Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

The game's "Dark Magician" and Hayato's "Sky Magician" stand side by side on the field, their magical powers connecting behind them to form a giant magic circle.

[Super Archmage - Dark Archmage's Apprentice] [8☆/Dark]

[Mage Race/Fusion/Effect]

【2800/2300→1300/2300】

Before he could even be cool for long, [Thousand-Eyed Najib] completely disregarded the "no attack during transformation" agreement between the hero and the monster, and unceremoniously used purple light to bind [Super Magister - Black Magister's Apprentice].

Originally on high alert, Pegasus laughed heartily as he watched [Super Magister - Black Mage Apprentice]'s attack power drop to a mere 1300 and he was no longer immune to [Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon]'s "Thousand-Eyed Curse," which blocked his attacks: "Hayato Kobayashi, Yugi Muto! You two really are the world's best comedians!"

Is this all the bond you speak of?

"Hmph, Pegasus, don't forget, my turn has only just begun." Yugi sneered, placing his finger on the deck, drawing a card and activating it, "Spell Card [One-Hit Wand], Equip to [Super Magister - Dark Magister's Apprentice]."

A magic wand appeared in front of the [Super Mage - Dark Mage Apprentice]. The [Dark Mage] was about to take it when the [Sky Magician] standing next to him snatched it away and took it for himself.

[Grand Archmage - Dark Archmage Apprentice] [ATK 1300 → 1700]

"At the same time, activate the effect of [Super Magister - Dark Magister's Apprentice]!" Yugi placed his hand on the deck again. "Once per turn, when a Spell/Trap Card activates its effect, I can draw one card from my deck. If it is a Spell/Trap Card, set that card face down."

“If it’s a Quick-Play Spell or Trap Card, that card can activate its effect this turn as well,” Hayato said. “Just a heads-up, Pegasus, there’s a [Breakthrough Skill] card in the game’s deck.”

"Hmph, Yugi Muto has so many cards in his deck, how could he possibly draw that one!" Pegasus said, but a sense of fear crept in. If Yugi really drew that [Breakthrough Skill] card, he would lose!

“That’s not how it works, Pegasus.” Yugi didn’t hesitate and drew the card directly. “For a true duelist, everything is inevitable, even the outcome of drawing a card can be created by themselves!”

"The card I drew is—" The card was displayed in the game, "[Breakthrough Skill]!"

Hayato pointed at the [Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon]: "The troublesome effect is over. The loser is out!"

The air shattered, and the Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon, which had been spreading its evil magic in all directions, was horrified to find that its powerful magic, which it was so proud of, had been stripped from its body in an instant.

The "Thousand-Eyed Curse" that was suppressing the attack lost its power to continue. The dense eyes closed one by one, and even the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that it had devoured took this opportunity to break free from its bone wings and stared at it menacingly in the air!

[Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon] [3000/2500→0/0]

[Grand Archmage - Dark Archmage Apprentice] [ATK 1700 → 3600]

"This is the final blow, Pegasus!" Looking at the panicked Pegasus, Yugi growled coldly in a low voice, "Pay back for your sins! On the road to hell, let your crimes be recounted, one by one!"

"Now that things have come to this, can you even count how many things you did?" Hayato sneered. "Pegasus, Duel Monsters is supposed to be a game that brings joy, but you used it to inflict pain on others and rob them of their smiles. As a farewell gift to you, how about despair?"

Yugi glanced at Hayato and noticed he was looking in his direction. He smiled helplessly and said, "Just this once, I'll play along."

"After all, he's the final boss. It would be a shame if he didn't deliver a decisive line."

As if mirroring each other, the two raised their arms, pointing them at the [Thousand-Eyed Nasturtium] as if they were pistols. In front of them, the [Dark Magician] and the [Sky Magician] simultaneously struck the same pose.

"No, I can't lose like this! I shouldn't be the one losing!" Pegasus clearly couldn't accept the reality. "My great mind cannot disappear from the world! Yugi Muto! Hayato Kobayashi!"

The surging magical power coalesced into two spheres, floating in front of the two great magicians. As the energy reached its limit, Hayato and Yugi shouted in unison:

"Jackpot!"

Chapter 177 Duel Kingdom, End

The blue and purple magic cannons intertwined and advanced, piercing through the body of the [Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon] and completely wiping out Pegasus's remaining basic points.

