"Hey, good job," one man in uniform congratulated me. I relaxed a little, I guess directly attacking a duelist is permitted- this changes things.
"Thanks," I smiled, not entirely sure what they wanted.
"If you want, we can officialise this duel." The young woman probably saw that I was confused, so offered this helpful tidbit.
"Sure, thanks." I replied awkwardly, still keeping my distance.
The cops took out a standardized form, filled in most of the content and handed back to me. Looking it over, it was pretty standard, date, time, location, name of duelists, the wager, who won and who lost. It didn't require a signature, just confirmation videos that would be sent soon into the network, I filled in my name with fingerprint, a similar fingerprint was obtained from the still-unconscious Weevil.
"You really should fill this out ahead of time from now on," the same woman advised me, "in case there weren't any cameras around, you could be sued for assault." I nodded appreciatively, ie was life-lessons like this that I truly needed at this point.
Now that the formalities were finished, one of the younger men looked at me eagerly, "so? Which two of his monsters are you going to take?"
"Calvin!" The older man reprimanded, but he looked no less enthusiastic. Well, if I had help, why not use it.
"I haven't decided yet," I replied honestly, fingering through the twenty cards they called a deck, "I don't plan on building an insect deck, so I thought I'd just get the most expensive ones, so I can trade in for cards I need, you know?"
"Sure, sure," all three nodded, and the youngest man, Calvin, poked his head closer to the deck, "can I see?"
I moved the deck closer to their general direction and received oohing and aahing as response. Unlike the cards I was used to, these cards only had a name and a picture, no description, no level, not even attack and defence points.
"Perfect Ultimate Moth!" the woman sudden exclaimed, elated. The other two followed suit. "I've only seen Weevil Underwood summon it, nobody else had been able to summon it, ever!"
"Why not?" I asked, curiously, hoping not to reveal too much of my ignorance.
"Well, nobody knows how." The older man replied matter-of-factly. I guess if these monsters were discovered not created, it sort of makes sense that people aren't completely sure of their effects and requirements, especially if anybody who knew keeps it a closely guarded secret.
"I'll take it," I grabbed the card, "and I'll take Insect Queen too." Having taken Weevil's two strongest (and most expensive) monsters, I finally spared a thought at Weevil still lying on the ground.
"Fix up your deck quick," the woman whose name I still didn't know advised, "He can challenge you again in a month, and you know that he will."
I nodded, secretly grateful that I would get at least one month's reprieve, should be enough at least to get a half decent deck. Which reminds me, "do you guys know anything about spell and trap cards?" I was careful to keep my question as vague as possible, I didn't know how they would work in a world where Monsters were real.
All three shook their heads, though Calvin did offer, "I heard a good spell cost around the same as a level 4 or 5 monster, so you should be able to get a couple if you wanted."
The elder man continued this train of thought "Kaiba Corp sometimes have some magic seminars, but I wouldn't bet on it."
"Thanks guys," I nodded, grabbing my new-found prize and heading directly to Kaiba Corp. Should have gone to their game shop from the start, really. But then again, I doubt a large company like that would sell great effect monsters as if they were normal monsters.
And I would be wrong.
Kaiba Corp did not differentiate most of the effect monsters either, at least not in terms of price. The spell and traps were even more ridiculously overpriced than the monsters, a spell that claims to increase the attack of any one dark monster by 300 pts cost an astonishing $70,000, I suspect it was just Dark Energy, which I didn't even keep in my physical deck, not even when I was in middle school at was at times literally penniless. Ranting aside, I really did need to learn spells and traps, I could not possibly imagine dueling with only monsters, it would be like drawing cards to see which is larger, and now I don't even need to draw anymore.
"What can I get for this," I approached the first randomly-colored-hair with black suit guy I saw, which seemed to be a Kaiba Corp signature look. They really should get friendlier looking people for customer service.
Being physically intimidating had its perks, that guy obviously doubled as security, but even he took a step back as I got closer. The guarded look immediately turned into one of respect as he looked at the card in my hand- Insect Queen (2200/2400). Personally, I think Insect Queen's special ability sucked, even though it could increase 200 attack for every insect on the field, making its attack technically 2400, it required one sacrifice per attack, and it produces one attack mode, 100 attack insect tolken per turn, which was a clear target. But this guy didn't, and didn't need to, know that.
"This is amazing," he exclaimed before he could stop himself. I could see a 'screw-it' expression flicker across his face, before he discarded all professional restraint and cooed over the card like a fangirl, "is this the same card used by the Japanese champion Weevil Underwood?"
