Who asked him to play Yu-Gi-Oh!

Chapter 1370 New Technologies

Kaito's life points have reached zero, and the duel is over.

Almost the instant his life points on his duel disk dropped to 0, the entire space seemed to explode like a piece of shattered glass.

The frozen world suddenly emitted a crisp sound like shattering glass. The raindrops suspended in mid-air trembled simultaneously, like pearl necklaces being pulled by invisible threads. The first to fall was the water droplet caught on the tip of an oak leaf, which struck the mushroom cap below and splashed into eight sparkling water droplets.

The entire forest came alive instantly. The suspended rain curtain transformed into slanting silver streaks, birds that had been still suddenly flapped their wet wings, and a squirrel, still with a startled expression, tumbled from a tree trunk into a puddle. The rain curtains that had been frozen in the air now fell wildly as if in fast-forward, carving countless fleeting craters into the muddy ground and rising white mist mixed with the scent of grass and decaying leaves.

The sounds, suppressed for so long by the time stop, erupted with a deafening roar. The patter of rain on broad leaves, the creaking of branches bearing the weight, and the rumble of thunder surged forth in layers. A maple leaf twirled and fell in the rain, its surface still bearing the crescent-shaped notch that a snail had gnawed at it before the time stop.

"So that's how it is. Time-stopping is also a technology related to duels." You Xuan looked around and realized that time had resumed its flow.

This is actually somewhat similar to the Dark Duels of this dimension. Just like many Dark Duels involve setting up a barrier that prevents anyone from entering or leaving before the duel ends, the only way to remove the barrier and allow the duelists to emerge is to complete the duel and determine the winner.

This time-stop field works on a similar principle. Time freeze is also similar to the time-stop field in Dark Duel; it is forcibly dispelled once the duel is over.

Of course, it's not necessary to finish the game; the initiator can cancel it at any time. For example, Kaito and Yuma's first battle in the TV series didn't finish. Kaito was about to win, but after hearing from Orbit 7 that his younger brother, Haruto, was in trouble, his brother-complex kicked in, and he immediately lost interest in playing cards, turned around, and left. The time-stop field was also immediately canceled.

The people around them finally came to their senses. Even Kong Quewu looked around blankly—from her perspective, You Xuanhe City had all vanished into thin air in an instant.

Turning around, I saw that the two of them had already moved, and there was a disheveled blond boy on the ground with his mouth open and eyes closed.

Kaito took the full force of his own Super Galaxy Eye attack, sending him flying backward. His body rolled several times on the slippery mud before coming to a stop. Cold rainwater slid down his cheeks, mingling with the earthy smell that seeped into his mouth. He struggled to prop himself up.

His trench coat was originally black, but when Kaito needed to activate "Photon Mode" during duels, the coat would turn white. At this moment, the pristine white trench coat was covered in brown mud, and muddy water was still dripping from the hem.

"You bastard."

Kaito gritted his teeth and slammed his fist into the muddy ground, splashing mud onto his cheek. Rainwater lashed against his clenched fist, trickling through his fingers into the small puddles he'd created. He looked up; the rain blurred his vision, but he could still see his opponent's towering figure above him.

The demon who had merged with dimensions had his bangs plastered to his forehead, and the water droplets dripping from the ends of his hair seemed like a silent mockery.

For a duelist, nothing is more infuriating than having Tahm Kench stolen. And if anything could be more infuriating, it would be having Tahm Kench and his brother's Bond Crystal stolen together.

If there's anything more infuriating than this, it's probably that you can't beat that bastard.

Kaito struggled to his feet, seemingly wanting to say something. But at that moment, a vortex suddenly and silently opened up behind Kaito, with seven-colored light flowing eerily in the darkness.

His body shuddered violently, and he looked down to see his fingertips beginning to disintegrate into tiny specks of light. These specks, as light as fireflies, were uncontrollably drawn into the vortex. Before he could utter a single word, his entire being crumbled like sand art. First, his arms transformed into golden starlight, then his legs scattered into silver radiance, and finally, even his angry expression shattered into countless particles of light. All the fragments swirled and were pulled into the depths of the vortex, which, after swallowing the last speck of light, instantly contracted as if erased by an eraser, leaving only a few withered leaves slowly drifting down from where they had been.

Jōnei was startled and hurriedly ran to where Kaito had just been. He looked around with wide eyes, then turned to look at Yūgen.

"You took him?"

Jonouchi vaguely felt he had seen something similar before. Those who lost in a dark duel either had their souls extracted, leaving them empty shells, or they would simply evaporate and be swallowed by the darkness—just like what this boy had just done. And as far as he knew, Yuugen seemed to be someone who possessed such power.

But You Xuan shook his head: "I have no grudge against him, why would I kill him? Besides, even if I had that intention, I should at least find out his background first, right?"

Seeing that the city still had a somewhat skeptical expression, Yu Xuan sighed, pointed to the place where Kaito had disappeared, and said, "Look, he's completely gone, there's nothing left."

"If I were to actually kill him, do you think I would allow him to die with that exclusive deck from another dimension?"

Jonouchi then showed a look of realization and nodded: "Indeed, you wouldn't do that."

You Xuan's face darkened. Damn it, did I have to remind you that you hadn't removed the deck before you believed me? Do I really look that much like a bad person?

Jonouchi asked, "What about him?"

"They've probably gone back to their own dimension," You Xuan said casually.

It seems the other party came prepared for this event.

Kaito's exit method is quite common in the ZEXAL series. Early on, the three sons of the throne, who were boss-level villains, all exited this way after losing their cards. Later, the Seven Varia Emperors also frequently used similar exit effects. Even with a life-or-death card, after dying, his body can be teleported back to his own dimension or headquarters, returning to the fountain and becoming a vegetable.

Yu Xuan speculated that Kaito might have used similar technology here, with a return-to-space program pre-programmed on him before he arrived, much like a deep-sea diver wearing a safety rope. If he encounters danger, the program will automatically activate and pull him back to his own timeline.

Of course, if Yuugen had used his Dark Duel technique to kill Kaito, then even if he were pulled back, he would be a corpse. The power of the Dark Duel is something that cannot be escaped even if one flees dimensions.

However, Yu Xuan naturally didn't go for the kill. Just like he had told Jonouchi, even if he wanted to eliminate the opponent, he at least had to get to the bottom of things first. Moreover, there were still many questions surrounding their inexplicable enmity with the Z4 Dimensional Fica faction.

"You should go to the academy first; Judai is already waiting there," Yu Xuan said. "I've also arranged for a banquet to be prepared."

"Aren't you coming?" Jonouchi asked.

"Okay, let's leave it for today. I've already notified the professional team, they'll be here to investigate soon, I'll stay and see."

Yu Gen stared at the spot where Kaito had disappeared, a look of keen interest on his face.

"Although he escaped using this time-space technology, it might actually have given us an opportunity. What's next?"

You Xuan smiled and licked his lips.

"We might be able to use this to find our way to their dimension."

(End of this chapter)