Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"Discarding a monster from my hand allows me to change the ATK and DEF of a monster on the field to the same value as the discarded monster." Hayato drew a monster card from his hand and sent it to the Graveyard. "The monster I'm discarding is this one, [Earth Star Swordsman]!"

From Hayato's grave, the soul of a round-headed, round-bellied fairy swordsman flew out and crashed into the body of the Goblin Zombie on Bakura Field. After merging with the soul of the Earth Star Swordsman, the Goblin Zombie instantly came to life, moving its body a couple of times like a living creature and even swinging its battle sword a few times.

However, its numerical values ​​prove that the integration of the [Earth Warrior]'s soul does not mean that it has become stronger. An unsuitable soul will only lead to a decrease in combat power, just like a certain giant who swallowed the Straw Hat's soul.

[Goblin Zombie] [ATK 1100 → 500] [DEF 1050 → 1200]

Bakura looked at the monster on his field that had once again been possessed by Hayato's monster and couldn't help but feel puzzled: Wait a minute, I remember I was the one with the Dark Deck, so why does that guy's deck feel more sinister? It's got both souls and possession.

"Because [Earth Warrior] has been sent to the Graveyard, Bakura, I've figured out the formula for victory!" Hayato drew a card from his hand. "I now have five EARTH monsters in my Graveyard, so I can Special Summon this card directly!"

"A Special Summon by Effect!? Wait, when did you collect all five EARTH monsters?!"

Hayato chuckled: "You're not the only one who used [Hand Elimination]. Without exception, all the monsters in my hand at the time were Earth-type."

"【Cannibal Doll】, 【Netherworld Scout】, 【Hand of Judgment】, 【Dark Knight Gaia】, and 【Earth Warrior】 who was just sent to the graveyard, everyone, gather your power!"

Five souls emerged from Hayato's grave, each corresponding to one of the five monsters Hayato had just called out. Before Bakura could even complain about how the [Earth Warrior], still possessing the [Goblin Zombie], had gained another soul, the five souls collided and transformed into a giant ball of light.

"The gathered power will transform into thunder, shattering everything in its path and paving the way for light! Special Summon: [Gransol, the Earth Spirit]!"

The ball of light was dazzling, but the sheer radiance could not conceal the colossal form of the being that had descended after gathering five souls. With its feet stomping heavily on the ground, a tremor almost shaking the earth's crust resounded as the towering rock giant appeared behind Hayato.

【Grantor, the Earth Spirit God】【8☆/Earth】

[Beast Warrior/Special Summon/Effect]

[2800/2200]

Standing like an ancient Titan, Bakura could swear that of all the Duel Monsters he had seen since awakening, none could match the aura of what stood before him, not even the Blue-Eyes White Dragon he had summoned from Kaiba, whom he had secretly observed: "How could such a monster exist! This is not a Duel Monster at all!"

"It's not a monster, it's Kamida!" Hayato's hair stood on end due to the updrafts around him as the [Earth Spirit] appeared. "Wealth returns to the earth, and so do the souls of the dead. As the god who governs the earth, the [Earth Spirit] can resurrect any monster in the graveyard, whether it's you or me!"

"Descend here, my most loyal servant, Dark Knight—"

"Gaia!!!"

Chapter 73 Gun Version of God Fist Crushing Strike

The massive Earth Spirit God, as large as a mountain range, raised his hand, which was comparable to a huge castle, and waved it forward. A thick bolt of lightning fell from the blue sky simulated by the Dark Game's domain and struck the earth.

As the thunderbolt struck the earth, a crack appeared in the solid ground, and from the fissure, the Dark Knight Gaia rode his warhorse at breakneck speed.

"You actually summoned two high-level monsters in one go!" Bakura's face darkened. "But so what? You lowered the attack power of my [Goblin Zombie], but because of the [Co-op] effect, you can't attack me directly either!"

