Chapter 18
"Seriously, and I was just getting into it too."
Jaden grumbled the entire walk back to the Slifer Red dormitory.
"The dedication of a card addict," Rowan said flatly, without the energy to say more.
Syrus walked beside them with a look of quiet resignation.
Then something occurred to Syrus, and he seized the change of subject.
"Actually, Rowan, about the duel with Chazz just now. You didn't take a rare card. You took money. A lot of money."
He looked genuinely puzzled. "But what's the point? There's not much to spend it on out here on this island, is there?"
Jaden jumped in, equally curious.
"That's true, actually. Everything on the island gets flown in by helicopter. The only place I can think of that takes money is that shop we passed earlier, the one near the dueling arena."
They had spotted it during their afternoon tour of the campus.
A decently sized campus store selling food, daily necessities, and apparently new card stock on a rotating basis.
That was the only use for money Jaden could think of.
And even then, twenty million was an absurd amount for a campus convenience store. The Academy already provided food.
Spending was barely necessary at all. Honestly, a rare card from Chazz's deck would have been worth roughly the same and been far more immediately useful to a duelist.
"You'll understand what it's for eventually," Rowan said, wearing a deliberately mysterious expression, and offered nothing further.
He would let them figure it out on their own.
Specifically, he would let them figure it out the moment a rather comfortable private structure appeared beside the Slifer Red dormitory, and they were sitting down to another meal of dried fish and curry mapo tofu while he was eating something considerably more interesting.
That was when they would understand.
"What's with the secrecy," Jaden muttered, watching Rowan head up the outdoor stairs toward his room.
He scratched his head and turned to Syrus.
Syrus had absolutely no idea either.
...
Back in his room, Rowan sat on the bed and pulled out his Academy communicator.
A few searches later, he had found a legitimate off-island construction crew, exchanged messages, and settled on terms.
They would make the trip out to the island and build the planned private residence to his specifications.
The crew, as it happened, was affiliated with the Chazz Corporation.
Using money won from you to hire your own people to work for me.
Fitting.
Roughly two-thirds of the twenty million would go toward the build. Rowan did not mind.
The remainder was more than enough to last him a considerable while, and as Jaden and Syrus had correctly noted, there was not much else to spend money on inside the Academy.
As for new card packs, the system handled that. He had no intention of buying cards the conventional way.
"System, open personal panel."
With the construction arrangements sorted, Rowan tallied up what the duel with Chazz had actually earned him.
Name: Rowan
Skill: Still Water Clarity (Once per duel, guaranteed to draw any card you want.)
Current Deck: Dark Magician Deck (Underworld OTK Version)
Emotion Points: 2800
"That clown handed me 2000 points in a single duel?"
Rowan looked at the total and smiled with genuine satisfaction.
Not only had he cleared the 2000-point threshold for Spirit Vision, he had points left over.
System Shop (Refreshes randomly every two days, four options per cycle)
Current 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
(Time remaining on current refresh: 1 day, 1 hour)
He redeemed it without hesitation.
The next moment, a cool sensation spread through both eyes, followed by something deeper, a feeling that moved through his entire body like warmth soaking into the bones.
As though something had quietly settled into what people might call a soul.
"So this is what it feels like..."
Rowan opened his eyes, looked at his hands, then looked at the deck sitting on the edge of his bed.
Nothing seemed different.
He stared at it for a moment.
Still nothing.
Like he had just purchased a counterfeit ability.
He sat there, mildly stunned.
Though logically, the system probably did not make errors.
The more likely explanation was that his deck contained no Duel Spirits whatsoever, so there was simply nothing there to see.
"Kurri kurri...!"
Then, faintly, through the not particularly soundproof wall separating his room from next door, came a sound.
Not human. Not any animal from the world he had come from. Something in between, and yet immediately familiar.
The sound of Winged Kuriboh.
The rare monster card Yugi Muto had given Jaden that morning.
Rowan sat up straight.
Right there. The answer. His newly acquired ability was working perfectly.
He could hear a Duel Spirit through the wall, which meant he could already perceive them.
His deck just happened to be entirely unpopulated.
"Chazz Princeton is genuinely a good person," Rowan thought to himself, settling back against the pillow with a comfortable sigh.
The man had funded the construction of a luxury private residence and bankrolled the purchase of Spirit Vision, all in one evening.
Though Rowan considered himself an equally generous soul. He had delivered a considerable amount of warmth to Chazz tonight, the kind that tends to keep a person staring at the ceiling for hours.
You treat me to dinner, I treat you to humiliation. A perfectly fair exchange.