Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Even while playing games in the passenger seat, I was only able to stay seated because I hadn't unbuckled my seatbelt.

However, this was only because the encirclement of the demon soldiers had not yet tightened. Peacock Dance was not a Rider with an A+ class riding ability who could overtake racing cars with a bicycle. As the demon soldiers rushed forward to block her, even going so far as to ram their bodies into the vehicle to force it to slow down, the vehicle's speed became slower and slower.

Once the RV is forced to stop and unable to move, it's hard to imagine what these evil soldiers might do to the people inside!

Just as a demon soldier seized the opportunity created by his companions to get close to the RV, his arm blade sweeping across as if to cleave everyone inside, an off-road vehicle suddenly appeared from the side and crashed into the demon soldier who was about to launch his attack, saving everyone!

"Hey! Lishid, did you just see that? A home run!"

A familiar voice came from inside the off-road vehicle. The game looked over and saw the white-haired man in the driver's seat proudly showing off his foresight to the woman in the passenger seat, "Although the lack of a roof made it unbearably hot the whole way, the powerful engines of these two off-road jeeps really came in handy!"

Judging from his appearance, he looked exactly like a three-year-old who had bought a toy but found it unexpectedly useful and was proudly showing off his cleverness to his parents—that was Malik, wasn't he? The woman sitting in the passenger seat was naturally Isis, while Lishid sat in the back.

The three tomb-guarding clan members, reporting for duty!

Noticing the gaze directed at him, Malik turned around and said, "Hey, Nameless Pharaoh, we've come to help too. We were held up by a bunch of thugs trying to scam us on the way, but we shouldn't be too late, right?"

“No, Malik, you’ve come at just the right time.” In an instant, the timid Yugi and the powerful Dark Yugi switched places. Yugi looked at Malik and smiled. “However, now is not the time for pleasantries.”

“That’s true.” Malik returned a sinister grin, glanced ahead, stepped on the gas and sent the jeep surging forward, crashing into another demon soldier. “Our target is the Paradis Building. I’ll lead the way. Follow me, you blonde over there.”

"Who's the blonde? I have a name, you bastard!" Mai, whom Malik called "Blonde," stepped on the gas and caught up with Malik, who was leading the way. "I always feel uneasy about being helped by that guy named Malik."

Mai, of course, had no idea what kind of torment she would suffer in Duel City when facing Malik in a timeline without Hayato's interference. However, she didn't care much about her displeasure. The most important thing now was to get to the Paradis Building first.

Before the attack, the group only thought that they could obtain information about Doma from "Dazs," the president of the Paradis Group. However, the fact that it was so difficult to enter the Paradis Building and that there were even these strange demon soldiers blocking their way meant that this place was of extraordinary importance to the Doma organization, and the value of the information they could obtain would definitely be greatly increased.

With Malik leading the way, the group finally arrived at the Paradis Building. As the two cars approached, searchlights suddenly shone down from both sides of the road, illuminating the surroundings.

A voice came: "I have been waiting for you for a long time, Yugi Muto. No, the nameless pharaoh."

Chapter 618 A promise must be kept.

Stimulated by the bright light, and to avoid colliding with Malik in front, Peacock stepped on the brakes and turned the steering wheel, bringing the RV to a spectacular drift stop.

The game, sitting in the passenger seat, used the momentum to open the car door. Before the car stopped, he unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped out, landing with a suitcase that had been thrown out beforehand. He tossed his hair up and looked at the figure standing in the light.

With his spiky blond hair, wearing a dark gray vest over a deep blue overcoat, he was none other than Rafiru, who had been waiting for him at the Paradis Building.

“Rafael…” Taking out the Duel Disk and card deck from the box, Yugi straightened up and looked at Rafael on the steps. As he put the Duel Disk on, he said, “Did you send those things out?”

“Those Orichalcos soldiers?” Rafiru glanced at the soldiers chasing the RV in the distance and said calmly, “I want a chance to duel you one-on-one. To prevent your companions from interfering, I sent them out to find a way to make you split up.”

"However, they are just mindless tools after all, and they can't even threaten your companions to force you to duel me."

Yugi frowned: "There's no need for that. To get Hayato back and to settle scores for the crimes that took other people's lives, the people of Doma are opponents I won't let go of. Besides, I was planning to defeat you one-on-one, Rafael."

So far, Yugi has dueled Rafael twice, once in a KC Cup open tournament where Rafael wasn't taking it seriously, and the other time when Rafael included [God Flame Emperor - Uria] in his deck, which didn't fit his style. In both duels, Rafael didn't show his true strength.