[Bekas: 1000→0]

No referee's judgment was needed; the outcome of the duel was already obvious—the ultimate victors were Yugi Muto and Hayato Kobayashi.

"Yada~ I finally won." Hayato, who had been forcing himself to stay alert, breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his own and the game's avatars light up on the scoreboard. He then plopped down on the ground without any grace, watching the virtual images in the arena gradually disappear.

The duo of "Super Mage - Dark Mage Apprentice" disbanded the moment of victory. "Sky Magician" shamelessly accepted the applause from the surrounding audience, while "Dark Mage" bowed respectfully to the game before disappearing from sight.

The corpse of the Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon, pierced through its abdominal cavity and mouthparts, was used as a sandbag by the Blue-Eyed White Dragon. After exhaling white breath and burning it to ashes, the White Dragon nodded toward Hayato and disappeared as well.

"I hereby declare that the victors of this duel are Yugi Muto and Hayato Kobayashi!" Although the old butler was shocked by Pegasus's defeat, his professionalism compelled him to step forward and announce the result. "The two duelists have defeated Mr. Pegasus. Congratulations to them for becoming the undisputed Kings of Duelists!"

"Let's offer a salute to the birth of a king!"

"We won." King Yugi returned to the Millennium Puzzle, and the game regained control of his body. "It really was a close call."

Amidst the applause of the audience and the excited cheers of Jonouchi, Honda, and others, the nearly exhausted Hayato and Yugi, supporting each other, made their way around to the other side of the dueling platform.

While Yugi was waking Pegasus from his coma and getting him to release the soul he had sealed away, Hayato picked up the cards scattered on the ground in front of Pegasus's dueling ring. After a quick search, he found several Blue-Eyes White Dragons that Pegasus had put in his deck. However, he wasn't very interested in Blue-Eyes.

Without more support cards, Blue-Eyes is ultimately just a regular monster with 3000 attack power. Besides, while Hayato enjoys defeating other people's monsters, he's actually a pure lover. Blue-Eyes White Dragon, it seems, is best used by Seto Kaiba.

However, not wanting Blue-Eyes doesn't mean Hayato isn't interested in the other cards in Pegasus' deck.

Meanwhile, the game successfully awakened Pegasus.

"I... Oh right, I lost the duel." Pegasus opened his right eye and saw Yugi's face, recalling what had happened before.

Yugi had no liking for Pegasus: "Pegasus, now that we've won the duel, hurry up and release Chicken and the Kaiba Brothers' souls!" That was Yugi's main purpose in coming to Duel Kingdom. Becoming the Duel King wasn't his goal.

"Cough cough, don't worry, game boy, I'm a man of my word." After coughing twice, Pegasus sat up weakly from the ground and took out three cards from his pocket.

When the game first pulled the card out of his pocket, Yugi could still see the figures of Sugoroku Muto, Seto Kaiba, and Keipi on the card. But as time passed, illusory flames ignited on the card, and the figures in the picture quickly faded and disappeared.

"The Dark Game is a game where lives are at stake. The one who loses in a duel should have died in that instant." Pegasus raised his hand, brushing aside the long hair covering his left cheek. Only then did Yugi notice that the [Millennium Eye] embedded in Pegasus's left eye was now dull and lifeless, and a tear of blood was streaming down his face.

"However, it seems that because the entity controlling my mind at the time was the [Millennium Eye], I was spared from death."

Pegasus's tone was full of sighs: "The power of the [Millennium Eye] was mostly dissipated the moment I was defeated, and the [Soul Prison] card that imprisoned souls had already expired at that time. Game Boy, your grandfather, as well as Kaiba Boy and Keipai Boy, their souls have returned to where they belong."

"Chicken sauce..." Hearing Pegasus's words, Yugi finally felt relieved. Only after defeating Pegasus and ending the duel did he realize that Pegasus still possessed the souls of several others. If he had defeated Pegasus but failed to unseal the souls, things would have been terrible.

“Bekas”.

Hayato's voice came from behind him, and Pegasus turned his head to see Hayato walking towards him with a deck of cards in his hand.

"Hayato boy."

