"Grandpa is something else!" After seeing Hoshino walk out of the room, Yugi scratched his starfish-shaped hair and approached apologetically. "He used you for business without even asking. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Yugi. After all, Grandpa has helped me so much. If it's just this much..."
Just this much...
Posting posters of Hoshino from who knows where using the Duel King status to scam, and arranging a duel between Hoshino and a whale spender without permission.
Hmm, that old man is too much!
"Hey, what's going on?" A familiar voice, even though it was very noisy at the door, Hoshino still accurately caught the sexy tone.
"Mai, you're back!" Since Kaiba's helicopter couldn't bring everyone back, Mai Valentine, who wasn't used to flying anyway, decided to take a cruise instead, naturally arriving a day later than Hoshino and the others.
In the crowd, Mai, who was swinging her backpack over her shoulder with one hand, stared at the Hoshino posters at the door and smiled faintly.
"Where did you get Hoshino's poster? It suits the Duel King image~ pfft!" Seeing Hoshino approach, Mai finally couldn't help but burst into laughter.
The poster featured Hoshino's card-drawing action captured at some unknown time, combined with post-processing and background effects, giving a powerful impact.
But comparing it with the real Hoshino, the contrast made Mai burst out laughing on the spot.
"Mai, that's too much..." Hoshino, puffed-up with pride, had warmly welcomed Mai, but she was still staring at the poster and laughing.
"Hahaha, sorry, sorry Chiyuki~" Although apologizing, Mai didn't stop laughing. She gently patted Hoshino's head. "I just think Chiyuki is too cute, whether normally or during duels."
"Mai, you're back~" Jonouchi's voice came from the crowd. "Huh? What's going on today? Business is so good."
Jonouchi, Honda, Anzu, and Bakura, who had agreed to come to the toy store the next day, arrived early in the morning and were equally shocked by the crowd at the entrance.
"Is there some promotion? I was just thinking of buying some card packs to strengthen my deck!" Jonouchi hurried over excitedly. "Let me see, let me see~"
"Kame's Game Shop Special Event... in collaboration with the Duel King... Chiyuki Hoshino? Huh?!" Jonouchi read the sign at the door word by word, increasingly feeling something was off. "Today, before 10 AM, the person who draws the most UR cards from Duel Monsters packs will get the chance to duel with Duel King Chiyuki Hoshino!!"
"What a money-grabbing event!" Initially thinking it was a discount promotion, Jonouchi shouted angrily after understanding the rules. "Using Hoshino for a business scheme, Grandpa, give me 10 packs!"
"Jonouchi, can your allowance handle buying so many packs at once?" Anzu asked, worried about Jonouchi's spending.
"Yeah, and haven't you already dueled Hoshino?" Honda also disapproved of Jonouchi's actions.
"You guys, I lost, so I want revenge!" Jonouchi angrily took out his wallet and stormed to the counter. "Grandpa, give me 10 packs of the best Duel Monster cards!!"
"Alright, thanks for your patronage~" Grandpa, who was already grinning from ear to ear, picked out ten packs from the counter and handed them to Jonouchi.
"Grandpa, how many URs has the current leader drawn?" Jonouchi asked casually as he silently prayed and tore open the packs.
"Hmm, according to our records, two people have drawn six URs each and are tied for first place," Grandpa answered accurately after flipping through his notebook.
"Hmph, only six URs? Watch me surpass that easily!"
"Jonouchi, if you wanted to duel, you could have just asked me directly..." Seeing Jonouchi already engrossed, Hoshino sighed. "I became the Duel King just yesterday, and I've already attracted so many customers?"
"Yay, UR!" Jonouchi excitedly drew a shiny card from his first pack.
"You didn't know? Hoshino, you've already gone viral online. I only found out yesterday when I went online after getting home," Bakura, with a hint of admiration, looked at Hoshino. "The hottest search right now is 'The Beautiful Duel King of Love and Tears'!"
