Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

According to the system, while Hayato's current dueling strength hasn't yet reached the "Skill Q" that the system wants to help him achieve, the responses from the monsters in his deck already surpass most duelists. Therefore, the system plans to nerf Blade Girl—no, I mean weaken her DP gain.

Previously, even losing a duel guaranteed a minimum of 1000 DP, but now winning each duel only grants 100 DP. However, extra bonuses such as using Spell Cards, Trap Cards, or special conditions for a comeback have been retained. Furthermore, the system has added an ability to "randomly drop cards based on the target duelist."

For example, if Hayato duels Kaiba, there's a chance he'll get cards like [Enemy Controller], [Emperor Kaiba], and even [Blue-Eyes White Dragon]; if he duels Yugi, there's a chance he'll get cards like [Dark Magician] and [Dark Magician Girl], regardless of who wins or loses.

Hayato felt that this system was becoming more and more like a certain mobile game.

Additionally, a new feature has been added to the [Shop]: the [Fields] section. Hayato can now draw cards based on fields. Although it's limited to the [Fields] Hayato has already unlocked, he feels that drawing cards is more suitable for him than buying the [Basic Card Pack], which is practically a rip-off.

Hayato's current 10000 DP hasn't decreased due to the system's DP rule update, so the card prices in the [Shop] haven't changed either. A quick glance shows that Hayato currently has several unlocked cards: [Gaia], [Disruption], [Paladin], [Goblin], [Spirit God], and [Kuriboh].

Seeing that Bakura had followed suit and put on the Duel Disk simulated by the system and put his own deck into it, Hayato snapped his fingers, and a counter appeared above both of their heads, with the numbers both reaching 4000.

Another coin bearing the Eye of Ugato appeared out of thin air between the two of them. Hayato pointed at it and said, "Come on, which side should be up?"

Bakura thought for a moment and said, "The front isn't really suitable for me. I'll choose the back, which has nothing on it."

"Then, I am the Eye of Ugato in the positive direction."

The coin was tossed into the air by itself without being touched, fell from the sky, spun a few times on the ground, and fell down, revealing the front side with the Eye of Ugato printed on it.

Seeing this, Hayato drew five cards from his hand, then drew an extra card: "Then I get to go first. My turn, draw!"

[Hayato: 4000LP, 6 cards in hand]

In his fight against Bakura Ryo, Hayato's trump card was the "Dark Game" function that the system had just unlocked. Although he hadn't yet experienced its actual effects, judging from the current situation, the system's "Dark Game" could even be forcibly launched despite Bakura Ryo's dark power, so the effect shouldn't be too bad.

Moreover, in this system version of "The Dark Game", Hayato gained a certain degree of "wish fulfillment" ability. Whether it was the duel arena, the life count, or the coin that determined the first and second moves, they were all "created" by him. Even beyond creation, Hayato also slightly modified the ground, turning the previous tree-lined path into a flat concrete ground.

Unfortunately, all his abilities are limited to the outside of duels. At the moment he drew the card, Hayato was actually thinking of drawing a powerful card to summon Sebastián, but he ended up with the same cards that were already in his deck.

"I summon a monster in defense position on my field, then set one card face down, and my turn ends." Because it's a Dark Game, the decrease in life points also means that the duelist will take true damage. Hayato didn't try any fancy moves in his first turn, and ended his turn safely.

[Hayato: 4000LP, 4 cards in hand]

[The monster inside]

【GaiKa】

"My turn, draw a card."

Bakura glanced at the card he had just acquired, then gave Hayato a sinister look: "Since you also possess the ability to play the Dark Game, then the rules of the game need no further explanation, right? The monster I'm summoning is this one, [Newt]."

【Newt】【4☆/Wind】

[Demon Race/Effect]

[1900/100]

"Let my mighty demon ravage you, Hayato! [Newt] Attack that covering monster!"

The blue-faced puppet demon, wielding a large axe, leaped and slashed at the monster Hayato had covered. The monster, positioned on the inside of the defense indicator, was easily crushed and sent to the graveyard. But before Bakura could even gloat, Hayato spoke:

"The monster you destroyed was Newt. Because of his effect, the ATK and DEF of the Newt monsters on your field will decrease by 500."

"what?!"

Under Bakura's incredulous gaze, a phantom emerged from Hayato's shattered face-down card, looking exactly like Newt on Bakura's field. The phantom Newt directly possessed Newt, causing its base stats to begin to decrease.

Newt

[ATK1900→1400] [DEF100→0]

"You bastard, you actually summoned the same monster as me!" Bakura looked warily at Hayato, who was grinning. "You bastard, did you manage to steal the Millennium Eye from Pegasus before me!?"

