Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

Chapter 1874 That's some amazing skill, Lord Transcendental!

“Although the International Illusion Society and the Kaiba Group are very authoritative, I think that what truly determines the ‘authenticity’ of a card is the spirit residing on the card itself.” Amon showed his two cards, which were the two cards he had drawn in the previous draw.

—The sealed left hand and the sealed right hand!
This time, he actually used the legendary Exodia deck!
"With spirit possession, even counterfeit cards can be read into the Duel Disk as genuine cards? In other words, you planned this all along, Amon Garlem! You even brought counterfeit cards with you before coming to this world!"

O'Brien seemed to understand something and questioned, "But if, as you say, a spirit has already resided in your card, shouldn't you have already obtained the power of [Exodia]?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Amon, so there's absolutely no reason for this duel!"

O'Brien and Jaden's words were met with only silence from Amon, who simply played another card: "Next, I activate the spell card [Pot of Greed], draw two cards from my deck, and place a magic counter on each of the three [Royal Magic Library] cards."

"Another [Royal Magic Library] card now has three Spell Counters. I remove it to activate its effect and draw a card from my deck!"

"Then, the spell card [Angel's Charity] drew three cards from my deck and discarded two cards from my hand, while the spell counters on [Royal Magic Library] increased again."

[Amon Garram: 3200LP, Hand: 5→6→7]

[Royal Magic Library] [DEF2000] X3
However, the fact that Jaden and O'Brien received no response outside the duel did not mean that Manjoume, who was in the duel, was oblivious. Although he was in a state of anger for unknown reasons, that did not mean that his mind was filled only with anger and he could not feel anything else.

"I think it's because of 'restraint'?"

Manjoume's sudden outburst drew the attention of the others. Under the watchful eyes of Judai and the others, Manjoume crossed his arms and said, "This guy has actually said it himself quite a few times. He's always tied his life to the clouds in the sky. I'm afraid that deep down, he also envies the clouds in the sky, isn't he?"

"The gratitude that arose from being adopted, although it was originally a wish from his own heart, still became a 'burden' and 'constraint' in the heart of the being named 'Amon Garlem,' preventing him from making choices that were entirely based on his own thoughts, like the clouds in the sky."

"As long as he was still in the human world we originally lived in, Amon Garrum could not live for himself. Until he came to this world that belongs to the Duel Monsters, without the Garrum Foundation, without his adoptive parents, without his brother, he was finally able to live for himself."

Amon pushed up his glasses and looked at Manjoume: "This is really unexpected. Was Manjoume really such a perceptive person?"

"Hmph, who do you think I am?" Manjoume said, but then looked at Amon with a strange expression. "However, even though that's what I said, I feel like something is not right. Even after all this, it still doesn't explain why you are so aggressive in wanting to gain power. I'm starting to wonder if my ability to judge people is not so good anymore."

"Rather than saying that Amon Garlem's desire to 'become king' stems from his escape from human social relationships in this alien world, it's more accurate to say that Amon Garlem, having broken free from his previous constraints, is now acting in response to another person's expectations?"

After O'Brien finished speaking, he found it hard to believe, "But how could something like that happen?"

“No, you were absolutely right.” Amon nodded amidst their surprised gazes. “Don’t worry, now that I want to become king, I will no longer hide myself. Your predictions are completely correct—in fact, I’m quite surprised that you could make such a prediction without any prior information.”

“Aiko, I met her after I was adopted. She helped me a lot during my training and education. To me, she was Mr. Putah’s servant, teacher, study partner, my most important friend, and even my lover.”

“Judai, you know about the darkest night in my heart, right? But I wasn’t the only one who knew about that night. Eko was the only other person in the world who knew about it besides me. But even though I almost did something so greedy, she didn’t choose to report me. Instead, she chose to stand by me and cover it up for me from Mr. Ptah and the others.”

After a pause, Amon frankly said, "Because—all along, she felt the same way I did that my talents were being suppressed by the world and society. She believed that I, who should have been a king, was being suppressed to the point of repaying the Gallamy Corporation because I was adopted, and thus could not be liberated."

"Her wish is for me to become the 'King,' the absolute king who has abandoned all past ties! That is why I am here to kill you, Judai Yuki and Jun Manjoume. Because you have been kind to me in the past, I must sever all ties with you for the sake of Eiko's wish!"

Judai felt a headache coming on, while Manjoume was even more dumbfounded: "Is your brain even normal? Just because Judai and I helped you get rid of someone else's control and did you a favor, you want to kill us? Good people should be held at gunpoint?"

