People in Yu-Gi-Oh! The hyper-converged audience is also integrated

Chapter 404 Who is the strongest duelist here?

Inside the analysis room, the [Mental Collapse] on the suspended platform emitted tiny, pale purple particles of light, and Xiao Ai was adjusting the parameters of the scanning instrument with a robotic arm.

Tang Xin was bored, so she squatted down next to the platform with her chin in her hand, staring intently at the cards, her little feet tapping the ground lightly in rhythm with the data stream.

Le Tong leaned against the wall, clutching her unfinished milk tea, taking sips every now and then. Mickey held a camera and circled around the instrument, even taking pictures of the texture on the instrument's base. Izanagi sat in the temporary office chair that had been brought over, pulling up the security records for the analysis room.

Li Guanqi stood on the other side of the suspended platform, looking at the cards, his fingertips occasionally rubbing his wrist unconsciously, as if he was recalling something.

Current parsing progress: 15%

Just then, familiar footsteps came from the corridor, and Ella walked in quickly.

She first glanced at the central floating platform, then looked at everyone, her tone somewhat apologetic: "Sorry, there was a small problem in the energy control zone just now, I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting. How's the analysis progressing?"

Tang Xin immediately stood up, her eyes sparkling as she went to greet her, her voice filled with anticipation: "Sister Ella! The cards are being analyzed. Xiao Ai said the energy calibration and data collection are going smoothly, and it's expected to take another two hours to complete."

At this point, she tugged at Ella's sleeve, her tone softening, "Since we have to wait so long anyway, can we go for a stroll around Elvira?"

Seeing Tang Xin's excited expression, Ella couldn't help but smile, her eyes full of gentleness: "Of course."

She then turned to the others: "Is there anyone else who wants to go sightseeing together? I can be your tour guide."

"Me! Me! Me!" Mickey immediately raised his hand, the camera still hanging around his neck, his eyes full of excitement.

Before he could finish speaking, Yue Tong reached out and pressed down on his shoulder with considerable force, forcing him back into his chair: "What do you mean, 'you'? You stay here and keep an eye on things, make sure the data doesn't go wrong. I'm going shopping with them!"

After saying that, she turned to Ella and gave her a bright smile, "Teacher Ella, I want to see fireflies!"

Mickey pouted, looking aggrieved, and sat down with the camera in his arms, muttering under his breath.

At this moment, Li Guanqi raised his head, remained silent for a few seconds, and slowly raised his hand, saying calmly, "I also want to take a look around."

Ella nodded and looked at Izuna, who hadn't yet responded.

Iizuna said calmly, "I won't go. I've already seen everything I wanted to see, and I don't feel comfortable leaving Mickey to watch the cards alone."

Ella nodded and said with a smile, "Alright, while the cards are still being analyzed, I'll show the three of you around and try to get back before the analysis is finished."

After saying that, she turned and walked towards the door, with the supercomputing ring projecting a pale blue guiding light in front of her.

Li Guanqi followed behind Ella, Tang Xin skipped along, and Letong reached out to pull the camera hanging around Mickey's neck: "Can I borrow it? I'll take pictures of the Sky Garden for you, it'll definitely look great!"

Mickey gripped the camera strap tightly: "No!"

"You're such a cheapskate!" Le Tong rolled her eyes, then gave up and quickly caught up with the group.

Ella led the three through the corridor and soon arrived at the entrance to the Sky Garden.

The air here is fresher than in the analysis room, and it carries a faint fragrance of grass and trees. Countless vines hang down from the metal supports.

Ella raised her hand and tapped the invisible wall beside her. A soft white light flashed, and the originally bright sky gradually darkened, as if night had suddenly fallen.

Just as Tang Xin and Le Tong were wondering, countless tiny lights floated out from among the vines. They were fireflies, twinkling with tiny lights. Some flew around the vines, while others drifted to the three of them, as if to say hello.

"They're fireflies! They really are fireflies!" Tang Xin exclaimed in surprise, reaching out to touch the faint light, but afraid of disturbing them, she carefully stopped and took out her phone to take pictures.

Le Tong jumped up excitedly, pointed her phone camera at the fireflies, and kept pressing the shutter button, exclaiming, "How romantic! I wish I could watch this with someone I like."

Upon hearing this, Tang Xin stopped moving, stiffly turned her head, and glanced at Li Guanqi beside her.

