Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"Then activate the effect of [Hammer Shark] once per turn during my Main Phase. Lower its Level by 1 star, Special Summon 1 WATER Level 3 or lower monster from my hand, and Special Summon [Draw Frog]."

[Gacha Frog] [2☆/Water]

[Aquarium/Effect]

[100/100]

"Next, I release two WATER monsters on my field to Special Summon 'Fortress Whale' from my hand!"

Without using a Normal Summon, Anasis gathered two monsters on the field at once, and the Level 7 [Fortress Whale] appeared on his field.

[Fortress Whale] [7 stars/Water]

[Fish/Effect]

[2350/2150]

“When a face-up ‘Draw Frog’ on the field is sent to the Graveyard, I can draw a card from my Deck.” After drawing a card from his Deck to replenish his hand, Anasis pointed to his ‘Fortress Whale’ on the field and said, “If ‘Fortress Whale’ is successfully Special Summoned, I can activate this effect by choosing a ‘Dive’ card from my Deck and setting it face-down on the field.”

"But it's not over yet. I haven't performed a Normal Summon this turn. I Normal Summon 'Electric Sea Moon - Portuguese Manta Ray' in Defense Position, and then activate the effect of 'Electric Sea Moon - Portuguese Manta Ray' to send one 'Sea' card from my Deck to the Graveyard and Special Summon one WATER monster from my hand."

As Anasis spoke, he retrieved a card from his deck. However, he noticed that Hayato, who had been standing opposite him, had been raising several fingers since the beginning. Initially, he had five fingers, but now he had just lowered the last finger, which looked rather strange and was hard to understand.

However, this shouldn't concern him, right? Anasis thought to himself as he sent the Field Spell Card [Sea], which he had retrieved from his deck, to the Graveyard: "The monster I'm going to Special Summon from my hand is this one, [Sea Dragon God - Leviathan]!"

【Electric Moon - Portuguese Manta Ray】【4☆/Water】

[Aquarium/Effect]

[1400/1700]

【Sea Dragon God - Leviathan】【5☆/Water】

[Sea Dragon Clan/Effect]

[2000/1700]

Anasis, with only one card in her hand, felt that her field was almost set up. First was her strongest attack, [Fortress Whale], which could negate and destroy the effects of Spell/Trap Monsters that target only one WATER monster once per turn. Then, [Electric Sea Moon - Portuguese Manta Ray], if it had [Sea], could negate the effects of Spell/Trap Monsters once per turn and increase its own ATK and DEF.

The [Sea Dragon God - Leviathan] that I just Special Summoned can not only search the deck for the power of [Sea], [Sea Dragon God] Spell/Trap Cards, and [Dive into the Sea] Spell/Trap Cards, but also restricts each player's field to only one face-up monster other than WATER monster when [Sea] is on the field.

And with the [Dive into the Sea] in your back row, you can activate a [Sea] from your hand or graveyard. You just need to use the effect of [Sea Dragon God - Leviathan] to search for another [Sea] in your deck, and your invincible combo is complete!

Thinking this, Anasis looked at his field and saw that the monsters on his field were suddenly shattering one after another.

"Anastius, if I counted correctly, you should have successfully summoned or Special Summoned a total of five monsters in one turn, right?"

Hayato smiled and played a card from his hand. "But I think there's something wrong with your field setup. Don't worry, I'll fix it with this card!"

"You can activate this effect during the Main Phase of the turn your opponent successfully Summons or Special Summons five or more monsters. Tribute all face-up monsters on both players' fields and Special Summon [Primal Life Form Nibiru] from your hand."

"Then, Special Summon one 'Primal Life Form Token' to your opponent's field. Its ATK and DEF become the sum of the original ATK and DEF of the monsters Tributed by this effect. This effect can also be activated during your opponent's turn!"

In the virtual projection, a huge meteorite fell from the sky, instantly wiping out all the monsters on Anasis's field, leaving only a Defense Position token, while a monster with 3000 ATK appeared on Hayato's field.

[Primitive Life Form - Nibiru] [11☆/Light]

[Rock Faction/Effect]

[3000/600]

[Original Life Form Derivative] [11☆/Light]

[Rock Group/Derivatives]

【？ /？ →5750/5550】

Anasis: "..."

