Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"What's meaningful is only first place. Second place or the second edition isn't what I want. People are like a flock of pigeons. If the lead pigeon flies to the right, the rest will follow. I want to be that lead pigeon!"

"The three brothers of the Manjoume family: the eldest brother, Chosaku, runs the Manjoume Group in business; the younger brother, Masashi, plans to enter politics; and I am going to reign supreme in the realm of monster dueling. This GeneX tournament was supposed to be the starting point of my path to becoming the king!"

Manjoume said a lot, but Judai scratched his head and said, "Um, can't you just cut it down to twenty words or less? It's too complicated and hard to understand."

"Is your brain's memory measured in kilobytes?" Manjoume retorted, then looked at Judai and said seriously, "What annoys me even more is another reason, and that's you. I want to seize this last chance to defeat you."

"You're moving to America, aren't you?"

Hearing Manjoume's words, Judai smiled a little embarrassedly: "Well, because Dad is going to work at the headquarters of the International Illusion Society in America, which is being rebuilt. Mom and I are going to America too, after we graduate from elementary school this year."

"So, Manjoume, you wanted to compete so much because you wanted to duel with me in the GeneX tournament to settle the score." Jaden felt regretful after understanding Manjoume's thoughts. "It's a pity that Seto Kaiba's age range just happens to exclude both of us."

"It's like someone who lost to one of us before but can't duel that person again, so they're just trying to get revenge by tripping us up in some other way. But that's impossible," Jaden casually remarked, offering his seemingly unrealistic guess.

Looking at the Kaiba Park not far away, Jaden suddenly thought of something and said to Manjoume, "Although we didn't manage to register today, we're already here, so how about we have a duel, Manjoume?"

"It's Mr. Manjoume!" Manjoume said, taking a card box from his bag. Inside was his deck. "Duel is just what I want. Even if I can't participate in the GeneX tournament and defeat you in front of the whole world, it doesn't matter. Today, I will use my deck to settle the score between us, Jaden Yuki!"

"Huh? Settling scores and all that, but didn't you never win against me in our duels, Manjoume Lightning? Let me think... I think I lost 1919810..."

"What kind of outrageous number is that? Where did you learn math?!" Manjoume directly denied Judai's claim about the number of times he had lost. Even if he were dueling every minute, he couldn't possibly lose that many times. "We clearly had a draw!"

"Alright, a draw is a draw. But you can't beat me today, because heroes can't be defeated, and [E·hero] is very strong!"

"Hmph, it feels... inferior to my [Dragon of Light and Darkness]."

Two eleven-year-olds, arguing about whose deck was stronger, walked into the duel area of ​​Kaiba Park. Looking at the two on the monitor screen, Hayato turned to Kaiba and complained, "You're so shameless, Seth, using age restrictions to get revenge on Jonouchi and Jaden."

"Hmph, I don't understand what you're saying," Kaiba said expressionlessly, but it would have been more believable if he hadn't turned his head away to avoid Hayato's gaze.

"It's fine to fool your buddies, just don't fool yourself too." Hayato said, flicking the interactive virtual projection in front of him to control the monitor display. "Speaking of which, you don't actually still remember that Jaden defeated you ten years later, do you? It's too embarrassing to take an eleven-year-old kid who's six years younger than you seriously, Seth."

"However, why don't you try taking on a disciple and having your disciple defeat the Tenth Generation to avenge you? I think Manjoume would be a pretty good choice."

Kaiba did not respond, seemingly uninterested in Hayato's offer.

Hayato didn't expect Kaiba to give him any answer. If he wanted to take Manjoume as his disciple, he could just go to the president of the Manjoume Group, Manjoume Chosaku. As a downstream manufacturer and an upstream developer, the Manjoume Group and Kaiba Group have always maintained business cooperation and contact.

Hayato's gaze lingered on a spot on the surveillance camera. It was the "museum" in the center of the headquarters building where Kaiba had previously been, where many unfinished items were displayed. In the historical footage that was retrieved, Kaiba was in the middle of a duel, but there was no one in front of him.

