TURN 3
The night after the tournament had passed largely uneventfully, or at least uneventfully for the duel school. It was only the second night, difficult to know for certain. Students, who could have largely different schedules from one another, woke up at drastically different times, and had every reason to. Breakfast in the cafeteria was the same as it was the previous day. That is, it was a more savory Japanese breakfast, the food service machines being overseen by the hulking, monstrous lunch man from the previous night, grimacing at the students and teachers as well, making sure they didn't take much more than their fair share of food.
Classes began at roughly six in the morning for those students who decided to have it that early. Morning classes tended to be the least full. For first years, there were two going on at the time: Damage Calculations, which taught the importance of lifepoints going into the basics of burn strategies; and Extra Deck Construction 101, which was exactly what it sounded like. Some students were out jogging in the morning, others having early morning practice duels, or fixing their duel runners. The mini-mall area was largely empty, most of the shops not opening until 9. It was a little inconvenient, though just a little. The convenience store was, of course, still open. It was open 24/7, and sold donuts and coffee for those who didn't want anything at the cafeteria or didn't want to wait in line there. Likewise, others who did not have class that morning could have simply been sleeping in- always an option.
Regardless of the students' course of action, however, the normal flow of school life was interrupted abruptly, as every duel disk lit up with an important and mandatory announcement. This one not from the school, but from Kaiba Corp. Dressed in a white business suit and his signature necklace, the CEO of Kaiba Corporation stared at every single duelist through a small projection on each duel disk. He swept his black hair out of his face and began to speak. A name tag was written at the bottom left corner for those who didn't know the face of the CEO: Mokuba Kaiba, who had taken control of the company after the mysterious disappearance of his older brother.
A smile spread across his face. "Good morning duelists. This is the President of Kaiba corp with a new announcement in regards to a new type of summoning and a change in mechanics that comes with it!" he started, the CEO's voice echoing through the school.
Displayed on the screen was what was very obviously the new shape of the board. Five monster zones and five spell/trap zones to each player. The graveyard, field spell zone, extra deck, and main deck remain untouched, however, pendulum zones appeared to have gone missing. Between the two player's fields, two extra zones which were highlighted for the sake of presentation.
"The first change, if I can direct you to it, is the addition of a new type of zone! The Extra Monster Zone! All monsters summoned from the extra are to be special summoned into these Extra Monster Zones! The extra monster zone does not exist in games where extra deck summoning is used. Once a monster is special summoned from the extra deck, however, both extra monster zones become available! Furthermore, a player can only have one Extra Monster Zone at a time! So please do be careful with what monsters you summon from your extra deck and when. Pendulum Zones have also been moved around! Instead of being extra spell zones, they have been consolidated to the normal spell and trap zone. When a pendulum monster is activated as a spell card, it will go to either the far right or the far left spell or trap zone. That zone it's in becomes a pendulum zone."
The picture of a blue bordered card appeared on the screen, the name reading "Link Spider". Most peculiar about it was that it had no stars to determine level, but several triangles surrounding its portrait.
"Now, behold! This is a link monster!" he declared. "As you can see, this monster has no level and no rank. What's more, is it also has no defense points! A link monster cannot exist in defense position. Cards such as Book of Moon cannot change the battle position of these new monsters! Like Synchro and Xyz, Link Summoning uses monsters that are on the field! In the case of this card, Link Spider, I require one normal monster! By sending that monster to the graveyard, I can Link Summon Link Spider." he explained. Appearing on the stronger link monster, Feel Electric Link Dragon.
"In the case of a stronger monster, such as Link 2 Feel Electric Link Dragon, I require two link materials which can be two monsters. However, a link monster can also be used to satisfy these conditions, becoming the link materials necessary equal to its own link number!" he continued.
"You'll also notice these!" the CEO pointed at the triangles. "These are called Link Markers! A monster with a link marker is considered a Link Source, and any monsters the Link Marker points to is considered to be in a linked state! In addition to the Extra Monster Zone, monsters from the extra deck can be special summoned into a linked state! Two Link Monsters can point to each other with their link markers as well! This is called a mutual link. By having a chain of mutual links leading to the other Extra Monster Zone, a player can summon to both Extra Monster Zones! This is called an Extra Link!"
"Now you're wondering. Where can I get a Link Monster? Well, students of Saotome Duel Institute," the CEO acknowledged the school in an eerie fashion, "starting today, you will have guests going to your school. These guests are veteran duelists, hand chosen by the Kaiba Corporation to test the new mechanics. At random, they will choose random students and challenge them to a duel. If you win, they are obligated to give you a Link Monster! It's that simple!"
"This concludes the introduction of the new mechanics effective..." he stared at his watch... "Now! Don't worry about updates. The updates for these new mechanics have already been uploaded to each of your duel disks!" The hologram shut out, and everybody not currently in a duel was sent to an updating screen.
