Side Story Chapter 167 - Satellite World, Zexal (5)

“What...?” Cha Yeon-Joo stared dumbfoundedly at Oh Kang-Woo wide-eyed. “You’re going to defeat the king of this world in that card game?”

“That’s the fastest way.”

To the Entrion, the Duel King was more than a king— he was a god. They would surely fall into despair at the sight of his utter defeat. Faith was the cornerstone of religion; if that cornerstone were to be removed, there was no question of what would happen.

“Hmm... That is a little reckless.” Layla stepped forward as she was listening in silence. “As Yeon-Joo mentioned, learning the card game’s rules and honing your skills to challenge the king is far too inefficient.”

Not only would it take an immense amount of time but the chances of success were minuscule.

“There’s no need for that,” Kang-Woo remarked.

“Pardon?”

“There’s no need to learn the rules or hone my skills.”

“What do you...” Layla frowned incomprehensibly. “I don’t understand what you’re thinking.”

“Hohoho. That’s just how our king is. I’m sure you know that, don’t you?” Lilith interjected.

“I do, but...”

Layla turned to look at the duel occurring in the bar.

“I sacrifice two monsters to summon [Dark Dragon Slaughterer] in attack position!!”

“Kurgh!!! Wh-What an aura!!!”

“Kahahahaha!!! You lose!!!”

“No!!! Not yet!!!” The Entrion who had argued that sauce was best left as dip extended his hand toward the Disk. “YOU’VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD—!!!”

“N-NANI?!”

“[Gates of Hell]! It destroys monsters summoned this turn with more than two thousand attack points!!”

The hand of a demon sprouted from the ground and pulled the [Dark Dragon Slaughterer] into the ground by its feet.

“N-NO!!! N-NEGATE IT!!!”

The Dark Dragon Slaughterer struggled to break free from the demon’s clutches but not for long. It was dragged completely into the ground soon after.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

The Entrion who had argued that sauce was best spread throughout the food fell to his knees as he clenched his head. His face was covered in tears and any signs of life in his eyes were replaced with despair.

Witnessing that, Layla grabbed her forehead as if her head hurt. “You... want to play that game?”

“I think it’s a bit of a stretch too.” Yeon-Joo shook her head and approached Kang-Woo. “As I’d mentioned, what are you gonna do about cards?”

“I guess I’ll have to start collecting them now,” Kang-Woo answered as he shrugged.

Yeon-Joo feigned laughter. “From now? How are you even gonna get them?”

“How else?” Kang-Woo smiled and pointed at the Entrion gathered around to watch the Duel.

There was only one way to collect cards as quickly as possible.

“By stealing them, obviously.”

“...” Yeon-Joo grabbed her forehead, having expected this turn of events. “You... fucking scumbag.”

***

Kang-Woo’s party members stole the Entrion’s cards by force as Kang-Woo instructed. They did so in many ways— Kim Si-Hun knocked them out with his sheath from behind, and Han Seol-Ah placed a curse of extreme fatigue on them and took the cards as they fell asleep. Lilith used illusion magic to make it so they would steal each other’s cards.

The party members regrouped after half a day. Seol-Ah poured out the contents of her bag, full of cards.

“I gathered all the cards I could,” she remarked.

“Great job, Darling.”

“Hehe. It was nothing. It’s just...” Seol-Ah smiled awkwardly as she scratched her cheek. “Well... I felt a little bad because it felt like I was stealing toys from children.”

She knew these cards were far too valuable to be called toys in this world but she couldn’t help but feel this way.

“I’ve gathered quite a lot too, hyung-nim.”

“Me too, but I have no idea if they’re good or not.” Yeon-Joo sighed as she picked up some of the cards from the pile.

She couldn’t distinguish bad from good cards because she did not know anything about the card game.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I can tell which ones are good,” Kang-Woo remarked.

“How? Were you researching as we were out stealing cards?”

“Nope, I was goofing around as I had some kimchi stew.”

“What the fuck, man?” Yeon-Joo glared at Kang-Woo.

Kang-Woo snickered as he shook his hands. “Hehehe. I’m just kidding.”

“U-Urghhh. D-Damn savages!!! H-How could you do something so...!”

They were in Tite’s house located on the city’s outskirts. The tied-up Tite shed tears of blood as he stared at the pile of stolen cards. It was not a figure of speech— literal tears of blood were flowing from his six eyes.

‘Looks like his blood is red like that of humans.’

Kang-Woo smiled as he stared at Tite struggling to break free from his restraints.