Chapter 955 The World of Duel Link

The streets of Domino City are bustling with vehicles and people, presenting a peaceful yet busy scene.

But the enormous shadow that swept across the sky shattered this ordinary scene. Accompanied by the roar of a dragon, a pure white dragon flew between the buildings. Strangely, not a single pedestrian on the ground looked up.

On the back of the silver dragon stood a person, wearing a knee-length overcoat and a helmet shaped like the head of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon—it was Seto Kaiba. Using the Blue-Eyes White Dragon beneath his feet to overlook the familiar scenery of Domino City in a different way, even Kaiba couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.

But just as he was enjoying the feeling of being high above, a voice came from behind him: "Is this the world of Duel Link? I've decided, I'm going to destroy this world."

Turning his head, Kaiba saw Hayato dressed in a white coat like a doctor, but holding a pink film camera and taking pictures of the scenery of "Domino City".

Beneath the seahorse's feet flew the Blue-Eyes White Dragon at high speed. Hayato, of course, couldn't catch up with the seahorse on his own; he wasn't some guy named Jose. Beneath the somewhat strangely dressed Hayato's feet was a three-headed mechanical dragon—the Cyber ​​Terminator Dragon.

"Hmph, it's nothing but a fake that's merely imitating the perfect form of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon." Kaiba glanced at the Cyber ​​End Dragon and said disdainfully, "Is it because you're using a monster like this that your movements are so slow, Hayato Kobayashi?"

"Come on, even if I can freely change my virtual avatar settings to my liking, it still takes time, okay?" Hayato rolled his eyes at Kaiba and complained, "The reason you're faster than me is because you set up this avatar long ago, which is why you can directly enter this Duel Link world, right, Seth?"

"No, in this Duel Links world, your name is 'Kaiba Man,' right? Does this codename really have the ability to conceal your identity? And is it that your design can't be completed without the [Blue Eyes]?"

Hearing Hayato's words, Kaiba retorted, "Blue Eyes is a card that can become my ace. Do you, who have taken the codename 'Genius Player K,' have the right to say such things?"

Hayato Kobayashi spread his hands and shrugged innocently, but a sly smile crept across his lips as he suddenly shouted, "There's a broken butt!"

Without Hayato putting on his Duel Disk, he made a card-drawing motion out of thin air, and a monster card appeared in his hand, which he suddenly threw into the air in front of him. Even though the Cyber ​​End Dragon under his feet had carried him high into the air, and there was a strong, cold wind around him, the monster card placed in front of him was completely unaffected by the airflow and simply remained suspended in the air.

After the card was placed, a mechanical demon with a scarlet body appeared, wielding a lightning spear. As soon as it appeared, it spread its wings and took to the air, following Hayato and Kaiba who were moving at high speed. At the same time, it also threw the lightning spear in its hand at Kaiba, who was not protected by any monsters.

"Do you dare disobey me, who possesses the [Hellfire Machine - Baal]!"

"Hmph, I saw through your plan long ago!" Hayato's sudden attack was met with Kaiba's expectant stance. Kaiba mimicked drawing a card, placing one that appeared out of thin air in front of him, and said, "[Crystal Dragon], block that monster!"

A slender, crystal dragon, its entire body composed of sharp blue and white crystals, appeared before Kaiba. It closed its wings to block the spears of [Hellfire Machine - Baal], at the cost of several cracks appearing on its clear crystal body. However, it opened its wings again and caught up with Hayato and Kaiba, who were flying at high speed, and began to fight [Hellfire Machine - Baal], which Hayato had summoned.

But this was just the beginning. Hayato and Kaiba walked one after the other among the skyscrapers of Domino City, summoning their monsters one after another, making the battle increasingly complex and affecting a wider area.

【Shadowd - Nephilim】, 【Dragon's Meteor = QUA】, 【Dragon Knight - Gaia】, 【Hellfire - Tiera】...