Please don't do this, I want to play cards!

Chapter 697 Who writes a diary if they're a decent person?

After boarding Anasis's ship and leaving the island for some distance, Hayato and his companions regained signal on their mobile devices and were able to communicate normally again.

Because of Diavolo's arrangements on the island, the entire island was normally isolated from the outside world. Without Daitoku-ji Temple, even entering the island would be a problem, let alone maintaining communication with the outside world. However, now that the signal had been restored, the game's characters naturally contacted their families to let them know they were safe.

The plane crashed around noon, and it's almost evening now. Being missing for a whole afternoon was enough to make Grandpa Sugoroku and Shizuka extremely worried when they learned about the crash. Fortunately, everyone is safe and sound.

As the ship moved away from the island, the group of gamers noticed that the phenomenon of the Duel Monsters materializing had disappeared.

Hayato speculated that this might also be related to Diablo's arrangements. The energy-collecting device he left on the island, while drawing energy from the entire island, simultaneously caused the energy around the island to converge and accumulate on the island like a vortex, thus creating a special environment that allowed the card spirits to materialize.

However, this was just Hayato's guess. He didn't really investigate whether that was the reason or not. On the ship, he used the virtual projection system spinning in his Duel Disk to make two video calls to Pegasus and Kaiba respectively.

With Diablo abandoned on the island in a state indistinguishable from death, the uninhabited island essentially became ownerless. As a result, Kagemaru proposed to introduce a rich biodiversity to the island in order to accelerate the completion of the Philosopher's Stone, and also to recoup costs and avoid losses. He planned to develop the island to some extent.

Simply turning it into a tourist attraction is too much trouble, but such a vast island would be perfect for establishing some kind of institution. Kagemaru suggested that an academy be built on the island, an academy that systematically teaches knowledge about Duel Monsters.

However, the group under Kagemaru's name is only a medical group and has little involvement in education and Duel Monsters. But that's okay. In today's globalized world, no group needs to be all-encompassing because cooperation is the future. And the partners he wants to cooperate with are naturally the two largest groups in the Duel Monsters field today—International Illusion Company and Kaiba Entertainment.

After receiving a video call from Hayato, Pegasus agreed to the collaboration almost without hesitation. After all, for Pegasus, his current life pursuits are simply to create more interesting cards and make Duel Monsters more popular.

An academy that trains duelists is not as simple as it seems on the surface. Behind it lies the systematization, process and specialization of the professionalization of duelists. If a dueling academy can be successfully established, it basically means that there will be enough dueling talents to be produced for a considerable period of time in the future, and a continuous stream of vitality will be injected into the world of Duel Monsters so that it will not become a stagnant pool.

It's not that the current Duel Monsters scene isn't good enough, but it can still get better. It's like the difference between a self-taught method actor and a formally trained actor. Both types of actors have their strengths and weaknesses. The emergence of formally trained duelists can further motivate professional duelists in the current Duel Monsters scene to improve their competitiveness to avoid being eliminated.

Furthermore, besides duelists, the Duel Academy might also train other Duel Monsters-related talents, such as card designers and professional referees. After all, Duel Monsters is never just a battle between duelists alone. As Duel Monsters becomes more popular and dueling tournaments become more formalized, there might even be team-based multiplayer alternating battles in the future, which would require even more professional talents in the field of Duel Monsters.

Duel academies can teach students about dueling while simultaneously selecting talented individuals in the field.

Pegasus was quite optimistic about the future of Duel Academy, and the game that participated in the video conference at the time was also very supportive of Duel Academy. With Hayato also involved, all three major shareholders of International Illusion Company, who together held 90% of the shares, made the same decision, which basically meant that Kagemaru and International Illusion Company had the possibility of cooperation. The rest was just a matter of wrangling over shareholding and other interests.

Meanwhile, at Kaiba Entertainment, when Kaiba received Hayato's call, he initially appeared on camera with a very sour face, saying things like, "I almost died for something that made me laugh to death. As a duelist, it's really too embarrassing." In short, Kaiba was trying to use his physical ability to jump out of a plane without a parachute to demand the same of Hayato and Yugi.

When the Duel Academy was mentioned, Kaiba, who was originally slated to be one of its founders, showed little interest.

