"Damn it! Five times! Five times in a row! Five consecutive flips, and every single one landed on my side! This card's effect is cursed! The Angel Dice always adds at least 100 attack points when it boosts an attack, and when it weakens the opponent, it still takes away at least 100 points! How is anyone supposed to play this!?"
Inside the stream, Louis could feel a subtle but unmistakable shift in his mentality, especially when he heard those so-called "friendly" comments from his opponent.
"Nice play."
"Beautiful move."
Under normal circumstances, those words sounded perfectly fine. If he had been the winner, he would have happily accepted the praise and even felt a little proud of himself.
But now? As the loser, every compliment sounded dripping with sarcasm. The more he listened, the more it felt like a barrage of hidden mockery.
At first, he could still laugh it off. The effect on the stream was excellent, and the audience loved watching him suffer. But after being blown up five times in a row, his mentality was rapidly approaching collapse, and his blood pressure was rising by the second.
This luck-based deck was nothing like Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck, which relied on overwhelming attack power. Nor was it like Yugi's Dark Magician deck, which relied on clever combinations of Spell and Trap Cards. This deck practically lived and died by monster effects and luck-based cards.
To put it simply, it was a deck designed to torture unlucky players. If luck favored you, it was absurdly powerful. If lady fortune abandoned you, it was little more than a pile of garbage.
"Ahem... Dear viewers," Louis said with a serious expression, "after careful consideration, I don't think this Joey Wheeler deck really suits my playstyle. After all, my skills are right here for everyone to see. A deck that relies entirely on luck actually limits my true strength."
"So let's switch things up. It's time to build our own deck and also show everyone the card-drawing mechanics in the game." The excuse sounded perfectly reasonable, at least on the surface.
In reality, Louis felt that if he continued using this luck-based deck, he might not survive until the end of the match. Five consecutive losses. Was that even something a normal human being could experience?
Ignoring the flood of sarcastic comments in chat, Louis decisively opened the in-game store. Without hesitation, he immediately recharged 150 Dollars.
"One Dollar for 100 gold coins?"
"That means one Dollar can buy five card packs?"
"And a bonus pack for every ten-pull?"
Louis stared at the prices with visible surprise. "Isn't this way too generous? And players can choose three starter character decks at the beginning. That means even without spending a single cent, you already have three complete decks to play with. You don't even need to open packs immediately to enjoy the game."
As soon as those words left his mouth, the chat exploded.
"Yeah, yeah, super generous. Hurry up and buy more. Every pack John loses money on brings him one step closer to bankruptcy!"
"Honestly, compared to most card games with heavy microtransactions, this is incredibly fair."
"Three accounts, three Blue-Eyes decks. Perfection."
"Behold! The legendary Blue-Eyes fanatic has appeared!"
Ignoring the increasingly chaotic chat, Louis focused on examining the available card packs. He quickly discovered that the game's card system wasn't structured the way most players had expected. Rather than throwing every card into a massive shared pool, each card pack focused on a specific archetype.
For example, the Dark Magician pack primarily contained Dark Magician-related cards and support.
Likewise, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon pack revolved around Blue-Eyes cards and their associated combinations.
In other words, if players wanted to build a specific deck, they only needed to open the corresponding pack. This design was intentionally implemented by John to help unlucky players. Otherwise, if more than a hundred different cards were mixed into a single giant pool, the odds of assembling a complete deck would be unbearably painful.
"Alright, let's start with a ten-pull." Louis rubbed his hands together and looked at the selection of card packs.
Besides the starter decks for Kaiba, Yugi, and Joey, there were roughly ten additional archetype packs available. Then his gaze landed on the final pack, and the logo was completely black. As he moved the cursor over it, dazzling golden light erupted across the screen.
"The Left Leg of the Forbidden One."
"The Right Leg of the Forbidden One."
"The Left Arm of the Forbidden One."
"The Right Arm of the Forbidden One."
"And... Exodia the Forbidden One."
Among them, Exodia the Forbidden One featured a special effect description. When all five pieces were assembled in the player's hand, the legendary Exodia would awaken instantly, granting immediate victory in the duel.
"Holy crap!" Louis nearly jumped out of his chair. "This effect is insane! This is a one-hit kill! Who cares about summoning Blue-Eyes White Dragons or Dark Magician? Compared to this, they're all inferior!"
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, Exodia had appeared only a handful of times. For example, it had made its debut in the very first episode.
After John and his writing team revised the original story, many of the earlier plot elements had been improved. Rather than relying on impossible top-decks and pure protagonist luck, the adaptation emphasized strategy, card effects, Spell Cards, Trap Cards, and intelligent combinations. As a result, many viewers had never truly seen the full potential of Exodia's deck.
So when Louis and the audience read the card effect for the first time, they were completely stunned.
"Wait a minute... Is this the legendary pay-to-win deck?"
"You become stronger by spending money?"
"This is way too ridiculous!"
"Isn't this literally invincible?"
"Just draw five cards and instantly win?"
"Has PixelPioneers changed?"
"Would they really put such a broken deck into the game?"
The chat immediately erupted into heated discussion. After all, the effect was simply outrageous. An automatic victory condition? That sounded completely unfair.
"Enough talking." Louis cracked his knuckles. "Ten-pull time. I've already decided, my future deck is going to be Exodia."
Without another word, he clicked the button. The card-opening animation began.
"Common."
"Common."
"Rare."
"Legend!"
"Legend!"
Two brilliant golden flashes exploded across the screen, and the center card radiated dazzling light before finally revealing its identity.
Exodia the Forbidden One ×2
The livestream fell silent for a moment, then Louis froze, and his eyes widened as question marks practically appeared over his head. Wait. Wasn't he supposed to be the unluckiest player alive? Since when had he become someone with insanely good luck?
Staring at the first ten-pull, which had somehow produced two Legend cards, Louis felt his entire body tremble with excitement.