Hours had past since my abrupt arrival in this place and I had been wandering around for some time now, the city only continued to grow, each street looking the same as the last until eventually I was sure that even if my life depended on it I wouldn't be able to find my way back to even the park and my stomach was growling though I wasn't worried much about that sort of thing, instead I was more worried about where I was going to sleep. I had woken up in a strange, unfamiliar place with no knowledge of leaving the convention and no idea of how I could even have gotten into the park, I was certain this wasn't the same country so I was sure that something had to be up, there had to be a reason for all of this.

It was then that I saw something, something that raised my hopes just a little…
It was an image of of two monsters on the window of a store, two which I knew. One from personal experience a long time ago and the other I knew only from passing.
The one I knew was Hercules Beetle; an insect monster from the first series but the second one was Fiend Kraken. Another monster from the first series though this one was an OCG card which meant it was only ever in the original card game. "Am I in Japan?" I asked myself, staring at the window as if to examine every detail of the images, my gaze falling to the words below. 'Cash Prize, Tournament' the sign read, my heart giving a bounce as I swiftly walked into the shop.
The shop was small with only a single shelf running from the doorway down to the back of the room on the left wall. The right was reserved for a series of tables, each of which had people trading cards and chatting happily.
I had expected to see the usual variety of card games that would be seen in these places; Yugioh and Magic: The Gathering dominating the majority of the place but with smaller games around them and occasionally Pokemon or Digimon cards dotted around those but to my surprise the only game being played was yugioh.. Though I guess that was obvious with a yugioh tournament on…

Still the cards they were using were just plain old! The weakest of my decks could easily crush the best of their decks just from my decks utilising effect monsters properly and have Synchro, XYZ and Pendulum monsters, It just wouldn't be a fair duel.

But I didn't really care too much about fair play at that moment, I was more worried about food and sleep so I walked to the counter, the man at the till looking at me for a moment before smiling "So, you here for the tournament?"

"Y-yeah, I'm here for the tournament." I replied quickly, stuttering as I couldn't help but worry in case someone here actually had a good deck, maybe I overlooked something…
The man grinned, lifting a device of some kind onto the table before looking at me "Ever seen one of these before?" he asked as my gaze fell to the machine. It was a navy-blue colour, with three lights on the top and what looked like a card outline on the middle and a speaker on the side. "No. I haven't" I said with a cough, attempting to regain composure so as to not seem so nervous.

"Well This here is our scanner, If you have a Duellists license then place it here" he spoke, gesturing repeatedly to the machine, tapping a few buttons of the till until the green light turned on.
"Duellist license..." I asked, looking at the man with an amount of confusion before continuing my question "What's that?"
He stared at me with a blank expression laughing for a moment before placing the device back under the counter "Hahah! Don't worry about it, if you don't know what a duellists license is then you qualify… The tournament will start shortly. The rules are simple. Each player has 2000 life points and the first to 0 loses, beyond that we're going to use tributing rules and be sure to use your rarest cards, we like have a bit of flavour here."
I nodded to reply to him, opening my bag for a moment as I pushed my hand inside, pulling out a deck box at random. "And do you have a rule against advanced monsters?" I asked, curious to see if there was a reason as to why the most powerful monster I had seen this far was King of Yamimakai though the man stared at me with a look of confusion "Advanced cards… no, you use whatever cards you like, show us a good duel though and be polite!"

Here I was, sitting at a table, shuffling my deck carefully as I watched my first opponent closely, his childish grin showing how seriously he was taking this though perhaps it wasn't very serious to him at all but still… I needed the money… I had to win and it was all I could think about as we drew our hands. "My name's Grey!" he cheerfully spoke.
"Uh... "I let out surprised though I had been told to be polite I had essentially been daydreaming about my wants and needs, it didn't even cross my mind to introduce myself.
"My name is D-" I paused, thinking for a moment before continuing.

"You can call me Delta" I spoke with a smile, stealing the name from one of my favourite cards in my deck.
We exchanged a basic greeting but with the toss of a coin we had begun, from the luck of the coin I was going second, my hand already full of potential.

"All right, let's start things hot!" he called out, lifting from his hand a card and placing it in the middle of his field "I use Polymerization!" he spoke with a wide grin, sending from his hand a Flame Manipulator and a Masaki the legendary Swordsman to special summon Flame Swordsman (1800 ATK/1600 DEF) from his extra deck "Next I'll set one card face down and end my turn!"
I could tell this was supposed to be some kind of epic feat, the kind of thing that pretty much wings the duel on the first turn.. Like summoning Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon against a stall deck but in reality, it was no match for even my basic cards.

