Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

In the card played by Kagemaru, [Magic Bullet Shooter - Calamity] is firing her "gun," which is almost like a cannon. The angle is from behind [Magic Bullet Shooter - Calamity], allowing a perfect view of the entire process of her cannon firing and hitting the target. The angle seems to be a tribute to the scene in the movie of the same name, "Outlaws," where the protagonist uses a rocket launcher.

However, Manjoume didn't discuss the design of his card with Kagemaru. Instead, he looked at Kagemaru with some surprise and said, "You activated a trap card from your hand again? It's my turn right now!"

"Heh, so when did you start having the misconception that I can't activate Trap Cards directly from my hand during your turn?" The smug Kagemaru finally revealed the truth to Manjoume, "The [Magic Bullet] monsters, aside from slightly different second effects, all share the same first effect: as long as a [Magic Bullet] monster is in the Monster Zone, I can activate [Magic Bullet] Spell/Trap Cards directly from my hand during both players' turns, without any other restrictions!"

"The effect of [Magic Bullet - Outlaw] is that if I have a [Magic Bullet] monster on my field, I can target one face-up card on the field and destroy that card. The card I want to destroy is naturally [Dragon of Light and Darkness]."

"Tch, don't even think about it!" Manjoume waved his hand and said, "The Trap Card [Dragon of Light and Darkness] can also be negated. Reduce her ATK and DEF by 500 points. I will negate the activation of [Magic Bullet - Outlaw]!"

Seeing that the black and white dragons on the field were about to lower their attack and defense, Kagemaru's voice came again, with a hint of sarcasm: "However, I saw it just now. The effect of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] can only be used once in a chain, right? If you negate [Magic Bullet - Outlaw], it means that you can't negate my other effects."

As Kagemaru spoke, the mechanical arm pointed to the field, "Because the position where I placed the card is in the column where [Magic Bullet Shooter - Kid] is located, the effect of [Magic Bullet Shooter - Kid] is activated, and I discard one [Magic Bullet] card from my hand and draw two cards from my deck."

"Then activate the Quick-Play Spell Card [Magic Bullet - Cross Ruler] in your hand, target one face-up monster on the field, reduce its ATK and DEF to 0, and negate its effects!"

"And since it was activated in the same column as [Magic Bullet Shooter - Doctor], I will select another [Magic Bullet] card from my graveyard with a different name than [Magic Bullet - Cross Ruler] - and add this [Magic Bullet - Crimson Crown] that was destroyed earlier to my hand!"

C1攻击宣言C2【魔弹-亡命之徒】C3【光与暗之龙】C4【魔弹射手-小子】C5【魔弹-交叉统治者】C6【魔弹射手-医生】

It was just a declaration of attack, but it triggered a long chain of attacks. Manjoume finally understood at this moment - don't be fooled by the fact that Kagemaru has no cards in the back row. It turns out that because of the effects of the [Magic Bullet] monsters, his deck can actually be classified as a "heavy trap" deck, which is the type that his deck is least good at dealing with!

Misled by the fact that his opponent had no face-down cards in the back row, Manjoume made a huge mistake in his choice during the duel. And even small mistakes can be magnified in a duel, leading to defeat!

The chain began to unfold. With only one card left in his hand, Kagemaru retrieved a card from his graveyard and used the effect of "Magic Bullet - Cross Ruler" to reduce the attack and defense of "Light and Darkness Dragon" to 0 and negate its effect. He then drew two more cards from his deck, increasing his hand to four. Because the effect of "Light and Darkness Dragon" had been negated, it couldn't stop the activation of "Magic Bullet - Outlaw." Manjoume's ace monster—"Light and Darkness Dragon"—was blasted to pieces by the attack of "Magic Bullet Shooter - Calamity"!

"boom!"

In the blink of an eye, the [Dragon of Light and Darkness] that Manjoume had finally managed to bring to the field was destroyed and sent to the graveyard, while Kagemaru's hand remained unchanged, still holding a full four cards!

【Manjoume: 4000LP, 4 cards in hand】

[Kagemaru: 4000LP, 4 cards in hand]

Although both have four cards in their hands, Manjoume has no monsters left on the field, while Kagemaru's five [Magic Bullet] monsters are completely unharmed, as if a well-rested gunner team is aiming at the exhausted Manjoume, preparing to completely suppress him with overwhelming firepower!

Chapter 1166 Old man, your brain is the most useless thing ever!

