Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

Chapter 1671 Who is Dumbledore's, I mean, Professor Cobra's favorite student?
"Austin O'Brien?"

Hearing someone calling his name, O'Brien became a little alert. Not only was he unable to notice the other person approaching, he was even more surprised that the other person could actually find him while he was practicing in the jungle.

You know, I was hanging myself upside down on a dead tree on the edge of the cliff, practicing drawing cards.

——Although the methods of practicing card drawing vary around the world, for example, the "Electronic Flow" dojo advocates "harmony between man and nature", Muto Sugoroku's secret is to practice a lot and resonate with the cards through hard work, in addition to this, there is the harmony with nature that Oyama Ping realized during his survival in the wild, and even the "Duel Bread" sold daily in the Duel Academy canteen can be considered a form of card drawing practice.

However, O'Brien's training method was a bit too extreme, because not only did he hang himself upside down, but the thing connecting the rope to the fixed point on the ground was not an ordinary stake, but a saw wheel that rotated at high speed and cut the steel cable, which could cut the steel cable at any time, causing O'Brien to fall off the cliff and die!
Although someone suddenly called his name, O'Brien forced himself to calm down, and with a calm mind, he pulled out the top card of the deck, and said without even looking at it: "Level - 1☆!"

Then, he suddenly threw the card in his hand to his feet, and swung up on the edge of the cliff with his core strength. The card he threw hit the steel cable, and it cut the already thinned steel cable directly like the last straw that broke the camel's back!

However, at this moment O'Brien had accumulated a certain amount of potential energy through swinging and accurately grasped the moment when the rope broke. He used the momentum to flip over, swung back to the ground from the cliff, rolled on the spot and stood up steadily.

The card he threw just now did not fall off the cliff, but was accurately bounced back to the ground by the flying steel cable after the steel cable was cut, and stuck on the grass, and was clearly seen by the person who called out O'Brien's name just now.

"Volcano Bomb? It's a Level 1☆ monster indeed. You have a pretty good card drawing technique."

Looking up at the person who was speaking, O'Brien frowned, but quickly controlled his expression and tried to keep a blank expression. "What's the matter with you coming here and interrupting my practice, Amon Gallum from the Eastern Branch?"

Austin O'Brien had been active on the battlefield as a mercenary with his father before entering the Western Branch of Duel Academy. Facing the cruelty of war too early and being educated like a soldier made him still maintain the habits of a warrior even though he has been away from the battlefield for a long time. This was not only reflected in the self-abuse-like practice just now, but also in the fact that he was always on guard against others.

Because his father, Axel O'Brien, taught him that no matter where he went, he should treat it as a battlefield and never take it lightly, otherwise death would follow him.

There was one time in the past when his father failed to do a good job of intelligence investigation and took on a mercenary mission, and he almost died in Egypt with his employer. What's more legendary is that the person who almost killed his father was the current principal of the Duel Academy, Hayato Kobayashi. Being able to fight against the Duel King, O'Brien's father can, to some extent, call himself a "legendary duelist."

Even during the training just now, O'Brien kept his father's teachings in mind and was always alert to his surroundings, assuming that he was in an environment full of traps and put his mind under high pressure to hone his card drawing skills. However, just because he accurately drew the cards he wanted, it didn't mean that he relaxed his vigilance around him. When did Amon Gallum approach him?

Also because of his father's teachings, O'Brien had already started collecting intelligence when he learned that he would come to the Duel Academy headquarters with Professor Claus for exchange study. He knew that Amon Gallum from the Eastern Branch was backed by the Gallum Group, a behemoth that ranks among the top five in the world in terms of scale. But how could such a rich young man have such superb stealth skills?
Noticing O'Brien's alertness, Amon Gallum raised his hand and said, "No, please don't look at me with such a wary look. I'm not a threat to you. And I didn't come here on purpose. I was just wandering around in the forest and found this place. I thought that tree might be a good place to lie down and look at the clouds."

"It's just that I found out that there were already people here, and they were practicing dangerous techniques. I was afraid that my sudden appearance would scare you, so I took the initiative to speak."

Although Amon Gallum's reasons sounded reasonable and he always had a gentle smile on his face, O'Brien didn't believe a word he said and said with a straight face, "I see. I believe you. If you don't have anything else, don't bother me anymore."

O'Brien expressed his resistance to Amon without hesitation. He had no intention of communicating with him and said coldly. Since the other party used the excuse that he came here "accidentally", even though O'Brien felt from the bottom of his heart that it was impossible for the other party to just happen to walk to his side in the forest on such a large island, he simply followed the other party's words based on this point.