Even though he wasn't going all out, you could still feel the unique aura of a true duelist from Rafael back then. However, defeating a Rafael who wasn't serious couldn't quell his duelist spirit.

Now, Rafael, one of the three musketeers of Doma, has an irreconcilable conflict of stance with Yugi, the user of the "Legendary Dragon," which naturally gives him the opportunity to go all out. However, when Yugi last met Rafael, he was completely distracted by Hayato, who was making his first appearance after disappearing, and he never had a duel with Rafael at full strength.

But now, finally, there is an opportunity for the two to have a one-on-one, all-out duel.

"Game!" In the RV, Honda Shanshan, sitting in the back seat, opened the door and glanced behind her. She saw the Orichalco soldiers, whom she had just managed to shake off, still relentlessly pursuing and closing the distance to the RV. She anxiously called out, "Game!"

The bumpers of the RV that had hit the Orichalco soldiers were shattered from the shock of their sturdy armor, and the vehicle that had been grazed by the Orichalco soldiers was also covered in scratches. The RV, which was originally worth $100,000, is now estimated to be worth less than $5,000. This is why Honda struggled for a long time with the transforming door before finally opening it.

It's hard to imagine what would happen if the game, without any vehicle protection, were caught by those Orichalco soldiers.

Honda wanted to tell Yugi to get in the car first and shake off the Orichalco soldiers, so that they could find a way to enter the Paradis Building when it was a little safer, at least when Rafiru wasn't blocking the entrance. However, after hearing Honda's call, Yugi just turned around and confidently said to Honda, "Let's leave with the others first, Honda. I'll be fine."

From the fact that Rafael was standing alone at the entrance of the Paradis Building waiting for Yugi, it was clear that although he had arranged for the Orichalcos soldiers to attack everyone, it was only to evacuate the others so as not to interfere with his duel with Yugi. And now, just as Rafael had wished, Yugi had gone out alone, and the Orichalcos soldiers he had arranged no reason to attack Yugi.

“But—” Honda hesitated, unsure whether to believe Yugi’s words, after all, those menacing Orichalco soldiers had been so frightening and aggressive. But looking at Yugi’s confident eyes, his trust in his friend convinced him. “I understand. Be careful, Yugi.”

"We'll be back once we've shaken off these guys!" From the driver's seat, Kongquewu called out, stepping on the gas to accelerate, causing an Orichalco soldier who was close to the RV to miss his raised arm blade.

As Malik and Mai drove away, just as the game had predicted, the Orichalcos soldiers had no intention of attacking the game and didn't even approach the Paradis Building, chasing after the two departing vehicles.

“Now that no one is in the way, this is not the place for a duel.” Rafiru glanced at himself standing on the steps and Yugi standing below them. To prevent Yugi from saying something like “this is a trial,” he chose to change the battlefield and turned around to walk away first. “Come with me, nameless pharaoh.”

As if unafraid of being ambushed, Rafael brazenly exposed his unguarded back and walked into the open doorway. Out of caution, Yugi did not immediately follow, but instead lagged behind by two steps to maintain a distance, and entered the doorway a few seconds later.

However, upon entering the Paradis Building, Yugi was immediately taken aback, as he discovered that Rafael had vanished in an instant.

Where have you been?

While looking around, I noticed a pure white feather slowly drifting down from mid-air. It looked like a bird's feather? How strange, why would something like that be indoors?

Just as the game was about to reach out and catch the unusual feather to examine it closely, it discovered that the white feather was gradually becoming transparent as it fell, as if it were an illusion. At the same time, a "ding" sound came from not far away.

Turning my head, I saw that an elevator door had opened automatically as we reached the first floor, revealing an empty elevator car, with an upward arrow displayed on the screen above the elevator.

Although Yugi wasn't quite sure what had happened with Rafael's sudden disappearance and the feather from before, the situation clearly showed that Rafael was inviting him into the elevator. In particular, the elevator doors, which should have only been open for a few seconds, remained open as if waiting for Yugi to enter.

Although he was even more suspicious that it was a trap, Yugi still walked towards the elevator. Just as he stepped inside, the elevator doors proved that they weren't broken; they closed automatically, and without him pressing any buttons, the elevator ascended to the next floor. This made Yugi even more certain that Rafael was most likely waiting for him on the floor where the elevator would stop.

Yugi, or rather "Dark Yugi," has always been the type who, even knowing full well that a trap exists, will only be cautious but will not avoid it altogether. Because of this personality, he has suffered losses at the hands of Hayato and Yugi on the surface more than once in duels. However, even so, Dark Yugi will not become tactful or run away from challenges. Although somewhat stubborn, this is simply part of Dark Yugi's character.

