Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

More often than not, they still felt that Pegasus was still putting his own ideas into the card making process. After all, he had done this before, and this time he had already restrained himself by only putting his own name in.

"But even so, what does this have to do with Hayato-kun?" Baku asked curiously.

Pegasus felt uneasy looking at Bakura, who had also approached him. Even though a considerable amount of time had passed and he knew that Dark Bakura had disappeared from Bakura's body, Dark Bakura had approached him with an innocent look, just like the current Bakura, before viciously gouging out his Millennium Eye and nearly killing him.

Even now, Pegasus still experiences a faint phantom pain in his left eye when he sees Bakura. After subtly creating a half-step distance between himself and Bakura, he points to another drawing next to the [Jade Beast - Blue Pegasus] in his notebook and says, "Unless something unexpected happens, my journey ahead should only begin with the [Blue Pegasus], perfecting the other [Jade Beasts], adding some Spell/Trap Cards, and then I can declare the creation of the new card complete."

"But the problem is, just now, I saw this unforgettable Monster from Hayato-boy."

Pegasus was pointing to a sketch of a monster that everyone had seen before—a sketch of the Shadowdome Shining that Hayato had summoned by fusing Shadowdome Nephilim and Volcanic Blade during his duel with Exor, which had been handed over to the staff.

"So that's what you were doing, doodling in that notebook. You were sketching your brother-in-law's monsters, huh?" Malik said, somewhat puzzled. "But I still don't understand. Aren't Shaddoll monsters usually just thread-like or shadow-like creatures? How can this be related to a few pieces of jade?"

Malik was just saying it casually, but Pegasus actually nodded: "That's my idea. While it's fun to create entirely new monsters from scratch, it's equally fun to add new elements to existing monsters to open up another possibility, just like cute [cartoon] monsters."

After a pause, Pegasus looked at the sketch of [Shadowduck - Divine Crystal] with a slightly confused expression and said, "Also, perhaps my inspiration has gone astray, but I always have this illusion that [Shadowduck] and the 'gem' itself are more important to this monster. And by separating the gems on [Shadowduck - Divine Crystal] and using the knight image of [Shadowduck - Divine Crystal] for the design, I feel that a name like [Gem Knight] would sound better."

"That's so typical of you, Pegasus," Jonouchi remarked. "Why don't you just make armor or something from those non-human monsters, like dragon monsters, and put them on humanoid monsters? That way you can create a whole new deck series."

"Isn't this just a blatant rip-off of Monster Hunter?" Honda, who often played games with Jonouchi online, immediately recognized which game Jonouchi was referring to as the inspiration and retorted.

"But I think it's quite feasible."

"You two really are a pair, one who dares to speak and the other who dares to listen..."

Hayato, on the other hand, felt a little emotional. Pegasus, despite being a bit of a scoundrel and a Minotaur deck player whom Hayato, a pure-hearted warrior, would despise, had to admit that his talent as a Duel Monster card designer was indeed formidable.

In the backstory, the Shaddoll deck is not a naturally existing species, but rather a group of countless monsters that exist between life and death, which were extracted by an evil will in order to revive itself and interfere with the normal cycle of life and death. These monsters were manipulated as puppets.

This is why most Shaddoll monsters have "threads" as an element, and why most of their lower-level monsters are of the Spellcaster race.

Because their origin is the cycle of life and death, the Shaddoll monsters can almost be regarded as products of certain existing monsters being Shaddollized after death. This means that their origins are as chaotic as the composition of Hayato's deck, and can cover almost every group that can be involved.

For example, [Shaddoll Falcon] was originally [Gurgling Falcon] from the [Gurgling] deck, [Shaddoll Beast] was originally [Nature Beast] from the [Nature] deck, and the prototypes of [God Shaddoll Nephilim] and [God Shaddoll Crystal] are [Gem Knight Ryu] and [Gem Knight Crystal] from the [Gem Knight] deck.

Hayato unexpectedly guessed the name of the "Gem Knight" based solely on intuition, which is why he was amazed by Pegasus's talent.

