Although it looked like nothing more than a consolation Noble Phantasm after sinking the gacha, that wasn't actually the case—
An Okita who doesn't brick your hand, doesn't suffer from weakness, and can rapidly perform Rank 7 Xyz Summons was, in a sense, even stronger than the original version.
It seemed that, even though the drop rate was a bit lower, the banner Da Vinci had prepared truly had substance.
"Sorry about that, Da Vinci dear. I really misunderstood you earlier."
Da Vinci Lily, however, looked utterly astonished.
"That's not scientifically possible. I clearly set the drop rate at 0.5%. With Hoshino-chan's luck, how could you possibly get a hit with just 200 Saint Quartz?"
"…Sorry, Da Vinci dear. I misunderstood you again."
"You're not just a merchant—you're a black-hearted swindler!"
A 0.5% drop rate. Combined with Da Vinci's earlier shameless gacha-baiting, it was obvious now—she'd been waiting for Hoshino to fall right into the trap.
Still, now that the Saint Quartz system was restored—and with a cutting-edge Xyz banner open—what Hoshino needed to do next was obvious: farm Saint Quartz. And right now, Duel Academy was the most luxurious Saint Quartz mine in the world.
"After being raised for so long… it's time to start grinding~"
Hoshino referred to guiding students in duels while earning Saint Quartz as "grinding."
After all, calling it "harvesting leeks" just felt morally questionable. More importantly, compared to the zero-difficulty kids from back at the game shop, Duel Academy students clearly had far more skill—and could genuinely improve through dueling her.
"But more importantly right now… I need to sleep. Or I'm going to drop dead."
If not for the adrenaline rush from gacha pulls barely keeping her going, after a full day of work followed by a fierce battle at night, Hoshino would've collapsed long ago.
Once the summoning ended, an overwhelming emptiness mixed with exhaustion crashed down on her. She immediately entered post-gacha clarity, wanting to do absolutely nothing but sleep.
She fell asleep almost instantly. It felt like she hadn't slept this deeply in a very long time.
In her dream, Hoshino vaguely saw herself sitting at a table across from a man dressed in white, whose face she couldn't make out. Neatly arranged on the table between them were rows of cards.
Strangely enough, they weren't Duel Monster cards—but tarot cards.
The word "Tarot" comes from the Egyptian words tar (path) and ro (king), carrying the meaning of "the royal path." Thus, tarot represents the correct judgment a king should possess—this being the origin of the divination system itself.
That said, Hoshino's understanding of tarot was extremely limited. She only knew it was a form of divination, and most of her knowledge came from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
"Oh, how interesting." The faceless man in white flipped over the tarot card placed before Hoshino.
"—The Fool, reversed. I've never seen this happen before."
The Fool is a very special card—the first of the Major Arcana.
The number "0" represents nothingness, ignorance, yet also potential greater than any other card. It doesn't belong to the sequence of 1 through 21, holding a unique position—hence being numbered zero. It can signify both the beginning of everything, or the end.
The man in white smiled.
"A card that embodies infinite potential… yet it appears in reverse?"
Simply put, an upright tarot reading interprets the card as presented. A reversed reading occurs when the card is flipped 180 degrees, causing its meaning to become the complete opposite.
"How fascinating, Hoshino Chiyuki. Where fate will lead you from here—one can't help but watch with anticipation."
(***)
"Mm… what time is it?"
Feeling like she'd slept for ages, Hoshino struggled to open her eyes. She picked up her phone from the bedside—only to find it had shut down from a dead battery.
"It's only 6 a.m.? I slept less than four hours?"
Glancing at the digital clock on the wall, Hoshino marveled at how incredible her sleep quality was. After being that exhausted yesterday, just four hours had completely refreshed her.
"Since I'm up early, might as well go get breakfast~"
Normally, Hoshino didn't wake up until noon. Seeing her at the breakfast table was unheard of for the Heroic Spirits. Because of that, Emiya had nagged her countless times about how important breakfast was.
"I wonder if Emiya will praise me today for eating breakfast on time? Oh right—today should be the first day those three girls are working in the kitchen. I wonder how it's going."
Leaping out of bed with anticipation, Hoshino was suddenly hit by intense dizziness. Her legs went weak, and she dropped straight down onto the floor.
"W-What's going on? Why do I have no strength at all?"
["Aibo, forgive my bluntness, but you've been asleep for a full day and night. You've gone 28 hours without food or water—of course you're weak…"]
That explanation made everything click instantly.
"No wonder. There's no way four hours of sleep could've fixed that level of exhaustion." "So the phone dying earlier was foreshadowing, huh?"
After sleeping for 28 hours, the phone running out of battery was only natural.
Well, so much for going early and showing Emiya a good example… At this point, avoiding his lecture would already be a win.
