Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"That's great. All it takes is the will of a duelist and the life energy of an ordinary person to revive. Even I'm a little envious."

"Huh? I need a key? Tsk, it's not as simple as I thought, it's even more troublesome."

"Hehe, you can rest assured. I have no interest in humans, and since I said I would help you, I will definitely keep my word. We have no conflict of interest, so it's no exaggeration to say that we are a perfect match."

Although there was no other sound in the place except for Bakura, Bakura seemed to be talking to himself as if someone was communicating with him, and smiled as he looked at the blank card.

Just then, the perceptive Bakura suddenly frowned, as if he had noticed something, and turned around to look at the door behind him.

On the other side of the gate, Mai and Rebecca were supporting Kyoko and Keihei respectively, while Honda and Ryuji were both trying to push the gate open. However, no matter how hard they tried, with veins bulging on their foreheads, the gate remained unmoved.

"Are you two grown men even capable of this?"

"Don't question me!" Otogi reflexively replied, "Whether a man is capable or not and a woman's age are taboo topics!"

As he spoke, he exerted his strength again, and Honda also burst forth, but the gate, which did not budge an inch, seemed to be mocking their efforts as utterly futile.

"Honestly, why are all you men so obsessed with saving face?" Kong Quewu pouted and leaned Xingzi against Rebecca beside her. "Help me up first, little girl."

"That's why I'm not a little girl, you old woman!"

Rebecca's protest was completely ignored by Mai, who then raised her Duel Disk with her hands free: "As for Duel Monster materialization, I don't understand the specific principles, but I'm a pragmatist!"

"Come forth, my ladies, the three harpy sisters!"

Just like a certain ace pilot who was boiled into soup and then developed a particular fondness for the red form after learning from a colleague that "the red form can destroy the opponent," Mai Kujaku, upon learning that Duel Monsters could actually materialize, immediately abandoned all thought and happily played the card of the Harpy Sisters again.

Unlike Otogi and Honda, who struggled for a long time without managing to budge the gate, the Harpies easily pushed it open with just a kick.

Caught off guard, Honda and Otogi also stumbled forward. Otogi was alright and managed to stop himself in time, but Honda couldn't control his momentum and lurched into the doorway.

Sensing that the person behind the door had used the power of a Duel Spirit to open the door, Bakura calmly set up a defensive field of dark magic against the Card Spirits, and then struck a very imposing pose behind the door to welcome everyone.

You can lose in other areas, but you can't lose in terms of presence.

Bakura, who was very much aware of his villainous boss role, was about to say something when he saw the door being kicked open to create an entrance.

Then, in the next second, as if time itself was converging, Honda Hiroshi's fist slammed into the nose of the Rabbit-Eared Demon King.

Chapter 465 The Invincible Rabbit-Eared Demon King Has Fallen

As we all know, in any serious RPG game, the Demon King, who is the mastermind behind all the conspiracies, always waits for the heroes at the very end of their journey, and then makes his grand entrance in the most awesome and coolest way.

Unless the RPG you're playing is an 18+ RPG where the hero defeats various monster girls and then discovers that his wife is actually the Demon King.

Because of this ingrained way of thinking, Honda began to urgently resuscitate Bakura, whom he had accidentally knocked unconscious.

"Why did Bakura suddenly appear here?!" Honda, who hadn't learned first aid, didn't know how to perform operations like pinching the philtrum or performing CPR, but he watched a lot of TV dramas and used the most common method seen in movies and TV shows—pressing on Bakura's shoulders and shaking him violently while shouting Bakura's name.

Otogi had no recollection of Bakura, except that he had seen him being mercilessly defeated by Kaiba's Obelisk the Tormentor during the quarterfinals of Duel City.

"Do you know this person, Honda?"

“Ah, Bakura is a classmate. Oh right, Otogi, you don’t know Bakura, do you? He transferred schools before you transferred here.” Honda said to Otogi while his hands continued to shake Bakura, who had fainted with a bloody nose, without stopping.

Watching Honda's so-called "cinematic medical procedures"—which were practically murder—from the sidelines, Rebecca remarked, "If you two were classmates, he must have owed you a lot of money before, or you must have owed him a lot of money, right?"

Are you sure you're not killing someone to cover it up?

