Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"It's you! What did you do to Professor Cobra!" Manjoume frowned, glancing at Jim beside him. Jim was also holding his prepared magnetic field monitoring device, pointing it at the mysterious entity that had appeared before them. The magnetic field pointer was stable at its maximum value, pointing straight ahead. Needless to say, the entity before them was the target of the energy collected by the "Death Gloves."

Furthermore, is it very possible that the very entity that gave Professor Cobra his inhuman arm and the mysterious power to materialize Duel Monsters, which he hid in the underground research facility of SAL, is indeed not underground, but has come here, just as Amon Garrum said?

"What did I do? I thought you heard what I said to Klaus just now." The golden energy life form looked quite helpless—although it had no facial features, its body language could still express some emotions. "Of course, I gave him the 'miracle' he craved."

"His greatest love was for his adopted son, but when Klaus lost his adopted son, that immense love naturally turned into darkness of the same magnitude. I knew this, so I promised him that after I was resurrected, I would help him see his adopted son again and let his adopted son be with him forever."

"Look, isn't this wish quite obvious? No one can live forever, and besides, one of them is already dead. So there's only one way to fulfill this wish from the beginning—that is, I will use the darkness in his heart to construct the illusion he wants to see, so that his adopted son will appear in front of him and die under such circumstances."

"In this way, he not only saw his adopted son, but he can also stay with his adopted son forever. I am sincerely fulfilling his wish."

“But Dr. Cobra doesn’t know that, does he?” Jim said coldly, looking at the golden energy life form. “What he craves is clearly two different things from what you can actually give him. You’ve been hiding this from him and using him, haven’t you? And now you want to kill him!”

"What's wrong with being immersed in the world of illusion! Isn't this exactly what he wants?" the golden energy being said righteously. "And how do you know if Klaus, who has experienced too many cruel things in his life, still has any attachment to reality?"

"Why would you do something like that! And who exactly are you?!" Jaden also said.

When others spoke, the golden energy life form remained calm, like someone who felt helpless but indifferent after hearing the barking of a wild dog. However, when Judai questioned her about who she was, the golden energy life form's attitude changed immediately.

“You just said, ‘Who exactly are you?’ Who exactly am I… That’s a good question, Judai, but those annoying guys around you can ask that question, but you’re the only one who can’t ask me!”

"Who am I? What are you talking about! Have you forgotten me? Forgotten my name, forgotten my love for you, forgotten your love for me?"

With only her materialized left arm covering her chest, the golden energy being couldn't help but want to use its energy to heal its injuries and stand in front of Judai in its true form. However, after noticing Asuka's hand still supporting Judai, its eyes suddenly sharpened.

"So that's how it is! So that's why that annoying woman caught your attention, right? That's why you didn't really remember me and easily cast our eternal love into the corner of oblivion, right!"

Using two consecutive "Is that right?" to question Judai, the golden energy life form's voice shifted from mockery and contempt to utter coldness, "So, if I drive them all away from you, so that you can only see me and think about things related to me, you'll never forget me again, right?"

"What... are you saying?" Jaden stared blankly at the golden energy life form that had decided to do something on its own.

“Nonsense, I can’t understand it.” Wan Zhangmei said, taking a step to the side, which blocked half of O’Brien’s body. Under his cover, O’Brien quietly drew his gun-shaped duel disk, which he had already loaded, preparing to find an opportunity to kill his opponent.

“Very good! I’ll do it right now!” The golden energy entity clenched its fist and tapped its materialized left palm, then continued, “If you kill the person you care about most from the beginning, won’t your heart become numb by the end? True love is called ‘pain.’ You, Judai, personally taught me that, and I have enjoyed the love called ‘pain’ that you gave me for so many years. Now it’s my turn to give you, Judai, my love!”

"I won't let anyone here go, starting with this useless guy who had the worst relationship with you, Jaden. After all, I promised him I would grant his wish, and I like to finish what I start."

