Surviving Among the Entities

We boarded a plane heading to Egypt.
The location of the Tower of Babel was the no-man’s-land known as Bir Tawil, situated between southern Egypt and northern Sudan – a land without an owner and an uninhabited desert region.

‘No, it was a desert region.’

After arriving in Egypt and traveling south with Professor Roland for a few hours, instead of the desert that should have been there, we were greeted by a lush, beautiful prairie.

“What you are witnessing is the Miracle of Babel.”

The Egyptian tourism guide who had led us this far began explaining.
To be precise, he was a guide for the Tower of Babel tours, considered the only truly honest profession in Egypt’s tourism industry rife with scams.

“The Tower of Babel has existed since the formation of the Earth. However, its existence was unknown until now. This is because the Tower of Babel did not permit entry to those who could not properly resonate with cards, and it concealed its appearance until humanity’s level had risen.”

Out of the belief that one cannot dare insult the sacred Tower of Babel.
Even now, as the guide explained the history of the Tower of Babel, his face was filled with pride and reverence.

“The Tower of Babel revealed itself 80 years ago, during the period of the Second Duel World War. Facing a calamity that threatened to produce as many duel losers as the First Duel World War, the Tower of Babel revealed itself and conveyed its will to humanity.”

The blue prairie and vibrant flower fields.
The cliffs that seemed to have been cut down and the bizarrely shaped rocks with clouds around their waists.
The enormous lake and majestic waterfalls.

“Stop the war, duels must be sacred, proceed with happiness and determination, not hatred and anger, greed will not help, but if there is greed, come to me, I will grant any wish to the Duelist who reaches the top.”

And the soaring tower that seemed to touch the sky.
After listening to the entire history of the Tower of Babel, our group headed toward it.

“There are a lot of people.”
“The Tower of Babel is always teeming with challengers. There are statistics that 50% of the GDPs of Sudan and Egypt come from the Duelists who visit here.”

The tower looked even more majestic up close.
It had an enormous circumference that would take hours to walk around and return to the original spot, and its height seemed to pierce through the clouds, reaching the stratosphere or even outer space.

“A circumference of 15km, a height of 179km – a tower that cannot be constructed by human scientific capabilities, but one that only the spirits of cards could create.”
“Incredible.”

Professor Roland and I headed toward the entrance of the Tower of Babel.
There was a village formed around the entrance area, and I received and read the pamphlet handed out by the guide staff.

[Duelist challenging the Tower of Babel, welcome.]
[The Tower of Babel consists of 9,999 floors.]
[Each floor is ruled by a spirit of cards, the master of that floor. Those wishing to challenge the floor’s master must defeat 10 other Duelists on the same floor.]
[If there are fewer than 1,000 Duelists on that floor, you can directly challenge the floor’s master.]
[Anyone who loses even once is automatically ejected from the tower.]
[Those ejected cannot rechallenge until the 1st of the following month.]
[Each floor of the tower is much larger than it appears from the outside and has infrastructure suitable for living.]

Additional research showed that, on average, it took about 3 days to conquer each floor.
That was the case for the lower floors, but from the 1,000th floor onward, one could directly challenge the floor’s master, so with sufficient skill, multiple floors could be climbed in a single day.

‘It will likely take a long time?’

Which meant I had to challenge it quickly.
Looking around the entrance area, there really were a lot of people present.

“It must be at least tens of thousands?”
“Hahaha, the lower floors are always like that. But don’t worry.”

Professor Roland took something out.
It was a jade bracelet, engraved with the following words:

[Proof of a Recognized Duelist (1,000th Floor)]

“Those recognized by the spirits of cards can start from the midpoint even after being ejected from the tower. Additionally, any companion recognized by that person can also move together. Of course, there’s a limit of one companion per person.”

“Oh, impressive. When did you climb it?”
“I too was a hot-blooded Duelist in my youth.”

Professor Roland and I entered the entrance of the Tower of Babel.
At that moment, as if the tower automatically recognized me as part of Professor Roland’s party, my body was enveloped in a sense of weightlessness, and when I came to, we were on a beautiful sandy beach.

“There’s an ocean inside the tower? Is this also the power of the spirits of cards?”
“Yes, each floor is like its own world. An ecosystem is constructed around a central theme, and there are areas suitable for human habitation.”
“There must be people who decide to reside on floors they like while climbing the tower.”
“Many do. Thanks to that, there are research results showing that even with the explosive population growth, there is no suffering from resource scarcity. Of course, conflict and strife remain as part of human nature, despite the Tower of Babel’s declaration.”

The theme of the 1,000th floor was the ocean.
While there were many overlapping themes across the 9,999 floors, each floor’s appearance and environment differed slightly, ensuring no similar impressions.

“I’m curious what kind of being the master of this floor will be.”
“Don’t be deceived by appearances.”
“Pardon?”

I soon understood Professor Roland’s words.

“Yo! New challengers? Duelists? Welcome!”

Tanned skin and vibrant blond hair.
A dark pair of sunglasses, and piercings on the nose, lips, and tongue tip.
A sturdy physique and a well-trained muscular build.

“Blond Bastard! Another duel?”
“Yeah! Ladies! I’m the spirit of cards, you know? Gotta keep dueling! It’s nice playing with you ladies too, but you can’t defy natural urges, can you?”

Even the numerous women accompanying him.
While his attitude was vulgar, as Professor Roland said, he was powerful.

‘Formidable.’

The duel commenced with a challenger who had arrived earlier.

