Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"Neglect one monster attack, and add the value of [Iron Knight]'s Life Points to my Life Points!"

"Bang!"

Even though the Iron Knight had already reached Hayato, and all it took for the Iron Knight's spear to pierce Hayato was victory for Rein Wilson, the illusory energy shield perfectly absorbed the impact of the Iron Knight's attack and added it to Hayato's base score.

[Hayato: 1200→2900LP]

Despite all of Rein's monsters having launched a round of attacks, Hayato's base score had actually increased compared to before the battle began, which left Rein Wilson somewhat frustrated.

"As expected of Mr. Hayato, he won't be so easily defeated." Looking at his meager Life Points, Ryan Wilson could already foresee his crushing defeat in the next turn. Hayato only needed to summon any monster with an attack power other than 0, and then he could use the power of [Summoning Exophysis] to defeat him.

"My turn is over. Then, because of the effect of [Spiritual Exophysis], I release [Little Red Riding Hood] on my field to the graveyard, dealing my opponent damage equal to half of [Little Red Riding Hood]'s attack, which is 400 points."

"I'm sorry, Little Red Riding Hood, please rest in the cemetery for now." With an apologetic look, Ryan Wilson helped Little Red Riding Hood, whose basket he had painstakingly tidied up, into the cemetery. After taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he looked at Hayato.

[Hayato: 2900→2500LP]

[Raine: 1LP, 0 cards in hand]

【Iron Knight】【ATK1700】

Venue: [Golden Palace of Rapids Mountain]

"Mr. Hayato, come here."

“Okay, then my turn begins.” Hayato nodded and reached for his deck.

He vaguely remembered that in the original storyline, Ryan Wilson's "Golden Palace of Rapids" card was also used as a activation key by that pink-haired guy, Qigu Lloyd, just like it is now, and that he had tampered with it. However, he couldn't quite recall what exactly he had done.

As a card expert, although he can recite the entire name, level, summoning conditions, effect, and even the specifics of the effect judgment of a card just by looking at its card face, this still doesn't prevent Hayato from remembering the specific plot. It's like how many people can write out the lyrics word for word but can't recite "The Six Kingdoms Theory".

However, Hayato felt that such things didn't matter, because judging from the current situation on the field, he would win no matter what.

With 2500 Life Points against 1 Life Point, and the opponent empty-handed with no set cards, having only a monster with 1700 ATK and a Field Spell Card, your win rate is a whopping 1000%. There's no way you can lose.

Hayato does remember the effect of the physical card "Golden Palace of Rapids" once per turn: it allows you to Special Summon a monster with the name "Golden Palace of Rapids" from your Deck once per turn; when an opponent's monster attacks, it is destroyed and deals damage equal to half of its attack power. The cost of maintaining this effect is banishing the top 10 cards of your Deck face down during each Standby Phase.

It looks cool, but it's completely useless. Hayato just needs to draw any monster with a non-zero attack power, end his turn, and use the effect of [Summoning Exosome] to win immediately.

I'm sure I'll win, okay?

Thinking this, Hayato's fingers touched the top card of the deck and pulled out the first card, before he even had a chance to flip it over and take a look.

But just then, the Golden Palace of Rapids Mountain beneath Rein and Hayato's feet suddenly flashed with golden light. Before Hayato could even react, half of his deck cards were ejected and sent to the graveyard!

???

Hayato's eyebrows shot up, his face full of question marks.

Where is my deck?

Where is my thick deck?

Just a moment ago there were at least thirty cards left, how come in a flash of golden light, the deck suddenly only has about half left?

A puzzled Hayato looked at Ryan Wilson opposite him, only to find that he also looked surprised: "How could this be!?"

"Why does the Golden Palace of Rapids Mountain have this effect!?"

He seems to know something.

"Hey, Renn, what's going on?" Hayato asked. "Did you activate some kind of effect?"

During a duel, it is perfectly permissible to ask if the opponent activated a card effect, and even to inquire about the specific effects of their cards. However, whether or not to answer the opponent's questions is entirely up to the duelist.

After all, in Duel Monsters, the psychological battles, information gathering and verification are also a great source of fun. Cautious duelists may not reveal all the effects of their cards until the end of the duel, while some reckless duelists will reveal all the card effects without even asking their opponents.

It's not impossible that they might even reveal the combo they plan to use and what cards they have in hand.

"No, it wasn't my effect. No, it's the effect of my card." Renn said incoherently, first shaking his head and then nodding, seemingly unable to think of any explanation, and pointed directly at his Duel Disk.

