The stadium housed ten thousand spectators, all of them ready to see some dueling action. There were many duels set for today, but there was one match everyone was looking forward to.
Chuck resided in the backstage area. He wore his typical outfit as well as his own duel disk. It had a a rounded disk and blade with black as the base color with blue highlights along the edges and a gold gem at the base of the disk. His duel disk was adorned with numerous stickers depicting various types of food such as ramen and pizza, as well as duel monsters such as Blue Eyes White Dragon and Gearfried the Iron Knight.
Standing next to him was a man in his late twenties with two toned red hair and amber eyes wearing a red shirt, leather jacket, and black jeans. He wore a red duel disk. His expression suggested he'd rather be doing anything else.
Chuck took a quick glance at his opponent. The teen duelist put on a genuine smile and extended a hand forward, "Hey, may the best duelist win."
His opponent turned and gave Chuck a scowl, "Yeah, sure—you filthy upstart," Chuck reeled back his hand and lowered his expression. So much for that. At the very least, he tried to make peace.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen! It's the moment you've all been waiting for! The main event! It's time for the exhibition match!"
The crowd exploded once the Master of Ceremonies made his announcement. It was clear the audience felt more excited for this than anything else today.
In the center of the stadium was a metal field built primarily for dueling. There were 24 squares painted in black, all representing the essential zones for a duel: the monster zones, the extra monster zones, the field spell zones, and the spell & trap zones. The surrounding area was made up of a fake turf.
"Let's give a big round of applause for dueling veteran, Johnny Well!"
Two sliding floors opened on either side of the arena. The duelist known as Johnny Well rose from the east end of the arena.
"And introducing his opponent. The Rookie Superstar, Charles Ikari!"
The crowd erupted as Chuck's platform raised him into the arena, where he stood face to face with his opponent. The roars of the audience were deafening; however, while there were cheers of excitement, there were also a notable amount of jeers, mostly aimed at Chuck.
"ALRIGHT! Are both duelists ready?"
The audience grew silent as both players activated their dueldisks and drew their opening hands.
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, you know what comes next! It's time to DUEL!"
"Let's duel!" both players declared.
Johnny had the first move, "I'll start by playing a monster in defense mode. Then I'll set one card face down and end my turn," that wasn't much for a first turn. An opening move such as that typically suggested the player began with a less than ideal hand. To put it simply, Johnny probably bricked.
He must be waiting for something, Chuck considered. What could it be?
"Johnny begins with an early defense. What could he be planning?"
"My move, I draw," Chuck pulled a card out of his deck and examined it. This trap card could come in handy, "I'll start with one card face down," he set the card he drew before making the rest of his play, "Next, I activate the effect of Junk Converter in my hand. By discarding it and one tuner from my hand, I can add a "Synchron" monster from my deck to my hand. So I'll trade in the Cyberse Synchron in my hand for Junk Synchron," Chuck discarded his two cards, siphoned his deck and added Junk Synchron to his hand, "While we're at, why don't I plop him on the field?" Chuck placed his Junk Synchron card (Lv. 3, DARK, Warrior, Atk. 1300, Def. 500) on the middle monster zone, materializing it on the field, "Now Junk Synchron's effect activates. He can summon a level two or lower monster from my graveyard in defense mode," a card pulled out of Chuck's graveyard slot. Before he furthered his play, Johnny spoke up.
"Not so fast! I got a little something in my hand to send your Junk Synchron packing," Johnny revealed a card in his hand, something that would put a dent on Chuck's plan, "Go, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit! I can discard this from my hand whenever one of your monsters activates it's effect. Then I can destroy it," Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit (Lv. 3, LIGHT, Psychic/Tuner, Atk. 0, Def. 1800) is a 'hand trap', cards that respond to actions on the field from the hand. An apparition of a little girl with messy white hair, red eyes and devil's horns wearing black robes appeared on the field. She gave a sinister laugh as Junk Synchron reeled in pain and disintegrated into polygons, along with the girl. The crowd erupted into cheers at this play.
"Johnny had a hand trap ready in the wings! This could be very bad for Charles!"
"Good move, but Junk Synchron's effect is still in play, allowing me to summon Junk Converter in defense mode," like Chuck said, Junk Converter (Lv. 2, EARTH, Warrior, Atk. 400, Def. 200) appeared on the field. While Ghost Ogre destroyed Junk Synchron, she didn't negate his effect.
"Like that's gonna help you!" Johnny mocked. What could such a weak monster do by itself?
"I beg to differ," Chuck responded, "I activate the spell card Tuning. This lets me add a Synchron tuner monster from my deck to my hand, so long as I send the top card on my deck to the graveyard afterward. For what monster to pick, I'll be adding Quickdraw Synchron to my hand," Chuck siphoned his deck once again, pulling out Quickdraw Synchron. Next he took the top card of his deck and sent it to the graveyard.
