Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

C1 [Inferno Tira] C2 [Demon Box], Hayato's [Inferno Nava] from his graveyard has been returned to his deck. Clearly, Hayato doesn't have a third [Purgatory Dream] in his remaining hand to allow him to perform another deck fusion.

Furthermore, the prerequisite for [Purgatory Dream] to be used for deck fusion is that "only" there is a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck on the opponent's field, and Hayato currently has one [Inferno Machine Tierra] on his field.

At the same time, it is also because of the existence of [Hellfire Teara], whose level is as high as 11☆ that she directly seals off the possibility of special summoning other [Hellfire] monsters in Hayato's graveyard.

—But it doesn't matter. Of the three cards Hayato has left, Pegasus's intelligence network had already revealed the existence of [Infernal Cannon] and [Shaddoll Fusion]. There is also a mysterious card that is not yet ready to be used.

And among these, [Shaddoll Fusion] can be used to "take care of" [Hellfire Tearra]!
"Spell Card [Shaddoll Fusion]! Send monsters from my hand or field as Fusion Material to the Graveyard to Fusion Summon a single [Shaddoll] monster. As a Fusion Card specifically for [Shaddoll], [Shaddoll Fusion] naturally has additional benefits."

Hayato put down the card and took out a monster card from his deck, showing it off. "If there is a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck on my opponent's field, I can also use monsters from my Deck as Fusion Material!"

"I send my [Shaddoll] from my deck and my FIRE [Inferno Tyra] from the field to the Graveyard to obtain Fusion Materials for a [Shaddoll] monster plus a FIRE monster!"

"O controller of the world-destroying flames, you beast lurking in the shadows, be twisted and merged into one by the paradoxes of this reincarnation system!"

"Fusion Summon, Level 7☆!"

"One of Captain White Crystal's many aliases—[Shadowdress: Divine Child Crystal]!"

【Shadowdew - Divine Child Crystal】【7☆/Fire】

[Rock Element/Fusion/Effect]

[2450/1950]

The jeweled giant, appearing as if an angel had descended, rose from the shadows with countless red threads connecting his body to his back. His massive body was covered in yellow “hair” that danced wildly on his head, but upon closer inspection, it was clear that it was actually a collection of twisted dragon heads.

Although [Shaddoll Crystal]'s attack power is far lower than [Hellfire Tiera]'s level of 7☆ is its biggest advantage. Moreover, due to its fusion summon, the [Shaddoll] sent to the graveyard will also activate its own effect.

"If a card is sent to the Graveyard by an effect, the effect of [Shaddoll] activates, and I draw one card from my Deck." Hayato said, replenishing the hand he lost due to activating [Shaddoll Fusion].

The effect of 【Shadowdome Shinji】 is to negate and destroy the Special Summon of a monster when the opponent Special Summons it, and send one 【Shadowdome】 card from Hayato's hand to the Graveyard. It's a decent card that can provide some pressure.

However, for a Toon deck that is purely "Duel Monsters 1.0" and has almost no way to make moves during the opponent's turn, the suppression of this card is quite subtle. Unless Pegasus survives to the next turn, Hayato might be able to use it to deal with the opponent's Special Summoned Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon.

Meanwhile, [Hellfire Machine - Nava] was just bounced back into the deck by Pegasus, so at least destroying [Perfect World - Toon World] is good enough. Hayato then took out three more cards from the graveyard.

"Except for the three [Inferno] monsters in my Graveyard, I will Special Summon [Inferno Lilith] back to the field." Putting down the card and watching the purple serpent descend onto the field, Hayato said, "And the effect of [Inferno Lilith] is exactly the opposite of [Inferno Lava].

【Hellfire Machine - Lilith】【9☆/Flame】

[Demon/Special Summon/Effect]

[2900/2900]

"When it is successfully Special Summoned, destroy all other Spell & Trap Cards on both players' fields except for the [Inferno] Spell & Trap Card!"

Similar to the effect of the previous [Inferno Machine - Nava], purple flames covered both players' fields. However, since both players only had one Spell & Trap Zone card in total, only Pegasus' [Perfect World - Toon World] was burned by the flames.

"Oh, no!" Pegasus wailed, covering his cheek. "My Love!"

Previously, when [Harpie's Feather Duster] was activated, Pegasus had already used the only [Cartoon Bookmark] in the graveyard to destroy it once. This time, facing the effect of [Hellfire Tearah], which should have appeared in the first place but was only delayed, he couldn't produce a second [Cartoon Bookmark].
"Shh!"

