Which reminds me! I fumbled around for the only monster Ushio remembers having, Dark Chimera, lv 5, (1610/1460). A monster I wouldn't even dream of having in my deck in a previous life time now seemed like my only ticket to life. And I lost it. Ushio, I mean the last Ushio, had been certain to always keep the card for Dark Chimera in a special pocket in his shirt, so he either lost it or had it stolen from him while he was unconscious.

By this world's standards, Dark Chimera had been a pretty strong monster, most duelists only have level 2 or 3 monsters. While higher level monsters required more magic from the duelist to maintain, their actual attack and defense values tend to increase much faster. Dark Chimera, for example, had a theoretical value of (1610/ 1460), as determined by his species, the one owned by the previous Ushio had an actual attack of 1400, and an actual defense of 1200, around 80% of its theoretical maximum values, which was very impressive. Now that it's gone, I would have to buy another one. It was utterly unsafe to wander the streets when monsters, tamed or wild, might roam the streets.

Domesticated monsters, even if later abandoned by their masters would only return to the shadow realm. However, if the gateway between the two worlds were to falter, as it so often does, wild monsters can and do frequently pass through, then it's anybody's guess what might happen. To put things into perspective, as a young, highly athletic male, my numbers, had I been a duel monster, would be 100/100. The previous Ushio might manage to increase it to 200/200 at the peak of his physical strength.

So I turned my humble apartment upside down looking for money. As you might be able to imagine, low-level thugs aren't usually very well off. I found $5,000 cash and a bank card, which was shown to contain only $2,500.

Well, that wasn't going to get me very far, but I had little choice. If the unthinkable were to happen, i.e. I was to be attacked by a duel monster, a monster would at least buy me time so I could escape.

There were many Duel Monster shops across Domino city, I just had to avoid the one Yugi's grandfather owned. None of them were named "Motou Game shop" though (I later learned Yugi's family game shop was actually called Turtle Game shop). I called the first one in the yellow pages alphabetically, ironically, it was named Apple Game Shop. Assured that there were no old man shop keeper or grandson, I hang up and called a cab. I would have taken the bus, except Duel Monsters were also permitted on the bus, and I didn't want to have a panic attack in a crowded place.

Though sharing the name of a computer giant, Apple Game shop had been particularly disappointing, insect based and filled with creatures like Petit Moth (300/200) and Skull Servant (300/200), it reminded me of the earlier Yugioh games, where the earlier levels were filled with ridiculously weak monsters. Its strongest monster was Battle Warrior (700/1000), which would set me back $20,000, and that was just ridiculous.

"Buy something or get out!" a green haired punk sneered beside me, I looked down, towering over the runt by at least a full foot.

"You talking to me, kid?"

"I-" The runt sputtered, "I'll have you know that I'm Weevil Underwood, the Japanese Duel Monsters champion, back off or I'll have my insects rip you to shreds so small that they'll never even find your body!"

So this was Weevil, hmm. I snarled down at him, showing all teeth. "So what do you think's gonna happen first, me get a hold of you, or your monsters get a hold of me?" He cowered away. The unibrow was really very intimidating.

"Can I help you, sir." The shop clerk asked testily, he ignored Weevil when he was threatening to kill me, but now that Weevil looked uncomfortable, he was quick to break up the argument.

"Yes," I nodded, "how much are the ones with 300 atk?" I asked, not wanting to make my intentions obvious, not sure if my intentions would be valid to make obvious.

"Which ones, sir? Their prices can vary a lot depending on their defense," the clear didn't even bother hiding the disdain in his voice.

"Tell me about it," I insisted. At 6'2" and looking like I could physically beat up the monsters I was looking at, the clerk obeyed. He proceeded to go over prices that made me wince. The highest defense, Stone Statue of Aztecs (300/2000) cost $60,000. At this rate, it would be impossible to put together a deck. Thankfully the ones at 300/200 were much more reasonable by comparison, a mere $3000. The one I pointed to, Spirit Reaper, was even cheaper by virtue of being three stars, and thus imposing a much higher demand on the duelist.

"That's our cheapest model, $1000," The clerk followed my fingers, then lost all interest. He was barely looking at me anymore. I guess they got paid commission based on sales.

"I'll take it," I replied gladly. There were two monsters in this entire shop worth looking at, Spirit Reaper, with the effect of not being destroyed in battle, and Injection Lily Fairy (400/1500), with the effect increasing its attack by 3000 at the price of 2000 LP. Since I wasn't sure how much my LP was, or what happened when my LP went to zero, I figured I wouldn't take the risk.

Upon my purchase, I received a government-issued duel disk. It's much smaller than the ones Kaiba produced, only slightly larger than a watch, and provided basic duelist information, like level and past duel history. It also contained basic functions like initiating a duel, accepting a duel and surrendering. Mine displayed a large red 0, indicating I was a trainee duelist. I must complete three official duels (complete meaning neither party surrendered) within one month to prove that I was capable of summoning and sustaining monsters, to become a level 1 duelist. After that, after each month, I may level up or down depending on my duels, but I would never get lower than lv1.

I gingerly stepped outside, watching out for monsters, it must have look hilarious to see a 6'2 man walk on tiptoes, because I heard uncontrolled laughter from just beside me. Weevil Underwood didn't even bother hiding, as he stood in broad daylight, beside the shop I just exited, with a Basic Insect (500/700) beside him. That thing was huge! When on all six legs, it must have been a foot tall and three feet long. At least it was grass-hopper shaped, if it had looked like a spider or cockroach, I would have ran for my life.

"What happened to the size of insects being restricted by gravity and atmospheric oxygen content?" I mused out, studying the giant creepy insect with a morbid fascination.