Chapter 101 – Testing the New Feature

As usual, the morning began following the same routine. Alexander woke up, showered, dressed, and eventually made his way downstairs for breakfast. There was, however, one unexpected difference, his father was there.

Alexander paused for half a second upon entering the dining room before he greeted him, "Good morning, father."

"Alexander." Hugh Jones simply acknowledged him before returning his attention to his breakfast.

For most people, having their father present at breakfast wouldn't have been noteworthy, but for Alexander, it was.

Hugh Jones was rarely home. His responsibilities at Roxxon kept him constantly moving. One week he could be in New York meeting one of the company's largest customers; the next he might be visiting an international branch office. High-stakes negotiations, financial conferences, roadshows, shareholder gatherings, global trade shows, board meetings, and countless other events filled his schedule. Oftentimes he wasn't even in the same state.

And despite all of that, whenever Hugh did happen to be home, Alexander appreciated the opportunity, but neither of them was particularly expressive about it. That was simply how their relationship worked.

They didn't need to say that they enjoyed these moments. The fact that they were both there was enough.

Breakfast continued in relative peace, and eventually, however, Hugh finished his meal and stood up and announced, "I'll be leaving shortly."

"Another meeting?"

"Several."

Alexander nodded and said, "Good luck... And take care of yourself."

Hugh looked at him for a moment before giving a small nod of his own and replied, "You too."

It was a simple exchange, but Alexander couldn't help smiling faintly after his father left. Then he finished breakfast and prepared for school.

~~~▽~~~

Like every single morning since he got his driver's license, Alexander picked Ginny up at her house before driving them to school.

The rest of the morning passed normally.

Classes. Teachers. Notes. Assignments. The usual routine.

Alexander went through the motions while his mind occasionally wandered toward other matters.

He had already mastered the material being taught, after all, so there was little reason to spend hours actively studying something he already understood. Instead, whenever he could do so without attracting attention, Alexander's thoughts drifted elsewhere.

By lunchtime, he had stopped worrying about school entirely.

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

Nothing particularly important. Just an ordinary conversation between friends with their usual banter.

After lunch, they returned to their afternoon classes where Alexander endured those as well, but unlike the morning, he was actually looking forward to what came afterwards.

The moment the final bell rang, Alexander met up with Ginny and Chuck, and the three of them headed toward the Duel Monsters Club.

As they walked through the campus, Alexander smiled and thought, 'Finally! This is what I have been waiting for all day... I can finally test the Duel Network Synchronisation function!'

~~~▽~~~

The moment they entered the clubroom, Alexander greeted the advisor teacher and the other students, "Hey, everyone."

"Good afternoon, Alexander."

"Hello, Ginny."

"Hey, Chuck! Prepare yourself, I'm going to stomp your dragons today!"

"You wish!"

Before long, the room was already filled with activity as several duels were taking place simultaneously, with students gathered around tables and the advisor teacher watching from the sides.

Alexander looked around, then he smiled as he thought, 'Good! Now I can finally find out what Duel Network Synchronisation exactly does.'

He didn't need to wait long as the first duels were already underway.

Alexander focused his attention and immediately noticed something different.

His eyes narrowed, 'There! Something is moving. No... moving is not the right word... I'm sensing it...'

Intrigued, Alexander didn't hesitate to activate his Spiritual Awareness, and then he concentrated.

The next moment, that strange sensation became much clearer, and it didn't take long for Alexander to guess what it was, 'Could this be... Duel Energy? Yes, that's the only possible explanation!'

He could barely perceive it. It was faint enough that he might have dismissed it as his imagination if he hadn't known exactly what he was looking for, yet it was undeniably there.

The two duelists were generating Duel Energy as they played, and Alexander could now perceive the energy accumulating around them as the duel progressed.

It was a great deal, as he was never able to perceive it before. In fact, he couldn't even sense it when he directly participated in a duel; the only time he was barely able to feel even a hint of it was during the times he summoned a Duel Spirit through the system, and that was the only reason he was able to recognise it so fast; but now he could sense it without even taking part in the duel or summoning a Duel Spirit.

Alexander's expression became increasingly interested as he muttered, "So the Duel Network Synchronisation function also allows me to perceive Duel Energy..."

The next moment, his eyes sharpened while he thought, 'Now comes the important part... How exactly does it work?'

Alexander immediately began testing, and luckily he already knew the players in the club.

Their decks. Their habits. Their preferred strategies. Their general skill levels. And that meant he could predict which duel was likely to end first, so he focused his attention on that one; then he waited.

A few minutes later, one of the duelists finally won, and Alexander saw it.

A tiny wisp of Duel Energy separated from the two duelists.

It was almost like a faint spark as it moved through the room, straight toward him, and then it entered his body.

Alexander felt the energy travel deeper.

Past his physical body. Past his ordinary Spiritual Energy. It reached into his essence, and then he received the awaited notification.

[Ding!]

________________________________

[Duel Completed]

[Collected Reward]

• Duel Points (DP): +0.1

• Duel Energy (DE): +0.1

Note: You can turn off the Duel Synchronisation Network's notices at any time with a mental command.

________________________________

All of that happened in less than an instant. Alexander stared at the notification for a moment, then he smiled as he realised, 'It works. The system really is collecting resources from other people's duels, and apparently, it is doing so exactly as promised.'

