Chapter 122 – The Start of a New Year

New Year's Day was probably one of the quietest days of the year, but for Alexander, that was perfectly fine.

After everything that had happened during the previous year, he had no particular desire to start 1992 by doing anything productive. There would be plenty of time for work, school, Duel Monsters, and everything else that seemed to fill his schedule.

Today, he simply stayed home with his father.

Most of the day was spent in front of the television. They watched whatever happened to be on, occasionally changing channels when something became boring. Their conversations were equally mundane. They talked about television programs, something they had seen on the news, food, the weather, and other subjects that had absolutely nothing to do with Industrial Illusions or Roxxon.

Alexander actually enjoyed it, as there was something strangely relaxing about being able to spend several hours with his father without either of them having an agenda.

Eventually, however, the conversation drifted toward something a little more personal, Ginny.

Alexander wasn't particularly surprised when Hugh brought her up. He had known his father would eventually ask about the relationship, although he wasn't quite sure what he had expected him to say; instead, Hugh simply gave him some advice.

He told Alexander to enjoy the experience.

Not because it was necessarily his only chance to fall in love; that wasn't what Hugh meant.

Every person was different. Every relationship was different. The connection two people formed depended on who they were, what they experienced together, and how they changed while being together.

Alexander might fall in love again someday; perhaps he would even experience something stronger, but it would never be the same.

There would never be another Ginny, and there would never be another Alexander experiencing the relationship in exactly the same way at that exact same moment. So Hugh encouraged him not to spend his time wondering whether something better might come along someday. Instead, he should simply fully appreciate what he had now.

Alexander found himself thinking about that for a while.

It was surprisingly simple advice, and perhaps that was why it resonated with him.

The two eventually returned to watching television, allowing the conversation to fade away naturally, at least until the doorbell rang.

Alexander stood up and calmly walked up the door as he already knew who it was.

When he opened the door, Roland was standing on the other side. "Happy New Year."

Alexander smiled, "Happy New Year as well."

Roland stepped inside, and it didn't take long for Alexander to realise that he hadn't come to perform any duties.

He had come to spend time with Hugh, not as his trusted butler but as his friend.

Alexander left the two older men to enjoy their own afternoon together and eventually headed out himself because he had somewhere else to be.

The afternoon was spent with Ginny.

Their second date was considerably less awkward than their first.

Neither of them had to worry about figuring out what they were supposed to do anymore. The nervousness that had surrounded their Christmas Eve date had already begun to fade, replaced by something much more comfortable.

They talked. They joked. They simply enjoyed being together. And Alexander quickly discovered that dating Ginny was becoming surprisingly easy, not effortless, exactly, but natural.

Before long, spending time together like this became another part of his routine.

~~~▽~~~

Winter break eventually came to an end. School resumed, and Alexander's familiar schedule returned with it.

Morning pickup. Classes. Lunch with Chuck and Ginny. More classes. Duel Monsters Club. Industrial Illusions. And, eventually, his evening activities. There was, however, one small difference.

Ginny had begun accompanying him.

After school, Alexander would sometimes head to Industrial Illusions with Ginny beside him.

She had already visited the company before, but seeing it as part of his normal routine gave her a somewhat different perspective. Alexander moved through the building with the familiarity of someone who had spent an enormous amount of time there, checking on projects, speaking with employees, and occasionally helping the R&D team.

Afterwards, the two of them would leave Los Angeles, and Alexander would begin his usual "player base research."

Of course, that wasn't really what he was doing; he was farming DP and DE as they were still necessary resources, and Alexander had a specific purchase in mind.

Ginny, however, didn't need to know that. As far as she was concerned, Alexander was simply doing some unusual field research.

He explained that he wanted to interact with players directly and understand what they thought about Duel Monsters. That way, if there were any problems developing within the player base, he could identify them before they became serious.

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, and Ginny accepted it, but what she didn't expect was the disguises.

Alexander had developed several different appearances specifically to avoid being recognised while interacting with players. Some were subtle enough to be believable, like his glasses, cap and casual clothes; others were considerably less subtle.

One of them, in particular, amused Ginny far more than Alexander would have liked. It was his attempt at imitating Jaden Yuki's style.

Ginny stared at him for several seconds before finally laughing.

Alexander could only sigh and mutter, "You said you wanted to help."

"I am helping."

"By laughing at me?"

"By making sure you don't take yourself too seriously."

Alexander couldn't really argue with that.

Ginny soon became interested in trying disguises herself.

Part of it was simply because she found the whole thing entertaining, but there was also a practical reason.

After the Grand Prix broadcast, she had become considerably more recognisable among Duel Monsters players.

That made going out in public without some form of disguise more difficult. So, before long, Alexander wasn't the only one experimenting with different appearances.

Their playerbase research sessions gradually became another activity they could enjoy together.

Eventually, however, Alexander drove Ginny home.

They stopped outside her house, shared a kiss, a brief goodbye, then Alexander waited until Ginny had entered her home before finally driving away.

~~~▽~~~

There was another small change in Alexander's routine as well; He had begun communicating with Emma Frost more frequently.

The reason behind that was simple. The Inter-School Duel Monsters Championship was about to officially begin, and Emma wanted to make absolutely certain that every rule and procedure had been properly settled before the competition started.

The tournament was going to be considerably more complicated than the Grand Prix.

For one thing, it wasn't a single tournament that could simply be held over a few days, and it would last several months.

The competition was divided into two phases.

The first was the Qualifying Phase, where Schools within each state would compete against one another, with the school team that achieved the best result qualifying for the Final Phase.

The exact timing could vary from state to state.

