Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"This is...?"

Although they are similar in size and shape, and both have a golden relief of the "Eye of Ugato" on the side facing the game, the game can confirm that the slightly bluish crystal pyramid and the golden Millennium Puzzle are completely different entities.

Just by staring at the crimson eyeball in the "Eye of Ugato" on the crystal pyramid, Yugi felt his mind being subjected to a continuous, overwhelming pressure. At the same time, he heard increasingly clear sounds, and even images appeared before his eyes.

"...when light and darkness intersect..."

To Yugi's astonishment, two figures appeared facing each other before him. Although initially blurry, they quickly became clear, and Yugi realized that the two were actually his other self, "Dark Yugi," and Kaiba!

However, unlike the two people he knew from the game, the two people who appeared in front of him at this moment were not wearing modern clothes, but rather Egyptian clothing that exposed a considerable area of ​​their bodies, and each of them was adorned with gold and silver, seemingly unconcerned about the weight.

Just as Yugi was wondering why he could see "Yami Yugi" and Kaiba dressed in completely different outfits than before, the two facing each other made a waving gesture as if commanding some kind of battle, and two thick stone slabs appeared in front of them. From the stone slabs, two monsters that Yugi was extremely familiar with flew out.

It was none other than Yami Yugi's trusted servant, [Dark Magician], and Kaiba's ace, [Blue-Eyes White Dragon]!

As Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon emerged from the stone tablets depicting their respective images and clashed, Yugi noticed that the clothing worn by Yami Yugi and Kaiba, who were facing off, was changing with the collisions between Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician. Even the stone tablets depicting Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon gradually transformed into cards.

The Millennium Scepter, once held by Malik and later in Hayato's hands, disappeared from Kaiba's grasp, replaced by a technologically advanced Duel Disk. His long white cloak became a long white overcoat, and the hat on Kaiba's head also disappeared. However, the aloof expression on Kaiba's face remained unchanged.

The gold and silver jewelry on Yami Yugi's body has been transformed into the school uniform shoes and pants that Yugi usually wears. The handsome blue cape has gradually become a blue school uniform jacket draped over his shoulders, and the black hemp rope used to hang the Millennium Puzzle around his neck has gradually become a silver iron chain.

Upon seeing this, Yugi subconsciously stretched his neck. Although hanging the Millennium Puzzle with a metal chain certainly looked cooler than with a rope, Yugi had recently noticed that his neck was always sore and stiff, and he was exhausted every day.

When I have time, I will definitely change the rope back, even if my other self disagrees, because I still want to grow taller.

Just as he was lost in thought about the game, he heard that voice, which seemed to come from nowhere, ring out again:

"...The King of Light buries the darkness, and obliterates the King of Darkness..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yugi noticed that the balance between Yami Yugi and Kaiba, and between Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon, had been broken. Blue-Eyes White Dragon gradually suppressed Dark Magician with its powerful strength and gained the upper hand. Yami Yugi also seemed to have been injured in the battle, showing a pained expression as he half-squatted down.

"...when filled with light..."

Seeing that Yami Yugi was at a disadvantage, Kaiba's face showed a smug smile, but in the next moment, his head was grabbed and lifted up by a large hand!

"...Wreck-It Ralph is about to awaken!"

The kobold that suddenly appeared behind the seahorse looked at the seahorse it had captured with a look of pleasure, and then glanced mockingly at the direction of the game, which was watching the battle from the sidelines.

The game finally realized that the voice that had entered his ears was coming from the mouth of the kobold in front of him!

"Wreck-It Ralph?!"

Yugi looked somewhat flustered at the kobold carrying a seahorse, who walked past the kneeling, pained Yami Yugi and was approaching him, and repeated the name the other had said.

As the grinning kobold reached out his hand, Yugi, who was powerless to retaliate, was so frightened that he almost closed his eyes. But then he suddenly saw a dazzling golden light shining behind "Wreck-It Ralph".

Now, the kobold could no longer attack the game. Instead, he looked back nervously at the dazzling sun that had appeared in the void, as if facing a formidable enemy.

"...Destruction is contending with the Sun King..."

To the game's surprise, "Wreck-It Ralph" had already turned around to confront the sun when another voice rang out. However, judging from the voice, it was not the same person as the kobold "Wreck-It Ralph".

As the voice narrated, three beams of light flew out from the "sun" and attacked "Wreck-It Ralph." Although they caused great damage to "Wreck-It Ralph," he waved his hand, and a crystal pyramid appeared that we had seen before in the game. He then sealed the three beams of light emitted from the "sun" inside.

However, after the three beams of light were sealed off, the "Sun" released three more attacks, striking "Destroyer" once again. This time, however, what was released was not light, but three beams of darkness.

The kobold, seemingly unable to withstand the second attack, was knocked to the ground.

"...The Sun King will use [ ] to cover up destruction..."

Facing the fallen "Wreck-It Ralph," "The Sun" seemed to be gathering some power, preparing to deliver a final blow to "Wreck-It Ralph."

But at that moment, the fallen "Wreck-It Ralph" launched a desperate counterattack, spitting out a red sphere from its head and crashing into the three black streaks that had not been retracted.

