Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

More than those things, Hayato was concerned about the card that Tenma Tsukiyuki had used in the duel just now.

【Gorgeous Venus】On its own, it's just a card with a not-so-powerful effect; the same tribute could summon a much more powerful monster.

However, while the effects of Duel Monsters are important, the power hidden behind the cards is even more crucial. Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician are Normal Monsters without effects, but the significance they symbolize is far greater than that of many monsters with powerful effects.

And [Gorgeous Venus] is such a card.

In Hayato's memory, this card comes from the same source as Pegasus Moonwalker: the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. However, Pegasus Moonwalker exists in the Yu-Gi-Oh! R manga, while [Gorgeous Venus] comes from the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga.

In the GX manga, 【Gorgeous Venus】 belongs to the "Planets" card series. That series features cards designed based on the Sun and the eight planets of the solar system, plus the now-defunct Pluto, totaling ten cards. The power of the "Planets" series itself is not important; what matters is that they are the keys to unlocking a seal.

However, Hayato decided that even if "Gorgeous Venus" appeared before him, it didn't mean that the other nine "Planet" cards would appear one by one in the near future. For one thing, the card symbolizing Earth in the "Planet" series is [E·hero - Earth Hero], and that card simply has no chance of appearing.

When Hayato gifted the [E·hero] card to Judai, he wasn't lying. Pegasus had told him that he planned to release the newly designed [E·hero] deck after the KC Cup. Until then, it was estimated that only Hayato and Judai possessed the [E·hero] card in the world.

Although Hayato had no doubt about the compatibility between Jaden and [E·hero], it would be too early to talk about printing cards; he had only had [E·hero] for a short time.

Under these circumstances, no one can print the [E·hero-Earthman] card. In other words, even if the other nine "Planet" series cards appeared, the seal, which may or may not exist, would not be able to be opened due to the lack of a key.

Hayato believed this to be true.

Hayato checked his phone and realized it had been almost an hour since he left the Kaiba Dome venue. Having failed to find any clues about "Night" from Tenma Tsukiyuki, and having even finished his card game, Hayato decided not to linger and watch Tenma Tsukiyuki and the others busy themselves. After confirming that Tenma Tsukiyuki wasn't injured, and watching the staff take him back to the monitoring room, Hayato left.

Watching Hayato leave, Tenma Tsukiyuki, sitting in the center of the monitoring room, couldn't help but press his temples.

He had a strange feeling that he hadn't given it his all in the duel. But that shouldn't be the case; he had summoned even the strongest monster, so how could he not have gone all out?

Pegasus Moonwalker was absolutely certain that his ace monster was "Gorgeous Venus," even when the terminal monster from the "Accomplice" deck, which had the same level as "Gorgeous Venus," passed before his eyes, he didn't even glance at it.

—Bekas playing video games—

"Damn Seto Kaiba, and that Yugi Muto!" Qigu Lloyd angrily overturned the coffee table in front of him, spilling all the tea that was originally on the glass coffee table onto the wooden floor, and shattering all the glass teapots and cups.

Having lost his duel to Yugi, Qigu Lloyd was now eliminated and no longer eligible to participate in the upcoming KC Cup. Furthermore, he firmly opposed sending money to Kaiba and refused to buy a seat at the Kaiba Dome to watch the match. Therefore, he could only return to a hotel near Kaiba Park and vent his dissatisfaction in his room.

Beside the furious Qigu Lloyd, his younger brother, Reinhard von Schreid, who went by the alias "Rein Wilson," tried to comfort him, saying, "Brother, don't be too angry. Winning and losing in Duel Monsters is normal. Besides, your opponent is Mr. Game. He's one of the top four in Duel City, and he only lost to Duel King Hayato. He's very strong."

"You mean I'm not as strong as him?!" Qigu Lloyd—Qigufried von Schreid, using this alias—glared at his younger brother.

Rein didn't answer his angry brother's question, choosing instead to remain silent. However, his expression and eyes revealed that he genuinely believed his brother's skill in Duel Monsters was inferior to Yugi's.

Despite being his own younger brother, he wasn't on his side at all. Qi Gu glared at Renn in annoyance. He was the older brother, so why was he eliminated in the first round of the KC Cup while his younger brother defeated his opponent and advanced to the second round?

Qi Gu was so angry his throat felt like it was on fire. He was about to pick up a cup of tea to moisten his throat when he realized that he had just spilled the tea he had prepared. With nowhere to vent his anger, he called out to the butler who was waiting nearby, "What are you standing there for? Go get me some water!"

