Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Although Hayato knew that the power of the [Danger] deck was far greater than what Diablo, that noob, used—in fact, it possessed extremely strong combo potential—he would rather lose this powerful deck than use it. The cards bound his resentful and tormented soul; he wouldn't enjoy using such a dark deck.

The punishment he didn't explicitly tell the game about for Diavolo was actually something Hayato controlled during the final attack. The force that struck Diavolo was less the soul of the Thunderbird and more pure pain and resentment.

Hayato deliberately preserved a life force within Diablo's body that was comparable to that of the Card Spirit, to forever fight against the toxins of the [Fierce Hungry Poison Fusion Dragon] left in his body. Diablo's spirit would also be eternally tormented by the resentment he created, unable to find relief.

He could be said to live forever, but it could also be said that he is constantly approaching death, forever hovering before death and unable to reach it. This is the punishment Hayato has inflicted on him.

However, although Hayato released all the souls in Diavolo's card, to his surprise, those souls left behind a very thin golden mist leading into the forest before they left, as if guiding the way.

"Hey, Jonouchi, what's this?" Honda asked Jonouchi, who was standing next to him, but Jonouchi just shrugged. "I don't even know where the end of the universe is, how would I know about this?"

Malik stroked his chin and voiced his guess: "Could it be that those spirits are guiding us in the right direction?"

“I think it’s very likely,” Kyoko said, looking at Yugi, who nodded in agreement with Kyoko.

“This direction also seems to lead to that volcano, the same direction we were originally heading. Anyway, we’re unfamiliar with any other route, so why don’t we try following along?” Hayato thought for a moment and offered his suggestion, and the others didn’t object.

Before Diablo attacked this place, the group had already rested briefly. Although they had previously considered setting up camp here, now that they had this fog that looked like it could dissipate at any moment as a guide, they decided to continue on their way.

The path indicated by the fog led into the dense jungle, so as before, the formation remained the same: two people led the way while the other four followed behind. After resting for a while, Honda picked up the shovel again, while Jonouchi felt he still had plenty of energy, so the two of them were currently leading the way, while Hayato, Malik, and Yugi were happy to take it easy and walk behind.

Although Kyoko is not a delicate woman who can't even kill a chicken, there are five boys in the group, so there is plenty of manpower, and it is not to the point that girls have to clear the way.

Walking at the back of the group, Kyoko asked Hayato with a hint of curiosity, "Hayato, you said this is called 'Philosopher's Stone,' is that true? I remember there's a magic card in the game's deck that supports [Dark Magician] and [Dark Magician Girl], called [Philosopher's Gem]."

"Well, although the names are similar, the difference is actually quite big. This unfinished 'Philosopher's Stone' alone provided Diablo with a lot of power to transform ordinary creatures into card spirits and to grant himself immortality." Hayato casually tossed the Orichalcos stone, which was about the size of a marble, in his hand. "As for the finished product, you can refer to this card. It can basically be said that you can make your wishes come true."

As he spoke, Hayato took out his Philosopher's Stone - Herrell and showed it to the others.

Upon seeing the effect of the [Philosopher's Stone - Herrell] card, which was clearly a fake card, even Yugi's eyes widened: "Declare a card name, and then it can be used as a declared card according to the rules and gain the same effect!? This effect is too cheesy! Can a completed 'Philosopher's Stone' really be made into such a powerful card?"

“Believe me, Yugi, you don’t want to know how to complete the ‘Philosopher’s Stone,’ nor do you want to see a completed ‘Philosopher’s Stone.’ The very existence of that thing is a forbidden subject for alchemists.” Hayato put away the card and said with a sigh, “I’m afraid only a madman like Diablo would stop at nothing to complete the ‘Philosopher’s Stone.’”

"However, I also suspect that the Orichalcum itself might have played a role in that guy's madness."

