhi—being a freshly arrived transmigrator—knew nothing about the world, and couldn’t really say much beyond his name.

Noticing this, Mai wisely dropped the topic and didn’t press for details.

Still, now that they were face to face, with no crowd in the way, she was able to pick up a bit more about him.

Hmm. Just from eyeballing it, he was a bit shorter than her. Probably just over 160 cm—around the same height as her friend, Yuki. And that blue-and-white jacket… was it a school uniform?

Mai didn’t recall any local school in Akebono City using such a plain, out-of-date design. One that even made a decent-looking person appear average.

So, was he a tourist from out of town? His accent didn’t sound local either.

Not that any of that really mattered.

What did matter was that, even if he seemed a little nervous in front of people, his eyes were sharp—bright. Even while standing face-to-face with someone who’d just crushed an ex-pro, he didn’t show a hint of fear or hesitation.

Interesting. Maybe this won’t be as boring as I thought.

“My name’s Hoshino Mai. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Yuuhi-kun. Now then—”

With a flicker of interest in her heart, Mai reached out and shook his hand, then smiled warmly as she turned the focus back to the duel.

“Let’s have a great match, okay? One we can both really enjoy.”

---

This is a fan translation of 打牌吗？ 我王样卡组！by 夏日戏言 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!