The three jet-black beams of power, seemingly pulled away from the control of the "sun" by the red sphere, spun and twisted, transforming into a jet-black hole that crashed into the "sun"!

"...But destruction also took the sun away."

The sounds around the game gradually faded, and under his gaze, the last power of "Sun" transformed into a vortex flashing with lightning, successfully crushing and dissipating "Wreck-It Ralph." However, "Sun" also disappeared into the hole left by "Wreck-It Ralph."

The crystal pyramid that bound the initial three beams of light shattered, but the light could no longer return to the "sun".

Everything before his eyes shattered suddenly along with the crystal pyramid, and he abruptly opened his eyes and sat up from the ground.

"Ooh!"

Yugi, who had suddenly woken up from the floor, startled Kyoko. Kyoko, who hadn't woken up much earlier than Yugi, quickly looked at Yugi with concern: "Yugi! What's wrong!?"

"Kyoko? You just saw that—" Yugi shouted, seeing Kyoko. He was about to say something when his mind went blank for a moment. He realized that he couldn't remember what he had just seen at all. "That, what was it again?"

"Huh?" Kyoko was a little confused by Yugi's abrupt question. "What are you talking about, Yugi? What did you see?"

"No, it's nothing." The game player tried to recall the scene, but no matter how hard he tried, he had no recollection of what happened after that, even though he could barely remember the scene up until the voice of "Wreck-It Ralph is about to awaken" rang out and "Wreck-It Ralph" reached out to him.

"And you, Anzu? Did you see anything?"

Helping herself up from the ground, Anzu shook her head: "Just now I only remember that the terrifying mummy suddenly started to glow, and then everything went black, and I don't remember anything."

As Yugi and Anzu awoke, the others also opened their eyes.

"Ah, I don't recognize this ceiling." Malik opened his eyes with a sour face, but didn't get up even though he was awake.

Beside his head, Jonouchi opened his eyes: "Huh? How did I end up on the ground?"

“I don’t even know where the end of the universe is, how would I know the answer to your question?” Malik turned his head and glared at Jonouchi, who was lying on the ground looking completely bewildered. “But before you start thinking, get up, you bastard!”

Upon hearing this, Jonouchi realized that he had fallen right on top of Malik, which explained why Malik hadn't gotten up despite being awake. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but rather that he simply couldn't lift Jonouchi, who was pressing down on his shoulder.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, I was wondering why the ground was uneven." Jonouchi chuckled as he got up, pulling Malik up with his hands, while Honda helped the ailing old man, Muto Sugoroku, to his feet.

Then the group realized that they were no longer next to the glass display stand they had been watching, but had been moved to an open space a little further away. Looking back at the glass display stand, they saw Hayato and Isis.

"...Then, that guy ran away, and we couldn't catch him at all, or maybe it was it." As the curious Yugi and the others approached, they heard Hayato seemingly finish talking to Isis, and Hayato noticed their approach. "Yo, everyone's awake."

"Hayato, Miss Isis." The strange video he had just seen was very concerning. He looked at Hayato and Isis, who had clearly woken up earlier than them, and asked, "Do you know what just happened?"

“Hayato was the first to wake up, and I think I woke up a little earlier than you guys, Mr. Yugi, with his help.” Isis shook her head and said, facing Yugi’s questioning gaze. “I never thought that the Millennium Wisdom Wheel’s ability to interfere with dark forces could be used in this way.”

"I almost took Hayato's joke, 'You're the best one in this batch,' seriously."

Hearing Isis mention his previous joke, Hayato shrugged: "Actually, this is the first time I've used this method. I just wanted to try my best to wake you up."

"Also, regarding the question of what just happened..." Noticing that Yugi, who is usually very laid-back, now seemed very concerned about the answer to the question, Hayato turned to the side, revealing the coffin that Anubis had overturned and that had fallen to the ground, as well as the broken glass scattered all over the ground.

"This is!" Jonouchi and the others stared in astonishment at the vanished mummy, even Malik looked surprised. "Could it be that the ancient mummy has really come back to life!?"

As he spoke, Malik quickly reached into his pocket and discovered that the coin he had used to jokingly bet with the still-unresurrected mummy was missing.

Hayato poked the coin in his pocket deeper with his finger.

"That kind of thing is impossible, right?" Jonouchi still seemed to disbelieve that the mummy could come back to life. "Maybe a thief used a flashbang to knock us unconscious and then stole the mummy."

"Idiot, if it were a flashbang, we wouldn't be back to normal so quickly," Honda retorted.

"Actually, the mummy really did come back to life. That guy even took a crystal pyramid that was previously placed in the exhibition hall. I even had a life-or-death duel with that guy in the form of a dark game."

Hearing Hayato's words, Malik was somewhat surprised: "Brother-in-law, you didn't lose?!"

"If I had lost, would I still be standing here?" Hayato patted Malik on the shoulder, looking at him like he was an idiot. He didn't bother to refute Malik's nickname, since Malik wouldn't change it anyway. "I won, and that guy was indeed killed by the Dark Game right in front of me."

