Chapter 1 "Your Duel Disk is Pretty Cool"

"Your Duel Disk is pretty cool," Feng Bujue said, staring at the other player's Duel Disk as soon as they were in position.

Unlike Brother Jue's, Snow's Duel Disk looked like a crystal skeleton, and its shape, material, and color were all quite eye-catching.

"Oh...this? I was bored while waiting for you, so I browsed the online store," Snow replied casually, "and just bought some skins..." As he spoke, he deliberately raised his Duel Disk for the other person to see, "This Duel Disk is called DD-Death Bone, with an ice dragon skin. My taste isn't bad, right?"

"It's alright," Feng Bujue said, also raising his own Duel Disk, "My DD-Standard, Bare Edition, is also pretty awesome."

"Uh..." Snow heard this and didn't dare respond.

Although he really wanted to retort, "Isn't that the default configuration?", he vaguely sensed a trace of resentment in the other person's words...

Therefore, the clever Snow quickly changed the subject, "That...anyway, Duel equipment doesn't affect the fairness of the Duel, so there's nothing to discuss. Let's not waste any more time...let's start quickly."

"Oh, okay..." Feng Bujue replied weakly.

But in the next second, his expression suddenly sharpened.

Seeing this, Snow reacted the same way.

Almost simultaneously, the two looked at each other and shouted in unison, "dueL!"

In the [Crazy Thinking] Duel arena, players' actions are judged by "declarations," and this "dueL" was undoubtedly a signal that both sides had reached a consensus and were ready to officially begin the "Duel."

Squeak--clack clack clack--

After the declaration, the Duel Disk on Feng Bujue's left arm was activated. After the mechanical wings unfolded, the shape of the Duel Disk looked like a blade mounted on the outside of his forearm.

On the other side...

Ping! Gurgle gurgle--

Accompanied by a sound effect similar to a fighting game's special move and a bone-蠕动-like sound...Snow's Duel Disk also unfolded.

The DD-Death Bone unfolded in a one-sided manner. A beast spine-like object swung out in an arc from the side of the Duel Disk. At the same time, under the effect of the "ice dragon skin," the Duel Disk also emitted some ice crystal fragments and a faint dragon's roar when activated.

"Tch..." Seeing this scene, Brother Jue spat and gave his opponent a look that seemed to want to bite him.

"Hey hey..." Snow didn't say anything, but he thought to himself, "He's still resentful...this resentment is overwhelming..."

"It's my turn!" Two seconds later, Feng Bujue, who had the first move (the order was randomly determined on the card table), said the declaration to start his turn, and then reached out to draw a card, "Draw!"

According to the rules of [Crazy Thinking], each of a player's turns can be divided into six phases: "Start Phase," "Draw Phase," "Main Phase," "Battle Phase," "Secondary Phase," and "End Phase." Therefore, Feng Bujue had to declare "My turn" and say the words "Draw" to proceed.

If he didn't complete the "declaration," the system would consider his turn not to have started, nor to have entered the draw phase. In that case...some card effects that trigger at the start of the turn would not trigger, and he would not be able to draw cards from the card slot.

Of course, not every phase needs to be declared. Usually, after drawing a card, it will default to entering the "Main Phase," and after the battle ends, it will default to entering the "Secondary Phase." It's optional whether or not to declare these two phases.

In summary...in [Crazy Thinking] Duels, the two players undoubtedly have to repeat various declarations many times. To avoid suspicion of padding out the word count, the following text will not very thoroughly write out "every declaration in every turn" of the two players. Therefore, I am specifically explaining this here to avoid being misunderstood as forgetting to write it.

"Hmm..." After Feng Bujue drew a card, he looked at the six cards in his hand, thought for about five seconds, and then...in this first turn, he made an amazing move.

"I activate the special magic card [Ju Zuo's Prophecy] from my hand by 'shuffling three cards from my hand back into the deck'," Brother Jue said, while playing the card and placing it in the magic trap zone of his Duel Disk. Then, he used a very skilled technique to put three cards into the deck, and his Duel Disk completed the automatic shuffling process in the first moment, "According to the effect of [Ju Zuo's Prophecy], I can declare one of my opponent's hand cards and forcibly place it on the field this turn. If this card is a 'monster card with no effect,' it will be revealed and discarded into the graveyard. But if this card is an 'effect monster,' or an 'magic' or 'trap' card, etc., it will immediately trigger an opposite negative effect, the specific form of which will be generated by the system's calculation."

As Feng Bujue said this, the expression on Snow's face had become rather ugly.

Obviously, all of his hand cards were "effect cards"...

In the game [Crazy Thinking], monster cards with no effects are rarely added to the deck. Players who use that kind of card are most likely using them because "only this kind of card is available," which basically means they haven't paid for anything...

Of course, Feng Bujue and Snow's duel did not involve the "player card pool strength" factor, because they were playing a "random card selection" 1v1 duel...that is, each duelist randomly draws 600 cards from the card pool, and then chooses 40-80 cards from their 600 to form a deck.

Such a duel, although not "absolutely fair," is already quite fair...Even with the worst luck, it's impossible for "the opponent's 600 cards to be all good cards, and my 600 cards to be all trash."

In short, in this 600-choose-40 deck building process, it was unlikely that Snow would choose "monster cards with no effects." Therefore, at this moment, he was facing a situation where he was bound to be hit.

"Then..." After finishing the declaration, Feng Bujue looked at Snow and said, "I choose...the one in the middle."

Snow hadn't drawn any cards yet, and the number of cards in his hand was exactly five, so there was no dispute about which one was in the middle.

After receiving Brother Jue's instructions, Snow glanced at the effect of the card, and then reluctantly played it.

"My card is a monster card...[Lamp Goblin]," Snow said, placing the card in the monster zone of his Duel Disk, and said to Brother Jue.