"That despicable Yugi Muto! He actually used such despicable means. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been so humiliated. Because of him, the Schreid family has lost all face. Damn it!"

“But brother, didn’t you use ‘Chigur Lloyd’ as an alias? Nobody knows you’re ‘Chigurfrid von Schreid’, how could you bring shame to the Schreid family—”

"Shut up! How dare you talk back to your brother!" Qigu angrily interrupted Renn before he could finish speaking. Looking at his younger brother who had decisively shut his mouth, he took a deep breath, barely calmed himself down, and said, "Anyway, Renn, you have to make the Schreder family proud."

"You have to keep winning all the way to Seto Kaiba and defeat him. This is the task your brother has assigned you, and you must do it."

"Don't worry, brother, I have no intention of losing the duel before becoming the champion." Renn said, glancing at his deck. "I have faith in my Fairy Tale deck. I will not lose before I duel with Mr. Hayato."

Chapter 424 One Piece is real, and so is Pegasus in the Night.

Looking at the confident Renn, Qigu curled his lip and said nothing more. Compared to his words to Renn, "It is our duty to restore the glory of Schreid," his true purpose from the beginning was to ruin this KC Cup.

To achieve this goal, not long ago, with the help of a mysterious guy who approached him, he discovered a fatal vulnerability in the firewall used by Haima Group.

Based on this vulnerability, Qi Gu Lloyd wrote a Trojan horse and sent it into the Haima Group. Qi Gu's "partner" took the initiative to cover for him and acted as a wingman to launch an attack on the Haima Group's network. It seems that they took control of some equipment in Haima Park.

The result was, of course, a success. With the help of his "partners," Qigu Lloyd successfully sent the Trojan program into the internal network of Haima Group. Once it was successfully detonated, the data stored on the network by Haima Group would be completely destroyed in a very short time. In that case, not only would they be unable to continue the KC Cup, but it would also be difficult to say whether the highly networked Haima Group could maintain its current position.

At that time, the Schreid Group will naturally have the opportunity to take over!

Watching his younger brother, Raine, stand up and return to his room, Qigu leaned back on the sofa and squinted his eyes.

If an instantaneous or timed trigger is used, the Trojan program will be very easy to detect, and any subsequent intrusion through that vulnerability will leave traces. Therefore, the Trojan-level triggering device set up by Qigu is a conditional trigger.

He discovered that in order to ensure that no fake cards would appear in the KC Cup, Kaiba had added a setting to each duel disk connected to the KC Cup program: every time a card was placed on the duel disk, a copy of the card's data would be read and compared with the card data in the Kaiba Group's server.

Based on this, Qigu Lloyd set up a system where reading a specific card would trigger a Trojan program. Qigu Lloyd designed that card as a Field Spell Card in his brother Ryan Wilson's Fairy Tale deck, based on the Golden Palace of Rapids from the fairy tale "The Raven".

'Just you wait, seahorse. I'm really looking forward to seeing that resentful look on your face after my plan succeeds, hehehe!'

-----

Hayato, who had left Pegasus Moonwalker's side, did not return to the audience seats inside the Kaiba Dome. Instead, he appeared with Kaiba, who had somewhat relieved his addiction after playing cards once.

“Pegasus Moonwalk? I remember they were sent by the International Illusion Society to assist us.” Sitting in his private lounge, Kaiba crossed his legs in his executive chair and said disdainfully, “Although the Kaiba Group has reached a certain level of business cooperation with the International Illusion Society, Pegasus still refuses to release all the data on Duel Monsters to me.”

"They said some data can't be released yet. That guy is hiding it. Although he opened up certain permissions, he also requires the International Illusion Society to participate in the supervision. Humph, what a troublesome guy."

Hayato raised an eyebrow: "I thought the KC Cup was independently supported by the Haima Group."

"Hmph, I can take your words as a compliment to the Kaiba Group." Kaiba glanced at Hayato and looked at a transparent tablet-style personal terminal placed beside him. "Anyway, Tenma Tsukiyuki is the person in charge that Pegasus guy was assigned to. Free labor is free, so I simply had him and the guys from the International Illusion Society take charge of supervising the situation at the KC Cup."

Are you very interested in him?

“No, I’m just a little curious about his ‘background setting’.” Hayato shrugged. “The main problem is that your KC Cup process is so long and tedious. I don’t think that increasing the number of participants means that the KC Cup will become a qualified tournament. At least I think that a long part of the process could be cut directly and we could just go straight to a duel with only a few people.”

"You think I haven't thought that way? Fool, business isn't something you can just do whatever you want."

