"Opening and closing your mouth with ‘true duelist,’ you simply don’t know what you’re talking about!” Snow's temper grew hotter and hotter. On one hand, it was because his opponent was confidently proclaiming a completely different philosophy from his own. On the other hand, it was because his hand had indeed been seen through. “Since you’re so arrogant, I’ll kill you and show you!” As he said this, he played two cards in quick succession. “First, I'll set a card, and then… I activate the Quick-Play Spell Card - 【Hand Overdraft】 from my hand!”

This card can be activated at any time. When activated, both players immediately replenish their hand to six cards, and discard three cards during the End Phase of the next turn (of either player).

This card… Snow had acquired through Tamamo-no-Mae's effect. With the number of cards he had at the time and the situation on the field (after setting a card, summoning a monster, and having four cards left in his hand), activating it would be pointless and could even be a net loss. And in Feng Bujue's subsequent turn, he would be even less likely to activate it, as he would not only lose cards himself but also replenish his opponent's hand.

But at this moment, Snow desperately needed a Level 4 or lower Normal Summon monster to secure the victory. He didn't have one in his hand of six cards (which consisted of one 【Hand Overdraft】, one secondary Trap, two high-level monsters, one card drawn this turn, and one high-level monster added to his hand by 【Evil Kappa】). Therefore, after setting a Trap Card (his Spell & Trap Card Zones now had two empty spaces, and the remaining three spaces had two set cards and one face-up 【Grudge】), he activated 【Hand Overdraft】.

As a result, under the effect of the Quick-Play Spell, Snow drew two more cards into his hand.

Although his actions did not maximize the effectiveness of 【Hand Overdraft】 and even resulted in the loss of a card, in this situation where “drawing a Level 4 or lower monster could very likely end the battle,” and before this “chance to finish the game,” any degree of card disadvantage was acceptable.

Card games are not like Go or chess, which are “perfect information games,” but rather “imperfect information games” with chance, uncertainty, and many random factors. In such games, there are many steps… and it is impossible to distinguish “right from wrong” until the very last moment.

Perhaps a decision that seems like a loss is essentially insignificant, or may even later prove to be the optimal play. And a play that seems very advantageous may end up being the prelude to defeat…

And the most absurd, yet most enjoyable thing, is that in some cases, even if a person makes a series of mistakes, as long as the deck is strong enough, or even if luck is good enough, they can still win.

But in any case, at this time, in this place… Snow's judgment was just that, and… judging from the results, he did indeed draw the card he wanted.

“Heh… here it comes!” Now that things had come to this, Snow had nothing to hide. Even if the opponent was bluffing just now, he should have confirmed that he was indeed looking for a lower-level monster when he activated 【Hand Overdraft】. Furthermore, he was about to play this card right away, so he simply stated outright that he had drawn it. “No matter how much you shuffle your deck, drawing so many cards, you should have it!”

As he said this, Snow slammed one of the two cards he had drawn onto the Monster Zone on his Duel Disk. “I Normal Summon - 【Kurozuka】 from my hand!”

As his declaration was made, an old hag with tattered clothes, disheveled hair, and an ugly face appeared on the dueling field. She was holding a bloodstained kitchen knife in one hand and a small cloth bag, which was still oozing blood and contained unknown objects, in the other, and stood there with a sinister smile on her face.

【Kurozuka】, also known as "Corpse Thief," is a type of ghost that haunts graveyards. It steals the corpses of people who have recently died and sends them to their homes to scare people, as a prank. Sometimes, it would simply chop off a part of the corpse and take it for a stroll, so some people also call it the Dissection Ghost.

“Next is the Battle Phase…” After Snow summoned his monster, he immediately followed up with a battle declaration. “【Kurozuka】, attack the opponent’s Defense Position monster!”

When launching this attack, Snow was basically certain that he had won.

In his opinion, there were only two possibilities for Jue Ge to survive: First, the monster he had set really had 2000 or more defense and was not affected by 【Oxygen Deprivation Zone】; second, this monster was an Effect Monster, and its Flip Effect could prevent all of his other two monsters from attacking.

Logically speaking… the probability of both was very low. As the saying goes… first, you have to have that kind of card, and second, you have to be able to draw it.

However, the reality was…

“Hmph… well done.” At the same time, Feng Bujue was already smiling. “At this moment, the Flip Effect of the monster is activated!”

Before he had finished speaking, the monster card that was in face-down Defense Position was flipped over and materialized on the field.

*Puchi—*

That was the sound effect of 【Kurozuka】's attack hitting the monster.

Because… Jue Ge's Defense Position monster was - 【Unstable Slime】.