“So... did you learn the rules?” Yeon-Joo asked.

“More or less.”

One card could be drawn per turn. The Main Phase was for summoning and the Battle Phase was for attacking. Only one monster could be summoned per turn, and cards needed to be sacrificed to summon monsters of higher levels.

The rules themselves were fairly simple, although they became more complex the deeper one dug.

“I just need to know the basic rules.”

The most important thing in a duel wasn’t the rules.

“Haaa... fine. Do as you like.” Yeon-Joo sighed, giving up on trying to figure Kang-Woo out.

“I believe in you, Kang-Woo.” Seol-Ah approached Kang-Woo and gently grabbed his hands. “However difficult... or impossible it may seem, you have always accomplished it.”

“Hehehe. You’re the best, Darling.”

Kang-Woo had to win since his Darling was cheering him on so unconditionally. No, he wouldn’t be able to lose.

‘From my theory...’

Kang-Woo walked around the city while his party members were out stealing cards, to confirm the flaw he had noticed in the card game— one devastating enough to overturn the results of the match. As he had thought, the fundamental flaw existed. Of course, the residents of this world would never be able to use the flaw but that was not the case for Kang-Woo.

“Right, shall we set up the deck?”

One deck could hold a maximum of forty cards, only three duplicate cards were allowed per deck.

“Oh, this card isn’t bad.”

Kang-Woo examined the cards in the pile one by one and began to form his deck.

“Kahahaha! You will never defeat the Duel King with such pathetic cards!!!” Tite stared at Kang-Woo setting up his deck, finding the situation absurd. “The cards of the great Duel King’s deck encompass the heaven, earth, and sea!!! It cannot be defeated by a deck made of useless cards like those!!”

All of the Duel King’s cards were powerful enough to destroy the game’s balance. Cards merely acquired from the streets were no match for them.

“Hehehe. You’ll see which cards are overpowered in a Duel.”

“How can you be... so confident for a man who has only just learned the rules?”

Tite glared at Kang-Woo who simply smiled without a word and continued to choose his cards.

“Alright, that’s exactly forty cards.”

Kang-Woo added the final card to his deck and placed down the deck in satisfaction.

“Right, all you need now is a Disk, right?” Yeon-Joo mentioned.

The Disk found in the rapid current was broken and Kang-Woo destroyed Tite’s Disk.

“Hm! I brought one!” Echidna snorted as she pulled out a fully functioning Duel Disk.

“Oh? I also brought one... Fufu, it looks like we had the same thought, Echidna,” Lilith remarked.

“Hm! I’m a clever girl!”

Echidna clenched her fists and snorted proudly. Lilith smiled faintly and patted Echidna’s head.

“I’m grateful you two did that but unfortunately, I’m gonna be using something else.”

“Something else?”

“Did you get a Disk too?”

Kang-Woo’s party members looked at him in wonder. Kang-Woo shrugged lightly.

“Nope. After all, we already had one since the beginning.”

“...?”

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“I’m gonna be using this Duel Disk,” Kang-Woo remarked as he grabbed the Disk under the table.

It was the one Lilith had found inside the current.

“Eh? That’s broken, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Kang-Woo nodded with a smile. “That’s exactly why I’m using it.”

“...”

“Oh...”

The others realized what Kang-Woo was planning and expressed exasperation.

“Right, then.” Kang-Woo stood up from the chair. “Shall we go meet this Duel King?”

Both his Disk and deck were ready.

“I don’t know what kind of deck you’ve prepared, but you’ll never defeat—”

Kang-Woo interjected Tite, “Wanna see?”

He untied Tite’s hands and handed him the deck he had prepared. Tite thoroughly examined Kang-Woo’s deck and looked up at Kang-Woo dumbfoundedly.

“What is this...? This isn’t a deck, it’s just a pile of cards!!! None of them have any synergy or have any impressive effects!!”

Kang-Woo’s deck would commonly be referred to as a garbage hand by the Entrion.

“And most importantly!” Tite slammed his fists on the table. “Why have you only added one of each card?!!”

Three of the same card could be added to the same deck. That way, it was easier to search for the cards one wanted and synergize cards more discreetly.

“What’s the problem?” Kang-Woo snickered. “I can just pick out the card I want when I want it.”

“...”

Tite could only stare blankly at Kang-Woo, lost for words. He was sure Kang-Woo did not even know the basics of Duels.

“Right, then. Sit tight and watch as your beloved god is utterly defeated.”