So apparently?
Being a very tiny random dude with a working credit card was enough to rent a hotel room, no questions asked.
He didn't even need to pull out the ID he had the System hack into existence, or use the excuse about 'renting for his older sister' or any of that.
Just, have some money: Thank you for the key!
The place wasn't even a slum or horrific area full of drug deals or violence, and the cost seemed fairly low considering how high quality the rooms turned out to be.
It honestly made John a tad MORE nervous that this place WASN'T a shithole or trying to kidnap or eat him or something. One of those 'too much of a good thing' issues… Shouldn't a quality hotel like this cost more? Or have hidden 'gotchas' or something?
In the end, John dove into a massive research binge just to settle his own (Thankfully unfounded) concerns about the whole situation.
And, since he was looking into this Realm in depth right now ANYWAY, might as well gather some background details in the process, yes?
…The fact that it gave him an excuse to delay Deploying his sister from his Pocket until morning was just a lucky side note really.
~~~Pocket System~~~
Jessica blinked at the sudden change of scenery. "We're here?"
Her brother sipped what appeared to be a cup of hot coffee. "Yep."
No twitching, his eyes weren't bleeding odd colors, no strange sounds echoing beyond the edge of understanding?
Good, he was feeling better. "Alright, and… Where is 'here' exactly?"
Her brother gestured to one side. "The Shuffle Inn, room 122. In Domino City, because they didn't make pizza here I guess and instead conquered a small bit of territory and just decided to own it all. Country of Japan, or at least a version of it."
Huh. "Is everything outside pizza themed?" Like, pizza buildings and massive parmesan cheese cars and stuff?
John sipped again, settled. "Not really. Did some research before I went to sleep last night, just to make sure this place wasn't… Just to make sure. MOST stuff here is similar to 'modern day' as you knew it in your original Realm, random bits of bizarrely advanced technology included."
Oh dear. "Most?"
He nodded. "Most. The oddity here is related to Soul energy, dimensional shards and clusters and such, and how they interact with Myth and Legends. Locals in this place can collect fragments of other existences and use them to compete against each other… If it gets too extreme, it will directly alter reality itself to a degree."
She stared at him as John drank some more before continuing. "MOSTLY though, people with low Soul power levels can't get involved with this. Oh, they can apparently collect fragments and play games with them like everyone else, but unless they dedicate a LOT of time to that or have some sort of connection with a Legend, Myth, or Theme that resonates with their core existence… That's all they get. Some light entertainment."
Jessica blinked as data began to be displayed in the background, John pointing at the images. "The rules can vary based on ambient Social empowerment and the raw power of the individuals involved, exceptions or 'impossible' acts can occur with enough self confidence or a powerful enough Soul… But in general? Most of it doesn't mess with the majority of normal people. Not directly, anyway."
Uh huh. "...And are you feeling better now that we left?" Because John had seemed VERY on edge near the end there.
He sighed, content. "A billion percent better." Video clips began playing in the background as he gestured at the mess. "Oh there are individuals here that have astounding abilities, ancient artifacts with Legendary powers, tiny fragments of unusualness of impossibilities, etc. And it is a bit strange to see an entire society that obsesses so much on people's talent when playing card games…"
A smile broke out on her brother's face. "But this world is stable. The parts may be odd, the edges a tad twisted, and even some facts can bend and warp… Yet compared to THAT place?"
He bounced on his feet a little bit. "I feel like I finally found my balance again!"
She checked him once over just in case… And her brother seemed lighter. Less tense, certainly.
Good. "Is there a way to avoid places like that in the future? At least until you feel more confident visiting locations that affect you like that?" As lovely as Pebbles and her family were, that recent stop had done BAD things to her brother.
John shuddered. "Yeah. I already altered some preference files to avoid visiting Realms so unstable like that one in the future if we can help it. At the very least, it should warn me in advance so I can prepare myself for that experience beforehand and we can sort of race past it onto somewhere better."
Well, that was one thing off the list! Next though… "So where'd you get the drink?" She NEEDED a cup of something hot, considering how rough last night's 'rest' had been.