“【Unstable Slime】, Special Effect activated!” In the next second, Feng Bujue shouted with great momentum. “When this monster is attacked in face-down Defense Position and destroyed, it splits into two 【Slime Tokens】 and places them on the field in Defense Position.” He spread his hands and smiled. “Although the 【Slime Tokens】 have zero Attack and Defense and cannot be used as sacrifices, they can be used as walls, which is enough to block your remaining two monsters.”

“Tch…” When Snow saw the slime on the field split into two like jelly, he knew that his intention to finish off his opponent this turn could not be realized again. “Of all things, it has to be this disgusting effect…”

The 【Slime Tokens】 have no gender, and even if they did, things with zero Attack and Defense could not provide bonuses to Tamamo-no-Mae in the next turn. Moreover, these two things are obviously not affected by 【Oxygen Deprivation Zone】, so they can block the enemy for the player.

“Nodera-bo, Tamamo-no-Mae, get rid of those two trash mobs!” Snow gave such an attack order in exasperation. The two powerful monsters on his field also easily slapped the two 【Slime Tokens】 away like swatting flies, but… in this turn, Feng Bujue's LP was not lost at all.

According to the rules of 【Madness Thinking】, when a monster in Defense Position is destroyed in battle, the player does not have to bear the difference in battle damage (unless the attacker has certain card effects that allow it to be calculated). Therefore, after this seemingly extremely unfavorable Battle Phase, Feng Bujue survived.

“I… set another card…” After all the monsters had attacked, Snow set a card in the last empty space in his Spell & Trap Card Zone, and then, “…end this turn.”

“Ha!” This was the moment Feng Bujue had been waiting for. “Quick-Play Spell - 【Magical Meltdown】, activate!”

Under the effect of the previous 【Hand Overdraft】, Jue Ge now had a full six cards in his hand.

Logically speaking, at the moment Snow said the “End Declaration,” both he and Snow would have to discard three cards from their hands.

However, Jue Ge activated the Quick-Play Spell before this “discard” effect…

“What!” Upon hearing this, Snow’s expression immediately changed drastically. “It’s actually 【Magical Meltdown】!” He clearly knew the effect of this card, which was why he reacted this way.

“When 【Magical Meltdown】 is activated…” Feng Bujue began to explain with a passionate expression. “Both players must place all Spell and Trap Cards in their hand onto the field one by one and activate them immediately. In the event that it ‘cannot be activated,’ the card must be shown to the opponent and then set face-down.” As he said this, he waved his arm and continued in a mocking tone, “Given that your Spell & Trap Card Zone is now completely full, there is no place to put cards, so… this has nothing to do with you. Just watch my performance.”

“This guy…” Snow was grinding his teeth in anger at this moment, but he was helpless.

“First card!” Soon, Feng Bujue played a card from his hand. “Trap Card - 【Friendly Fire】, the effect of this card is that during the opponent's Battle Phase, and when there are two or more monsters on the opponent's field, select one of the monsters to battle another.”

“Hmph… 【Nine-Tailed Fox Tamamo-no-Mae】 is immune to this kind of thing!” Snow said coldly at this time.

“Don't worry, I know her effect.” Feng Bujue said, “The effect of this card is not to ‘control one of them to attack another,’ but to ‘simultaneously act on two monsters,’ so Tamamo-no-Mae, the monster immune to traps, cannot be selected as one of the targets. Fortunately… you have two other monsters on the field, don't you?” At this point, he raised his voice. “【Nodera-bo】, 【Kurozuka】, battle!”

As soon as he declared this, the two monsters turned around and had a passionate duel. As a result, naturally, 【Nodera-bo】, with its higher Attack, won… 【Kurozuka】's Attack was 1500, which was definitely higher than the Defense of Feng Bujue’s 【Unstable Slime】 just now, but now, it lost in battle and caused its owner, Snow, to take 500 points of LP difference damage.

“At this moment, 【Kurozuka】's effect is activated!” After Snow's LP was reduced to 5500, he continued in an obviously displeased tone, “In the event of its death, Special Summon one 【Corpse Remnant】 with 500 Attack and Defense in face-up Defense Position.”

As he said half of his sentence, the cloth bag that 【Kurozuka】 dropped on the ground after death had already unfolded on its own. Then, a small monster composed of pieces of corpses crawled out of it.

“Second card!” Feng Bujue completely ignored the other party and immediately played the second card. “Normal Spell - 【Asceticism Pot】! When this card is activated, both players each select a card from their hand, show it to the opponent, and then shuffle it back into the deck; in the next duel, whoever draws the displayed card first immediately loses 1000 LP.”

He and Snow were both quite efficient people. By the time this sentence was finished, both of them had already each picked a card from their hand.