Bakura: 4000 LP

[Goblin Zombie] [ATK500]

【Grantor, the Earth Spirit】【ATK2800】

【Dark Knight Gaia】【ATK2300】

Hayato activated "Co-op" to send "Earth Star Swordsman" from his hand to the graveyard. The original intention of this card was for "monsters in your hand and monsters on your field to cooperate in battle," but Hayato used it to reduce the attack power of Bakura's "Goblin Zombie." Even so, he still suffers from the side effect of "Co-op"—he cannot attack directly this turn.

Hayato has summoned two monsters on his field with a combined attack power more than enough to wipe out Bakura's Life Points, but since Bakura only has one monster on his field, he can only use one of them to attack. However, neither of them has the attack power to deal fatal damage to Bakura.

“If a direct attack can’t solve the problem, then it means the attack isn’t strong enough. In that case, I just need to increase the intensity of my attack.” Under Bakura’s horrified gaze, Hayato played his last card, “Activating my last card, the Spell Card [Inherited Power]!”

Because of the effect of [Earth Spirit], it was Special Summoned to the field. As Hayato cast [Inherited Power], white flames erupted all over Gaia's body, as if it were burning its own soul. [Earth Spirit] then stretched out its huge palm and placed it above the duel field, collecting all the flames burning on Gaia's body and holding them in its palm.

"[Inherited Power]? Oh no! Could it be!" Bakura exclaimed in horror, "You bastard, you actually want it!"

"What I seek is nothing but victory. To achieve victory, I am willing to sacrifice my Tamashi. Offer your soul, [Gaia]!" Hayato clenched his right fist, his movements remarkably synchronized with those of the [Earth Spirit] behind him. "[Inherited Power] can transfer [Gaia's] power to another monster. Offer up all of [Gaia's] power—"

[Gransol, the Earth Spirit] [ATK 2800 → 5100]

"[Gransol, the Earth Spirit God], come with me! God Fist Shatters!"

Hayato swung his right fist heavily towards Bakura. The Earth Spirit God's movements were perfectly synchronized with Hayato's, and the giant fist, carrying all the power of Gaia, crashed down towards Bakura like a meteorite falling from the sky!

"Impossible! My ambition hasn't been realized yet! Impossible!" Bakura's back row and hand were empty. As the giant meteor fist crashed down, he desperately tried to think of a solution, only to realize with despair that he had no power to stop what was about to happen. "I will not die!"

"boom!"

[Goblin Zombie] faced a cataclysmic punch, raising the sword in its hand above its head, but it didn't even have a second to resist before being instantly crushed. The aftershock of the attack almost completely dispersed the death mist behind Bakura and directly impacted Bakura himself!

"Ughhhhhh!!!"

[Bakura Ryo: 4000LP→0]

Bakura's body was sent flying by the impact, and the dark soul that had taken over Bakura's body was expelled the moment it made contact with [Earth Spirit God's] fist. Because both of their souls were staked in the Dark Game, at the very instant Bakura's life points reached zero, a terrifyingly powerful black hole appeared in the sky above the dueling arena, instantly swallowing the dark soul within it.

Hayato could hear the soul uttering a final, resentful cry before it vanished: "I will not die! Hayato Kobayashi, I will definitely come back for you!!!"

"Hmph, bring it on then, I'll be waiting for you." Hayato said casually, but then collapsed to the ground, his forehead covered in cold sweat. The barrier of the Dark Game had vanished at some point, and the [Earth Spirit] standing behind Hayato had also disappeared along with the Duel Disk. In the distance, Bakura Ryo's body lay quietly on the ground.

Throughout the Dark Game, Hayato remained unharmed, but he never expected that summoning the Earth Spirit would place such a tremendous strain on his body. The feeling before and after summoning the Earth Spirit could be roughly compared to lying in bed asleep versus running a marathon in a high-altitude region while wearing a mask.

Especially after using the [Power of Inheritance], the surge in the power of the [Earth Spirit God], which had absorbed the power of [Gaia], increased Hayato's burden every second, making him feel as if he was about to faint at any moment. If his attack hadn't defeated Bakura, Hayato might have lost the match due to losing consciousness, just like Jonouchi.

Fortunately, he won.

