Chapter 26: Joy

Chains erupted from beneath the ground, coiling around a colossal skeleton as it rose. The Torture Giant of the Undead loomed beside Qing Ji, its guttural roar shaking the foundations of the arena.

Qing Ji’s eyes widened, staring at this uninvited guest in disbelief.

"Contestant 0748 has summoned a monster onto the opponent's field!" Zi Cai’s face flushed with excitement. "When you don't have a high-attack monster to crash into, you create one just to ram into it!"

"What... what is this?" Qing Ji backed away, trembling, only for the Giant’s chains to snare her ankles.

Li Guanqi chuckled darkly. "Didn't you want my card? It’s right there beside you now."

"A powerful monster with 3,000 attack points—aren't you pleased?"

A manic glint flickered in his eyes. "Hehehe... feel my 'love'!"

"No... stop!" Qing Ji struggled to escape, but the chains of the Torture Giant tightened their grip.

"Battle continues!" Li Guanqi raised his arm high. "Yubel, attack the Torture Giant!"

Yubel sneered, stepping forward with a bewitching smile plastered on her face.

The Torture Giant’s eyes turned blood-red, its aura becoming volatile and uncontrollable. It swung its chains toward Yubel, but just as they were about to strike, green thorns burst from the ground, forming a sturdy barrier. As the chains collided with the thorns, their energy was absorbed like a receding tide.

The thorns grew frantically, spiraling and intertwining until they shrouded the entire arena.

Terrified, Qing Ji retreated a half-step.

Li Guanqi’s smile faded. His voice, layered and cold, issued a command: "Vanish."

"Defeated."

No sooner had the words left his lips than the thorns, saturated with immense energy, began to whip about wildly. Countless vines lashed out at Qing Ji like lashes.

"Ah!!!"

Qing Ji shrieked in agony. She tried to dodge repeatedly, but her hands and feet were pinned firmly by the chains and thorns.

The thorns tore through her clothes, leaving trails of blood across her skin that stood out against the eerie, demonic green—a masterpiece carved by a devil.

"Such intense spirit..." The two commentators were horrified, goosebumps rising across their skin.

In Biantana, cards possess spirit.

Generally, a magic card is born with blank spirit. Over time, as it experiences stories alongside its duelist, it accumulates spirit, bit by bit.

Standard spirit strength ranges from level one to nine. The higher the spirit, the more tangible the physical impact.

Beyond level nine lies the dream of Biantana’s three billion duelists: Epic Cards.

Epic Cards go beyond mere physical impact; they possess aura resistance, materialization, conceptual guidance, and numerous other functions.

A level zero to four Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring simply flashes a projection.

A level five to six Ash Blossom tears apart the opponent’s card phantom and flashes a smug, dragon-king-like grin.

A level seven to nine Ash Blossom executes mid-air whirlwind kicks, beast-king punches, and crow-style drop-kicks, flashing a middle finger at the opponent after negating their card effect.

An Epic-level Ash Blossom can negate an opponent’s act of drinking water or firing a gun, evolving from a card with no effect into one that can negate an opponent’s action in the real world.

Once a card becomes Epic, its owner’s entire life changes.

Every card has the potential to become Epic. Even a humble Kuriboh.

To ascend to Epic status, three billion duelists spend every day creating their own legends.

***

King and peasant; winner and loser.

Red Side Base Points: 4000 -> 7000
Blue Side Base Points: 2600 -> 0

[Winner is]
[Red Side]
[Duel Concluded]
[Next contestant from Qianque Palace, please prepare]
[03:18]

Qing Ji clutched the wound on her chest, gasping for air, her eyes hollow and vacant. The mental trauma was far greater than the pain of the electricity and the lashing.

"I lost to a Numbered Citizen..." she whispered.

A captain of a prestigious level-four fortress team, countered by a deck, defeated by a Numbered Citizen.

Li Guanqi stood on the dueling platform, the restless adrenaline and his heterochromatic eyes fading. He took deep, ragged breaths, a satisfied smile curving his lips.

"I won..."

An indescribable sense of gratification washed over him, releasing years of repressed emotions through that single duel.

The villain’s trash talk, the pre-victory declarations—he had always wanted to shout these things.

"That felt good."

The barriers around the platform slowly retracted, and the roar of the crowd surged in like a tide. It hit Li Guanqi’s ears with such force that his body shuddered, as if struck by a current.

"Holy cow!!!" a rugged male voice screamed at the top of his lungs.

"0748! 0748!"

More people began to chant the number, the voices coalescing into a torrential flood that spread wildly.

"Who is this guy? So vicious!"

"A rookie from Bianyuelong?"

"A rookie shutting out the opponent’s ace and captain?"

"You are my god!" a girl shrieked, her voice filled with worship and excitement.

If the first match between Yubel and Skull Servant was a matter of deck-countering and beginner’s luck, then the second—braving intense targeting and pulling off a comeback—had completely silenced the fans of Qianque Palace.

Those who had tried to attribute his success to luck or deck matchups were now speechless, not daring to utter a single sound.

The passion of the audience was fully ignited. They saw only the figure standing on the dueling platform, chanting one fanatical phrase over and over, growing louder and more synchronized.

"Sweep three!"
"Sweep three!"
"Sweep three!"

Li Guanqi slowly looked up, his gaze sweeping over the sea of excited, fervent faces. Tens of thousands of eyes were focused on him, and for a moment, he felt a sense of vertigo, as if he were in another world.

Not long ago, he was just an unknown duelist.

Suddenly, he was the center of attention—much like a Yu-Gi-Oh! player reaching the finals of an Olympic event, on the verge of winning the first gold medal.

Even though they weren't chanting his name, but a serial number, it didn't hinder him from feeling this glory and thrill.

***

In this world, dueling held a position of paramount importance.

News of the Numbered Citizen’s two-game win streak spread rapidly.

Live streaming links began appearing in major duelist chat groups under the title: [Level 4 League: Bianyuelong vs. Qianque Palace].

"Come watch, top-tier entertainment!"
"What’s there to watch in a level-four league? The decks aren't even strong."
"The Numbered Citizen is playing."
"You don't know anything, multi-functional Numbered Citizens have been in qualifiers before."
"Not multi-functional, he’s got a mark on his face—just a silkworm larva that only knows how to mine."
"Oh? That fun? Bringing out a silkworm?"
"Must be a sacrificial pawn, saving strength for a losing game."

"Holy shit!" someone in the group clicked the link and dropped a bombshell: "The sacrificial pawn is going crazy!"

"?"
"?"
"The sacrificial pawn is on a two-game winning streak, he just crushed the enemy captain and ace!"

"?"
"?"
"No way, it’s that entertaining?"
"Entertaining."
"Entertaining."
"I don't usually watch minor leagues, but if it’s this entertaining, I have to jump in."

The "entertainment seekers" spread the news like wildfire. The official league stream’s traffic surged, the heat of a level-four league rivaling that of a level-six.

The comments from new viewers were uniform, consisting of only one word:

"Entertaining."
"Entertaining."
"Came for the fame, heard there’s a god-tier Numbered Citizen here."
"Entertaining."
"Waiting for the silkworm to sweep all three."
"No way, surely not."

[Banyeting - Shang Yu has entered the stream]

A specially marked comment scrolled across the screen.

"Oh, look who it is. Blackbird, why are you here to join the fun?"

[Banyeting - Shang Yu]: "Entertaining."

"Entertaining."