【Manjoume: 4000LP, 4 cards in hand】

The Treasure of the Underworld

[Kagemaru: 4000LP, 4 cards in hand]

【Magic Shotgun - Starr】【ATK1300】

【Magic Shotgun - Kid】【DEF200】

【Magic Shotgun - Calamity】【ATK1500】

[Magic Shooter - Doctor] [DEF1200]

[Magic Shotgun - Wild] [ATK1700]

"You destroyed my [Dragon of Light and Darkness]... That's infuriating!" Manjoume clenched his fists as he watched his monster crumble. "I was planning to defeat you with a complete victory, but I've changed my mind, old man. From the moment you destroyed my [Dragon of Light and Darkness], I changed my mind!"

"I need to make you, you old codger, feel the damage that the [Dragon of Light and Darkness] suffers!"

However, upon hearing Manjoume's words, Kagemaru merely scoffed, "Stop spouting nonsense, brat. Do you intend to attack me with your empty front?"

"Empty? No! Don't think that the power of [Light and Darkness Dragon] is limited to this. Now that she has been destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, her third effect will be triggered!" Manjoume said, raising his Duel Disk. "When [Light and Darkness Dragon] is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, target one monster in my Graveyard. I chose [Dark Dragon - Collapsed Star Serpent] in my Graveyard."

"Destroy all cards on my field and Special Summon [Dark Dragon - Collapsed Star Serpent] from my Graveyard!"

The light and darkness left on the field of Manjoume began to gather and merge into a chaotic gate, seemingly intending to awaken the dragon monsters sleeping in the graveyard of Manjoume.

"A Special Summon during the Battle Phase, are you trying to use the revived [Dark Dragon - Collapsed Star Serpent] to continue attacking the monsters on my field? Even if you destroy one or two monsters, so what? They can't possibly cause me any battle damage." Kagemaru manipulated his mechanical arm to play a card. "That ugly and meaningless struggle... Hmph, I won't even give you that chance!"

"Trap Card [Magic Bullet - Dancing Needle] activated. If I control a [Magic Bullet] monster, I can target up to three cards in both players' Graveyards. I will banish all three Dragon-Type monsters in my opponent's Graveyard!"

"And because I activated this [Magic Bullet - Dancing Needle] in the column where [Magic Bullet Shooter - Wild] is located, the effect of [Magic Bullet Shooter - Wild] targets the three [Magic Bullet] cards in my graveyard—[Magic Bullet - Demon Trade], [Magic Bullet - Cross Ruler], and [Magic Bullet - Outlaw]—adds the three cards to my deck, shuffles them, and then draws one card!"

On the battlefield, the dancer gunslinger [Magic Bullet Shooter - Starr] drew her pistol and began firing wildly. When the ammunition in her hand ran out, she immediately pulled out another one from somewhere on her person, knowing that changing guns was faster than changing ammunition. Upon closer inspection, one could see that her legs, hidden under her skirt, were covered with spare guns, and even her upper body concealed more than a dozen.

Before Manjoume could Special Summon [Dark Dragon - Collapsed Star Serpent] back to the field, Kagemaru used another [Magic Bullet] card to extinguish his hopes, banishing all three cards in Manjoume's graveyard, and also recovering cards from his own graveyard and replenishing his hand.

The ability of the monsters in the Graveyard that were Special Summoned by the "Dragon of Light and Darkness" was nullified because the targeted monster was banished. However, even so, her effect of destroying all cards on Manjoume's field before the Special Summon still continued. The chaotic gates of chaos exploded directly, destroying the "Treasure of the Underworld" card that Manjoume had only used once and sending it to the Graveyard, leaving Manjoume's field completely empty.

However, after Kagemaru played the [Magic Bullet] card again, Manjoume suddenly looked up at Kagemaru and said, "If I remember correctly, that was your fifth [Magic Bullet] spell/trap card, right?"

"It's really outrageous. How could there be such an overpowered effect as 'allowing you to activate the [Magic Bullet] Spell/Trap Card from your hand during both players' turns'?" Despite his field being cleared, Manjoume remained calm and composed. "But then again, is this a coincidence? So far, none of the [Magic Bullet] Spell/Trap Cards you've activated seem to be duplicates."

"Did you not draw it? No, that can't be it! For someone who has already replenished their hand with a lot of cards, unless their luck is extremely bad, it's impossible for them not to draw even a single duplicate card."

Manjoume confidently stated his reasoning: "I bet on my grandfather's name that there is only one truth! Although the effects of the [Magic Bullet] monsters themselves seem to have no flaws, there are flaws, not in the monsters themselves, but in the [Magic Bullet] Spell/Trap Cards. Most of them probably have the restriction of 'once per turn', right?"