"Too bad you already used up your one summon this turn," Johnny taunted.
Chuck wasn't phased, "See, that's true, but by discarding a monster from my hand, I can special summon Quickdraw Synchron," After sending Jet Synchron to the graveyard, Chuck placed Quickdraw Synchron (Lv. 5, WIND, Machine/Tuner, Atk. 700, Def. 1400) onto the field. Johnny gritted his teeth. Now Chuck had the means to Synchro summon.
"Now, level five Quickdraw Synchron tunes level two Junk Converter," Quickdraw Synchron dissipated into five rings before Junk Converter jumped in and became two white stars, "When hopes and dreams come together, they form a power like no other Now, Synchro summon! Take aim, Junk Archer!" Junk Archer (Lv. 7, EARTH, Warrior/Synchro, Atk. 2300, Def. 2000), a humanoid monster wearing orange scrap armor wielding an orange bow, appeared on the field, "Now I activate Junk Converter's effect from the graveyard. Since he was sent to the graveyard as Synchro material, I can resurrect a tuner monster in defense position. I think I'll bring in my good friend, Junk Synchron," the graveyard slot on Chuck's duel disk glowed for a brief moment, sliding Junk Synchron out. Chuck then placed Junk Synchron's card on the field, materializing him in holographic 3D once more, "Now I'll activate Junk Archer's effect. I can target one monster you control and banish it until the End Phase of the turn."
"Hey, what the Hell?!" Johnny complained.
"Go Junk Archer! Scrap Snipe!" Junk Archer pulled back his bow, aiming a glowing blue arrow at Johnny's face down monster. His shot rang true, striking the card hologram. The card swirled into a time space vortex, sending it to the banish zone for the foreseeable future, "I'm not done just yet. Now I'll have level three Junk Synchron tune level seven Junk Archer," Once more, the rings and stars associated with Synchro summoning occurred as Chuck began chanting, "When the world is plunged into chaos, call upon the champion of righteousness! Now, Synchro summon! Come forth, Satellite Warrior!" Chuck's monster (Lv. 10, DARK, Warrior/Synchro, ATK. 2500, DEF. 2000) proudly stood on the field in the extra monster zone, "Now his effect kicks in. For every Synchro monster in my graveyard, I can destroy the same number of cards you control. Since Junk Archer is in the graveyard, I can destroy your set card. Go Satellite Warrior! Orbital Bombardment!" Satellite Warrior flew in the air. From his satellite panels shot a blue laser that impacted Johnny's set card, destroying it.
Johnny's face grew red, "Hey, you think you can lay off!?"
Chuck ignored this outburst, "Since Satellite Warrior destroyed one of your cards, he gains 1000 extra attack points," Chuck's monster radiated energy, rising from Atk. 2500 to Atk. 3500, "Now, Satellite Warrior attacks directly. Go, Skylight Strike!" Satellite Warrior flew forward, impacting Johnny with a well aimed punch, draining his lifepoints to 4500, "I end my turn. Now your banished face down monster returns," Junk Archer's effect ended, bringing Johnny's one unknown monster back from the banish zone.
"Charles takes the lead despite Johnny's best efforts! How will he respond?!"
"My turn," Johnny declared, drawing his card, smirking in response, "I play the spell card Magical Mallet. With this, I can shuffle one useless card I have back into the deck and draw a new card," Johny placed his selected card on the top of his deck to let the auto-shuffle feature of his duel disk activate. Once it was done, he drew a new card from his deck, "That's more like it. I play Red-Eyes Fusion. Now I can summon a fusion monster using cards in my deck, just so long as the fusion monster requires a Red-Eyes monster. Also, the fusion monster's name becomes 'Red-Eyes Black Dragon'," Johnny siphoned his deck until he found the monsters he needed, "I'll be ditching Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact and Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon so I can Fusion summon. Make way for Meteor Black Comet Dragon!" appearing on the field in a vortex of fire was Meteor Black Comet Dragon (Lv. 8, DARK, Dragon/Fusion, Atk. 3500, Def. 2000), a massive black dragon with devil horns that looked to be engulfed in lava and flames. Fusion was a classic method of summoning that combined two pre-existing monsters, typically with the use of a spell card; however this was not always the case.
"Johnny played an incredibly powerful Fusion monster. This is anyone's duel at this point!"
"Now I'll be activating it's effect. I can send a Red-Eyes monster from my hand or deck to the graveyard, and you take damage equal to half of that monster's original attack," Johnny was about to reach into his deck to choose his monster to discard.
However, Chuck interrupted him.
"Go trap card! Titanocider!" He declared, his set card revealing itself.
"What?!"