"But if you can't choose, why not just make both series?" Hayato asked curiously. "For you, Pegasus, there shouldn't be a possibility that you'd lose interest in the other possibility after making one, or that you wouldn't have the money or energy to make a second set of cards, right?"

Although the system shop also offers the purchase of [Gem Knight] cards, and aside from those useful but expensive terminals, the lower-tier cards are relatively cheap, Hayato isn't the type to collect every deck he sees. If he did, who knows when he would ever collect all the tens of thousands of cards in the system shop.

Rather than buying the cards, Hayato would much rather see Pegasus actually create the [Gem Knight] cards, so they don't just exist in one official fan-made anime. Surely no one would disagree that A5 is a fan-made work, right?

However, Pegasus shook his head: "If I could, I would definitely want to make as many cards as possible, but it's not that I'm unwilling to make both types of cards, it's that I can't."

"There are only seven gems with extraordinary powers, so naturally only seven basic gem cards can be made. I can even imagine that after I finish making the basic cards, it will be difficult to even make the enhancement cards."

Chapter 841 An Unexpected Reunion

What frustrates a creator the most? A lack of inspiration.

What about the pain beyond that? You have too many inspirations, and you can't use them all; you have to make choices.

What about further up? You don't even know which of the two choices you have to make will lead to a better outcome.

Pegasus found himself in this predicament. Having unexpectedly acquired seven ancient gems, he had the opportunity to create unique, special cards. Furthermore, his first stop on this journey, Egypt, had already provided ample inspiration for creating entirely new cards. These two joyful events combined should have brought double the happiness. But how did things turn out this way…?

Upon hearing Pegasus express his worries, Hayato could only swallow back his words, "Only children make choices; adults want it all."

Because of the limited number of gems, only one set of cards can be completed in the end. If one insists on having "all of them," the power of the original complete set of seven gems will be divided, making neither of the two sets of cards that can be completed perfect. Pegasus cannot accept this result, nor can Hayato.

He prefers second-rate comedy to first-rate tragedy. Similarly, he prefers complete card sets to powerful cards that exist independently of the whole set. He has the opportunity to create a complete set of cards, but he chooses to make a stripped-down version. Hayato doesn't want to do such a thing.

The result is that the problem has returned to square one: whether to choose the [Jewel Beast] or the [Gem Knight] as the design direction. Not only Pegasus, but now everyone else is also troubled by helping him think about the decision. No wonder Pegasus said that his design progress has slowed down and stalled.

In terms of strength, neither [Crystal Beast] nor [Gem Knight] is a top-tier deck. While they can certainly pull off some excellent combos with the right setup—for example, [Gem Knight] can play FTK and [Crystal Beast] can always be paired with some strange cards—overall, they are definitely not as good as [Dragon's Blessing], [Shadowdome], or even the wheelchair-bound [Cyber ​​Dragon].

However, if we have to compare them, [Gem Knight] is somewhat stronger, while [Jewel Beast] can only be described as having a "soul" and struggling in the world of fun decks.

However, there's a saying, "It's not strength that matters, it's love." This saying can also be applied to Duel Monsters. For example, Hayato has several strong decks, but the ones he trusts the most are Gaia and Rainbow Kuriboh.

Hayato couldn't offer any advice on Pegasus's dilemma, but he did think of someone: John Anderson, the user of the unique "Crystal Beast" deck—a card with only one of its kind in the world—who was originally entrusted by Pegasus, who hadn't had his new ideas explored by "Shadowdew - Divine Crystal" and had dutifully completed "Crystal Beast." He was also one of the most trusted and closest friends of the future Jaden Yuki, perhaps without equal.

Others couldn't make a decision, and even the designer Pegasus himself couldn't decide, but Hayato felt that John Anderson, the future user of the [Jewel Beast], was qualified to make the choice.

The problem is that John Anderson is the same age as Jaden Yuki, and he is not currently a student at the main campus of the Duel Academy, which is still under construction, but an exchange student representative from the Arctic Circle branch. Hayato only remembers that he seems to be from Northern Europe, but there is no other information about him.

