Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"Thanks~" Pegasus casually said, reaching for a cherry from the plate and putting it in his mouth. However, just as Pegasus was about to demonstrate his cherry-eating skills, Kaiba interrupted him.

"Let me confirm something with you first, Pegasus. You undoubtedly positioned yourself as the 'creator' of Duel Monsters, right? But you created the powerful Egyptian God Cards, which even you couldn't control." Kaiba looked down at Pegasus in his seat. "Don't you feel even a trace of resentment?"

"Judging from your perspective as the father of Duel Monsters, does that newly completed Blue Eyes possess a power even greater than that of a god?"

Upon hearing this, Pegasus sighed helplessly: "As expected, Seahorse Boy, you didn't come here simply for the trade."

"If you're just looking for an answer, Kaiba boy, then I can tell you the answer is yes. That card, completed based on the data you gave me for the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, undoubtedly possesses power that surpasses gods, duels, and even fate."

However, before Kaiba could even smile, Pegasus changed the subject: "But, I can't give that card to you, Kaiba boy, right now."

Chapter 512 In the world of card players, everything is decided by duels.

Upon hearing Pegasus's words, the seahorse's already indifferent expression turned hostile, and it narrowed its eyes, staring at Pegasus who was eating cherries by himself.

What do you mean by "you can't give me that card"?

“You should have said that the card was finished, right, Pegasus?”

Being stared at directly by the seahorse's gaze would be unbearable for most people, but Pegasus was no ordinary man; his skin was as thick as a city wall.

Spitting out the cherry pit, Pegasus turned to look outside the restaurant. Through the window, he could see the island's beautiful and harmonious natural scenery from the castle.

"The meaning of life shouldn't just be about pursuing power, Seahorse boy." Pegasus said this out of the blue, then chuckled and stood up. "Stop for a moment and look behind you."

As he spoke, Bekas stood up from his seat and began to wander aimlessly around the restaurant.

Behind Pegasus, Kaiba, who hadn't given up easily, caught up with him and said firmly, "Hmph, I only ever see the future, there's no room for the past. Besides, what's wrong with pursuing greater power? Are others allowed to become stronger but I'm not?"

Kaiba's words elicited a light laugh from Pegasus: "Get stronger, Kaiba boy? Your goal is to surpass Hayato boy and Yugi boy, right? Your goal is to become the Duel King. It seems you've realized that the gap between you and them is widening because of the difference in your records?"

"Of course, since the end of Duel Kingdom, you haven't gotten any stronger at all."

With that, Pegasus shook his head with his back to the seahorse and walked toward the closed door of the restaurant, seemingly intending to end his communication with the seahorse.

However, the seahorse reached out and placed its hand on Pegasus's shoulder, as if trying to force Pegasus to stay.

"You're saying I haven't gotten any stronger?" Kaiba's voice was far from calm; you could tell he was barely containing his anger. "What right do you have to judge me when you've been stuck in the same place? My Blue Eyes has already evolved to a whole new level. Do you want to taste my rage?"

Pegasus turned around, looked at the seahorse glaring at him, sighed helplessly, and as he spoke, he reached up and brushed away the silver hair that was covering the left side of his face.

"Kaiba boy, you completely misunderstand what I mean. The powerful manipulation of cards requires a matching level of mental strength. Your Blue Eyes has indeed become much stronger, but Kaiba boy, I haven't seen the slightest progress in your mental abilities."

“If this continues, the tragedy that your mind will see is…” Pegasus, who had revealed the area around his left eye, lowered his hand, his silver hair once again obscuring Kaiba’s vision, “This is the dead end that those who are seduced by power will take.”

"whispering sound…"

After Pegasus's words, Kaiba's momentum weakened slightly. After all, the main reason for his anger was that he felt Pegasus had denied all the progress his [Blue Eyes] had made so far, which was why he was so unhappy.

Now that Pegasus has acknowledged that Blue-Eyes has grown a lot, his anger has subsided somewhat. In addition, Pegasus is talking about things like "spirit," which makes Kaiba somewhat waver.

However, after only a moment, Kaiba made up his mind: "Even if you say that, I still need the power of that card."

"Seahorse boy, the power of the card you need is very dangerous. You are not mature enough yet. At least we need to wait until your mind matures to a certain point before I can confirm that you are qualified to be the user of that card."

Pegasus was somewhat exasperated with the seahorse's stubbornness and shook his head helplessly. He usually wore a prosthetic eye in his left eye, since his hair was easily blown around by the wind, and Pegasus would be very distressed if he frightened any children during an event.

Pegasus had some suspicions about the reasons behind Kaiba's overly simplistic agreement to the deal, so he deliberately didn't wear his prosthetic eye, just to show Kaiba his fate. Unfortunately, Kaiba was as stubborn as a rock and couldn't be persuaded with words.

Pegasus glanced behind Kaiba with his remaining right eye and saw the Card Spirit behind Kaiba that seemed to be awakened but was not, and Kaiba who was completely unaware of the Card Spirit's existence. Pegasus felt a little regretful.