I nodded, not caring to interpret what exactly what he meant, "the one and only. Now how much can I get for it?"
"Now, this is a very rare card," the man began, reaching out tentatively to touch the edge of the card, very odd for an adult male, "but we'd have to test its actual attack and defense before valuations. You know that the one Weevil Underwood has, its attack is up to 2200! And its defence is kept secret!" His eyes shone with such energy and passion he looked five years younger.
"Sure, let's do that," I agreed, deciding after all not to mention I just beat Weevil. No need to piss off a rabid fan, who knows what they're capable of.
The testing protocols were simple, I inserted the card into a Kaiba Corp machine, 'the highest grade' the suit assured me, 'for the best monsters.' The actual attack and defense values, 2250/2100. "This is amazing!" even the testing clerk marveled at the card, "that's over 90% of its maximum attack!"
"Are you sure you want to sell it?" The suit looked at the card longingly, now outright caressing it.
Of course I wanted to sell it, you moron. Why would I want a 7 star monster with 2400 attack (correction, maximum attack) and special effects that work more against me than for?
Outwardly, I was more professional, "I'm afraid I don't have a deck to go with this card, so I might as well sell this card and build up my deck."
"Smart," the clerk nodded, a short pink-haired girl with large eyes behind round glasses. She's kind of cute. Ughh, I shuddered, that had to be remnants of the old Ushio. "Most people only want stronger monsters, but you really need a team of monsters if you want to get to the very top."
"Well, if you're sure," the suit shrugged at what he apparently thought was my poor decision making, "right this way sir, would you like cash or direct deposit?"
"Actually, I'd rather trade it for monsters and spell cards." I answered, having planned this out a long time in advance, but making a slip of tongue, referring to spells as 'cards'. No amount of money is worth risking my life on a daily basis. I had managed to get around Basic Insect and get at Weevil, which means if my opponent had two monsters, he/she could, in theory, get around Spirit Reaper and attack me. While this is not how the game ever worked, I suspect it might be the case in this reality. Survival of the most prudent. I'd cry if I got killed by a Kuriboh.
The suit looked at the testing clerk for confirmation before offering, I guess she was higher up in this company that I thought. "10 % off, as a token of our appreciation for selling your card at Kaiba Corp."
Strong cards were a rare commodity here. I browsed the sales floor silently, suit, okay, his name is Larry, Larry followed me, having deposited the card into the KC vault, and handed me the exchanged credit. I would have whistled if I knew how, seven figures for a card? Sure it started with a one, but still. In this reality, the purchasing power of the Japanese dollar was similar to the American dollar, rather than the Japanese yen that I remembered, which meant the average annual income per person was around 60,000 per year. I better build up my deck soon 'cause you know Weevil Underwood is going to hate me for taking a ridiculous sum of money from him.
I could afford several of the lower attack monsters, but the stronger monsters (by my standards) like Summoned Skull, Dark Magician was still out of my price range. Not to mention Black Lustre Soldier or Big Koala, which was not even on the sales desks that I had access to.
I wanted to get it right the first time though, now that the monsters were real, I couldn't exchange and discard them as readily as before. I selected a number of level 4 monsters, the most expensive type I could afford.
That spell seminar turned out to be a total bust, but I came home elated. The tutors, I say tutors because there were three people teaching, in their teens, twenties and thirties respectively, who ranted on about how to meditate in battle, focus your energy, and combine your powers with your monsters. Wishy-washy stuff at best, but there're actually people who got it. I was one of them, because I found that I didn't need to meditate, or sense the power around me, or psychologically connect with my monsters, I just needed to silently recite the name of the spell (everybody else was still calling it the Tasokoff Effect, named after the guy who discovered it) and imagine the image of the card, and that was all it took. I didn't dare trying other magic in class, but I had an extremely good feeling.
My optimism was only half justified, as I tested each spell out on my new monsters. Owning a monster in the form of a card presents almost no energy drain to the host, but summoning one is highly demanded and maintaining a monster in the real (I'll call it real for now) world required constant energy supply. Most spells, especially equip spells, were not as demanding as summoning monsters, but much harder than simply maintain a monster in reality. Maintaining continuous spells seems as strenuous as maintaining monsters. I hadn't been able to try a lot of spells, like most of the monster and spell/trap destruction spells, or any of the traps. I figured it best not to repeatedly kill the creatures working for you, even if they did came back to life. I was concerned about my monsters leaking my private information to the outside, but none of them seemed capable to speech, and I was told they would obey orders completely, so I digressed for the moment, completely worn out, and passed out on the couch as soon as I called the last monster back to my deck.