When Amon heard O'Brien was so defensive and refused to communicate with him as if he was treating a bomb that was about to explode, the smile on his face did not change at all. "But is this really okay, O'Brien? Professor Klaus said that everyone must have at least one 'revelation duel' with others every day while wearing the 'death bracelet', right? Aren't you worried that you will be expelled because you spend too much time training here and can't find an opponent by then?"

"I have also heard of Professor Claus's reputation. He is called 'Professor Cobra' at the Western Branch, right? He seems to have served in the military in the past. I'm afraid he won't show mercy to you just because you are also a student at the Western Branch, even if you are a student he likes very much."

In the face of O'Brien's indifference, Amon responded with gentle concern, as if he was really worried that O'Brien would be fired.

Taking back the card from the ground, O'Brien corrected with a cold face, "Favorite student? No, Professor Claus treats students in a completely military way at the Western Branch. He cultivates students by only focusing on personal ability and not being affected by personal feelings. There is no 'favorite student', only 'the best soldier'."

When Amon heard the information about Professor Cobra that O'Brien accidentally revealed, although it sounded useless, his eyes still lit up. He pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose to use the reflection of the lenses to cover his changing eyes. Amon continued, "That means, O'Brien, you are Professor Claus's 'best soldier', right?"

But no matter how inconspicuous it was, O'Brien suddenly realized that Amon was secretly testing him. Wasn't this question the same as asking himself "Am I Professor Cobra's pawn?" He replied indifferently with a straight face: "This has nothing to do with you, Amon Gallum. Instead of worrying about me, aren't you worried that you will be eliminated if you don't duel?"

Seeing O'Brien start to change the subject, although Amon was surprised that the other party was so alert beyond his peers, he still laughed in his heart, because the other party's avoidance of the question itself was also an answer. Although the information showed that the other party had experience as a mercenary on the battlefield, it was more of a soldier's keenness after all, which was still a little immature.

Although there was still a lot of information to be learned, Amon was already very satisfied to know so much from O'Brien. He nodded without any regret, as if he was really just concerned about O'Brien, who was also an exchange student, and said, "That's right. It's already afternoon, and I have to go back and find a suitable opponent." "Because someone in the academy conducted a second 'revelation duel' to prove the safety of the 'death bracelet', the students seem to be very enthusiastic about dueling now. Even though I was not there, I noticed this through the exchanges in the school forum."

As if he wanted to share something new with O'Brien, Amon picked up his personal terminal and shook it casually. He seemed to remember something and showed a shy expression. "But I'm a little embarrassed to say this. O'Brien, do you know how to get back to the academy?"

"I left the dormitory assigned to us because I was interested in the students of Obelisk-Blue Dormitory, which is defined as the 'best' by the Duel Academy headquarters, but I accidentally wandered into the forest and ended up here. If you can help me find my way back, O'Brien, I would be very grateful."

No matter how you look at it, Amon's performance was quite sincere, but under that sincere appearance, O'Brien was always wary of him: "I don't have time to lead you. The most I can do is send you a navigation map."

"Ah, that's enough. Thank you so much." Upon hearing this, Amon immediately adjusted the interface of his personal terminal to wait for receiving the file and displayed a QR code for O'Brien to scan.

After watching Amon complete the operation and confirming that it was indeed the QR code for receiving files that came with his personal terminal, O'Brien completed the scan with his own terminal and sent a copy of the map he had saved to Amon. Then he left without looking back and chose to find a deserted place to continue his practice. It was obvious that he intended to completely ignore Amon.

Behind O'Brien, Amon also smiled because there was no one around. Although O'Brien watched Amon complete all the operations, from the beginning, Amon's personal terminal was actually under remote control, and the images displayed on his personal terminal were all operated by the program that he had edited in advance on his personal computer in the dormitory.

Naturally, the QR code O'Brien saw was not the one for receiving files, but a Trojan QR code similar to the one commonly seen in street scams where people scan codes to get eggs. While the code was scanning to send the file, it intercepted the "confirmation" operation of sending the file and obtained certain permissions in O'Brien's personal terminal.

For the sake of secrecy, this permission would not last too long and would be cleared by Amon immediately to prevent it from being traced back to him. But even if it was only for one minute, it was enough for Amon to copy all the information in O'Brien's personal terminal.

