Chapter 100 – Duel Network Synchronisation

Bonus Chapter

The next morning began like any other. Alexander woke up, showered, dressed, and eventually made his way downstairs for breakfast, where Roland was already waiting for him.

As usual, the meal was relatively quiet, although Alexander soon broke the silence as he said, "I've decided what I'm going to purchase next."

Roland looked up from his breakfast and raised an eyebrow. "Another upgrade?"

"Yes."

Alexander briefly explained his plan, including the Duel Network Synchronisation upgrade and why he believed it was a better investment than immediately purchasing the Spirit Capacity Enhancement, while Roland listened without interrupting. Once Alexander finished, he nodded thoughtfully and said, "I have to admit, Master Alexander, that does sound like a promising investment."

"That's what I thought."

"It should also mean that we won't need to find out whether the reinforced bunker we prepared can actually withstand the disturbances caused by your next Personal Upgrade."

Alexander paused, then he smiled and said, "That's another advantage."

Roland gave him a faintly amused look.

The place they had prepared wasn't exactly a normal training room. Alexander's previous upgrades had already demonstrated that increasing his Ba could produce rather unpleasant side effects, and they had consequently prepared an area capable of enduring whatever might happen during the next upgrade, especially since Alexander's last upgrade caused the whole mansion to shake.

Not needing to test that preparation today was certainly convenient.

After breakfast, Alexander stood up and prepared to leave, but then he remembered something and announced, "Oh, before I forget, I won't be coming to Industrial Illusions today."

Roland looked at him and asked, "You're taking a day off to have fun with your friends?"

"Not exactly." Alexander shook his head. "I want to focus on farming DP and DE. If I want that upgrade before the Grand Prix, I need sixty-four more DP. The sooner I gather them, the better. This way I can fully test the new upgrade and learn its limits so that I can properly plan for the Grand Prix."

Roland nodded and said, "I understand."

"I'll see you this evening, then."

"I'll have everything you need to know about the company's current situation ready by then."

Alexander smiled, waved his hand and said, "Thanks, Roland. See you later!"

With that, he left the mansion and got into his silver BMW Z1 and drove away.

~~~▽~~~

The first part of the day was considerably less exciting. Alexander drove to Ginny's house as usual and picked her up before heading toward school.

The drive itself was fairly ordinary, with the two of them talking about whatever happened to come up during the journey.

Once they arrived at school, Alexander attended his classes. Technically. In practice, things were somewhat different.

Most of the material being taught was already something he had completely mastered. As a result, there was little reason for him to devote his full attention to it, and because of that, sometimes he simply allowed his mind to wander toward other matters, while other times, he quietly studied something that wasn't part of the school curriculum.

The reason is that he simply had more important things to learn. Things like business, engineering, science or anything that could potentially become useful in the future in one way or another.

There was only so much time available in a day, and Alexander had no intention of wasting it; still, school wasn't entirely useless.

Lunch, for example, gave him an opportunity to relax.

Alexander sat with Ginny and Chuck, and the three of them spent the break talking about various subjects.

Nothing particularly important. Nothing that needed to be remembered. Just ordinary conversation between friends.

For a little while, Alexander wasn't a CEO, a card-game creator, a System user, or someone worrying about the future of a world with a list of potential existential-level threats so vast that it may very well be infinite. He was simply a teenager having lunch and fun with his friends.

Eventually, however, the bell rang, and the three of them returned to their respective classes and finished the remainder of the school day.

When the final bell rang in the early afternoon, Alexander headed toward the Duel Monsters Club with Ginny and Chuck.

This time, however, he intended to be more active.

~~~▽~~~

The Duel Monsters Club was already becoming considerably livelier.

Alexander looked around before smiling and asking, "All right. Who wants to duel?"

Several members immediately looked toward him with clear confusion, as he never actively played against anyone; he mostly refrained from doing so and simply limited himself to giving some helpful advice from time to time. Yet at the same time, they were all very excited.