Trying to coordinate every participating school in the country simultaneously would have been absurd, especially considering the sheer number of students involved; instead, each state would conduct its own qualifying competition according to its own schedule.

Once the qualifying competitions were completed, the successful schools would advance to the Final Phase.

That stage would be a direct-elimination tournament featuring the strongest school teams from across the country, and unlike the Grand Prix, this competition would be a team event.

Each team would compete in two Tag Matches and one Single Match, and the individual matches would follow the best-of-three format.

That meant a school couldn't simply rely on one exceptionally talented Duelist; they needed a team capable of performing consistently across different formats.

Emma and Alexander spent a considerable amount of time discussing the details.

Rules. Procedures. Scheduling. Potential edge cases.

Alexander knew better than most that players would eventually find every ambiguity in a tournament's rules, so it was better to eliminate those ambiguities before the first Duel even began.

~~~▽~~~

After dropping Ginny off as usual, Alexander returned to the mansion where his evening followed the familiar pattern.

Exercise. Training his Ba and Spirit Energy. A shower. Dinner. And finally, his study.

Normally, this would have been when he began working on prototype cards; tonight, however, Alexander had something else in mind.

He sat down and opened the YGO System.

[Ding!]

____________________________________

User Identified: Alexander Maximillion Jones

System Type: Duel Interface

Primary Functions:

• Resource Management

• Card Database

• Card Manifestation Authorisation

• YGO System Shop Access

• Duel Network Synchronisation (Tier 1)

Resources Identified:

1. Duel Energy (DE)

• Generated through duels involving the user.

• Output increases with emotional and cognitive intensity.

• Used for manifestation and high-output actions.

Current DE: 5437

2. Duel Points (DP)

• Acquired through victory in duels.

• Used for system transactions and upgrades.

Current DP: 321.5

____________________________________

Alexander looked over his resources with a smile on his face while thinking, 'My farming sessions have been much more productive... After the last upgrade, I had about 113 DP left, but I'm already back to 321.5. Buying the Duel Network Synchronisation upgrade has been the best decision I've ever made... Well, after asking Ginny to go out with me...'

After thinking that, he opened the System Shop.

There was one upgrade that immediately caught his attention.

____________________________________

– System Upgrade: Expand Card Database Series 4

• Unlocks additional card templates

• Expands accessible archetypes

Effect:

• Increases available card pool

• Enables creation of higher-tier cards

• Improves system recognition range

Cost: 400 DP

____________________________________

Alexander stared at the price with a frown on his face. '400 DP... The previous database expansion cost was only 200 DP, so why did it suddenly double...?'

It didn't take him long to figure out why.

Series 4 was where cards from the GX era began appearing, but it wasn't simply the era itself that made the upgrade more expensive.

The cards were different.

More refined. More complicated. And, in general, considerably more powerful. After all, some form of power creep was inevitable, and because of that, the overall quality of the card pool had taken another significant step forward. That was probably what the YGO System was charging him for.

Still, Alexander wasn't interested in purchasing it yet as he had only recently unlocked Series 3.

There was no reason to immediately spend another four hundred DP simply because a new expansion was available, so he scrolled further down the list and then stopped on a particular item.

This was what he had been looking for.

____________________________________

– Technology: Duel AI Knowledge

• Grants knowledge of artificial intelligence systems designed for Duel Monsters

• Enables development of specialised duel operating systems

• Provides frameworks for card recognition and battlefield analysis

Effect:

• Enables automated recognition and tracking of cards

• Allows real-time interpretation of card effects and game states

• Enables development of Duel Operating Systems

• Supports AI-controlled opponents and training systems

• Enables battle simulations and predictive duel analysis

• Allows AI to manage Life Points, turns, chains, and other game mechanics

• Enables integration of AI systems with Duel Disks, Battle Boxes, and Dueling Arenas

• Improves holographic entities' ability to respond to duel conditions

Note:

• Requires compatible hardware and sufficient computational resources

• Does not grant a pre-existing sentient AI

• Advanced AI capabilities require further development and training

Cost: 500 DP

_____________________________________

Alexander leaned back in his chair while thinking, 'This is the next purchase I actually want to make... My time with the R&D team has made the problem increasingly obvious. Industrial Illusions has brilliant engineers and talented researchers. They can surely develop hardware. They can even develop holographic technology. They can build the Battle Box itself. But the software required to actually understand a Duel Monsters match is another matter entirely...'

The Battle Box needed to recognise cards; it needed to understand their effects; it needed to track the state of the battlefield; it needed to know whose turn it was, how many Life Points each player had, what effects were active, when a chain could be formed, and what actions were legal and all of that had to happen in real time.

The R&D team could eventually develop such a system; after all, Naomi Ishikawa was a brilliant Computer Engineer, Alexander had no doubt about that.

The problem was how long it would take to create everything from scratch, and that was precisely why this particular purchase interested him so much.

It wouldn't give him a finished AI; it wouldn't suddenly create a sentient machine capable of playing Duel Monsters, and it wouldn't even remove the need for programmers and engineers, but it would give him the theoretical foundation they were currently missing.

Knowledge. Frameworks. A starting point that could potentially save the R&D team years of work.

Alexander looked at the price while muttering, "500 DP..."

Then at his current balance that showed 321.5 DP and realised that he still needed 178.5 more, a number that he could achieve in one or two days if he was lucky and focused a bit more on farming.

Alexander stared at the number for a moment before smiling.

So that was his next target.

Not another card database expansion, not another personal upgrade, but the Duel AI Knowledge.

If he could acquire it, then perhaps the Battle Box would finally be able to move forward at a much faster pace.

Alexander closed the System Shop while thinking, 'There is still a lot of work to do. But at least now, I have a clear target in front of me...'