Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

Chapter 1707 All along, I've had a slight doubt about whether you're truly stronger than me.
"Would you like some water, Karen?"

"Ow~"

Jim took out a water bottle and asked Karen, the crocodile on his back, after hearing her cries. He then brought the water bottle to Karen's mouth and poured water into her mouth.

"Do you need my help?" Unlike his wariness and suspicion towards O'Brien, Wan Zhangmu asked in a relatively friendly manner upon seeing Jim's movements, since Jim was still in a bit of discomfort. "Or, could you put that 'Karen' down?"

“No, I can do it myself. Karen doesn’t like anyone else feeding her—except me and Judai. Thank you, Manjoume boy~” Jim smiled and pointed to Karen, who was flailing her limbs wildly and acting somewhat agitated. “And you saw it too? Karen is very uneasy because of the abnormal magnetic field. It wouldn’t be good if she hurts someone else if we put her down.”

"Then why bring along any burdens?" O'Brien looked at Jim. "If it were me, I would never bring along anything that would interfere with the mission."

“Typical mercenary thinking, huh? Mission above all else?” Jim put away his water bottle and adjusted his hat brim. “But Karen isn’t a burden to me, she’s important family to me.”

"As family members, we shouldn't abandon each other when one of us is in trouble because it will affect us. Instead, we should support each other and move forward together without giving up on one another."

Hearing Jim's words, Manjou said somewhat subtly, "It sounds very heartwarming. The family relationships you see are making me a little envious."

Actually, the relationship between the Manjoume brothers isn't that bad, at least that's how it is in this timeline. Unlike the situation in the other world where the two older brothers put pressure on Manjoume, who is at the bottom of his class, although Manjoume Chosaku is still very good at putting pressure on others, because of Manjoume Masaji's mediation, the expectations and pressure that Manjoume Jun feels are actually much less.

The main reason was that the girl that Manjoume Masashi liked in high school started interacting with Hayato. Worried that she would be "seduced" by Hayato's appearance, he wanted to defeat Hayato and came into contact with "Duel Monster". Just like that, Manjoume Masashi's life was completely changed. It can be said that "meeting Hayato ruined his life".

"My two older brothers have already achieved great success, and they have made great strides in their respective fields. After they could no longer make progress, their focus was only on me, their youngest brother. They have been urging me to do my best in the Duel Monsters field, just like them."

With a sigh, Wan Zhangmu said, "It's not that they're just demanding that I make sacrifices. My brothers often help me, and I also want to help them in my area of ​​expertise—it's just that the pressure of having such high expectations is really hard to bear."

“I don’t really understand that feeling, because my father didn’t have many demands on me.” Seeing Jim and Wan Zhangmu suddenly start sharing their family backgrounds, O’Brien thought for a moment and said, “He was just a mercenary and didn’t know anything else. He just taught me as much as he could, hoping that I could go further than him on any path.”

"So, you mean Jim Crocodile Cook is the one who offered help, I'm the one who was burdened with too many expectations and demands, and you're the one who wasn't asked anything at all?" Manjoume summarized in a sarcastic way, "Looks like we're missing someone whose family environment is the one receiving assistance, then the four of us can draw a 'family' coordinate system."

However, as soon as Manjoume finished speaking, he saw O'Brien's eyes suddenly turn fierce and he suddenly pounced on him. Before he could react, Manjoume was knocked to the ground by O'Brien. Looking at O'Brien who was holding him down, he shouted angrily, "What are you doing, attacking me all of a sudden! Did I say anything that provoked you!"

O'Brien wasn't angry at Manjoume's words. He turned his head to the side and said, "No, I think you should actually thank me."

Following O'Brien's gaze, Manjoume noticed a snake crashing into a tree trunk in that direction. It seemed to have missed its target while lunging at it. Jim quickly drew a dagger from his waist and stabbed the snake in the head, killing it instantly.

"Karen, you've got a snack now!"

Watching Jim feed Karen the snake, described as "headless, edible, crunchy, and chicken-flavored," Manjoume sat up from the ground. Looking at O'Brien, who was warily surveying his surroundings, Manjoume felt somewhat ashamed of his earlier words, knowing that O'Brien had saved him from being bitten by the snake. However, he still frankly said, "I'm sorry, and thank you, O'Brien."

O'Brien simply nodded, still looking around: "Now is not the time to talk. Ever since we separated from Jaden and the others, I've felt like something is watching us. No, maybe even earlier, ever since we entered the elevator."

"Something is roaming around us. The angle at which that snake lunged just now wasn't something it could have done on its own. Someone must have deliberately flung it towards us as a probing attack!"

"Have you recovered a bit after eating, Karen?"

"Guwa!"

"Is that so? Then I'll leave it to you." Jim put down the crocodile Karen on his back. It seemed that after eating something to replenish her strength, Karen's restlessness had eased and she was able to assist the three of them in fighting the enemy.

Jim, O'Brien, and Manjoume stood back to back, constantly on guard against any attackers in the darkness. Seemingly sensing their vigilance and realizing they had no chance to continue their sneak attack, the figure in the shadows slowly emerged and revealed its true form before them.

“This familiar feeling of being watched…it really is you. No wonder I couldn’t detect your presence.” O’Brien frowned as he looked at the silent attacker with his head down. “Ammon Garham!”

“While I really want to say, it’s great that you’re alright,” Jim said, adjusting his cowboy hat as he sized up Amon Garlem, who gave him a strange feeling, “it seems you weren’t missing, Amon boy?”

"Did they join Professor Cobra's side? Anyway, using a venomous snake to attack classmates is a bit too much, isn't it?" Jim said, glancing at the triangular snake head still clinging to the tree.

