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

　He signed up for the preliminary selection primarily to improve himself. He believes that failure is the mother of success, and he's mentally prepared to fail many times.

　But we can't keep failing!

　Milne gritted his teeth and vowed to become stronger and win.

　Despite the large number of people watching the duel on the projection screen, the duel itself didn't cause much of a stir in the arena. Dark easily won this valuable point and immediately looked around, then excitedly ran towards the duel area with the largest audience.

　But Sophia called him back very quickly and showered him with compliments on his performance in the duel.

　He stood there, leaning back, unable to hide the smile on his face from the praise.

　"It's alright, just average."

　His uncharacteristically unsteady demeanor immediately drew attention. A duelist who had been resting on a nearby bench, and another mingled in the crowd, both noticed him.

　They even walked towards him at the same time.

　Dark had already spotted them, and after glancing left and right, he took the initiative to approach the duelist who was mixed in with the crowd.

　—Because he looks weaker.

　The essence of the preliminary rounds is "gradual progress." Unless you have the absolute strength to crush the entire region, which Dark feels he doesn't yet possess.

　In short, keep working hard to climb the ranks.

　The duelist who had been mingling in the crowd was, literally, broad and fat.

　He walked up to Dark, struck up a conversation with a smile, then lavishly praised Dark's duel with Milne, before seizing the opportunity to challenge him to a duel and ask for his guidance—all in one smooth motion.

　It's practically an act of imitation challenging others to a duel.

　Seeing Sophia's encouraging gaze, Dark resolutely accepted the duelist's challenge.

　While the two were dueling, the duelist who had been sitting on the bench was watching from the sidelines.

　This time, Dak gradually mastered the skill of controlling the heat.

　As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and his acting skills improved slightly, finally leading him to a thrilling victory.

　The chubby duelist never gave up hope of winning until the very last moment.

　The two were evenly matched, like two novices pecking at each other, and in the end, Dark only managed to gain a slight advantage.

　He looked visibly exhausted after his victory, and he leaned on his knees, breathing heavily.

　As soon as the duel ended, Sofia rushed over, fanning him with a fan featuring a chibi version of Darkdemon's face, and unscrewing the lid of a water bottle with an "Eevee Catworm" design to feed him water. Darkdemon, unable to refuse the hospitality of the "passage person," could only take a small sip to moisten his lips.

　After all, he was indeed quite thirsty.

　Sofia retrieved her water glass, covered her face with a fan, and the blood seeped through her skin, spreading all over her ears.

　The third duelist, who had been watching from the sidelines, squinted and walked up, saying, "I didn't expect you to be so strong at such a young age. You have a bright future and are definitely the best choice to become the King of Duels."

　Faced with the duelist's blatant fighting spirit, Dark couldn't help but show some difficulty and said that he was a little tired and wanted to rest.

　Seeing that Dark was showing signs of retreat, the duelist immediately took out his score card with only seven points left, successfully provoking Dark's fighting spirit by demonstrating his weakness.

　Thus, this duel continued immediately after the second duel.

　Dark activated his duel field, his expression grim as he cautiously observed his opponent.

　Then, after the duel entered "Preparation Phase 2", he looked at his hand and immediately looked troubled.

　In the first round, he managed to summon only one three-star magic spirit, relying entirely on his physical skills to maneuver around it.

　Having already endured two duels, his mental strength was showing signs of fatigue, which, combined with the intense physical exertion, exacerbated his exhaustion. In the second round, he appeared ecstatic, as if he had finally drawn a crucial magic card. However, his opponent ultimately broke through his defenses, and his health points steadily declined.

　Two more rounds had passed, and his life was hanging by a thread. Finally, in his despair, he saw a glimmer of hope, executed a miraculous draw, and pulled off this incredible comeback in an extremely thrilling manner.

　"Hoohoo."

　When Dak won, he was covered in sweat, his head bowed and panting to hide the slightly guilty look in his eyes.

　The duelist held the advantage from the beginning and snowballed it. As Dark's life points dwindled, he was unable to break through Dark's last life. In the later stages, he became increasingly impatient and finally made a huge mistake that he could not forgive himself for.

　In his view, it was that mistake that led to the reversal of the situation, causing this seemingly easy victory to slip through his fingers.

　I couldn't help but feel extremely remorseful.

　Even from a distance, Dak wondered if he had gone too far. But he had just...

　Just as I was about to go over and say a few words of comfort to him, Sofia came running over like the wind and thoughtfully handed me an "Eevee Catworm" water bottle and a "Deviatemon" towel.

　At the same time, a dragon-shaped banner floated by on a nearby bulletin board, which read: "Victory is at your feet, forge ahead!"

　The giver remains a "mystery audience member".

　Dak took a sip of water and sat down on a bench by the street to rest. This time, finally no one took advantage of him.

　—They gave him a full three minutes to rest! The fourth duelist appeared!

Chapter 1494 Darkdemon's All-Encompassing Spell (4k)

　In the course of these duels.

　Dark gradually realized that occasionally using some of the magical spirits he had used before was not a big deal.

　Even evolutionary systems are not entirely unusable.

　As long as you don't use "Sin Cards" to evolve your magical spirits, you generally won't attract excessive suspicion.

