Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Rafael immediately tried to activate the [Orichalcos Barrier] to drag the gray-robed man into a dark duel to silence him, preventing the "Doma" organization, which had been hiding in the world for many years, from being exposed. However, to his surprise, the gray-robed man also possessed a mysterious power capable of contending with the [Orichalcos Barrier], leaving Rafael helpless for the time being.

It was under these circumstances that the gray-robed man revealed his purpose. He said he wanted to make a deal with Rafiru, one of the "Three Musketeers of Doma," and led him to this basement not far from the Seahorse Park.

Rafiru then witnessed the duel between Hayato and "Hayato" through the cameras of the Kaiba Corporation that the gray-robed man had hacked.

Although it was confirmed that the gray-robed man did indeed possess some valuable information, and it was also clear that Rafiru couldn't use unconventional methods to obtain the backdoor to the Seahorse Group from him in the short term, Rafiru genuinely didn't want to cooperate with the person in front of him.

Having reached a point of spiritual communion with his [Guardian Aetos], he could constantly sense an aura emanating from the gray-robed man that resembled decay, making him extremely uncomfortable.

However, Rafiru also knew something else: what the gray-robed man said was true. If he used the "backdoor vulnerability in the Kaiba Group's internal network" to trade with Ameruda, Ameruda, eager for revenge against Kaiba, would definitely agree to the deal, even if the contents of the deal were harmful to "Doma" or even that person.

Rather than doing that, it's better to handle the transactions yourself, which can minimize the potential risks.

"So, tell me, what exactly is the content of your deal?" Rafiru raised his head and looked at the man, his eyes shining as if he wanted to see through the man's true identity through the hood. "I will make a decision based on the content of the deal you have described and the reward for it."

"Heh, your thoughts are so easy to guess. Are you thinking that rather than leaving the deal to Ameruda, who is so volatile and only cares about her own hatred, even to the point of abandoning 'Doma,' you'd rather take on the risk yourself?" As if he could read minds, the gray-robed man chuckled and uttered words that were exactly the opposite of what Ameruda was thinking.

"But don't worry, what I need won't affect your plans in the slightest. In fact, if our deal goes through, it might even benefit your plans."

As he spoke, the gray-robed man casually tossed a card, which spun and landed in Rafael's ever-vigilant hand, where he firmly held it between two fingers. Turning the card over, Rafael saw the image on it: a red monster coiled around, breathing fire, more like a demonic dragon than a divine dragon.

"【Divine Flame Emperor - Uria】? What is this card?"

"It's both a reward and part of the deal." The gray-robed man sneered. After making a few moves somewhere, the screen next to Rafael switched to a monitor showing the inside of the Seahorse Dome where the match was taking place. The camera then rotated and focused, quickly finding Yugi sitting in the audience, intently watching the duel in the arena.

"Yugi Muto?" As one of the legendary duelists whose strength was second only to the Duelist King Hayato Kobayashi, Rafael naturally recognized Yugi Muto. Moreover, Rafael, who was deeply trusted by that person, also knew that Yugi Muto was on a list in that person's upcoming plan.

"Back in the Duel City era, the [Divine Flame Emperor - Uria] in your hand was used to fight Yugi Muto, and it retains a trace of Yugi Muto's soul. By following the guidance of this card, you can track Yugi Muto at any time, and all you have to do is deliver this card to him and let him use it in the duel."

As the gray-robed man spoke, his voice was full of laughter. Even through the hood, Rafael could imagine that the man's expression was mostly one of wild laughter, as if he had already envisioned the scene that would unfold.

"After you hand over the [Divine Flame Emperor - Uria] to him, our deal will be complete, and you will be able to take back the [Divine Flame Emperor - Uria] soon."

As the gray-robed man spoke, he seemed to have thought of something, and his voice turned somewhat gloomy: "However, as a restriction, you need to keep your distance from that guy Kobayashi Hayato for a period of time."

"I left this card in front of Hayato Kobayashi as the price for my escape. He took it, and although he only took an empty shell that I had created and it didn't last long, it unexpectedly left a trace of his presence."

"If he gets it, it will be a waste of the good stuff I prepared on the card."