He actually acknowledged Kaiba's dueling prowess, at least ranking him among the top five in the world. However, those stronger than Kaiba, whether it was Hayato, the two Yugi (both Omote and Ura), or the "Guardians" of America, were all beings protected by the Card Spirits.

If the powerful Duel Monster [Blue Eyes] successfully awakens its Card Spirit, then Kaiba's strength will definitely increase by leaps and bounds, surpassing that "Guardian" is inevitable, and there is even a chance to surpass Yugi Muto.

Unfortunately, it can't be replaced.

"Qualifications? Let's prove those things with a duel!" Kaiba declared.

Seeing that Kaiba was determined, Pegasus was helpless. After all, he had taken the initiative to ask Kaiba for the data of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Now that someone was going to take it away, Pegasus could not stop Kaiba. The only thing he could do was to put up a fight to show his determination.

Kaiba was taken to the Duel Hall that Pegasus had used in Duel Kingdom by the waiter Pegasus summoned, while Pegasus returned to his bedroom alone. Reaching the wall opposite his bed, Pegasus twisted the tail of the Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon on the wall, causing the wall to slide open and reveal a very well-hidden safe.

Pegas took a briefcase from the safe, checked that it wasn't tampered with, and without even looking at the cards inside, left the room. He figured only he knew where the briefcase was and nothing would happen to it.

A short while later, Pegasus, carrying a briefcase, arrived at the Duel Hall, where Kaiba had been waiting for quite some time.

"So they're still using that outdated dueling platform, huh." Kaiba placed his briefcase on the table and looked at Pegasus walking towards him. "What an ancient dueling system. Oh well, it'll be over soon anyway."

Pegasus walked to the table and placed the briefcase on it: "Seahorse boy, the card you need that surpasses the power of the gods is in this box. If you want to take it, defeat me."

"Hmph, the rules of the betting card, huh? Then my wager is the document in this box transferring 10% of Haima Group's shares. It's already signed with my name, and it'll be effective as soon as I sign it." Haima crossed his arms and said with a sneer, "However, I don't think you'll need it."

After Kaiba and Pegasus agreed on the stakes for their duel, they each stood on one side of the dueling ring and placed their decks down. Kaiba suddenly seemed to remember something, turning around to look at the wall behind him as if searching for something. Finding nothing, he turned back to Pegasus and asked, "You didn't use those underhanded methods like before, did you?"

"Huh?" Pegasus didn't quite understand what the seahorse meant, but the seahorse interpreted it as him pretending to be stupid.

"Hmph, whatever. It doesn't matter if I'm seen through like before. You can't stop me from moving forward, Pegasus."

As he spoke, Kaiba drew five cards from his hand. Pegasus sneered, "Even if you say that, I still have to give it a try."

"Duel!" x2

[Seahorse: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

[Bekas: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

"First, it's my turn, draw!" Pegasus, speaking in broken English that was half Japanese and half English, seized the initiative and drew his card. "Let Kaiba boy recall your past crushing defeats for a bit. I activate my normal magic card, [Toon Bookmark]. Add one [Toon World] card other than [Toon Bookmark] or a card with the name [Toon World] to my hand from my deck."

"My choice is this, [Cartoon World], then pay me 1000 base points to activate it!"

[Becas: 4000→3000LP]

As Pegasus paid out his Life Points, a children's book with a cute pink animal cover—clearly for a tough guy—flew out from the cards he had placed in the back row. It was none other than the undisputed core card of the Cartoon series, Cartoon World.

Even Kaiba, who has always been prejudiced against Pegasus, needs to acknowledge Pegasus's "fairness" in dealing with Duel Monster cards.

Back in Duel Kingdom, Pegasus's Toon World didn't have any cost to activate; it only required 500 LP each turn to maintain. What was outrageous was that Toon World would return the LP paid if it was destroyed.

Because of this effect, Pegasus was even criticized by Kyoko and others who were watching at the time for making the effect seem too cheating.

However, Pegasus later took the initiative to adjust the effect of his card, changing the LP payment effect of [Toon World] from each turn to paying 1000 LP upon activation, and also removing the effect of recovering Life Points after destruction.

"Then, I face down three cards, and I summon a monster in Defense Position face-down on the field. Turn End~"

[Bekas: 3000LP, 1 cards in hand]

[The inside side represents a monster]

[Cartoon World] [GaiK] X3

Pegasus's dueling style really reminded Kaiba of the Duel Kingdom era. His technique was extremely simple, with no development other than searching for "Toon World" in his deck.

Even if you randomly pick any player who qualified for the official tournament during the KC Cup, their performance would be far more impressive than Bekas's.

However, Kaiba also knows that sometimes a simple layout is more troublesome than a fancy one, and if the opponent is Pegasus, even he himself needs to be a little more vigilant.

"My turn, draw a card." Kaiba drew a card, checked his hand, and summoned one of them to the field. "I Normal Summon 'Manjushin'. When 'Manjushin' is successfully Summoned or Flip Summoned, I add one Ritual Monster or Ritual Spell Card from my Deck to my hand."