That wasn't exactly surprising. Alexander was, after all, the person who had created the game and naturally, playing against him was something many of the club members were interested in.

The explanation Alexander gave was simple, "If you want to improve, sometimes it's easier to understand a tactic when you experience it directly."

That was true, but it just wasn't the whole truth, as Alexander also wanted the DP and DE generated from playing against them.

So he played, and one duel followed another.

Whenever someone made an interesting mistake, Alexander explained it. Sometimes he demonstrated a different way they could have handled the situation; other times he deliberately pointed out a tactic they hadn't considered.

The club members were learning, and Alexander was farming. Everyone won. Well, metaphorically speaking.

The members were getting valuable experience while Alexander was getting resources. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

By the time they finally left the club, Alexander was satisfied with his progress. But he wasn't done yet. Not even close.

~~~▽~~~

After school, Alexander, Ginny, and Chuck left campus together as usual.

Eventually, Chuck separated from them, heading toward his car so he could pick up Julia and spend the afternoon with his girlfriend while Alexander continued driving Ginny home.

Once he was certain she had safely stepped inside her house, he drove away.

Then his expression changed as the casual smile disappeared as he thought, 'I have work to do. The grind never stops!'

Alexander stopped somewhere out of sight and changed his disguise.

This time, it wasn't the same one he normally used during his farming sessions.

Gone were the cap, casual clothes, and glasses, and in their place there were a bright, unbuttoned red jacket, a black shirt underneath, black jeans, some hair gel to style his brown hair in a shaggy, two-toned brown medium-length bedhead with elevated bangs forming an unusual "jellyfish", and a pair of coloured contact lenses that changed his eye colour from blue to brown. He even decided on a fake name, and naturally, he chose Jaden.

Different clothes. Different appearance. Different identity.

He wasn't going to simply wander around looking for random opponents in random gathering spots; today, he had a reason. He was "training" for the upcoming Duel Monsters Grand Prix.

That explanation gave him an excellent excuse to play and win against as many people as possible, and Alexander intended to take full advantage of it.

He moved from one location to another. Hobby stores. Parks. Any place where people gathered to play Duel Monsters.

He challenged people; they accepted, and then he used his real deck.

There was no reason to handicap himself today. He needed DP, and DP required victories.

Still, Alexander wasn't interested in simply crushing every opponent without giving them anything in return.

He adjusted his play accordingly, and whenever possible, he gave his opponents opportunities to learn.

After a duel, he explained what they had done wrong.

Sometimes it was something obvious. Sometimes it was a small tactical error that had snowballed into a defeat. Sometimes they simply hadn't considered an option that had been available to them.

Alexander pointed those things out.

The first genuinely interesting opponent Alexander encountered was a boy who looked to be around his own age.

He introduced himself as Marcus, and unlike most of the people Alexander had faced so far, Marcus didn't seem particularly intimidated by the prospect of playing against a stranger; if anything, he looked excited.

The duel started normally enough, then Alexander realised that Marcus was good, actually good.

He recognised the patterns in Alexander's plays quickly, avoided several obvious traps, and more importantly, he wasn't simply reacting to what was happening on the field. He was planning several moves ahead.

Alexander's expression gradually became more serious, 'Oh?'

For the first time that afternoon, he actually had to think carefully about his next move.

The duel went back and forth for several turns before Marcus managed to put Alexander in a genuinely dangerous position.

One mistake and Alexander would lose.

Alexander smiled while thinking, 'Now this is interesting.'

He considered his options before finally finding a way out of the situation, turning the duel around over the following turns and eventually securing the victory.

