The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　Although it's called a "grand competition," it's actually primarily a small-scale event, with various stores across the country serving as bases for expansion.

　A nationwide sports event.

　Of course, a small-scale mock duel will also be held periodically at the St. Marian Academy branch. The winner will receive a championship trophy personally awarded by Dark Demon, the honorary president of the All-People Duel Club.

　Dark's gaze passed through the window, landing on the circular area and the stands outside the stadium. Amidst the bustling crowd, he relaxed his nerves, which had been taut for so long.

　Lately, he has been feeling increasingly anxious, as if there is never enough time.

　However, haste makes waste; he must find a way to control his emotions and slow down appropriately.

　Dark's duel with Claudia Meg was among the earliest duels.

　Because he didn't actually wait long in the players' lounge before receiving a call from the staff to go on stage.

　Soon after, he stepped onto the contestant's platform—this time as the blue team.

　Then, after a while, the sixth-grade senior from the opposite side finally arrived and stepped onto the red team's platform.

　Dark looked up and observed his opponent.

　Claudia Meg looked quite ordinary, and he didn't have much of an impression of her.

　But he would not look down on her because of this.

　Professor Jones frequently cites classic examples of star duelists losing due to underestimating their opponents in his classes.

　The students loved listening to the lectures and never tired of them.

　Even Dak Dimon couldn't escape this trend.

　Humans have a natural inclination to find pleasure in the suffering of others. This is why the idiom "schadenfreude" (or "gloating") exists.

　语。

　At this moment, for some reason, Dak's thoughts were somewhat complicated.

　To calm these tangled thoughts, he activated the loudspeaker on the card table and spoke to Claudia Meg.

　She said, "Hello, Senior Meg."

　Claudia Meg quietly put away the two Flower Cards in her hand, and habitually put on a stern face, saying, "Hello, junior Dimon."

　Dark waited a moment, and seeing that Meg didn't seem inclined to continue, he interjected, "The next decision..."

　Please give me your guidance.

　Claudia Meg thought for a moment, and instead of inappropriately conveying her friend's words at this time, she simply said...

　"This is the right place. Please give me your guidance."

　Both sides were very polite and humble, seemingly truly embodying the principle of "friendship first, competition second," but the audience...

　They are all well-informed and have seen many duels where the opponent appears humble on the surface but is determined to beat them to a pulp when they actually start fighting.

　On the circular track, Coleman, a sixth-year student from the Knight Academy who had suffered considerable losses due to the previous capsizing, glared at the two people in the arena through gritted teeth.

　Having learned from his previous experience, this time he set the betting line in favor of Darko Dimon's victory, hoping to...

　He managed to salvage something from Dak and breathed a sigh of relief.

　However, from last night until now, very few people have come to place bets. Even those who have are mostly people on welfare; there's practically no one there.

　People bet on Meg, which almost made him so angry that he opened a "round bet," betting that Dark would win within a few rounds.

　But James Gardson stopped him from going any further.

　James Gardson's previous defeat in the duel also made him the target of ridicule from many of his classmates.

　Although I don't care, I actually care a lot deep down.

　In particular, his failure led to Professor Steve, the sixth-year Potions professor, becoming distant from him for a period of time.

　Quite a few.

　This gave him a vague urge to get his revenge.

　Therefore, he has been present at all of Dark's recent duels, trying to find ways to challenge him.

　A restrained tactic.

　He thought it over carefully and realized that he still had a chance to win his duel with Dark, but he just hadn't been able to.

　Okay, grab it.

　He devoted even more effort to studying duels for this reason.

　So he was also present to watch today's duel.

　Under the watchful eyes of many, the duel between Darko Dimon and Claudia Meg finally began.

　screen.

　The projection above the venue shows a countdown of 30 seconds for the preparation phase.

　Both players immediately got into the zone and started drawing cards!

　"One, two, three, four, five."

　Dark transferred the five cards he had quickly acquired to his left hand and looked down.

　【Teapot】

　[Black-eared Beast]

　[Moon God Beast]

　【Paradise IV. Moon】

　【Duolong Baruto】

　With his current deck, as long as he can draw that complete [Elysium IV], he can achieve victory at the fastest speed.

　Summon the third-tier magical spirits to end the match.

　However, in a deck with a minimum of forty cards, the probability of drawing a single magic card is extremely low.

　I didn't have high expectations for it.

　Start building up good karma now. If it comes in handy at a crucial moment, I'll be content.

