Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

【VWXYZ-Divine Dragon Assault Cannon】【ATK3000】

"Because the skill is enhanced after the link, it can banish monsters once per turn without needing cards in hand? But no! The current [Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon] cannot be the target of any effects!"

“If you can’t weaken your opponent, then I’ll just strengthen myself as much as possible.” Hayato revealed his last card. “You should know the effect of [Inherited Power], right?”

"I dismantle the Z-Metal Tracks that are equipped on my X-Boss Cannon, and then target it to activate [Continuation—]"

Just as Hayato was about to activate the card, a boy's voice suddenly came from the woods not far away, startling both Kaiba and Hayato.

"Help me—!!!"

"That voice... it's... Keipi!!" Kaiba's expression suddenly changed. He quickly gathered the cards he had placed on the field and put them back in his briefcase. Before the elevator could descend, he leaped off the high duel platform. The image of [Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon] hadn't completely disappeared from the field when Kaiba was already sprinting towards the forest.

Hayato only heard Kaiba's voice: "The outcome of this duel will be decided another day. Until we meet again, Hayato Kobayashi!"

"What the hell? I was clearly going to win! Kaiba is such a jerk." Hayato complained, annoyed. If he could successfully activate [Inherited Power] and transfer 1500 attack power from [Z-Metal Tracks] to [VtoZ] with 3000 attack power, its attack power would surpass that of [Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon].

Then you can win by simply attacking with [X-Boss Cannon].

Despite his annoyance, Hayato was quite worried about the voice of Keihei coming from the forest. He guessed that Keihei had probably been captured by the International Illusion Society again. However, glancing at the distance between the dueling platform and the ground, Hayato didn't dare jump down directly. After all, it was almost four or five meters high, and not everyone was as tall as Kaiba.

Not to mention flying cards to cut steel wires, using suitcases to block bullets, jumping off cliffs and then climbing back up—these are all inhuman feats that Haima has performed. Jumping from the height of two or three stories is nothing to him.

Standing on the gently descending elevator, Hayato said to Bakura, who was watching, "Bakura, hurry up and catch up with Haiba. He's an unregistered resident now, and it would be terrible if he got caught by the International Illusion Society."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the game, they were chasing after the staff of the International Illusion Society who had kidnapped Keihei.

"Let go of Guiping! He's just a child!"

"Come at me if you dare!" Yugi and Kyoko, whose physical abilities were relatively weaker, were a step slower, leaving Honda and Jonouchi in the lead. Looking at the two men in black ahead, they exchanged a glance, mustered all their strength, and sprinted forward, then simultaneously rammed each other with their shoulders.

"what!"

Although the two men in black were adults, they were carrying a child, so Jonouchi and Honda caught up with them and successfully knocked them to the ground. Even Keihei was thrown to the ground as a result. However, Keihei, who had just let out a loud cry for help, was now sleeping like a log.

Not long ago, Keipai stole some Star Chips from someone else and used them, along with Hayato's Star Chips, as stakes in a duel with Yugi. However, the monsters Hayato left for Keipai were either low-level minions with less than 1000 attack power or high-level minions, such as the [Disruptor] Brothers, [Death Stalker], and [Lion Wizard]. Moreover, he didn't include a single Spell or Trap Card.

It was a massacre. Yugi had heard that Keipei had stolen Hayato's cards and had carefully set up traps, but Keipei couldn't even break through the five back row cards that Yugi set in the first turn until he lost the duel.

Wang Yang said he was glad he didn't replace Aibo, otherwise it would have been too embarrassing to bully a child.

After losing his duel, Keibei was taken by Yugi and his team to find the duelist whose chips had been stolen. However, upon arriving at the dock, they discovered that the duelist had already been sent away from Duel Kingdom, and the dock workers had thrown away all the star chips they had been given. It's worth noting that among the chips were Hayato's, the stolen duelist's, and even a few of Yugi's.