Snow chose a Level 7 monster that required two sacrifices to summon, and he currently had two of these monsters in his hand. In short… keeping them was also bricking his hand.

And what Feng Bujue showed… was a Level 6 monster that only required a single sacrifice to summon. Given that he now only had three cards left in his hand (he had already played 【Magical Meltdown】, 【Friendly Fire】, and 【Asceticism Pot】 from his six cards), even if he didn't put this kind of monster card back in the deck, he would have to discard it to the Graveyard in a while.

After the two completed the display, they each returned the cards to the deck, and the Duel Disk automatically completed the shuffle.

“Then… the third card!” A second later, Feng Bujue played another card.

“How many Magic and Trap cards does this guy… have in his hand?” Snow was already starting to panic at this moment, because up to this point, Feng Bujue only had one card left in his hand. In other words… after this series of "chains" of his, he would at most discard one card due to the effect of 【Hand Overdraft】.

“Normal Spell - 【Programmer's Oversight】… activate!” Feng Bujue’s actions continued. “The effect of this card is… declare a card, regardless of whether this card is on the field, in the Graveyard, in the hand, in the Deck, or even ‘removed from play,’ regardless of the original effect of this card, as long as this card actually exists in this duel, then, in this current ‘phase,’ this card loses all of its effects.”

“Ha!” Hearing this, Snow laughed. “Hahaha… you’re just an amateur! This 【Programmer's Oversight】 was your only chance to kill Tamamo-no-Mae! If you had just endured it and discarded three cards… and then used this spell on Tamamo-no-Mae during your Battle Phase, you could have killed her without ‘triggering Tamamo-no-Mae’s death effect’ (yes, Tamamo-no-Mae has another effect).” He looked at Jue Ge with a contemptuous gaze. “But you… because you thought discarding three cards was a big loss, you forcibly activated 【Magical Meltdown】 in my ‘End Phase.’ Thus, this magic that ‘can suppress even gods’ ‘within a phase’ was wasted by you.”

He was right, this card… was indeed an excellent means of destroying God Cards, if activated during the Battle Phase; it would change Tamamo-no-Mae's Attack and Defense back to 0, and limit her death effect. At this time… if Jue Ge used Sakamoto with 4000 Attack to hit her once, not only could he take the field… he could even equalize his LP.

However, it was indeed useless to forcibly activate it during this “opponent's End Phase.”

However…

All of the above are just the thoughts of ordinary people.

“Hmph… when did I ever say that I was going to use this card on Tamamo-no-Mae?” After a moment, Feng Bujue also laughed, a wicked laugh that sent chills down one’s spine.

In this duel, Feng Bujue was showing such an expression for the first time…

People who were familiar with Jue Ge all knew that when he showed this kind of expression, the person standing opposite him was about to be in big trouble…

“What… what did you say?” Snow didn't understand what the other party wanted to do, but of course, he would soon understand…

“The card I declare is…” Feng Bujue said, slowly raising his right arm and pointing towards his card Graveyard, “The one currently slumbering in my Graveyard - 【Nameless King】.”

Snow simply couldn't believe his ears, and he almost blurted out, “What are you saying! That’s impossible! How could 【Nameless King】 be in your Gra…”

Before he could finish speaking, he stopped abruptly…

Because at that moment, a scene of memories flashed before his eyes.

“Is… that time…” Several seconds later, Snow’s face was filled with horror, and he muttered in a daze.

“That's right, it was ‘that time.’” Feng Bujue said.

In this duel, Feng Bujue only had one “opportunity” to throw 【Nameless King】 into the Graveyard, and that was…

“For the cost of ‘discarding one card to the Graveyard,’ this daddy Special Summons… 【Sword-Wielding Trickster】.” Feng Bujue repeated the sentence he had said in the first turn, “Remember?”

“You actually…” Snow was completely speechless. “At the very beginning of the game, you threw a card like 【Nameless King】 into the Graveyard…”

He didn't understand, he really didn't understand… He couldn't figure it out, and he couldn't understand it.

“What logic? What intention? What the hell!” Snow used a parallel sentence to fully express his current mood.

“Hehe… so, you’re still far behind.” Feng Bujue said, “You fools who look down on dueling… get a good look at how a true duelist wins this match!”

After saying that, he used a cool and embarrassing action to slam the last card in his hand… onto the Duel Disk.

“This is the fourth card I’m activating, and the last one…” Feng Bujue said in a deep voice, “Normal Spell - 【Monster Reborn】!” He paused for half a second, stood tall, and pointed his arm again. “Its target is, the strongest god - 【Nameless King】 - who is regarded as a Normal Monster within this phase and is temporarily affected by Spell Cards!”