Furthermore, Pegasus entrusted the [Crystal Beast] cards to him simply because he happened to witness John Anderson becoming the champion when he was invited to be the award presenter for the World Junior Duel Tournament. He felt John Anderson's heartfelt love for Duel Monsters and his rare ability to see spirits, so he gifted him the [Crystal Beast] deck.

Because of his good relationship with Kaiba and Pegasus, Hayato was able to learn about the various tournament plans that would be held in the future from the two of them. However, the problem is that Duel Monsters is still in the stage of global promotion and has not yet reached the stage of global coverage and fans of all ages. At least Pegasus and Kaiba have both stated that there will be no age-specific dueling tournament plans in the next two years, so there is no possibility of finding John Anderson.

He can't just suddenly appear in front of us, can he? We don't have the ability to make our wishes come true.

Hayato was internally complaining when he heard several people talking behind him. However, the language they were using was not Arabic or English, but Japanese, which is not a mainstream language in Egypt. One of the voices sounded strangely familiar.

"Are you sure this is the direction, teacher? Although everyone in the [Guardians] did say they sensed a familiar aura, would anyone really buy those ridiculously expensive tickets to come in? It just doesn't seem very reliable." A somewhat childish voice spoke up, and then another voice that Hayato recognized answered him.

“This is the first lesson I’m going to teach you, Johnny, Lesson 1—don’t have any strange expectations of me.” The familiar voice came from around the corner. “I carry a heavy burden of sins and am not a good person. Be skeptical of others and don’t trust them too easily.”

However, the childish voice seemed to completely ignore what Hayato's familiar voice was saying: "Eh~ But I don't think you're a bad person, teacher. You clearly have a lot of passion for everyone in the Guardians, and everyone in the Guardians loves you deeply. How could someone who likes Duel Monsters and loves Pokémon be a bad person?"

“Johnny…” Hayato’s familiar voice said with a hint of helplessness.

Before the two people in the conversation even walked out of the corner, their voices were heard before they were seen. Not only Hayato, but even Yugi seemed to recognize the voice of the more mature person called "teacher," but couldn't quite place where he had heard it before.

Listening to their conversation and noticing the key phrase "[Guardian]", Hayato raised an eyebrow and muttered, "While [Guardian] cards aren't as unique as [Blue-Eyes] cards, and you can buy them to build a deck if you have the money, could it be that guy who's talking about spirits?"

As Hayato was thinking this, the two people who had been talking in Japanese came out from around the corner and revealed their true appearance to the group. They were a pair of people, one big and one small.

The younger one looked to be only about ten years old, with short, slightly unusual dark green hair. He was wearing a white knitted hat with many small blue stars and looking at the tall man beside him with his lake-blue eyes.

Upon seeing the man, Hayato had a look of sudden realization: "I was wondering why that name sounded so familiar. Oh, it's you! Come to think of it, we were former colleagues..."

The blond man also noticed Hayato, and a look of surprise appeared on his usually calm, even somewhat stiff face: "The one who gives me and the [Guardians] such an unusual sense of familiarity is you, Kobayashi Hayato, and the nameless Pharaoh."

"...Blue hair and earrings."

"Don't give me weird nicknames, my name is Rafael!" Rafael raised an eyebrow and glared at Hayato. "Although I do wear earrings, how did you figure out I have blue hair?"

The blond, muscular man who appeared before the group was none other than Rafiru, the user of the [Guardian] deck who had once served under Dartz in "Doma" and even held a very high position among the "Three Knights of Doma"!

Since Jonouchi, Kaiba, Yugi, and Hayato defeated Dartz and destroyed Orichalcos, releasing the souls of countless people that had been devoured by it over the past ten thousand years, Rafael, whose soul had been sealed by Dartz's scheme, was naturally resurrected at that time, as was Baron. However, this was the first time Yugi and the others had met Rafael since then.