Extremely annoyed, the game switched to "King Mode" and challenged the staff to a duel. Surprisingly, the man in black, who wouldn't normally participate, accepted, but he assigned the game an opponent: a duelist claiming to be the ghost of "Seto Kaiba."

After a fierce duel, Yugi quickly realized that his opponent was definitely not Kaiba. Although the deck styles were similar, on the one hand, the duelist's deck only contained the so-called "Dead Blue-Eyes" [Raging Death Dragon], and on the other hand, the lines the opponent shouted while playing cards were neither chuunibyou nor passionate.

After the game defeated the imposter "Kaiba" and won the duel, they suddenly discovered that Keipi was missing. It wasn't until Keipi cried for help that they realized that during the duel, the International Illusion Society had taken advantage of everyone's attention being on the duel and kidnapped Keipi.

And then, this is what happened.

Chapter 99 The Wrath of a Brother-Obsessed Man

"Give Keihei back to me!" Having successfully knocked down two men in black, Jonouchi and Honda also lost their balance and fell to the ground due to the attack they made while running. However, Jonouchi, who had years of experience fighting and being beaten, was the first to get up from the ground and pounced on one of the men in black who was trying to get up, using his body weight to firmly pin him down.

"You troublesome brat!" Another man in black, seeing his companion being subdued, tried to get up to help. But as soon as he sat up, Honda shoved him back to the ground, and the two began to wrestle: "Don't even think about interfering with Jonouchi!"

The four men were locked in a fierce struggle. Although the two men in black were highly skilled security guards, Jonouchi and Honda were exceptionally talented, and it seemed that the stalemate would continue.

"As long as I'm here, you won't be able to take down Keipai—" Jonouchi successfully subdued the man in black and said from his superior position, exerting force with both hands to completely subdue him. But he had only spoken halfway when he suddenly felt a strong tingling sensation in his abdomen, and in an instant, all the strength in his body was drained away, and he even felt that his tongue had grown larger.

Pushing aside the limp and powerless Jonouchi, the man in black who had been pinned to the ground sat up, still holding a stun gun in his hand. Glancing at Jonouchi beside him, he sneered, "You reckless brat, all you do is charge forward like an ape. This isn't the mafia era of decades ago when showing guts was enough to take over a street."

"Jonnouchi!" Honda noticed the situation with Jonnouchi and saw him fall down as if asleep, which distracted him. The man in black who was being controlled by him immediately followed suit, taking out a stun gun from his waist and pressing it against Honda's chest with crackling electricity.

By the time Honda noticed the stun gun, it was too late. He was unable to stop himself from being shocked and could only manage to grab the man in black's head tightly.

"Bilibili~"

The man in black that Jonouchi was dealing with looked at his companion, who had also been electrocuted, with a headache. Although he had also electrocuted Jonouchi with their bodies pressed together, the uniforms worn by these staff members were specially made insulating suits, while his companion had been directly pressed against someone's body with no barrier between them. Although he had electrocuted Honda, he himself was also convulsing.

“This is giving me a bit of a headache. I have to carry both of them back at once.” The man in black spoke with feigned distress, glancing down at Jonouchi at his feet, kicking him dismissively, and stepping over him towards the unconscious Keihei. He had seen Jonouchi in the files; this guy was nothing more than a third-rate duelist who had boarded the ship thanks to Lord Pegasus’s special invitation, hardly worth mentioning.

To his surprise, just as he stepped over the body of the city, his ankle was grabbed.

Looking down again, Jonouchi, his face contorted in pain, struggled to pull his trembling hand away from the man in black, grabbing his foot: "I told you, don't... don't even think about taking Keihei away!"

"You bastard!" The man in black was somewhat surprised. Their stun guns were quite powerful; while not fatal, even a bodybuilder would be knocked down after a second of exposure. He'd just used it for four or five seconds to ensure the kid was subdued. And this guy could still move?!