"A dragon will become a sheep if it stays with a sheep, but a sheep will not be able to defeat a dragon just because it becomes the king of sheep," that's roughly what Kaiba said. Anyway, he doesn't think that a place like Duel Academy can produce any powerful duelists.

However, Keihei, who appeared in the video at the time, held a different opinion from his brother. He thought that the idea of ​​Duel Academy was the best possible, and it would definitely be of great help to the development of Duel Monsters. Even if it could not cultivate enough powerful top duelists, it could at least ensure that the core strength would not be lacking.

Since the birth of Duel Monsters, although there have been many outstanding duelists, the current Duel Monsters community is in a rather extreme state. The top group of people are constantly gathering at the top, while duelists who are just starting out or only have a certain level of strength are unable to improve for a long time, such as Anasis. The only thing missing is the middle layer that should exist.

This structure is very dangerous because the top duelists either dominate weaker opponents or compete against those of equal or even stronger skill levels. Over time, they may develop a "give up" mentality, causing their skills to regress instead of improve. Meanwhile, the lower-level duelists may lose interest in Duel Monsters because they cannot improve and see no hope of defeating stronger opponents.

This requires an intermediate layer, not so strong that it would drive lower-level duelists to despair, nor so weak that the strong would not experience any enjoyment.

Keipei's theory made a lot of sense, but Kaiba was just too stubborn and still didn't quite agree that Duel Academy had any reason to exist. Just when Kagemaru was about to think that his cooperation with Kaiba Entertainment Group was probably hopeless, Hayato successfully persuaded Kaiba with just one sentence.

"That jellyfish-haired boy graduated from Duel Academy." That's what Hayato said back then, afraid that Kaiba wouldn't remember who he was talking about. Just as Hayato was about to add a few words, Kaiba unexpectedly had a good memory, as if he had been holding a grudge for a long time and instantly remembered who Hayato was talking about.

Thinking of the crushing defeat that guy had brought him, Kaiba immediately agreed to the establishment of the Duel Academy and the cooperation with Kagemaru. It wasn't that he wanted to take revenge on that brat later; it was mainly because Kaiba Seto cared about the future of Duel Monsters and was very concerned about the development of this industry.

On Anasis's ship, the three parties basically finalized their cooperation on the Duel Academy project and the specific implementation plan for the Duel Academy. However, further confirmation of cooperation and announcement of the project will have to wait until the division of their respective interests and how they will contribute to the Duel Academy are confirmed.

These things probably don't have much to do with Hayato. He's more of a middleman. Although he's a shareholder of the International Illusion Society, Pegasus will take care of everything, and Hayato just needs to sit back and wait to collect the rewards.

Although Pegasus is actually quite lazy, he has already landed in Morocco and is traveling on his way to Egypt to meet up with Hayato and the others. He said that the cooperation would be discussed in detail later, but he just left all the troublesome matters to his adopted son, Tenma Gekiyuki.

Why waste time dealing with troublesome business matters when you could read a few fairy tales or print out a few incredibly powerful and shameless cards for yourself?

However, Anasis was originally also supposed to participate in the meeting, because Kagemaru thought that if he wanted to establish an island academy, it would naturally be necessary to cooperate with Anasis's company.

After all, transporting supplies to the island to build the academy, replenishing supplies after the academy is built, and even facilitating the movement of people all require ships. Moreover, having only one Duel Academy is definitely not enough. Perhaps in the future, other branches will need to be established around the world, and ships will still be needed as a means of transportation.

However, after his duel with Yugi, Jonouchi, and Hayato, Anasis stood on the deck looking weary and smoked in the sea breeze, showing no intention of joining the cooperation.

He probably got so badly beaten while playing cards that he entered a state of post-coital slumber and started questioning his existence. Honestly, I don't know who was so rude, not even knowing when to stop. Hayato, walking out of the meeting room, looked at Anasis, who was still standing at the bow of the ship, and thought helplessly, "Completely oblivious to his own shortcomings."

Hayato thought he was being unreasonable by playing cards. It was just a meteorite, not something he could easily cleave out with a sword. Besides, releasing monsters was an important part of the Duel Monsters experience, something he couldn't miss.