Although Rafael's personal temperament is very distinctive, the Rafael who appeared before them now was completely different from when he was one of the Three Knights of Dorma. His short yellow hair had been grown to shoulder length, and he was wearing a cowboy hat to shield himself from the Egyptian sun. His original dark blue long coat had been replaced with a combination of a purple short-sleeved shirt and a brown cape.

To be honest, even though Yugi and Atem had a spiritual connection through duels, it was still a little hard to be sure that the Rafael in front of them was the Rafael they knew.

"Hahaha, that's a pretty good joke, very funny, awesome!"

Beside Rafael, the child who appeared with him seemed to have caught the joke in Hayato and Rafael's brief conversation, and cheerfully spoke up. However, compared to his genuine smile, his tone was slightly flat, giving the impression that he was just offering a fake smile, or even speaking in a sarcastic tone.

"This is no joke, Johnny. Don't learn bad habits from that Kobayashi Hayato guy." Rafael pushed up his hat brim with a hint of helplessness as he looked at the boy beside him.

"Long time no see, Rafael." A flash of golden light appeared on the Millennium Puzzle, and Atem emerged into the outside world, greeting Rafael, "How have you been lately?"

“Nameless Pharaoh, it’s been a long time. Although that’s what I say, it’s only been less than a month since Darz’s defeat. There’s no need to look at me like we’ve been separated for over a decade.” Rafiru said, looking at Atum. “As for my current situation, I’ve been lucky.”

"Back in Dorma, I did a lot of dirty work as a tool in Dartz’s vision of the 'new world.' I should have been judged for this sin, but a long time has passed and I haven’t received the punishment I deserve. Then I realized that killing me, who is protected by supernatural elven powers, seems to be a losing proposition in the eyes of those countries, rather than salvaging Dorma’s heritage to prevent other competitors from profiting."

"It was just like those so-called relatives and friends who fought over my family's property when I returned to human society from the deserted island."

As he spoke, Rafiru shook his head helplessly, sighed, and turned to look at the boy beside him: "Although I feel guilty, I don't have any self-destructive tendencies. I just wanted to do something as much as possible. Then I met this child unexpectedly in America and became his guardian."

Upon hearing Rafael's words, Atum looked at the boy beside him called "Johnny," while Jonouchi, standing behind Atum, chimed in, "Ah, I heard that just now, his name is 'Johnny,' right, this kid?"

"No, 'Johnny' is obviously just a nickname, you idiot Jonouchi." "Huh? Honda, your foreign language grades are about the same as mine, what are you so smug about?"

Seeing Atum looking at him, "Johnny" greeted him politely and introduced himself: "Hello, Mr. 'Nameless Pharaoh,' I'm sorry to address you like that. My teacher told me that he didn't know your name and could only address you this way. 'Johnny' is indeed my teacher's nickname for me. My name is John."

"Hello, John." Atum greeted the cheerful John, but he noticed that after greeting him, John also waved to those on either side of him.

However, there was no one standing on his left or right. It was just that [Dark Magician] and [Dark Magician Girl] spontaneously appeared from the card and stayed with him in a way that ordinary people could not see.

"This child can actually see?"

“Yes, Johnny seems to have a rare ability to see spirits, and I think he has great potential in Duel Monsters, so I'm teaching him as a teacher.” Rafael nodded in affirmation, then asked Yugi, “Compared to me, what about you, the nameless Pharaoh?”

Atum smiled upon hearing Rafiru's words: "My situation means that you can stop calling me 'the nameless pharaoh' and start calling me by my name, 'Atum'."

"You've found your name again? That's great news, Atum." Rafiru seemed happy about Atum finding his name.

John, who was next to Rafael, seemed to have seen something quite interesting. He walked away from Rafael and came to Hayato, who was frowning and looking him over: "Hello, are you Mr. Kobayashi Hayato?"

"John is such a common name, it must be a coincidence... No, it's nothing." Hayato muttered to himself, looking at John in front of him. "It's me, what's wrong?"

