Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Although her residence in America was purchased through Professor Hopkins' introduction, it did not prevent her from being wary of the seventeen-year-old girl who was in the prime of her life. After all, love is a war!

"Long time no see, Anzu. Your earrings are so pretty today."

The game with a smile was just a few words, but it instantly cleared away the gloom that had risen in Kyoko's heart not long ago, and she smiled with a slight blush.

Two flowers bloom, each telling its own story. On the other side of the city, in the iconic Kaiba Dome of Domino City, the practical portion of the entrance exam for the Duel Academy headquarters is underway.

"Students who have reported their exam admission ticket numbers, please prepare your decks and proceed backstage in order to prepare for your duels." Professor Chronos announced, reading names from a list, "Number 120, Hannah Abbot!"

Chapter 1056 That Lord

"Number 119, Marufuji Sho... Number 114, Tono Junior..."

"Number 110, Yuki Judai... Hmm? Number 110 isn't here? Hmph, did he give up on the exam? What a hopeless student with no perseverance."

"Then No. 109, Miho Kanno..."

Because the entrance exam for the Duel Academy was held in the giant seahorse dome, the extremely spacious central area had plenty of room even after being divided into several one-on-one dueling arenas. Therefore, to increase efficiency, the entrance exam was conducted for six students at a time. Professor Chronos was accompanied by six supervising teachers, who were able to keep an eye on everything.

Moreover, compared to when the Duel Academy was first established, it has now been four years since its founding, and various rules, regulations and scoring standards have become quite mature. For example, this admission ticket number is actually a ranking of students' written test scores. Students who have passed the basic written test are being tested in practical combat according to their scores from low to high.

While written test scores don't fully represent a person's dueling skill level, they can reflect their understanding of Duel Monsters to some extent, which is often directly proportional to their dueling ability. Because of this, very few people paid attention to the initial practical tests for students numbered over 100; some were even fast asleep in the audience.

"...ten...hundred...thousand......"

With his head down and talking in his sleep, even though he was wearing the same brand-new blue uniform, the person sleeping still had a unique temperament among the freshmen around him. In particular, the black cuffs that were exposed on the back of the chair next to him made people wonder if they were decorations specially designed for top students, like the armbands of a master chef.

It couldn't possibly have gotten dirty by wiping soy sauce stains on the table with the sleeve of a brand-new uniform, could it?

When Duel Academy was first established, students were assigned to three dormitories—red, yellow, and blue—based on their performance in the entrance exam. However, after a year of Duel Academy's establishment, the construction of branch schools around the world, and the opening of affiliated middle schools, the situation changed somewhat.

That is, when freshmen enter the university, they will be assigned to the Osiris-Red and Apollo-Yellow dormitories based on their grades. But at most, they can only go to the Apollo-Yellow dormitory, even if they get full marks in both the written test and the practical test. The only way to enter the Obelisk-Blue dormitory when they first enter the university is to pass the Duel Academy Middle School, and it is only for those top students with excellent grades.

The boy who was sleeping was sitting right in the center of a group of freshmen in blue uniforms who had entered the Duel Academy this year. He had such a nonchalant attitude, as if he didn't care about the freshmen at all, but when the others around him saw him like this, they all had an expression of complete indifference.

"As expected, this duel between such poor students couldn't interest this gentleman at all."

"After all, he is the legendary 'Sleeping Manjoume' of the middle school. Only battles with strong opponents can awaken his passion."

"Um, I heard that it's because that person can hear mysterious sounds that others can't hear, which is why they can't sleep well at night and feel sleepy every morning?"

"How could this be?! How dare you insult that lord like this! I will fight you, you blasphemous bastard—"

"Shh—! You two keep your voices down. That person told us not to wake him up, and not to wake him up before the duel of the top ten begins. It seems he's really looking forward to this year's new students."

"Heh, even if there are some powerful new students, they're at most at the level of the Sun God-Yellow. How can they compare to us top students who have already been admitted to Obelisk-Blue? Not to mention that lord who is No.1 among us."

A row of seats separated from the boys in the Obelisk-Blue dormitory, a girl sat alone in the audience. She glanced at the noisy boys and sighed helplessly. Gathering her long golden hair, which fell behind her chair, the girl leaned back and watched the duel on the stage by the students with later exam admission ticket numbers with boredom.

