2 – New Home

While I felt devastated about the recent turn of events, wallowing in the misery that is my life has never been me. With that in mind, I get up from my new bed and decide to check out my surroundings. This is my new house after all!

Looking around the bedroom I find myself in, I see it is plain and holding no decorations. What immediately comes to mind would be a model home; Just bare-bones furniture with no personality.

It contained an empty dresser, a queen-sized bed with white sheets and a dark blue comforter, an end table near the head of the bed with a reading lamp, white carpeting, and an empty closet except for 3 sets of blue school uniforms and 2 sets of plain black shirts and denim jeans.

Exploring the rest of the house, I find another room identical to my own except for the color theme. It is pink instead of blue, and there were no clothes in the closet.

The second to last room on this floor, which I found out was actually a two-story house, was an office with a desk, office chair, laptop computer, and empty bookshelves lining the walls.

The final room was the master bedroom. It mirrored the other bedrooms with the exception of the master bathroom, an empty walk-in closet, and a king-sized memory foam bed. I immediately moved my new clothes into this room, intending to claim it for myself. 

Downstairs was a sizeable kitchen, fully stocked this time! An attached dining room to the kitchen had a large, 8 person, solid oak dining table with 8 matching chairs around it. Across from this open dining room was the living room with a large, wrap-around, leather sofa, 60 inch TV, and empty entertainment center furniture holding the TV up.

There was also a smaller bathroom downstairs where I found all of my toiletries. I promptly moved them to the master bathroom as well before continuing my tour. The entranceway reminded me of some Anime I had seen. A long hallway led to a staircase and a tiled section in the front by the door held a shoe rack. 

'Guess I better get into that habit...' I thought, eyeing 3 pairs of shoes in the rack. 2 were dress shoes that seemed to match my uniforms, and 1 was casual sneakers.  

On the side of the staircase was a small coat closet, in which I found a half red and half black hoodie as well as a puffer coat, and a door further down the hall that leads to an attached garage with a car inside. It looked like a Subaru Hatchback, but it was smaller and seemed...futuristic in a sense? It was black, sleek, and pleasant to look at. It also looked quite new and in perfect condition.

"That's a great point," I asked aloud to no one in particular, "What year is it?"

This is when I discovered that the information "Download" to my brain I read about in the white space had already happened. I assumed that it would be painful and disorienting, but, instead, it appeared in my mind as if it had always been there.  

'The year is 1998...but not at the same time.' I thought as I compared differences in my mind.

It seemed that this place was much more technologically advanced than my own world was in the 90s. About 40 or 50 years in the future, to be precise, though I had no idea why. This explained the flat-screen TV in the living room and the smartphone-esk device I had in my pocket.

I had originally thought it was a day planner - Like one of those electronic ones that were popular in the 90s - but when I powered it on, it functioned almost exactly like a modern smartphone...

'Well, no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth.' I shrug and move on. I can discover the secrets of this world later if I want. For now, I had way too much to do and worry about for "Why are things more convenient?" to be a problem. 

There was a front and backyard, but it was simple and hardly worth mentioning. Just a grassy lawn with a few trees in both the front and the back, a patio with a grill in the back, a driveway in the front, and a flagstone path leading from the driveway to the front door.

The tour of my new home was complete and I retrieved the laptop in the empty office and brought it to my new master bedroom. I set up the computer on the bed and put it aside. I would use it to answer questions I had while I piece things together.

Lastly, I empty my pockets onto one of the two bedside tables. I had the aforementioned phone, a black leather wallet, and a set of keys that seemed to include keys for the car, the house, and...a small black key with a complicated cutting. 

'Maybe for a mailbox? Or a safe? Possibly a safety deposit box?' Food for thought for later. I found no safes in my search of the house, but, then again, I didn't search all that hard for one. 

Then, I knew what it was as if the information had been there all along. 

'Okay, yeah that is disorienting.' I sigh as I put the keys on the bedside table. It was a key for a safety deposit box. I had never opened it, but I knew it was a few items my deceased parents left me in their will. Some of them could be valuable, so I will have to check on them later.

I take a deep breath to center myself, then I pull out my license from my wallet to see who I was now.

I felt really dumb, as when I picked up the card, I immediately knew all the information without looking. 

'This is going to take some getting used to.' I realize as I put the card back with a self derisive chuckle. 

My name was now Arakaki Toshiaki, I was 17 years old, a second-year at Domino High School, and was legally an adult managing my own affairs after my parent's death. I had an uncle who tried to steal all my wealth and properties, but I had a good lawyer and even have a restraining order against him after he tried to barge into the house and attack me in a drunken rage. 

'No way that will come back to bite me...' I think with another sigh.

The more I thought about myself, the stranger things became. I was...basically, a nobody. Ok, that wasn't true. I was not unpopular at school, but neither was I the most popular. In fact, I tended to go unnoticed in most situations as I was the quiet brooding type. I had a close group of friends and even a female childhood friend that I had moved away from after middle school.

Duel Monsters, the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game name, was basically my only claim to fame and that was only because I inherited my parent's cards after their deaths. 

This brought me away from myself and into the world of Duel Monsters, and, let me tell you, it was huge. 

Where do I even start?