“The planet is used to test humanity’s Orichalcum…” Yugi sighed, then suddenly remembered, “By the way, Hayato, Diablo seemed to have mentioned before that there are other alchemists, and he was competing with one of them to complete the Philosopher’s Stone. Do you know any other alchemists?”

Although this was the first time I'd heard of alchemists actually existing, I'd noticed before the game that Hayato seemed familiar with them, as if he knew other alchemists.

"As for the other alchemists, I only know one, and even that's just a one-sided acquaintance." Hayato was about to talk about the alchemist he knew, but at that moment, the group had just left the jungle and followed the golden smoke to the foot of a hill.

Without the cover of the bushes, a huge obelisk-like pillar stood upright on the ground in front of them, and two people were standing in front of the obelisk.

Chapter 694 He gave so much

About two hours ago.

"Captain, we have arrived at the designated coordinates." On a small ocean ferry, the first mate, who was constantly monitoring the radar system on the control panel, said to a burly man beside him, "However, the detection radar has not detected any signals of the existence of any islands or the like."

The burly man, referred to as the captain, simply nodded upon hearing this, then held up a pair of binoculars to his eyes, gazing at the boundless sea where nothing else existed.

However, a man standing next to the burly man, whose style was completely out of place on the ship and who looked more like an office secretary than a crew member, sternly said to the first mate who had just called out "Captain," "This is disrespectful to Mr. Anasis. At the very least, you should address Mr. Anasis as 'Chairman'!"

“What does it matter, Socrates? I actually prefer the title ‘Captain’ to ‘Chairman’,” Anasis laughed heartily, having put down his binoculars after getting nothing. “When I first inherited the family business, I spent a lot of time sailing with my men. No matter how long I’ve been at sea, it still excites me. Just hearing the word ‘Captain’ makes me feel several years younger.”

“Mr. Anasis…” Looking at the world’s shipping magnate who was always willful, Socrates, as his secretary, had no choice but to give up. “Since it’s your idea, fine, it’s not the first time you’ve been willful.”

"Take this time, for example, the unrealistic fantasy of 'an island far from the hustle and bustle that doesn't exist on the nautical chart' is impossible, yet you insist on coming anyway."

"There's nothing I can do about it, Socrates. What's that saying again? I originally wanted to refuse, but Mr. Kagemaru offered just too much, that's all."

Anasis laughed heartily, then turned to look at the other two figures in the room. "However, Mr. Kagemaru, we have already arrived at our destination, but neither radar nor the naked eye can find the island you mentioned."

“Compared to the meager transactional gains that are currently at stake for you, isn’t this clearly more about satisfying your own curiosity?” Socrates said in a low voice with a helpless expression behind Anasis, while the first mate nodded in agreement, silently staring at the radar chart.

They had been following Anasis for decades and knew all too well his unbridled curiosity. At first, he was interested in the treasures and artifacts of the seabed, then he became fascinated by rare "curses" and "magic" from all over the world, and recently, due to that global event, he began to take an interest in things like "lost civilizations" and "mysterious places."

At first, when he heard that the famous entrepreneur Yingmaru wanted to rent one of their company's large exploration ships, he was not interested in them. However, when they revealed that they were going to search for "an island that does not exist on the map", he suddenly became interested and even went on the ship with them.

At the back of the room, an elderly man with a cane heard Anasis's words, smiled and said, "Don't be impatient, Mr. Anasis. If we could find a non-existent island simply by sailing the ship to this area, then this island wouldn't have been kept secret for so long."

"To get onto that island, we'll need a little trickery." As he spoke, the old man named "Kagemaru" turned to the young man standing beside him. "It's your turn, Amunaeru... or perhaps, should we use your other name now?"

"Well, in the face of truth, the individual human being is so insignificant. A name is just a simple title. As long as I know that you are calling me, Mr. Kagemaru, that's enough."

The masked man said casually, but then shrugged, "I still need to explain to you beforehand, Mr. Kagemaru, that I'm not sure how far my friend's project has progressed, or whether he still considers me a friend with whom he can share knowledge. All of this is uncertain."

