"Ugh...why is my head spinning... where am I?"
Amaki Hikaru rubbed his head and glanced around.
The surrounding scenery was unfamiliar to him. The walls were covered with numerous posters of Dark Magician Girl, and above the door, a large "Fusion" was written in bold letters.
He looked down at his clothes—a white and yellow school uniform.
After analyzing it momentarily, he realized it was the Duel Academy "Ra Yellow" uniform from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
At a glance, it was clear this wasn't something he would normally wear.
Now he understood.
He had transmigrated.
The important question was, what kind of world had he ended up in? Had he entered the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! or just the body of a cosplay enthusiast?
If it was the former, he wouldn't mind at all—he had always been a game's fan. If he had the chance to live in a world with solid vision duel systems, that would be insanely cool.
Honestly, this world had great potential for him—because before transmigrating, he was a dedicated card player. While he had never participated in official tournaments, he had consistently maintained a Master rank in Master Duel.
In a world centered around dueling, he should be able to carve out a decent life, right?
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a commotion outside the dormitory. Moving to the window, he looked down and saw a group of people dressed in purple uniforms shouting slogans.
"Fusion is the noblest summoning method!"
"Defeat those from other dimensions!"
"Make them acknowledge us!"
Well...
Now he knew. He indeed had transmigrated into the Yu-Gi-Oh! world, though it wasn't the world he had imagined.
"Could it be the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V?! No way, I don't want to live in that garbage-tier world setting! Is it too late to end it all now... No, I can't!"
He patted his head and quickly turned on the dormitory computer, searching for as much information as possible to confirm exactly what kind of world he was in. At the same time, he flipped through all the notes in the room, desperately looking for clues.
After searching for a while, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
First of all, this was certainly the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!
But it didn't seem to be Yu-Gi-Oh! GX either.
Instead, it was a world that was similar yet different, a world that seemed like GX while still not quite the same.
This world had Yugi Muto, Seto Kaiba, and Joey Wheeler. It also had characters like Aster Phoenix and Professor Vellian Crowler.
Naturally, Jaden Yuki existed here as well—he was even in the same grade.
The difference was that this academy had merged with the one from Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, causing some changes.
The good news was that the extremist 'Fusion' faction was only one of several groups, and most of the academy weren't like that.
So, this was probably a world that combined elements of Arc-V but was still primarily based on GX.
After all, he had watched some duel recordings and even found episode one of GX, including the iconic scene where Jaden Yuki defeated Professor Crowler with Flame Wingman.
That meant there was no major issue.
Perhaps it was because he was gradually calming down, or maybe because he had seen some familiar things in this world, but Hikaru felt as if he had gained some memories that didn't belong to him.
After processing them for a moment, he realized these must be the original owner's memories.
The original owner was a first-year student at Duel Academy in this world, the same grade as Jaden Yuki. Unlike Jaden, who was in "Slifer Red," the original owner was a mid-level student in "Ra Yellow."
In this world, Duel Monsters and dueling weren't just forms of entertainment for show. Beyond that, Duel Monsters were beings with extraordinary power, and dueling wasn't just a simple game—it was more of a battle of intelligence and "strength."
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! world, dueling with cards was the ultimate method for resolving conflicts and wars.
There was nothing in the world that couldn't be settled with a duel—whether it was something as small as deciding who got to buy the last loaf of bread or as grand as the fate of the universe and the destruction of the world, it could all be determined through a card game.
For example, national elections had directly turned into dueling contests, which was how Trump crushed Biden and secured two consecutive terms as the U.S. president.
At this point, no one understood dueling better than him.
In this world, Duel Monsters had become deeply integrated into all aspects of life.
He even knew that in a certain city, an experiment was underway to create an "Eternal Energy Machine," a self-sustaining powerhouse and endless source of energy, using Duel Monsters. The laws of physics made this impossible, yet with the help of Duel Monsters and Spirits in this world, it had become feasible.
Moreover, space exploration, deep-sea research, and even "otherworldly expeditions" or "searching for the underworld" could all be accomplished through the power of Duel Monsters.
For instance, Seto Kaiba from KaibaCorp had been obsessively searching for the underworld, to the point that he had begun researching virtual world technology for this purpose.
In this era when Yugi Muto no longer played, Seto Kaiba was the undisputed strongest duelist. Since he conducted these experiments, many other duelists instinctively followed suit.
It was just like the story of King Chu favoring slender waists, which led to many palace attendants starving themselves to death.
And, it was under these circumstances that the Duel Academy discovered other dimensions, which led to the rise of the radical 'Fusion' summoning faction, headed by Professor Leo Akaba...
As for the original owner, while he wasn't part of any extremist faction, since he had just enrolled in Duel Academy, he inherently planned to follow the path of Fusion Summoning and eventually become a professional duelist—ensuring a stable and worry-free life.
Logically speaking, his plan was actually quite sound.
After all, in this world, dueling was above everything else. Becoming an outstanding duelist was probably equivalent to securing a prestigious government job in his original world.
The problem was that the original owner was...
Trash.
Of course, as a student of Duel Academy, the original owner should theoretically be an "elite student" well-versed in the various Yu-Gi-Oh! texts and rules. After all, students at Duel Academy were all exceptional individuals who stood out from the best around the world.
He wouldn't be the type to randomly throw some rare, powerful Normal Monsters together and call it his deck.
But, whether it was due to a difference in understanding or simply because this was the way he had built it, his deck contained a large number of specific lower-level monster cards that could only be "Fused" together if they were drawn in combination.
And... These monsters were extremely weak, not even close to the level of Axe Raider.
Such as a 2300-ATK「Kaiser Dragon」that could only be Fusion Summoned by using「Winged Dragon, Guardian of The Fortress」. One of the better combinations.
There were other monsters in his deck that could only be fused by combining two specific monsters, but they felt incredibly abstract.
Not to mention, there were only three Fusion Spell cards in his entire deck, and all these low-level materials were unique—each only having one copy.
How was he supposed to Fusion Summon with these? Would he even have any Life Points left by the time he had all the pieces together?
Hikaru shook his head.
Was this the deck the original owner had spent all his savings on and worked hard to assemble?
It felt like all that money had been wasted.
He truly felt sorry for the original owner—because while these cards weren't particularly rare, since they were Fusion materials for specific monsters, they ended up being quite expensive.
The original owner had worked hard through the entire vacation to piece together this deck and pass Duel Academy's entrance exam.
Yet, based on his memories, he could have spent half or even less of that amount and achieved the same result.
He shook his head again, took out the card box, and pulled out the deck, planning to change its configuration.
However, as soon as he opened it, he was stunned.
"This isn't the original owner's deck!"
The first card wasn't a regular card—it was...
"Gem-Knight Fusion!"
'Gem-Knight? That should be pretty good here.'
He quickly flipped to the next card, but it gave him a new shock:
"Red-Eyes Fusion?!"
What kind of deck was this?
He was a bit confused, quickly flipping through the deck, the more he looked, the more awestruck he became.
"Fossil Fusion, Aroma Blend, Melodious Concerto, Earthbound Fusion, D-Fusion, Fusion Destiny... Cybernetic Zone, Fusion Gate, Branded Fusion!!"
He flipped through one card after another.
Every single card in his deck had been replaced with a "Fusion" card. All the Spell and Trap cards that could Fusion Summon monsters were there!
In fact, after seeing one particular card, he sucked in a breath of cold air.
"Even this one!"
The ultimate, most powerful Fusion card!
"Super Polymerization!"