[Tyrant Storm Dragon], [Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon], [Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon], [Abyssal White Dragon]...

Every now and then, a few attacks with particularly tricky angles would bypass the monsters protecting them and strike the enemy directly. The two of them would constantly adjust their positions in the air to dodge the attacks with the help of their mounts. The attacks that were dodged would land in Domino City, which served as the background of their battle, without any reduction in damage, easily destroying the tall buildings along the way and turning them into ruins.

However, even though the two changed their route and adjusted their course many times along the way, the area of ​​Domino City was only so big, not enough for the two of them to mess around with. Before long, Hayato and his monsters arrived at the Domino City dock, which was the destination. The strong wind generated by the [Electronic Terminator Dragon] as it slowed down almost split the water.

"Ha, Hayato Kobayashi scored the first point, I'm leading by one game."

Hayato turned to look at Kaiba, who was only one step behind him, and said smugly. Kaiba was very unconvinced and immediately denied it, saying, "Where did you learn math? It's clearly a tie."

"Ha, I think we'll never be able to determine a winner in this world." Hayato glanced at the monsters surrounding the seahorse, raised his finger and counted, "One, two, three... nine? Not bad."

“Perhaps.” Kaiba glanced at the nine monsters surrounding Hayato and raised an eyebrow, saying calmly, “But we have plenty of time in this world.”

There is no limit to the number of monsters that can be summoned in this world. Or to put it another way, what determines the limit to the number of monsters that can be summoned is no longer the grid on the Duel Disk, but rather the willpower of Hayato and Kaiba. The stronger their willpower, the more powerful the number of monsters they can summon.

Furthermore, although Hayato and Kaiba each summoned a total of ten monsters, which were essentially their mounts, this was still not their limit. The space of Domino City was only large enough for each of them to summon ten monsters to fight. Any more, and it would lose the fun of commanding monsters in battle, turning into a boring game of simply comparing sizes and standing still to exchange blows.

“There is plenty of time, but are you sure you want to continue fighting in this environment?” Hayato pointed behind Kaiba, who turned to look at Domino City, or the area formerly known as Domino City. In a battle that was hardly even at full strength, the once-high-rise buildings were completely destroyed, leaving only ruins, with rubble occasionally collapsing.

“It’s become completely uninhibited, which does make it quite boring.” Seahorse raised his hand nonchalantly, “But it doesn’t matter at all.”

As the seahorse moved, a virtual control panel appeared in front of him. He casually pressed a few buttons on it and opened an interface called "Environment Settings," then pressed a button.

"Reset!"

The instant Kaiba pressed the button, Hayato saw everything before him as if a video had been stopped; everything was frozen in that moment. Falling rocks stopped in mid-air, splashing waves ceased to fall, and the clouds remained motionless. Then, everything rapidly rewound as if on a rewind, and in the blink of an eye, the ruins of Domino City transformed back into the bustling Domino City it was before their battle!

After changing the environment back to Domino City, Kaiba turned to Hayato and asked, "So, shall we have a second round?"

"No, I don't want to see my house destroyed a second time, even if this place is fake." Looking at the villa area in the distance, Hayato easily found his home in reality. In the battle just now, someone's attack landed there and destroyed the entire villa area, but now, thanks to Kaiba's "reset", it has returned to its original state. "And it still feels a little bit off, this world."

As he spoke, Hayato raised his hand and brought up the interface. He moved his finger to the bottom and saw that the "Exit" button was still there and hadn't been deleted. He clicked on it.

The scenery before him quickly faded and dimmed, and darkness filled Hayato's vision. Then, he heard the sound of a mechanical lock being opened, and a crack appeared in front of him.

Hayato raised his hand and touched his head, finding the opening. He lifted it up and removed the helmet from his head.

On the sofa opposite him, Kaiba also took off his pure white helmet and looked at Hayato with a displeased expression, saying, "If you don't want a second round, why did you ask me to reset Domino City?"