With a wave of his hand, the golden energy being seemed to be caught in an illusion, and Professor Cobra actually started moving and continued walking towards the edge of the platform.

Watching Professor Cobra stand up like a puppet and suddenly walk step by step towards the edge of the platform, even knowing that the other party was the instigator of a series of events since the beginning of this semester, John couldn't just watch him jump off and die. He was about to take a step forward to stop him: "Professor Cobra!"

"Tsk tsk, it's not your turn yet, don't cut in line!"

Like kicking away a person who had hanged themselves and then angrily shouting "No swinging indoors!", the golden energy body waved its left hand, and a black shockwave struck John. But at the same time, from the card box at John's waist, seven [Jade Beasts] jumped out and blocked the attack!

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

However, the seemingly powerful lineup of spirits only resulted in a slight reduction in attack power. A casual strike from the golden energy lifeform injured and repelled all of John's [Jade Beast] spirits back into the deck. Although the smallest [Jade Beast - Ruby Beast] was not destroyed on the spot, it was still hit by the attack and crashed into John's arms, sending John flying!

"John!" Judai quickly stood behind John and caught him as he was thrown backward, preventing him from falling off the platform. The impact from John caused Judai, who wasn't fully recovered, to cough.

John wasn't much better off. Although the force of the blow was reduced and it wasn't fatal, he almost coughed up blood on the spot. Others might not have heard it, but John himself clearly heard the sound of bones breaking in his body, knowing that he was definitely seriously injured.

"John!?" Noticing John's pale face, Judai quickly asked with concern.

"It's alright, Judai, it's not a fatal wound." Clutching his injured stomach, John stubbornly insisted, though he roughly estimated that he had broken one or two ribs. He still forced himself to stand up. "Compared to those... Jim!"

"I don't know what you are, but it seems like all your attacks are launched with your left hand." While Judai and the others were distracted, Jim launched a sneak attack, using his whip to entangle the golden energy life form's only materialized left hand. "Got you! Give it your all, Kallen!"

"Gah!" With a twist of her neck using the whip, the crocodile Karen, together with Jim, actually pulled the golden energy life form's hand to the other side, causing the other to stumble.

Meanwhile, O'Brien had already taken aim, and Jim's harassment was merely a cover for him; his real killing move was the gun-shaped duel disk that he pulled the trigger on!

"Om-!"

"Clang!"

Just as O'Brien fired a [Volcano Bullet] card from his Duel Disk as a bullet, aiming to sever the golden energy life form's arm, the golden energy life form, which had just seemed genuinely caught off guard by the continuous attacks, suddenly sneered, raised its right hand (still an energy form), and created a barrier to block the attack!

"Did I say that I can only activate my abilities with my left hand?" The card that blocked the [Volcano Bomb] was pinched and crushed into powder by the alien's left hand. The golden energy life form waved its hand again, "Can't you all line up properly?"

"Ugh!" "Gah!" "Uh!"

Jim, Kallen the Crocodile, and O'Brien had no time to react and were each struck down by a black current of energy. But it seemed that the golden energy life form had deliberately spared their lives so that it could finish them off one by one in order. After confirming that none of them were able to fight back, the golden energy life form looked at the only two people who could still stand—Asuka and Manjoume—and said, "Don't you want to give it a try?"

"Hmph, if we're talking about who has the worst relationship with Jellyfish Head, it should be me, right?" Stopping Asuka who was trying to say something, Manjoume noticed that the person in front of him had shown murderous intent towards Asuka more than once. "You can't even get the order of killing right. You're just a third-rate nobody."

"Hehe, this kind of friendship where someone would sacrifice themselves to protect their friend is really touching—it's so touching that I'm almost going crazy with jealousy!"

Looking past Manjoume at Judai, the golden energy being casually struck him down as if he were a roadside stray. She didn't bother with Asuka, but instead spread her hands to the side, gesturing for Judai to look in that direction. "Alright, Judai, the troublemaker is gone for now. Let's all enjoy watching this man's demise!"