Reluctant as she was, Hoshino still needed to eat. Dragging her severely underpowered body, she slowly made her way to the first-floor dining hall.
To accommodate Hoshino's daily life, Emiya had practically recreated the entire Chaldea kitchen here. As a result, the villa's dining hall was always lively at mealtimes.
However, the moment Hoshino stepped inside, the lively atmosphere abruptly froze. All the Heroic Spirits went silent at once.
"Whoa, whoa—what kind of wind is blowing today? Master actually came to eat breakfast?"
"Did she pull an all-nighter gaming or something?"
"No, the opposite. I heard Master slept for a full day and night."
"As expected of Master—doing something even Heroic Spirits can't."
Feeling like some rare zoo animal on display, Hoshino found an empty seat and sat down under the collective gaze.
"H-Hello~ This is your breakfast. Please enjoy…"
Hamon approached with a tray. The blonde girl in a pink apron looked especially adorable.
She herself, however, still wore her shy, introverted expression. It was probably why Emiya arranged for her to work in the dining hall—to help her practice interacting with others.
"Thanks for your hard work, Hamon. You're doing great~" Hoshino praised her.
"T-Thank you…"
Hijikata: "Waiter! Another plate of pickled radish!"
Tamamo Cat: "Hamon-chan, could you get me another bowl of miso soup? Thanks~"
Artoria: "C-Could I have another set meal as well?"
"O-Okay! Coming right up!" After bowing politely to Hoshino, Hamon hurried off toward the kitchen.
With requests coming nonstop, it was clear that although Emiya claimed he didn't need more hands, having three assistant cooks would definitely lighten the workload—and improve his mood. Hopefully, that meant less nagging.
"Alright, while Emiya's still busy, I should eat fast and make a run for it." "That way I can dodge the mom lecture."
Because of Emiya's habits, breakfast was typically a classic Japanese set. Rice, grilled fish, pickles, rolled omelet, miso soup—simple, refined, and nutritionally balanced.
After being hungry for an entire day, Hoshino devoured everything in a flash. Wiping her mouth, she bolted from the dining hall.
"I'm full—thanks for the meal!"
Successfully escaping Emiya's nagging, Hoshino hopped onto her D-Wheel and headed straight for the mine— No, straight for the academy.
At 7 a.m., classes hadn't started yet, but students should've been waking up by now.
Yet something was off—
"There's no one… not a single person?"
The shattered arena from Hoshino's duel with the Three Sacred Beasts—no, the day before yesterday—had been cordoned off with safety tape to keep students away.
But this went beyond that. As far as Hoshino could see, there wasn't a single living soul. The eerily deserted Duel Academy even sent a chill down her spine.
"It's not the weekend… don't tell me everyone overslept?"
She wandered over to the Red dormitory. What greeted her was a rundown building with tightly shut doors. Even the student cafeteria wasn't open yet—something Professor Banner would never slack off on.
"Could it be… something happened?"
A bad feeling welled up inside her. She suddenly remembered that her phone had been turned off the whole time. If something had happened, Akasha and Jaden wouldn't have been able to contact her at all.
Not wanting to linger in the empty academy, Hoshino immediately returned to the villa and plugged her phone in to turn it back on.
As expected— Just from Akasha alone, there were seven or eight missed calls.
There were also messages from Alexis and Jaden—and even one from Crowler.
The general explanation was this: the battle with the Three Sacred Beasts hadn't merely damaged the academy grounds. Even the most fundamental structural foundations of the buildings had been affected.
For the safety of the students, it was no longer possible to continue holding classes in buildings that could potentially collapse.
As a result, before the academy facilities were fully repaired, the originally scheduled spring break in mid-March was moved up. Yesterday at noon, all students were collectively arranged to leave the island.
"…Huh? So it's just spring break starting early?" "So the reason the academy is completely empty… is because everyone's on vacation?"
Hoshino had "worried herself sick" for nothing. She'd thought that just after dealing with the Three, some new headache-inducing disaster had cropped up.
She replied to Akasha, explaining that she'd slept an entire day, so there was no need for extra concern.
Almost instantly, Akasha replied with a puffed-cheeks emoji, followed by a message saying she'd already arrived home safely.
"Spring break, huh… that's troublesome."
Hoshino had been planning to rake in a fresh batch of Saint Quartz today, but things had gone south before she even got started.
Normally, spring break ran from mid-March to early April—about two weeks. Even if it started earlier, the total length wouldn't change, and might even be extended. Otherwise, students eagerly awaiting their vacation would definitely complain.
Which meant that for at least two weeks, she wouldn't have a stable source of Saint Quartz to roll new banners.
"Maybe I should head back to Domino City's game shop for now. I could at least harvest some Saint Quartz from elementary school kids. Even mosquito legs are still meat."