“Well, recently my teacher has been teaching me that duelists' decks often have ‘Soul’ cards as the core. Building a deck around just a few Soul cards allows the duelist to fully unleash their power.” John paused, then continued, “He also gave examples of his own Soul cards, such as [Guardian - Etos], Mr. Seto Kaiba’s Soul card is [Blue-Eyes White Dragon], and Yugi Muto and the Nameless Pharaoh’s Soul cards are [Dark Magician] and [Dark Magician Girl].

"I just saw it too, the spirits of [Dark Magician] and [Dark Magician Girl] next to the nameless pharaoh. However, when I asked my teacher before, he just wouldn't tell me what your Soul Card is, Mr. Kobayashi Hayato, the Duel King."

Having finally revealed his purpose, John breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Hayato with an expectant expression: "So, Mr. Hayato, whose Soul Card do you have?"

Hayato, hearing John's words, spread his arms wide with a hint of smugness: "Didn't you see the elves around me?"

John scratched his hat in annoyance: "I did see it, but Mr. Hayato, shouldn't there only be two or three Soul Cards?"

“Fool, how could Tamashi be such an inconvenient thing?” Hayato pointed at himself with a thumbs up. “Of course all my spirits are my Tamashi. It’s not that I’m a jerk, it’s just that my heart has been broken into countless pieces for the sake of my spirits.”

John didn't react much to Hayato's words, but [Disruption Yellow], who hadn't appeared for a long time, suddenly ran out of the deck at his waist, wiping his nose and tears: "This is so touching, Anigi!"

[Disruption Black] and [Disruption Green], along with the rest of the [Disruption] race monsters, suddenly appeared: "You finally said we're your Tamashi too!" "We've finally waited for this day!" "So touching!"

"Oh, I forgot to mention, the [Disruptive] minions don't count."

"Don't ruin our beautiful dream!"

Chapter 842 Even the most beautiful two-dimensional characters are still fake.

Because of John and Rafael's appearance, Pegasus put away his manuscript and began to examine Rafael.

This wasn't the first time Pegasus had met Rafael. In fact, they had met before. Back when Hayato joined Doma, Dartz sent the Three Knights of Doma to kill Pegasus in order to prevent him, the father of Duel Monsters, from getting help from the Spirits and creating some troublesome cards. Hayato was with them.

At that time, Amelda had not yet let go of her resentment towards Kaiba, and Baron had no intention of taking action against Pegasus because of Mai the Peacock. Therefore, the people responsible for killing Pegasus became Raferl and Hayato. However, because Raferl did not fully trust Hayato at that time, Pegasus became Hayato's "pledge of allegiance" and his soul was sealed by Hayato. Afterwards, Hayato fought against Jonouchi and Yugi on the top floor of the International Illusion Society.

Although Pegasus was already exhausted from his duel with Hayato and had no time to think about anything else, Rafael, who was standing nearby, left a certain impression on him. Now, when he met him again, it reminded Pegasus that he had seen such a person before.

Because of the change in their identities and positions, Rafael, who now appears before Pegasus, is no longer an enemy. This allows Pegasus to observe and assess Rafael more objectively. A faint light shines from the prosthetic eye on Pegasus's left eye, which is clearly just a pure gold replica, resembling the "Millennium Eye."

Before arriving in Egypt, Pegasus inexplicably lost the magical power that the Millennium Eye had left in his body. However, after Hayato and Atem defeated the soul of Dark Bakura and the Dark Evil God Zorc Nelofa in the Stone Tablet of the King's Memory, that lost residual power returned to Pegasus. At this moment, he is observing Rafael with the power of the Millennium Eye.

This was also a little habit of Pegasus when he still possessed the "Millennium Eye." Compared to what he heard and what he saw, he felt that the human mind was much more reliable, trustworthy, and intuitive and convenient.

Rafael opened his heart to Pegasus without any difficulty, and Pegasus "saw" Rafael clearly from the inside out. However, at the same time that Pegasus cast his gaze at Rafael, Rafael, who was talking to Atum, seemed to sense something and suddenly turned his head to look at Pegasus, whose gaze gave him a strange feeling.

Meanwhile, [Guardian Etos] immediately detached from the card and came to Raferu's side, staring at Pegasus with hostile eyes.