As dusk fell, the expedition ship finally entered the nearshore waters. Looking at the land gradually enlarging ahead, Jonouchi, who had experienced a complicated day, stood on the deck and couldn't help but sigh, "The first day of our vacation was so exciting. I can't imagine what kind of thrilling experiences we'll have in Egypt later."

"Spare me, this kind of thrill is enough for a lifetime, once in a lifetime." Honda, who had experienced parachuting from an exploding plane and escaping from Frankenstein's monster, said with a look of disgust, "Do you want anything else to happen to us, Jonouchi?"

"Hehe, no, not at all. Besides, we've already been through so much today, it's unlikely that anything else will happen to us," Jonouchi said with a grin. "I'm just thinking that if there are a lot of things happening today, but then the next month is uneventful, I'll run out of things to write in my diary."

"A diary?" Malik glanced at Hayato beside him upon hearing this. "Who keeps a diary if they're a decent person?"

"Yes, who can write their innermost thoughts in a diary?"

Malik raised an eyebrow: "What's written down is considered your true feelings?"

"Disgusting!" x2

Seeing Hayato and Malik clinking glasses with their respective Cokes, Yugi smiled helplessly and said to Kyoko beside him, "The previous part is Yemen. Hayato and I have already explained the current situation to Mr. Pegasus, and he said that a plane has been arranged to pick us up in Yemen and take us to Egypt."

"That's good. I was just worried about what would happen if no one had ever been here before." Hearing what Yugi said, Kyoko felt a little relieved.

The ship gradually approached the shore, but before Hayato and his group disembarked, Anasis took care of the arrangements for them. After all, they didn't have Yemeni passports for travel. However, as survivors of the plane crash, the Yemeni customs were quite lenient, and Hayato and his group were allowed to enter in no time.

The speed of the process must be the result of the staff's hard work, and the stacks of green US dollars that Anasis pulled out were naturally a reward for these hardworking people.

Well, to be honest, Anasis once again used the "trump card" he had previously intended to use on Hayato, expediting the process by bribing customs officials. However, Hayato did not actually intend to discriminate against these people.

Because of a movie by a martial arts superstar in his previous life, Hayato learned about this small country. In Yemen, a country in chaos due to civil war, everyone lived a precarious existence. These bribed officials were less greedy and more simply wanted to earn more money so that their families could live a good life.

Before boarding the bus to the airport, Hayato seemed to remember something and asked Anasis to confirm something.

“My ship? There’s no problem. I know all the crew members, and I’m the captain.”

Hearing Anasis say that, Hayato was somewhat relieved: "Oh, that's good. I was worried that a fake captain might run aboard your ship. After all, we've already had a plane crash before, so it's reasonable that the Dark Blue Moon comes after the Gray Tower."

"Ok?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about what I said." Hayato waved his hand and said goodbye to Anasis. "Well then, it'll be time to meet again, Uncle Anasis. If we meet again, I can have another duel with you."

"No, no, no, let's not do that kind of thing." Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Anasis quickly refused.

Hayato chuckled, got into the car, and left with his final words: "Let me give you one last piece of advice: change the name of the ship, Uncle Anasis!"

"Don't follow Pegasus and Seahorse's bad habit of giving random names!"

As the bus drove away, Anasis, who was standing still, turned around and looked at the word "Vasa" painted in orange on the hull of his exploration ship docked in the harbor. He asked Socrates beside him with some curiosity, "Is there something wrong with the name Vasa?"

"Whatever makes you happy, Boss." Socrates shrugged. Although he remembered seeing the name Vasa in a museum somewhere, he figured it was probably nothing to worry about. It couldn't possibly be the name of a ship like the Titanic that sank on its maiden voyage.

Chapter 698 Dream

Under the bright moonlight, a private plane belonging to the International Illusion Society flew through the clouds at night. The passengers, exhausted from the day's work and jet lag, were all immersed in their own dreams.

Lying on the bed, Honda hugged a pillow, a perverted smile on his face, lost in some sweet dream: "Shizuka, hehehehe, so fragrant and soft..."

"I won't hand Shizuka over to you so easily!" Lying next to Honda, Jonouchi seemed to be muttering in his sleep because of Honda's murmurs, and his dream seemed to have gone astray as well, "Even when I married Mai... hehehehe..."