He considered turning off the notifications for a moment; after all, if several duels were taking place simultaneously, these messages could quickly become annoying, but he refrained from doing so as he was still testing the new function of the YGO System.

He wanted to know exactly what counted as observation, so Alexander dismissed the notification and shifted his attention toward the other ongoing duels.

At first, he assumed that he needed to actively watch them; that made sense, as the System had specifically stated that collection required direct observation, but as Alexander divided his attention between the different matches, he noticed something interesting.

One of the other duels ended, and he wasn't watching it as he had been observing another match at the time, yet the notification appeared anyway.

[Ding!]

________________________________

[Duel Completed]

[Collected Reward]

• Duel Points (DP): +0.2

• Duel Energy (DE): +0.2

________________________________

Alexander raised an eyebrow while thinking, 'Ohh... Interesting. Apparently, "observe" doesn't mean "stare at the duel without looking away."'

Reaching that conclusion, he continued experimenting.

He deliberately focused on another match while remaining aware that several other duels were taking place around him, and again, the rewards appeared whenever they ended.

That ruled out the idea that he needed to follow every turn.

But then something else happened as Alexander received another collection notification.

He frowned as he hadn't been watching the duel that just ended; in fact, he hadn't even been looking in its direction.

Alexander turned around and saw that one of the duels behind him had just ended, one that he was aware that it was ongoing but didn't fully focus on it as he was focusing on the others.

His eyes narrowed, and he muttered, "So direct sight isn't actually required..."

That was an important distinction.

The YGO System hadn't said that he needed to "see" the duel; it said that he needed to "observe" it. There was a difference.

Alexander had another guess and immediately began testing that possibility.

He closed his eyes and the world disappeared, at least visually, because his Spiritual Awareness expanded around him, and there they were, the duels.

Alexander could perceive them through his Spiritual Awareness.

They appeared differently from how they looked to his eyes, as each ongoing duel was like a tiny flickering flame. They were faint, unstable, yet unmistakable.

Alexander focused on one, then another, then another and then he waited.

A duel ended.

[Ding!]

Another reward.

Hearing that, Alexander smiled and concluded, "So it works through Spiritual Awareness too."

That was useful, very useful.

He continued testing.

Eventually, Alexander stopped focusing on the individual matches.

Instead, he expanded his awareness and the clubroom came into focus.

Every duel taking place within it was visible through that strange spiritual perception.

Then he expanded further, way beyond the room, beyond the building. Sensing a few other duels ongoing throughout the campus.

His Spiritual Awareness could reach much farther than this, but the YGO System's new function couldn't, at least not with the current tier of the function.

Alexander continued pushing the limit.

A few hundred meters. One kilometre. Two. He kept going until nothing; he couldn't perceive any more duels despite being confident that there should be a few more happening in certain locations where he was sure a hobby store, a park, or another gathering place for duelists were located.

Alexander frowned before he tried again but ended up with the same result.

He carefully measured the distance and guessed that the current limit was approximately 2.6 kilometres.

Anything within that radius could potentially be observed by the Duel Network Synchronisation function, but anything beyond it couldn't, even though Alexander himself could sense things farther away through Spiritual Awareness.

In the end, Alexander opened his eyes again and muttered, "So that's the actual limitation."

The discovery left him thoughtful, 'Why 2.6 kilometres? It is such a strangely specific number...'

He couldn't think of any obvious reason, but then a memory surfaced, 'Wait! Haven't I read somewhere that approximately 2.6 kilometres is the maximum distance at which an average person could see a flickering candle flame in complete darkness...?'

Alexander considered that for a moment, 'My Spiritual Awareness perception of a duel certainly looks like one. A tiny flickering flame in the darkness. Could that be connected? Maybe. I do vaguely remember that in one of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, not remember which series exactly, someone said that the Yu-Gi-Oh! Universe was formed by Light and Darkness, and maybe that has something to do with that... There isn't enough information to know for certain, but this is the best explanation I have at the moment. And if my theory is correct, then the limitation isn't arbitrary. The YGO System might be translating the rules of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Universe into something based on the user's own ability to perceive reality... Damn... This raises even more questions!'

In the end, Alexander decided to file all those questions away for the moment as he'd have plenty of time to investigate later.

For now, he had already learned the most important things: the new function worked; it didn't require him to actively watch every second of a duel, observation didn't necessarily require his eyes, Spiritual Awareness counted, and at Tier 1, the effective range was approximately 2.6 kilometres.

That was already considerably more useful than Alexander had initially expected.

He could potentially collect resources from every duel taking place within a large area around him without personally participating in any of them, and this was only Tier 1.

Alexander smiled as the implications were obvious, but there was no need to get ahead of himself.

He still had other things to do, so Alexander returned his attention to the club.

He helped the students. He answered questions. He offered advice when someone made a mistake or asked. He occasionally watched a particularly interesting duel.

And all the while, the YGO System continued doing something it had never been capable of doing before, it collected. Every time another duel ended within range, a tiny portion of its generated DP and DE flowed toward Alexander.

Another faint flicker. Another small reward. Another contribution toward his future purchases and summonings.

Alexander didn't need to actively farm every single point on his own anymore.

For the first time since receiving the YGO System, he had taken the first step toward making the growth of Duel Monsters itself contribute to his own growth, and that thought alone was enough to put a satisfied smile on his face.