Chapter 48
"Which deck should I actually exchange for?"
The following afternoon, Rowan lay sprawled on a lounge chair atop the wide, open rooftop of the Academy's main lecture building, yawning at the sky. Sun on his face, a juice carton in hand, the system shop menu floating in his mind while he weighed his options for the next cursed deck acquisition.
The round Kuriboh sat on his shoulder, invisible to everyone else, quietly keeping him company.
He had the entire day free. No classes at Duel Academy whatsoever.
The problem was that his luxury cabin was still mid-construction, and the Slifer Red dorms had all the soundproofing quality of a cardboard box. The construction site sat just close enough to his room that staying there meant enduring noise.
So Rowan had relocated to the rooftop. Several rooms' worth of open space, warm sun, and complete quiet.
As for Jaden, Syrus, and Chumley -- left behind in the dorms to absorb the full acoustic experience -- Rowan could only offer his sincerest, most heartfelt apologies.
Deepest regrets. Bow.
He returned his attention to the shop.
[System Shop (refreshes randomly every two days, four options per cycle)] Current options: (1 day remaining)
[Deck: Arcana Force Deck (Sartorius Version)] -- 500 points [Deck: Morphing Jar Deck (Cursed Mill Build)] -- 1000 points [Deck: Stealth Bird Deck (Cursed Burn Build)] -- 1500 points
After last night's exchange for the Dragon Head Seal, he had 1800 Emotion Value left. Enough for one more deck.
He wasn't unfamiliar with any of these options. All three were cursed, in their own ways.
The difference was that the last two were cursed primarily for the opponent. The first one -- the Sartorius version Arcana Force deck -- was cursed mostly for whoever was running it.
Nearly every monster, spell, and trap in that deck required a coin flip to activate. One face gave an overwhelming advantage. The other face did the exact opposite -- destroying all your own monsters instead of the opponent's, that sort of thing. Ultimate gambler's deck. Pure chaos incarnate.
For someone with supernatural spirit-resonance abilities capable of influencing coin flip outcomes, it might be barely manageable. For anyone else, it was gambling dressed up as a card game.
Rowan had no delusions about his ability to pilot that. Spirit Sight and the Dragon Head Seal were great. They did absolutely nothing for coin flips.
The Arcana Force deck was eliminated immediately. Too cursed in the wrong direction.
That left the two legitimate options.
The Morphing Jar deck was a mill strategy -- chains of conditions that, with proper sequencing, could strip an opponent's entire deck into the graveyard. High execution ceiling. Lots of moving pieces to manage.
The Stealth Bird deck was clearly the lower-maintenance option of the two. Simpler to operate. Which presumably explained the price difference.
Expensive meant it earned the price tag.
But Rowan was a person with standards. He had a vision. He was dedicated to healing the world, spreading warmth, bringing joy.
After careful and thorough deliberation, he selected the easier, more effortlessly brutal Stealth Bird deck without hesitation.
Remarkable how that happened.
He stood by the principle: if effortless victory was an option and you chose the harder road, that was just being difficult for no reason.
The burn deck did have weaknesses -- if an opponent knew what they were walking into and prepared for it, the matchup got awkward. But as long as nobody expected a burn deck, Rowan was confident the psychological damage would be deeply satisfying.
The only question was who the first unlucky test subject would be.
"There you are, Rowan. Figured you'd be up here."
He was still lounging, juice carton in hand, when footsteps came up the stairwell and a familiar voice with an unmistakably aggrieved edge announced itself from the rooftop entrance.
Rowan tilted his head and looked. Jaden, Syrus, and Chumley had tracked him down, climbing onto the rooftop with the collective energy of people who had been wronged.
"You're living like this while we sat through that noise?!" Syrus stared at the lounge chair and juice carton setup with a devastated expression, and produced two perfectly noodle-curved lines of tears in classic fashion. Chumley nodded beside him in total solidarity.
Compared to half a day of construction noise back in the dorms, this was paradise.
"Ah... how did you three find me?" Rowan cleared his throat with no particular urgency, expression perfectly neutral.
"We had something to tell you, so we came to find you." Whatever grievance Jaden had arrived with evaporated instantly. He snapped back to the point. "We heard some big news on the way over. Chazz apparently withdrew from the Academy. Voluntarily. He's gone."
Jaden's expression was serious as he said it. Syrus and Chumley both looked similarly somber. Chazz had been Obelisk Blue's top-ranked first-year until just days ago -- a string of losses to Rowan and then Jaden in quick succession, and now this. It was significant news by any measure.
"Is that what this is about." Rowan yawned, settling back into the lounge chair with the unhurried air of someone receiving expected information. "I knew that last night."
He'd half-expected something bigger.
Chazz would come back on his own in time. It wasn't worth stressing over.
"Last night?" All three of them went slightly awkward at the same moment.
They looked up at the midday sun simultaneously. A long silence followed.
Their news was approximately one eternity behind schedule.
"If that's everything, I'm going back to my sun," Rowan said, giving a small wave and closing his eyes again.
"Wait -- there's something else. Something more important." Jaden stepped forward quickly. "The Chazz thing was just something we heard on the way over. What we actually came to tell you -- that's a different matter entirely."