Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

Chapter 1801 Speed ​​Race
Professor Chronos emerged from the cockpit of the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant looking rather disheveled, but he breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Hayato's Hellfire Machine Tierra spinning like a top as he whipped the two gigantic monsters that had just been dominating him.

"I'm relieved now."

Although he recognized that "teachers have a responsibility to protect students" and had already taken concrete action to fight on the front lines, he certainly didn't want to lose his life like this if he could. He was almost scared to death when [Monster Emperor - Gazette] appeared, but now, watching Hayato slaughter these card spirits indiscriminately, who could understand that unparalleled sense of security?

As the saying goes, "When there is no danger, Hayato Kobayashi is the biggest source of danger, but when there is real danger, Hayato Kobayashi can give people a sense of security."

Isn't this the best example right now? The enemy they fought for so long but couldn't defeat will be solved as long as they hold out until Hayato arrives. The current scene is just a chaotic massacre!

"Wow, that's amazing." Edward, who descended from the sky, was quite surprised as he watched Hayato wield the [Hellfire Machine - Tiera] monster across the battlefield. "That monster only has an attack power of 3400 points, but its combat power is much stronger than those monsters with higher attack power?"

"Because once a monster's combat power is no longer suppressed by those stats on paper after the duel rules are broken," Hayato explained calmly, glancing at Edward who had come to his side. "Level, attribute, attack power, or effects are just supplementary factors in battle, no longer decisive ones. For example, a level 7 Dark Magician can fight a level 8 Blue-Eyes White Dragon to a standstill, while also using their respective area-of-effect attacks to kill other higher-level monsters watching from the sidelines."

"It's hard to set specific criteria, but it generally aligns with certain intuitions. For example, can you imagine Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon defeating Obelisk the Tormentor, which has a lower attack power?"

"I see, I understand completely now." Edward said this, though he didn't really understand. But when he saw the one-piece spirit being chased by Hayato's monster, his eyes suddenly turned serious, and he reminded Hayato, "Hayato-sensei, that guy over there is the one that Jaden and the others saw with their own eyes, the one who brought us to this world. Don't let it get away!"

"I think it must have a way to take us back to our original world. Even if it can't do that, it should at least kill the enemy here!"

Upon hearing this, Hayato also looked in the direction Edward pointed. At first glance, even he recognized it as [Yubel Phantom] and was about to have [Hellfire Teara] concentrate its firepower there when he frowned.

"Tsk, wait, that guy isn't the real one."

Just as Hayato sensed, after being hit by a beam of light released by Hellfire Teara, [Yubel Phantom] showed a synchronized hit feedback and was knocked down on the sand. However, even after being directly destroyed by subsequent attacks, it did not react further and was simply killed like an ordinary cannon fodder.

But this goes against intuition; at least Hayato doesn't think Yubel is a minor character who can be taken down so easily. Undoubtedly, the "Yubel Phantom" that Edward and Hayato saw was most likely another of the "shadow clones" or similar tricks Yubel used when he ambushed Hayato in the past.

So here's the question: with such a big fuss to draw everyone's attention here, and leaving behind a fake body to further restrain Hayato's actions, where is the real Yubel now?
Although he has the advantage of having read the script, Hayato is not omniscient or omnipotent. At least the current "monster siege" is a scenario he has never seen before. However, he does know at least part of the purpose of Yubel's operation. In addition to "Vanilla Jaden" as the underlying logic, she has a great need for dueling energy and the darkness in people's hearts. Supplementing those things can even give her the power to briefly contend with Hayato under certain conditions.

In addition, the power of darkness is something she can utilize. If there were something like a "Millennium Artifact" here, it might double Yubel's combat power, or she could also use the power of the dark card spirits.

—So that's how it is. So they were still after those things!

Following this line of thought, Hayato finally remembered what Yubel had done on the other timeline. Within the Duel Academy, Yubel, using Gana Malden as a host, spread a zombie virus to collect dueling energy for himself and incidentally hinder Jaden and the others. Taking advantage of this, he found the "Seven Spirit Gates," originally located in the dense forest on Duel Academy Island, which had been transferred to the Spirit World along with the Duel Academy. He opened it and obtained the cards of the "Three Phantom Demons."

