(32) Duel Runner
Well, that went better than expected. I reached the yellow dorms after that altercation in the tower. The dorms were essentially empty at this time. At yellow rank, you find mostly second-year or first-year students. It’s not a hold and fast rule or anything, it’s just that most students aim for one rank up per year and that results in most third years and above being Blue ranks. I’m not going to follow that. Sure, it would help me stay under the radar, but honestly? Fuck it, if my family wants to make a deal out of me being alive, I want to give the Director as many reasons as possible for him not to bend to their requests.
Depending on how he sorts out that event, it will only be a matter of time for them to notice. I still haven’t planned how to tell the Director about my family. I mean, I assume it’s only a matter of time until they try to contact him and the last thing I want is to be called up for a “Meeting” of sorts where he thinks he’s doing something nice but in fact is only messing things up. Probably after the event will be when I tell him, precaution is the name of the game in these situations.
With that out of the way, I entered my room and, after sitting down, opened the NWDA app going over to the store tab. There I move to the Duel Runner category and sort by price. I have already decided I will get that Lancer Sky-Striker Ebony from before. It’s expensive but I have a blank check.
The picture showed a Jet-Black, futuristic-looking motorcycle. The frame resembles the duel runners in ARC-V more than the less advanced ones in 5Ds, with the Hub-less wheels with a red energy strip along them. On the front is a streamlined part with a duel disk holder right behind a screen working as an instrument cluster. It doesn’t have any back support like Yusei’s, but instead uses that space for what looks like thrusters that start merging with the back seat. I don’t know what it’s used for them to go, but that’s for later. One of the optional pack ins is a “Riding Suit” used for G force reduction, crash protection and in Sky Striker models, even fly… It’s a jet pack suit…
‘Why didn’t I think of this? Of course, these people would do that!’
The suit’s appearance would easily throw anyone off, by the way. It’s made up of 2 main parts and armor. For the upper body there’s a silver sleeveless bodysuit with a black mid-section, that resembles a one-piece swimsuit, and sleeves sharing the same color scheme that go down the upper arm, leaving the shoulders bare, to the hands ending in black finger loop gloves that cover the middle fingers, it’s made of a body tight reinforced material. The bottom part consists of silver and black stockings, of the same material, with diagonal openings along the inner upper things, tapering off at ankle, and a two silver anklets from which emerge two light emitting strips that go over each foot which are otherwise left bare.
That is the base. On top of that, you wear black boots with jet-black trimming, silver armoring and long armored gloves, like the ones of a medieval knight, that go up to the elbows. On the back there is an assembly kind of like the one of the sky striker link monsters and, going by the two jet nozzles, I assume is the propulsion pack. Interestingly, this leaves the shoulders and the inner thighs uncovered. That’s probably a form over function thing I would guess has been tested for safety or there are other protections I can’t identify visually.
Based on a mix of these two outfits, leaning more into Append.
Miku Append - For under suit base
Miku VN02 - For color scheme and armor
I wasn’t planning on getting a Riding Suit, but the more stuff I can pin on the Director’s pocket, the better.
After once again verifying it will work with my duel disk I press the “Purchase” button, that brings me to a page that offers various financing options, this is how most people afford Duel Runners, not everyone has a DC token to spend and the simpler duel runners are affordable enough for a blue rank to pay in one to two years depending on the model and financing option. I choose my DC Token and pressed “Pay”.
[<Thank you for your purchase. A Lancer representative will be in contact shortly, after verifying the budget with your institution. This can take up to an hour. Please standby, we thank you for your patience>]
My DC only resets tomorrow so I will have to wait until then to rent a garage space but delivery of these Duel Runners, especially customized ones, can take up to a week, if not a month, so I’m fine either way.
Figuring this will take a while, I went to the bathroom to strip down to my underwear and then returned to sprawl myself down on the bed.
This has been my routine for a while now, I just don’t have the energy for anything anymore, Action duel class is brutal… I don’t know how they expect us to do anything after that. It might have to do with over-training. Technically, I’m doing the routine of a second year and I still don’t have all the modifications, if I had to pay attention to the afternoon classes (other than Cheerleading practice, and that doesn’t count because it’s fun) this wouldn’t work.
I put on my duel gazer and use the AR touchscreen to navigate GlobalNet.
————
“That’s fucking stupid.” I muttered, having finished watching a deck profile on the closest site I could find to YouTube here.
I wanted to laugh because you know? It’s a joke, really, he called it a “Magician Deck.” I would call it “normal beatdown”… Stupid and dangerous when you consider people might watch this and use this joke of deck as self defense.
‘Maybe I should publish an actual Dark Magician deck profile… Wait, no, that would seriously fuck up the balance of power… Honestly, it would surprise me if it hadn’t happened yet, and going by the power dueling academies hold I doubt undermining them like that would end well for anyone involved.’
The part that most impressed me is that, that deck had apparently won a local tournament…
‘What is wrong with this world? I get the mental block with extra deck summoning, but is that it? It just doesn’t make sense…’
“Bah! Not my problem!” I concluded.