“No matter how uncertain I am, I have to give it a try.” Hearing Amunaeru say this, Kagemaru was not discouraged at all. After all, he had come all this way, so how could he not give it a try? “Besides, you know that I am already ninety years old this year.”

"Watching my strength gradually disappear from my body, and the vitality of my youth fading away every day, the closer I get to the end of my life, the more unwilling I become. I am unwilling that at a time when this world is becoming more and more wonderful, I have to become a part of the abandoned old era and be buried and left behind."

As he spoke, Kagemaru coughed twice, glancing at the long, black hair beneath Amunaeru's mask. "That's wonderful. You must be almost ninety years old. If I could use your technology, I wouldn't have needed to come here at all."

Hearing Kagemaru's lament about growing old, Amunaeru shrugged and said, "There's nothing I can do about it. To be honest, being able to complete a human transmutation is already a miracle in alchemy. In fact, among all the alchemists I know, I'm probably the only one who has completed human transmutation. Even so, the 'me' I am now is full of flaws and needs to work on another project."

'However, although we learned then that the Philosopher's Stone was actually achievable and not just a pipe dream, who could have imagined that the truth about the Philosopher's Stone would be...'

"The purpose of my visit here is twofold: firstly, to confirm whether there are other possibilities for completing the Philosopher's Stone; and secondly, to repay Kagemaru for his decades of support."

Without uttering her thoughts, Amunaeru sighed, called out, and turned to walk out of the room. "Anyway, Mr. Kagemaru, and Mr. Anasis, if you'd like to join us on an island adventure, please come with me."

"To get to that island, we'll need to transfer to a small boat."

As is well known, ships can be freely customized and modified to suit different uses in various professional fields, such as icebreakers with reinforced bows and power systems specifically designed for polar navigation, and research vessels with enhanced stability to protect onboard equipment and samples.

The so-called "exploration ship" is naturally designed specifically for explorers to sail and explore the world. It is generally a useless product that "the poor can't afford and the rich don't need." However, it still has all the necessary configurations, including a small speedboat specifically for landing on islands.

Besides Kagemaru and Amunaeru, Anasis and Socrates also left the expedition ship on the speedboat, while the first mate stayed on the ship with the other dozens of crew members to manage the docked expedition ship and wait for the four to return.

To be honest, the first mate didn't think it would take much time. He figured that once the speedboat had gone a short distance, the masked guy with Kagemaru wouldn't be able to keep up with that charade.

But in reality, Amunaeru, standing at the very front of the speedboat facing the sea breeze, was holding four test tubes containing an unknown liquid and muttering something to himself.

As he finished chanting and poured out the test tube in his hand, the liquid in the test tube ignored the gale and actually gathered into four circular arrays in front of Amunaeru, which continued to expand and overlap together.

Immediately afterwards, Kagemaru, Anasis, and Socrates witnessed an incredibly shocking scene—as if a curtain had been drawn open in the air, a cloud of mist that had appeared out of nowhere enveloped their speedboat. Then, a boundary appeared in the sky, and it was as if they had entered another world, where a huge island suddenly appeared!

"It actually exists!"

Socrates was speechless. "It's true that 'the islands on the map don't exist'!"

"Oh my gosh, I'm totally excited! I can't wait to land on this island and explore!" Anasis steered the speedboat towards the suddenly appearing giant island with one hand, while pressing down on his hat with the other, his face beaming with joy. "Although fighting monsters, especially the duel with Hayato-kun back then, was also very interesting,"

"But as a man of the sea, the excitement of discovering a new world is truly unique!"

In his excitement, Socrates couldn't help but complain, "If I didn't know that movies are all fake, I would have wondered if there were giant gorillas tens of meters tall living on that mysterious island in the Indian Ocean."