"Who knows?" Hayato thought to himself that it was just a coincidence that he had drawn a Newt card and Bakura had also summoned Newt. But he didn't say it out loud. "Maybe I also wanted the Seven Sacred Treasures' ability to open the gates of the underworld, so I forcibly dug the Millennium Eye out of Pegasus's eye."

Chapter 71: Using puns will result in a fine.

"You charlatan! I'll set one card face down, and my turn ends!" Bakura ended his turn just like that. Although he said Hayato was charlatan, summoning the same monster didn't seem like a coincidence at all.

[Bakura: 4000LP, 4 cards in hand]

【Newt】【ATK1400】

【GaiKa】

'Is this guy reading my mind right now?' Bakura thought to himself as he looked at Hayato.

Hayato neither knew nor cared about Bakura's thoughts, and simply drew a card: "My turn, draw!"

Looking at the magic card added to his hand, Hayato raised an eyebrow and looked at Bakura opposite him: "This is terrible, my hand is really bad. Bakura, what about you?"

"Heh, you know perfectly well what I'm talking about." Looking at his hand full of "powerful monsters," Bakura said calmly, "I have a lot of good cards in my hand. Thanks to Pegasus's new rules, I'm going to attack you directly next turn."

Weird.

Because Pegasus's new rules were not revealed beforehand, many duelists were frustrated by the excessive number of monsters with 4 stars or higher in their decks after the new rules were released. Under the previous rules, the star rating of a monster was more for aesthetics and didn't have much practical use, while high-star monsters often meant higher attack and defense, so many people's decks were filled with high-star monsters.

Then the rules for sacrifice summoning were updated, and a large number of people said that their youth was over.

Professional players like Yuga and Ryuzaki often have backup cards in addition to their main deck, so the impact is relatively minor. Many people did not replace their decks, which often resulted in a "high-star starting hand", including Bakura.

"Oh, I see. Your hand isn't very good either." Looking at Bakura's "you really can read minds" expression, Hayato wanted to complain about Bakura's almost undisguised embarrassment every time he looked at his hand. "Well then, I'll help you out."

“I activate [Hand Elimination]. All players with cards in their hands discard all their cards and then draw the same number of cards from their decks.” Hayato said, showing the back of his hand to Bakura. “Besides activating [Hand Elimination], I currently have 4 cards in my hand, so I can draw 4 cards from my deck.”

“I also have four cards.” Bakura drew four cards, looked at his cleaned hand with a happy expression, and looked up at Hayato. “Hehehe, it really is thanks to your [Hand Elimination], Hayato-kun. My hand is pretty good now.”

"Is that so? If my [Hand Elimination] brought you a smile, that would be wonderful. But, how about experiencing double the pleasure?" Hayato revealed the face-down card he had previously placed on the field. "I activate [Mental Collapse], and declare one card name. The card name I wish to declare is—"

"【Dark Doll Nicolofia】!"

"Nani! Baka can!"

As Hayato declared his presence, the face-down card on his back row opened, and a beam of electricity shot out from it, striking Bakura's hand directly. If the card Hayato declared didn't exist in Bakura's hand, this beam of electricity would have connected to Hayato's hand, but judging from the current situation, it's clear that Bakura does indeed have the card [Dark Doll Nicolopia]!

"You actually got the [Millennium Eye] ahead of time? You bastard!" Bakura, or rather the great evil god within Bakura, was somewhat irritated.

The Millennium Eye's power is to see through reality; mind reading is merely its most basic application. This wasn't the first time Kobayashi Hayato had displayed such extraordinary abilities, making his possession of the Millennium Eye undeniable. Bakura even suspected that his identity had already been seen through by him.

"Who exactly are you, and how much do you really know?"

"Just a duelist passing by, remember that." Stealing a line from a hacker, Hayato commanded, "Confirm possession, effect executed! [Mental Collapse], Bakura!"

The bolt of electricity connecting Bakura's cards suddenly swelled and thickened, the shock traveling along the cards to Bakura's hand holding them. Something around him seemed to shatter, leaving Bakura momentarily stunned. When he regained his senses, he found that all his cards had slipped from his hand, scattered on the ground, and disappeared.

"Damn Hayato!" Bakura's face showed anger, but it only lasted for a moment before turning into a sinister smile. "You thought I would say that? Fool, you've been fooled! I knew you would use a card that maximizes the power of the [Millennium Eye]!"

It's just that the [Mental Collapse] effect, which wasn't affected by the source number, is indeed quite useful (actually, it's because the author was blind and misremembered the effect), so it wasn't sold along with the other cards of the Haga clan, but was instead added to Hayato's deck: ???

"The moment [Dark Doll Nicolopia] is sent to the Graveyard, I can activate the card I set to face down last turn! [Spirit Disk]!"

Bakura lifted the card he had previously covered, and a cloud of skull-shaped mist emerged from the card image, sending chills down one's spine.