As Li Guanqi watched the fireflies dancing in the sky, a glimmer of light appeared in his eyes, and his originally calm gaze was now filled with emotion.

A firefly landed on her fingertip. Ella spoke softly, with a hint of meaning in her voice, her gaze fixed on Li Guanqi. She spoke to him alone, "Fireflies were supposed to have gone extinct two hundred years ago. Do you know why Elvira wanted to bring them back to life?"

Tang Xin and Le Tong were busy taking photos and didn't notice Ella's change in tone at all.

After a moment of silence, Li Guanqi slowly spoke, "Because of the Angel's Tears."

"The darkness of Angel's Tears comes from the marrow of beasts from the abyss, while the starlight of Angel's Tears comes from the luciferin of fireflies."

A hint of approval flashed in Ella's eyes, and she nodded with a smile: "Smart, we welcome smart people."

She paused, her tone softening slightly, a hint of inquiry in her eyes, and continued, "So, the complete formula for Angel's Tears."

Before she could finish asking, Li Guanqi lowered his eyes, his fingertips curling slightly at his side, and suddenly changed the subject: "Since you've come all this way, I wonder if we could take a look around room 505?"

Ella was clearly taken aback, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes.

She paused, raised her hand to touch the supercomputing ring on her wrist, and quickly swiped her fingertips across the light screen: "Room 505 is a restricted area. I need to apply for temporary access first, and it's not certain whether it will be approved."

A semi-transparent application interface was projected, listing a dense list of permission application terms. Ella first entered her employee number and identity verification information, then checked "historical area investigation" in the "Reason for Application" field, paused for a moment, added "to cooperate with the needs of the Shenwu Department's analysis team," and clicked submit.

The supercomputing ring emitted a soft "beep" sound, and the message "Permissions under review" popped up on the screen.

Tang Xin ran over, holding her phone, and proudly showed the photo to Ella: "Sister Ella, look! Isn't this photo of fireflies twining around vines gorgeous?"

Ella smiled, took the phone, praised them a couple of times, and helped them adjust the camera angle. A moment later, the supercomputing ring suddenly lit up, and a notification sound appeared saying "Permission request approved".

A string of silver numerical codes appeared on the screen—a temporary access code for 10 minutes.

"It's approved. I only have 10 minutes." Ella sent the visit code to Li Guanqi, her tone filled with curiosity. "You actually got approved? Why are you so interested in Room 505?"

Li Guanqi took the visit code, lightly touched the light screen with his fingertip to save the code, and calmly said "thank you." He did not answer Ella's question, but instead said, "You don't need to take me. I can go by myself. You keep an eye on Tang Xin and Le Tong and make sure they don't run around, so they don't miss the analysis time."

"You go there by yourself?" Ella was taken aback.

Before she could speak again, Li Guanqi turned and walked towards the exit of the sky garden. When he reached the corner of the corridor, he stopped and gently tapped the invisible wall in front of him three times—first two light taps, then a one-second pause, and then one tap, with an exceptionally clear rhythm.

The next second, a light blue ripple appeared on the originally smooth wall, and a small elevator slowly slid out from behind the wall, with the elevator doors opening automatically.

Ella stood not far away, stunned, her mouth slightly agape, her eyes full of confusion.

"How did he know there was a hidden elevator here? And how did he know the rhythm of the knocking to activate it?"

This hidden elevator is an old feature of Elvira, known only to a few long-time employees, and its activation method has never been made public.

How could he?
She watched Li Guanqi walk into the elevator, the doors slowly closing, and her doubts deepened.

Tang Xin was still taking pictures of fireflies, with Le Tong helping her with the lighting. Tang Xin noticed something was wrong, stopped taking pictures, and turned to look at Li Guanqi.

Li Guanqi stepped into the elevator, his fingertips moving without hesitation as he raised his hand to press the buttons on the car wall—first pressing the bottom "Hidden Area" indicator, then quickly pressing the "B3" button twice, and finally pressing and holding the "Confirm" button for three seconds. His operation was so smooth that it seemed to be ingrained in his bones.

The cold light on the elevator walls dimmed for a moment, and the direction of travel quietly changed from "going up" to "going down," with the speed increasing slightly.

Li Guanqi leaned against the wall of the sedan chair and closed his eyes.

Less than a minute later, with a soft "ding," the elevator doors slowly slid open, revealing a narrow corridor.

