Here's the extra chapter!
Well done guys.
Next Goal: 2500 PS.
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"Kira-kun, you are calm~"
Professor Lyman sat in his alchemy lab, cuddling his cat Pharaoh in his arms, absentmindedly stroking the chubby feline.
Since joining Duel Academy, Lyman just coasted along. The lab was supposed to be a resource from the Academy, but it had mostly just gathered dust for years.
After all, his persona in the Academy was that of a lazy slacker, and he kept that up for both students and faculty. No one had ever seen him do actual research; this lab was as good as abandoned.
Until now.
When Kira first opened the door, he was met with the smell of mildew. The floor was covered in dust, sunlight filtered through the cracks in the glass, particles of dust dancing in the light.
Kira spent a little time cleaning up, and since then he'd made the lab his own.
"What?" Kira, busy at the lab bench, looked up.
"The tag duel, of course." Lyman tilted his head, still stroking his cat. "You don't seem nervous at all."
"Oh, that? Nothing to be nervous about."
Kira continued working as he talked.
"Besides, Jaden doesn't seem nervous either," Kira added. "I invited him yesterday to help research decks for the tag duel, but he turned me down. Said… something about Chumley's dad coming to visit? Anyway, he was busy."
Kira vaguely remembered that storyline—Chumley's father thought his son was wasting his time at the Academy and wanted him to drop out.
Then Chumley dueled his dad, and even though he lost, he convinced him to let him stay.
Chumley's dad used some drunken deck, another never-released, totally mysterious archetype.
According to Lyman, Chumley's dad was supposedly the inheritor of the "Satsuma Dimensional Style," a world-famous duelist with a "one-hit kill" technique.
But judging by the anime, his deck didn't seem that great…
Kira found it odd. The so-called world-class duelists didn't always live up to the hype, but then again, maybe you couldn't judge so easily.
After all, in the anime, Chumley's dad only summoned two monsters—the rest of the deck was a mystery. Maybe he went easy on his son.
Over the years, Konami had proven that any old archetype could become meta-defining with a few overpowered new support cards.
You can't underestimate world-renowned duelists.
"Jaden is just different." Lyman laughed. "That kid has a natural talent—there's not much that can make him nervous.
But I've heard rumors your tag duel opponents might not be so simple. Got any countermeasures?"
"More or less." Kira smiled.
He already had a bold plan. If all went well, with a little help from Jaden's top decking skills, they'd bring double the fun to the Paradox Brothers.
"But anyway, I'm done here."
Kira stood up and handed a card to Lyman.
"Professor, please give me some feedback."
Lyman took the card and adjusted his glasses. "Let's see…"
Kira hadn't been studying card creation for long. Though he'd shown talent and had Lyman's private lessons, his skills were still at the copying stage.
That meant trying to reproduce relatively easy, low-rarity cards. Once he had that down, he could try more advanced creations.
Lyman glanced at the card. "This time you tried making 'Pair Cycroid,' huh? I heard you like this one. Not bad, not bad, you managed to copy it already… Wait!?"
Lyman's eyes almost popped open, his glasses nearly slipping off his nose.
Because he saw the effect on Kira's "Pair Cycroid" card:
"This card can attack directly."
Wait, wasn't there supposed to be a 'lose 500 ATK' clause?
He looked at Kira in shock, only now realizing what had happened.
You just copy, and you made a scientific breakthrough?
Kira just smiled.
He'd just proven a theory he'd always suspected was true.
Many older Yu-Gi-Oh! fans know that in the anime, the same card sometimes had contradictory effects in different episodes.
A classic example: Jinzo. In DM, Jinzo's effect was "while this card is on the field, all face-down and face-up trap cards are destroyed, and their activation and effects are negated."
But in GX, Jinzo appeared twice, both times with its real card effect: "Trap cards cannot be activated, and their effects are negated," but it didn't destroy all set traps.
Or "Future Fusion"—when Zane used it, and later when Nightshroud's henchman Trueman used it, the effect was different.
There are countless similar examples.
As a viewer, you just laughed at the inconsistency. But now, in the real Yu-Gi-Oh! world, Kira couldn't be satisfied with that explanation—especially after learning about the card creation process, he had a new idea.
As he'd learned, you couldn't just write whatever effect you wanted—a card's abilities were the manifestation of its power.
So maybe, when creating the same card, one designer only awakened part of its power, while another unlocked more potential. So naturally, two designers' versions of the same card would be different in power.
Or maybe some cards had hidden potential that no one had ever tapped into, and reworking them could bring out more.
He'd been experimenting with this ever since starting Lyman's card-printing lessons.
And it looked like he was right.
For example, after persistent testing, he found that Pair Cycroid —not even a particularly strong card—was easy to improve. Removing the "lose 500 ATK" restriction, it wasn't a huge power boost, but it proved his theory.
Those anime cards weaker than real-life versions had room for improvement.
"Amazing."
Lyman adjusted his glasses, his eyes glinting.
Losing 500 ATK on the Pair Cycroid wasn't a big deal, but this was a research breakthrough. For a student to produce results at the beginner stage of card creation—even Lyman was impressed.
Is this what being a genius means?
"You might have a talent for alchemy, you know."
"Professor exaggerates. I'm just following your teaching and putting my heart into the cards." Kira replied cheerfully.
But honestly, it was mostly because he knew which direction to try. Most people didn't even know which cards had hidden potential, let alone how to improve them.
"Oh, Professor, I also tried making some other cards."
Kira quietly produced a few more cards.
"Look, I've got two more that are a little different from other people's…"
Lyman: "???"
More?
Even well-traveled Lyman was left speechless.
After a while, he finally looked up and said,
"Kira."
"Yes, Professor?"
"Have you considered applying for a faculty position?"
"…?"