Hayato wasn't entirely sure how Yubel managed to excavate the underground portion without preserving the forest above ground during the teleportation, but he knew that if Yubel's goal remained the "Three Phantom Demons," she would absolutely not succeed.

When Kagemaru came to Duel Academy Island to take the "Three Phantom Demons" cards, Hayato had already made preparations in advance, and secretly replaced the cards placed in the "Seven Gates of Renewal" with the sleeping [Holy Knight - Atorius]. Although Kagemaru actually managed to print new "Three Phantom Demons" cards on the spot using the power of "Darkness" and the stone slab left by Daitokuji in the underground laboratory of the abandoned old school building, and even planned to use the "Seven Gates of Renewal" to absorb life energy to complete the cards on the spot, Yubel couldn't possibly be able to print cards like Kagemaru.

The power of "Darkness" is able to do this because "Darkness" is a power that calls itself "the darkness flowing into the interior of the planet," in other words, something like "the memory of the earth." Theoretically, the reason why Kaiba was able to "draw cards from the floor" without the [Obelisk the Tormentor] was also due to a similar method—reading the memories underground and printing cards out of thin air.

However, the power of the "Light Wave" that Yubel obtained, which the "Light Wave" claims to be the power of "evolution," manifests as the "Light of Destruction" because "the end of evolution is death"—this once made Hayato suspect whether the "Light of Destruction" had watched "EVA" on Earth while it was possessing Saio.

Putting aside the conflict between the powers of "darkness" and "light," the prerequisite for printing "Darkness" cards is having specific memory marks to "copy" the cards, which can achieve a high degree of fidelity but is relatively difficult to surpass the original; while printing "Light Wave" cards is to "evolve" the original cards, which is why it was possible for Yubel, who inherited the power of "Light Wave," to imitate and grant others the power of Synchro Summoning after Hayato demonstrated the world's "first" Synchro Summon.

For example, Professor Cobra's "Reptile Fairy" and Amon Garam's "Undead Synchro Summoning" are both examples of Synchro Summoning. Although the latter was Yubel's clever use of the "Astrop Particles" power activated by Hayato, the former was a legitimate Synchro Summoning under Yubel's power.

However, using the power of "Light Wave" to print cards has a special prerequisite: "evolution" requires a foundational existence prior to it. For example, the "Star Particles" on Amon Garrum combined with the zombie virus that Yubel intended to spread but Jaden thwarted, resulting in those Undead Synchro Monsters. Professor Cobra's Synchro Monsters are also based on his "Snake" deck. Therefore, even if Yubel went to the "Seven Gates of Release" that sealed the "Three Phantoms," he wouldn't be able to obtain the cards of the "Three Phantoms"—not only because of the various limitations of the power of "Light Wave," but also because although Hayato did place the cards of the "Three Phantoms" there, not all of them; one of them, "Thunder Emperor - Hamon," is currently in John's possession.

Although John himself thought that the card was just a weakened copy and not the real [Thunder Emperor Hamon], what Hayato didn't tell John was that the card was actually the genuine [Thunder Emperor Hamon]. It's just that the "Seven Essences Unlocking Gate" had long been modified from the original device that absorbed the life force of the entire island to nourish the sealed card to a reverse device that absorbs the power in the card and in turn feeds the life force back to the island.

The reason why the effect of 【Thunder Emperor - Hamon】 was weakened to the physical card version instead of the original version is because its power has been reduced, resulting in a "degeneration" phenomenon. The same is true for the other two "Phantom Demons". If they had been kept in the "Seven Essences Unlocking Gate" seal for another two years, they might not have been able to fuse them into 【Chaos Phantom Demon - Amitel】. This is also the main reason why Hayato kept the "Three Phantom Demons" cards in the seal.

If Yubel's intention is to acquire the power of the "Three Phantoms" and take their dark power for herself, she might gain something, but not much, and it might not even be as much as the energy she expended in subduing the rebellious "Phantoms." It would be a losing proposition, and having only two "Phantoms" would also prevent her from unleashing her full power due to their incompleteness.