"Great, another UR!"
"Huh? Love and Tears..." Hoshino's mouth twitched, clearly unwilling to accept this strange title. "Beautiful Duel King is one thing, but what's with Love and Tears?"
"Alright! Third UR!"

"Isn't it obvious? It's because of the heartfelt moments you showed during your livestream, touching duelists worldwide and spreading love," Mai explained, struggling to keep a straight face.
"Fourth..."
"Hey, that's enough! Your luck is too good!" Hoshino, unable to bear it anymore, interrupted. "How many URs do you need to be satisfied?"
"Isn't drawing a UR in every pack normal? This is only my fourth pack." Jonouchi, looking innocent, didn't understand why his friends were yelling at him.
"Jonouchi, you know the normal probability of drawing a UR in a pack is less than 10% right?"
"Bah, the ugly face of yours!" Hoshino spat disdainfully, looking at Jonouchi.
However, probabilities didn't seem to matter to someone as lucky as Jonouchi. Out of the ten packs, Jonouchi drew nine URs, instantly becoming the person with the most URs.
"Hahaha, looks like you can't avoid our duel, Hoshino~" Jonouchi grinned smugly at Hoshino.
Almost immune to Jonouchi's antics, Hoshino turned her gaze to a small duel arena-like table inside the store. "If we duel, do we have to use that since there's no duel arena?"
Two kids were happily playing at the mini duel table. Although it didn't have the grand holographic displays of Duelist Kingdom's large arenas, the detailed miniatures on the table still provided an immersive experience for duelists.
"Hoshino, you mean this? This is a free trial duel table provided by Kaiba Corporation to various toy stores~" Yugi, who had taken it upon himself to explain, proudly touched the duel table. "And this duel table not only has the function to materialize monsters like in duel arenas but also comes with Kaiba Corporation's self-developed rank system, which is now very popular worldwide."
"A rank system? Sounds like eSports~" Hoshino, hearing a familiar term, sighed.
"I heard there are only a few duelists worldwide at rank 10. Reaching a high rank is difficult!" Anzu added while looking at the duel arena.
"Even Yugi..." Hoshino, in disbelief, couldn't understand that Yugi, whom she considered the highest level of dueling, was only ranked 8.
"That's only because Yugi doesn't have much time to play!" Jonouchi defended loudly. "If Yugi had as much time as those pro players to duel every day, he would have reached rank 10 long ago. Me too—if I had more time to duel, I wouldn't be stuck at rank 2."
"Oh, so you're only ranked 2." Looking disdainfully at Jonouchi, Hoshino roughly understood the rank-ranking mechanism.
"Hoshino, do you want to register and try? I'm curious what initial rank Kaiba Corporation will assign to you as the Duel King," Yugi said enthusiastically as he opened the rank ranking interface.
"You just look at the screen for facial recognition, and it will register you."
"It's that easy? Kaiba Corporation has all kinds of weird high-tech stuff." After staring at the screen for a while, a registration success message appeared.
"Since you're registered, let's duel now, Hoshino!" Jonouchi, confident he couldn't be beaten, was raring to go.
"No way, the event isn't over yet, Jounouchi!" Sugoroku shouted, worried Jounouchi would ruin his business. "Besides, Hoshino hasn't had breakfast yet. Skipping breakfast isn't good for a child's growth."
Reminded by Sugoroku, Hoshino rubbed her stomach, feeling her blood sugar drop.
"I haven't eaten either, Chiyuki. Let's eat together~" Mai, putting down her backpack, winked at Hoshino.
"Okay~" Catching the hint, Hoshino happily floated towards Mai.
"Move aside, brats!" Just as Hoshino was about to leave, a discordant voice came from the door.
A trio of one fat and two thin men shoved their way into the not-so-spacious toy store, ignoring everyone else.
The leader, a tall, burly, and intimidating man in his twenties, looked like he wasn't to be messed with and his exaggerated hairstyle made him look like a seasoned duelist.