“Because the kindness you and Judai showed to Amon is not as important as that woman named Eko to him.” O’Brien was much calmer, because he had seen too many such situations. “In order to fulfill that abstract wish, if that woman wanted Amon to abandon even the bond she had formed with him, he might be able to do it.”

"That kind of thing... Amon wouldn't do it, would he?" Judai's voice was uncertain as he looked at Amon.

But Amon simply pushed up his glasses.

"No, of course that guy will do it, just like now." Manjoume said with a cold laugh, "I'm almost not going to hold back anymore, I might as well just take him out in this duel. Tsk, I suddenly feel a surge of anger that I want to vent."

“But you won’t have that chance anymore, Jun! Because [Exodia] is a card that will give me an instant victory if I collect all of them in my hand, and I’ve obtained the [Exodia] cards that no one else had collected before.” Amon showed the cards in his hand again, this time showing three, including one more than before: [The Sealed Left Foot], which he had drawn from [Angel’s Charity] earlier.

"With three copies of 'Royal Magic Library' on my field, it's not difficult to draw all five 'Exodia' cards using the large number of spell cards in my deck. Furthermore, I have the first move in the duel, and you have no chance to stop me. Now I have collected three 'Exodia' cards. If I draw two more, the duel will be decided!"

"Naive! Mr. Manjoume, the reason I'm so calm right now is because I have an excellent card to deal with the opponent's methods." Manjoume turned around and complained to Judai, "It's all your fault for talking behind me, which almost made me miss the chance to use that thing just now—but it doesn't matter if I use it now."

“The opponent’s luck seems to be not very good, or perhaps, it’s because [Exodia] needs to be drawn one by one as part of the ritual to use its power, and the opponent who takes the shortcut also has to bear the side effect of not being able to quickly collect five cards?” Manjoume said, playing the cards in his hand, “But—after the opponent finishes drawing cards due to the effect of [Angel’s Charity], I’m going to send [Clown and Locked Bird] in my hand to the graveyard!”

"If your opponent adds a card from their deck to their hand outside of their draw phase during your turn, you can send this card from your hand to the graveyard to activate this effect. During this turn, neither player can add cards from their deck to their hand!"

Compared to obviously powerful hand traps like [Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring], [Clown and Lockbird] seems to only restrict both players from adding cards from their decks to their hands. If used during your turn to counter [Gross Gale], it might even block your own search and combo. However, those who truly understand this card know how useful it is. Although it can only be activated after the opponent has already added cards to their hand and cannot prevent them from drawing two cards with cards like [Pot of Greed], once it takes effect, cards like "Library Old Man" currently being used by Amon are almost completely destroyed by this card.

Especially since Amon had already used up his normal summon in order to Special Summon the three-body [Royal Magic Library], once he lost the ability to draw cards in this turn, he could only rely on the three-body monster with 2000 DEF on the field to hold the field—could that really withstand the strong attack of the Manjoume Dragon deck?
Amon was quite surprised to see the appearance of [Clown and Locked Bird]: "The effect of that card is simply a counter to [Exodia]. But why would you include that card in your deck beforehand?"

"No, never mind." Glancing at Judai behind Manjoume, Amon felt relieved. Considering that Judai's deck contained cards such as "Foam Man," "Flame Strike," and "Sky Man," which could provide subsequent resource replenishment for the Fusion Tactics that consumed a lot of cards, it was really not a problem for Manjoume to include a copy of "Clown and Lock Bird."

Now that Amon has just completed his card draw with "Angel's Charity," he has three cards from the "Exodia" series in his hand. If he can complete the collection of "Exodia" this turn, these three cards can be considered useful resources. However, if he fails to collect them all, these "Sealed" cards are nothing more than a few meaningless and useless cards in his hand.

I finally managed to get another [Royal Magic Library] to collect all three counters, but I can't activate its effect to draw cards because of the seal of [Clown and Locked Bird].

"No, it's not that I don't have a chance. I'm only two [Exodia] away from completing the set, and I need to chain [Clown and Locked Bird] to activate the Quick-Play Spell Card [Hand-Break]!" Amon played a card. "Before [Clown and Locked Bird] takes effect, I can continue drawing cards. Under the effect of [Hand-Break], both players discard two cards, and then draw two cards from their decks. I discard [Cloud Monster - Eye of the Typhoon] and [King of the Mist]!"