"What?!" Inside the life support pod, Kagemaru's eyes widened in astonishment upon hearing Manjoume's reasoning. "It's only been one round! How did you figure that out?! Who are you?!"

"Hmph, Jun Manjoume from the Obelisk-Blue dormitory aims to one day have a thrilling duel with the Duel King, Hayato, and become the next Duel King. His short-term goal is to dominate the Duel Academy. And, his hobby is being a detective."

After reintroducing himself to Kagemaru, Manjoume provocatively asked, "Now that you've already used five cards, how many 'Magic Bullets' are left in your deck that you can use during my turn, Mr. Manjoume?"

Upon hearing Manjou's provocation, Kagemaru panicked for a moment. The instruments connected to his body lit up red due to his abnormal blood pressure and heart rate, but he still pretended to be fine and bluffed, saying, "I have plenty of [Magic Bullet] Spell Trap Cards, more than enough to deal with a brat like you."

However, Manjoume sneered at Kagemaru's casual remark: "So, I guessed right, your [Magic Bullet] Spell/Trap Card does indeed have the restriction of 'once per turn'."

"You brat, you're actually testing me!?"

"Hmph, verbal battles are an important part of Duel Monsters too. You're using a decent deck, but the user's skill level is just like that. Old man, your brain is the most useless thing ever!"

Manjoume arrogantly pointed at Kagemaru and said, "And do you think your bluff will work on me? No matter how you look at it, you probably only have a maximum of 'seven' types of [Magic Bullets]!"

"Don't underestimate my intelligence network! In 'Magic Bullet Shooter'—not the deck you're using, but the opera that is its true prototype—the protagonist only obtained 'seven' devil bullets, so your 'Magic Bullet' deck can only possibly have seven types of Spell/Trap Cards!"

It's worth mentioning that although Manjoume knew almost nothing about the Western Expedition and legendary gunslingers mentioned by Kagemaru, that didn't mean he was equally ignorant about the cards Kagemaru used. Manjoume, whose hobby is surfing the internet, enjoys detective novels and occasionally posts on various forums. As is well known, people on forums seem to know a little about everything. Coincidentally, Manjoume had previously seen someone mention on a forum that a certain game combined the famous detective novel character "Moriarty" with the opera *Der Freischütz*, thus passively learning some information about *Der Freischütz*.

Then, at that very moment, the knowledge I had learned online that I thought was useless came in handy. Manjoume's guess was completely right. In the [Magic Bullet] deck used by Kagemaru, there were exactly seven types of monsters and spell/trap cards!

Seeing Kagemaru's astonished and speechless expression despite the mask, Manjoume knew he had guessed right again. Sure enough, even if he wasn't a duelist, he still possessed an undeniable talent for deduction—could he really be a genius?

While Kagemaru was still in shock, Manjoume also looked down at the cards in his hand. The destroyed [Treasure of the Underworld] had at least served its purpose once, providing him with two cards in his hand. In addition, with the [Radiant White Dragon - Tyrannosaurus] he had searched, he had a total of four cards in his hand. However, the [Radiant White Dragon - Tyrannosaurus]'s own effect could only be used to Special Summon once per turn. In addition, he was still in the Battle Phase and could not Special Summon it. Moreover, the monsters in his Graveyard had all been banished because of Kagemaru's [Magic Bullet - Dancing Needle].

However, there are no restrictions on activating Quick-Play Spell Cards.

"The Quick-Play Spell Card 'Pot of Greed' is activated in the column containing 'Magic Shot - Calamity'." A hideous black pot studded with many jewels appears on Manjoume's back row, its open spout releasing a suction force. "You can activate this card by targeting a total of three banished monsters from both sides. Return those three cards to their owners' decks, shuffle them, and then draw one card from your deck."

The three dragon monsters that Banjou-me could choose from, excluding 【Magic Bullet - Dancing Needle】, were the only cards he could select. The three cards were sucked into the open mouth of the 【Great Desire Pot】, and the ugly demon on the pot showed an unsatisfied expression, as if it wanted more.

Manjoume noticed that for a moment, Kagemaru hesitated, seemingly wanting to activate some card from his hand, but after a brief pause, he gave up. Only the mechanical arm, which moved inexplicably a few times and then swayed twice due to the sudden stop, proved that Manjoume had not misjudged him.

