Who Let Him Play Yugioh? (Re-Upload)

The duel was over in just a few minutes, but the entire camp was dead silent.

How to put it...?

The hero’s style of dueling was...not what they’d expected.

Two spirits who’d returned from the Skull King’s cave were among the crowd. When they saw the captain challenging the hero to a duel, one of them wanted to warn him.

But the other held him back, laughing, ”No rush—let’s see how this goes. It might be interesting.”

The first spirit thought about it and agreed.

So, they said nothing and watched the captain get beaten up, munching on seeds as they did.

As expected, it was great fun.

The captain, floored by his sword, closed his eyes and replayed the duel in his mind.

Looking back, he realized he hadn’t done anything the entire duel. Every card he drew was either discarded before he could play it, was destroyed the moment it hit the field, or was just stolen by the opponent.

Honestly, if not for his respect for the hero, he’d have been tempted to just ditch the duel disk and draw his sword to fight for real.

But after cooling down and thinking over the duel, he realized—if he could master such techniques, and bring those kinds of duels against the hated evil gods’ minions...

The captain couldn’t help but grin.

”Hehe... hehehehe...”

He burst out laughing.

The other spirits exchanged glances, looking worried.

Did the duel break the captain?

Just then, a warrior burst in from outside.

”Captain! Report!”

The warrior hurried over.

”The red-clad outsider you asked me to find—the one with the jellyfish hairstyle—I think I found him!”

…

Meanwhile, Jaden was...eating.

If it had been any other student, they’d have freaked out after falling into another world. But not the thick-skinned Jaden—after a brief panic, he quickly accepted it, wandered around, and even helped an old lady pushing a heavy cart, acting like a model citizen.

Then, after being invited in for dinner, he ate three big bowls before waddling off to explore some more.

”Wait, wait. Now’s not the time to be eating!” Jaden sighed. ”Kira is here too, I need to find him. Plus, I have to get back to the Academy before dawn, or I’ll get expelled!”

The Winged Kuriboh floating by his side: ”Kuri kuri~”

Kuriboh was thinking: Actually, getting expelled isn’t our biggest problem right now...

”Huh?” Jaden suddenly grabbed Kuriboh, finally realizing, ”Wait, why can I touch you now, Winged Kuriboh?”

He still hadn’t realized he was in the spirit world.

”Kuri!”

Kuriboh suddenly cried out, flapping its wings and knocking Jaden aside.

Jaden fell over, and a poisoned dart whizzed past where he’d been standing, sticking into the ground.

”What?!”

Jaden turned and saw, on a slope nearby, an insect-like creature. It wore armor, wielded a sword and shield, and stood upright, but its head was insectoid.

An Insect Knight.

”Wait, haven’t I seen you before...?”

Jaden slapped his forehead, suddenly realizing.

”Wait, aren’t you a card!?”

[Insect Knight], Level 4, ATK 1900, Normal.

The Insect Knight snorted. ”So you’re a duelist. My scout said the Skull King was defeated by an outsider warrior—was that you?”

Jaden, confused: ”Skull King?”

The Insect knight jumped down, ready to attack again, but suddenly sensed something and his face changed.

A surge of sword energy slashed toward him from behind!

It was a sudden sneak attack—no time to react. But the ground behind him burst open, and an insect spirit leaped out, blocking the blow and being blasted to pieces.

That was one of the knight’s subordinates from his deck. Even so, the Insect knight was sent rolling by the shockwave.

Looking up, he saw the Black Luster Soldier descending from the sky, his blade wreathed in swirling light and darkness.

”A legendary warrior!”

The Insect knight was shocked, but reacted quickly, drawing a card as he rolled.

”Mirror Force!”

The iconic trap—Mirror Force, capable of destroying even the strongest monsters.

But the energy beam struck a golden barrier around BLS and faded.

It didn’t work!

The Insect knight was stunned. ”Another protective spell!?”

BLS was protected by [Power of the Guardians], an Equip Spell that accumulates counters and protects the monster from being destroyed by battle or effects.

At the same time, the Insect knight felt a chill behind him.

He caught a glimpse of a white-robed, silver-haired mage, staff glowing with magic, ready to blast him.

Attacks coming from both sides—nowhere to run.

But...

”Counter Trap—Negate Attack!”

A powerful vortex exploded around him, sucking in the Black Luster Soldier’s and Silent Magician’s attacks, and sending both reeling from the backlash.

”Whew, that was close.”

The Insect knight got up and looked coldly at the two spirits, then at the direction where their duelist must be hiding.

”So, there’s more than one outsider here?”

Kira stepped out. ”Ah, guess we’ll have to solve this with a duel, huh...”

The quick exchange of attacks felt like a throwback to the Pharaoh’s Memories arc—Pokémon-style monster brawls.

Maybe that’s why duelists have to settle things by card games. Unless someone has a spirit like an Egyptian God Card that can solo the whole field, with unlimited monster summons and special skills, there’s never a clear winner.

”So, you’re the duelist who beat the Skull King. But it doesn’t matter who you are—those who trespass in the domain of the gods must become sacrifices.”

The Insect knight brandished his duel disk.

”Enough talk—let’s duel!”

Jaden, still dazed, hadn’t caught up with what was happening. But one thing was clear—Kira was about to duel.

Jaden muttered, ”Actually, I kinda want to duel a spirit myself...”

As the protagonist with the most duels in all of Yugioh, this might be the first time someone stole his duel!