"Crackling sounds~" Unfortunately, the stun gun in the man in black's hand was fully charged. Seeing that Jonouchi still had the strength to struggle, he simply pressed the stun gun against Jonouchi's body again. This time, the electric shock was like the last straw that broke the camel's back. Jonouchi convulsed and weakly let go. In the blur, all that could be seen was the man in black picking up Keihei who had fallen to the ground.

Although they looked like gangsters who routinely carried out elimination missions, these two men in black were actually doing kidnapping for the first time. After all, their International Illusion Society was a legitimate listed company. When they kidnapped Guiping, they knocked him unconscious, but that was just something they learned from TV shows and movies. Guiping woke up halfway there and started calling for help.

This led to Jonouchi and his group pursuing the men in black. Realizing they couldn't let the brat keep yelling, one of the men in black took out a spare packet of ether and poured it onto a rag. While it wasn't as miraculous as the rumors suggested—"one whiff and you're unconscious"—ether could still be used as a deep anesthetic, and Keihei fell asleep after struggling for a short while.

Jonouchi and Honda were already incapacitated, and Yugi and Kyoko were still on their way. It looked like the man in black was about to take Keihei away. Just then, the man in black who had picked up Keihei stood up straight, only to find an aluminum suitcase hurtling towards his face: "Ouch!!"

The sturdy metal ram was about to smash into his face, and the man in black panicked. After all, this was no joke; being hit could be fatal. Ignoring the man he was holding, the man in black quickly let go and leaned back as far as he could to avoid the oncoming suitcase.

A briefcase swept past him with a gust of wind. Just as the man in black was about to get up, a hand suddenly appeared on his face. Immediately afterward, the man in black, who was bent over and unable to exert any strength, felt the hand on his face exert force, slamming his head hard into the solid mud.

"boom!"

The man in black fell to the ground, face up. He tried to struggle to get up and fight back, but before he could do anything, the hand that was holding his head pulled him up again and slammed his head to the ground once more.

"boom!"

The man in black was completely stunned after being slammed on the ground twice, but a large hand was gripping his face, preventing him from even seeing who had attacked him. He could only hear a deep, angry male voice: "Found you! You bunch of scum who kidnapped Guiping!"

"Not only did you attack me and scheme against the Haima Group, you also kidnapped my brother. You bastards are truly unforgivable!"

The man in black knew perfectly well who his attacker was. Kaiba Keihei was his younger brother, and he had also been attacked by members of the International Illusion Society. There was no doubt that the person attacking him was none other than Kaiba Seto, whose fate was unknown!

Damn it, didn't those two guys who were in charge of kidnapping Seto Kaiba say he jumped off a cliff and died?

These were the last thoughts in the man in black's mind. With a crackling sound of electricity and a tingling sensation spreading throughout his body, the man in black lost consciousness.

Chapter 100 Unforgivable, Pegasus

"Jonnouchi! Honda!" After throwing away the stun gun he had taken, Kaiba stood up. Before he could even check on his younger brother, Kaiba Keihei, whom he had been worrying about for so long, he heard the voices of a man and a woman coming from afar.

Turning his head, what came into Kaiba's view was a bright starfish—I mean, Yugi. He and Kyoko had just arrived and were anxiously calling out to Jonouchi and Honda, who were lying on the ground, without even having time to greet Kaiba.

“Yu-Yu…” Kyoko went to check on Honda, and Yugi came to Jonouchi's side and helped him turn over. Looking at Yugi in front of him, Jonouchi endured the pain all over his body and forced a smile, saying, “Keipai, you weren’t taken away, were you?”

"Yes, Kaiba arrived just in time and rescued Keipei," Yugi said, glancing at Kaiba beside him and giving him a friendly smile as a greeting. But Kaiba didn't appreciate it, only glancing at Jonouchi and Yugi, muttering "boring friendship," before walking towards Keipei.

"Kaiba-kun, you're running too fast!" Bakura emerged from the woods, his long white hair strewn with leaves and twigs, panting and looking disheveled. Seeing Yugi, Jonouchi, and the others, he paused for a moment, then greeted them with a smile, "Oh, Yugi-kun, Jonouchi-kun, I didn't expect to see you here too!"