Just when Hayato and Pegasus thought that the [Perfect World - Cartoon World] was about to disappear, a second [Cartoon Bookmark] suddenly appeared in Pegasus's grave, bypassing its own destruction!?
"That card?" Hayato was also taken aback for a moment, then suddenly realized, "I see, the two graveyard-sending effects of [Hellfire Tira] actually sent [Cartoon Bookmark] to the graveyard for you again, Pegasus."

"When you sent the first card to the graveyard, you checked which cards were sent there. So, it was the effect of the second time? You were busy dealing with my [Inferno Machine - Nava] that time and didn't have time to check which cards were sent to the graveyard."

"As it turned out, during that grave-piling incident, I was lucky enough to preserve the [Perfect World - Cartoon World] desu." Pegasus said with a relieved tone, and couldn't help but laugh, "Great, Cartoon World didn't leave me."

Having gone this far, Hayato gave up on destroying [Perfect World - Cartoon World]. After all, its three effects had already been demonstrated, and it had already banished all of Pegasus's monsters once, so there was no harm in leaving it there.

The most urgent task right now is to deal with the three monsters on Pegasus's field—Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon, Demon Box, and Comic Cat.

The effect of the [Demon Box] has already been used, and more than once. It is now basically equivalent to a vanilla monster with 2300 attack power, so we can ignore it.
The more troublesome ones are [Manga Cat] and [Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon]. Although [Manga Cat] has already been used and its effects have been seen, Hayato is willing to bet Malik's allowance that Malik is definitely hiding something from him.

Given that both [Manga Hand] and [Copycat] possess the ability of "cow", it makes no sense that this ability would disappear after they are combined into one monster. Hayato has reason to deduce that although the effect of [Manga Cat] requires the release of the combined monster, it may be possible to release Hayato's monster in its place.

Then there's Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon. Although the new version of Perfect World - Toon World is supermodel-worthy, Hayato, who has the same amazing attention span as Ramanujan, notices that Toon World's most classic ability has disappeared.

That is the point that "cartoon monsters cannot be destroyed".

In the "Toon Kingdom" expansion, this effect was implemented by "replacing the top card of your deck with a face-down spell to destroy a Toon monster." But in "Perfect World - Toon World," it became that each type of monster can only be banished once?
Wouldn't that mean we could defeat Toon Monsters with ordinary battles? This might happen in other decks, but Pegasus—not to slander Hayato, but the card printer would never weaken his own deck like that.

【Blue-Eyes Toon Ultimate Dragon】Although it is easy to summon and has a recycling effect that has no card name and can be used once per turn, it is not enough. Hayato deduced that the "cannot die" ability of the Toon monsters may have been stitched into that card.

For example, the damage calculation for a cartoon monster being attacked might be temporarily excluded, right? This effect might not even have a limit of once per turn.

In other words, it would be difficult to defeat Pegasus using ordinary battle destruction, because the Toon Monsters would become an indestructible barrier on his field. Otherwise, why would he have been in such a hurry to bounce [Inferno Rava] back to Hayato's deck?
Even in a blood-swap contest, it would be difficult to win against Pegasus. After all, if Pegasus can survive this round, the Toon Monster will be able to fully demonstrate the usefulness of its simple ability to "attack directly".

Now, Hayato still has three cards in his hand. Besides two mysterious cards with unclear meanings, it's time for the last one, [Eternal Fire Cannon], to come into play.

"I set two cards face-down on my back row, then activate the Continuous Spell Card [Infernal Cannon]." As he played all his cards in one go, Hayato suddenly laughed and said, "Speaking of which, [Mind's Eye] really is a counter to [Infernal Cannon] players."

"Because it allows the opponent to continuously reveal their hand and check their face-down cards at any time, it becomes much harder for [Infernal] players to set monster cards as Spell/Trap Cards to the back row."

"Put the Monster card face-down in the back row?" Pegasus thought for a moment. "The [Infernal] deck... is it like that [Infernal Cannon], a card that only works when your hand is zero?" "Yes, just like I am right now." Hayato shook his hand to indicate that he didn't have any cards in his hand. "Because my hand is currently zero, I'm sending my face-up [Infernal Cannon] to the graveyard, targeting the two [Infernal] monsters in my graveyard."

"Special Summon: [Infernal Beetle] and [Infernal Loader], which were previously sent to my graveyard under the effect of [Infernal Machine Tierra]."

Two monsters appear together from Hayato's graveyard, and are in defense position on Hayato's field.

