"What's wrong?"
A familiar voice broke through.
You Ming blinked in surprise.
His nerves, which had been numb from near-incineration, slowly began to recover. As sensation returned, he realized he was sitting at a dining table.
> "Wait... what is this place?"
His thoughts scrambled into chaos—until a fluttering motion caught his eye.
A beautiful butterfly, black and deep blue, flitted past him, its delicate wings guiding his gaze around the room.
In the corner, an air conditioner hummed quietly, offering a cool breeze to fight off the summer heat.
To his left, a wall-mounted LCD TV was playing an anime episode.
Through the closed balcony window, freshly washed clothes hung drying in the sunlight.
Basking in the warm glow of that familiar sunlight, You Ming suddenly snapped to attention.
> "This... this is my house? I'm home?"
But the moment that comforting thought entered his mind, a strange sense of wrongness crept in.
> "No… not really."
> "I set a card face-down—Phantom Copy Illusionist!"
Suddenly, a voice came from the TV.
From where he sat, You Ming couldn't see the whole screen—but glancing sideways, he caught a glimpse of a blond man smiling confidently, holding up a card—a Level 5 monster.
> "This card can copy any card you've used previously—and I choose to copy Metalmorph!"
You Ming didn't even need to see the rest—he already knew the scene.
It was the semi-final duel between Jonouchi and Bandit Keith from the Duelist Kingdom arc.
As a climactic battle for the chapter, it was actually quite well-written—on a narrative level.
But due to the early inconsistency in rules—and the discrepancies between printed cards and anime-original effects—plenty of weird stuff happened:
Monsters set like spell cards. Effects that copied cards "you've used before" instead of from the graveyard. Stuff that made no sense today.
Sure, Duel Monsters was a classic. Some episodes, You Ming still rewatched from time to time. But parts of Duelist Kingdom really were hard to sit through now.
Maybe that's what had affected his mindset going in?
> "You okay? You look pale. And your clothes are all torn…"
The voice came again.
This time, You Ming looked straight ahead—and saw a woman watching him with gentle, worried eyes.
> "Mom…"
He opened his mouth instinctively, but something caught in his throat.
It took him a long while before he could force out a dry, bitter smile.
> "I, uh… tripped while I was out…"
> "You fell?"
> "Yeah."
You Ming nodded stiffly.
It was almost laughable—he felt like a delinquent who'd gotten into a fight and didn't have the guts to tell the truth when he got home.
> "I saw this pit while I was out earlier."
> "A pit?"
> "Yeah. It didn't look that big, so I was humming a tune and figured I'd just hop over it."
> "And you fell?"
> "Yup."
He nodded again.
> "Turns out, it was deeper and wider than I thought…"
He scratched his face awkwardly.
> "I guess… it hurt more than I expected.
> "Were you angry?"
That question caught him off guard.
He closed his eyes, trying to dig into his own feelings.
And in the end—
> "A little, but… not really."
> "Why?"
Facing her quiet curiosity, You Ming let out a long sigh.
> "More than anger… I think what I felt was shame."
> "Why shame?"
> "Because… I've been looking at everything through tinted glasses."
He closed his eyes again, flipping through his not-so-long memories since transmigrating.
> "I kept telling myself this world was dangerous. But when the danger actually came, I… let my guard down."
> "I knew my deck was terrible, but I still had the nerve to mock someone else's build."
Now that his head had cooled, he peeled back his thoughts with clarity.
> "I made assumptions about my opponent's plays. I didn't recognize the warning signs when they were right in front of me."
> "And all the while I was accusing others of arrogance—when in truth, I was the most arrogant one of all."
Come to think of it… that was the real issue.
> "Even though I transmigrated here, I kept clinging to a viewer's perspective. I knew I was in an anime world—but I still acted like some TCG elitist."
Saying it out loud, You Ming took a deep breath.
Some things were hard to admit.
But the facts were there. Denial wasn't an option anymore.
> "If I'm being honest… maybe I should be grateful I got knocked down this early."
> "Grateful?"
The woman smiled softly, as though she already understood everything.
You Ming pressed his lips together.
At this point, there was no reason to walk anything back.
Because in the end, only one thing mattered:
> "It won't happen again."
Whether it was letting his guard down, or needing to get metaphorically slapped in the face to learn—he wasn't going to let that happen twice.
So—
> "Leaving already?"
As You Ming stood, the woman asked gently.
> "Yeah. Sooner or later, I've got to go out there and deal with whatever's waiting."
> "And… are you okay with using that deck?"
He paused, raising an eyebrow.
Then…
> "It's fine. I'll make it work."
He walked to the front door.
But just as he reached for the familiar doorknob, he turned to look back.
Facing that unchanging warmth and boundless acceptance, he took another deep breath.
> "Mom."
> "Hm?"
> "I'm heading out."
> "Okay. Take care out there. Don't be late coming home."
> "Yeah…"
Click.
Thump.
With the door's gentle close, the house once again fell into stillness.
Back inside, the woman raised a cup of tea and took a sip.
Bathed in unreachable sunlight, her lips curled into a faint smile.
---
> "Thank you, System."
---
Darkness.
Cold.
As if it could swallow the world itself, the shadows closed in around You Ming.
It felt like he was floating through the depths of the ocean—somewhere sunlight couldn't reach.
Normally, this kind of setting would trigger an instinctive sense of fear. But all You Ming felt was…
peace.
He didn't have to move. A strange, unseen force gently lifted him upward.
Like surfacing through water, light broke through the dark—a faint glimmer of clarity.
> [Heart Room has closed.]
With the system's notification, You Ming opened his eyes again.
What greeted him was still the dim, closed-off room…
…And the unfinished duel.
> "Huh. Still conscious, are you?"
He looked ahead.
There, standing just behind the looming Cannon Soldier, was the same man.
Keith Howard.
Arms folded, sunglasses still hiding his eyes, a mocking grin crept across his face.
> "Honestly, you should've passed out. It would've spared you the rest of this hell."
> "You're… kidding…"
You Ming tried to speak, but the words were searing—like his very heart had caught fire.
The pain was slow, dull, and overwhelming—like a dull blade slicing flesh.
Amid the heat, he thought he could even smell his own flesh burning.
Maybe… his insides really were scorched?
He didn't know.
But he knew one thing:
He wasn't dead.
And not just because of the system's help.
> "The duel… still isn't over."
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