"Alright Grey, I'll take your Flame Swordsman and raise you a Gamma the electromagnetic warrior! (800 ATK/2000 DEF)" I called, mimicking his tone and grin, before I watched his expression swiftly turn into a look of confusion "But that monster only has 800 attack, why would you summon that in attack position" he asked, watching me closely. I of course explained why with what happened next. "When Gamma the Electromagnetic warrior is summoned like this his effect allows me to special summon Beta the Electromagnetic warrior (1500 ATK/1600 DEF) from my hand! "I said, placing Beta in defence position "And when Beta is summoned he allows me to add Alpha the Electromagnetic warrior from my deck to my hand" I said with a degree of confidence. This wasn't anything special but from the look on my opponent's face it wasn't common to see electromagnetic warriors around here… "Alright my turn!" Grey called, drawing a card before grinning "I summon Hitotsu-Me Giant (1200 ATK/1000 DEF) in attack position and now my Flame Swordsman will attack your Gamma" he said with a flick of his wrist, his face beaming with confidence though it would soon drain "Not so fast" I began, lifting Gamma from the field and placing it in the graveyard. "With the effect of Gamma, the Electromagnetic warrior I can send it to the graveyard to special summon Delta the magnet warrior (1600 ATK/1400 DEF) from my deck in defence mode And Delta allows me to send a Gamma the electromagnetic warrior from my deck to the graveyard"
Grey let out a groan, watching Delta be destroyed instead of Gamma and my life points be saved "Alright, I end my turn." I grinned, seeing my chance as I drew my next card.
"I set one card face down and summon Alpha the Electromagnetic warrior! (1700 ATK/1100 DEF)" I called, lifting my deck swiftly "Which allows me to add Beserkion, the Electromagna warrior to my hand" I spoke, flashing the Berserkion card before placing it into my hand.
"Now Alpha the Electromagnetic warrior will Attack, destroying your Hitotsu-Me Giant!" I spoke with a smile but it was simply not to be, grey chuckling as he flipped his set card "My Mirror Force will protect my life points and ensure your demise!" he chanted as I realised he had wiped my field, in his next turn he would win if I couldn't do anything, I had been saving Berserkion for my winning play but it looked like I had to summon it now!
"In that case I enter my second Main phase and I special summon Berserkion, the Electromagna warrior (3000 ATK/2800 DEF)!" I spoke with a confident smile.
"What! you don't have any monsters on yours side of the field!" Grey called out, visibly agitated from what was happening before him. "You're right grey, I couldn't tribute summon it but with the effect of my Berserkion I can banish one Gamma, one Alpha and one Beta the electromagnet warrior in order to special summon it!" I placed Berserkion on the field, looking up at Grey as I saw his eyes widen upon seeing the monsters attack points. "Your move"

"So, What? If I can get a fissure then you're beat!" he retorted, rotating his Flame Swordsman "But until then I'll switch my monsters to defence position and end my turn"
I smiled, looking at my hand briefly before I began "Looks like this is it for you" I began by banishing a Gamma the electromagnetic warrior from my graveyard "By doing this I can activate the effect of Berserkion, destroying your Hitotsu-Me Giant" I smiled as he moved the monster to the graveyard "I still have my Flame Swordsman and you can only attack once "
I chuckled as I entered the battle phase "You are correct, each of my monsters can only attack once but what you don't know is that I have two monsters" I spoke with a smile as Grey watched with astonishment "Now Berserkion will attack, destroying your Flame Swordsman and with the defeat of your swordsman I activate my trap; Metamor Clay Fortress (1000 ATK/1000 DEF)" I paused, watching him closely as I tried to determine whether he had seen any of these cards before. It was weird, he seemed to have heard of them in some aspect or at least some of them but whenever it came to Metamor and Berserkion he seemed confused and amazed by their mere existence. "Metamor's effect allows it to be counted as a monster, however it must take a level four or higher monster as an equip card, their attack is added onto its own which brings Metamor to 4000 attack!"
Grey astonished by this swiftly pushed his chair back, placing a hand on the top of his deck "I give up!" he announced to my amazement. But I soon smiled, gathering my cards and shuffling my deck once more though as I waited by at the table for the next round Grey and I talked, he was surprised by my lack of knowledge about the world though I never divulged my reasons for asking he was happy to answer any questions I had, bringing me swiftly to my conclusion. From what he had said I had been transported somehow into the world of the cards, the same world the anime takes place in and I was completely fine with this… at least for now though I was certain it was purely shock from this discovery and the second I had any solid evidence of this my world would surely crumble.
"Here" Grey said, handing me a card.
"What is it?" I asked, taking the monster from him and looking intently at it.
"Well it's how I prefer to duel, I like to give cards whenever I lose and get cards when I win, to sort of strengthen my relationship with my opponent and well… I think this one will fit with you" he said with a grin as I looked down at the card.

'Beta, the Magnet Warrior' (1700 ATK/1600 DEF)