"Hey, I'm just testing the system to make sure there are no bugs. It wouldn't be good if it were fully released to the public and then some problems caused it to become a death game." Hayato said to Kaiba with a grin, placing the helmet in front of him. "Also, don't you really want to consider adding a voice activation function to this thing? I think 'Link, you big head' is a pretty good activation phrase."

“There are only two Neurons helmets in total. One is the prototype I have, and the one you have is a test unit that I just had someone make.” He placed his helmet on the table and stretched his neck slightly. “Instead of adding those boring things, we should continue to improve its structure to reduce weight and increase battery life.”

Seeing the seahorse's movements, Hayato stretched his slightly sore neck and said, "I didn't realize it until you mentioned it. The weight of this thing really needs improvement. My neck is already sore after just a short while. If you play with it for a long time, you're likely to get cervical spondylosis if you're not lying in bed."

“Hardware issues are easy to solve, after all, this is a work I created a few years ago. The important thing is the software—the virtual world part I'm tentatively calling ‘Duel Link.’” Kaiba crossed his fingers and struck a pose reminiscent of a certain commander, though it was a pity he wasn't wearing sunglasses, otherwise the resemblance would be even greater. “You interrupted halfway through your sentence, what did you mean by ‘almost there’?”

"It means exactly what it says. Although the level of detail is very high, the world of Duel Link can only be considered a simulated 'scene,' not a 'world.'" Hayato shrugged. "Even if you fill it with more scenes and NPCs, it won't help. It's too empty."

"Hmph, this problem is nothing to worry about and will be resolved soon." Kaiba's lips curled up. "Once the Neurons helmet is released, players will naturally enter that world to fill in the missing content. If this is the only issue, then the Duel Links world is already fine."

"So, how's your observation on the other matter?"

Hayato shook his head upon hearing this: "Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that the person you mentioned would care about. In the end, I still haven't seen what that 'little girl' you mentioned looks like."

As he spoke, Hayato looked at the surveillance video that had stopped before the two of them put on their helmets and entered the Duel Link World, and pointed to Kaiba in the video, who was drawing cards, and said, "Even I can only see you in there. There is no such thing as a little girl."

"Hmph, to be able to bypass Haima Group's security measures and infiltrate such a deep place, that girl named 'Sera' must have a very skilled hacker as an accomplice," Haima said unhappily. "She must have also hacked the surveillance cameras and modified the footage to show that she wasn't there. It looks like I need to update Haima Group's firewall again soon."

"Yeah, that's right, bro. It must have been a hacker, it couldn't be some supernatural event." Hayato casually brushed Kaiba off, then looked at the surveillance video again.

After Shadi took Ayane away, Hayato dealt with the thugs who had gotten into trouble with him and headed towards Kaiba Corporation. However, Kaiba acted quickly and dealt with Ayane's accomplice—a teenage girl named "Sera"—before Hayato arrived.

However, when Haima reviewed the surveillance footage in an attempt to find Sera, who had trespassed into the Haima Group and somehow escaped, they were surprised to discover that Sera had never appeared in the surveillance footage at all. As a result, it was impossible to find out her true identity.

However, Hayato promptly reminded Kaiba that he could also find clues in Sera's main target—the Neurons Helmet and its accompanying Duel Links world. This led to Hayato and Kaiba entering the Duel Links world together to search for clues, although it later turned into a battle between the two who were extremely playful.

The name "Duel Links" is the same as the name of a mobile game from Hayato's previous life, but that's probably just a coincidence. While fighting, Hayato did carefully observe the world called Duel Links, but to be honest, he really couldn't find anything that Sera was interested in, and his impression of Sera was not as deep as that of Blue God.

After all, no matter how cute a little girl is, can she be more interesting than playing cards?

Chapter 956 Not being enthusiastic about playing cards indicates a problem with one's mindset.

That's just how it is.

Hayato and Seto Kaiba were searching for Sera, who was standing on a rocky ground and said to an African-American boy in front of him, "Seto Kaiba finally took out that dangerous gadget. I was no match for him and couldn't stop him."

