NOVEL WEB (8) Chased
I promptly store the note in a pocket and leave the tent.
The woman at the front just stares at me like I’m some sort of zoo exhibit.
The situation out here isn’t any better. There's a crowd of at least 100 people surrounding the tent, most of them gapping at the holographic screen on the side of the tent.
‘Shit, was that duel that impressive? The bot bricked people!’
I have to get out of here before I am spotted... Or not. Unfortunately, I had just walked right through the front door, and they saw me. Suddenly, a human wave closes in.
“HOW DID YOU DO THAT!” One demands
“THE BOT BRICKING? DON’T KNOW, JUST LUCK!” I exclaim, confused.
“SIGN THIS CONTRACT I’LL MAKE YOU RICH!” Another orders, shoving a piece of paper into my face.
“FAT CHANCE!” I reply, swinging my hand to shove him away.
The human wave keeps pushing me back. But as I’m about to get pinned on the tent’s canvas, I feel a yank on my left arm.
I let myself get moved by it, ‘better than getting crushed’ I reason — still, that hurt.
We move away from the crowd, and I can finally get a better look at my savior. He’s a tall man wearing a full suit, tie, and blacked-out sunglasses.
Of course, I am thankful for being saved, but then I remember what was told to me and firmly plant my feet on the pavement.
“WAIT!” I yell.
“WHAT IS IT? WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” He screams back.
“What’s the code!” I demand.
He stumbles for a bit and then shoots back.
“We have no time for that! Let’s go!” And yanks my arm again.
‘DAMMIT, FIRST DAY, AND I’M ALREADY GETTING KIDNAPED!’
I try to resist, but he’s at least twice my size and clearly has experience with this.
We are almost at the plaza’s edge when I notice a black sedan with fully tinted windows pass by.
“HELP!!!” I scream at it, and that gets his attention. The car suddenly stops, then turns to us and speeds up.
‘Wait, he’s not planning on ramming.... right?'
“FUCKING BITCH, I TRIED DOING THIS THE EASY WAY!” the tall guy swears.
He turns to me and tries to push me down. Unfortunately for him, I still have a free hand. So I use it to grab the arm he’s holding me by and yank it. This drives me forward at him. I raise my leg and try to use the momentum to knee him right in the eggs.
He clearly wasn't expecting this, considering he didn’t even try to defend it, allowing my amateur attempt at self-defense to hit.
“SGIHGOIUERFDOFGNUSDFGLLHASDFILDGFIASOIKUF” He makes an inhuman noise and unhands me, choosing to clutch his crouch instead.
I run towards the speeding car as fast as I can.
He abruptly hits the brakes and rolls down the windows. “GET IN!”
“CODE!??” I ask, not about to exchange one kidnapper for another.
“TRI - 5! QUICKLY.” He answers correctly, so I pull on the handle of the front right door and enter the vehicle.
The inside looks like one of those concept cars, but somehow even more impressive, with a holographic screen serving as the dash and a giant touchscreen on the console.
I sit down and close the door, then I reach for the seatbelt but grab air instead.
Seeing this, the driver leans over to press a button near where I was grasping.
A panel opens. He grabs the seat belt from there, then pulls it over me and latches it in a single smooth motion.
“Show me the card.” He asks, holding his hand out.
I fumble in the seat, still jumpy from the earlier altercation. Then I hand him the card.
“Very well.” He says after examining it.
He grabs the steering wheel and seems to bottom out the accelerator pedal.
“Fuah,” I gasp, the acceleration pressing me to the seat.
We make our way out of the plaza, and then on the heads-up display on the windscreen shows a route that goes straight into a building. It shows a ramp that isn’t there.
‘Wait, the highway is projected. Are we about to?’
The answer comes immediately as a spiral ramp gets projected in front of us.
We rise, and I can’t help but gawk out the windows as the city gets smaller and smaller.
“Never ridden in a car before?” Asks the driver.
I look away from the window to him and answer. “No.”