Kaima picked up the tablet and tapped the screen repeatedly as if he were filtering something, casually saying, "Although the International Illusion Society is helping, in order to gain the government's support, I first need to persuade those local conglomerates, and the best way is to create enough benefits for them."

"The longer the KC Cup lasts, the more stable the hype behind it will be. In fact, just yesterday, the revenue from the few advertising signs hanging on the side of the venue was more than the ticket revenue of the KC Cup."

"But compared to those, I think you might be more interested in this one."

As Kaiba spoke, he pushed the tablet toward Hayato, got up from his seat, straightened his trench coat, and picked up his deck and duel disk.

Hayato looked at the tablet that Kaiba handed him and saw many videos, images, and documents displayed on it, all of which were related to Pegasus Moonwalk.

"The Prodigy of the International Illusion Club," "Pegasus Moonwalker, the Adopted Son of the Father of Duel Monsters," "No Talent Whatsoever in Duel Monsters?"...

From the news headlines when Tenma was adopted as a child, to Tenma working for the International Illusion Society because of his genius mind, all the way to Pegasus's assessment that Tenma "has no talent in Duel Monsters", this covers Tenma's life from childhood to adulthood, and it is not much different from what Hayato knows.

However, one newspaper was specially selected by Kaiba and placed in the most prominent position: "Father of Duel Monsters Adopts Two Boys".

"Recently, it seems that a lot of strange guys have infiltrated the KC Cup, so I used the algorithm of the Haima Group to screen everyone and found a few interesting people. Although Tianma Yuexing was sent by the International Illusion Society and is not a participant, I also looked up his information out of curiosity."

Kaiba stood opposite Hayato, put on his Duel Disk, checked his deck, and then put it into the Duel Disk. "A fairly reasonable life, without any doubts, and from some angles, it's even somewhat similar to my life. The only differences are that Pegasus is still alive and he doesn't have a younger brother as an assistant."

"That's what I originally thought, until I found a piece of data hidden in some obscure corner, which is the photo you saw."

A photograph was published in a newspaper titled "Father of Duel Monsters Adopts Two Boys." A boy who looked like Pegasus when he was a child stood slightly shyly to Pegasus's left, holding his hand. He seemed a little embarrassed to face the reporter, but he still stepped forward and gave a smile that could barely be considered polite.

To Pegasus's right, a boy who looked exactly like Pegasus also took Pegasus's outstretched hand, but his eyes were full of indifference and disdain as he looked at the camera.

Moreover, perhaps due to the shooting time and angle, the area where Tianma Yuexing was located was under the dim yellow sunset, while the other boy and half of Pegasus's body were standing in the shadows.

"At least I can be sure that Pegasus Yuexing, who was adopted by Pegasus, should have had a twin brother. However, for some reason, the existence of Pegasus Yuexing's younger brother seems to have been overshadowed by his older brother for a long time afterward?"

Kaiba had already unfolded his Duel Disk and gave Hayato, who was still looking at the tablet, a cold and arrogant smile. "But what intrigues me more is that even if someone's presence is so low, they should at least be able to be found. But no matter how I search, I can't find any other evidence of the existence of Pegasus Gekko's younger brother besides this photo."

"It's almost as if his very existence has been completely melted away because he's been living in his brother's shadow for too long. Thankfully, Keihei didn't end up like that."

"So, Pegasus Night Walker really exists? Were Pegasus and Pegasus Moon Walker lying?" Hayato was somewhat surprised by the information he received from Kaiba. To be honest, he hadn't initially expected to learn anything from Kaiba; he was just thinking about whether to come here and play cards with Kaiba to pass the time.

As it turned out, the seahorse casually dropped this bombshell.

Now, more and more questions are accumulating in front of Hayato—why are Pegasus and Tenma Tsukiko completely unmoved after hearing the name "Tenma Yako," and why do they ask Hayato who "Tenma Yako" is, as if they are not lying at all?

Why was the "Night" who called me surprised by the name "Tianma Yexing"? Is he Tianma Yexing, or is he related to Tianma Yexing? And why did he suddenly disappear from the perception of the [Millennial Wisdom Wheel]?

Furthermore, why is it that only this photo, which appears to have slipped through the net, can be found online, and there is no other information about "the Night Horse"?

"Although I still don't know the truth, Kaiba, you are so strong." Hayato put down his tablet and looked at Kaiba, who was full of fighting spirit. "You really helped me a lot. I would have been happy to fight you even if you asked me to."

"Didn't you come looking for that kind of thing yourself?" Kaiba proudly raised his chin. "Although you only use your full strength in public and never want to duel with me in public, it's still pretty good to defeat you here."