Marcus stared at the field for several seconds before laughing, "That was awesome!"

"You nearly had me, bro," Alexander admitted. "That play three turns ago was especially good."

Marcus blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah. If you'd followed it up differently and held back your trap hole a bit longer, I would've been in serious trouble."

The boy's grin widened, "So I almost beat you?"

"Almost."

Alexander wasn't exaggerating.

The duel had generated noticeably more DP and DE than most of his earlier matches, which only made Alexander even more pleased.

A little later, Alexander encountered another player who was considerably less experienced.

The duel itself wasn't particularly difficult, but there was one moment that caught Alexander's attention.

His opponent had an opportunity to remove one of Alexander's monsters from the field, but instead, he attacked another monster.

The result was disastrous.

Alexander's following turn completely dismantled his opponent's field, thus winning the duel, "Gotcha! That was a fun Duel!"

After the duel ended, the boy looked frustrated, "I knew I should've attacked the other one."

"Actually, you had a better option than that."

The boy looked up.

Alexander pointed toward the cards they had just played, "You were focused on getting rid of this monster because it was the biggest threat right now. But you didn't consider what happens after the attack."

He explained the sequence step by step, showing how removing the other monster would have prevented Alexander from making the play that ultimately decided the duel.

The boy's expression slowly changed, "Oh."

He looked at the field again, "Oh!"

Alexander chuckled, "Exactly."

"So I wasn't actually losing there?"

"Not yet. You gave me the opportunity to win."

The boy nodded several times, clearly replaying the entire duel in his head, "Next time, I'll remember that."

"That's the idea." Alexander smiled.

The response was usually positive, and most people appreciated the advice.

After all, they had just lost to someone who clearly understood the game very well, and instead of simply mocking them, he was explaining how they could improve.

That made the experience considerably more enjoyable.

Of course, not everyone was like that, as there were always sore losers, especially among younger players.

One boy, after losing a particularly close duel, complained loudly about Alexander's deck. Another insisted that he had been unlucky.

One teenager slammed his cards onto the table after losing, "There's no way!"

Alexander raised an eyebrow and asked, "What?"

"Your deck is broken!"

Alexander stared at him for a moment, then he looked down at his own deck, "That's usually considered a compliment. So thank you."

"I'm serious! Those cards are ridiculous!"

"You were using the same game rules."

"Yeah, but you got lucky!"

Alexander nodded thoughtfully and said, "Definitely. I have a very powerful secret strategy."

The teenager narrowed his eyes, "What?"

"Drawing good cards."

There was a brief silence, then someone nearby snorted while the teenager's face reddened.

Alexander immediately raised both hands and said, "I'm joking. Chill, bro. Look, you actually had a chance to win. You just made a couple of bad decisions."

"I didn't!"

"You did."

Alexander pointed toward the field, "Here. And here."

The boy crossed his arms and stubbornly looked away.

Alexander shrugged, "Well, you don't have to believe me. But if you want to beat me next time, I'd recommend thinking about those two plays."

The teenager grumbled something under his breath, but Alexander simply smiled.

He had lived through the toxic internet era of modern Yu-Gi-Oh! in his other life. Compared to some of the things he had seen and heard there, this was nothing. Child's play.

Something similar happened a few more times, but Alexander simply listened; then he smiled and kindly advised them to "chill" while still maintaining his crafted persona.

He wasn't going to let a teenager's bruised ego ruin his day; if anything, the whole thing was amusing.

Eventually, Alexander moved on to the next location, and then the next, and the next.

The afternoon gradually disappeared, and by the time evening approached, Alexander had accumulated a considerable amount of Duel Energy and Duel Points.

More importantly, he had done exactly what he intended.

He had farmed, a hell lot.