"In short, this is the deal I want to make with the 'Three Musketeers of Doma': to deliver the [Divine Flame Emperor - Uria] to Yugi Muto so that he can use it, nothing more."

"how?"

Rafael frowned, neither agreeing nor refusing, but simply remained silent as he put away the card of [Divine Flame Emperor - Uria]. Just as he was about to say something, suddenly, the screen beside Rafael flashed, and the images on each screen changed, revealing a cold and arrogant face.

"Hmph, a mere rat, it took me so long to catch it, what a remote loophole." Seto Kaiba's face, which Jonouchi had described as "so arrogant you wanted to stomp on it," was now icy cold, as if he could see Rafael and the gray-robed man through the screen. "How dare they infiltrate the Kaiba Corporation, what a bunch of ignorant bastards, and they even dared to hide so close!"

"Wash my neck clean, etc. —"

Before Kaiba could finish his sentence, the screen suddenly went dark. The gray-robed man was holding a plug in his hand, which he casually tossed aside: "Tch, that bastard Kaiba Seto, he's quick on his feet, getting in the way again."

"It seems we can't stay here any longer. Anyway, judging from your expression, you've agreed to the deal, so let's leave it at that."

As he spoke, as if fleeing a disaster and not wanting others to know he was there, the gray-robed man lowered his hood slightly and turned to walk towards the exit.

Rafael knew this was no place to linger, but looking at the gray-robed man's retreating figure, he inexplicably asked, "What will happen to Yugi Muto if he uses the card [Divine Flame Emperor - Uria]?"

Rafiru hadn't expected to get a reply, but to his surprise, the gray-robed man, who was in a hurry to leave, actually stopped and replied, "Hehe, it's nothing, it won't affect him at all."

"It's just to let him see the scenery of Egypt for a bit."

From beneath the hood of the grey-robed man who had turned slightly to the side, Rafiru could vaguely see a golden eyeball held in his mouth.

Chapter 397 Such Laziness

After helping Keihei defeat the rampaging Duel Robots, Hayato had barely left the Duel Monsters game area when he bumped into a guy with a sour face.

"Hmph, instead of gathering information on other competitors at the competition venue, you're leisurely strolling around the amusement park. Is this the composure of a Duel King, Kobayashi Hayato?"

The seahorse, with its arms crossed over its chest, stood on the steps, looking down at Hayato and Keihei who were walking up the steps.

As for where Pegasus went? When he passed by a dollhouse, he claimed that he had suddenly fallen ill and could not walk, so he walked into the amusement park. For a moment, Hayato couldn't figure out what Pegasus's purpose was in investing in the Seahorse Park in the United States.

Although he claimed it was to atone for what he had done to the Kaiba Brothers and because he was after the profits behind Kaiba Park, it all seemed like he just wanted to gain shareholder status and satisfy his own selfish desires!

"Hey, Seth, aren't you the same?" Hayato raised his hand in greeting. To be honest, after hearing Kaiba's foul language so much, he was actually quite used to it. "You weren't watching the game at Kaiba Dome either, were you?"

"Hmph, how could a bunch of third-rate duelists living together with fourth-rate decks possibly catch my eye, Lord Kaiba? That's what you think, isn't it?"

Finally, Hayato even imitated Kaiba's tone, and Keihei felt that the resemblance was at least 70-80%.

"Is there something wrong with this? Or do you think that among the duelists who are just there to make up the numbers for the first day of duels, there will be a duelist with the strength to defeat me?" Kaiba retorted without backing down.

Guiping quickly interjected, "Brother, Hayato came to help. He just defeated that out-of-control dueling robot."

He wasn't worried that Kaiba and Hayato would argue. If it were Jonouchi and Kaiba, that would be a bit... slightly... very likely. But it's perfectly normal for Hayato and Kaiba to say some hurtful things to each other; that's just how they get along.

Keihei mainly felt that his older brother, who was very smart but had no emotional intelligence, might get angry if he continued talking, and they might start playing cards on the spot.

Distracted by Keihei, Kaiba snorted coldly. Although his face remained cold, his tone of voice changed somewhat: "Hmph, you're just being presumptuous. Even if you didn't defeat him, I had almost completed the re-control of the program and even found out where the rat was hiding."