"Bakura?" Yugi and the others were also surprised. They didn't expect that Bakura, whose presence in the class was comparable to Yugi's, would also come to Duel Kingdom.

The seahorse checked on Guiping's condition. Although there was a lot of noise around, it seemed that the anesthetic drug used by the two men in black was very effective, because even after being thrown to the ground a second time, Guiping was still sleeping soundly.

"Kuihei, I won't let anyone hurt you again." Kaiba picked up Guihei, looking at the small cuts and scrapes on his younger brother's body from the fall and scrapes against branches, and said with heartache. His gaze gradually shifted to the two men in black lying on the ground. How dare they treat his brother Guihei like this! These two are unforgivable!

Kyoko and Yugi helped Honda and Jonouchi rest against a large tree. However, Kaiba, who had been watching the two men in black, did not notice that the man in black who had "died together" with Honda had his fingers twitch almost imperceptibly, and a golden eye pattern slowly appeared on his forehead, which was pressed against the muddy ground.

"Damn, the path here is so difficult to walk on." Because of his large size, Hayato, who couldn't bear the suffocation of the forest, struggled to walk through the jungle. After sorting out the cards, he followed the tracks left by Kaiba and Bakura. "Next time, I'm definitely taking the main road. If I take the side road again, I'm a pig."

From afar, he could see through the gaps in the branches Yugi and Anzu, who were concerned about Jonouchi and Honda, and Kaiba, who was holding Keihei as he stood up. Bakura was standing on the other side, fixing his long hair. Hayato opened his mouth, about to greet them, but suddenly, a wave of power that Hayato was quite familiar with swept over him.

"This power is!" Before Hayato could even recognize the source of this power, his head began to throb, and his body gradually became sluggish and unable to move. Having once confronted this power before, Hayato recognized it: "It's Pegasus's Millennium Eye!"

"Kuri~" [Rainbow Kuriboh] appeared just in time, its Pokémon power protecting Hayato. Although it prevented him from moving freely, it restored some of Hayato's gradually sluggish thoughts. Immediately afterward, the [Millennium Wisdom Ring] on Hayato's chest emitted a golden glow, and Hayato felt his body regain its mobility under the illumination of this light.

"Oh~ Hayato boy, I didn't expect you to also get a [Millennium Item]~"

Who else could speak such broken English and unleash the power of the Millennium Eye but Pegasus? Hayato looked up and saw a man in black who had been lying on the ground slowly rising, staring blankly at Hayato with a strange smile. On the man's forehead, a golden eye pattern glowed.

"You are Pegasus, right?" Although it was a question, Hayato's tone was very certain. "I always thought that the organizers of Duel Kingdom wouldn't interfere with the competition."

“You’re wrong, Hayato boy~” The man in black, or rather the puppet controlled by Pegasus, raised a finger and shook it. “Kaiba boy and Keipi boy are not participants in the Duel Kingdom tournament. Strictly speaking, they are all guys who disrupted the order of the tournament. As the organizer, I have every reason and right to deal with them.”

Hayato chuckled: "The solution you're referring to isn't about using the power of the 'Millennium Eye' to peel away the soul of one of the brothers, like you did with Sugoroku, and then using that to threaten the other, is it?"

"How long are you going to keep toying with people's hearts, Pegasus!"

"Oh~ Hayato boy, are you angry? Angry things aren't good for your health." Pegasus seemed quite composed when facing Hayato. "But you really understand me. I did have that kind of plan. Brothers killing each other, and then both falling into the abyss of defeat because of their feelings for each other—that's truly the best drama in the world~"

“I won’t agree to that.” Hayato’s hand, hidden behind his back, suddenly lashed out, and the card [Dark Knight Gaia] spun like a ninja shuriken, heading straight for the face of the black-clad man controlled by Pegasus. On the card, the figure of [Gaia] appeared, riding a warhorse at full speed, thrusting his spear along the card's trajectory.

