Youyu sat cross-legged on the sofa in the VIP lounge, watching the live broadcast of the KC Cup on the giant projection screen in front of him.
The first round had just begun, meaning no duelists had been eliminated yet. This meant the quality of the duelists varied greatly, with many matches being what Youyu would consider "rookie pecking."
Of course, that's only how it looked from Youyu's perspective. In fact, any duelist invited to the KC Cup was already considered top-notch.
At least the audience invited to the event seemed to enjoy it, feeling they got their money's worth. It seemed they were quite enthusiastic about the traditional back-and-forth card battling.
In fact, many spectators were like that. Some spectators, who weren't very skilled, even felt that compared to Youyu's dizzying one-turn monster summoning and bouncing around with a bunch of heroes, a "normal expert" duel was more suitable for them.
Right, the Duel King's matches are indeed powerful, suffocatingly oppressive and extremely splendid, showing strength on a whole different dimension from others.
But the problem is...
...ordinary folks can't understand it at all!
Especially during high-frequency operations in actual battles, the ordinary folks only saw the field change in an instant, with those masters performing seemingly magical feats one after another, summoning big monsters they could only dream of, sometimes more than one, and the next second, they were gone.
It really felt like magic.
Of course, that's just what the casual onlookers saw. Serious duelists could at least understand what the commentary said. After all, unlike card games in reality, this world had holographic visuals that helped clearly present effect processing to the audience, and duelists were obliged to provide detailed explanations of every effect they activated during commentary.
This made the commentary process somewhat lengthy but helped most people understand what was happening on the field.
So, from Youyu's perspective, the duel happening on the screen live right now wasn't anything spectacular.
The process went something like this.
Player A summoned Tyhone, with a standard 1200 attack power. It was Player B's turn... Player B surprisingly summoned the rare card Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress, which was too strong! It instantly KO'd Player A's Tyhone!
But Player A didn't relent at all and immediately summoned... Oh dear, they actually summoned Panther Warrior, level four with an attack power of two thousand! But Panther Warrior can't attack without a tribute, so Player B got a temporary reprieve...
...Oh, Player B tribute summoned Ryu Kokki, with an intimidating 2400 attack power. Even against the legendary Red-Eyes Black Dragon, it wouldn't be inferior!
It looks like we can congratulate Player B in advance for winning this match...
...Mirror Force! Oh my God, Player A actually activated a "Mirror Force," a super rare level trap that can instantly nullify all advantages and change the situation! Player B's monsters were instantly struck down!
It was simply so exciting, so thrilling! Thank you to both players for bringing us such an exciting duel...
Yes, it was so exciting that even Youyu started practicing his nodding skills.
He had taught Chinai to play cards too late before setting off last night (it really was about teaching cards this time), so he wasn't well-rested and was in low spirits; after watching for a while, it was as if he began to hear the warm whispers of the god of sleep.
"Bored already?" Mokuba handed him a pack of snacks.
"Not really." Youyu ripped open the snack bag, "Last month at the opera, I started dozing off in a minute; now I've lasted five minutes, which isn't too bad."
Sitting beside him, sipping milk tea, Chinai suddenly spoke in a completely flat tone, "Last night you lasted longer."
Youyu's eyelid twitched, "It was duel teaching. I usually teach her duel skills, sometimes it gets a bit boring..."
Mokuba didn't ask further, only giving a mischievous smile, a smile that seemed to say, hey Youyu bro, I'm not a child, I get it.
The casually dressed Dark Magician Girl was busy ravaging the snack basket, tilting her head in confusion.
What's master talking about? Why don't I understand?
"Ahem, aside from dueling the champion, do I have anything else to do today?"
Youyu coughed to change the subject. He tore open a bag of chips, Chinai gestured as if wanting one, and he casually tossed a chip into her open mouth.
"I don't think so." Mokuba thought for a moment, "Oh, there might be an interview. I'll have someone prepare a script for you."
"No need." Youyu waved his hand, "I still have the script from last time with me, I'll just use that."
Mokuba was surprised, "But didn't you already use that script? It was for the June event's special interview?"
"Yes, I used it. But do you remember what I said that time?"
Mokuba thought hard for a moment but finally gave up, "I don't remember."
"What a coincidence, neither do I." Youyu chuckled, "So there we have it, nobody remembers."
Mokuba: "..."
"So which newspaper is it?" Youyu asked while munching on a snack, sparing a moment to toss another piece to Chinai.
"Uh... lemme check." Mokuba took out a terminal and flipped through, "Domino Daily."
"Huh? Those guys?"
Youyu raised an eyebrow, his feeding action unconsciously stopped.
He clearly didn't have a good impression of that newspaper.
Mokuba looked puzzled, "What about them?"
"Last year, they described Youyu as the 'Heir to the Ghouls' and 'Duel Disc Harvester'."
Chinai said, her little head leaning over to steal the chip from Youyu's hand.
Mokuba respected, "They dare make up stuff like that?"
Youyu's eyebrows furrowed. Mokuba realized the wrong wording, quickly corrected himself, "Ah no, I meant... they dare spread such rumors, it's simply outrageous! Completely unfounded and irresponsible!"
He started laughing as he spoke.
Youyu rolled his eyes, "However, not all their reports are nonsense."
Mokuba thought, actually, I felt that recent piece was quite factual...
"They've also commented on President Kaiba."
"Oh? What did they say about my brother?" Mokuba was interested.
"They said President was unlike ninety-nine percent of men in the world."
"That's true." Mokuba was proud when it came to his brother, "He has incredible courage, creativity, and determination, and exceeds in any field, unlike ordinary people."
"No. They said 'ninety-nine percent of men think with their lower body, but Kaiba Seto doesn't; he thinks with his Duel Disc.'
Mokuba: "..."
Youyu tossed a chip into his mouth, deadpan, "I can't say I agree with the first half, but I totally agree with the second half."
A grumble from President Kaiba's dedicated dueling machine.
Mokuba hesitated, "....Youyu bro."
"What?"
"My brother... is right behind you."
Youyu: "!!?"