A few little tool guys smoothly followed the plot and hitched a ride with Yugi and his pals, arriving together in this giant RPG game world.
Later, Yugi and the others decided to go find the Pharaoh, and after some discussion, the players decided to follow the task panel's guidance, so the two parties temporarily separated.
However, the tasks assigned by Youyu were actually somewhat different.
Ladies Yue Hua, In Difficulty Escape, Local Nora Tatsu, and Xue Lang had a task to work for Youyu in the Land of Trial.
Meanwhile, Heart Flying with the Wind and No Bargain for Eighty were assigned the task of "Searching for the Pharaoh's True Name."
After all, the "Pharaoh's True Name" is the ultimate item to clear this RPG game. Even if players know the Dark Yugi's name from the anime, just telling him directly won't work—it doesn't comply with the rules of the Ultimate Darkness Game.
You must collect the key item named "Pharaoh's True Name" from the Memory World to successfully summon the Creator God of Light to defeat the Great Evil God Sok just like in the original story.
Xue Lang and her funny crew picked up litter, accepted quests, worked part-time jobs, occasionally fought monsters, and finally succeeded in finding the Youyu they were longing for.
Players rushed through the gate of trial one by one, charging into the Land of Trial like huskies, leaving the Gatekeeper to ponder life's mysteries at the entrance.
Why aren't they using stone tablets?
And what's the deal with their battles?
He felt unravelled halfway during a duel with a lunatic wearing an animal headpiece—until the battle ended, this freaking Magician didn't even summon a proper monster, leading him to momentarily entertain the thought of "I'll smash you with a stone tablet."
Then, when attacked by a super fierce Kuriboh with over four thousand attack points, delivering an "Phase Rush," he almost completely unravelled.
What kind of players are these?
Can we still have a peaceful ritual?
Youyu wasted no time and directly explained the situation.
Basically, they need to keep climbing the towers to increase the chance of refreshing the "Legendary Warrior."
Youyu even thoughtfully announced that during the trial challenge period, everything in his shop is half price!
The little funny crew was all fired up.
Wow, half price!
With just this special event alone, won't this task make them soar?
Plus, keep in mind that challenging the Tower of Trial also comes with Crystal Stone rewards. So, the more they grind during this period, the more good stuff they can buy from Youyu!
And exchanging for good stuff from Youyu can in turn help them climb the tower more efficiently.
Woohoo, we're soaring!
Everyone looked at the teleportation gate in the middle of the square, thinking of the rich rewards awaiting them, and couldn't resist the urge to rush through.
"I'll go first." Cola Sprite volunteered.
Though she joined Youyu's support squad later, it didn't affect her confidence.
After all, licking Youyu isn't just a dummy task; you need to be capable.
Cola Sprite felt she was especially capable, making her well-suited.
After all, she wasn't licking alone.
Behind her was the support of the entire Hanno Knight!
But Cola Sprite came out shortly after entering, looking a bit withdrawn.
Her card deck was mainly a Fairy-Type deck focusing on creating a Life Point disparity. The core idea is to heal herself, raising her life points to be thousands higher than the opponent and then using Monster Effects to convert the life point difference into attack power or direct damage.
But now there's a problem.
On the first floor, she discovered the opponent's life points were twelve thousand points higher than hers...
How the heck is she supposed to fight this?
Seeing Cola Sprite having issues after entering, the NPCs in the Land of Trial finally calmed down a bit, feeling their shattered worldview patched back together a little.
See, where do so many monsters come from?
The trials here aren't child's play, they're not something just anyone can breeze through.
This leftover optimism lasted until the next day.
On the evening of the second day, their hastily reconstructed worldview was shattered again by a new record.
Following Youyu, the second person to achieve a full five-floor trial completion emerged, self-proclaimed as the head of his support squad—Xue Lang.
Xue Lang had consistently advocated for the Hero route, and by now, he collected cards not only from Elemental Heroes but also quite a few from Destiny Heroes.
This time, the reason he was the first among several players to clear the level was because of a card that was usually considered useless by everyone, but unexpectedly worked wonders in this scene, Destiny Hero Dogma.
Dogma is a level eight high-ranking Destiny Hero, requiring three Destiny Heroes as tributes for a special summon, with an attack power of 3400, higher than the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon... Of course, that's not the main point.