"Let's duel, Hayato Kobayashi!" Kaiba said, drawing a card from his deck.

But Hayato suddenly stood up and ran out of the office, saying, "We'll talk about that later. I suddenly have something I need to take care of. Excuse me, Kaiba, Ciao~"

"You bastard, stop right there! I've already set up my Duel Disk, said I wanted to duel with you, and then ran away, lol!"

Outside the office, Isono, who had left the medical room early because of his insistence but was still banned by Kaiba from being a referee and could only work as a doorman, pushed up his slipped sunglasses and looked calmly at Kobayashi Hayato, who was pushing open the door with a tablet and Kaiba President, who was chasing after Kobayashi with a Duel Disk that was almost like a blade when unfolded.

Chapter 425 The Duelist with Zero Fighting Spirit and the Clever One with Max Fighting Spirit

It was another sunny morning. Inside the bustling Seahorse Dome, Peacock Mai looked at the large screen on the central stage with a strange expression.

The screen is displaying the players who will be fighting in the first match of today's KC Cup. However, the fact that Yugi, Hayato, Honda, and others are already seated, while Jonouchi, who is the most enthusiastic about the KC Cup, is not present, shows that Jonouchi will be playing in the first match again.

Honda, standing nearby, had just finished a phone call with Shizuka, Jonouchi's younger sister, who lived far away in Domino City. Seeing Mai Kujaku staring at the screen, he remarked, "That Kaiba guy definitely tampered with the KC Cup duel schedule. Otherwise, why is Jonouchi always the first to go?"

It's 8:00 AM now, but the time difference between Japan and the United States is a full 14 hours. It's about 10:00 PM in Japan right now. When they first arrived in the United States, it took them quite a while to adjust to the time difference.

Although thanks to the Haima Group, Shizuka was able to watch the KC Cup broadcast on TV without delay, even though she was far away in Japan, 10 PM was still a bit too late for her, as she never stayed up late. After all, before her eye surgery, Shizuka had always maintained good habits to protect her eyesight and try to slow down her vision decline, although to no avail.

Since Shizuka didn't ask for leave from school like the others did, and she still had to go to school the next day, Shizuka really wanted to see her brother Jonouchi's triumphant figure on TV, but she could only rest early with great regret.

Fortunately, Shizuka's TV still has a recording function, which allows her to record programs broadcast on TV and play them later. Shizuka did just that the day before yesterday.

However, instead of waiting until she got back from school the next evening to watch the recorded program to find out about her brother's battle, Shizuka had a faster way: Honda, who had accompanied Shizuka after her surgery in Duel City and had gotten her phone number along the way.

Honda has been watching the KC Cup with extra focus these past two days, not because he's particularly fond of Duel Monsters, but because he wants to memorize the duelists who have appeared and the circumstances of their duels so that he can have more to talk about with Shizuka, who just finished watching the recording.

Incidentally, Honda would always estimate the time in Japan in advance and send a text message to Shizuka in Japan around 5 pm in America, so that Shizuka, who had just woken up at 7 am, could know the battle situation in Jonouchi as soon as possible.

What are the costs for international phone calls and text messages?

Does Honda lack that little bit of money? In his eyes, it's a huge profit—just a small phone bill is a legitimate reason to contact Shizuka.

Hearing Honda's complaint, Mai Kongzak also looked away from the screen. However, the reason she was staring at the screen wasn't because of "Joey Wheeler," which was Jonouchi's English name, but because she was looking at the other half of the screen, which displayed the name of Jonouchi's opponent.

No. 1919, Northwood Reiko, seems to be a Japanese name, and "Reiko," "Reiko"? It sounds like a woman's name.

A strange sense of crisis suddenly rose in Kong Quewu's heart, and then she blushed with embarrassment.

Honestly, even if Jonouchi finds a girlfriend, let alone a female opponent, it has nothing to do with me!

However, even she herself couldn't convince herself of this idea. No one knew what her true thoughts were.

However, considering Jonouchi's thick-skinned nature, Mai was somewhat relieved.

Even if he encounters a female opponent, it doesn't matter. With Jonouchi's low emotional intelligence, who could he possibly attract? How could anyone possibly like that kind of straight man?

Having barely prepared a deck, Jonouchi walked out of the player preparation room with a smug look on his face. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the cheers of his fans, though few in number, as he stepped onto the dueling stage to await his opponent.

Jonouchi was initially quite unhappy with Kaiba for being assigned to the first duel again, even imagining Kaiba's disdainful expression when he tampered with the KC Cup.