Now that they were inside the enclosed elevator car, Yu-chan didn't feel nervous. Instead, knowing that a battle would inevitably await him when the elevator stopped, he took out the deck he had brought with him, spread it out, and swapped some of the cards with his spare cards to adjust the composition of the deck.

Even knowing there was a camera right above and behind him in the elevator, the game believed that Rafael, given his personality, wouldn't peek at someone else's cards, since that would risk hospitalization.

(Someone gets furious: Achoo!)

The Eye of Ugato on the Millennium Puzzle shimmered with golden light, and the figure of the main character floated beside the dark Yugi, who was organizing his deck.

“My other self,” said Omoyuki, looking at Yami Yugi with a worried expression, “I have a bad feeling about this, I don’t know why. You have to be careful.”

Yugi knows his other self's personality inside and out. It's not that he's not serious in duels, but rather that he's too serious, always attacking with all his might, which makes him very easy to fall into his opponent's trap.

On the other hand, Yugi's personality is exactly the opposite. He is better at defense than offense. The strengths and weaknesses of the two can be said to be complementary. However, compared to Onyuki, who gradually grew and overcame his weaknesses due to the influence of many friends such as Yami Yugi, Jonouchi, Hayato, and even Kaiba, Yami Yugi actually went further and further in "attack" without making up for his weaknesses.

Although there is a saying that "one force can overcome ten skills," even without making up for his weaknesses, Yugi Yami has the strength to compete with Hayato, Kaiba and others by relying on his strengths in attack. However, he is afraid that someone will target his weaknesses by taking advantage of his personality.

Because she herself had done it more than once, the gamer knew very well that her other self was very easy to fool.

Since there was no one else around, Yami Yugi didn't choose to communicate telepathically, but instead opted for the more familiar method of speaking directly: "Aibo, believe me, I will definitely win."

"Before we pulled the sword from [Timaeus], ​​we made a promise with [Dark Magician Girl] in the Elf World that we would definitely defeat Doma and save both worlds."

"A promise is a promise, isn't it?"

Omote Yugi naturally remembered what Yami Yugi had said, since they had both drawn the sword together and agreed to Dark Magician Girl's request together. Although Dark Magician Girl's expression at the time was quite subtle, like she had just gotten rid of a plague god with a hint of smugness, she was probably overjoyed because she saw hope for the world to be saved.

However, even when Yami Yugi brought up the promise they made back then, Omote Yugi still had some concerns.

Lately, Grimo's attack stole the card "Sky Dragon of Osiris," and I suffered a crushing defeat at the International Illusion Club against Hayato's "Hungry Poison Fusion Dragon." I feel that due to the pressure of the agreement and the series of setbacks, my other self is becoming increasingly impatient.

Hopefully, nothing unexpected will happen in the upcoming duel.

The display screen inside the elevator did not show the floor it had reached. The player only felt that the elevator had been going up for a while before it gradually slowed down and was about to stop. The player did not know which floor it had reached. After a "ding" sounded, the elevator door opened and a cool breeze blew into the elevator car.

The game, having already adjusted the deck, placed it into the Duel Disk to unfold it. Looking out of the elevator, he discovered that Rafael had actually arrived at an outdoor rooftop. Rafael, with his arms crossed and eyes closed, stood not far away, seemingly having been waiting there for a long time.

Stepping out of the elevator, the gamer looked up at the dark night sky, where only patches of clouds remained, the stars scattered. So, he had actually taken the elevator from the first floor of the Paradis Building all the way to the rooftop? No wonder it felt like quite some time had passed.

However, what attracted the game's attention even more than standing on the rooftop was the pair of transparent wings that unfolded behind Raphael, with several pure white feathers drifting down from them as the wings opened. At this moment, Raphael truly lived up to his name, appearing as if he were an angel named Raphael who had stepped out of mythology into the modern world.

“Even now, I still don’t understand, Rafael.” Instead of rushing into a life-or-death battle with Rafael, Yugi looked at Rafael, who opened his eyes as his wings disappeared, and said, “From our past duels, I can sense that you have an unparalleled and unique affection for Duel Monsters. You are a true duelist.”

"Why would someone who loves Duel Monsters join the Doma organization?"

“You know, Hitler was also a vegetarian. I won’t deny my feelings for Duel Monsters and my deck, but I don’t think that contradicts my being a member of the Doma organization,” Rafael said calmly in response to Yugi’s questioning.

Yugi frowned and denied it, saying, "No, if the power of a Duel Monster belongs to a true duelist, they would never use it for evil purposes!"