The power of the card spirit is divided into multiple stages. As the strongest card monster in Hayato's hands at present, although it has the limitation of needing to rely on the main card to attack, there is no doubt that the current [Gaia] can barely interfere with the physical body.

The illusory spear hurtled straight at Gaia's face, but the man in black calmly extended his hand, the golden eye on his forehead—the Eye of Ugato, symbolizing "punishment"—shining brightly. Touching the intangible light, Gaia's spear seemed to have struck something, unable to advance an inch, and even Gaia's own card was caught between Pegasus's fingers.

"When we last met, Hayato, your [Gaia] wasn't at this stage yet, right? You've grown so fast, it makes me feel old~" Pegasus smiled as he glanced at the [Gaia] on his fingertip and tossed the card back. "You'd better take good care of your awakened spirit power Duel Monster Card, don't throw it away carelessly again, Hayato~"

The power of Gaia's attack was as swift as the force of the card as it was thrown back by Pegasus. Accompanied by a dazzling golden light, Hayato caught the returning Gaia card, but was instead slammed into the trunk of a large tree behind him.

When Hayato looked up, the man in black controlled by Pegasus and his companion had vanished. Also gone was Keihei, whom Kaiba was holding.

What remained at the scene, so that everyone freed from the power of the "Millennium Eye" could hear, was Pegasus's words: "Game boy, Hayato boy, and Kaiba boy, you'd better hurry up! Just now, the top eight contestants of First have been decided."

"If you want to take back what you've lost, come to my castle. I'll be waiting for you~"

Chapter 101 The Seahorse's Superstition about Science

"What happened?!" Game was the first to recover. Having been pulled into the "time stop" world by Pegasus once before, he immediately realized that he had just been pulled into that space again.

The only difference was that last time his mind could function normally in that space, but this time his mind stagnated, just like when he was dueling and everyone else was "frozen".

Haima was the second to recover. Just moments before, he had been holding his unconscious younger brother, but the next moment, his brother had vanished. He had no recollection of who had taken his brother or when; it was as if someone had erased a segment of time.

"Guiping, he's gone?"

"This feeling is exactly the same as last time at the game house." Jonouchi was the third to recover, and he weakly raised his arm to cover his forehead. Already in a bad state after the "electrotherapy," he was further put under pressure on his brain by Pegasus's mental pause.

Thanks to the protection of the Rainbow Kuriboh and the resistance of the Millennium Wisdom Wheel to the other Millennium Items, Hayato was the only one who was not "mind-stopped." However, the blow Pegasus delivered before taking Keihei away was quite forceful, causing it to take him a long time to stand up while holding onto the tree trunk.

“It’s that guy Pegasus. His Millennium Eye ability interferes with thought processes. He just stopped everyone’s thinking ability and took Keihei away.” Hayato looked at the Gaia card in his hand with a solemn expression.

As his earliest ace and the strongest card monster he awakened, Gaia helped him make a comeback many times. Whenever he needed help, Gaia, who was sleeping in his deck, would respond to him.

But now, the card spirit of [Gaia] within the residing card is silent?

"They stripped away the soul of the game's grandfather, Sugoroku, kidnapped Kaiba's younger brother, Keihei, and even took away my Tamashii, [Dark Knight Gaia]." Hayato clenched his fist. "Damn it, you bastards! This is infuriating, I can't stand it."

"It's Pegasus!" Yugi and the others looked surprised after hearing Hayato's words. Kyoko muttered to herself, "Pegasus, who should be in the castle, is out there?"

"It's like the Demon King, who should be guarding the final checkpoint, has run off to the halfway point of the hero's journey." Jonouchi glanced at Yugi, who was also clenching his fists in excitement. "But since he dares to roam around the island, we might have a chance to defeat him ahead of time and release Sugoroku's soul, right?"

"It's probably not that simple."