Chapter 7
"System, open the exchange shop."
Rowan glanced at the 800 Emotion Points displayed on his virtual panel and gave the mental command.
System Shop (Refreshes randomly every two days, four options per cycle)
Today's options:
Deck: Cyber Dragon Deck (Zane Truesdale Version) - 500 points
Deck: Gravekeeper's Deck (Underworld Edition) - 1000 points
Deck: Lava Golem Deck (Underworld Stall Version) - 1000 points
Skill: Spirit Vision - 2000 points
Rowan's eyes lit up.
The ability to see Duel Spirits, right there on the first refresh.
It was only the base version, limited to perception and basic communication. No materialization, no physical contact.
But that hardly mattered. Even at this level, it was genuinely valuable.
Across all of Duel Academy, across the entire dueling world, only a handful of people possessed anything like it.
Jaden himself, if Rowan remembered correctly, had only just reawakened his own ability this very morning after running into Yugi Muto, who had given him a Winged Kuriboh.
A gift that restored what Jaden had lost as a child after some long-ago accident.
"2000 points. I'm 1200 short."
Rowan rubbed his chin. "I need to start earning faster."
The shop refreshed every two days with four completely new options.
If he missed this one, there was no telling when Spirit Vision would cycle back around.
The good news was that today counted, which gave him two full days to make up the difference.
And Duel Academy was not exactly short on dueling opportunities.
If he really needed to, there were three perfectly usable candidates sitting right beside him.
Jaden Yuki. Syrus Truesdale.
Bastion Misawa.
The one thing that did give Rowan mild pause was the pricing structure in the shop.
The three decks made it obvious: "underworld" soul-crushing decks cost exactly twice as much as normal ones.
Of course they did.
Zane's Cyber Dragon deck was straightforward enough.
A foundational Cyber Dragon build, nothing close to the complete, optimized versions that would come later, but Power Bond and Limiter Removal together could stack monsters well past 16,000 attack points without much effort.
Respectable by any measure, capable of running over most duelists in this world with ease.
And the system had priced it at 500 points.
The two decks with names that radiated pure suffering were sitting at double that.
Naturally.
...
"Whoa, the view from up here is incredible!"
"Is that the island? That's Duel Academy?"
Syrus and Jaden's voices broke through his thoughts. Rowan looked out his window.
A sweep of brilliant blue ocean stretched in every direction.
And there, growing larger as the helicopter closed the distance, was an island sitting quietly on the water below.
The rear half of the island was bare rock and brown earth, dominated by a volcano trailing a thin thread of smoke.
The front half was dense with greenery, high-tech buildings rising between waterfalls and scattered cascades.
The two halves looked like they belonged to entirely different worlds.
Duel Academy.
Exactly as he had imagined it, somehow even better in person.
"Not bad at all," Rowan said, watching the island fill his window.
Living on a place like this was genuinely appealing.
And more importantly, the Academy provided meals and basic living supplies.
He had arrived in this world with absolutely nothing in his pockets. The timing could not have been more convenient.
"I'm getting more excited by the second!" Jaden said, practically bouncing.
"I wonder what it's actually like inside," Syrus added from the seat behind, his face bright with anticipation.
Rowan looked at the two of them and quietly debated whether to say anything.
They were about to be disappointed.
He was fairly certain of that.
Duel Academy divided its students into three tiers with corresponding living conditions, and those tiers were not equal.
...
The helicopter landed. Rowan and the others were escorted into a wide, terraced lecture hall where the Academy's principal, a bald man with the energy of someone who had rehearsed this speech many times, offered a few words of encouragement on a projected screen.
Then the examination results were processed and dormitory assignments handed out.
"Slifer Red. As expected."
Rowan looked at the red jacket and Academy-issued communication device now in his hands and sighed, not particularly surprised.
Duel Academy sorted students by three ranks: Obelisk Blue at the top, Ra Yellow in the middle, and Slifer Red at the bottom, each with distinctly different accommodations to match.
He had defeated Crowler with his life points completely intact. Full marks on the practical exam.
But the written examination had taken place earlier that morning, before he had even arrived in this world, let alone this arena.
His written score had been recorded as zero.
That dragged his average down considerably.
And knowing Crowler, there had probably been a quiet thumb on the scale somewhere in the grading process as well.
So. Slifer Red.
At least he would have company.
Rowan glanced over at two familiar figures nearby, both of them gawking excitedly at their new communication devices, scrolling through their profiles like they had just received a prize.
He looked at them for a moment, then looked back at his red jacket.
For what he had in mind, being planted in Slifer Red was honestly not the worst outcome.
More people to duel. More despair to deliver.
More points to earn.