"The Neurons Helmet that integrates the mind and the 'Duel Link' system are things that Lord Shadi predicted many years ago. They are items that can allow ordinary people to obtain abilities similar to those of Prana."

The African-American teenager, dressed in Egyptian attire similar to that of Sera, said somewhat seriously, “But in addition to unifying human intelligence, the darkness in people’s hearts will also be gathered together. The former can greatly promote our ‘dimensional ascension’ plan, but the latter will interfere with ‘dimensional ascension’ and even affect us Prana.”

The African American boy remembered what Lord Shady Sheen had once said: to achieve dimensional ascension, one must cast aside one's fears and abandon the darkness in one's heart, and attain happiness and peace of mind through complete enlightenment. If one becomes tainted by darkness during the process of dimensional ascension, one will instead fall into the dark side of the dimension.

Prana's ability to sense the thoughts in others' hearts allows him to achieve complete enlightenment, as "the enlightened are always happy." However, because of this ability, Prana is more susceptible to negative emotions than the average person.

The "Neurons" device from the Haima Group was designed to simultaneously amplify Prana's ability to perceive others and to receive negative emotions. This is why they sent Sera to Haima when they were trying to retrieve the device. Unfortunately, they failed.

Noticing the slight disappointment on Sera's face, the African-American boy quickly comforted her, saying, "But it's okay, Sera. As long as Diva successfully breaks through Kobayashi Hayato's schemes, everything will be alright."

The African American teenager was completely unaware that decades ago, a man with a mustache had said something similar.

“Hayato Kobayashi…” Upon hearing her companion’s words, Sera couldn’t help but recall her previous duel with Kaiba. Even the proud Seto Kaiba would speak so highly of Hayato Kobayashi. She became increasingly curious about what kind of person Hayato Kobayashi really was.

However, her brother Deva has already gone under the alias "Blue God" to get close to Hayato Kobayashi. This is because the dimensional ascension that should have started under the guidance of the Quantum Cube after Pharaoh Atum's death has not been able to proceed for some reason. Deva believes that Hayato Kobayashi must have done something.

Even the Duel King, facing Deva's Dimensional Domain Duel for the first time, would probably be no match for Deva. He couldn't possibly have known the characteristics of Dimensional Domain Duel beforehand and adjusted his deck accordingly.

Hayato Kobayashi has probably died in his dimensional battle with Diva. Although it's a pity she didn't get to see him, Sera is still somewhat happy that this means the long-stalled dimensional ascension can continue. She nodded to the African-American boy in front of her and said, "Yeah, thank you, Manny."

The African American teenager named "Manny" looked at Sera, as if about to say something, when he suddenly turned his head to the side, and Sera did the same. At the same time, the two Pranabans sensed a familiar presence:

"Diva?"

Golden cubes gathered in the open space in front of the two, and the golden particles coalesced into the familiar image of Diva. However, just as they had sensed the unusual aura, the pale-faced Diva knelt weakly on one knee after appearing before them, looking frail.

"Diva!" Mani rushed to Diva's side and asked with concern, "What happened to you? Why are you like this?"

Helping Mani to his feet, Diva said with a gloomy expression, "The Quantum Cube can't ascend to another dimension. It was Kobayashi Hayato who did it. I was planning to defeat him with a dimensional domain duel."

"However, even though it was his first time fighting in the dimensional realm, he was still able to quickly apply the rules and unleash his powerful strength. I was careless and lost to him. I only managed to escape with great difficulty thanks to the power of the [Quantum Cube]."

He didn't tell Mani and the others that there was a backup plan left behind by Lord Shady Shin in the Quantum Cube, and that it was that plan that successfully saved him. Telling them about it would only increase their grief and wouldn't change anything. Similarly, he didn't tell them that he had gone to duel with Yugi Muto after escaping from Hayato.

He claimed to be a Duel Monsters newbie and challenged Yugi Muto to a duel. Even though Yugi held back, he was still defeated in one turn. There are some things you should never say!