The main point is, after being specially summoned, Dogma has a powerful effect to halve the opponent's life points until their next turn!
For example, when Xue Lang reached the fifth level, after summoning Dogma, he could deal a massive damage of one million in the next turn at one go!
However, summoning Dogma is troublesome, and relying solely on this effect is inefficient, requiring constant back and forth jumps with Dogma. But at least it's better than trying to force through directly. After all, it's about clearing levels, not actual PvP, and the opponents are just limited-intelligence AI. You just need enough patience to grind.
After persistent attempts, Xue Lang successfully became the next honored Duelist to have their name inscribed on the slab after Youyu.
Following closely was the local Nora Tatsu.
This person specializes in a ghostly card deck, full of life-risking defense tactics, with pathetically few offensive means, making level clearing impossibly challenging for him.
But Tatsu has no other strengths besides one word: wealth.
If there's no suitable card deck, then just spend more money! Buy, buy, buy!
He seized the discount opportunity to buy some components from Youyu, temporarily cobbling together a deck himself.
...
Alright, now Tatsu steps into the dungeon, starting the duel!
Tatsu first used the Magic Card "Upstart Goblin," giving the opponent a thousand life points and drawing one card himself, then activated the Field Magic "Chicken Game," sacrificing 1000 life points to draw another card.
Starting by widening the gap of life points between him and the opponent by two thousand in reverse was exceptionally impressive.
Then he used the Magic Card "Into the Void," drawing a card with the risk that all cards in hand must be discarded at the end of the turn...
...Oh, then he even used an inexplicable Continuous Magic Card "Chain Energy" that required both players to deduct 500 life points each time they use a card in hand as long as it's in play.
This kind of cost was negligible for the opponent, but for Tatsu, who only had four thousand life points, it seemed extremely expensive. Suddenly, using a few more card-drawing cards, his life points quickly dropped to only five hundred!
Did Tatsu decide to give up the trial and blow himself up? Of course not! At the last moment, Tatsu actually whipped out... whipped out the "Reversal Quiz"!
Magic Card - Reversal Quiz, which can only be activated by sending all cards in hand and on the field to the graveyard. Guess the type of the card at the top of the deck, and if guessed correctly, swap life points between both players!
Here, Tatsu guessed the type was "Magic Card" — of course, it would be a Magic Card since all forty cards in his deck were Magic Cards!
So Tatsu drew a card, then excitedly raised his hand: "Effect of Reversal Quiz activated! Swap life points between both players!"
[Trial Opponent, LP 2002000 →LP 500]
[Local Nora Tatsu, LP 500 →LP 2002000]
"Then at this moment, due to Reversal Quiz's effect, the Set Card 'Fuhma Shuriken' sent to the graveyard from my field triggers its effect! When sent to the graveyard from the field, it deals 700 damage to the opponent!
Take 700 damage from me!"
The card already in the graveyard flew out, transforming into Fuhma Shuriken and soaring with a wild wind like the scythe of a death god slicing through the phantom of the trial!
[Trial Opponent, LP 500 →LP 0]
Explosion★Kill!
...
The NPCs were gradually starting to become a bit numb.
They realized it was quite terrifying — they weren't as shocked anymore about people continuously surpassing the sacred trial.
These past two days, the NPCs' gaze toward the few clowns gradually transformed into one of reverence, as if evaluating some kind of powerful existence they couldn't comprehend.
...Even the strong one's wild babble, bouncing walk, somewhat abnormal behavior, and even the odd names appearing on the stone slab were automatically filtered by the NPCs.
They also noticed that these later people seemed to look to Youyu as their main pillar.
It seemed that whenever they encountered difficulties and bottlenecks in the trial, they would always seek guidance from Youyu.
The NPCs witnessed firsthand that everyone, after seeking guidance from (spending gold on packs from Youyu), eventually broke through and completed the trial without exception.
The NPCs immediately revered Youyu as if he were a deity, each feeling like they finally understood.
Turns out, this person is the mentor of the few others!
No doubt about it, these outsiders are in a mentor-disciple relationship! Turns out a hidden master brought his disciples here for training!
Once the player tools all had a deck capable of passing the trial, Youyu's preparations here were pretty much complete.
The tool players were equivalent to scripts running under Youyu's name. As long as any of them obtained the final reward of the trial, it was as if Youyu had acquired it as well.