“Field spell, ‘Hunting Beach’ activated! All monsters with genders have their stats boosted by 50% when the opposite gender is present! Next, I summon ‘Master Hunter’! Special ability activated! When ‘Hunting Beach’ is active, I can special summon a female monster from my deck! The special summoned monster is ‘Innocent Maiden’! I fuse ‘Master Hunter’ and ‘Innocent Maiden’! Fusion summon, ‘Tanned Blonde Bastard’!”

The Blond Bastard’s playstyle was centered around overwhelming special abilities.

“Kheheh! ‘Tanned Blonde Bastard’s’ special ability activated! Seduce female monsters! Lure them to my field! Seduction successful!”
“Insane! A card that steals the opponent’s monsters!”

A special ability that stole the opponent’s monsters and made them his own.
It was an ability that only worked on female monsters, but he overcame this weakness with another card.

“Hmph! I’ll just summon male monsters then!”
“Continuous spell card, ‘TS Potion Master’ activated! For this game, all male monsters that appear on the opponent’s field become female through TS!”
“What!?”

There was only one master of the floor.
Naturally, the tactics used by the guardian would be widely known.

“Then I’ll use non-living monsters!”
“Continuous spell card, ‘Moemoe Ray Gun’ activated! For this game, all non-living monsters that appear on the opponent’s field become moefied into female monsters!”
“Why do such cards even exist!?”

Search cards that quickly brought necessary cards to the hand.
Once searched, spell cards that perfectly dominated the field.
And the core cards that stole the opponent’s monsters.

“Oh man, I won again.”
“Kyaa! As expected, you’re amazing! So is the dueling done for today?”
“Ladies, just wait a bit. There’s still one challenger left.”

He was indeed a formidable opponent.
In contrast, as the final challenger, I was a dueling novice.
All I knew was the theory, and even that wasn’t much.

“Hello, I’m Seung-hoon Lee.”
“Yeah, let’s finish this quickly. The ladies are waiting.”
“I have one question – are the women with you also spirits of cards? From what I know, there’s only supposed to be one spirit of cards per floor.”
“Huh? They’re human? There’s no rule that spirits of cards can’t be with humans, is there?”
“Love that transcends species, how admirable.”
“You’re a bit interesting. Want to join after this is over?”
“I don’t know what you’re suggesting we join in, but I’ll decline.”

The duel began.

“I need to quickly climb the floors.”

The basics of a duel are to win the game using the card settings.
The rules are simple, but the complex settings and synergies between cards give rise to various concepts and deck powers.

“I’ll go first. Then let’s begin!”

However, this is the story of the original world.
In this world where each person can create their own special cards based on the life they have lived and their talents, duels have become more complex and diverse, with decks boasting powerful abilities.

“Kiyo! Turn end! Uhahaha! I’m even luckier this time! I’ve already completed all preparations on the field! From now on, no matter what monster you summon, the game is over, so just give up!”

For example, the master of this floor was no different.
In just one turn, he had completed the concept of his deck, and the field that made any monster the opponent summoned into his own was overwhelming.

“Then I’ll begin.”

Ordinarily, it would be impossible to win in this situation.
The only way to overcome this situation was through special cards.
Among the special cards used by the Duelists in the duels I witnessed today, not a single one could overcome this field.

“Draw.”

However, the abilities of special cards varied immensely.
The very cards that had enabled the opponent’s overwhelming deck power were all special cards too.

“Hmm.”

And all the cards in my deck were special cards.
From among them, I summoned one.

“I will summon ‘Lord of the Hell Train’ to the field.”

A shadowy figure wearing a train conductor’s uniform, with a face covered in soot, was summoned to the field.
I had worried that perhaps the original would be directly manifested or the original’s consciousness would carry over, but there was no sense of it being the same as the one I had seen on the train.

“Uhahaha! Continuous spell effect, ‘TS Potion Master’ activated! Your monster becomes TS’d!”
“No.”

Truly powerful special cards have no concept of balance.

“Special effect of ‘Lord of the Hell Train’ activated, I am not subject to any special effects, spell effects, trap effects, or field effects other than those of the Naraka attribute.”
“What?”
“And second special ability activated, ‘Glimpse of the Minor Karma Mirror,’ I read the opponent player’s past.”

The ‘Lord of the Hell Train’ began to act.

[“Reveal your sins!”]

A mirror appeared, showing the Blond Bastard’s past.

“Third special ability activated, for each count of bad karma, the opponent player takes 1 point of damage. The bad karma is judged based on the values of the ‘Lord of the Hell Train.'”
“No, what is this……”
“The currently calculated total bad karma is 1,775,123,447. Please take that much damage.”
“Where is such an overpowered card?! And what bad deeds have I done?!”
“According to the ‘Lord of the Hell Train’s’ standards, being born itself is a sin.”

The Lord of the Hell Train stretched out his hand.

[“Judgment of Bad Karma!”]
“Complete bullsh*t……”

Darkness swept in like a storm, blowing the Blond Bastard away.

“Kyaa! Blond!”

The women followed the trajectory of his flight, and his cards scattered like falling leaves.

“……Truly a powerful card. As expected of the Resolver.”

Professor Roland approached me.

“Not bad for your first duel.”
“Was that your trump card, Resolver?”

I shook my head at his question.

“No.”

I stored the 30 cards back into my chest.

“All the cards are trump cards.”

It was my first duel victory.

“Let’s quickly climb to the top without wasting any more time.”