[“Incoming call ‘Lancer Sales Rep’”] Announced my phone.
I moved over and picked it up, then selected “Voice only” in the answering options. There was also “Holo Call” for a hologram and video call. I was just in my undies, so I obviously didn’t go for any of them.
“Hello?” I greeted.
“Good afternoon Mrs. Matsunaga. This is a follow up call for the purchase made today.” A polite male voice informs.
“Oh, then how is it?” I ask, of course I already knew.
“Well, first I would love to congratulate you on your award. The Director has informed me I am to give the Mrs. an unlimited budged for this purchase.”
“Thanks, so do we go over options now?” I cut to the point.
“Very well, Mrs. Matsunaga….”
He goes over the various available pack-ins and addons I already knew about. I was considering interrupting him and just saying I want all of it. Again, blank check. But in the end I let him do what they hired him for, keeping quiet while he kept babbling on and on.
“Hmm, sounds nice. I think I want all of it.” I simply said, after he finished.
“Err. Miss, with all due respect, the price will… I’m so sorry, I forgot about the circumstances. Very well, I will select them all, but let me just warn the Mrs. that this order will take longer than a week to process. Orders like these are not common. Is this alright?”
“Perfect. Just get all the pack in and addons.”
“Understood, about color scheme, the most expensive option is chromium plating, is this ok?”
“Hmmm, how will the material selection affect durability?”
“This option is just for the color of the Duel Runner. Any choice here will not affect durability.”
“OK, then I prefer the original jet black finish.”
“Very well, now I’m just going to finish this order and then the Mrs. will receive a message for confirmation, which will include a 3D model. Once again, let me congratulate you on your purchase.”
“Thanks. Good afternoon.”
“Good afternoon.”
And the call ended there.
I didn’t see how a call with a sales representative was required here. I mean, I could have done this on GlobalNet right? My best guess is that it’s supposed to feel luxurious because of the one-on-one call, but for me who hasn’t been detached from this sort of formal calls for a very long time it’s just a reminder of how tiring they are, even if I fudged it in the end and I wasn’t even the one in the service position this time.
“If only I had my old… wait…” I muttered.
I had my old phone with me, sure the goddess told me, but I kind of forgot about it. But now, if only for the decent YGO bots that I could do basic play testing against, would be worth it to try it out.
I shot up from bed and went over to the closet where I stored my gym bag from so long ago, yes the room had a small closet, probably for personal clothes but as I didn’t need them, I just kept them in the gym bag until now. Opening one of the zippers reveals my still intact phone from my old world.
Grabbing it, I notice it’s still on standby, so I swipe up.
“Oh shit, fingerprint.” I mutter
Thankfully, I still remembered my pattern, or this would have been a way bigger deal. With it unlocked, I immediately noticed something strange.
“Why do I have a signal?” I commented.
My phone was picking up 5 bars of 5G, apparently from somewhere. I hurried it to check it.
…
…
…
“Well, that’s weird.”
And it was, the provider was called “NessNet”. Also, when I opened the browser it showed me this message.
“FINALLY NOTICED?! For Solus’s sake, it has been 32 chapters! And only now you notice your phone is with you!? Anyway, this was supposed to be a present to help you ease into your new life, but your tardiness in noticing it has made it somewhat irrelevant! So, here it is, don’t post anything or I’m taking this away. I’ve already logged you out of all your accounts, don’t log in again! Any abuse of this will lead me to take it away. Remember this! PS. Logging you out of your accounts was the most difficult thing I have done in the last 40 years.”
“So read only in practice, huh?” I was not stupid enough to ask why she didn’t make it download only. The internet is bidirectional and always requires handshakes from both sides.
As I went over the settings, I noticed she made sure to make it as silly as possible. Here are the carrier settings, by the way.
[Carrier: NesNET, IP:69.69.69.69/31, Signal strength: Out of this world.]
‘Hilarious. She probably took a while to come up with that joke.’
Now it took me just a few seconds to try to access a specific website.
“No fucking way….” I muttered.
Now, net decking… Unfortunately, that isn’t an option here. I’ve seen the ban list in this world and there are some critical differences, cards that are limited or strait up banned here that aren’t back in my world. So if I tried to net deck I would have to change the decks and radically too. For example, Max C is at 1 for the NWDA ban list and at 2 for the global one. There are some archetypes that have their engines slashed. Thankfully, not the ones I care about right now. It’s something to consider. My favorite? Mystic mine… At 1 in the global ban list AND BANNED IN THE NWDA THANK YOU DIRECTOR LIGHT!!!!
….
‘Sorry, some trauma there.’
Anyway, it might do well for just learning how a deck works. But I will need to be the one that builds it. There’s also that it’s way more satisfying to build my shit.
‘Well, that’s that, time to go watch my favorite Scottish man-child get beaten by numeron double limiter removal!… That deck is terrifying in here, isn’t it? God, I wonder what 64K damage would cause… probably red mist…’
With that thought in my head, I lay back down in bed.