“Most kids your age haven’t,” He comments.
“I’m not a kid.” I lip back and cross my arms.
His head snaps back at me with a severe expression. “Why? Because you can drink now? Not even out of the plaza, yet you almost got yourself kidnapped. Don’t fool yourself. To me, you’re just a kid.”
At that point, I almost lost it and revealed my true age. Nevertheless, I kept quiet.
I look out of the window again to distract myself from the conversation.
We are almost on the highway and extremely high up.
“Holy shit,” I mutter, looking down.
“Language.” The agent warns...
We have been riding along the highway for half an hour, not slow, mind you. The HUD on the windscreen shows 300KM/h.
“Hey, how long till we reach the headquarters?” I ask him, surprised at how far this supposed office is.
“Finally noticed?” He asks, keeping his eyes on the road even though he let go of the wheel as soon as we entered the highway.
“Noticed what?” I ask back, confused about what I should have caught on to.
“*Sigh*” He sighs, then reveals, “We are being followed.” Like clockwork, an alarm goes off right as he says that.
[“WARNING: Two duel disks targeting this vehicle, moving to the duel lane.”]
“SHIT!” the agent yells and punches the steering wheel.
“What is it?!”
“*Sigh* We are going to spin out! That’s what’s happening!” He yells.
“Why?”
“I didn’t bring my deck; I only have the basic one. It can’t deal with a 1v2,” He admits.
I look at him, confused. “You know I’m here, right?”
He takes one look at me and responds. “You? I know you might think yourself a competent duelist because of the Director... Even...” He goes silent.
Eventually, he snaps back. “Fuck it. Better a 2v2 than a 2v1.” and presses some buttons that open a panel with some kind of... Headband? I think. He hands it to me.
“What does this do?” I question, confused by the mechanism in my hands.
“Never dueled in VR?” He reveals.
I can barely hold my excitement as he said that and let out a little squeal.
“Put them on, plug that lead into your dual disk and sit back.” The agent teaches.
I try to follow his instructions but can seem to find the receptacle for the plug... Oh, never mind, a port opens when I bring the lead close to the disk.
[Dimcorp VR glass 13 starting.]
The agent also puts a pair on.
[Vehicle duel starting in 3... 2... 1...]
My world goes black...
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...
Suddenly, I’m bombarded by white light and a strong wind.
I look around and find myself on a car’s roof. Looking closer, it’s the one I was just riding in.
Curious, I look through the window and find myself and the driver slumped over.
‘Wait? Is this Full dive VR?!?!?!? AND YOU USE IT TO PLAY FUCKING YGO?!??!?!?!?!?!....... Fair play, I would too.’
“Hey, you ok?” I hear someone ask to my right.
I look over and find my “Teammate.”
“Yes, just not used to this,” I respond. He’s still wearing the same suit, but this time his head is that of a shark... And still sporting the sunglasses.
“Hey, did you pick that avatar when you were 12, or do you just have a thing for sea predators?” I quip at him. Of course, I then also inspect what I look like and find that my appearance hasn’t changed, but I’m wearing a simple light-blue bodysuit instead of the uniform.
“Hilarious, but you should look over there before joking around.” He points at two figures on top of the other vehicle on the dual lane that seems to diverge from the main highway.
They both have the same avatar of a nondescript average-sized man in a gray jumpsuit with sunglasses and are holding up a duel disk made up of a bangle with a dueling blade projected.
Seeing this, I also hold my left arm up to waist level, making a dueling blade materialize. Agent Gura, to my right, copies my movement.
[“DUEL START”] An ethereal voice announces.
Five cards get projected in front of me.
A HUD also appears. On the top left, it displays the life point counters, which interestingly are 4000 LP for me, “Agent Phoenix,” “Challenger one,” and “Challenger Two.”
‘Agent phoenix with a shark head, huh? Curious.’
On the bottom left, I can see my partner’s hand, which comprises a bunch of normal pendulum monsters.
