Jinzo trembled.
So the nightmare was real.
If there was anything worse than a nightmare, it was waking up and realizing you were still inside it.
He had agreed to a Shadow Duel, betting his own body. And clearly, he had lost.
Jinzo Spirit felt deeply dejected.
In the nightmare, at least only his clone had been stolen to the opponent's side. Now he woke up to find that the traitor had been himself all along. It was hard to say which was worse.
Forget it. Since he was here, he might as well accept it.
After calming down, Jinzo thought carefully about last night's Duel and decided he had not truly lost out.
If he ignored certain actions during the Duel that easily caused personal grudges, then objectively speaking, Jinzo had to admit this Duelist was extremely strong.
For a Duel Monsters Spirit, having a powerful master was not necessarily a bad thing.
Still, the Duel had been so frustrating that the more he thought about it, the angrier he felt.
No, at the very least, he had to win back some dignity.
Having accepted reality, Jinzo crossed his arms and nodded slightly.
"Very well. I acknowledge your strength, Duelist." He put on a lofty expression. "But I am a high-ranking Spirit. To wield my power, you must pay an appropriate price.
How about this? I will not ask for three sacrifices. One sacrifice will be enough in exchange for my loyalty."
Shing.
The sound of a blade being drawn.
Two other Spirit phantoms appeared in the room without warning.
Silent Magician and Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning stood on either side, a staff and a blade of light and darkness pointed directly at Jinzo's head.
Jinzo looked at the staff and sword aimed at his forehead and fell into deep thought.
It did not last long. The thinking took about one second.
"No sacrifice needed. In exchange for my loyalty."
His voice became much smaller.
There was no way he could afford to offend either of them.
Only now did Jinzo truly realize his position in the team. Just a moment ago, he had thought of himself as a noble Level Six, a high-class Spirit. It turned out he was the weakest in the entire group.
As for Silent Magician, she usually looked harmless. Yet she could change her form at will, raising or lowering her level freely. At first glance she seemed like only a Level Four, but if she got serious, she could easily crush two Jinzos with one hand.
There was no need to even mention the one beside her.
The legendary Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.
Who would dare provoke that?
"Don't be like that." Yugen said with a smile. "We're all partners from now on. There's no need for weapons. Put them away."
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Silent Magician looked at each other, then obediently withdrew their sword and staff and stepped back.
"That's better. From now on, everyone should get along. No bullying the new teammate."
That's right. Did you hear that? No bullying the newcomer.
At some point, Jinzo had unconsciously moved behind Yugen, secretly observing the two expressionless Spirit across from him.
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Silent Magician exchanged another glance and nodded.
"Then let's enjoy many more Duels together."
Jinzo Spirit nodded quickly as well, expressing that he would stand united with everyone from now on.
For a moment, the dorm room was filled with cheerful energy.
"Oh right, about last night's Duel, your Deck was really impressive," Yugen Do said.
Jinzo Spirit waved a hand, indicating it was nothing. Had it not still been crushed by his master?
"No, no, it really was impressive. And there were several exclusive cards in Jinzo Deck that I had never even seen before. In our world, those are all Rare Cards. That's amazing."
Yugen spoke with admiration.
In truth, after last night's Duel, he had immediately wanted to check the spoils. Unfortunately, he discovered that Jinzo's Deck was just like in the animation, entirely formed out of thin air. After Jinzo was knocked unconscious, the Deck had disappeared as well.
But that was fine.
Now that Jinzo had joined their big family, there was no need to distinguish between yours and mine. What belonged to a Spirit was basically the same as his own.
Jinzo Spirit stared blankly for two seconds before suddenly understanding.
He flipped his palm, and a surge of electric current flickered across it. Dots of light gathered and quickly formed a Deck in his hand, which he eagerly handed to Yugen.
"Yes! Yes, of course! It's right here!"
After gaining another new Deck, Yugen was in an excellent mood today. The Jinzo Level Series still had room to grow, and years later it had even received nostalgic support cards. He made a note of it as a future research topic to study when he had time.
Before his transmigration, Foundation K had seemed to discover a new profit strategy and started heavily reinforcing old Decks from the DM to GX era. Many of those might look weak to modern Yu-Gi-Oh! players, but even weak modern cards would have been overwhelming twenty years ago. As for top tier modern Decks, the entire Deck would have looked fake in that era, like Santai Technologies beating primitive villagers from the Student Council with clubs.
Not every old era Deck that received support remained useless. Who could have imagined that Yubel, once considered weak in its own time, would nearly twenty years later get a chance to turn its fate around? It only proved that Duel Monsters ran deep, and research had a long road ahead. If card printing power was pushed far enough, even Miwa Rin could be lifted to the top.
In this world full of cheats, one either relied on bonds and luck or got rich through research and did the work personally. For Yugen, the list of pending projects was already long, and the number of Decks and Level Series he wanted to study kept increasing. Trying to personally lead every project would not work, so once their first wave of results was published and the influence of the Alchemy Laboratory expanded, he would need to recruit more people.
His core and his own Spirits would always be researched by himself. But for the many other scattered Decks and Level Series, he simply would not have the time. With so many themes and new cards to print, both resources and manpower were necessary.
Fortunately, the release of the first batch of results from the Alchemy Laboratory was not far off. Under Yugen's guidance, Asuka Tenjoin had completed the initial reinforcement of Cyber Angel and then worked day and night for several days. She finally finished the paper she planned to submit.
The day before submission, she brought it to the Alchemy Laboratory and asked the designated Supervising Professor to review it. Even so, she still doubted the true ability of the appointed Supervising Professor, Daidouji.
Daidouji-sensei stroked the cat in his arms and casually flipped through the stack, pushing up his glasses with a troubled look. "Well, even if you say that, I have not really written many papers myself."
With a quick rustle, Daidouji flipped from the first page to the last and returned the thick stack to Asuka Tenjoin. "Very good. No problems. Submit it as it is. As expected of Asuka Tenjoin, you are always reliable."
Asuka Tenjoin took the paper back in confusion and hesitated to speak. She wanted to say that he had not read it at all, but she held back out of respect.
Daichi Misawa could not help adding, "And I checked. The Student Council is already scheduled for next week. Is it really possible to submit now?"
It was a fair concern. In his previous life, Yugen knew that paper reviews could take months or even over a year. Now the conference date was almost here, and they were only just submitting. It sounded unheard of.
Daidouji smiled calmly. "It is fine. My friend is quite influential. This small matter should not be a problem."
Daichi Misawa still looked doubtful. This hardly counted as a small matter.