"Then, I activate the [Chaos Form] added to my hand, and release the [Blue-Eyes White Dragon] from my hand as a tribute to my ritual, achieving a total level of 8!"

Using the [Man-Handed God] to add [Chaos Ritual] to his hand, Kaiba revealed a [Blue-Eyes White Dragon] from his hand and sent it to the graveyard.

"Pegasus, let me show you the power of my former self, the one who supposedly 'hasn't grown at all'! Bow down and worship before this new form of [Blue-Eyes]!" Kaiba summoned the blue-bordered Ritual Monster to the field. "Embrace the power of darkness, reach a new realm of chaos, and evolve into another dimension, [Blue-Eyes]!"

"Ritual Summoning! Blue-Ace-Chaos-Doragon!!"

Completely different from the holy light power of the usual Blue Eyes, with the activation of Chaos Mode, purple lightning filled with dark power fell from the sky on Kaibaba. With the roar of light and dark power intertwining and colliding, the body turned into a blue dragon and spread its wings of light to descend!

Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon [8☆/Dark]

[Dragon Clan/Ritual/Effect]

[3000/0]

As the Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon appeared, Kaiba glanced at Pegasus and noticed that he still hadn't considered activating the backcourt card.

'Are there no face-down cards available for activation of their effects or for Special Summoning? Or are you still holding back?'

Seahorse couldn't be sure what the cover card behind Pegasus was, but it didn't matter anymore, because Pegasus would reveal it himself later.

“Since you’re not going to activate your face-down cards, then I’ll keep them until I lose.” Kaiba pointed to the monster Pegasus was facing down on the field. “Now, during the Battle Phase, I’m going to use Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon to attack the monster facing down on your field.”

"Then, when the Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon, successfully summoned through a sacrificial ritual using Blue-Eyes White Dragon, declares an attack, activate her effect!"

"Change the battle position of all monsters on your opponent's field, and this effect reduces the ATK and DEF of the monsters whose battle position has been changed to 0!"

The blue-eyed chaos dragon unfurled its wings of light, and the crystals covering its entire body lit up one after another, perfectly harmonizing the power of light and darkness within it, spreading throughout the entire arena via its wings of light.

However, while the unstable chaotic environment is perfect for Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon, it is a deadly poison for other monsters. Pegasus's face-down monsters were also flipped over by the power of Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon, revealing their true form.

【Cartoon Goblin Assault Force】【DEF0→ATK2300→ATK0】

Pegasus placed the monster in the top position. It was a cartoon version of the 4-star monster [Goblin Assault Force] with an attack power of 2300 but a defense power of only 0. Although its defense power was 0, it was a [Cartoon Monster] with a cheat-like resistance to being destroyed, so Pegasus placed its defense value.

However, the [Toon Goblin Assault Force] has now been forced into attack position due to the effect of [Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon], and its relatively good 2300 attack power has been reduced to 0!

If Pegasus takes the hit from the Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon, he will suffer a full 3000 points of combat damage, completely wiping out his remaining 3000 life points after paying 1000 points for activating Toonworld!

Therefore, Pegasus finally revealed a card from his back row: "I activate..."

Chapter 513: Simple yet effective tactics; Pegasus's top-tier understanding.

"I activate this card, the Continuous Trap Card [Dragon's Seal Jar]!"

In the backcourt of Bekas, as his card was activated, a brass kettle appeared with a dragon head relief on the front, which also seemed to be engraved with the word "target".

"Do you still remember this card, Kaiba boy?" Pegasus said smugly. "Back then, your Blue-Eyes White Dragon was easily sealed away by this card. Even though your Blue-Eyes evolved, it still couldn't escape the restrictions imposed by this rule~"

"You should know the effect of this card, right?"

"As long as [Dragon-Sealing Pot] is on the field, all face-up Dragon-Type monsters on the field will be changed to Defense Position and cannot change their position..." Kaiba said unhappily, referring to the modified effect of [Dragon-Sealing Pot]. "Aren't you tired of using the same tricks, Pegasus?"

"But Kaiba boy, you have to admit, this kind of move, though old-fashioned, is still quite effective, right?" Pegasus said with a light laugh. "I've looked into the information about the Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon. It has the ability to not become the target of my effects and not be destroyed by them, right?"

"If it's a card like [Explosive Armor], it's ineffective against it, but [Dragon's Seal Jar] can perfectly counter it."

During the exchange between Kaiba and Pegasus, the Dragon Seal Jar released a unique power. This power had no effect on Kaiba's Tobi-Goblin and Pegasus's Totoro Assault Troops, but it did affect Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon.

The light on the blue-eyed [Blue-Eyes] dimmed, and the wings on its back retracted. Under the influence of the [Dragon's Sealing Jar], even the [Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon], which had excellent resistance, had to change its attack pattern due to the noble non-targeting effect, and its weak defense was revealed by its focused attack.

[Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon] [ATK3000→DEF0]

Pegasus blocked his Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon's attack, and Kaiba clicked his tongue in annoyance, saying, "Although Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon has been switched to Defense Position, Toon Goblin Assault has also been switched to Attack Position and its Attack Power has been reduced to 0. My Man-Handed Goblin can still attack."