"And all you did was defeat that useless robot. If you can't even do something like that, then that's all you're capable of."

The seahorse crossed its arms over its chest. "And if it weren't for Keiping's repeated requests for me to recycle it, that incompetent machine would never have entered the gates of the Seahorse Park."

“Ah, I agree with you on that point.” Hayato nodded. “Even the weakest duelist has more confidence in their own deck than that machine. Duel Monsters are definitely more interesting when they have an opponent.”

“In that case, why don’t we do it now—” Upon hearing Hayato’s words, Kaiba seemed to have some strange switch flipped, and reached for his waist, as if intending to grab his deck and have a match with Hayato right there and then.

Even Keihei knew about the Duel Robots going out of control, but Kaiba knew even earlier. Although he had the ability to defeat the Duel Robots, Kaiba disdained defeating the same opponent a second time. Therefore, instead of choosing the simplest method of directly defeating the Duel Robots, he chose to use his genius intellect with his fingers.

However, it's one thing to disdain defeating the Duel Robots, but quite another to get a card-playing addiction while watching Hayato and the robots duel.

When Hayato saw Kaiba's hand reach for his waist, the first thing that flashed through his mind was Pegasus's affected expression from not long ago: "Oh dear, oh dear, I'm not feeling well, I might have some incurable disease~"

As he spoke, Hayato also put on an uncomfortable expression, clearly rejecting Kaiba's challenge to a duel that he hadn't even voiced yet.

Kaiba isn't stupid; how could he be fooled by Hayato's acting, which is so poorly imitated from Pegasus?

"Hey! Do you think I'm an idiot?"

Seeing that Haima was so angry he looked like he was about to explode and pull out a "Shark Knight" card, Guiping reminded him, "Brother, aren't you going to catch the hacker who broke into Haima Group's firewall? Hurry up and go!"

"Hayato-kun, let's go back and watch the match!"

As he spoke, a tired smile appeared on Keihei's face as he widened the distance between Hayato and Kaiba.

It's so hard for me to bear such a heavy burden at such a young age.

"Hmph." Watching Keihei and Hayato walk up the steps and brush past him, Kaiba pouted unhappily and put away the card he had already taken out.

He actually really wanted to play a game of cards with Hayato, but it didn't matter that he didn't succeed. He recently added a brand new Blue-Eyes card to his deck, and he needs to test its strength and synergy.

Kaiba was confident that after he finished adjusting his deck, his evolved Blue-Eyes would definitely be able to defeat Hayato in front of countless spectators.

In this way, not having to face Hayato isn't such a bad thing, since letting Hayato know about the card beforehand would have meant no unexpected surprises.

Thinking this, Haima was in a good mood. He tossed the long hem of his trench coat and went down the stairs.

Although Kaiba lingered on the stairs for a short time due to his encounter with Hayato and Keibai, he had already sent people out to capture them beforehand, so there was no need to worry that the rat that had invaded the Kaiba Group's sewers would escape because of this delay.

As the network on the other side was forcibly cut off, Haima had no way of knowing the hacker's identity, but he figured it was probably just some boring nobody, and he wasn't particularly interested.

However, being able to hack into the Haima Group's firewall shows they have some ability; they must be quite intelligent, right? In that case, let's use that little mouse as a sacrifice for our new [Blue Eyes]!

At this moment, Kaiba was unaware of one thing—not all hackers are the kind of weak, inept nerds. And if the "Black Organization" led by Iso, sent by the Kaiba Group, were to face duelists with basic supernatural abilities, it would be hard to say who would surround whom.

Of course, whether the seahorse believes in supernatural phenomena is another matter. At least until now, he still believes that Pegasus used the "Millennium Eye" to seal his mind in the past as a form of psychological suggestion in conjunction with hypnosis.

Chapter 398 White Snake? It's the Millennium Eye!

"squeak---!!"

The tires of the black luxury sedan screeched against the brake pads. Isono and Kazuki stepped out of the stopped car; it was a team of "Man in Black" security personnel from the Haima Group's security division, which he managed.