“Evil? You think Doma is doing evil, nameless pharaoh.” Rafiru’s gaze met Yugi’s, staring straight into Yugi’s eyes without wavering. “But no, power and even the world are never black and white. I don’t believe that any person or force can be distinguished by simple and meaningless labels like ‘justice’ and ‘evil.’ Sweet soda and bitter tea can both quench thirst.”

“Nameless Pharaoh, you only take ‘response’ actions when I or Dorma take action. This habit has become ingrained in your mind and body. Although you have considerable talent, the idea of ​​‘self-defense’ that is so deeply ingrained in your heart will never allow you to voluntarily give rise to the thought of ‘killing me’.”

“I believe that this difference in willpower is more differentiating than ‘justice’ or ‘evil.’ In my eyes, you are just a passive ‘responder.’”

Rafael raised his Duel Disk. "The true difference between us lies in our ability to kill each other's 'will' without hesitation when necessary. Let me show you the difference in that will through this duel, Nameless Pharaoh!"

"Duel!"

Rafiru: 4000 LP

Chapter 619's impact on teenagers is immeasurable.

"Responders"?

Upon hearing this, Yugi frowned. He had heard this term before. It was mentioned by a bald man named "Grimo," a member of the Doma organization that had attacked Sugoroku Muto and stolen the card "Sky Dragon of Osiris." If he remembered correctly, he seemed to be one of Rafael's subordinates.

While the game doesn't quite agree with Rafael's statement that "willpower is better at distinguishing people than good or evil," it also can't refute Rafael's concept of "responders."

Although the Dark Game is much more ruthless and forceful than the gentle Surface Game, he always strikes decisively without hesitation when necessary, and he is capable of driving his enemies mad or shattering their minds with the Dark Game.

However, even though he was reluctant to admit that Rafael's assessment was true, Yugi had already accepted the term "responder" in his mind. He could only passively deal with what had already happened and could not prevent things from happening in the first place.

However, Yugi doesn't think there's anything wrong with him being such a "responder," nor does he believe that the strength or weakness between him and Rafael, or the outcome of their duel, will be determined by this will.

Since Rafael had already raised his Duel Disk, Yugi naturally wouldn't shy away from a duel. He also raised his unfolded Duel Disk and declared with great confidence, "In a duel, we two as one will not lose!"

"Duel!"

[Game: 4000LP]

“So, we’re going to settle our differences through a duel? That suits me perfectly. I’ll take the first turn then.” Rafael seized the initiative. “My turn, draw a card.”

As Rafael drew his card, he was enveloped in a soft, holy white light. Seeing this, Yugi, within the Millennium Puzzle, felt a renewed sense of foreboding and quickly warned, "The other me!"

'That murderous aura, like being stared at by a wild beast… I'll be careful, Aibo.' Yami Yugi sensed Rafael's seriousness immediately, glancing down at the cards in his hand. 'However, I also drew a pretty perfect hand.'

Rafiru looked at the card he had drawn, raised an eyebrow, and realized that his starting hand was quite good, having drawn a rather excellent card.

"I activate the Spell Card [Double Summon], which allows me to perform a second Normal Summon in one turn." He first played a [Double Summon] card. This card has many uses. It can be used to prepare tributes and perform a Tribute Summon in one turn, or to trigger the effect of a Double Monster in time. However, Rafael chose a third way to use it.

"During the Main Phase, I Normal Summon two monsters from my hand to the field in face-down Defense Position." Raphael draws two cards from his hand, summoning two monsters to the field at once due to the [Double Summon] effect. He then draws another card. "And then, my Quick-Play Spell Card [Book of the Sun]."

"The effect of [Book of the Sun], I remember, is the ability to change a face-down Defense Position monster to face-up Attack Position. Compared to [Defense Seal], which is limited to face-down Defense Position monsters, this one is much better." Yugi instantly thought of Rafael's possible tactics. "He could have summoned a monster directly in Attack Position, but instead he deliberately placed it in Defense Position first and then spent his hand resources. Could it be..."

As Rafael figured out the game, he flipped one of his face-down monsters onto the field: "I change my [Master Craftsman - Tiger Iron] from face-down Defense Position to face-up Attack Position, and activate its effect as a result!"

Before Rafael appeared a shirtless old man standing by a blazing furnace, wearing a green hat with the character "匠" (craftsman) printed on it. He was all muscle and had a heavy iron hammer in his left hand, which he was forcefully smashing down on a nascent longsword in his right hand. He was clearly a blacksmith.

However, [Master Craftsman - Tiger Iron] is clearly not like a civil official or scientist from a certain country; his stats don't do justice to his muscular physique.

【Master Craftsman - Tiger Iron】【2☆/Flame】

[Beast Warrior Race / Reversal / Effect]