The night fell upon the modern cityscape, as the street lamps and billboards gradually opened their eyes. The colorful lights intertwined with the glow of electronic screens in the circular plaza, casting the road in a hue of brownish-yellow, with a metallic sheen like it was tinged with some mist.
Su Yu stood amidst the bustling streets, taking a good while to accept his current situation.
The place he found himself in now was called Domino City, a fictional city from the classic old anime "Yu-Gi-Oh!", which on Earth should be somewhere located on a fictional island nation.
Interestingly, just before his transmigration, he had just created a new account in the game "Yu-Gi-Oh! Link World Online," a highly popular IP adaptation game from a certain corporation, having just finished customizing his character and logging in to start his joyous duel journey...
...and that was as far as it went.
So rather than saying he transmigrated into the anime, it might be more accurate to say he... transmigrated into the game of Link World?
Before Su Yu transmigrated, Link World Online was the most popular online card game in the world... though calling it merely a card game seems inaccurate, as it was more than just that.
This was a fully immersive online network game built on cutting-edge technology. Although a card game, its mode was a bit like an MMORPG.
Players logged into the game's famous setting of Domino City from the Yu-Gi-Oh! animation, home of Muto Yugi, the First Duel King.
The game had a high degree of freedom, allowing players to freely explore the map, duel NPC Duelists, complete various tasks for rewards, and collect cards to strengthen their Card Deck, thus gaining greater power in this world.
It's well known that in the Yu-Gi-Oh World, card deck strength and playing skills almost translate directly to strength. This is somewhat like the fundamental law in this world, a world where dueling reigns supreme.
Even the supremely powerful bosses capable of destroying the world still had to play by the rules and duel the protagonists in the end.
Actually, before his transmigration, Su Yu pretty much spent every day immersed in this game, running around the map doing tasks, spending money to get card packs, or just playing a few games with other card friends in the player arena...
Link World was more than just a game; to him, it was almost like work.
Initially, he got the idea from watching game videos by a well-known content creator in the gaming community, which gave him the idea to "record exciting arena matches and make videos".
By leveraging the game's popularity, he created some entertaining card battle videos, and they fared reasonably well. Although he was by no means comparable to the true big shots, he could at least make a modest living through Link World.
And then... he transmigrated just like that.
At this moment, Su Yu felt utterly dejected inside.
As for dueling, he couldn't exactly be considered a professional. Although he had played for quite a while, he leaned more towards being an entertainment-style player rather than competitive.
He wasn't quite confident about surviving in this duelist-dominated world with his meager skills.
But since he was already here, he decided to try to adapt.
To Su Yu's surprise, when he attempted to call up the menu like in the game, the familiar game panel from his past life actually appeared before him once again.
Name: Youyu
Category: NPC
Level: Level 1
Charm: 95
Luck: 20
Endurance: 35
Stamina: 3/3
Note: Ordinary and unremarkable, striving to become a Professional Duelist.
Youyu was a random ID he picked when he created his account. Since he was playing a Yu-Gi-Oh game, it was common knowledge (albeit misguided) to start the ID with "You" for better luck with cards. As for "Yu," it was a homophone for his real name Yu, with no other meaning.
But it seemed like the randomly chosen ID was going to be his name from now on...
Thinking about it, Su Yu (now Youyu) felt a bit thankful. Thankfully he didn't impulsively choose some ridiculous name like "Arrogant Dragon Lord" or else he would have to reincarnate on the spot...
However, this panel... was a bit troublesome.
The good news was that the panel data seemed similar to player panels he was familiar with, and most of the attribute data he could understand.
The bad news was, his panel seemed significantly skewed...
Evidently, his initial attribute points seemed to be heavily skewed toward the Charm value. In layman's terms, that means his looks.
The maximum charm value is 100, over 80 is considered high charm, and 90 is at the level where it maxes out the turning heads on the street. With an initial score of 95, it could be already approaching the almost unprecedented level.
You might ask, in a card game, what's the use of high looks? Does being handsome help you draw the cards you want?
Hey, that's where you might be wrong. This game's NPCs all come with an affinity system. The higher your affinity with a key NPC, the more chances you have to trigger plots with them, and possibly even get Rare Card rewards.
So, some players can rely on their high charm value, going to all lengths to curry favor with their favorite NPCs, and once the affinity maxes out, they might just...
...play a duel with the NPC.
Ha, what were you thinking? Link World is a proper card online game that's passed review, with absolutely no unhealthy game content.
A Charm score of 95 isn't bad, after all, being handsome is never a bad thing. Besides, these days, reading audiences and viewers generally have higher expectations for looks; there's a common response that if the main character isn't good-looking, it's hard to immerse into the story. So in today's era, you wouldn't even consider stepping out as a protagonist unless your looks are above the average line.
However, a Luck score of 20 is quite frustrating.
It's not that having low luck means you can't draw the cards you want during a duel — according to this world's setting, being able to make the perfect draw depends on the Duelist's Bonds with the cards, not really the Luck attribute.
The Luck attribute here affects your success rate when activating effects involving coin flips.
A Luck score of 20 basically means you're guaranteed to lose any gamble in life; essentially the type where you call heads, and it lands tails, and vice versa.
Youyu estimated that the Luck value for Jonouchi Katsuya from Yu-Gi-Oh! would be over ninety. His deck was half composed of gambling effects, and his incredible streak of good luck was nearly supernatural, earning him the runner-up position in the Duelist Kingdom tournament and making it to the top 4 of the Duel City Tournament in the original anime.
We usually describe such a person with two words—gamble freak.
Then there's Endurance and Stamina, these two data points are directly related.
You might again be asking—what does playing cards have to do with endurance?
However, according to the Yu-Gi-Oh world's concept, there is indeed a connection between dueling and endurance. Although the Monsters summoned and cards used in a duel are holograms, they can still exert a physical shock to the Duelists according to the setting.
The Endurance value directly determines a player's maximum Stamina. In Youyu's panel, a Stamina of 3/3 means he, at full stamina, can duel three times, exceeding this would go beyond his stamina limit, making him unable to duel anymore.
An Endurance between 40 to 50 allows for four consecutive duels, between 50 to 60 for five, and above 60 for six, and so forth.
So actually, dueling is a test of endurance, and it has certain requirements for the Duelist's stamina.
An Endurance of 35 is clearly below the pass line, which leaves Youyu a bit frustrated.
After all, for a man, insufficient stamina means all the technique is in vain. (Referring to card skills)
Insufficient stamina directly impacts the leveling up speed, though this attribute may possibly grow with increased levels.
To level up in Link World, one must duel others or complete tasks to earn Experience Points, and leveling up comes with rewards like card vouchers and Crystal Stones.
Card vouchers can be exchanged for a limited number of cards at the system, while Crystal Stones are used for drawing card packs at the system.
Precisely due to the system's channel, players even have the chance to get cards that shouldn't have existed in the era of the Yu-Gi-Oh setting.
But all that's for later.
Now, Youyu must carefully ponder how to proceed as an unknown NPC in the Yu-Gi-Oh World.