'Does that guy still have any [Magic Bullets] left to play? Is he hesitating whether to use them now?' Manjoume felt something was off, because judging from his intuition, Kagemaru wasn't a particularly skilled duelist. His deck was decent, but if he hadn't caught him off guard by his habitual thinking, he wouldn't have been able to pull off any impressive plays, let alone any tactical maneuvers.

For Kagemaru, "patience" is already a rather advanced skill. Does this nearly 100-year-old guy really have the ability to judge when to activate a card?

At least Manjoume felt that he didn't, so why was Kagemaru, who had just said he would cut off all his hopes, now hesitating about whether to use the card to prevent him from activating it? Combining this with the vague unease he had felt since the start of the duel, Manjoume had an uncertain guess in his mind.

Even Manjoume couldn't confirm the truth under these circumstances. However, although he was interested in deduction, he didn't forget that he was a duelist as a student of the Duel Academy. So he just needed to draw cards and leave everything else to the deck!

"Draw!" After drawing the card, Manjoume didn't care what card he had drawn. He picked it up in a slightly uncomfortable way and placed the card face down with the [Radiant White Dragon - Tyrannosaurus Rex] card in his hand.

Picking up the two stacked cards, Manjoume adopted a posture of guarding against Kagemaru using high-powered optical instruments to see his hand. He carefully moved aside the cards used to cover his hand, slowly revealing the cards he had drawn.

"Tsk, how come it's [Radiant White Dragon - Tyrannosaurus Rex] that I just shuffled back into my deck? I should have negated the effect of [Dark Dragon - Collapsed Star Serpent] when I was setting up the chain." Seeing the revealed card, Manjoume muttered unhappily, then drew another card from his hand. "But it doesn't matter, I can just discard them if they're not useful. I'll activate the Quick-Play Spell Card [Hand Depletion]!"

As before, the card was placed in the same column as [Magic Bullet Shooter - Calamity]. Manjoume was determined not to activate the card in any other position unless the situation changed, so as to avoid triggering the effects of other monsters in Kagemaru. Although at present only [Magic Bullet Shooter - Calamity] and [Magic Bullet Shooter - Starr] have not activated their effects, it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Holding up two cards with the backs facing Kagemaru, Manjoume loudly proclaimed, "I don't need cards that have no value. I'll exchange these two useless cards for new, useful ones. The effect of [Hand Depletion Kill] is that both players forget to send two cards from their hands to the graveyard, and after that, each draws two cards from their deck."

"Heh, not only can you send two Light-attribute Dragons from your hand to the graveyard, but you can also replace your hand with new cards. Do you think I'll let your plan go smoothly?" Kagemaru seemed to be somewhat displeased with being suppressed by Manjoume's aura since the beginning. Just as Manjoume was about to place all his hopes on this [Hand Card Kill], he decisively controlled the mechanical arm to play a card from his hand. "You born evil brat of the Manjoume family, I will shatter all your hopes!"

"The strongest [Magic Bullet] - Counter Trap Card [Magic Bullet - Dead Man's Barrage] activated! This card can only be activated when there is a [Magic Bullet] monster on my field and my opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card. Negate that activation and destroy it!"

Kagemaru's hesitation just now stemmed from deciding whether to activate this card during the "Pot of Great Desire" phase to prevent Manjoume from retrieving his three banished Dragon-Type monsters and drawing cards from his deck. However, after careful consideration, he decided against using "Pot of Great Desire" and instead used it at this moment to interrupt Manjoume's "Hand Depletion Kill," which allows him to draw two cards.

Legendary gunman Bill Hickock, nicknamed "Wild," is famous, but even more famous than his "King of the Plains" is his death. Before he was shot, "Wild" was playing a poker game. When death came to him without warning, he was holding a pair of Aces of Spades and a pair of Eights of Spades. After "Wild's" death, this ominous hand was dubbed "Dead Man's Hand."

The name of the card activated by Kagemaru, "Dead Man's Burst," is clearly a tribute to "Dead Man's Hand." The character frantically firing in the card art is also based on "Wild" Bill, "Dead Man's Burst Shooter - Wild," which carries a somewhat hellish joke connotation, like putting the wide-headed Melozo with a convertible, or the open-minded Shinzo with a water pipe.

The frenzied barrage from [Magic Bullet Shooter - Wild] turned the [Hand Destroyer] card that had just been activated in Manjoume's back row into a sieve. The fragmented card was immediately destroyed and sent to the graveyard. Fortunately, [Hand Destroyer] sent the card to the graveyard by its effect rather than its cost. Otherwise, Manjoume would have lost two more cards in his hand and would not have been able to draw any more cards.