The more cheerful the golden energy life form's tone, the more cruel the end of Professor Cobra's life that Jaden would witness next would be. Although the sun had set, Jaden could still clearly see the genuine joy and happiness that Professor Cobra showed as he was immersed in a blissful illusion.

“Rick…” Stepping on the edge of the platform, Professor Cobra took a step and fell down right in front of Jaden and the others.

"Professor Cobra..." Even though Professor Cobra had committed so many evil deeds, seeing someone fall to their death right before his eyes still caused Jaden to feel a deep sense of kinship and pain at the loss of others. At the same time, he looked at his fallen companions around him, and the pain on their faces made him feel a similar sense of empathy and distress.

"You're no longer human!" Standing up, Jaden raised his Duel Disk and said, "I will absolutely, absolutely not let you hurt anyone else! If you're going to attack, start with me!"

However, upon hearing Judai's words, the golden energy life form appeared agitated and distressed: "That's not right!"

"I already killed your Professor Cobra, whom you clearly hated and loathed, right? But why, Jaden, even though you're looking at me, do I only sense your emotions towards others?" The golden energy being, arms outstretched, looked around, utterly bewildered. "You're only looking at me, but why? Why are you still thinking about others? Why—I don't feel your love for me?"

"No! No, no, no! Did I get the order wrong? This can't be!" Grabbing his hair, his materialized fingers ran through the energy being's hair, the golden energy life form suddenly realized something, "Wait a minute... Could it be because of that, because Judai, your mind sensed too many irrelevant things?"

"By the way, Hayato Kobayashi and his gang called it 'Planar' or 'New-Type,' right? Jaden, you must have sensed too many irrelevant people's emotions to be unable to concentrate on just looking at me and thinking about me." The golden energy life form stomped its foot in annoyance and looked down at its feet with displeasure. "It's all because of Earth's environment, this damn gravity!"

"There will be a way, a way to get you away from the troubles of this human world, Judai. It will definitely make you stop caring about these boring humans!" Thinking this, the golden energy life form said excitedly, "That's exactly right, that's how it should be! After all, Judai's wish is to enjoy dueling, isn't it? The gravity of the human world is indeed too restrictive of your free soul. So—"

"—Come on, Jaden, let's go to the new world that's perfect for you!"

Chapter 1754 The boy and girl who traveled through the world, and Old Deng

In the real world, starting from the elevator platform where the golden energy life form, [Yubel], and Jaden were located, a white light curtain unfolded and rapidly expanded.

Expanding from the SAL laboratory to the lake on the island, the Obelisk-Blue dormitory was immediately surrounded by the light curtain. Then the light curtain crossed the mountains and enveloped the Sun God-Yellow dormitory next to the academy. It then included the main building of the Duel Academy headquarters and even extended to the distant coastline, covering the last Osiris-Red dormitory.

Professor Chronos and Coach Napoleon, who were originally supposed to stay on campus to take care of the students who had collapsed and were gathered in the gymnasium, are now running between dormitories to comfort the students, because Ayukawa-sensei said that there are plenty of people who can lend a hand. As the two highest-ranking teachers, they should do what they should do and what only they can do.

"Finally, we've got the red dorm sorted out, huh? They don't even have a dorm supervisor to manage them, and all they have is a cat or something..." Napoleon muttered, expressing his dissatisfaction. "But the only redeeming quality these bad students have is that they're relatively obedient."

"You can't say that, can you? Among those searching for Professor Cobra for the students' safety are some students from the Red Dorm," Professor Chronos said, speaking up for Jaden. "Besides, being a 'bad student' is only a temporary state. Take Marufuji Sho, for example, who's now in the Yellow Dorm. He's worked hard to improve himself and get rid of the 'bad student' label, hasn't he?"

"To be able to fight to the death with Dilano Kenzan, one of the best second-year students, and fall together in the 'exposing duel,' you do have some skills, aru..." Coach Napoleon couldn't refute it, so he could only change the subject, "Alright, let's leave the small talk here and get on with the rest of the work, aru."