"【The Golden Palace of the Rapids】, the Field Spell Card I activated earlier, 【The Golden Palace of the Rapids】, has the effect that requires me to send half of the cards in my Deck to the Graveyard during each Standby Phase as a maintenance cost."

"But I don't know how it happened, the cost of maintaining the card appeared on your end!"

Chapter 457 The Indestructible Card?

"【The Golden Palace of Rapids】must be maintained by sending half of my deck to the graveyard during my Standby Phase. But I don't know why, this maintenance cost has appeared on your end, Mr. Hayato!"

The confusion and bewilderment on Renn's face seemed genuine, and Hayato could tell that he truly didn't know why this change had occurred.

Even the card's user himself doesn't know the specifics. Combining this with the information Hayato knows, the answer is obvious: it's clear that this is something that Kigu Lloyd did to the card "Golden Palace of Rapids," or at least one of his tricks.

"Reinhardt!"

Said Cao Cao, Cao Cao.

Just as Hayato recalled the name Qigu Lloyd, he heard Qigu Lloyd's voice coming from afar, calling out Rein's real name.

Rein turned his gaze toward the direction from which the sound came, and saw Chigurhrid, whose hands were tightly bound with a rope and behind his back, looking angrily at Rein standing in the dueling arena, his eyes filled with fury at his lack of ambition: "Reinhardt, what's with that expression!"

"Brother?!" Renn never expected his brother to appear in this bound-up state.

"What kind of appearance is that!"

Kigufried was leaning on the fence, seemingly wanting to say something more, but Ryuzaki next to him yanked the rope hard, interrupting his chant that could evoke Leo's psychological trauma: "Hey, that's enough, you better behave yourself!"

"Ryuuzaki?"

Hearing Hayato call his name, Ryuzaki looked up at the arena, his expression momentarily blank: "Huh? Why are you dueling with this brat? Shouldn't it be that guy's... what was his name again?"

"Those things aren't important. What's the deal with you and that trophy next to you?"

“This guy?” Ryuzaki tugged at the rope wrapped around his hand. “I don’t know the specifics, but Seto Kaiba said that the strange things happening here are closely related to this guy. He told me to bring him to the dueling arena, but he ran off to the Kaiba Park building next door.”

After being tugged by the rope binding his hands by Ryuzaki, Chigurhfrid almost lost his balance. He glared angrily at Ryuzaki and said, "Damn it! How could I have fallen into the hands of a lowly person like you? What a disgrace!"

Chigurhfrid then turned his gaze to Renn: "Renn, you bastard, I gave you my absolute trump card, [Golden Palace of Rapids], so why are you still unable to win the duel after using such an invincible card!"

"Brother, brother!?" Upon hearing what Qigu said, Renn's expression froze, and he pointed at Qigu Fried in disbelief, saying, "Could it be, could it be that you really tampered with this card, brother!"

"And my Duel Disk, and the anomalies on other people?"

"Hmph, isn't that obvious!" Chigurhfrid gave an affirmative answer. "In order to pull the Kaiba Group down from its original position, these lowly people are necessary. If so many people have an accident, even if the Kaiba Group and the International Illusion Society join forces, they won't be able to cover it up easily."

"Raine, as long as you win, that's all that matters. If you win while using the Golden Palace of Rapids Mountain, the Trojan program I planted inside the Hikari Group will be fully detonated. Just win before that guy Hikari removes the Trojan!"

Chigurhfrid exclaimed excitedly, "So don't give me that cowardly look! The noble blood of the Schreid family flows in your veins just like mine. For the glory of the family, win this duel!"

At first, Raine hesitated a bit when listening to Chigfried's words, but after hearing Chigfried's excited request, Raine raised his head with a firm expression.

"wrong."

"What?" Chigurhfrid frowned, because the audience seats were some distance from the dueling arena, so he couldn't hear what Rein had just said very clearly.

"No!" Renn's expression was very serious. "What about the glory and future of the family, what about seeing me as hope, what about noble blood? Brother, you've only ever been driven by your own jealousy!"

"You actually dared to modify the card's effects without permission, brother! You're just insulting my dignity as a duelist!"

Rein grabbed his left arm, which was adorned with the Duel Disk, with his right hand. "Look carefully, Chigurhrid. From the moment you put on this Duel Disk, the person standing in front of you is no longer Reinhard von Schreid, but the duelist Rein Wilson!"

"Stop trying to bind me with all this nonsense!"