As mentioned earlier, the "KC Cup" hosted by Haima Group has attracted attention from all sectors. As the host city, the city of Los Angeles naturally did its best to cooperate with Haima Group, the organizer of the "KC Cup," in all aspects, from fire protection and power supply to security.

In this country where even the air is filled with the atmosphere of freedom known as "gunpowder," security personnel carrying only batons are of little deterrent effect on the black men who are adept at buying things for free. Therefore, with the mayor's assistance, all the security personnel under Isono's command have obtained a gun license and are equipped with firearms.

The men in black, armed with guns, stepped out of the black luxury car. To be honest, if Isono's men were to cosplay as Martian assassins, the resemblance would be at least 90%.

As for the mayor's assistance, it's impossible to know whether it was because the collaboration between the emerging Haima Group and the long-established American company International Illusion Society was substantial enough, or whether the successful hosting of the "KC Cup" would leave him with some good achievements on his resume and that Haima provided a generous amount of support.

Because of the "collusion between Haima Group and the Los Angeles government," most of Haima Group's actions require very short reporting procedures, or in other words, no reporting is necessary at all.

For example, this time, Kaiba reverse-tracked the hacker who broke into the firewall of Kaiba Park and hacked into the Duel Robots, and then directly followed the network cable to find his location. He ordered Isono to lead a team to capture the hacker, and only notified the city.

"This is it." Isono glanced at the semi-transparent tablet in his hand. The tablet showed that Isono's position had coincided with a red dot, indicating that he had arrived at the target location. The exact location could only be right under Isono's feet.

With a wave of his hand, Isono struck a cool pose and followed his men in black toward the building in front of them, kicking open the door and bursting inside.

Although Los Angeles has laws allowing for the self-destruction of those skilled in private property, Isono has confidence in his men. If that audacious hacker who dared to infiltrate the Kaiba Group tries to make a move, their Kaiba Group security will fully utilize the president's greatest hobby, summoning and equipping the magic card "Life Reset Device" in attack stance with both fists.

Not worried about any unexpected situations during the arrest operation, Isono even had time to operate the tablet in his hand, directly updating the mission progress online, and casually checking the "arrest completed" option.

Sure enough, Iso watched as his men escorted a black boy with very dark circles under his eyes out of the house, though Iso didn't know where he got the dark circles from.

This task is really easy. All I have to do is get in the car, wait for my men to finish their work, and then I'm done. It's much more interesting than being a referee in a monster duel. Iso thought to himself, a slight smile playing on his lips. He was about to turn back to the car and have the men in black take the black boy to a truck that had followed behind when he heard his company president, Seto Kaiba, yell: "Iso, what are you doing there?!"

Isoya was slightly taken aback.

He looked around but didn't see the seahorse at all. Everything was as calm as ever. All he saw were his men suppressing the black boy, as if the shouting from just now was just an illusion.

Did I hear that wrong?

Isono looked at his men again with some doubt, but this time he noticed something was wrong—he had only brought four people, including himself, and there were only seven people, including the reinforcements who came out of the truck. How come there were ten people on the scene, including the black boy?

"Isono!"

He heard the seahorse's call again, and this time, after the sound, Isono suddenly felt dizzy, and his vision blurred. He instinctively reached to the side, and the dizzy and unwell Isono realized that he had been outside the car just moments before, and was now inside, his hand gripping the car window.

Looking around again, Iso saw two overlapping images simultaneously—the security personnel from the Haima Group who were detaining the black boy and preparing to leave, and the other three people in the car whose front end had crashed into a fire hydrant and who hadn't been thrown out because they were wearing seatbelts.

"Isono!"

Tilting his head, Isono saw Kaiba, who was calling Isono's name through the window.

Like a fully inflated balloon being pierced by a needle, the moment Iso saw the seahorse, it suddenly dawned on him—he hadn't gotten out of the car at all.

Let's rewind to a period of time ago.

Following the destination given by Kaima, Isono sat in a black luxury car and, as they approached their destination, gave instructions to the other three people in the car.

"They were very aggressive and found the vulnerability in the Seahorse Park firewall in an instant with almost no detours, and then took control of all the camera equipment, network channels and the dueling robot in the Seahorse Park."