"You scoundrel! Taking someone else's deck and casually tampering with it, are all you guys from the XYZ Dimension so awful?" Serena said, gritting her teeth.
"But facts prove that your deck flows more smoothly with Xyz Summoning. Didn't you see it?" Yūga Hōzumi said, full of righteous indignation.
"You scoundrel…" Serena trembled with anger at Yūga Hōzumi's words, and tears of frustration welled up in her eyes against her will.
"Hey, why are you crying?" Yūga Hōzumi found this woman truly baffling. It's not like he put any parasites in her brain!
"Baffling." After Yūga Hōzumi muttered a few words, he ignored her and opened the system.
"First, I'll sell the card the One-eyed Strong Man turned into to the shop, exchange it for gold coins, and do a 10-pull."
"My luck wasn't bad this time. I maxed out my Banchou at three copies."
"Then, I'll take the two UR Dream Tickets I got from that guy and from the mission and exchange them for one Onomatopaira and one Onomatopick. I'll use an SR Dream Ticket to get a Dwarf, too. With that, my core engine is pretty much complete."
"Now that my core engine is complete, the remaining Dream Tickets can be used to get some cards for Kite and Yao to increase their combat power."
As Yūga Hōzumi thought this, he opened a new random Number Monster Card Pack.
[Congratulations, Host. Number 10: Illumiknight has been unlocked.]
Yūga Hōzumi: …
What is this meaningless thing? There's a Number monster like this?
Yūga Hōzumi took out the card and looked at it.
Once per turn: You can detach 1 material from this card; send 1 card from your hand to the Graveyard, and if you do, draw 1 card...
This meaningless effect requires three materials? This card must be something this crappy system uses to lower the pull rates.
Yūga Hōzumi decisively sent this card back to the System Warehouse to gather dust, then opened the generic Spell/Trap Dream Ticket interface.
After using six Dream Tickets to exchange for one Monster Reborn and one Book of Moon, Yūga Hōzumi exited the system.
Just then, the late-night snack Yūga Hōzumi had ordered arrived.
Yūga Hōzumi comfortably plopped down on the sofa, contentedly eating pizza and drinking soda, while Serena, beside him, stared intently at him with eyes that could devour a person.
"What are you looking at? I asked if you wanted some earlier, and you said no!" Yūga Hōzumi felt a bit uncomfortable under her gaze and couldn't help but speak.
But Serena didn't say a word, just glared at him fiercely. She stared so intensely that Yūga Hōzumi felt the pizza in his hand was losing its flavor.
Yūga Hōzumi: …
With no other choice, Yūga Hōzumi grudgingly parted with a slice and brought it to Serena's mouth.
But Serena viciously lunged to bite Yūga Hōzumi's right hand, startling him into pulling it away.
"Fine, don't eat it!" Yūga Hōzumi devoured the remaining pizza in a few bites, shot an angry glare at the ungrateful woman, and promptly got ready for bed.
…
"Grind, grind, grind…"
Just as Yūga Hōzumi was drowsily drifting off to sleep, a piercing sound dispelled his sleepiness.
Yūga Hōzumi followed the sound with his gaze and saw Serena on the nearby sofa, glaring fiercely at him while constantly grinding her teeth.
"Are you sick or something?!" Yūga Hōzumi couldn't help but curse.
"Hey, I'm hungry!" Serena said, full of righteous indignation.
"I offered you some earlier and you refused. Now you're hungry? Deal with it!" Yūga Hōzumi said irritably, pulling the pillow over his head and collapsing back into bed.
But a single pillow couldn't block out the demonic sound invading his ears. Tossing and turning, unable to sleep, Yūga Hōzumi finally reached his limit. He rummaged through the System Warehouse, found a few Duel Rice Balls he had won from prize draws, and threw them all over to her.
"Eat! Stuff yourself to death!" Yūga Hōzumi said through gritted teeth.
Then, Yūga Hōzumi rolled over and went back to sleep.
Perhaps she was truly hungry after a day of travel. With her hands bound together, Serena struggled to tear open the rice ball's packaging and began to nibble at it.
But the peace didn't last long. It seemed she had finished the rice ball, as the piercing, demonic sound rang out again.
"Sister, what is it now?!" Yūga Hōzumi yelled, throwing his pillow aside, on the verge of a breakdown.
"I want to sleep on the bed!" Serena's eyes were full of provocation as she stared at Yūga Hōzumi.
"Why don't you ask to fly to the moon while you're at it?! You're a prisoner! A prisoner!" Yūga Hōzumi truly had no idea what to do with this woman. If she were truly an invader with blood on her hands, he would have turned her into a card and sold her to the system without a second thought. But he genuinely couldn't bring himself to do that to this ignorant woman who had been deceived by Akaba Leo from the very beginning.
"Then give me my deck back!" Serena said.
"You've got a lot of nerve. Give you your deck so you can go to the frontline and attack my comrades? Do I look that stupid?" Yūga Hōzumi was so exasperated he couldn't help but laugh.
"You started this war! What's wrong with us defending ourselves and counter-attacking?!" Serena stood her ground.
"Defending yourselves and counter-attacking? On someone else's territory? Can't you use that not-so-clever little brain of yours to think for a moment? The war has been going on for so long. Has your city suffered even the slightest damage?"
"That…" Serena hesitated for a moment, but she quickly continued, "That's just because your army is too weak!"
But as she said this, her confidence was clearly lacking.
"I hope you can still say that when you reach Heartland City," Yūga Hōzumi said coldly. "And one last warning: if you don't want me to stuff your socks into your mouth, you'd better be quiet."
"You…" Serena's expression changed upon hearing this.
For the rest of the night, perhaps Yūga Hōzumi's threat had worked, as Serena became much more obedient.
The next evening, Reiji Akaba sent the invitation for the second stage of the grand melee.
"Yuto, don't go to the tournament tomorrow. Someone needs to keep an eye on this one," Yūga Hōzumi said to Yuto, pointing at Serena.
The primary reason for this arrangement was that tomorrow's battlefield would not only include this dimension's Yuya but also Yuri, who Akaba Leo had sent to capture Yuzu. Even Yugo from the Synchro Dimension would show up to join the fun. If Yuto rashly joined in, and those 'energetic youngsters' got carried away and summoned some powerful monster, Yūga Hōzumi wasn't confident he could handle it at his current stage.
"Alright. But I heard the Obelisk Force will be invading tomorrow. Will you and Shun be alright on your own?" Yuto asked after nodding.
"No matter how many of those grunts show up, I can handle them," Shun Kurosaki said indifferently from the side.
"Hmph. Big words," Serena scoffed from the side.
"Don't think I won't do anything to you just because you look like Ruri!" Shun Kurosaki said angrily.
"Hmph." Serena snorted coldly, turning her head to ignore Shun Kurosaki. She then spoke to Yūga Hōzumi, "Hey, give me my deck back. How about I help you deal with the Obelisk pursuers? I don't want to be captured by them either."
"Don't even think about the deck. Just stay here obediently," Yūga Hōzumi rejected Serena's request without a second thought.
"You…!" Serena sputtered, choked with anger.
Yūga Hōzumi walked to the window and looked at the sunset outside. "I wonder how long the so-called 'Entertainment Duelists' of this dimension can last when faced with a real war."
(end of chapter)