Anasis laughed and said, "That's a real shame for Socrates. We don't have a single beautiful woman here who's worth that gorilla climbing the Empire State Building to masturbate (literally)."

Compared to Anasis and Socrates, Kagemaru wasn't as excited as they were. Even so, his face, covered in age spots, flushed slightly: "Amunaeru, is this the island? Is it the location of that alchemist who studied under the same master as you, but who, unlike you, focused on researching the Philosopher's Stone, focused on researching 'human transmutation'?"

"As far as I know, he has been on this island for almost fifty years and has never left. As long as nothing unexpected happens, we will definitely be able to find him here. However, you need to be mentally prepared for whether things will actually work out."

Amunaeru stepped off the bow of the ship and glanced at Kagemaru.

What he didn't know was that there's a saying: "If nothing unexpected happens, then something unexpected is about to happen."

As the speedboat carrying the group headed towards the island, Anasis, at the helm, adjusted his hat, but caught a glimpse of a fire on the horizon. Instinctively, he looked up and saw a plane crashing into the sea!

"boom!"

The plane crashed into the sea at such a speed that Anasis had no time to react. He saw the plane crash straight into the sea, creating a huge fireball. Fortunately, the plane crashed far away from them, even outside the fog that shrouded the island. Anasis and the others were not affected by the crash, only slightly startled.

"Seriously, that scared me to death! That's why I prefer ships to airplanes." Anasis patted his chest, looking terrified. "Look how dangerous it is to fly! I see plane crashes all the time, but I never see cruise ships sinking."

“Probably because something like the Titanic is equivalent to a dozen planes crashing at once,” Socrates replied without hesitation. “Oh, not necessarily. One plane like the Twin Towers would be about enough.”

Amunaeru and Kagemaru couldn't appreciate the hellish banter between Anasis and Socrates. After seeing a plane crash nearby, Kagemaru looked regretful and said, "What a pity. I wonder how many young people would have died on that plane. So many lifespans were wasted like that."

Amunaeru looked up at the sky, paused for a moment, and said, "It's not necessarily a waste. In fact, it seems the people on the plane parachuted. Look, there they are."

Following Amunaeru's pointing finger, Kagemaru saw several parachutes opening in mid-air, seemingly belonging to passengers who had just jumped from the crashed plane. Judging from the direction the parachutes were moving, it seemed they were heading towards this island?

Seemingly noticing Kagemaru's confusion, Amunaeru shrugged: "It's probably because I just unlocked the island's barrier against outsiders. In order to enter this island, I exposed it for a short time, so those who had nowhere else to go chose to land on this island."

"So, will those people affect us?" Kagemaru asked, frowning. He was very concerned about this operation and didn't want any unexpected events to occur.

"Well, I'm not too sure either, but I don't think my friend would care too much. Although, it's been almost ten years since I last saw him, I wonder how he's doing now." Amunaeru's tone was very calm, which made Kagemaru feel a little anxious.

The thought that the alchemist on the island might be angry because they had brought too many unimportant people in, and in a fit of pique, refuse to exchange knowledge about "human transmutation" and "the Philosopher's Stone," thus depriving him of any hope of extending his lifespan, made Kagemaru's breathing become somewhat heavy.

He had been funding Amunaeru's alchemical research for decades in order to prolong his life, but the guy had never been able to produce any results that would be effective for him. First, he said that the "Philosopher's Stone," which he was focusing on, was impossible to complete, and then he said that there was no hope of a second success for "human transmutation," which he had already succeeded once. Although he always felt that the guy was hiding his true abilities and was unwilling to reveal them to him, he couldn't afford to let his investment of the past years go to waste, so he couldn't afford to break ties with Amunaeru.

When Amunaeru mentioned having an alchemist friend, Kagemaru had a new hope, his last hope. If he couldn't obtain the possibility of immortality from the alchemists of today, then he would probably have no choice but to create something called a "phantom demon" based on the knowledge from the ancient book he once possessed. He just didn't know what exactly a "phantom demon" was.