　Dark focused his attention on his hand.

　You won't believe it, but his current deck construction uses a competitive selection system within a certain range.

　Without affecting the overall strategy, whichever magical spirit has performed better recently will be chosen.

　on.

　So he added the obedient and docile [Black-eared Beast] and [Luna] to his deck, but unexpectedly...

　I drew this Magical Spirit card in the first round.

　With this addition of a [Potpot], he now has three three-star Magical Spirit cards in his starting hand of five.

　Fortunately, luck wasn't bad; one of the remaining two cards in my hand was [Elysium IV. Moon].

　Yes, he added three copies of [Elysium IV. Moon] to this deck!

　Three copies of [Extreme 1i1. Moon] and three copies of [Elysium IV? Moon] make his current deck almost completely...

　It transformed into the shape of "Paradise".

　And its deck strength has also received an epic boost!

　However, the last of the five cards in your hand, [Dragon Balto], is not so easy to summon.

　【Battle Phase (1)】 【30s】

　"Tick!"

　At the moment the rounds switched, both players quickly chanted incantations.

　The incantation of a normal summoning spell, which is actually quite long, is almost condensed into a single bundle under skillful chanting, with only the final concluding words clearly audible.

　"In the name of Dark Demon, I, the Sorcerer, summon a [Pot Pot]!"

　Without the slightest hesitation, Dak drew his [Pot Pot]!

　In the blue team's summoning zone.

　As the summoning light rapidly illuminated, [Jug]'s figure reappeared in the dueling arena after a long absence.

　The [Hawkman] sitting in the ring squeezed the tips of his wings hard.

　It failed to get a chance to appear this time because it threw all the materials into the crucible at once, leading to...

　The crucible exploded, giving mischievous creatures like [Dream Fairy] and [Poison Baby] the opportunity to cause trouble.

　Meanwhile, the long-absent [Huhu] stared intently with a determined expression, exuding an aura of "one man can hold off ten thousand".

　"Bap!"

　Almost simultaneously, a magical spirit also materialized in the red team's summoning area.

　Claudia Meg's dueling style was very steady, and her tactics were mainly conventional. In one hundred duels...

　Ninety-nine times, the starting hand is always a Magical Spirit unless you can't summon a Magical Spirit.

　The first magical spirit she summoned was a well-rounded three-star magical spirit—[Rock Warrior]—that excelled in both offense and defense.

　!

　Card Name: Rock Warrior

　[Type: Spirit Card]

　【Level: 000】

　[Race: Subhuman]

　[Type: Rock/Fighting]

　[Magic Power: 1000]

　[Attack: 1500]

　[Defense: 1500]

　[Ultimate Moves: Rock Skin, Perfect Parry, Stone Sword Sweep]

　【Rock Warrior】is a very common name.

　Among the Magical Spirit Cards, there are quite a few [Rock Warriors] with the same name but different types.

　Claudia Meg's "Rock Warrior" is a very rare subhuman race.

　Its entire body is covered in stone, its muscles are strong, and it wields a greatsword made of stone. Although it looks clumsy, it moves extremely fast and excels in defense.

　Counterattack!

　Both players chose defensive magic spirits as their starting move in the first round, and both were slow-moving types.

　Therefore, during the subsequent cooldown period of their summoning spells, the two could only gaze at each other from afar.

　However, the three-second cooldown is over in the blink of an eye.

　Dark immediately cast a normal summoning spell: "In the name of Dark Dimon, I magically summon a [Black-eared Beast]!"

　【Black-eared Beast】is only an orange card, and compared to the gold card 【Moon God Beast】, it is still somewhat weaker, but

　Dark summoned them for their subsequent evolution.

　Under daylight, the [Black-eared Beast] that evolves into [Wu-Tu-Beast] is more suitable than the [Luna-Beast] that evolves into [Rex-Beast].

　"Hey ha hey!"

　After materializing in the light of summoning, [Black-eared Beast] became solemn, its ears stood up, and it immediately assumed a Wing Chun stance.

　He began his stance, his gaze fixed seriously on the [Rock Warrior] a hundred meters away.

　It sensed the aura of a powerful being emanating from that [Rock Warrior]!

　"Ha! Hacha!"

　The [Hawkman] on the ring immediately applauded, drawing a chorus of puzzled glances.

　[Black-eared Beast] seemed to sense the encouragement from its companion from afar, and changed its starting stance again.