006 The Generous Rewards for Defeating Yu Tai

System: [(Duel Kingdom) Side Quest: Defeat the third-place winner of Japan’s first Duel Monsters tournament, “Ryota Kajiki” (Completed). Quest rewards: Elemental HERO Bubbleman x1, Bubble Blaster x1, Fusion R Card Voucher x1, Gems x100, Gold x1000, R Gem x10, Water Gem x10.]

“Hiss~!!”

Seeing the post-duel rewards given by the DL system, Yugi couldn’t help but take a sharp breath.

The moment he defeated Ryota, the reward notification from the DL system had sounded in his ears—only in his ears.

Lunch was eaten, the duel was fought, the Star Chips were obtained; there was no reason to linger at the seaside duel arena any longer. Yugi said his goodbyes to the others and left the arena early.

When he was sure no one was around, Yugi found a quiet corner, pulled his smartphone from his pocket, and opened the only app on it: “DL Duel System.” As soon as he entered, a cascade of notification messages for each reward appeared.

“Bubbleman… The card that, in the GX anime, had a powerful hand-refilling effect—sometimes almost as good as the ever-banned ‘Pot of Greed’—and which, after being weakened in the OCG, was jokingly called ‘Greed HERO’ by fans. Is this the very same ‘Elemental HERO Bubbleman’?”

Staring at the screen, at the card illustration composed of varying shades of blue—known among Yu-Gi-Oh! fans as “Greed HERO”—Yugi recalled what he knew about it.

“An equip spell, ‘Bubble Blaster’… Expected, seeing Bubbleman as a reward.”

In his starter deck, granted by the system before rewards were distributed, there were already several exclusive spells and traps for the “Fantastic Four” like Avian.

Since the system gave Bubbleman, its dedicated equip spell was sure to come with it.

“A Fusion R Card Voucher? So, everything redeemable must be fusion-related cards? Let’s see what cards are available…”

In the starter deck before the rewards, there were only two Elemental HERO fusion monster cards.

As for the others, perhaps their fusion materials were incomplete, or their rarity too high, or maybe because Duel Monsters had only just begun, so they weren’t in the starter deck.

With a tap of his finger, Yugi activated the voucher, and three fusion monster cards with purple borders appeared before him.

“All of them are fusion monsters involving ‘Elemental HERO Bubbleman’…”

Three Elemental HERO fusion monster cards, each with Bubbleman as a fusion material just granted by the system—

Elemental HERO Mariner, Elemental HERO Steam Healer, Elemental HERO Mudballman.

He could dismiss Mudballman right away—a vanilla monster with no effect!

In this era, duelists still pursued high attack values for their monsters, and Mudballman’s 3000 defense made it a wall of steel.

But for Yugi, it wasn’t as useful as the other two.

Steam Healer could destroy an opponent’s monster by battle and restore life points equal to half of the destroyed monster’s original attack (the healing effect is also halved).

“But… For me, who already has the trap card ‘Elemental Recharge,’ the healing from Steam Healer is a bit redundant.”

He rummaged through his starter deck and quickly found the trap he mentioned, “Elemental Recharge.”

[Elemental Recharge, Normal Trap, Effect: ①: For each face-up ‘Elemental HERO’ monster on your field, gain 500 life points. (Originally 1000 points.)]

“In that case, the choice is obvious!”

Yugi tapped the foremost card, then pressed the “Confirm Exchange” button.

“The fusion of Bubbleman and Avian…”

He gazed at the warrior in sailor attire, with a pale green body, two anchor-like iron ornaments bound to his arms, a mask on his face, and a punkish hairstyle. Yugi was momentarily lost in thought.

“With a set card on your field, you can attack directly… In this era, that’s practically a ‘God Card’!”

Reading the effect description on Mariner, Yugi’s lips curled into a smile. Other than Pegasus’s “Toon Monsters,” this effect was truly one of a kind!

With Mariner on the field, regardless of whether the opponent had monsters as walls, as long as you had a set spell or trap, you could halve Mariner’s attack and attack directly!

Most importantly, this effect had no “attack” restriction. In other words, the damage dealt wasn’t limited to half of Mariner’s original attack.

If he equipped it with spell cards or used other spells and traps to boost its attack, the direct damage Mariner could deal with its effect would be even greater!

[Elemental HERO Mariner, Fusion/Effect Monster, Warrior-Type, Water Attribute, Level: 5, ATK: 1400, DEF: 1000, Fusion/Effect: “Elemental HERO Avian” + “Elemental HERO Bubbleman.” This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon.

①: If you have a set card in your Spell & Trap Zone, this card can halve its attack and attack your opponent directly. (Originally, it could attack directly without halving its attack.)]

After reviewing the first three rewards, Yugi glanced at the rest.

Gems were for opening “card packs”—the more, the better; gold, R gems, and water gems could only be used at the “Card Trader,” mainly for directly redeeming cards from his inventory without opening packs.

“All in all, these rewards are excellent!”

[Personal Information]

Host: Yugi

Appearance: 96

Luck: 96

Deck: Basic Elemental HERO

Inventory: Gems x100, Gold x1000, R Gem x5, Water Gem x10

“The ‘Card Trader’ hasn’t opened yet, nor has the ‘Shop,’ so for now I’ll just have to save these up.”

He couldn’t open packs or redeem cards at this stage, but that didn’t matter. With Bubbleman and the other cards added to his “System Starter HERO Deck,” he was more than equipped for this island.

Besides, once the “Card Trader” and “Shop” officially opened, with all the gems and redemption items saved up, he could go on a spree!

“By the way, are these generous rewards only for defeating well-known duelists like ‘Ryota Kajiki,’ or do you get them for any opponent? And how exactly does the reward distribution system work?”

Putting away his things and full of questions, Yugi began his star chip collection journey in Duel Kingdom.

He’d try defeating two duelists not mentioned in the original anime, then someone with a reputation in both the anime and this real world. Comparing the results, he should be able to deduce the system’s reward pattern.

“I, Yugi, really am a genius!”

…

Duel Kingdom Era Rules:

1. Starting LP: 2000. All cards require no Life Point payment.
2. Normal Summons require no tributes; God Cards are forbidden (not yet released).
3. Players cannot be attacked directly (unless card effect allows it). Reducing LP to 0 or being unable to summon monsters results in a loss.
4. Fusion requires all materials to be on the field (except for the protagonist).
5. Turn rotation rules:
If one side lost a monster, that side draws and plays first, then the other side, then the battle phase;
If both sides have no monster loss, alternate draw and play, then enter the battle phase.
6. Spell & Trap Rules:
Spells and traps have equal priority; trap cards must be set for one turn before activation.
Continuous trap cards are set again after activation.
8. Battle Rules (strange in the early days):
Attack vs. attack: higher attack survives, and the difference is deducted from LP.
Attack vs. defense: lower defense is destroyed; if defense is higher, the difference is reflected as LP damage.
Effect-destroying attack position monsters: half the original attack is deducted from LP.
Effect-destroying defense position monsters: no LP lost.
9. Supplementary Rules:
Types: type advantages and disadvantages.
Field: field effects.
Air superiority: advantages for aerial monsters.
Underwater: concealed monsters.
Combination: equip boosts.
Others: any gameplay, e.g., Toon World.
10. You can surrender.
11. Not just Kingdom rules, but the entire Duel Monsters system: In Yu-Gi-Oh! duels, card effects take precedence over duel rules. Search “New Master Rule” in MoeGirls Wiki for details. Many classic scenes, like Doma Daz’s and Pharaoh’s final battles, or Snake God and Dark Magician Girl’s simultaneous departure, are famous examples where effects override rules.