Honda, Otogi, and Rebecca were tending to Bakura, trying to save his life, while Mai didn't join them.

Feeling the composure and skill of an adult, Mai first retrieved the [Harpy Sisters] card she had used to break into the room, and carefully observed the surroundings of the room they had entered.

Logically speaking, a room built underground at the starting point of an anomaly should at least have some unique features, even if it's not particularly eerie or terrifying, or has a sci-fi or fantasy style. Otherwise, players of potential RPG games might complain that the final boss room is less different from an inn than an inn is from a weapon shop.

However, the room the group entered was quite ordinary at first glance. Apart from a floor plan of the Seahorse Dome venue on the side facing the door, the room was completely empty. The ceiling and the floor were inlaid with small, flickering light bulbs.

However, Kongquewu was unable to find out how the light bulbs were powered and lit up, and there wasn't even a switch in the entire room.

Besides that, all that's left in the room is a card that floats in the center of the room, slowly rotating.

Looking at the blank card surface revealed as the card was rotated, Mai was somewhat puzzled.

"Is this place really the starting point of the anomaly we're looking for?"

"Apart from that card, there's nothing here at all."

Although she had seen many wondrous things along the way, Peacock Dance still felt that the cause of the anomalies might be some kind of magnetic field generator or virus transmitter, such as one that could transform humans into mutants or lizard people. But here, there were only three things—

Cards, light bulbs, and maps.

Upon hearing this, Otogi raised his head, looked around, and frowned. "This shouldn't be the case. We finally found this hidden room underground, and there was even a guard at the door. No matter how you look at it, this should be the place."

"Having ruled out all other possibilities, whatever remains, however unbelievable, is the only possibility. Although it's somewhat incomprehensible, I believe the key to resolving this anomaly lies within this room."

"and……"

As he spoke, he looked down at Bakura, whose neck was almost broken from being shaken so much. "Honda, although you may not be able to accept it, I think this Bakura is very likely the culprit behind the incident, or at least one of them."

"Huh? Bakura? There's no such thing as a weak mastermind. I knocked him down with one punch..."

Honda said this, but there was a hint of hesitation on his face. He did stop shaking Bakura. After a moment of hesitation, he chose to believe Otogi and threw Bakura back to the ground.

"Boom"

Judging from the looks of it, he hit his head pretty hard.

Although Honda and Jonouchi were known as the two idlers in class, often getting into fights and causing trouble, and their grades were poor, that didn't mean he was stupid. On the contrary, Honda was actually very quick-witted, but he just didn't use it for studying.

In such a suspicious room, it would be extremely suspicious if the person who appeared was Bakura, who was always mysterious in class, or even if the homeroom teacher appeared.

Honda and Otogi helped Keihei and Kyoko, who were lying flat on the floor, from Rebecca and Mai, and helped them sit up. They also looked around the room together.

The small light bulbs on the ceiling and floor are called "light bulbs," but upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that these "light bulbs" are actually just semi-circular glass containers. The light-emitting substance inside is not a filament but some kind of liquid, and small bubbles occasionally rise to the surface.

On one wall hung a floor plan of the Seahorse Dome venue. Although it was marked with a lot of data and scales, it was just a simple drawing. The data didn't seem to be any kind of mystery. The only thing that was a little puzzling was that about twelve red dots were marked around the venue and connected by green lines to form an unusual six-pointed star.

After searching the room thoroughly, the four of them still found nothing and could only turn their attention to the strange card in the very center of the room.

"Mai, Otogi, and Rebecca, step back a little." Honda took a deep breath and walked resolutely toward the blank card.

Compared to the others who are duelists and have a certain fighting ability, Honda has no power (referring to knocking Bakura unconscious with one punch), so rather than letting others test this blank card and fall into a potential crisis, Honda thought it would be better to test it himself.

Otogi didn't say much. He exchanged a glance with Honda and guessed what Honda was thinking. He simply stood in front of Rebecca and Mai.

Mai and Rebecca stood obediently in place. Although they were both female duelists with strong self-esteem, they knew that "protecting a man's dignity is a woman's restraint," and that it was best to let Honda show his worth in this situation.

However, Mai had also prepared the cards, ready to summon the Duel Monster should any situation arise.