Chuck threw his palm forward, "When I activate this card, I can target an extra deck monster you control and reduce it's attack points to zero," Meteor Black Comet Dragon dropped from Atk. 3500 to Atk. 0, "Also, the targeted monster's effect is now negated," Meteor Black Comet Dragon flashed gray for a second, signifying the negation of it's effect. A large portion of the crowd roared in excitement seeing such an impress outplay.
"Unbelievable! Charles had the perfect counter already in play! How will Johnny—"
"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" Johnny ripped his duel disk of his arm and slammed it onto the ground as hard as he could. The blade popped off the disk on contact, spraying cards and bits of metal across the floor. After reeling back his head and screaming at the top of his lungs, he yanked his cards out of the remains of his duel disk and smacked them on the floor, "Fucking stupid, useless ass cards!" He stomped on them in his rage, rendering them unusable. Another set of cards victim to Johnny's rage. The audience simply watched the spectacle before them. Some even recorded Johnny on their phones. His salty breakdowns always got thousands of hits.
"Uhhh… I think Johnny just surrendered. So… the winner in a decisive victory is CHARLES IKARI!"
The crowd responded in a mix of cheers and jeers, neither one overpowering the other. Chuck didn't have much a response. He simply stood there as his card's holograms disappeared.
"Good game," Chuck said as Johnny continued his rage.
"Shut the fuck up you smug piece of shit!" Johnny yelled.
Chuck didn't react. He expected this kind of behavior from his opponent. He's seen this kind of thing before, especially in the realm of professional dueling.
Mad respect to Ikari for keeping his cool after Well's freakout.
Bro, it's just a game lol
Anyone else sick of Ikaris fake nice guy act?
I'm only here to see the salt pour
Johnny Well is already trending
Ikari straight up ended Johnny's career.
"Good game?" Soooooooooo cringe
I cant stand Ikari's arrogance. Thinks he's on top of the world after winning the WDA Regionals.
I wanna see that lucky punk crash and burn.
What's with all the Ikari hate?
No way a rookie can go that far. He has to be cheating.
Chuck walked backstage with his phone in hand. Why does he even bother looking at the reactions on social media? It made everything so much worse. He closed the window on his phone and shoved it into his pocket. Where's the fun in all this? All everyone ever does in the pro circuit is complain and rage. He rarely got to play a duel where his opponent didn't surrender.
"What a fantastic performance, Mr. Ikari," came a voice from behind. It was Karey. She had a smug smile on her face, the opposite of Chuck's somber expression.
"Why do you always set me up with opponents like this?" Chuck asked.
"Isn't it obvious? Rage brings in attention. The more people you make rage quit, the more influence we get. Do you have any idea how often people search dueling rage compilations?"
"I can't stand dueling those kinds of opponents," Chuck lamented, "I wanna have fun when I duel," dueling these professional players was always a downer. Dueling someone like Aella was much more preferable, even if she accused him of being a bully. She could at least accept a defeat and grow because of it. Johnny only lives off of his rage. It was pitiful.
Karey tsked in response, "Oh, Charles, when will you stop being so naïve? Duel Monsters is all about getting ahead. When will you get those silly notions of honor and respect out of your head?"
Never. Those "silly notions of respect and honor" are what I was raised on.
"You know, Mr. Ikari, if you really wanted to get more famous, you should let your own anger out every once in a while," Karey suggested, "You do have a reputation for being something of a boy scout."
"I'd rather be a boy scout than break my moral code," Chuck responded. Nothing good comes from letting your anger control you. You lose sight of your true self and everyone around you suffers. It's not a pleasant experience.
"Well, have it your way," Karey relented, "After we make our press statements, we can make our way to that silly school."
Chuck smiled. Maybe this trip would make him feel better.
And that's another chapter done. The featured duel is yet another game I played in Master Duel. Just like in the story, my opponent surrendered after I activated Titanocider. I get why he just gave up after something like that, but it's always disappointing when I don't get to play out a duel to it's end. Speaking of, the character of the day, Johnny Well, is meant to be a caricature of a salty rage quitter. You know the type, those guys that destroy expensive pieces of hardware and sometimes property to vent their frustrations over a loss.
The ultimate purpose of this chapter, and this story in general, is to vent my own frustrations with competitive gaming in general. While Yu-Gi-Oh has it's own degree of salt, I can't name a single competitive game where salt and rage isn't intertwined with it's community. I'd rather have fun than be ultra competitive.
While we're on the subject, this is a good time to explain the meaning of the main character's name: Charles Ikari. Charles is a name derived from the Old English word "ceorl," or "free man." Ikari is a Japanese word that, depending on the kanji used, can mean either "anchor," or "anger." With those two words put together, Charles Ikari is literally a "man free of anger." Also, Charles in the biblical sense means "strong," indicative of how Chuck is a strong duelist. Also again, Ikari is an actual surname found in parts of Asia.