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

Chapter 435 Albus & Excalibur

For a full five minutes, Shen Shen vented his anger, exhaling most of the pent-up frustration in his chest, before his expression softened slightly.

Seeing this, Xia Sheng, with his high emotional intelligence, opened the supercomputing ring on his wrist and took out a sealed evidence bag from the virtual storage compartment.

Inside the bag was a small amount of grayish-white powder.

"Manager, take a look at this." Xia Sheng handed over the bag.

Shen Shen glanced at it, took the bag, and rubbed the powder between her fingertips through the bag. Her previously lazy eyes sharpened. She tore open the seal, poured out a little, and rubbed it gently on her fingertips. The familiar texture made her frown.

"The remnants of the Dream Pit...where did you get them?"

“Latia, behind some rubble and not far from the Pope’s body,” Xia Sheng answered truthfully, then his gaze swept over the glass tubes in the room. “What’s the origin of these tubes in the mansion?”

"I don't know about that." Shen Shen spread his hands and returned the powder to Xia Sheng. "These things were already here when I took over Mo Wang Manor. They were probably found by that idiot manor lord from some nook or cranny."

"No, it's not that~" A graceful figure descended from the sky on a broom, stirring up a gentle breeze.

The Heavenly Demoness, holding a thick "contract," hovered steadily in mid-air and corrected, "It wasn't purchased by the Lord of the Manor; it was a gift from one of his friends."

She tilted her head, trying hard to recall, but her tone was uncertain.

"Huh~ How strange. I clearly remember there is such a person, but I can't remember what he looks like... I even forgot whether he was a man or a woman."

Upon hearing this, Shen Shen scoffed as if he had heard something out of the blue: "He has friends? What unlucky guy would be so foolish as to do that?"

“He’s not a loser!” The Heavenly Witch immediately puffed out her cheeks, put her hands on her hips, and retorted angrily, “Mr. Mickey used to be a very nice person! He had many friends!”

"Fine, fine..." Shen Shen waved her hand impatiently. She was tired of scolding and too lazy to argue anymore. "Mr. Mickey is the best, okay?"

Xia Sheng ignored their bickering, clutching the evidence bag in his hand and muttering to himself, "Mr. Mickey's friend..."

The Heavenly Demoness was referring to Mickey's friend from when he was still the Left Divine Envoy.

That's a very broad range. The Heavenly Demoness wasn't wrong; Mickey can chat with anyone in the Underworld.

More importantly, even the memories of someone of the Heavenly Demoness's caliber are blurred, indicating that the other party is either of extremely high rank or... uses some kind of special authority.

To put it boldly, it's even possible that Mickey protected his friend, using the authority of the Mo Wang Mansion to keep it a secret even from the Heavenly Demoness.

The clues pointed to a bottomless vortex.

Just then, a soft "hum" interrupted Xia Sheng's thoughts.

Inside the two dream tubes, the once calm and still white vapor began to churn violently, overflowing from all sides of the tubes.

The two blank bodies inside the tube trembled violently!
Then came violent convulsions, like a machine that had been dormant for centuries being recharged, every muscle and every nerve painfully and greedily merging with the new soul.

"It's done." Shen Shen looked at the synchronization rate on the instrument, which had soared and then stabilized, and uttered two words calmly.

The next second, the fingers of one of the bodies suddenly curled up.

"Click."

The sharp crack did not come from the instrument, but from the bones.

The body, which had just curled its fingers, turned its neck in an extremely stiff and ergonomic way, one notch at a time.

Immediately afterwards, another body began to respond, its limbs banging against the transparent tube wall, making dull "bang" sounds.

"Om-"

The glass covers of the two dream tubes slowly rose upwards.

"Plop!" "Plop!"

Losing their support, the two brand-new bodies collapsed to the ground simultaneously, thrashing about clumsily like two fish out of water.

The two tried to prop themselves up, but the instructions from their brains became a jumbled mess in unfamiliar nerves. Their arms wouldn't obey them, and their legs felt like they weighed a ton. Every tiny movement was accompanied by the excruciating pain of tearing muscles.

This is a rejection reaction between the soul and the body.

"Let them get used to it first," Shen Shen said calmly.

Xia Sheng held his breath, and the Heavenly Demoness curiously poked her head down from the broom.

Finally, one of the blank bodies, a girl with long golden hair, raised her head with all her might. Her eyelids trembled as she opened them with difficulty.

A pair of pale blue eyes, initially empty and lifeless, when exposed to light...

The world transformed from a chaotic darkness into a place with color and shape.

She saw the ceiling, Xia Sheng, the Heavenly Demoness, and Shen Shen.

Then, she looked at the boy with short black hair who was struggling and convulsing beside her, 'drowning'.