When Chigurhfrid met Rein's rebellious gaze, he angrily leaned against the fence again, and even Ryuzaki's repeated tugs couldn't pull him back: "You idiot, how dare you disobey your older brother?!"

"You don't actually think losing the duel will end all this, do you?" Chigurhfrid laughed in exasperation, making a face. "Idiot! Losing doesn't matter, but then the device that causes others to faint can never be turned off. I've already taken that possibility into account!"

"The only way to shut that down is to send the face-up [Golden Palace of Rapids], which has no resistance to being destroyed, to the graveyard!"

Chigurhfrid laughed smugly in the audience, and in his swagger, he even revealed the solution.

Because deep down, Chigurhfrid didn't believe that any card could do that.

【Golden Palace of Rapids】must be sent to the graveyard while it is face-up on the field and its effect is active. This limits many methods such as destroying it by bouncing it back into the hand, destroying it after nullifying its effect, destroying it after flipping it face-down, or banishing it.

Before setting this extremely stringent condition, Chigurhfrid meticulously compared all the card data he had collected so far. Apart from the [Chaos Emperor Dragon - Messenger of the End], which had already been banned, no other card possessed the ability to counter it.

Besides being immune to spell, trap, and monster effects, [Golden Palace of Rapids] also has the ability to seal the opponent's Normal Summon, force the opponent's monster to battle with your monster, and directly destroy and reflect damage when the opponent's monster attacks. At the same time, it also retains the effects of the Special Summoned monsters of [Golden Palace of Rapids].

What made him particularly proud was that even the biggest flaw of the original [Golden Palace of Rapids]—that half of his deck cards had to be sent to the graveyard each turn—was changed to "the cost of maintaining it is borne by the opponent."

After adding so many powerful effects, the Golden Palace of Rapids Mountain is invincible!

Chigurhfrid firmly believed this.

However, after hearing what Chigfried said, Hayato couldn't help but glance at his own graveyard. Because of the effect of "Golden Palace of Rapids," he had just sent more than ten cards into his graveyard, and the topmost card was one he had placed there just before the duel as a precaution.

Hayato's lips curled into a smile: "Yay, yay, that's just right. That so-called 'price' for helping me build this grave has really been a huge help."

"Hmph, someone like you—hmm?!" Chigurhfrid glanced at Hayato with disdain, but was startled. Only then did he realize that Rein's opponent was actually the Duel King, Kobayashi Hayato.

Who was it before? How come it's suddenly the Duel King? No wonder that idiot Rein failed to defeat his opponent.

Despite seeing Hayato, Chigurhfrid remained confident in "The Golden Palace of Rapids": "It's useless. Even against the Duel King, 'The Golden Palace of Rapids' is invincible. You, with your deck reduced to half, cannot defeat 'The Golden Palace of Rapids'!"

"Because that card cannot be destroyed!"

"Soleiwadokana?"

Hayato, with a confident smile, flipped the card in his hand over: "My power is beyond your imagination."

"Don't blink! What will be revealed before you next is the ultimate divine light!"

“I activate the Spell Card [Pot of Greed] and draw two cards from my deck.” As he spoke, Hayato’s fingers rested on the deck. “Although the probability of drawing cards changes each time, for a true duelist, everything is inevitable.”

"You can even create your own future in gacha games!"

"Draw!"

As Hayato drew the top card of his deck, even though he hadn't played it yet, Chigurhfrid, who had just been so confident, suddenly began to breathe heavily.

He stared wide-eyed at the towering blue shadow that was vaguely appearing behind Hayato.

Although Chigurhfrid had not watched the recordings of Kaiba in Duel City, he even learned about the existence of the True Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and the Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon from Rein, who had watched the recordings.

However, even so, he knew about the three Duel Monsters that first appeared in Duel City, standing at the pinnacle of Duel Monsters, even being given the title of "God" and known as the "Three Egyptian Gods".

The Winged Dragon Ra, used by Hayato Kobayashi, conquers everything with the light and fire of the sun;

Yugi Muto controls the Sky Dragon of Osiris to suppress and judge the enemy;

And, the Obelisk the Tormentor, a symbol of power and destruction, wielded by Seto Kaiba.

"The Spell Card [Monster Resurrection] Special Summons [Obelisk the Tormentor] from my Graveyard in Attack Position."

The magic card bearing the "Anka" symbol was sent to the Graveyard by Hayato. As the "Anka" symbol, symbolizing "life," filled the phantom behind Hayato, [Obelisk the Tormentor] was fully revealed behind Hayato!