To the top left, there is the turn order, which seems to be: “Challenger One,” “Yuumi Matsunaga,” “Challenger Two,” and “Agent Phoenix.”
Speaking about hands, mine is nuts; I don’t think I could have picked a better hand if I tried... I mean, of course I could, but still.
[“Draw Phase, Standby Phase, Main Phase 1”] Announces the same ethereal voice from before.
“I activate spell card Supply Squad that allows me to draw a card each time a monster we control is destroyed.” He states in a monotone, obviously passed through a voice-changer voice. “I summon “Goblin Attack Force” and end my turn."
‘Hand trap galore, I’m guessing. But a deck I’m not familiar with, nonetheless.’
[“Draw Phase, Standby Phase, Main Phase 1.”]
The HUD shows that I still don’t have a Battle Phase.
‘Don’t want to waste a turn, and if I pass, that’ll open me up for a shit ton of damage considering I only have 4K LP...’
“I’ll activate the card Fusion Destiny From my hand!” I touch the Hologram of the card I want to activate, making it do just that. To be honest, I’m just guessing here, but it seems to work. “Then I’ll send “Destiny Hero - Dasher” and “Destiny Hero - Celestial” to fusion summon. Come out! Destiny Hero - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer!" Just saying the action out loud seems to do the trick.
The summon goes through without either opponent negating it.
“I then set a card face down and end my turn.” I set Pendulumgraph as a bluff and passed the turn.
[ “End Phase.”]
“Excellent turn.” Complements, my teammate.
‘You don’t have to be a jackass about it! Not like you got a better hand to deal with this!’ I complain, but don’t voice it.
[“Draw Phase, Standby Phase, Main Phase 1.”]
“I will activate the Supply Squad and summon goblin attack force as well.” Says the other challenger in a distorted monotone voice.
‘Well, either they both bricked or are being conservative with the hand traps and didn’t want to waste them on DPE.’
“My turn!” announces Agent BadHand.
“I activate Lancephorynchus and Dragoons of Draconia as my pendulum scales! Pendulum!” He declares, doing a pose. I look at him in disbelief. First, why is a grown man posing like some kind of wannabe power ranger but, much more importantly, why is he going for a pendulum summon with his terrible hand? More shocking even is that the opponents don’t negate it.
“Pendulum Summon! Come forth and bring me victory! “Flash Knight,” “Foucault’s Cannon,” and “Mandragon!”" He summons his three monsters that I’m not sure what he wants to do with. Maybe Selene? But that would be a waste of resources.
“With this, I end my turn.” He announces.
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...
...
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!??!” I demand an explanation from him.
‘There’s no way this guy just left three normal monsters hanging with ZERO CARDS IN HAND!!! He even knows I can’t protect them!'
He jumps, not expecting this reaction from me, then stampers. “W-What? I just pendulum-summoned three 2000+ attack monsters! What do you mean!?”
I facepalm ‘Oh my god, this guy is an imbecile.’
“Nothing, just let me handle this,” I mutter with bated breath.
The next turn goes to the other challenger.
“I summon another Goblin Attack Force. Now battle phase!” He declares.
“Goblin Attack Force number 1! Attack Flash Night!” The group of goblins charges at the golden knight. It cuts down some of them but eventually gets overwhelmed.
“Hurr,” Grunts Phoenix. His LP decreasing to 3700.
“Goblin Attack Force number 2, attack the cannon.” The other group of goblins charges at the mechanical contraption, but as the goblins surround it, an explosion bursts from the middle, mangling the attackers. The shockwave from the explosion reaches me and almost throws me to the ground.
“Because one of my monster was destroyed, I draw a card. Then I leave the Battle Phase. My remaining group of goblins is now changing to a defense position.” The goblins hold their shields up. “End turn.”
“DRAW!” I announce before the voice has time to do it.
The card I drew was “Performapal Celestial Magician.”