The boy slowly adjusted to his body, stopped convulsing, and opened his eyes at that moment, his golden pupils filled with confusion and pain.

Eyes facing each other.

There were no words, but a kind of joy that transcended life and death exploded in their eyes.

"What's your name?" Shen Shen suddenly asked, ending this silent reunion.

The black-haired boy, Albus, moved his lips, making a hoarse sound in his throat. He tried hard to organize his thoughts, but his tongue was like a stiff piece of wood, and in the end, he could only squeeze out a few broken syllables.

“Ah…ba…ba…”

"Useless." Shen Shen commented succinctly.

Her gaze shifted to the other side.

The blonde girl, Acrisia, was intently controlling her mouth muscles, opening and closing them, feeling the sensation of her teeth colliding and the unfamiliar sensation of her tongue swirling in her mouth.

After a long while, she finally regained some control over her body and asked, word by word, in a dry, hoarse voice, as if she hadn't spoken for centuries:
Is there...is there any food...?

"Cough." The Heavenly Demoness couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Xia Sheng was also taken aback, then burst into laughter.

Shen Shen sighed softly, "There's no food."

As she spoke, she casually swiped on the supercomputing ring, and a brightly colored snack bag appeared out of thin air, which she handed over.

"Some snacks."

The bag landed in Acrisia's hands; it was a packet of mixed beans with a cartoon bull's head on the packaging, breathing fire from the spiciness.

With trembling hands, Acricia struggled to tear open a small opening, picked up a peanut covered in red powder, and hesitantly put it into her mouth.

The moment the tip of my tongue touched that spicy powder.

A domineering, scorching, and unreasonable aura exploded out!

Centuries of deathly silence and nothingness were completely shattered by this sudden stimulus. Axelia's body trembled violently, and her pale blue eyes widened instantly.

She forgot to chew and just stared blankly at it.

Then, tears welled up without warning and slid down her cheeks one by one.

It was neither sadness nor joy.

It means to be alive.

It was this body of flesh and blood that was telling her in the most real and intense way—you've come back to life.

She pushed the bag of snacks in front of Albus, her voice trembling with tears: "You...you should try it too."

Albus followed her example and ate one as well.

The next second, he froze, his golden pupils trembled violently, and his eye sockets turned red at a visible speed.

Looking at this heartbreaking scene before him, Xia Sheng thought of the events of the Seventh Epoch and a sudden feeling of emotion welled up in his heart.

To have a body of flesh and blood, to feel pain, to get tired, to die—that is sorrow. To have a body of flesh and blood, to taste flavors, to shed tears, to embrace one another—that is also joy.

Sorrow is flesh and blood, joy is flesh and blood.

"Alright." Shen Shen didn't interrupt this touching reunion. "After you finish eating, wipe your mouth clean and sign the contract."

Albus & Axelcia munched on snacks: "My life is yours now."

The two signed the soul contract without even reading its contents, and even stood up to give Shen Shen a hug as a token of gratitude.

"You'd better stay away from me." Shen Shen raised his hand to refuse the hug. "I'm recklessly testing the limits of the rules, and the Right Divine Envoy could come and stab me at any moment."

Albus and his companion paused in their steps.

Shen Shen is indeed pushing the limits of Tian Zhi Yue's patience with every step he takes now.

“Illegal recruitment and illegal reincarnation are minor matters; at most, I’ll die,” Shen Shen said solemnly.

"But the three of you now."

"Once you sign the contract with Mo Wangfu, your soul will bear the mark of Mo Wangfu."

She looked at the three of them and said in a hoarse voice, word by word: "Never violate the three major precepts."

Those who have died once understand the fragility of life even more.

With tears still wet on their faces, Acricia and Albus carefully held the snacks and asked absentmindedly, "What exactly happened in the real world?"

In their time, there had been world-ending disasters... but Mo Wang Mansion had never been so... reckless as it is now.

Shen Shen rubbed his temples and tilted his head toward Xia Sheng: "You tell me, you just got back, you know better than me."

"Okay," Xia Sheng replied and walked up to the two of them.

He looked at the two faces that were both familiar and unfamiliar, pondering where to begin.

"It all started with two World Destruction Cards."

Xia Sheng's voice was calm; he didn't embellish his emotions, but simply stated one fact after another.

In one hour, they talked about 003, the Double Shadow Disease, the Soul Binding Division, the clock, the twelve-hour hand, the metaverse, the great war in the Sky Sanctuary, the strategy of Labyrinth, and the adventures in Grantia. To sum up the present world in one word, it is absurd.

The real world is a place of turmoil, plagued by war, disease, and extreme wealth inequality, while the metaverse is a world of unbridled entertainment and nightly revelry.