Li Guanqi stepped out, his feet seemingly having their own will, walking forward along the corridor—turning left, going around the pipes in the corner, and taking three more steps. He didn't need to think about the whole process; it was as if he could arrive precisely with his eyes closed.

When he looked up, the three metal letters "505" were clearly visible in front of him, with small scratches still remaining on the edge of the doorplate.

Upon seeing the address, Li Guanqi paused for a moment, his breathing quickening.

He composed himself, raised his hand and entered the temporary access code into the verification screen in front of the door. A light blue light flashed, and the heavy iron door slowly slid open along the track.

The moment I stepped into the room, a familiar feeling washed over me, and a sense of comfort known as "home" spread from the bottom of my heart.

Room 505 is a simple two-bedroom, one-living-room layout. The outer room is the experimental area, with a lounge and a small storage room. It is not as dilapidated as one might imagine. The instruments next to the experimental table are still connected to power cords, indicating that Elvira occasionally uses this laboratory.

The experimental table in the very center was exactly the same as in his memory. Li Guanqi gazed at it from afar, walked to the table, and reached out to touch the beaker. Before his fingertips even touched the beaker, the scene before him swayed.

An illusion strikes without warning—

Five figures suddenly appeared beside the lab table. A man in a white lab coat was clenching his fist excitedly, his voice filled with excitement and urgency:

"God has locked us in a cage! Technology will be stuck at the seventh generation, we have to blow up the cage!"

"What god? What cage? You're a madman!"

"You don't understand! Bai, you must have noticed it too, right? The high-energy nitroglycerin beam suppresses the intelligent space; we can't move forward."

"Even if there really are cages, we should trust in the wisdom of future generations; they will solve the problem."

"Trust those who come after you? What are you talking about?"

"We just need to do our best."

"Just be yourself. Hahhh. Coward! You're a fucking coward!"

"So what if I'm a coward? What's wrong with living in the moment?"

"Exactly, you spend all your time researching this kind of thing, it's a complete waste of money and time."

"you--"

"Cowards, a bunch of cowards!"

The argument suddenly stopped, and the figures in front of them dispersed like smoke, leaving only Li Guanqi by the lab table.

Li Guanqi took a deep breath, suppressed the turmoil in his heart, glanced at the lab bench, and stepped into the rest room.

The lounge was simpler than the outer experimental area, with no unnecessary furnishings.

Against the wall stood a dark brown solid wood table with some wear on the edges. Next to the table was an equally old office chair with a slightly dented cushion. On the corner of the table was a computer with a thin layer of dust on the screen and its metal casing oxidized, revealing faint rust, indicating that it had not been used for a long time.

He walked to the chair, gently pulled it open, and the familiar touch made him pause slightly.

Li Guanqi's gaze fell on the dim computer screen, the thin layer of dust blurring the reflection. He subconsciously raised his hand and gently wiped the corner of the screen with his fingertips. Just then, the screen's reflection suddenly became clear, and he saw a familiar figure appear in the reflection—a man in a white coat, his hair slightly disheveled, leaning against the wall behind him, his hands in his pockets, looking at him with cold, gray eyes.

Memories flooded back like a tide, and the voices of two people echoed in his ears.
"Whether it's to cultivate the Black Aura or to avoid the devastating impact of these cards, the construction of the Metaverse is imperative."

"I understand the logic. Such a huge project requires a huge amount of manpower and resources. How much will it cost?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I said, this isn't something the two of us can handle alone. What does it matter whether I agree or not?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Can't you understand human language? This isn't that simple. It won't be resolved in less than a few decades, and we'll have to face many technical, financial, and public opinion challenges."

"What do you want to do?"

"You won't live to see that day! Don't you understand?!"

"What do you want to do?"

"Damn it, it's like a broken record."

Li Guanqi muttered to himself, staring at his reflection on the computer screen, a lingering tightness in his chest from the memories.

He raised his hand to press his temples, then got up and walked towards the only window in the lounge.

The window was an old-fashioned sliding type, with a thin layer of dust covering the metal frame. He reached out, grabbed the handle, and pushed it open with a little force.

A refreshing breeze immediately rushed in, carrying the unique coolness of high altitude.

Li Guanqi leaned against the window frame and looked out, his eyes filled with the prosperity of Elvira—in the transparent floating passage below, unmanned hovercars shuttled like streaks of light, and in the distance, the energy tower was slowly unfolding its "petal" shape.