“The effect of the [Spirit Summoning Disc] is that at the end of each of your turns, I can place one [Death Message Card] on my back row.” Bakura’s face was practically etched with smugness. “If you can’t defeat me within five turns, when I have all five cards 'D', 'E', 'A', 'T', and 'H' on my field, I will win the game!”

"Start counting down to the end of your life, Hayato Kobayashi!"

"Huh? A trap card version of Exodia? That's strong, really strong. In that case, I'll set two cards and then end my turn." Hayato looked at Bakura's gloomy field, but didn't take Bakura's threat seriously at all. "Oh dear, that was dangerous, I actually have an empty field."

[Hayato: 4000LP, 2 cards in hand]

【Signature Card】【Signature Card】

"Kobayashi Hayato, stop with the sarcastic remarks! If you keep putting on airs, you'll just become fertilizer for my dark deck!" Bakura completely ruined the pun in Hayato's name with one sentence, but judging from his expression, he didn't seem to be doing it on purpose.

Hayato Kobayashi's name is pronounced the same as "fertilizer" in Japanese, while "Hayato" sounds like "oh dear."

"At the moment your turn ends, the effect of [Spirit Disc] activates, and [Death Message Card] 'E' comes to my field!"

The skull representing the [Spirit Disk] revealed the letter "D" on its forehead, and the surrounding mist spread and split, revealing a mist with the letter "E" engraved nearby.

"After D comes E, but I still suggest you get V, M, X, and so on. That's even more powerful."

"My turn, draw!" Ignoring Hayato's ambiguous words, Bakura's hand returned to 1, then back to 1. "Since you've opened your gates, I won't hold back. Normal Summon [Goblin Zombie], then attack you directly along with [Newt] on the field!"

A goblin zombie, its skin completely rotted away, leaving only pale bones and muscles, appeared on the field. As soon as it appeared, it swung its sword at Hayato together with Newt, who was being constantly harassed by "itself".

Chapter 72 Reforging the Glory of Earth Attributes: Our Duty Is Inescapable

[Goblin Zombie] [4 stars/Dark]

[Undead/Effect]

[1100/1050]

"Although the attack power has decreased, the combined attack power of [Newt] and [Goblin Zombie] is still a full 2500 points. Become fertilizer, Kobayashi Hayato!" Bakura made a face that even Malik would have to admit was impressive. "And then, the [Millennium Eye] on you will be mine!"

"Is it really as simple as you think?" Hayato scoffed. "In response to Newt's attack, activate my face card!"

"It's the invincible [Explosive Armor]!"

Newt, enduring the incessant chatter of "another self" in his ear, rushed to Hayato's side. He had just raised his giant axe, but before he could swing it down, the yellow armor on Hayato's body suddenly exploded, instantly blasting him into nothingness.

Hayato's Newt, having lost the object he was leaning over, returned to Hayato's side with his blue body. Instead of rushing back to the graveyard, he stood behind Hayato, striking a rather "calm" pose with him, as if to say something like, "Newt has already touched that monster."

Hayato, overjoyed at successfully triggering the armor explosion, laughed triumphantly: "The distance between us is like a mountain. Get closer, because you'll find that what seems close at hand is actually worlds apart!"

"Don't get too cocky!" Bakura retorted irritably. "Even though Newt's ship is destroyed, there's still the direct attack from the goblin zombies!"

"Then I'll use this!" A rainbow-like light illuminated the Graveyard area of ​​Hayato's Duel Disk. "When your monster attacks directly, activate the effect of [Rainbow Kuriboh] in the Graveyard and Special Summon it to my field!"

"Protect me, Aibo!"

"Curry~"

A rainbow of light stretched from the graveyard directly in front of Hayato, forming a large, multicolored wall in front of him. Behind the wall, the figure of Rainbow Kuriboh appeared, and just as the Goblin Zombie's longsword struck the rainbow wall, it moved forward to meet it head-on.

"boom!"

Because of its weak defense, Rainbow Kuriboh ultimately could not survive the attack and was destroyed in one strike, turning into a cloud of smoke. However, it ensured that Hayato was not harmed at all.

"When a Rainbow Kuriboh summoned by this effect is destroyed, it will be removed from the game."

"Thanks all, Aibo, for sacrificing yourself for me. Take a break for now." Hayato thanked Bakura as the [Rainbow Kuriboh] card vanished from the game, then turned to glare at him. "You dared to take my Aibo away from me! That's unforgivable, Bakura!"

"What's it to me? You were the one who activated that weakling's effect!" Bakura didn't hold back with Hayato. Although he was a great evil god, he would never take the blame for something that wasn't his. "My turn is over!"

[Bakura: 4000LP, 0 cards in hand]

[Goblin Zombie] [ATK1100]

"Then it's my turn, draw a card!" Hayato drew a card, pretending not to hear Bakura's protest: "Activate my face-down card on the field, [Co-op]!"