"Your story with your lover is quite touching, but that doesn't mean you can hurt others because of it." Hayato casually tossed Pegasus's cartoon deck back into his hand, then stuffed a few usable cards into his pocket. "The duel is over, but that doesn't mean your sins have been absolved."

"Use the rest of your life, which you were given a second chance at, to properly pay off your debts."

"That's quite a sharp remark, Hayato boy." Pegasus stood up with a wry smile, gently putting away his beloved cartoon deck before looking Hayato directly in the eye. "However, even if you hadn't said that, I would have done it anyway."

"To be honest, after losing the duel, although my head and body were in pain and I felt uncomfortable, I felt much more relaxed."

Hayato knew why Pegasus felt that way, but he didn't say it aloud.

Among the seven Millennium Artifacts, three items lean towards the "dark" side—the Millennium Scepter, the Millennium Wheel of Wisdom, and the Millennium Eye. Compared to the others, these three items possess a more intense aura of darkness and are more likely to lead people astray.

Pegasus was once just an ordinary person from an "ordinary family" with dreams of becoming a painter, possessing no extraordinary talents. After the death of his childhood sweetheart and beloved Cynthia, he was devastated and began searching for a way to resurrect the dead, eventually traveling all the way to Egypt.

There, Pegasus encountered Shadi, known as the "Millennium Director," and upon learning of the existence of the Millennium Items, was forced to undergo the trial of the Millennium Eye, resulting in the destruction of one of his eyeballs. After enduring immense pain, Pegasus successfully passed the test, gaining the power of the Millennium Eye and even being able to glimpse the soul of his long-deceased lover once more.

However, powerful cards come with risks, and great power always comes at a price. With each use of the power of the Millennium Eye, Pegasus's will was gradually twisted into darkness. In order to obtain the Kaiba Corporation's virtual projection system, Pegasus even went so far as to seal away the souls of others. Only now, due to the cost of the Dark Games, has the magic of the Millennium Eye been dispelled, allowing Pegasus's will to regain its clarity after many years.

only......

Hayato glanced at the card sprites behind him that had suddenly awakened after absorbing the dissipated dark power, and felt a headache coming on. "You know, I'm just a card player, so why do others have psionic boosters, fusions, and even 'oppa' characters behind them, while I have a bunch of zoo animals?"

Chapter 178: More exciting than victory is the looting and looting of corpses.

The next morning, Hayato stretched comfortably and woke up in his big bed.

Hayato instinctively reached out to fidget with the seahorse that should be sitting at the round table, but looking at the empty seat, he realized that the seahorse had already woken up.

After Pegasus freed his soul, Yugi and the others couldn't know the condition of Sugoroku because they were separated by oceans, but Keihei and Kaiba both successfully woke up.

After learning about the many things that happened after he was sealed away, Keibei was very grateful to Hayato and Yugi for saving him. However, Kaiba was a tsundere and only said to Yugi, "I didn't betray your trust."

Reluctantly getting out of bed, Hayato drew back the curtains, noticing that the sunlight seemed exceptionally bright today.

"Boom!"

A clap of thunder didn't startle Hayato, but it did startle [Disruptor Yellow], who was standing on the round table. It had just been lecturing Hayato's newly awakened card spirits. [Gaia], [Armed Dragon], and [Rainbow Kuriboh] weren't interested in managing the newly awakened [Entertainment Partners] animals, so [Disruptor Yellow] took the opportunity to act like a senior, using Hayato's name.

[Raincoat Goat], [Swordfish], [Spiked Eagle]... Thanks to the magic that Pegasus released from his [Millennium Eye] when he lost the duel, Hayato's number of card spirits soared from single digits to more than a dozen.

The one who absorbed the majority of the magic power was the Sky Magician, who fused with the Dark Magician and delivered the final blow to the Thousand-Eyed Nashma. He has even awakened to the second stage, just like Gaia and Rainbow Kuriboh, and has gained a certain degree of materialization ability.

However, despite being very strong, whether out of a twisted sense of humor or something else, the Sky Magician is currently acting as a "junior" in cooperation with the opportunistic Disruptor Yellow, helping him establish authority over the animals of the Entertainment Partners.

Unable to properly enjoy the sunshine, Hayato quickly washed up and left the room to find Yugi and the others. In yesterday's gamble, although Yugi and Hayato's primary objective was the souls of the other people in Pegasus's possession, their spoils actually included more than just those.