A cool breeze brushed past his ear, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees. A relieved smile appeared on his lips, and his chest was filled with a comfortable coolness, even his fingertips relaxed.

In my pleasant state, another dialogue echoed in my mind, two weathered voices.

"I can also take one person out of this time and space. If we're lucky, we might even be able to travel to the future."

"Heh, a god who controls time and space, why do you speak with such a lack of confidence?"

"Are you going to go?"

Silence for a few seconds.

"Will there be someone I love in the future?"

"……do not know."

"Then forget it, I should just die in this era."

The conversation suddenly vanished from Li Guanqi's mind.

He shook his head and realized that he was staring blankly at the energy tower in the distance, his fingertips unconsciously gripping the window frame.

"What's wrong with living in the moment?"

Li Guanqi's fingertips were still gripping the cool touch of the window frame when the supercomputing ring on his wrist suddenly emitted a short "beep" sound, and a red prompt appeared on the screen: "Temporary access remaining for 30 seconds."

Ten minutes? How could it have gone by so fast?

He glanced back at the tables, chairs, and computers in the lounge with reluctance, took a deep breath, gently closed the window, turned around and walked quickly toward the door. Just before the iron gate closed, he took one last look at the "505" door number before stepping into the corridor.

He had only taken two steps when he stopped.

Tang Xin and Ella were standing at the corner at the end of the corridor, obviously waiting for him.

Seeing Li Guanqi come out, Ella stepped forward first, her tone tinged with worry: "I've been trying to contact you through the supercomputing ring, but I haven't received a reply. I was worried something might have happened to you, so I came to check on you."

Li Guanqi glanced at the supercomputing ring and realized that he had been so engrossed in his memories that he hadn't noticed the message notification. He said apologetically, "Sorry, I didn't see the message. Did something happen?"

"Let's talk as we walk. There's something going on in the analysis room." Ella said, turning around first, with Tang Xin following beside her.

Li Guanqi walked to the very edge, and heard Ella's voice in his ear: "Izuna just messaged me saying that the analysis progress of [Mental Collapse] has suddenly gotten stuck at 70%. Xiao Ai has repeatedly calibrated the instruments, but it's no use. The data is just stuck there. I was just thinking of taking you over to take a look."

Before the words were even finished, the three of them had just turned a corner in the corridor when two figures brushed past them from behind.

"Thump—!" My soul jolted violently!
Li Guanqi stopped in his tracks, his pupils widened, and the sounds around him were muted—Ella's next words and Tang Xin's worries all became blurry, and only his heart was pounding wildly in his chest.

"My brother, what's wrong?" Tang Xin noticed his unusual behavior, stopped and looked at him with a puzzled expression, her phone still showing a picture of fireflies.

Li Guanqi snapped out of his daze and subconsciously turned to look behind him, but the two figures had already turned the next corner and disappeared at the end of the corridor.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the agitation in his heart, and looked at Ella beside him, his voice tinged with urgency: "Do you know those two people? Are they Elvira's staff? Why weren't they wearing uniforms?"

They brushed past each other for only a moment, and he couldn't see their faces clearly, but he clearly remembered that the two people were wearing casual clothes.

Ella shook her head, tapped her fingertip on the supercomputing ring, and brought up the temporary personnel record in the corridor: "This is the first time I've seen this either, but the system didn't trigger an alarm. It should be a normal visitor, probably from another research team."

"I see." Li Guanqi responded softly, his gaze still fixed on the direction where the figure had disappeared, but the doubts in his heart had not dissipated.

At the other end of the corridor, around the corner, stood a man and a woman; the man's name was Luo Bai, and the woman's name was Yi Lan.

They were a homeless young couple.

However, home is where love is.

Yi Lan was holding a large bag of potato chips, with a small tear in the bag. She was chewing as she mumbled, "What's wrong?"

Luo Bai glanced in the direction where he had just brushed past Li Guanqi, his brows furrowed slightly, and he said softly, "It seems like I ran into a strange person, someone I can't quite place."

"Familiarity?" Yi Lan grabbed another chip from the bag and popped it into her mouth. "Which era's fragment of your soul is this?"

"It shouldn't be." Luo Bai stopped dwelling on it, glanced at the tightly closed 505 next to him, turned around and pushed open the door of the adjacent 502: "Never mind, let's take care of business first."