-Osin O'Brien, although he is an exchange student of the Western Branch, Amon does not care much about this identity, but is more concerned about the fact that he is "Professor Cobra's best soldier". Does this mean that the testimony he made for Professor Cobra at the freshman welcome ceremony may also be false?
Even though the Duel Academy had begun to feel relieved about the "Death Bracelet" because of the "exposure duel" in which both contestants were safe and sound after the second "exposure duel", Amon still held on to the doubt that had arisen before. He did not believe what was known easily but remained skeptical of it. This was his habit of action and thinking.

In particular, although Amon does not have any special supernatural abilities, unlike the "special vision" revealed by Jim Crocodile Cook to Judai, the fact that he is "from the Gallum Group" is his greatest "money ability".

Not only did he use the tools he brought with him to improve the personal terminals issued to exchange students by the school within less than a day after arriving at the school, and use a personal computer and a signal amplifier to remotely control them to deceive the vigilant O'Brien, but after putting on the "death bracelet", he immediately used the instruments he carried to inspect this non-removable device, and found that its function was not so much the "removal of the output limit of the duel device" as Professor Cobra had promised, but rather the absorption and emission of some special energy.

This was enough to make Amon suspicious of Professor Cobra, especially after Professor Cobra disappeared for a long time without any reason after arriving at the Duel Academy headquarters. Amon had reason to suspect that this man with a military background was planning something for the Duel Academy - and as far as he knew, there seemed to be a card sealed with the name "Three Phantoms" at the Duel Academy, which was super secret information that the commercial spies of their Garem Group learned from the original Kagemaru Medical Group.

The increasing popularity of Duel Monsters has not only made the public more and more interested in duels, but governments of various countries that have witnessed the "Doma" as the main example have also begun to be concerned about the power of Duel Monsters and the Duelists who use Duel Monsters. However, they are afraid of the existence of Kaiba Seto, Kobayashi Hayato and others and have kept this concern in the dark.

Furthermore, after learning that there are special abilities among duelists called "Elf Master" and "Prana" that ordinary humans can obtain without the help of special props, they have quietly begun researching these two.

——According to the intelligence Amon had, the American government had established a research institute called "Augusta" in the Clark Mountains of California. There was also a "Murasame" research institute in the East Country whose location was unknown. Unfortunately, just knowing the name was the limit of their Garlem Group's spies. The location of the American research institute was only known because a "Commissioner Smith" was bribed.

Why do we talk about this? Of course, it is because governments of various countries have their eyes on Duel Monsters, and the consortiums that are closely tied to the governments naturally have their own ideas about it. Although they are not as powerful as the country, in terms of the supply of certain resources, those consortiums are better than the national governments with many internal factions and are restricted in their work. The Garem Group, which is involved in the fields of oil, heavy chemical industry, IT sector, etc., is one of these countless consortiums.

However, compared to researching Duel Monsters from scratch, the Garlem Foundation adopted a different strategy, which was to use the spy force "Garlem Boys" trained from countless children adopted by the Foundation in the past to steal the results of others and complete the integration.

Although Amon Gallem is the eldest son of the Gallem Group, many people in the group, including the top executives, do not know that he is also one of the "Gallem Boys", and the Duel Academy is his target.

ps1: Murasame, Augusta, neta from the New Human Research Institute in the Gundam series
ps2: Garem Douji, neta from Kamen Rider Build's Nanba Douji

ps3: Scanning the QR code and being cheated, neta's real experience of an elderly person in my family being cheated for being greedy for small profits (laughs

In the original work, Amon's existence is a contradiction. He is said to be a business spy while staring at Professor Cobra. The reason is that he is speculated to have a card with special power. I think that the first-year ship king knows about the three phantom demons, and the Garlem Foundation, which is set to be one of the top five in the world, must not be unaware of it? The confirmed three phantom demons are much stronger than Professor Cobra's mysterious card that did not cause any movement (referring to Sister You who could not even materialize an arm at that time)
While Judai and the others are looking for Professor Cobra, the principal of Duel Academy is away on a business trip, and Professor Chronos and the others are taking care of the collapsed students, you, Amon, can just go into the principal's office and take the Seven Star Key away. That's it.

Even if they put the blame on the screenwriter, it's not okay to eat up the setting of the Three Phantom Demons, because right after crossing into the other world, it was Yubel who took the Three Phantom Demons' cards. Even though Yubel finally materialized an arm and counterattacked to become the stronger party, how could he still remember the Three Phantom Demons?
So in this book, Amon is simply set as a spy who has been targeting the three phantom demons from the beginning.