John pointed. "Down the street, at
Domino Coffee."
Her mind flickered in horror at the concept of pizza flavored coffee… And then mentally shrugged. She'd drank worse to stay awake on a rough shift. "Then FIRST goal of the day: I'm going to get a cup of something caffeinated. Then you can tell me more about the strange Soul fragment game thing and we can make some sort of plan and whatever."
Her brother shrugged, following her towards the door as he sipped.
Hand on the door handle, she couldn't help but ask with a smile… "So why is your new Body so young?"
He GLARED at the door. "I'm NOT young. I'm 18 years old at the moment! The girls think I'm cuter being short like this. Apparently."
Oh, he totally was. "You could change it?"
[["No Master! Not until I get to cuddle and take pictures!"]] [["My Lord, we worked so hard on your adorableness…"]] [["You just want to spoil him like a baby, sis."]] [["SHUSH YOU!"]]
Heh. "Or not… Your choice."
John glared at nothing. "THIS is why you two are grounded in the Pocket for the day."
The girls immediately started whining and coaxing her brother as Jessica began following the mental map to glorious (Hopefully non-Pizzafied) coffee.
Her brother's frustrated grumbling made the morning seem a little brighter.
~~~Pocket System~~~
John continued researching this card game, '
Duel Monsters', while his sister ordered another refill at the counter.
Again: Rules could change based on location, the Beliefs of locals and the society they belonged to, specific circumstances or when powerful individuals altered reality, etc… But there were some generally understood 'basic' rules here.
Fun fact: When John said 'generally understood'?
He meant this was almost GENETIC knowledge. ALL people, even children who never played before, intrinsically knew these things on some level at the very start.
Anyway, basic rules!
Each game of Duel Monsters was played between two people, who have gone out and purchased forty playing cards to build a deck. Those cards were of only two types:
Monsters or
Spells.
After starting a dual with 2000 life points, each player would attempt to knock their foe down to zero to win.
You lose if your own life points hit zero, if your turn starts and you can't draw a new card from your deck, or if some other card changes the rules to make it so.
Once each turn, you could normal summon one monster onto your field in attack mode, or set it in defense mode face down. That's it.
Sure: In some places there were restrictions here, such as needing to tribute (Or sacrifice) weaker monsters to summon stronger ones… But here, with basic rules? Nope.
One monster per turn: Face up attack, Face down defense.
On the other hand? You could play as many spell cards as you wished, or set them face down to use later during an opponent's turn!
Spell cards could prevent an opponent from playing for a while, or boost a monster's power, damage your opponent's life points directly, or alter the rules of the game entirely!
But most spell cards were consumables. Used once and discarded to the graveyard, just like any destroyed monster or excess cards in hand.
So if you wanted to defend yourself, you couldn't easily just stuff your 40 to 60 card deck with powerful spells and call it a day. Not when it was so easy for your opponent to just shove some powerful monster in there to smash your face in.
Nor was it wise to only shove random monsters in your deck, as sometimes a spell can save the day and win the duel!
It was a major component of the game: How you decided to build your deck.
Anyway, back to the monsters… There (Again), were two types: Normal Monsters, and Special Effect Monsters.
Normal Monsters had an attack value, a defense value, and a whole lot of gumption! They had different types, attributes, and 'levels' that showed how powerful the card was considered.
Special Effect Monsters on the other hand were basically half a spell card, but one that could defend you as well. Aside from all the stuff a Normal Monster had, they would have some sort of special effect written on the card itself, one that would activate under certain circumstances.
Some would trigger when the card was attacked while face down, 'flipping' up to reveal a shock to your foe! Others would activate on each attack, or when the monster was destroyed or discarded or whatever, or would actively change the attack and defense of itself or others based on other factors like the number of certain cards on the field or in a graveyard, all sorts of stuff!
This led to the question: Why not just run Special Effect monsters only? Or choose the most powerful Normal Monsters with the highest defenses or attack values? Why not only choose the most powerful Spell cards ever? Why did some decks only run a single copy of important cards, while others had up to the limit of three copies per deck?