"You're the shop wreckers!!" From behind the counter, Sugoroku instantly recognized the troublemakers, his eyes filled with fear.
"Grandpa, who are the shop wreckers!?" Yugi, sensing trouble, watched the three men warily.
"They're blacklisted members of the Game Shop Alliance. If you don't pay them, they use crushing duel tactics to defeat all the duelists in the store, scaring them away for good." Sugoroku's forehead beaded with sweat as he explained, "Shops targeted by them all closedown. That's why they're called the 'Shop Wreckers.'"
"No way there are people like that in this world." Hoshino, speechless, looked at the three imposing men. "They're not using violence but their dueling skills to make money...It almost seems admirable!"
"What are you talking about, Hoshino? They're notorious shop wreckers!" Anzu, shocked by Hoshino's conclusion, said nervously.
The leader, ignoring the crowd, confidently approached the counter and slammed his hand down. "Old man, I hear you can duel the King of Games if you pull the most UR cards?"
"Yes, that's correct," Sugoroku replied, trying to stay calm. "But someone has already pulled 9 UR cards, a record hard to beat."
It was clear he wanted them to leave.
The shop wrecker leader glanced at the packs on the wall behind the counter and held up a finger. "Oh? Then give me 100 packs!"
"100 packs!" Sugoroku's forced calm shattered instantly. "If you buy all the packs, the other kids won't have any to buy..."
"Old man, just sell them!" The shop wrecker leader snarled, grabbing Sugoroku by the collar.
"I run this game shop not just to make money but to protect the kids' smiles." Looking at the children inside and outside the store, Sugoroku smiled with relief despite being grabbed. "Today, I'm very happy because I saw the kids' expectant smiles this morning, each believing they might duel the King of Games...So I won't let you ruin their smiles! Give up, I won't sell to you!"
"Old man, turning down a customer like this, do you want to die?" Seeing the deal fall through, the shop wrecker leader raised his fist at Sugoroku.
"Grandpa, I thought you were just a money-hungry merchant, but I see you in a new light now!" Hoshino couldn't hold back any longer and called out to the shop wreckers. "I'm the current King of Game. If you want to duel me so badly, we can start now."
"Hm? A girl like you is the King of the Game?" Surprisingly, the shop wrecker didn't even recognize Hoshino, even though he came to duel her.
"Boss, boss..." The fat subordinate whispered to the leader, "Boss, she is the King of Games, just like online."
"Oh?" After the explanation, the shop wrecker's attitude changed, and he looked Hoshino over with interest. "A girl is the King of Games? Seems like the level at Duelist Kingdom isn't that high."
"Yeah, if my boss hadn't had a stomach ache and missed the boat, he'd be the King!" the fat subordinate said, boasting for his boss.
"No need to mention the stomach ache!"
"Anyway, since you agreed to a duel, let's start!" The shop wrecker dramatically opened his coat.
"!!!" The crowd was shocked to see the inside of the shop wrecker's coat.
Rows of inner pockets, each holding a deck. Even at a glance, it was clear he carried at least 20 decks.
"That's a lot of decks. Impressive." Jounouchi was awed by the display. "No wonder he can wipe out most shop duelists."
"Jounouchi, dueling isn't about how many decks you have!" Hoshino confidently chose a duel table, pulling out her familiar deck.
"Oh? So it's not about the number of decks?" Equally confident, the shop wrecker logged into the ranking system at the duel table opposite Hoshino. "How about this?"
[Ranking system logged in, Duelist Hakutaku, Rank 9]
"Rank 9, higher than Yugi!" Hoshino's friends, who initially thought the shop wrecker was a minor nuisance, were suddenly unsettled.
On the other side:
[Ranking system logged in, Duelist Hoshino Chiyuki, Rank King]
"Sorry, but it looks like I'm a step above you."
(*****)
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