"Let me see. We've already confirmed the situation at the Yellow Dormitory, and Ms. Kabayama will help manage it. We've also worked together to calm the students down at the Red Dormitory. As for the Blue Dormitory, although I, as the head of the boys' dormitory, and Ms. Ayukawa, as the head of the girls' dormitory, are both unavailable, the new teachers, Mr. Malik and Mr. Lishid, have some management experience, which has put the students at ease. Okay, let's see."

After a pause, Professor Chronos was still a little confused. When Malik was managing the students in the Blue Dormitory in front of him, it looked like a mafia boss disciplining his underlings. But it must have just been his imagination.

"Due to the special circumstances, the students need to be careful not to go out and take risks. I've already asked Mr. Ameruda at the cafeteria to provide the students with a unified meal supply; Ms. Domi at the convenience store has also given us all her existing supplies to take as we please. Unfortunately, the convenience store doesn't have many medical supplies, and the medicines that the infirmary originally had are not enough to take care of so many students who have collapsed..."

Upon hearing Professor Chronos's words, Coach Napoleon said helplessly, "Although we have already sent extra supplies to the island, one day is only enough to complete the dispatch and deployment. Fortunately, Anasis Shipping Company reached an additional cooperation agreement with the academy and provided cargo ship transportation, so it should arrive tomorrow, Aru."

“Yes, our urgent problem will be solved tomorrow. I’ve also arranged for school workers at the dock to keep us informed as soon as there’s any news—” Professor Chronos subconsciously looked at the dock in the distance, which was somewhat dimly lit by lamplight after the sun had set, but he noticed a layer of white “fog” blocking his view.

"What is that, huh?" Coach Napoleon also looked puzzled. Like Professor Chronos, he hadn't noticed when that strange white substance had appeared around them.

But upon closer inspection, he noticed something was amiss. It wasn't the fog that surrounded them; otherwise, they would have been unable to see the Osiris-Red Dormitory, which was some distance away, just as they couldn't see the dock. Yet now, they could see everything clearly in every direction except for the direction towards the dock—or more precisely, towards the island's outskirts.

"That's not fog, it seems to be some kind of curtain?" Professor Chronos's eyes widened. "Could it be that it's enveloping the entire academy!?"

(The ever-expanding light curtain)

When Professor Chronos and Coach Napoleon discovered the light barrier, it was already quite late. Just a few seconds after they saw it, the light barrier released by [Yubel] had already expanded. Then, everything within the light barrier was enveloped by the power converted from duel energy by [Yubel], and a feeling of weightlessness enveloped everyone inside the light barrier!

"boom!"

Startled by the noise behind him, the school worker on the dock, who was exchanging information about shipping with the dock workers in Domino City, instinctively turned around, but saw nothing.

"What's wrong? Why is there such a loud noise over there?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I didn't see anything." At first, he didn't think anything was wrong. After all, if there had been an explosion, he should at least have seen flames or black smoke rising, but he saw nothing at all—he could see the volcano behind the school at a glance...

Cloth exchange?!

Turning his head sharply to look behind him again, the school janitor's face was filled with disbelief, and his voice trembled slightly: "I...I didn't see anything!?"

"If I didn't see anything, doesn't that mean everything is normal?"

"No, that's not it! What I mean is—" the school janitor said, "I can't see anything where the Duel Academy used to be. There's nothing there—the Duel Academy has disappeared!"

"Disappeared!?"

From the perspective of the extremely lucky school staff who were not surrounded by the light curtain, there was only a loud "boom" before the Duel Academy completely disappeared. If you looked down at Duel Academy Island from high above, you could see that a large piece of land on the island had been scooped out like a spoonful of ice cream, revealing the rock underneath.

To Jaden and the others, after the brief period of weightlessness, they were still standing on the elevator platform, and nothing in front of them had changed. If it weren't for the undeniable feeling of weightlessness and the disappearance of the mysterious and strange golden energy life form from their sight, Jaden would have thought he was hallucinating.

What just happened?