The viewing experience was, unsurprisingly, quite poor. Compared to the exciting interactions between duelists in major world professional dueling events, which were based on excellent deck compositions, the performance of candidates with admission ticket numbers below 100 was basically limited to one card from each other. Being able to complete a single combo was considered excellent.

Even now, after all the candidates who ranked over 100 have finished their practical tests, not a single one has been able to defeat a student who was using a test deck and was significantly underperforming. The one who lasted the longest was a short boy with greenish-blue hair wearing glasses, whose name I think is Marufuji Sho. He probably barely made it into Osiris-Red, which is the lowest score among all the new students.

The girl couldn't help but understand why the other girls in the middle school, including her close friends Junko Mamida and Momoe Hamaguchi, were unwilling to come with her to see which of the new students who were worth paying attention to were strong. Compared to the students who had undergone three years of training in the Duel Academy's middle school, the mixed students who had to pass the entrance exam to enter the Duel Academy had abilities that were simply uneven.

In contrast, Junko and Momoe took advantage of the Duel Academy entrance exam to go to the Kaiba Corporation headquarters today, hoping to try their luck and see if they could meet the famous idol Bakura. Although they were not very interested in idols, they felt that it was much better than watching these boring duels here. What if they didn't meet those idols but instead met the legendary duelist Seto Kaiba?

"What a terrible performance..."

"What a terrible performance..."

The two sentences rang out at the same time, causing the girl who spoke to subconsciously look to the other side. She found a man with short, dark blue hair wearing the uniform of the Obelisk-Blue dormitory sitting about a dozen empty seats away from her. He was looking at the dueling arena with a cold expression, giving off a "keep away" vibe.

The girl recognized him and said with some surprise, "You are... Caesar Liang?"

“Tenjōin Asuka…” Turning around at the sound of her voice, the boy known as “Kaiser Ryo” looked the girl up and down and said, “It’s been almost a year since I last saw you, hasn’t it?”

"Ten months. We received the notification of my brother's disappearance last June, so ten months have passed since then," Asuka Tenjouin corrected, looking at the other woman. "And yet, there's still no news of my brother?"

"...Feel sorry."

Upon hearing what the other person said, Asuka Tenjouin's face showed disappointment, but she had actually expected this answer. She shook her head and said, "Even if you wanted to take the blame for not paying attention to your classmates' actions, I know it has nothing to do with you, and I don't need your apology."

"Besides, an apology won't bring my brother back. That's why I'm going to the Duel Academy myself to find clues about my missing brother." As she spoke, Asuka glanced at the arena with disappointment. "I originally wanted to find some freshmen in my year to see if anyone could help me, but unfortunately, it seems that none of them have that ability."

"But I remember that observing the entrance exam was supposed to be voluntary, not mandatory. Those boys over there came because their leader, Jun Manjou, wanted to come. What about you, Kaiser Ryo?"

"Manjou Jun, the top student among this year's junior high school students?" Caesar glanced at Manjou Jun, who was still fast asleep in the center of the crowd not far away, and then looked at the dueling arena where a student had taken his place after the previous candidate's defeat. "I also had something I wanted to see, but like you, I only got disappointment."

"My brother, even though he often teases me and even styled my hair like a pro duelist named Jonouchi just because he won a championship, is still an important family member to me." Asuka Tenjouin's gaze was resolute. "I'll become the strongest at Duel Academy, and through that, I'll experience as much as possible. I'll find you, alive or dead, I will find you, brother!"

'Is this all you've got, Sho? Still unable to unleash the full potential of your deck?'

Recalling what he had just seen in the duel arena—the 119th candidate, who was also the second to last—marufuji Sho, nicknamed "Kaiser," whose real name was Marufuji Ryo, recklessly attacked when he shouldn't have and retreated when he shouldn't have, relying entirely on a haphazardly assembled deck of cards to barely prolong his life and drag out the time, the boy was filled with disappointment, but he didn't show any emotion on his face.

"You clearly demonstrated even more of your talent four years ago, but ever since the card controlling you was destroyed and you left the 'electronic school,' you've never regained your confidence, not even winning a single duel, let alone this extremely easy entrance exam..."

Asuka Tenjouin and Ryo Marufuji sighed in unison, one thinking of her missing older brother and the other of her mediocre younger brother.