Under the tense, breathless gaze of the four people, Honda's hand touched the blank card.

Chapter 466 Baron and Malik are playing happily

Walking through the backstage corridor, Jonouchi suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason.

"Ah sneeze!"

"Remember to cover your mouth when you sneeze, Jonouchi!"

"Sorry sorry."

Faced with Hayato's lecture, Jonouchi smiled apologetically and said, "I suddenly felt a little unwell just now and couldn't help it."

"But speaking of which, how much longer until we reach our destination? I have a feeling we'd better hurry."

Hayato, who was leading the way, shrugged helplessly: "I don't want to go this fast either, but we're actually following the magical trail left by Malik, just like Theseus collecting yarn in Minos's labyrinth."

"However, we've almost reached the last fork in the road."

After turning a corner, another staff passage appeared in front of them, with room numbers from 401 to 408 arranged in an orderly fashion on both sides, leading to various rooms.

Hayato swept his hand across his chest, and the five golden conical pendants of the "Millennium Wisdom Wheel," which, although a "Millennium Item," primarily served as a navigation device, floated up and pointed in the same direction.

The room I was directed to was 402.

Hayato raised an eyebrow: "I really didn't expect that the person who secretly built this basement back then was very likely an anime character, or is it just a pure coincidence?"

Seeing that both Jonouchi and Yugi looked puzzled, Hayato didn't seem inclined to explain, but Rein, who had come with them, offered to answer: "Ah, I know that. Rei Ayanami's room in EVA is 402."

"Well, that's exactly what it means, but explaining a meme feels really weird." Hayato shrugged, walked gracefully to the door of room 402, and kicked the door open.

Because of the president's extravagant personality, all the parameters inside the Seahorse Dome venue were set very well, and the security was also quite perfect. So theoretically speaking, if an ordinary human simply kicked the door open, there was basically no possibility of breaking it open.

However, long before Hayato and the others, Malik and Honda had already entered once, leaving an irreversible mark on the door lock—a mark that even Jonouchi and the others could find without Hayato's "Millennium Wisdom Wheel"—another footprint left on the door.

The door was kicked open with a bang, revealing a spiral staircase leading to a lower level to Hayato and his group of five—Hayato, Yugi, Jonouchi, Rein, and Chigfried. It was unclear how far it led.

As the door opened, Hayato and the others vaguely heard some sounds:

“...armor...boxing…”

“…Powerful monster…Wheel…”

"...This isn't a duel at all...it's a direct attack..."

"...boxer shorts...muda..."

Game frowned and listened intently. Whether it was due to the sound being distorted by the distance it traveled or something else, Game couldn't discern the source of the two voices or whether he knew them.

However, one thing is certain: things are not going to be peaceful. Honda and his group may have already had a conflict with any potential gatekeeper or similar figure.

Normally, minor conflicts wouldn't be a cause for concern for the game team, but with the anomaly still unresolved, Honda and his team could very well face life-threatening dangers.

Without needing to say anything more, the three exchanged a glance and that was it. They then started running towards the steps in unison. Seeing this, Renn naturally hurriedly jogged to catch up. The only one who suffered was Chigurhfrid, whose hands were tied. He was roughly pulled by Jonouchi and almost fell over. He was forced to run to keep up with Jonouchi and the others, lest he fall down the steps.

——————There's been an anomaly, find Red and White——————

"You bastard, this is not the duel I wanted at all!"

At the very bottom of the steps that Hayato and his friends had just discovered, at the source of the sound they had just heard, Malik was having a pleasant duel with Baron.

However, the "joyful" sounds emanating from the armored man standing in front of Malik suggest that this "pleasant" duel will likely only be one-sided.

In a sense, the duel between the two sides at this moment can be considered evenly matched. Not only do both sides have five cards in their hands and five cards on the field, but their life points are also evenly split at 2000 LP.

However, if Baron had a choice, he would rather have a different opponent who could completely overwhelm him than have this "evenly matched" situation.

On Baron's field were a row of monsters, and like the [Machine] deck used by Baron's companion Amelda, Baron's [Armor] deck also consisted of Machine-type monsters.

[Active Defense - Armor] [DEF 1500]

[Mental Helmet] [DEF500]

[Black Hole Shield Armor] [ATK0]