Room 502 has a simpler layout than Room 505. In the center is a metal machine about half a person's height, with tiny grooves all over its surface, which is in standby mode.

Luo Bai strode to the machine, spread his hand, and five cards floated out—[Cyber ​​Dragon Infinite], [Crystal Machine - Central Serpent], [Rescue ACE Team Turbulent Fire Truck], [Machine Puppet - Fan Fan Fantasy of Machine Descent], and [Sky Slash Machine].

The first four cards were surrounded by a faint golden halo, while the last one had a red halo. Without exception, each card had one or two clear cracks.

He placed the cards one by one into the slots of the machine. Just as he placed the last card, the machine emitted a soft prompt: [System repair in progress. Please wear the neural connection device to ensure stable connection of consciousness].

Luo Bai walked to the chair next to the machine and sat down. The metal support behind him slowly lowered, and countless tiny silver threads hung above his head.

Yi Lan, holding a bag of potato chips, came closer and was about to put a chip in her mouth when Luo Bai suddenly reached out and snatched the bag, grabbed a chip and stuffed it into his own mouth, saying indistinctly, "You've been eating all the way here, you spendthrift woman, give me this as a midnight snack."

"Give it back to me! I saved it up with so much effort!" Yi Lan reached out to grab it.
Luo Bai smiled and turned his head away, taking advantage of her inattention to grab two more pieces and stuff them into his mouth.

The metal wire slowly descended and precisely inserted into the neural interface in his head. A faint electrical sound rang out, and he slowly closed his eyes, the smile from when he was grabbing the potato chips still lingering on his lips.

Looking at his tightly closed eyes, a hint of worry flashed in Yi Lan's eyes. Even if she managed to snatch the potato chips back, they wouldn't taste so good anymore.

When Li Guanqi and the other two hurried back to the analysis room, the motion sensor light at the door had just turned on when they heard Izan's cold voice coming from inside: "Xiao Ai, recalibrate the energy frequency again and set the scanning accuracy to the highest level."

Pushing open the door, the first thing that catches the eye is the central floating platform—[Mental Collapse], which glows with tiny, pale purple particles of light. However, the flashing frequency of these particles is extremely slow, as if something is holding them back.

The progress bar is stuck at 70%, and the red "Data Stagnation" message keeps flashing.

Xiao Ai's robotic arm was still futilely adjusting the instrument parameters, its light pink body worn from continuous high-load operation.

[Warning: The resonance between the third scanning module and the card energy has been interrupted, and the seventh data acquisition channel is unresponsive. Three attempts to restart have failed.]

Ella quickly walked to Izuna's side and reached out to bring up another interface—the network connection records of the analysis room.

She tapped the "Data Transmission Link" section with her fingertip, her brows furrowing instantly, and she swore, a rare occurrence for her: "Those bastards from Huanbeng."

Tang Xin leaned closer, looking at the screen full of code and data, somewhat bewildered: "Anonymous data stream?"

Ella didn't answer immediately. Instead, she raised her hand and asked Xiao Ai to bring up the "Energy Interference Record". A waveform graph popped up on the screen, and the pale purple curve suddenly showed a sharp fluctuation three minutes ago.

She paused, her gaze sweeping over the anonymous data stream, her tone turning serious: "Now we can confirm that someone is deliberately preventing us from analyzing [Mental Collapse], and also trying to steal internal data."

"Xiao Ai, first disconnect all external data connections and restart the analysis program in local offline mode. I will manually calibrate the energy resonance parameters."

[Instruction received. Disconnecting external connection. Initiating offline mode.]

The indicator light on the Xiao Ai robotic arm changed from red to yellow, indicating that the instrument was being readjusted.

While operating the anti-intrusion system, Ella raised the supercomputing ring and said to the air, "Notify the security department to increase patrols around the analysis room. Two suspicious individuals were just spotted in area 500. The system did not trigger an alarm, but we need to confirm their identities and purposes."

Li Guanqi and the others could only watch; they couldn't get involved in such a professional matter.

Until Ella suddenly said—

"Among the five of you, who is the strongest in a duel?"

Mickey and Tang Xin took a step back at the same time, each pointing at one person.

"she."

"he."

They weren't sure who was the strongest, but it certainly wasn't the two of them.

(End of this chapter)