[“Standby Phase, Main Phase 1,”]
“First, I scale “Oafdragon Magician” and “Wisdom-Eye Magician.” I decided just to let the duel system handle my commands from now on and don’t even touch the cards. “Then I’ll activate my face-down card Start Pendulumgraph.” Well, here we go, hand traps or not. I decided that with my teammate being completely incompetent, I’ll just do my turn like I was playing a test hand and hope for the best.
“Now I activate the Pendulum Effect of Wisdom-Eye, destroying itself to be replaced with “Double Iris Magician” from the deck. The effect of Pendulumgraph triggers as Chain-Link 1 as a magician just left the field, and I activate the effect of Astrograph Sorcerer from my hand as Chain-Link 2."
The chain resolves. Wisdom-Eye goes to the extra deck and gets replaced with Double Iris. I specially summon Astrograph with its effect and use its second effect to add another copy of Wisdom-Eye. Pendulumgraph adds, “Harmonizing Magician,” Simultaneously, my teammate looks at me like I just performed a miracle.
“Now Pendulum Summon! Appear, my monsters! Harmonizing Magician, Perfomapal Celestial Magician, and back from the extra deck Wisdom-Eye Magician.”
“Nice Pendulum, Summon. Unfortunately, none of those monsters looks strong enough.” My teammate comments, clueless.
“The effect of harmonizing activates to bring another Double-Iris from the deck!”
I go into Crystron using Harmonizing and Wisdom-Eye, then use its effect to summon Tuning. I then Link climb into Selene with six counters, uses three to bring Tuning back, and finish by summoning Accesscode with 5300 ATK points by targeting Selene, eliciting a reaction from the agent.
“Now I overlay Double Iris Magician with Performpal Celestial Magician. XYZ Summon! Come out! Timestar Magician!” From the darkness comes out a wizard wielding a strange staff.
“I activate Timestar’s effect. By detaching an overlay unit, I can add a card from my deck. I add “Astrograph Sorcerer.”"
I look around the field, thinking about what to do next.
My opponents looked pale, and their stoic looks were fading. The agent had a complicated expression on his face.
“I activate the effect of Tuning Magician from the graveyard, returning it to the field. Then I use it to tune with Astrograph. Synchro Summon. Come out! Borreload Savage Dragon!”
I used Borreload’s effect to equip Selene, Totaling 3925 ATK Points.
“Battle Phase!” I announce. The challengers are physically shaking now. I don’t know how in Hell I got two duels in a row now where all my opponents bricked, but I suspect that’s just the karma from the shitty hands and bad matchups I got at tournaments catching up.
“Now! Timestar Magician Attack challenger one’s goblin attack force, and Accesscode talker, follow up and attack him directly!” My monster’s attack. Timestar Magician holds up his staff, preparing some sort of spell, while Accesscode changes like always. Then Timestar shoots a ball of dark energy that lands where the Goblins were standing and detonates into a massive explosion. Accesscode runs into the smoke, still charging at the enemy.
“I-I surrender.” One stutters. But is quickly refuted by their teammate.
“WHAT?! NO! We won’t surrender! The boss would kill us if he discovered we ran away!” The other refutes.
“Doesn’t matter to me, now DPE! Attack Challenger two’s goblin attack force and Borreload follow up and attack directly!” My two other monsters also prepare their attacks.
They were busy arguing about semantics when my Accesscode talker reached his target. My summon readied his lance, and then... Skewered him.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH” A guttural scream rang throughout the virtual space.
I looked away even though no blood came out.
‘That was like a real scream! Did... did that hurt that...’ Then I remembered how it felt when I took 2000LP, and everything clicked into place. The reason my opponent surrendered right before they lost was obvious.
‘OH, GOD! WHAT DID I DO?!!?’ rang through my mind.
Unfortunately, while I wasn’t looking, an explosion rang out; My monsters were already attacking, and they were following my orders. I looked back to try to stop Borreload but instead... I watched the other challenger get incinerated by the energy beam shooting from Borreload’s mouth.