Acricia filtered through most of the words and asked curiously, "Is that metaverse really that fun?"

"Could you... give it a try?" she winked.

In Xia Sheng's description, it is humanity's second home, the world's only pure land, with more than a billion daily active users.

Xia Sheng looked at Shen Shen, unsure how to respond.

“That works too.” Shen Shen nodded in reply. “It just so happens that the task you’re investigating is related to the metaverse, so it’s good to learn about it.”

She took a helmet from the supercomputing ring, detached the genetic binding, and handed it to Albus: "Just log into my account, it has everything you need, just click block once you're in."

Albus and Acyria's eyes shone like stars, like children who had found a rare treasure, excitedly examining the helmet in their hands, their curiosity undisguised.

Xia Sheng leaned closer to Shen Shen, his voice low: "It's related to the metaverse. The mission target is the Doctor?"

“Most likely,” Shen said in a deep voice, his gaze falling on Albus and the other person before quickly returning to his own. “The abnormal reincarnation point is in the Dream Collapse Realm. They are artificially corrupting souls and mass-producing… out-of-control containers.”

Xia Sheng's pupils contracted slightly, and a chill ran through him.

Dr. Fujiki is still imitating that person, inheriting that twisted ideology, acting without any bottom line and without any taboos.

On the other side, Albus couldn't wait to put on the helmet, and then Acyria snatched it away. The two took turns trying it on, their exclamations rising and falling, as if they had discovered the door to a new world.

"The visuals, the feel!" Albus removed his helmet, his eyes still filled with awe. "It's amazing, just like the real thing!"

"I love the feeling of the wind on my cheeks!" Excruciate exclaimed excitedly, spinning her helmet. "Has modern technology advanced to this level?!"

These two perished at the end of the Sixth Era, falling just before the dawn of civilian use in the metaverse.

Before long, their excitement was replaced by a subtle sense of disgust.

"What's going on?" Aklisia frowned. "Why is her skin... all covered in [Wind-Traveling Bird]?"

Albus also frowned.

Shen Shen's temple throbbed, and he tried his best to suppress his anger, saying, "If you don't like it, just go to the store and buy it. Aren't there tons of DP? Enough for you to squander."

However, a short while later, new complaints came, tinged with resentment.

"What a lousy shop!" Acricia exclaimed in exasperation. "Why isn't there [Saintess Acricia, the Teacher]?"

"Exactly!" Albus chimed in indignation. "They don't even have [Albus's Fallen Heir], are they even going to sell skins now?!"

Xia Sheng sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation, while Shen Shen was about to explode. These two had an obsessive insistence on their image.

"Okay, okay." Shen took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "I do have a custom skin slot in my account, but I haven't filled it out yet."

Their eyes lit up again, but Shen Shen's next words were like a bucket of cold water poured over them.

"But you can only order one."

Four hundred years of friendship, at this moment, shows signs of cracking.

Albus hesitated for a long time, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He cleared his throat and cautiously began, "Acricia, um... there's a [Guiding Saintess Quim] skin in the shop, could you... could you make do with that for now?"

Axelia was taken aback for a moment, then smiled, her smile carrying a hint of gentleness and a touch of coldness. She gently patted Albus's shoulder and said softly, "Oh, you're absolutely right."

"Anyway, the guiding saintess is also a saintess."

"Arube and Albus are both 'A'~"

Albus froze, his face turning deathly pale, and looked at Shen Shen pleadingly: "Really... is it only possible to customize one?"

"Are you two ever going to stop?!" Shen Shen roared, his sharp eyes sweeping over the two of them. "It's just a skin, is it really worth arguing about for so long?!"

"If you don't know how to choose, just choose your friend!"

"Friends?" Albus and Acyria tilted their heads at the same time, and then a name suddenly popped into their minds.

“Kit!” (X2)

The two tacitly chose to customize their friend's skin, 【Iron Beast's Flame Maiden】.

Three days later, the custom-made premium skin was completed.
Albus and Acynia take turns experiencing the Prestige skins, having a blast exploring the Metaverse.

Unfortunately, Shen Shen was afraid that they would get involved in unnecessary karma, so he asked them to block them, and users with lower access levels than Dragon level could not see them.

Suddenly, a beam of light descended from the sky, extremely magnificent.

"Legendary skin!" Akrisia went closer to watch the excitement.

After watching the show for a while, the two main characters finally began their duel.

"Albus, there's a duel! Come watch!"

The first game is over.

"Wow—zero kill! The Palace Master of Silver City is so strong!"

"Could those two epic cards be the ones Xia Sheng was talking about?"

Just as the two were discussing duels and duelists, the little girl sitting at her feet, Asteria, suddenly looked up and spoke to her.

"Do they have to lose one of them?"

(End of this chapter)