The Glory of the King's Right Hand symbolizes a large fortune, with a total prize of approximately five million US dollars. This is enough to pay for Shizuka's medical treatment, let alone pay for Mr. Lu's medical expenses.

The corresponding card, "Glory of the King's Left Hand," symbolizes status and serves as proof of the Duel King's challenge to Pegasus. However, this card's function extends beyond that—now that Hayato and Yugi have teamed up to defeat Pegasus, "Glory of the King's Left Hand" has transformed into proof of a prize.

Anyone who possesses both Hayato and Yugi's "Glory of the Left Hand" cards can use them to claim Pegasus's 60% stake in International Illusion Company.

Relying on the ability of the "Millennium Eye," Pegasus started from scratch with only $30,000 in his family's savings and built the International Illusion Company. Moreover, until he lost his duel with Hayato and Yugi, he still owned 100% of the shares in the International Illusion Company.

Of course, his shares will soon be divided between Hayato and the game company, each taking 30%.

Hayato, who was fantasizing about whether he should print some personalized cards for himself like Pegasus after acquiring the shares, arrived at the banquet hall and immediately saw Yugi and others gathered around a few tables, passing the time.

"Yosh, Time Magician rolled heads! Now all the monsters on your field are wiped out!" Jonouchi's luck seems to be good. He has a Red-Eyes Black Dragon equipped with Metallize Magic Reflect Armor on the field, and he has successfully activated the effect of Time Magician.

But Yugi, sitting opposite him, remained completely unfazed, opening his face-down card in the back row: "You're too happy now, Jonouchi. I'll activate my Trap Card, [Divine Punishment], to negate the effect of your [Time Magician], and then destroy it."

"Then, I will use [Super Archmage - Black Archmage Apprentice] to attack you directly."

With Yugi's friendly smile and Honda and Kyoko's unsurprised expressions, Jonouchi's challenge to Yugi ended in failure once again.

"Hey, you guys are having a lot of fun." Hayato, carrying a sandwich for breakfast, walked over to the group and greeted them. "Playing cards so early in the morning, huh?"

"Hayato-kun, you're awake," Yugi greeted with a smile. In his hand was the card [Super Magus - Dark Magus Apprentice]. Although it was a card that had been conjured up temporarily during yesterday's duel, Yugi easily accepted the magical setting that "cards can be printed out of thin air," and the card did not disappear after the duel ended.

Hayato didn't really need this card, since the fusion material for this monster required either "Dark Magician" or "Dark Magician Girl," so he entrusted it to Yugi. Yugi, however, valued this card highly, seeing it as proof of the bond between him and Hayato.

It's worth mentioning that when the cards were first printed, the illustrations showed Dark Magician and Sky Magician standing side by side. However, after Yugi acquired the card and moved to the next page, Sky Magician's position was taken over by Yugi's Dark Magician.

"There's something I'm really bothered by. Why is my Sky Magician in the 'disciple' position after the fusion?" Hayato complained. "Look, whether it's appearance or effect, my Sky Magician's magic is clearly stronger, right? I think the Sky Magician should be the master of the Dark Magician."

“In that case, wouldn’t the Sky Apprentice be on the same level as the Dark Magician?” Jonouchi successfully picked up on Hayato’s retort. “But no matter how unwilling you are, it’s no use. The Dark Magician’s card clearly states that the Dark Magician is ‘the highest level as a magician.’”

"Then wouldn't the [Lion Wizard] be an invincible god?" Hayato played with the card in his hand, looked up at the clock, and saw that it was already nine o'clock in the morning.

Not long after yesterday's duel, Hayato returned to his room to rest early. Pegasus had a relatively deep control over the Millennium Eye, and Yugi shared the damage with his soul. Only Hayato, although protected to some extent by the Millennium Wisdom Wheel, still suffered real damage from Dark Yugi, which is why he slept until this late.

But Pegasus, most of the damage should have been borne by the [Millennium Eye] who was playing the dark game, yet he's still asleep and hasn't come over to hand over the shares?

Just as Hayato swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and was about to take Yugi's place and have some fun with Jonouchi, he saw the old butler walking in through the door with an anxious look on his face: "Something's wrong, Mr. Hayato, Mr. Yugi!"

"Lord Pegasus has been attacked!"