It circled back to the fundamental nature of this Realm: Soul power.
If you fully lacked power and talent, ANYONE could interact with these cards. They'd just be disturbingly powerful rectangular card stock, albeit ones that could survive damage they shouldn't and sometimes be used as projectiles or tools.
But if your Soul had potential? Enough to tap into the Myths and Legends and Themes contained within?
THEN the power came into play… As did the burden.
The deck size limit of 40 to 60 cards was not arbitrary.
It was a health and safety restriction.
Oh, the players apparently didn't notice this going on. They'd just avoid certain cards subconsciously, or choose 'booster packs' that just happened to NOT contain cards too powerful for them to handle.
Most of the time they'd just 'decide' to only use 40 cards the majority of the time 'on their own', without any prompting.
They'd avoid whole categories of Monster or Spell cards without realizing it, in an unknown attempt to protect their very Souls.
And even after obtaining something beyond their ability?
They'd leave cards out of their Deck by accident, or trade away ones that were a bit too stressful for their Souls to bear even if it was a 'poor trade', have some sort of '
incident' due to being careless or negligent causing them to be lost, or 'misplace' ones that they kept insisting that they had to keep despite not being able to actually play it in a duel…
Eventually, over time? Each deck would reflect the Dueler on a fundamental level.
They'd find something that resonated with their Souls, something that would help them connect with the fragments directly and distribute the burden of the Deck with the cards themselves.
It was why the most powerful Duelists out there tended to drift towards a powerful Theme, such as Zombies or Bugs or Dinosaurs or Dragons or Magicians…
Because those Souls could, on some level, communicate with those Myths and Legends and Themes.
Those Duelists basically acted like a hub, or a heart, that connected the deck together. A mesh network, one that reinforces itself and enhances both the fragments that battled and the Duelist directly.
And this was not purely some sort of Conceptual connection, because during a duel? The battle between Monsters could apply stress or even mental damage to the Duelist directly!
Oh, if two monsters with similar Attack Values smash into each other the effect would be minimal. Some life point damage to the owner of the overpowered creature, problem solved.
And if the monster is in defense position, the defeat wouldn't even cost a single point of damage!
But when the field was wiped clear and a monster smashed into the Life Points of a Duelist, weaker opponents could pass out or even have a stroke.
There were even whispers on the network about unofficial and illegal Duels where actual Souls were on the line, which seemed disturbingly possible.
"Everything alright?"
John glanced up at Jessica, who still seemed a bit sleepy as she nommed a muffin and sipped her (non-pizza) coffee. "Huh?"
She rested her head on her hand, looking at him. "You are doing this super serious frowny face while reading that stuff."
Oh. "Just… Don't play any card games while we are here until I finish looking into this stuff."
Jessica blinked, and forced herself to sit up more. "This related to the Soul stuff you mentioned earlier?"
He nodded as he went back to the raw data. "Both of us are too powerful, Soul-wise, to play the local card game 'Duel Monsters', or some of these other Soul Fragment alternative games. Not without us being affected by them. It could open us up to some issues if we aren't careful."
She pulled a notebook from his Pocket and prepared to take some notes. "What kind of issues are we talking about here?"
Hoo boy, that would be a list. "A very abbreviated summary: Becoming a hive entity with our Deck of Soul Fragments; Merging with a 'partner' Monster Card to some degree; Opponents attempting to damage, kidnap, swap, or manipulate our Souls; Having our Bodies sealed in objects or cards or Concepts; Gaining such popularity or fame that we start to resonate with the Legends directly; Acting as a beacon to powerful fragments that might attempt to enter this world directly instead of interacting through the cards…"
Jessica looked at him.
Finished her drink.
And set aside her muffin. "Let me get two more cups of wakefulness and then we can go all that. Alright?"
Oh! "Get me another triple hot chocolate! With two vanilla pumps and lots of whip cream!"
It had been SUPER delicious!