"But I didn't expect that guy would fake his death and then come back to life, taking advantage of my inattention to escape with the crystal pyramid."

As Hayato mentioned the "Crystal Pyramid," Yugi's thoughts kept replaying his previous hallucinations.

From the conversation between the people in the castle, he understood that the others had simply gone black and fainted, and had not seen any illusions. Only Yugi seemed to be able to see illusions because he possessed the Millennium Puzzle.

'The mummy's resurrection... could it be a parallel to the resurrection of the Destroyer King? If so, wouldn't my other self be the Lord of Darkness, and Kaiba the Lord of Light?'

Recalling the seahorse's pained expression from his memory, Yugi briefly explained the hallucination he had seen to Yami Yugi in the Millennium Puzzle, then made up his mind and said to everyone with a firm gaze:

"Everyone, I'm sorry, but there's something that's really bothering me."

"I'm going to find Kaiba-kun now!"

After explaining, the game player bowed slightly and hurriedly ran out of the exhibition hall.

'If the prophecy on the coffin is true, the Lord of Light will very likely become a sacrifice to the resurrected Lord of Destruction. That means now…'

A voice from another version of himself reached his ears, and the game mentally filled in the unspoken second half of the sentence:

'That means the seahorse is in danger now!'

Chapter 522 But, this is a world of cards.

Headquarters building and data center of Haima Entertainment Group.

A programmer in a white lab coat pushed up his slightly slipped glasses. His neck was a little sore from sitting in front of the screen for a long time, so he twisted it from side to side.

After checking behind him to make sure no one was around, programmer A, who had been slacking off, struck up a conversation with his colleague, programmer B, who was sitting next to him, out of boredom: "Have you finished organizing your data yet?"

"Hmm? It's still a long way off." Upon hearing this, the programmer B, who had been spoken to, also turned around to make sure no one was behind him. After confirming that no one was watching, he took his hands off the keyboard, flexed his wrists, and replied, "The data verification for the new cards released by the International Illusion Society a while ago was a huge project."

"Even if I'm only responsible for a small part of it, I'll have to work at least another week to have any hope of finishing it."

It's almost 10 p.m., and only the two of them are still at the data center. Programmer A works the night shift, while Programmer B has chosen to work overtime at double pay due to excessive workload.

"Ugh, this is really tough." Programmer A, having also experienced dealing with massive amounts of work, could empathize with Programmer B's situation. "And I remember we also had to keep a separate copy of the code in case of counterfeit cards, right? It's a huge project."

Programmer B looked helpless: "There's no way around it. After all, this kind of work has to be done manually, one card at a time. The difference between even a single word in the description of the card effects by the International Illusion Company is like night and day. Didn't someone try to use AI to automate the process last time and end up creating a bug where [Earthquake] could be summoned as a monster?"

"It's that new employee from the next group, right? I remember, I remember." Programmer A seemed to have also heard about the incident his colleague mentioned. "He graduated from Tokyo University and finally got into the company, but because of that slacking off, it's become harder for him to get promoted."

"That guy was lucky. At least the bug was brought under control before it leaked out. Otherwise, the team next door or even our entire department would probably have had their performance bonuses docked."

Programmer B had a helpless expression on his face. "So this kind of work can't be done lazily and has to be done manually. And looking at how popular Duel Monsters is now, it's no problem for it to remain popular for decades to come. There will definitely be a lot of card input work in the future. I'm already mentally prepared."

"You're really good at taking things easy," Programmer A chuckled. "My luck is much better than yours. All I have to do is save the card data detected on those duel disks that the president specifically marked. It seems to be Yugi Muto, Hayato Kobayashi, and Katsuya Jonouchi? They're all well-known duelists."

"Although there are almost no holidays, the work is very easy. However, the overtime pay is not as high as yours."

Programmer B shrugged: "Come on, Haima Group's benefits are among the best in all of Japan. Even without overtime pay, your monthly salary won't be much less. Besides, you're not dating anyway, so as long as your salary is enough, isn't that fine?"

"Hmph, Sorewadoka na?" Programmer A grinned foolishly. "It seems like International Illusion is releasing a blind box set next month that includes female Duel Monster figures, including [Dark Magician Girl]. I'm not very confident about my luck. To get my waifu, I need to save up as much salary as possible!"

Seeing his colleague suddenly burst into enthusiasm, Programmer B was slightly embarrassed: "Seriously, I remember every time we were doing blind box sets, there were resellers on the market who would sell opened blind boxes directly, right? Just buy [Dark Magician Girl], it's more expensive than the normal price, but it's still cheaper than opening several, isn't it?"

"What do you know? Only by opening each box one by one can I show my deep and unwavering love for [Dark Magician Girl]. And I heard that they've also mixed in the new card monster figures that will be released next time. I want those too."

Programmer A said confidently.

Just as Programmer B was about to complain about his partner's scumbag talk—who had just declared his devotion to "Dark Magician Girl" but then immediately "fallen for" a new Duel Monster—a voice suddenly rang out behind them, making them tremble with fear:

"Hey, you two—"

"!" "!"