"You say you yearn for freedom, but aren't you still bound by the wishes of others?" Manjoume crossed his arms and sneered. "Although you've added all the [Cloud Monster] cards to your deck, they're just used as 'sacrifices' to activate other cards. You're just like yourself."

"Then I will discard the [Original Stone Dragon - Variant Beryl Dragon] and the [Emerald Dragon]."

"Then--"

"Draw!" x2
Manjoume and Amon shouted in unison, each drawing two cards from their decks. However, judging from the fact that Amon's hand did not react in any particular way to the cards drawn, it seemed that he had failed to collect the remaining two [Exodia] cards in this draw.

Looking at the two cards he had drawn this time, neither of them were "Sealed" cards. Amon watched with some regret as the effect of "Clown and Locked Bird" took effect. During this turn, the "Royal Magic Library" and Amon's other cards could no longer provide Amon with card draws.

"As expected, a sacrifice is still necessary." Because of the "Hand Card Extinction" effect, Amon still has six cards in his hand, but three of them are "Sealed" monsters that cannot be collected and have become clogging his hand. In other words, he can only use three cards. He glanced at Manjoume and said, "In that case, I will activate the Spell Card "Monster Resurrection" to Special Summon a monster from my Graveyard."

"What I Special Summoned—was the [Lord of Mist] from my Graveyard!"

The [King of Mist] that Manjoume fought last time was summoned by Amon again, but this time the [King of Mist] felt different to him. The most important thing was that because no sacrifice was used for the high-level summon, the attack power of the [King of Mist] that appeared on Amon's field did not change and was still 0 points.

(PS: Animated version)

[King of Mist] [7☆/Water]

[Mage Race/Effect]

[0/0]

"Next, I activate the Field Spell Card [King of the Mist] and set a card on the back row. The turn ends here."

【阿蒙·加勒姆：3200LP，手牌：7→6→5→4→3】

【King of Fog】【ATK0】

[Royal Magic Library] [DEF2000] X3
Backcourt: [Cover Card]

Location: [King's City of Mist]

After a castle rose behind Amon, Amon abruptly ended his turn, seemingly because he was forced to stop playing due to the [Clown and Locked Bird] card.

Behind Amon, in the [Kingdom of Mist], five spherical flames floated above the five corresponding monster areas.

"Finally, your turn is over? Well, now it's my turn!" Drawing a card from his deck, Manjoume didn't rush into the Main Phase after the Draw Phase. Instead, he took a card from his Graveyard and said, "During my Standby Phase, if I have a Normal Monster on my field or in my Graveyard, I can activate the effect of this card in my Graveyard—add 'Original Stone Dragon - Variant Emerald Stone Dragon' from my Graveyard to my hand!"

【万丈目准：4000LP，手牌：5→4→4→5→6】

The card lost from discarding [Clown and Locked Bird] in the previous round has been replenished, and Manjoume immediately begins his turn, intending to launch a fierce attack on Amon!
"That [King of Mist], I remember its effect is that neither player can Tribute any monsters while it's on the field? But something feels off." Looking at the Warrior-Type Spellcaster monster on his opponent's field, Manjoume played a card. "But no matter what, using this card is definitely the right choice!"

"Quick-Play Spell Card [Light Piercing the Primal Stone] activated!"

　Total bounty: 7866 reward points, 275 recommendations, 160 monthly tickets
　　Update: 4/8
　　The bounty ends tomorrow at noon, and I'll still be owed updates starting tomorrow.
　　In the original work, Amon's "murder of his wife to gain the power of Exodia" is misunderstood by many, who believe he killed Eko to obtain the power of Exodia. However, the original work clearly shows that Eko's death did not affect Amon's ability to use Exodia's cards. He could use both the original Five Elders of Exodia and the Ultimate Sealed God normally. Furthermore, the Five Elders of Exodia were never, in their design, bloodthirsty demons that required sacrifices.
　　During his duel with Edward, Amon himself admitted that his sacrifice of Eko was purely because he wanted to become king. This wish wasn't Amon's own, but Eko's. Even his sacrifice was Eko's own choice. Later, during his fight with Yubel, Yubel was initially confused, thinking Amon genuinely wanted to be king. However, as the fight progressed, Yubel realized Amon was completely botted; his wish wasn't to become king, but rather to "fulfill Eko's own wish to become king."

　　The two are a perfect match; one is willing to hit and the other is willing to be hit. They're truly a pair of smiling tigers and two black sharks!

　　(End of this chapter)