Even knowing that Yubel would likely fail, Hayato wasn't about to let her plan succeed. How dare she take his card without his permission? This wasn't just a minor act of petty misconduct; he had to deal with it decisively!
Thinking of this, Hayato decided to quickly clear out these Pokémon. Although a single [Hellfire Teara] was enough to easily defeat them, it wasn't efficient enough. Hayato simply took out four more cards and filled his Duel Disk all at once.

"I've had enough of this red tape! Everyone, let's get this over with!"

The giant mobile suit named after Jormungandr—the Crystal Machine - Central Serpent—appeared after the Hellfire Machine - Tiera unleashed a wave of demonic flames, and frozen ice crystals spread in front of the fleeing elves;

Next up was the equally massive [Earth Spirit God - Gransol], who, despite being an Earth-type, wielded lightning to bombard the enemy card spirits;

The wind-type Crystal Wing Synchro pursued the Pokémon trying to escape through the air, but the final bell tolled for this "massacre" was tolled by the light-type Dragonite Chomper. With an attack power of 5000, Dragonite Chomper raised his arms and then slammed them down, unleashing a carpet bombing of "Dragon Stars" that saturated the surrounded Pokémon.

"Done!" Hayato snapped his fingers and was about to instruct Professor Chronos to clean up the mess when he suddenly noticed something and looked sharply in another direction.

Because Yubel's spatial teleportation completely disrupted the original layout of the Duel Academy, even Hayato had difficulty finding the "Seven Essences Unlocking Gate," which was now buried deep beneath the desert. However, he was certain that the aura he was sensing was not from the location of the "Seven Essences Unlocking Gate," because the aura he sensed this time was just as chaotic as that of the [Beast Emperor - Gazette] he had sensed earlier.

That was an aura similar to the "Beast Tide" of Card Spirits that Hayato had just wiped out, and the aura was coming from another direction. It seemed that Yubel had summoned more than one group of Card Spirits to besiege Duel Academy?!

"More than one wave of elf attacks? So you're trying to hold me back with this plan?! Yubel, you're something else!" Hayato frowned, then grinned maliciously. "Because you're afraid to confront me head-on, you want me to run around protecting the students and the school. Well then, let's see if you can get the 'Three Phantom Demons' faster or if I can clear out the 'reinforcements' you've brought!"

"Grandma said that I evolve faster than light, and no one in the entire universe can match my speed of evolution!"

[Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon] landed on the ground and transformed into [Phantom Wing Synchro Dragon], which then became [High Speed ​​Going Robot/Phantom Wing Mount]. Hayato sat on it and turned to greet Edward and Professor Chronos, saying, "The monsters attacking the academy aren't just here. You two will lead the team to take the students back to the academy. I'm going to reinforce the other side."

"Full speed ahead!"

Despite the rugged sandy terrain, the speeding motorcycle barely slowed down due to the terrain, carrying Hayato and kicking up dust as it rushed in another direction to meet the attacking spirits.

Hayato had no choice but to accept Yubel's scheme. Now it was a matter of whether Hayato could maintain his fighting strength after eliminating a large number of spirits and find Yubel in time, or whether Yubel would be faster and be able to obtain the cards in the "Seven Spirits Unlocking Gate" before Hayato could eliminate all the spirits and find her.

Both Hayato and Yubel had enough confidence in themselves, and this race that wasn't really a race began amidst the roar of engines!

In the original work, Yubel's actions in obtaining the three Phantom Demon cards were quite strange, because she practically overpowered them and made them her own; their power showed absolutely no resistance against Yubel, unlike Kagemaru, who visibly became stronger after obtaining the three Phantom Demon cards.

Furthermore, she even pulled out cards related to the Three Phantom Demons—cards that Kagemaru had been preparing for decades but hadn't been able to obtain—based on the Three Phantom Demons. From the Dark Summoning God to the Chaos Phantom Demon, it's hard to see her using the power of the Three Phantom Demons to heal herself; perhaps the cost of creating cards out of thin air would be even higher.

In summary, it was Konami's scheme to sell cards. Kagemaru initially tried to sell the Three Phantom Demons cards but sales were low, so they gave him a few reinforcement cards to let Yubel use again as advertising for card sales (confirmed).