Temporarily ignoring the sudden influx of system messages, Hayato picked up a broken branch from the grass beside the forest path, used it to support himself, and walked to the unconscious Bakura. The white-haired boy, no longer displaying the ferocious expression he had during the duel, lay peacefully on the ground, his deep breathing indicating he was asleep.

Looking at the sleeping Bakura, Hayato didn't care whether he would wake him up. He reached into Bakura's pocket and found two heavy star tokens, which he then casually stuffed into the groove of his dueling glove on his left hand.

Immediately afterward, while muttering to himself, Hayato leaned over and picked up Bakura's scattered card deck: "Look, you wanted to rip off my [Gaia] before, so I'll take a 'billion' of your cards, okay? If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes."

Hayato added a bunch of cards, including Goblin Zombie, Newt, Morphing Jar, and even Heartbreaker, to his collection. However, Hayato was a little disappointed that several cards, such as Summoning Disc and Dark Puppet, had mysteriously disappeared from Bakura's deck.

Hayato put the "card deck," which had been reduced to only about ten N cards, back into Bakura's pocket. He noticed the golden disc on Bakura's chest—one of the Seven Sacred Treasures, the Millennium Wisdom Wheel—and "casually" untied the rope and took it off.

"Although I don't think a dark game can take down that guy, I wonder if things are still clean? I hope he doesn't possess me later." Hayato considered whether to discard the [Millennium Wisdom Wheel]. He opened the system and glanced at the detailed abilities of the [Mind Barrier]. Trusting the system, he gritted his teeth and hung the [Millennium Wisdom Wheel] around his neck.

Chapter 74 The Noise, and the Darkness Within

When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a patch of sky pieced together from between the tree canopies. My mind was a jumble of clarity and excruciating pain.

Bakura was somewhat confused: Where was he?

"Oh, you're awake. The surgery was a success, and you're a girl now." A voice reached Bakura's ears. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a rather familiar face under a large tree.

"Hayato-kun?" Sitting up from the ground and looking at the dense forest surrounding the grassy area, Bakura was a little confused. "How did I end up here?"

"Speaking of which, why don't you try to recall what the most recent event is that you can still clearly remember?" Flipping through the cards he'd just acquired, Hayato glanced at Bakura, thinking to himself: 'Unlike Yugi and Yugi, does he have no memory of the time he was controlled?'

Bakura, clutching his temples and looking dejected, sat on the grass reminiscing, while Hayato continued to examine his rewards from his previous battle with "Dark Bakura."

Due to the change in the DP rules, despite the bonuses such as "victory without taking damage" and "using 3 trap cards", Hayato only got 600 DP in the end. After deducting the cost of starting the Dark Game, he only earned 100 DP, which was quite, quite unprofitable.

However, despite his lack of fighting prowess, "Dark Bakura" is, after all, the final boss, the Great Evil God, and unlocked a full five achievements for Hayato in one go!

They are -

[Giant-level attack power!]: The monster's attack power reaches 4000 points.

[Attack power of a five-star dragon!]: The monster's attack power reaches 5000 points.

[Gazing into the abyss...]: Initiating a dark game

[Deadly Five-Hit Combo!]: Achieve a five-duel winning streak.

[The Legendary Darkness]: Destroy a Dark Duelist

The five achievements, in addition to the fixed reward of 1000 DP, also gave Hayato a bunch of selection tickets and limited card packs. Hayato used to think that the DP in the [Achievements] were just a bonus because he could get at least 1000 DP from a single duel. But unexpectedly, with the update of the DP rules, the fixed rewards of the achievements have become the main source of his DP income.

What appeared in Hayato's hand were the cards he had obtained from several limited-edition card packs and selectable card tickets. Although he had new cards, to be honest, Hayato wished he hadn't opened those packs, because now there were even more noisy voices around him—

"Waaaaah, we really are Annie's best partners!"

"If we, the Disruptive Ones, unite, we can overcome anything!"

"Let the disruptive race be great again!"

"Yay!" x2

Hayato was a bit overwhelmed by the newly added [Disruption Red] and [Disruption Blue]. He hadn't expected that the three Disruption brothers, who had already awakened their card spirits, could also accelerate the awakening speed of other [Disruption] monsters. He himself had gone through more than a dozen intense duels and spent over a month to awaken the card spirit of [Dark Knight Gaia].