The practical tests being conducted in the central arena of the Seahorse Dome did not stop just because there weren't many spectators paying attention. As time went on, more and more students completed the practical tests. Some students walked off the stage smiling because they had good luck and performed well in this round. Similarly, there were students who had bad luck, played cards like they were sleepwalking, and performed poorly, looking dejected.

Furthermore, since the number of admission ticket numbers was already below one hundred, although the number of candidates was not large, the number of candidates who could defeat the proctors who were deliberately letting them win with their test cards was also increasing. Regardless of the specific process, if a victory could be achieved, then a good score could definitely be obtained in the practical test. As long as the written test score wasn't disastrous, it was basically a sure thing to get into the SunGod-Huang dormitory.

Having recovered from a nap, Wan Zhangmu Jun woke up on his own when the tenth student began the test. Before the students who had voluntarily gathered around him to be his followers because of their strength could wake him up, he glanced at the students on the stage and muttered to himself, "Which number are we on now?"

"You're already the tenth freshman, Master Manjoume!" A bespectacled boy next to him answered Manjoume immediately, saying ingratiatingly, "To be able to control when I wake up so self-disciplinedly, as expected of Master Manjoume, you easily did what we couldn't do, I really admire you!"

"Huh? Sir? That's so noisy, it's Mr. Manjoume!" Manjoume, who had just woken up, impatiently picked at his ear and corrected the other person's address to him.

After carefully examining the examinee who had just come on stage, and realizing that he did not recognize him, Wan Zhangmu immediately lost interest and asked the people around him, "Although I'm not sure if that guy changed his hairstyle, did you guys see the guy with the jellyfish-like hairstyle come on stage just now?"

"I don't think so?"

"Definitely not. We would definitely remember that strange-sounding hairstyle if we'd seen it before."

"I've never seen it before."

"Really? That's good." Wan Zhangmu, whose gaze had been wandering around the arena, trying to find a certain figure, breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that no one around him had seen the person with the jellyfish hairstyle he had mentioned. "That guy must have made it into the top ten, otherwise how could he be worthy of being my opponent?"

"It's good that I didn't miss that guy's duel. I want to see what level he's at now after all these years." After a pause, Manjoume revealed a smug smile as if no one else was around. "However, no matter how good his grades are, he can only get into the Sun God-Yellow Dormitory at most. He's destined to be overshadowed by me from the Obelisk-Blue Dormitory!"

"Hahahaha!"

Six minutes later...

"Number one, the fourth one... uh, Misawa Daichi, prepare to go up for the practical test." Seeing that the last person on the list had finally arrived and there were no more students to be tested, Professor Chronos felt a sudden sense of relief, having finally finished his task. Perhaps because of this, he almost mispronounced the candidate's name.

Meanwhile, in the audience, when he heard the name of the last candidate announced was someone he didn't recognize, he couldn't remain calm any longer. He frowned and muttered to himself, "Impossible, how come that guy's name didn't appear in the top ten? Could he be in the twenties?"

"But the others say they haven't seen that guy compete. Wait a minute, could it be that he doesn't plan to come to the Duel Academy headquarters? Or maybe he doesn't even plan to continue playing Duel Monsters?!"

Wan Zhangmu's expression instantly darkened. "Absolutely not! I haven't even reclaimed the glory I lost from that jellyfish-headed guy yet, how can I!"

Because Wan Zhangmu's voice was very low, the others did not hear what he was saying. They only noticed that his expression became serious after the number one candidate went on stage.

"Wow, that person suddenly got serious!"

"Could it be that the examinee named 'Mizawa Sora' on the field possesses terrifying strength capable of arousing that person's passion?"

"That's terrifying. We have to keep a close eye on that 'Misawa Kaiyu'."

At the same time, led by a security guard from Haima Group wearing a suit and sunglasses with a conflicted and troubled look, a boy with two pieces of soap still stuck to his head from taking a shortcut through the woods quietly pushed open the entrance door of the Haima Giant Dome venue and subconsciously exclaimed, "Wow, so many people! It's almost as many people as the KC Cup!"

"I'm totally excited, aren't you, Aibo?"

Beside the boy who was talking to himself, a winged, fluffy monster, invisible to ordinary people, squinted its eyes: 'Kuri Kuri~'

Chapter 1057 I'm in first place!

My turn is over.