Looking at Kagemaru, who also had three cards left in his hand, Manjoume, who only had three cards left, revealed an affirmative expression and said, "You chose to negate and destroy [Hand Card Kill], huh? Because it's a counter-trap card, I couldn't even chain and activate the other cards in my hand. You didn't use this card when you had [Pot of Great Desire] but saved it until now. That's excellent judgment."

"—It's practically like you, old man, know what cards I have!"

Chapter 1167. Is reconciliation possible?

Upon hearing Manjoume's words, Kagemaru was startled, but still maintained a nonchalant expression, saying, "I don't understand what you're saying—"

“Is that so? But you just said, ‘I’m going to send two Light attribute Dragon cards to the graveyard.’” Manjoume sneered, pointing out Kagemaru’s flaw. “But the problem is, I didn’t show what cards I was going to send to the graveyard before I sent them. I only showed them to myself before activating [Hand Depletion Kill].

"It was specifically mentioned in the Duel Kingdom's popular science lectures that Pegasus J. Crawford, the famous 'Father of Duel Monsters' from the Duel Kingdom era, once went so far as to install a large number of hidden surveillance cameras in the castle to spy on his dueling opponents' cards. This was personally confirmed by Seto Kaiba, the founder of the academy. I bet you also secretly installed cameras on the island using some unknown means!"

(On the other side of the world, Pegasus, who was getting ready to sleep: Achoo—?)

Turning his head to glance at the woods behind him, Manjoume struck a pose with his back to them and said loudly, "You old man, you're looking at me from behind, aren't you? You're looking at my hand, aren't you!"

Although Manjoume couldn't find out exactly where Kagemaru had installed the camera, in Kagemaru's "eyes," the spot where Manjoume casually looked happened to be directly facing the camera in the woods. It was as if Kagemaru was looking directly at Manjoume through the camera!

However, Kagemaru was really shameless. Even though he was caught cheating, Manjoume only found a minor flaw in his words and did not have any concrete evidence to prove that Kagemaru had cheated. Therefore, he still stubbornly said, "That's just your imagination. You are a naturally evil brat like Manjoume. I don't need such methods to defeat you."

"Or are you trying to use this as an excuse after realizing you're going to lose to me?"

"Loss? Sorry, Mr. Manjoume, that word is in my dictionary, but you shameless old geezer are not on my list of those who can defeat me." Manjoume sneered, "Your little monsters can't stop me from moving forward."

"Use this card to defeat all your monsters in one go!"

The card drawn by the effect of "Pot of Greed" was inserted into the Spell Trap Zone, still in the same column as "Magic Shot - Calamity." Manjoume said, "Although I've mostly used Dragon-Type monsters in my deck, relying on only a single type or attribute makes me too vulnerable to counters. So, to fit the deck perfectly, I included this card—"

"Quick-Play Spell Card [Secret Deal with the Demon] activated! During the turn in which a Level 8 or higher monster on my field is sent to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon one [Raging Death Dragon] from my hand or Deck!"

As the third young master of the Manjoume Group, Manjoume couldn't just spend the company's funds as freely as Kaiba did to buy all three Blue-Eyes White Dragons for his own enjoyment. However, he had more than enough money to buy new and powerful cards. In reality, though, Manjoume didn't use many new cards; instead, he mostly used cards that had been released in the early days of Duel Monsters.

This wasn't because Manjoume was a sentimental person, but because he always agreed with what Hayato had told him: "There are no useless cards, only useless duelists." Every card has its use, even a card like the [Pot of Humility], which has an unclear meaning, can be used to annoy the opponent by [Hand Exchange].

Manjoume wouldn't refuse a new card, but in most cases he still prefers decks built with existing cards. Calling him a "relict" is fine; as long as he can achieve his goal with existing cards, it doesn't matter how he does it. For example, right now, the ancient card "Secret Deal with the Demon" required Kagemaru to search through the database for quite a while before finding any information about it.

Just as Kagemaru found the information, he also saw the phantom of the star monster [Hades, the Demon King of the Underworld], which appeared in many card illustrations, behind Manjoume. It stretched out one hand forward and poured its power into the ground in front of Manjoume.

The aura of the underworld flowed into the graveyard, and a corpse passively received this power, suddenly crawling up from the graveyard onto the field of Wan Zhangmu. Its decaying body was already skin and bones, and was incomplete, but it was moving its body wildly and roaring at Yingmaru because of the powerful death power surrounding it!

[Raging Death Dragon] [8☆/Dark]

[Undead/Special Summon/Effect]

[3500/0]