Sitting in front of her computer, Hoshino sank into thought. Her gaze drifted unconsciously to an inconspicuous icon in the corner of the desktop.
—[Duelist Alliance OL]
An online dueling trial project launched a year ago by the Kaiba Entertainment Group. By importing Duel Disk data, duelists from all over the world could battle online without ever leaving home.
However, Hoshino—accustomed to real-world duels and feeling that online battles lacked physical presence—had never seriously logged into the software.
More importantly, living at Duel Academy meant finding someone to duel was effortless. There'd never been any need for this program.
That said, she'd heard that Duelist Alliance OL was quite popular among amateur duelists, largely because it featured an MMO-style ranked ladder system…
Yes—that rank system. The very one previously embedded in the duel arenas.
This mechanism allowed even casual duelists to challenge higher ranks like professionals, endlessly climbing the ladder with enthusiasm.
"If I use this… could I farm Saint Quartz online?"
A lightbulb practically lit up over Hoshino's head, and the Duelist Alliance OL icon now looked like a massive mining site.
"But how do you even use this thing? I heard importing data through the Duel Disk is pretty complicated."
She recalled that the overly complex setup process was exactly why she'd never even tried logging in before.
"I think Akasha played this for a while. I'll give her a call."
Given the time difference, it should be around eight or nine in the evening over in the U.S.—prime relaxation time after dinner. No need to worry about disturbing her.
...
"(°Д°) Hoshino-nee, you're going to play Duelist Alliance OL?! Good grief—you've finally turned your demonic claws toward online dueling?!"
Akasha's shock was understandable. With Hoshino's strength, in a league full of amateur duelists, she'd easily slaughter her way to the top—and could even challenge for rank one.
Under Akasha's detailed guidance, after adjusting various Duel Disk settings, Hoshino finally managed to log into the game.
[Notice: This game uses holographic projection technology. Please ensure your surroundings are sufficiently spacious.]
To Hoshino's surprise, Duelist Alliance OL wasn't played on a standard computer screen like a typical online game.
Instead, it leveraged the Duel Disk's powerful virtual imaging system, projecting the entire game environment into the surrounding space—creating the sensation of face-to-face duels with players from around the world.
"Well done. As expected of the Kaiba Group—making even an online game this distinctive."
The login and registration process was simple, and no virtual avatar was required. Since duels were simulated via holographic projection, even online, duelists used their real appearances.
According to Kaiba's philosophy— A true duelist, engaging in a clash of souls, must never hide behind a virtual image—even in cyberspace.
While avatars weren't needed, a Duel ID was.
Since she was just here to harvest Saint Quartz, Hoshino casually set her nickname as "World's Number One Eggplant," created a duel room, and sent the room number to Akasha.
Players logging into the game could choose to create their own duel room and wait for challengers, join rooms created by others, or spectate high-level duels.
This system made it convenient for casual players to observe and learn. Rumor had it that the rooms of top-ranked duelists were always packed with spectators.
Especially today, the entire online dueling community was buzzing. With the Xyz Summoning rules—announced just two days ago—now fully implemented, fans of Duelist Alliance were celebrating like it was a festival. Even if they couldn't find opponents for Xyz duels in real life, they could experiment and practice the new mechanics online.
Shortly after Hoshino sent the room number to Akasha, a player with the ID "Hoshino Chiyuki Is the Best" appeared in the duel room.
That ID—no doubt about it—was Akasha.
"Even with spring break, getting to see you like this through holograms is pretty nice, Hoshino-nee~" Akasha's holographic form materialized in the room, waving at Hoshino.
"(˘••˘) But your ID makes me a little jealous."
Meeting online for the first time, Hoshino raised her Duel Disk excitedly.
"So—can we start dueling now?"
And more importantly, whether online duels could earn Saint Quartz was a very critical question for her.
"Duel you? No way!" Akasha shook her golden head like a rattle drum. "I worked way too hard to climb my rank—I don't want to lose points right away!"
"If you're not going to duel me, then what do we do now?"
"Just wait a bit. Another victim should show up soon."
Exactly. Dueling Hoshino meant becoming a victim. In real-world duels, losing was just losing—you didn't truly lose anything.
But in Duelist Alliance, losing meant losing rank points. In other words, this form of "harvesting" was even more brutal than in reality.
About two minutes later, a third duelist successfully entered Hoshino's room via random matching.
[Player "Cyber Dragon Is the Best" has entered the room. Send a duel request?]
(ㅍ_ㅍ) Are all players in this game required to follow this naming format?
The ID alone was already worth roasting—but the moment a familiar figure in a white coat appeared, Hoshino couldn't help but sigh.
The world of duelists was truly small.
The Academy King—Zane Truesdale—had become Hoshino's first victim, falling straight into her trap.