Amunaeru took in Kagemaru's gloomy gaze, but said nothing. He simply took Kagemaru towards the center of the island after the speedboat finally reached the shore, to find his "friend".

Chapter 695 Capitalists are attracted to each other.

Back to the present, just as Hayato and his companions emerged from the forest, they saw two figures standing before an obelisk-like pillar, exchanging words.

"Is this the place, Amunaeru?" Kagemaru asked Amunaeru, who was stroking a pillar beside him, leaning on his cane. Behind Kagemaru was a four-legged mechanical device.

Although nearly a hundred years old, Kagemaru has maintained a body that is much healthier than other elderly people of the same age due to the physical training he did in his youth, he is still old after all. Just now, it was only with the help of that four-legged crawling device that Kagemaru was able to keep up with Amunaeru's pace and cross the jungle to reach their destination.

However, unlike Amunaeru, Kagemaru, who knew nothing about alchemy, couldn't see anything special about the pillar in front of him.

Amunaeru, on the other hand, stroked the pillar with his fingers, muttering to himself with amazement and excitement: "What a magnificent structure! It actually uses seven obelisks to construct a seal, trapping all the dead creatures on this island within it, and using the natural cycle of life to complete the 'Philosopher's Stone'? What a brilliant idea!"

"Although it may take a long time, as long as we wait patiently, it will eventually be completed!"

Seeing Amunaeru getting excited on his own, Kagemaru impatiently urged, "Amunaeru!"

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I saw such a wonderful idea that I couldn't help myself." Amunaeru wasn't angry that Kagemaru had interrupted his stream of brilliant ideas. He said to Kagemaru with a slight apology, though he also felt a little strange.

"However, it's really strange. Since Diablo built such a device on the island, unless he had a brain fart and thought of killing all the creatures in one go to boost the progress, shouldn't there be a lot of animals on the island to provide enough energy? Why did we only see a few birds on the way here?"

Amunaeru rested her chin on her hand, looking thoughtful. "And then there's Diablo. Shouldn't he have appeared before me a long time ago? After all, we're such good friends. Every time I show up, he's always eager to ask about the progress of my experiments and share with me what achievements he's made."

'No, that Diablo just sounds like he's trying to show off to you. Where did you get the idea that he considers you a friend?' Kagemaru thought to himself from behind Amunaeru, his expectations for getting help from the alchemist named Diablo somewhat diminished.

He should have realized it sooner. Amunaeru was completely clueless about social etiquette. Perhaps that Diablo didn't consider him a friend, but rather a rival or enemy. How could he possibly help him?

Just then, someone joined their conversation: "If the Diablo you're talking about is an old guy with pink hair and moldy patches, then unfortunately, he probably won't be able to come to you."

"Who goes there?!" Kagemaru looked over at the sound and saw several young people carrying backpacks of different sizes, dressed like tourists, walking out of the jungle not far away. The one who spoke was a tall and handsome young man walking at the front of the group.

'Were they the travelers who parachuted from that plane? Hmph, they'd better not interfere with my plans.' Kagemaru wasn't particularly interested in these young people, especially the short guy with hair standing on end like a starfish, and the dark-skinned, white-haired, weak-looking brat. It was obvious that these two were the least worth paying attention to in the group; they were clearly weaklings.

However, it was the young man who had spoken to them earlier who caught Kagemaru's attention. After scrutinizing him for a while, Kagemaru couldn't help but frown.

Kagemaru felt that the young man looked familiar. Although he looked quite handsome, for some reason, Kagemaru always felt that the man had a very evil aura. This was Kagemaru's intuition as a capitalist who had built his huge business from scratch. From the first moment he saw the young man, Kagemaru felt a unique attraction, the attraction between capitalists.

Even if the other party is not a high-ranking leader in an organization, they are at least a decision-maker with the courage to sacrifice their subordinates without hesitation in order to achieve their goals.