Playing card games in Duel City

Nightfall descends upon the modernized city, and the streetlights and billboards along the streets gradually open their eyes. Colorful lights and the glow of electronic screens intertwine in the circular square, casting the road in a brownish hue, as if with a metallic sheen tinged with a hint of mist. Su Yu stood on the bustling street, taking quite a while to accept his current situation. The place he was in now is called Tongye Shi, originally supposed to be located in a fictional island city from the classic old anime "Yu-Gi-Oh!" Interestingly, he had just created a new account in the popular IP-adapted game "Yu-Gi-Oh! Link World Online" from a certain consortium that had been on fire for years. He had just finished creating his character and was about to start a joyful journey of dueling in the game... ...and then, there was no "and then." So, rather than saying he crossed into an anime, it's more likely... he crossed into the game world of Link World? Link World Online was the world's most popular online card game before Su Yu crossed over... Well, that seems a bit inaccurate, as it was not just a card game. It was a fully immersive online network game built on cutting-edge technology. Although it was a card game, the gameplay was somewhat like an MMORPG. The area where players logged into the game was the famous Tongye Shi City from the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" anime, the hometown of the first Duel King, Muto Yugi. This game had high freedom, allowing players to explore the map freely, duel with NPC duelists, complete various tasks for rewards, and collect cards to strengthen their decks, thus gaining more power in this world. As everyone knows, in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the strength of your deck and your card-playing skills are directly linked to your power. It's like a fundamental rule of this world, a world where card games are highly esteemed. Even those super bosses with world-destroying power had to follow the rules and play cards obediently with the protagonist in the end. Actually, before crossing over, Su Yu spent most of his time in this game, running around the map, doing tasks, spending money to draw card packs, or playing in the player arena with other card enthusiasts... Link World was not just a game; it was more like a job for him. Initially, he saw a game video made by a well-known content creator in the game region. This inspired him to create entertaining card game videos. Although he couldn't compete with the real pros, he managed to get by, thanks to the popularity of Link World. At least, he could make a decent living in this world. Then... he crossed over. At this moment, Su Yu felt a sense of despair. He couldn't be considered a pro player, and despite being in the game for a long time, he leaned more towards being an entertainer rather than a competitive player. With his three skills, he felt a bit unsure about navigating in this world where card games were highly regarded. But since he was already here, he had to quickly figure out a way to adapt. To Su Yu's surprise, when he thought about summoning a menu like in the game, the familiar game panel from his past actually appeared in front of him. Name: You Yu Category: NPC Level: Level 1 Charm: 95 Luck: 20 Endurance: 35 Stamina: 3/3 Note: Ordinary, striving to become a professional duelist. You Yu was the ID he casually chose when creating the account. After all, since it was a game based on Yu-Gi-Oh!, it was common knowledge to include "You" at the beginning of the name for good luck (misconception). As for "Yu", it was a homophone of his real name "Yu," with no special meaning. However, it seemed that this casual ID would now become his name... Thinking about it, Su Yu (now You Yu) felt a bit fortunate. Fortunately, he didn't come up with some ridiculous name like "Cool Dragon Young Master" when he created the account. Otherwise, he might as well restart from scratch now... But this panel... was a bit hard to describe. The good news was that, at least from the data on the panel, it didn't differ much from the player panel he was familiar with, and he could understand most of the attribute data. The bad news was that his panel seemed to be specialized in one area... It was clear that all his initial attribute points were tilted towards the Charm value. In simpler terms, it was attractiveness. A full score of 100 in Charm meant perfection, and anything above 80 was considered high attractiveness, with 90 being the level where people would turn around on the street. With a starting score of 95, it was likely close to an unprecedented level. At this point, you might ask, what's the use of high attractiveness in just a card game? Can you draw the cards you want just because you look handsome? Well, you might not understand this. NPCs in this game come with a favorability system. The higher the favorability of a key NPC towards you, the more chances you have to trigger storylines with them, and you might even get rare card rewards. So, some players might rely on their high Charm to do everything they could to please their favorite NPC, patiently waiting for their favorability to max out, and then the player could fulfill their wish... ...to duel with the NPC and have a two-player card game. Ah, what are you thinking? Link World is a legitimate card-based online game, passed through scrutiny, absolutely free from unhealthy game content. A Charm score of 95 is quite good, as looking good is not a bad thing these days. Moreover, the audience for book-reading and drama-watching readers generally has a higher standard for attractiveness. So, without a certain level of attractiveness, it's embarrassing to come out as the protagonist. However, a Luck value of 20 is a bit annoying. It's not that having low Luck means you won't draw the cards you want during a duel—according to the world setting, whether you can draw the card you want depends on the "bond between the duelist and the card," and it's not really related to luck. The Luck attribute here affects the probability of hitting when using effects like tossing a coin to guess heads or tails. With a Luck value of 20, it basically means you're destined to lose every gamble in your life, the type where you guess heads when it should be tails and vice versa. In this regard, You Yu guessed that the Luck value of the veteran duelist City, the protagonist in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, should be above 90. Most of this guy's deck was based on gambling effects, and his luck was so strong that he almost had superpowers. In the original anime, an ordinary person with powerful luck achieved the runner-up in the Duel Kingdom tournament and reached the top four in the Duel City Championship. We generally describe such people with two words—gamble freaks. Next are Endurance and Stamina, two directly related attributes. Now, you might ask again—what does endurance have to do with playing cards? But according to the Yu-Gi-Oh! world setting, playing cards does indeed involve endurance. Although the monsters summoned and the cards activated by both duelists are holographic images, according to the setting, they still exert physical impact on the duelists. Endurance value directly corresponds to the player's stamina limit. The Stamina 3/3 on You Yu's panel means that he can duel a total of three times in a good physical condition, and beyond three times exceeds the stamina limit, making it impossible to continue dueling. If the endurance value is between 40 and 50, you can duel four times; between 50 and 60, you can duel five times; and above 60, you can duel six times, and so on. So, playing cards is actually a physical activity, and it also requires a certain level of endurance for duelists' stamina. With an Endurance of 35, it's obviously below the passing line, making You Yu feel a bit annoyed. After all, for a man, even if you have good skills, if your stamina is not good enough, it's useless (referring to card skills). Low stamina directly affects the leveling speed, but as the level increases, this attribute may also grow. In Link World, to level up, you must gain experience points through dueling with others or completing tasks. Leveling up comes with rewards like card vouchers and gems. Card vouchers can be exchanged at the system for a limited set of cards, while gems can be used at the system to buy pre-made decks or draw card packs. Because of the system's channels, players even have the chance to obtain cards that shouldn't exist in this era of the Yu-Gi-Oh! background. But those are things to be dealt with later. Now, You Yu must seriously consider how to navigate as an unknown NPC in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!.