As he spoke, the system had already displayed the image of this card in front of Brother Jue, and generated a "Lamp Goblin" in the middle of the arena.

"The flip effect (the effect triggered when the face-down state is removed) is 'look at one of your opponent's hand cards'..." Feng Bujue said, looking at the card's description, "Tch...that's all? I thought it would be the kind of effect that 'blows up 80% of the opponent's LP (Life Points) when it enters the field'."

"How could there be such an unreasonable card..." The corners of Snow's mouth twitched a few times, and he replied, "If there really was, the summoning cost should be more outrageous than a 'god'..."

As they spoke, the system had already begun to process the magic effect of [Ju Zuo's Prophecy].

[Reverse effect calculation complete. A hand card of player "Host" is now randomly displayed, and all summoning rights, such as normal, special, and fusion summons, will be canceled for the player's next turn.]

After the system broadcast, another hand card in Snow's hand, [Bubble], was displayed in front of Brother Jue.

"The effect of your card is really powerful..." Snow said, "I feel like this reverse effect is a bit too much...It's already far beyond the benefit that my card's positive effect can bring."

"Bullshit!" Feng Bujue immediately widened his eyes and shouted loudly when he heard this, "Do you even know how to play? You think you're at a disadvantage?" After shouting, he took on a tone of lecturing the other party, "You have to see clearly! To activate this card, you must first meet the condition of 'having three other cards in your hand.' Secondly, you have to pay the price of 'shuffling three cards back into the deck.' If I didn't draw this card in the first turn when I had a lot of cards, there's a high probability that I wouldn't be able to activate it at all. Even if I managed to activate it when I had four cards, I might become passive due to a lack of hand cards." He paused for half a second and continued, "Most importantly...the effect of this card depends on luck. What if the other party's deck happens to have monster cards with no effects? Or what if I revealed a super-powerful monster with a negative effect that would actually benefit the other party?" As he spoke, he pointed to the [Lamp Goblin] on the field, "Finally, you say this negative effect is serious because you think 'losing the right to summon in the next turn' is an extra penalty unrelated to the monster's own effect, right? Heh...then why don't you think about it? You got a monster on the field for free in my turn. If the system didn't restrict your summoning rights, wouldn't you be able to directly use this monster as a tribute to summon a higher-level monster next turn? At the very least...your monster can attack, right?"

He suddenly said a lot as if he was teaching, roughly analyzing all the risks that [Ju Zuo's Prophecy] could bring.

Snow was stunned listening to him, not knowing whether to interrupt or respond...Although this "Host" of theirs had a high IQ and was proficient in many card games, he had really never touched [Crazy Thinking] before, so it was really not easy to refute.

"Okay, okay...you're right..." Snow felt that he couldn't argue with Brother Jue, so he quickly admitted defeat and said, "Your main phase isn't over yet...please continue..."

"Hmph, I'll continue even if you don't tell me to." At this moment, Feng Bujue's words were a bit fiery. The trigger...was actually...because the other person's Duel Disk was cooler than his.

Some people might say, how could someone like Feng Bujue get angry over such a small thing?

That's right, Brother Jue wasn't a petty person. He could face many things that would drive ordinary people half mad with equanimity.

Because his thinking was too fast, he would often skip the "emotion" part and go straight to the "handling" part when he encountered something.

The same thing might make ordinary people "angry," but Feng Bujue might have already thought of a "solution" and started implementing it. In his opinion, "emotion" was often unnecessary because emotion could only serve as a kind of motivation, but it didn't solve any problems itself.

For example...cutting in line; everyone in the line saw someone cutting in line and was very angry, but then what? The person who cut in line was still standing there.

"Anger"...didn't solve the problem, only "verbally stopping them" or "punching them" could solve the problem -- the former was emotion, the latter was the solution; emotion was the motive, but action could solve the problem.

Feng Bujue tended to go straight to the latter, so he rarely got angry.

But, why was he angry now?

It wasn't for any particular reason...it could only be said that he also had a childish side; he wasn't like this when facing big issues, but he would be unhappy about all sorts of things that others considered unimportant.

"I special summon...[Sword-wielding Trickster], attack position, by 'discarding one card from my hand into the graveyard'!" Feng Bujue's main phase was still continuing. He activated another card with a negative effect, summoning a powerful monster.

As he spoke, a humanoid creature with a long sword at its waist, a long cloak, a wide-brimmed hat, and its face obscured in shadows appeared in the arena, standing opposite Snow's [Lamp Goblin].

This [Sword-wielding Trickster] was a monster that could not be normal summoned. It could only be specially summoned with a "cost." Generally speaking, "special summon" monsters either have high attack and defense, or have some kind of effect.

Clearly, [Sword-wielding Trickster] belonged to the latter. Its effect was -- "When Sword-wielding Trickster battles any monster, its attack power will be determined by rolling dice. The number of dice depends on the total number of monsters on the opponent's field."

For example...next turn, if Snow only had one monster on his field and used [Lamp Goblin] to attack [Sword-wielding Trickster], then the latter's attack power would be determined by "one" die (1-6). The number on the die multiplied by one thousand would be the Trickster's attack power.

Considering that [Lamp Goblin]'s attack power was 1500, Feng Bujue's Trickster could win as long as it rolled a "2" or higher when attacked.

"The first turn of the first player cannot attack (unless there is a preemptive attack effect), so...I end this turn." After summoning [Sword-wielding Trickster], Feng Bujue immediately announced the end of the turn.

After this short turn, Brother Jue's hand cards...were actually empty.

He played two, shuffled three back, and discarded one into the graveyard -- using up all six cards.

And at the moment he heard the "end declaration," a smile appeared on the corner of Snow's mouth...