"Now, let the duel begin."
Bubble didn't give Jiang You any time to react, immediately announcing the start of the game.
Jiang You watched as the blank cards shuffled themselves and settled into their designated zones. Then, two hourglasses filled with fine blue sand appeared on their respective tables. The narrow necks connecting the bulbs remained empty, clearly serving as life indicators.
Jiang You LP: 4000
Yog-Sothoth LP: 4000
"What does this mean?"
Jiang You stared at the five completely blank cards in his hand. He'd seen this kind of thing before; they needed to absorb something specific to transform into actual cards. But right now, he was completely in the dark about what to do.
"Are you telling me to print my own cards?"
"Exactly," Bubble nodded. "This is a beginner's tutorial to help you adapt to your Authority."
"In that case, these are the five pieces of the Forbidden One! Special victory condition met! I win!" Jiang You declared shamelessly.
Nothing happened. The cards remained blank, and Bubble just watched him with a faint smile.
"...Didn't you say I could print whatever I wanted?"
"That's from a different universe. You're crossing franchises," Bubble explained. "Besides, even if you did manage to summon that thing, do you really think it would have any effect on me?"
"I thought the rules of a duel were absolute! And isn't this game based on Yu-Gi-Oh!? Why can't I even print Exodia?"
Even if this is a crossover, Jiang You thought, it's still fundamentally a Konami-style game. Having a card with a special victory condition should be perfectly normal, right?
"In that universe, the rules are indeed absolute," Bubble said with a smile. "But here, what you perceive as absolute becomes truth. And besides, that's not how your Authority is meant to be used."
She continued, knowing the lesson would be pointless if she let Jiang You win so easily. Still, what she said was the truth.
"Cards, to put it simply, are rules created by capturing fragments of 'reality' from the current world. As for cross-franchise elements, you can worry about those when you actually reach that universe. For now, let's continue. This is just a tutorial, so don't worry too much about winning or losing. I'll go first."
Bubble gently placed a card on the table—the same one Abby had used earlier, which originally belonged to her. "First, I activate the Continuous Spell Card: Silver Key."
"This card allows me to Special Summon one Foreigner-class Servant once per turn, though I won't be using that effect right now."
This duel felt just like a real-life card game; there was no interface to display card effects automatically. Jiang You had to pick up the corresponding card and read the text himself.
"If you're interested, I could give you a few of these," Bubble offered. "They'd be perfect for your current Class."
Bubble continued her turn. "Next, I activate the Quick-Play Spell Card: Celestial Sound."
She read its effect aloud: "When this card is activated, negate the effects of all Servant Cards on the field, then destroy all cards on the field. Your opponent cannot activate card effects in response to this effect. For each card successfully destroyed, draw one card."
"This card design feels more like something from Hearthstone," Jiang You muttered. "It's completely broken!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! typically imposes strict limits on card-drawing effects. Since there are no action points or mana costs, "destroy X, draw X" effects are usually found only in games like Hearthstone or Shadowverse, and even then, they come with a high cost. Jiang You glanced at the Silver Key card in his hand. It had an effect that triggered when it left the field. "You're trying to summon yourself, aren't you?"
"Exactly," Bubble confirmed with a nod.
"Silver Key's effect: If this card leaves the field, Special Summon one Yog-Sothoth from your Deck, Graveyard, hand, or Banished Zone! Since it's me, I'll skip the summoning chant."
Unlike the form Gudako had witnessed, Bubble now appeared as a silver-haired literary girl. Her cards had transformed to match this new appearance. For Bubble, this form was like an avatar—while her Authority remained undiminished, the SAN damage she inflicted was reduced to a minimum, allowing her to walk among mortals for a short time.
[Yog-Sothoth]Outer God / Level 12 / ATK ?
"So it's an Outer God? I thought it would be a Foreigner," Jiang You remarked, picking up the card to examine it more closely. The very first line described a special victory condition.
"Hmm... this is weaker than I expected. Why is the special victory delayed? That doesn't fit your status at all. Even Exodia is better than this!"
"If you wish, I can change it to an instant victory upon summoning," Bubble said, her eyelids twitching slightly in clear dissatisfaction. "But then it wouldn't serve its purpose as a teaching tool. Besides, take a closer look. Am I really that weak? Now, I end my turn."
Jiang You continued reading the card's text.
[Yog-Sothoth]
This card is unaffected by other card effects.
1. If this card is successfully summoned, you win the Duel at the start of your next turn.
2. While this card is face-up on the field, when your opponent activates a card, they must discard 1 Spell Card. If they cannot discard a Spell Card, they must banish the top 10 cards of their Deck face-down and lose 1000 Life Points to activate the card.
3. Once per turn, you can declare a number from 0 to 8. Both players discard their entire hand, then draw cards equal to the declared number.
4. When your opponent draws a card outside of their Draw Phase, inflict effect damage to them equal to the number of cards in their hand × 100 for each card drawn.
5. This card's ATK and DEF become 10 times the highest ATK among all other Servants on the field.
6. While this card is in the Deck, Hand, Graveyard, or Banished Zone, your opponent cannot achieve a special victory by any means.
"I have a feeling you just added that last effect," Jiang You said, suspecting Bubble had added it in retaliation for his earlier comment about Exodia being stronger. "But I admit, I spoke too soon. This card is ridiculously powerful."
"Of course I just printed it," Bubble admitted without a hint of shame. "And now, I declare the number 0. Let's both discard our hands."
It was clear that many of Bubble's effects revolved around hand size and Spell Cards. If this weren't a tutorial, she could have simply declared "8" and ended the Duel on the spot. But even now, the situation was dire. Bubble would win on her next turn. How could Jiang You possibly overcome this with just one card?
"How about letting me draw cards when I discard these Blank Cards?" Jiang You asked, still unsure how to "print a card." Solving the current situation with a single card seemed impossible.
"No," Bubble replied with a smile, rejecting his proposal.