Seeing that Judai was looking at her, Asuka was just looking at Judai, or rather, the distant scenery behind Judai, with an expression that looked like she wanted to say something but didn't know how to say it. She could only point and gesture for Judai to look over: "I don't know how to say it either, but... maybe Judai, you'll see for yourself and it will be more intuitive."

Looking in the direction Asuka pointed, Jaden discovered that what was originally the ocean had strangely turned into a desert, with a submarine even "stranded" on the sand. Just as one could see an endless ocean when looking out from the island, everything Jaden and the others could see in the distance from the high platform was also an endless desert.

"The ocean has turned into land?! How is this possible?!" O'Brien considered himself to be relatively receptive to supernatural phenomena, but what he was seeing was no less than seeing a woman claim that someone's false accusation against her with a gun and sword was valid when no wrongdoing had occurred. He simply could not accept, believe, or understand it.

“But it’s impossible that some mysterious creature made the seawater disappear,” Jim pointed out. “After all, the seabed can’t be that shallow, can it?”

“The back mountain is still there, and we can still see the Duel Academy. But the active volcano is gone!” John stood up and looked at everyone, who seemed to have recovered after being defeated by that golden energy life form. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Compared to the ocean being gone, I feel like we’ve been moved to another place.”

"Like a magic trick like teleportation?" Manjoume rubbed his chest. Although he couldn't see it just now, the [Dragon of Light and Darkness] had actually helped Manjoume block some attacks and weakened their power. "That inexplicable guy, the things he does are also inexplicable."

"I don't know why, but I always feel a strange sense of familiarity with that guy, as if I've met him before."

“But that guy’s appearance seems to be based on Professor Cobra’s son, right? Manjoume, you probably just met that living kid named ‘Rick’ somewhere, right?” Judai guessed.

"So, why is that guy so interested in you?" Manjoume raised an eyebrow and asked in return. "He keeps spouting weird love and pain, like a madman with chuunibyou who feels betrayed by the whole world, but he only cares about you, Jaden? You're just a jellyfish-headed guy who's no match for me in terms of strength or looks."

"At a time like this, let's stop promoting your somewhat prestigious, but not many, 'Second Best Martial Arts Tournament' championship." Asuka said, anticipating what Manjoume was about to say. "Right now, we should be thinking about how to get out of here, shouldn't we?"

Upon hearing this, O'Brien replied, "I don't think there's any need to think about that. If I had to say why, it seems that only the surface above a certain depth has been transferred. Many of the bombs I buried in the research institute have lost their signal; only the parts above the forest can still be activated."

"The height above the underground forest?" Judai breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. "Does that mean that Professor Sato, who is still in the underground forest, and Amon Garlem, who is in the underground research institute, are very likely not affected?"

“We don’t know how much of the other side of the academy has been relocated,” Asuka said, then looked at O’Brien and asked, “But does that have anything to do with us not having to think about how to leave here?”

“Of course we do! Do you remember where we boarded this lift?” Jim realized something and quickly carried Karen the Crocodile on his back, stretching his arms and legs. “Have you ever seen acrobatics like ‘balancing bowls’ or ‘spinning plates’? I personally think that the ground supporting this lift would hardly be able to do such difficult balancing actions.”

Could it be that—

Before Judai could finish speaking, the platform they were on began to tilt slowly—just as they had thought, the entire underground research institute had not been transferred during the [Yubel] space transfer. Naturally, only the part of the elevator platform above a certain height was transferred. The supporting pillars underneath, after being driven a certain depth into the desert, began to tilt due to the high center of gravity.

And Jaden and his friends also had to experience the dangerous stunt of rapidly running down a sloping platform, something they had only ever seen in anime like "The Adventures of Naruto".

"boom!"

The elevator platform that had appeared not long ago on the back mountain, which was suspected to have been triggered when Jaden and his group approached Professor Cobra, crashed to the ground. The loud noise brought Napoleon and Professor Chronos, who were staring blankly at the desert in front of them, back to their attention.