"Σ(°△°|||)︴Holy crap, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Zero's entire art style seemed to break from the shock. The moment he saw the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, his mind was instantly filled with a single number: 87 million!
Kaiba Qianyi, the president of Kaiba Corp, had an 87-million bounty on the fourth Blue-Eyes. If he sold this card to Kaiba Corp, wouldn't he become a billionaire overnight? Changing his fate was actually that simple.
Looking at the words "Normal Monster" from his evaluation again, Zero found them incredibly pleasing to the eye. If he had identified any other archetype, even a powerful meta one, he would have had to work hard for success. But now? He could skip sixty years of struggle in one step.
He wouldn't be like Solomon Muto from the anime, clutching onto a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and refusing to let go. He had no "bonds" with this card anyway.
Then, the Eva System's notification chime rang out again. Even this synthesized electronic voice sounded like music to his ears now.
[Duel Gene Evaluation complete. Duelist Amano Zero may henceforth spend Eva Points at the Duelist Service Center to draw 'Normal Monster' cards. Each card costs 1,000 Eva Points.]
1,000 points per card was double the initial cost, but it wasn't expensive. Even trash cards sold in shops were priced at 1,000 points. This meant he could gamble for rare cards in his specific archetype for the lowest possible price.
The system voice continued:
[Cards drawn through future Eva Point expenditure may be traded or exchanged normally.] [Duelist Amano Zero, please advance toward the pinnacle of Dueling!]
It was a perfectly normal closing announcement, yet Zero sensed something wrong. What do you mean 'future cards can be traded normally'? That sounds like the ones I just got CAN'T be traded...
Zero quickly checked the ten cards he had just pulled. In the bottom right corner, where the Eva anti-counterfeit serial number should be, it read: [Initial Bound Card. Non-Tradeable. Cannot be removed from Deck (May be replaced by cards of the same archetype).]
This included the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that should have been worth 87 million.
Non-tradeable? Cannot be removed from the deck? Then how am I supposed to sell it?! Why would you make such a redundant rule!
But as a poor resident of Sector 32 who had been "played" by the system before, Zero quickly realized the logic behind it. This was a hard rule set by Eva to prevent people from "rerolling" for better starts. Since the market price for cards was 1,000 but these initial cards cost only 500, corrupt capitalists would otherwise use poor people's identities to endlessly "farm" cheap cards.
In Eden Tower, Duel Monsters cards were of immense importance. For the elites, as long as the profit was high enough, even human beings were treated as disposable consumables. One should never underestimate the low moral floor of capital, nor overestimate its conscience. Thus, Eva's management of card trading was exceptionally strict.
The restriction that cards could not be removed from the deck—only replaced by same-archetype cards—prevented the rich from completely abandoning their identified archetypes to only buy meta cards.
A non-tradeable card was, in an absolute sense, locked to its owner. Even if it were stolen or won in a duel, the card data would simply be transmitted through the Eva System back to the original owner.
In other words, this Blue-Eyes White Dragon was soul-bound to Amano Zero. It was a bond even stronger than Solomon Muto's; he couldn't get rid of it if he tried. As for the 87 million... he could forget about it.
Once he realized he wasn't getting the money, for some reason, Zero remembered that anonymous post: [Kaiba Qianyi's bounty is actually a scam! She just wants to lure out any other White Dragon tamers... and eliminate them!]
When the dragon wasn't in his hands, Zero didn't believe the rumor. But now that he was bound to it, he decided it was better to be safe than sorry. If the gender-swapped Kaiba had the same personality as Seto Kaiba—kidnapping people and ripping up cards rather than letting a fourth dragon exist—his situation was extremely dangerous.
Fortunately, the evaluation room was private and sealed. No one had seen him pull the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Zero carefully hid the dragon in his deck before pushing the door open to leave. However, the moment he stepped out, he found a crowd gathered at the entrance, all looking like they were waiting for a show.
That's weird. The walls of the room are light-proof special glass. How could I have been exposed?
A young man looked at him with intense curiosity. "Hey brother, did you just shout 'Σ(°△°|||)︴Holy crap, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!' in there? Could it be you pulled—?"
Zero: "..." What's the point of a light-proof room if the soundproofing is trash?!
"You misheard! Totally misheard! Never happened!" Zero quickly pulled his collar up to cover his face, shoved his way through the crowd, and practically ran for his life.
Given the special circumstances, the cautious Zero didn't choose to walk back to Sector 32. Instead, he spent 60 points on a cross-sector train. On the train, as he calmed down, he realized he was probably overreacting. He was just a nobody from the slums of Sector 32; it was unlikely he'd catch the attention of a top-tier tycoon like Kaiba Qianyi so easily.
Rather than hiding it, he should find a way to create value with this bound Blue-Eyes White Dragon. First, its combat power was enough to crush most duelists in the lower sectors. Second, since his deck was all Vanilla monsters, the dragon would be crucial for calling out the powerful Dragons in his Extra Deck. Third, he needed to make money.
Zero checked his balance. After paying Wangchuan You back 1,000 points yesterday and today's various expenses, he was at: [Remaining Eva Points: 2,320]
This was enough for daily life, but far from enough for Shio's prosthetic legs. While he was online earlier, he'd checked—the cheapest models cost at least 100,000 points.
It's a long road ahead...
Thinking about the uncertain future, Zero leaned against the window and fell asleep on the nearly empty train. By the time he woke up, the train had reached the final stop at Sector 32 long ago.
Yawning, he walked lazily toward his house, only to find a luxury car parked outside that looked completely out of place. The car looked familiar—he'd seen it yesterday. Along with the car was the red-haired girl who had been watching his duel from a distance. She was currently standing at his front door, talking to Wangchuan You.
Her stunning beauty, combined with her clean, fashionable clothes, created a sharp, jarring contrast with the poverty-stricken streets of Sector 32.
Suddenly, a system prompt chimed. [Finis Wynn: Favorability 55]
Since the system gave a prompt, she was a pursuable target with rewards. Zero was confused; why would a girl he didn't know have an initial favorability of 55? Could it be that I'm just so handsome that the readers can easily self-insert into me?
────────────────────────────────────────
My : https://[email protected]/AuAuMon
Yu-ki-oh:King of the Scraps (86 Chapters – Ongoing)
────────────────────────────────────────