First off, Duel Monsters has been around since, well, forever. It is the ancient game of this world that could be compared to Go or Chess from my own. It was originally, at least as far as my new body's memories were concerned, a game that was played with small carved tiles to represent all the monsters, traps, and spells.

The basic "cards" have been in constant circulation for thousands of years, but when Maximillion Pegasus founded Industrial Illusions 20 years ago, he started printing them into actual card format - Simply recreating the tiles that were most popularly used. This lead to the already insanely popular game becoming the staple of all world governments. 

As idiotic as it sounds, government leaders duel or select someone to duel for them to settle disputes. I have no idea how this can be a stable system of governing, but this is what I have to work with. I can't help but feel there is something more going on behind the scenes, however, as even a dull observer could see the faults in this system.

Additionally, the modern rules are in place, other than ban lists, so I guess we will not be seeing any season-1-summoning-3-Blue-Eyes-in-one-turn-without-tributing bullshit. I am actually quite thankful for that, but I am curious as to how that will affect the story...Not that I am currently aware of where the hell in the story we are, besides near the beginning...

Anyway, Industrial Illusions reprinted the popular cards and are currently in the process of making "New Cards." This is what my body knows to be true, at least. If things follow the anime, however, he should actually be recreating sealed monsters from ancient Egyptian tablets. 

Even with all of this, how did Duel Points become the staple currency? Well, in short, it didn't. Duel Points are kinda like Bitcoins. They are a universal currency that can be exchanged for real currency in any country. In Japan, 1 Duel Point is equal to 1000 Yen (~$10 USD).

Because of this, around 10 years ago, people started accepting them for payments, and that lead to them being the most used currency in the world. The consistent price of Duel Points is guaranteed by all the governments in the United Nations, so it is not likely to fail anytime soon.  

How does this factor into me going to the Shadow Realm if I reach 0 Duel Points...that I cannot answer. As far as I am aware, this is not a consistent thing that happens in this world. In fact, there is no knowledge at all about the Shadow Realm from my memories or online.

'For now, I will assume this is part of the whole transmigration thing. You get benefits, but there is a huge negative if you fail.' 

This seems to be solid logic, as I have no memories of earning or losing Duel Points by winning or losing duels before either. 

My next question was why most people's decks are shit when the finances of the world literally hinge on Duel Monsters? That one was a lot simpler to answer and was common knowledge. Here, a rare card was just that: Rare.

If you had a 1/10 chance of opening a rare card from a pack in my world, this world looked more like 1/1000. This meant that super, ultra, and secret rares are next to impossible to pull. This also means that when someone does pull one, they are almost immediately sold for huge sums of Duel Points. 

'So, there is a similar balance...' I think as I consider the rich getting richer due to this system. Economic classes were still very much a thing. Plus, if the answer to a dispute was usually a duel, the person who bought all the rare cards would have a significant advantage. 

Another factor was that packs in this world sold for 100 Duel Points each, and only had 5 cards per set. The average salary of is the world was a measly 6000 Duel Points a year, so most families can only buy a few packs a year! 

Doing a quick search on my computer, I found a card auctioning site similar to eBay from my world. I searched out super rare cards such as Monster Reborn, Pot of Greed, and Trap Hole and was shocked by the prices listed. The lowest one cost nearly 10,000 Duel Points! For one card!

'Wait...doesn't this mean that I am broken as fuck? I could make all the money in the world just by opening packs! I don't know if my Transmigrator shop uses the same packs as my old world did, but if that's the case, I am set for life!'

My excitement quickly chilled, however. 

'No...If I start selling a bunch of rare cards I will be found out. People will look for me and try to discover how I did it. If they find out? I bet I will spend the rest of my life locked in some CEOs basement...I can get away with one every once and a while, but I can't go nuts here. That would only put me in danger.'

That aside, I had no idea what my Transmigrator Shop even offered! I could be betting on a losing hand, as it were. Better to play it safe and stay level headed. 

Thinking of the shop, I remember I got some booster packs! I start patting my pockets down to look for them, but as soon as I think of wanting them, another black box appears in front of me. 

Sighing in relief, I select yes and am told to pick which pack to open. I start with Legend and move through the list. 

After I was bombarded by 10 pack openings at once, I took a moment to look through them. 

I came to an instant conclusion:

'I don't remember how to play this fucking game!'

Sighing to myself, I close my popup trunk. I think the second Fissure, the Stop Defense, and the Mystic Tomato were good pickups, but I will need to read through the list a few times to make something work. If nothing else, I am confident in crushing anyone my age. Heart of the cards means nothing if I fissure your Dark Magician right after you summon it. 

Hmm...There are a couple of things to think about now. 

How do I proceed? Should I live my life here and slowly build up a better and better deck while flying under the radar? Do I sell my new house and car to get tons of Duel Points? Should I wait and see what I can buy on the Transmigrator Shop? Something in between? I certainly don't need this big of a house all to myself...Do I rent out rooms?

I am also going back to school in 2 days, today being Saturday morning. How am I going to behave at school? I have no idea where we are in the story, but assuming this is before Duelist Kingdom, then I should be a year older than Yugi and the gang. Do I interact with him? Avoid him? Crush him and Kaiba into the ground and stand out? Maybe I could even stay incognito while in school, but wear a mask or a disguise and take the dueling world and tournament scene by storm with another persona? 

Decisions, decisions...