　After all, evolution based on spiritual bonds is different from evolution based on "Great Sin Cards." They are two completely different systems, both internally and externally.

　Therefore, he could easily use evolution once or twice to create the illusion that he is using some kind of special ability.

　After all.

　He is very popular.

　However, a large portion of the audience still came from the "Sons of Valkyries." And among those who bought tickets this time, only a small fraction are actually regular viewers of duels.

　If the academy championship hadn't been broadcast live across the entire continent, even fewer people would have been able to recognize Dark during the duel.

　The average viewer, although aware that he possesses those magical spirits.

　However, unless it's a particularly iconic magical spirit, it won't evoke any special associations.

　Because in the public's perception, Magical Spirit Cards are not "unique" at all; it is perfectly normal for different duelists to have the same Magical Spirit Cards.

　Therefore, Dark's deck building has become increasingly bold.

　Of course, this is also because the duelists he encountered later were gradually getting stronger. He had to increase the strength of his deck to cope with them.

　This is certainly not a long-term solution.

　However, in the early stages of the competition, the points are relatively evenly distributed. Players always try to squeeze as many points as possible from the weaker opponents in order to advance to the mid-to-late stages of the competition.

　Unless you have absolute strength, you shouldn't consider waiting until the later stages to start accumulating points.

　For players whose skill level is neither particularly high nor low, securing points in the early stages and maintaining those points in the later stages is crucial to ensuring a smooth advancement to the preliminary rounds.

　That's the current thinking behind Dak.

　That's why he tries to score as many points as possible. And this "playing the part" method isn't a one-off deal.

　Even if you don't succeed the first time, you can try again in a different area.

　In Duel City, which has twenty regions, not everyone frequently switches regions. Most players choose to stay in their comfort zone to ensure their advancement.

　This will inevitably lead to a lag in information dissemination between competition zones. Consequently, no one will immediately expose his identity.

　Therefore, he can indeed be bolder in deck building.

　After Dark won his duel against the fourth duelist, the other duelists' gazes toward him gradually calmed down.

　They say four wins in a row is the limit, but he's won four in a row, so he can't be considered an easy target anymore.

　The other contestants were still eager to make their move, simply because he had fought four consecutive matches and looked quite tired, giving the impression that there was an opportunity to take advantage of him.

　Moreover, he never refused any challenges and hadn't had a proper rest. In addition, his appearance and age were indeed tempting.

　Among the duelists present, there were quite a few who were overly confident in themselves. Therefore, after Dark returned to the bench and sat for a while, some duelists finally couldn't resist challenging him.

　That player had just achieved a three-game winning streak.

　In this small border area, he should be the most popular one with the most fans.

　Dark asked Sophia and learned that he was a professional duelist and was quite famous, so he had his own fans.

　"This should be the last one."

　As the professional duelist walked towards him, Dark thought to himself, "After defeating this duelist, I probably won't be able to stay on this street anymore."

　It's time to prepare to move!

　The professional duelist's name was Atolo, and he was known as "The Journey."

　He looked to be around twenty-nine or twenty-eight years old, exuding a strong mature masculine charm. He was very attractive to women of that age. During the previous duel, Dark had even caught a glimpse of someone presenting him with flowers after his victory, showing how popular he was.

　However, they were also offering water and towels, so the treatment wasn't bad. When the duelist approached, Dark stood up and said, "Duel!"

　Atolo paused for a moment, then immediately laughed and said, "Yes, let's have a spar."

　Dark laughed and said, "Then let's start over there."

　The two then walked toward an open space.

　There's no need to put up with it anymore.

　A professional duelist with a fan base would never refuse a challenge under such circumstances.

　Upon arriving at the selected duel arena, Dark presented his points card as required.

　v

　Points: 15o

　Break time: 08:01 Points ranking: 985A

　After winning four consecutive games on this street, he has now reached 15 points.

　Their points ranking also jumped directly into the top 1,000.

　Each subsequent victory will improve the ranking, but the rate of improvement will gradually decrease.

　Dark then looked across at the other side. Atolo also presented his points card.

　Points: 17

　o

　Rest time: 04:56 Points ranking: 866

　Aytoroo from the open selection

　He has never lost a match since the beginning. However, he doesn't fight very frequently.

　More than an hour had passed since the start of the competition, and he had only completed seven duels. So even if he won all of them, he would only rank around 800th.

　Judging from the points cards alone, the two are evenly matched, and only one win or loss is needed to tie their points.

　Dark narrowed his eyes, focusing his attention. "Expand your domain!"

　"The field expands!"

　Atolo held the Vivre Card between two fingers and placed it in front of his forehead, striking an extremely cool pose as he expanded his domain, which immediately drew cheers.

　The two territories separated immediately upon contact, rapidly spreading outwards until they reached the 80x120 boundary before stopping.

　The two duelists then retreated to their summoning zones to make final adjustments to their decks.

　Three minutes later.

　Both players have placed their decks into the duel disk and shuffled them.

　The duel has quickly entered "Preparation Phase 2". Both players draw cards simultaneously!

　v

　【Marshmallow】

　"Ditto" "Double Shot Charm" [Tether Charm] [Torchbear]

　Dark quickly glanced at his hand and made his decision.

　Torchic is currently the only Pokémon-type Magical Pokémon that he can evolve solely through Spiritual Bond.