~~~▽~~~

Alexander returned to the Jones Mansion in the evening with a smile on his face.

Roland noticed it almost immediately.

He looked at Alexander for a moment before calmly asking, "I take it the agricultural season was particularly productive today?"

Alexander almost groaned, much to Roland's amusement, before he also chuckled and said, "You could say that."

"Excellent."

Roland returned to whatever he had been doing.

Alexander didn't immediately rush toward his study as there was no reason to.

He followed his normal routine.

Training first. Physical exercise. Then Ba and Spirit Energy.

Alexander focused on the strange energy within himself, working on control rather than simply increasing its quantity.

After that came a shower, then dinner and after that, Roland briefly updated him on what he needed to know about Industrial Illusions' operations.

Only once all of that was finished did Alexander finally head toward his study.

He sat down at his desk, then he summoned the YGO System.

[Ding!]

___________________________________

User Identified: Alexander Maximillion Jones

System Type: Duel Interface

Primary Functions:

• Resource Management

• Card Database

• Card Manifestation Authorisation

• YGO System Shop Access

Resources Identified:

1. Duel Energy (DE)

• Generated through duels involving the user.

• Output increases with emotional and cognitive intensity.

• Used for manifestation and high-output actions.

Current DE: 3867

2. Duel Points (DP)

• Acquired through victory in duels.

• Used for system transactions and upgrades.

Current DP: 851

___________________________________

Seeing that, Alexander's smile widened as he exclaimed, "Hahaha! Perfect. I did it!"

Not only had he reached 800, but he had obtained the full 850 DP required for the upgrade.

He immediately opened the YGO System Shop. There was no reason to look at anything else as he already knew exactly what he wanted.

Alexander scrolled through the list until he found the entry.

________________________________________

System Upgrade: Duel Network Synchronisation Tier 1

• Unlocks passive DP and DE collection from observed duels.

• Establishes a connection between the System and external duel activity.

Effect:

• Gain 1/10 of the DP generated by directly observed duels.

• Gain 1/10 of the DE generated by directly observed duels.

• Allows DP and DE collection without direct participation.

• Collection remains active for the duration of the observed duel.

Limitations:

• Requires direct observation of the duel.

• Cannot collect from duels outside the user's awareness.

• Collection range is limited by the user's ability to observe the duel.

Note:

• The amount of DP and DE generated by a duel varies depending on engagement, focus, excitement, emotional intensity, and other factors.

• Higher Synchronisation Tiers may expand the collection range beyond directly observed duels.

Cost: 850 DP

________________________________________

Alexander didn't hesitate and gave the mental command to purchase.

[Ding!]

________________________________________

[Purchase complete.]

[YGO System upgrading...]

________________________________________

Alexander blinked, then he became still as he suddenly thought, 'Huh? There is something...'

He could barely feel it. It was so faint that he might have missed it entirely if he hadn't been paying attention.

Something was changing, but not in his physical body, not even in the conventional sense of Spirit Energy.

It was deeper than that.

The YGO System was intrinsically connected to his soul, his essence, his Ba and now, that connection was changing.

Alexander closed his eyes and concentrated.

The sensation remained faint, distant, almost imperceptible yet unmistakably present.

It was as if something that had always existed inside him was quietly expanding, rearranging itself, establishing connections that hadn't existed before.

He didn't know how long it lasted. Perhaps several seconds. Perhaps a minute. But eventually...

[Ding!]

________________________________________

[Upgrade Complete.]

________________________________________

The sensation disappeared, and Alexander slowly opened his eyes before he muttered, "It is done..."

After that, he immediately summoned the System interface again.

[Ding!]

___________________________________

User Identified: Alexander Maximillion Jones

System Type: Duel Interface

Primary Functions:

• Resource Management

• Card Database

• Card Manifestation Authorisation

• YGO System Shop Access

• Duel Network Synchronisation (Tier 1)

Resources Identified:

1. Duel Energy (DE)

• Generated through duels involving the user.

• Output increases with emotional and cognitive intensity.

• Used for manifestation and high-output actions.

Current DE: 3867

2. Duel Points (DP)

• Acquired through victory in duels.

• Used for system transactions and upgrades.

Current DP: 1

___________________________________

After noticing the added function, Alexander stared at the final number as it showed that he had spent almost every single point he had gathered.

Then he leaned back in his chair as a small laugh escaped him while he muttered, "Well... Back to the start..."

Normally, seeing his DP reduced from 851 to a single point would have been painful, but this time, however, Alexander didn't feel the slightest bit worried because, unlike before, he had just purchased the tool that could eventually make the entire Duel Monsters community contribute to his growth.

He had invested in the infrastructure, and now he simply needed to see how far that investment could take him.