And [Disruption Red] and [Disruption Blue] were awakened in less than ten minutes after I got them?

"Kuri~" [Rainbow Kuriboh] perched on Hayato's head, watching the lively [Disruption] clan, and couldn't help but call out to Hayato, its eyes fixed on the several Dragon and Machine monsters that had appeared in Hayato's hand.

"Don't look at me like that. I can't control what cards appear. But now that I think about it, I've actually collected almost all the [Disruption] related cards except for [Disruption Pink] from the [Disruption] family?"

Hayato looked at the cards in his hand, feeling as if someone had orchestrated everything for him. Besides his usual Earth-attribute Warrior deck, could he possibly assemble a new deck?

However, before assembling the new deck, Hayato had another important matter to attend to.

"Aibo, do you think what that rabbit-eared demon king said was true?" Looking at the Millennium Wisdom Ring hanging on his chest, Hayato hesitated, wondering if he should continue with his next move. "Do I really have the aura of the Millennium Eye on me?"

"Curry... Curry! Curry Curry!" Rainbow Kuriboh floated down in front of Hayato and expressed its opinion to him in its perfect Kuriboh language.

Hayato nodded: "That's what I think too. I did have some issues with my personality recently, I was a bit too impulsive, it was like... it wasn't me?"

Hayato recalled how, not long ago, he had gathered the full power of his five card spirits to try and stop Pegasus from sealing the soul of Sugoroku. In that difficult and brief confrontation—or rather, "last-ditch effort"—Hayato was defeated without a doubt, and even fell into a coma for a while as a result.

After waking up, Hayato's behavior became somewhat irritable and reckless. Whether it was arrogantly using field magic during his duel with Goro the Orochi, or physically assaulting Haga after failing to stop him from destroying Exodia, Hayato didn't feel anything was wrong with his actions at the time. But now, looking back, he finds them increasingly bizarre.

Although I don't have a very good temper, I'm definitely not a reckless or impulsive person.

In the previous Dark Game, "Dark Bakura" said that he had the aura of the Millennium Key and the Millennium Eye on him. Although Hayato himself did not know when he had come into contact with the Millennium Key, which should rightfully belong to Shadi, there was no doubt that he had interacted with the Millennium Eye.

Hayato instinctively picked up the Millennium Wisdom Wheel on his chest and muttered to himself, "It feels a bit foolish. Wisdom Wheel, guide me to the place where my eyes are."

Golden light shone on the [Millennium Wisdom Wheel], and the five pendants surrounding the disc floated up against gravity. After a slight pause, four of the pendants pointed to Pegasus's castle in the center of the island, while the remaining pendant swayed slightly before finally stopping in the direction pointing to Hayato.

Almost immediately after activating the Millennium Wisdom Wheel, Hayato felt a powerful force surge from the golden disc, rushing straight towards his brain, but vanishing just before it touched him.

"Did the system's [Mental Barrier] work?" Hayato breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, he was gambling, gambling that he could use the power of the [Wheel of Wisdom] to detect whether Pegasus had left a portion of the [Eye's] power within him, and also gambling that the system could intercept the backlash from the [Wheel of Wisdom], one of the Seven Dark Artifacts, against the user.

And he did indeed make the right bet.

Just as Hayato was pondering how to deal with the power of the Millennium Eye, he overlooked something quite important—the backlash from the Millennium Wisdom Wheel should have started the moment it was put on, and even the father of its previous owner, Bakura Ryo, had died because of failing the trial.

But why didn't Hayato, who wore the "Millennial Wisdom Ring," experience even the slightest test?

Chapter 75: Eye Contact Signals Battle

Just as Hayato was worrying about his physical condition, Bakura, who had been deep in thought, came to him and bowed very solemnly to the dazed Hayato: "Thank you very much, Hayato-kun, thank you for saving me."

"Huh? Oh. So, Bakura, do you remember now?" Hayato looked up at Bakura, thinking to himself, 'That rabbit-eared demon king from the duel before is completely different from this little boy.'