The silent Amon slowly raised his head, revealing the lifeless eyes beneath his brows. His expressionless face, stiff like a puppet, spoke: "Now that you're here, I won't let you leave. All of you, stay here!"

As he spoke, Amon Garram's cloak suddenly began to move without wind, and a large amount of mist emerged from beneath the cloak and spread around. Even Karen the crocodile, who had quietly approached Amon at Jim's prompting and was about to launch a sneak attack, was forced back to Jim's side by the approaching mist, not daring to take another step forward, as if there was something she felt was very dangerous inside.

"What...what kind of trick is this?!" Manjoume stared incredulously at the supernatural scene around him, his eyes fixed on Amon. "And what...what kind of thing is on you?!"

Jim and O'Brien only saw Amon continuously releasing mist, not understanding what Manjoume was surprised about. However, in Manjoume's eyes, he clearly saw something like a mask covering Amon's face. The source of the mist being released around them was not Amon's cloak, but a dueling monster dressed in white armor, resembling both a knight and a king, emerging halfway from Amon's body like a "stand-in"—unable to emerge any further or return.

Jim glanced at Amon, but couldn't see anything with his "special vision." However, he suddenly remembered something and said to Manjoume, "Manjoume boy, I remember Jaden said that you and John are also special duelists who can see the existence of spirits, just like him!"

"The Amon we see now is just wearing a cloak and glasses. What does he look like in your eyes now?"

“Elves?” O’Brien raised an eyebrow. As a materialist, he had always believed that explosives and bullets could solve 99% of the world’s problems and never believed in things like elves. He didn’t understand why Jim was bringing these things up at this time.

Upon hearing Jim's words, Manjou said seriously, "Sorry, I can't tell whether he's wearing glasses or not. To be honest, if you hadn't called out his name directly, I wouldn't have realized that this guy is actually Amon Garlem."

"All I could see was that this guy was wearing a strange mask on his face, and there was a strange Duel Monster sticking out half of its body behind him. The surrounding mist was all from the long cloak behind him."

"Oh!"

As soon as Manjoume finished speaking, O'Brien suddenly drew his gun-shaped duel disk and fired a shot at Amon's face, completely disregarding Amon's safety. But just as the [Volcano Bullet] that O'Brien was using as a bullet was about to reach Amon, Manjoume saw the struggling monster suddenly swing the sword in its only hand and cleave the incoming bullet in two!

From O'Brien and Jim's perspective, they saw the seemingly ethereal mist suddenly solidify, slicing the flying card in half, causing the [Volcano Bomb] card to fall helplessly to the ground.

"Attack failed?"

O'Brien frowned and was about to take out the explosives he had on him to continue the attack, but Jim stopped him.

“This enemy doesn’t seem like one that can be defeated in the usual way. I wonder how Amon-boy got into this state.” Jim shook his head at O’Brien. “Let’s not even talk about whether the explosives are still effective, or how difficult it is to control the amount so as not to hurt anyone, O’Brien?”

"Besides, hasn't the other side already shown their 'claws' and chosen the right way to fight for us?"

Following Jim's pointing finger, O'Brien saw the arm hidden under Amon's cloak. Although strange square scales had appeared on Amon's hand, they were nowhere near as conspicuous as the Duel Disk that was already fully worn and even in its unfolded state.

More importantly, a monster card had already been placed on Amon's Duel Disk. The sharp-eyed Manjoume also saw the card on Amon's Duel Disk and even recognized what it was: "That's the monster! I saw it behind Amon Garrum, it's that monster called 'Lord of the Mist' on his Duel Disk!"

"duel."

After being seen by Manjoume and the others, the cards on Amon's Duel Disk flew up on their own and entered the Duel Disk for shuffling. Amon also raised the Duel Disk and announced that he had completed his preparations for the duel.

"I never imagined that my first battle here wouldn't be against a beast or a schemer, but rather against a fellow exchange student?" Jim, seeing this, was about to step forward. "Then let's have—"

“No, it should be me.” O’Brien folded the gun in his hand, turning it into a duel disk, and the original gun pod became an open deck slot. “Although I have many [Volcano Bomb] cards, losing one is not a big deal, but I am the most suitable person to deal with Amon Garrum.”

"There's no need for that!" However, the two standing at the back were no match for Manjoume, who was at the front. Manjoume, who had already inserted his deck into the Duel Disk from the beginning, only needed to activate the Duel Disk once. Before Obryan could put the Duel Disk on, he stepped forward and said, "Duel!"

[Amon Garram: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

【Manjou: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand】

After announcing that he would accept the duel, Manjoume said to the two behind him, "I am the only 'Spirit Master' here who can see the existence of the card spirits. The most suitable person to accept the challenge is not you, but your grandpa Manjoume!"

"Besides, let's put aside the fact that I was ambushed by that guy earlier. I'm going to get my revenge. The young masters of the Manjoume Group and the Garham Group are symmetrical in status. Although the relatively independent Garham Group has a higher world ranking, the Manjoume Group, which has been deeply involved in the Duel Monster field, is by no means much inferior."

Looking at Amon, Manjou glanced at the card he had drawn. "I've heard so many stories about how outstanding the young master of the Gallamy Corporation is, especially when my older brother compares him to me, who's the same age as you. In other words, you're the 'perfect child' in my eyes. Now you know how much I hate you, right?"

"However, I've always had a slight doubt about whether you're really stronger than me."

"I have no interest in that kind of thing."

However, Amon expressionlessly drew a card from his deck and said, "I get to go first, draw!"

"Then, during my Main Phase, I activate a Spell Card: [Hand Elimination]!"

　It's that classic 23:59 update.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)