The examiner, wearing sunglasses, declared, looking at the examinee opposite him: "I have a Giant Shield Guardian on my field with a defense of 2600 points, and it is equipped with the Equip Spell Card [Heart of Still Water] to protect it from battle and destruction by effects that target it."

"Even if you use a monster that can hit twice and change it to attack position, it won't work. My continuous trap card [Soul Barrier] in the back row can protect me from battle damage if there are monsters on my field, so even monsters with direct attack capabilities are ineffective against me."

"I'm sorry, but you have lost the chance to defeat me in this duel, candidate number one."

[Teacher's score: 1900 LP, 0 cards in hand]

【Giant Shield Guardian】(Heart of Still Water)【DEF2600】

[Soul Barrier]

[Candidate No. 1 - Daichi Misawa: 1500LP, Hand 1]

【GaiKa】

"My turn, draw a card." Unaffected by the examiner's words intended to influence the candidates' mindset and test their psychological qualities, candidate number one, Daichi Misawa, drew a card from his deck, revealing a confident smile. "No, quite the opposite, I have already completed the equation of victory, teacher."

"Normal summon: [Bloody Orc]!"

Place the remaining card in your hand on the Duel Disk, and a muscular figure wielding a sharp axe appears in front of Daichi Misawa, baring its fangs at the [Guardian of the Giant Shield] on the field, facing the examiner.

[Bloody Warcraft] [ATK1900]

"The Bloodthirsty Beastman, a Level 4 monster with top-tier attack power? Not bad, but it's completely meaningless in the current situation. Even if it attacks me directly, it won't be able to do any damage because of the Soul Barrier effect, not to mention it's just a Normal Monster."

Hearing the examiner's comments, Daichi Misawa shook his head and pressed the button on the Duel Disk to activate the face-down card, saying, "I said, the equation for victory is complete. This card, which has been face-down on my field for two turns, has been waiting for the perfect moment to activate it, which is the moment when the [Bloody Beastman] with exactly 1900 attack power enters the field."

"I activate the Trap Card [Destruction Wheel]! I will destroy [Bloody Orc] on my field and inflict effect damage equal to the attack power of both duelists. This damage cannot be blocked by [Soul Barrier]!"

"What?!" The examiner's eyes widened behind his sunglasses, then he said, "However, while the [Wheel of Destruction] can certainly clear my base score, your base score is 1500 points lower than mine. Are you trying to take us both down with you, Candidate Number One?"

"No, this is the time to activate the card I just drew." He flipped the last card in his hand over to show the examiner, "Chain [Destruction Wheel] to activate the Quick-Play Spell Card [Defense Wheel] in my hand, making the effect damage from Trap Cards to me 0. In this way, you will be the only one left to suffer effect damage from [Destruction Wheel]."

"Self-destruct, Bloodthirsty Orc! This is a necessary sacrifice!"

As Daichi Misawa mimicked the famous line from the Duel King that frequently appeared in various duel videos, the [Bloody Orc] with a ring of grenades around his neck suddenly exploded. Protected by a rotating shield that appeared in front of him, Daichi Misawa's life points remained untouched, while the life points of the examiner were precisely wiped out.

[Teacher Assessment: 1900LP → 0]

In the audience, the proctors next to Professor Chronos exchanged their opinions on the final duel: "Candidate number one's duel calculations were very precise." "As for the score, I think there should be no objections. I would give it 90 points." "The entertainment value was also very good. With the overall score, he can enter the Sun God-Huang as the number one candidate."

Professor Chronos had no objection to the scores given by the other teachers. After briefly organizing the materials and lists in front of him, he got up to put them into a file bag so that he could take them back to the Duel Academy and hand them over to the principal.

Just then, the staff member from the Kaiba Corporation who had led the boy into the Kaiba Dome came to Professor Chronos's side and explained the situation to him.

"Arriving at the last minute after check-in?" Professor Chronos frowned. "Isn't that incredibly punctual? Doesn't he realize how important this exam is? He's clearly not taking the entrance exam seriously at all."

"Um, that candidate said the tram was delayed..."

Professor Kronos waved his hand, interrupting the security personnel from Haima Group: "That kind of thing is just an excuse, like 'I forgot my homework at home.' Who hasn't used such an excuse when they were in school? What was that candidate's admission ticket number?"

"Uh, it seems to be number 110."