【The One Who Loads the Fire】】【1☆/Dark】

[Warrior Race/Effect]

[900/0]

【Eternal Flame Beetle】【2☆/Dark】

[Insectoids/Adjustments/Effects]

[1200/0]

Upon seeing the appearance of [Infernal Beetle], Yugi and Jonouchi, who were outside the field, immediately became serious, because they both noticed that the card was a Tuner monster.

Although neither of them has mastered Synchro Summoning, and only Kaiba has caught up with Hayato in this regard, both of them have realized that the most important thing in performing Synchro Summoning is adjusting the existence of monsters—although it's not entirely absolute.

Yugi plans to study this carefully so he can learn his own Synchro Summoning as soon as possible, while Jonouchi is thinking that even if he can't learn it, he should try his best to learn how to deal with Synchro Monsters from Hayato so he can get revenge on Kaiba.

After putting down the card, Hayato pointed at the [Infernal Cannon] card: "The effect of [Infernal Cannon] can only be activated and resolved when I have 0 cards in my hand, and the same applies to the effect of [Infernal Cannon]."

"Once per turn, I may draw a card from my deck and present it to both players for confirmation."

Hayato takes a card from his deck and reveals it; it's another [Infernal Flame] card—the spell card [Infernal Flame Delusion].

It was also because Hayato drew a magic card that, to Pegasus's surprise, [Infernal Loader], who had been standing sideways with the gun barrels on both shoulders pointed at the duelists, suddenly fired.

—But the gun wasn't fired at Pegasus's side, but at Hayato's side. A bullet hit Hayato, deducting his life points?!

【小林隼人：4000→3500LP，手牌：3→2→3→2→0→1】

"When I draw a monster card, [Infernal Loader] can normally deal damage to my opponent equal to the monster's level x 200, but when it's a Spell/Trap Card, it will only deal me 500 damage. What a pity."

Despite saying it was a pity, Hayato acted decisively, playing the card in his hand: "However, since it's a magic card, I can set it face down, making my hand zero again."

"Next, the effect of [Infernal Beetle] is used to Tribute it and Special Summon up to two [Infernal Beetles] from my Deck."

【Eternal Flame Beetle】【DEF0】X2
The multiplying beetles occupy the last monster zone on Hayato's field. After filling the field, Hayato flips over the card he just set: "Because it is a Normal Spell Card, [Infernal Delusion] can be activated directly this turn even if it is set."

"You can activate this effect by Tributing one of my DARK monsters on the field. Special Summon one Infernal monster from my Deck or Graveyard that has the same Level but a different name from the monster in question. The effects of the monster Special Summoned by this effect are negated."

"I Tribute my Level 1☆ [Infernal Loader] on the field and Special Summon my Level 1☆ [Infernal Avenger] from my Deck."

After the [Infernal Loader] had been activated and was no longer useful, it disappeared from Hayato's field. Then, a mechanical demon dressed as a Western gunslinger, wielding dual pistols, appeared at the spot where the [Infernal Loader] had disappeared.

【Eternal Flame Avenger】【1☆/Dark】

[Demon Race/Adjustment/Effect]

[0/0]

Although it is a monster with 0 attack and 0 defense, the effect of [Infernal Avenger], which is Special Summoned by [Infernal Delusion], is nullified. No matter how strong its effect is, it is meaningless. All that matters is its stats.

The rest is unimportant; what's important is that, like the Infernal Avenger, it is also a Tuner monster.

"Send my Level 1 Tuner monster [Infernal Avenger] and Level 7 Non-Tuner monster [Shadowdome Divine Child] from my field to the Graveyard as Synchro Material. The Synchro Material requirement is one or more Tuner and non-Tuner monsters!"

"The might of a king is about to descend; behold the power that will shake the heavens and earth!"

(Regarding the call-back part)

Upon hearing Hayato's words, Jonouchi suddenly remembered that Hayato seemed to have read something similar a long time ago: "Wasn't that the idea you came up with for Honda's love letter, Hayato?"

"After all, it was a word that Hayato came up with with great difficulty, so it's a good opportunity for him to use it," Yugi joked with a smile.

"Summoning Synchro, Level 1☆ + 7☆ = 8☆!"

Meanwhile, Hayato took out a card and held it above his head, shouting, "As I said before, come and 'satisfy' me, Pegasus! In this duel where entertainment must be the king, the power of the Satisfaction Team will be revealed!"

"Waga 'Tamashi' - [True Crimson Dragon]!"

【Crimson Dragon】【8☆/Dark】

[Dragon/Synchro/Effect]

[3000/2000] (End of Chapter)