Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

This time, when the [Secret Power XXI - World] stopped spinning again, it changed from reversed to upright.

"Hmph, as expected of me. Actually, this was the direction I wanted to choose from the beginning." Hayato glanced at the direction that seemed to be the correct one in the divination of [Secret Ritual Power XXI - World], put away the card, and said smugly, "Hmm, as expected, my intuition is quite good."

"Wow, that's so outrageous—"

"Boom!"

The staff struck [Summoner-Aleister] on the head, knocking him back into his own card. [Temple's Water Sprite], leaning on the staff, angrily said, "Urusai! Lord Hayato must have his reasons for whatever he does. This is utter disrespect to Lord Hayato!"

"Alright, alright, forget about that guy Alai, I'm here to get down to business." Hayato patted [Sanctuary's Water Sprite] on the shoulder, urging her to follow him, and began to walk in the direction they had just chosen. "I'm quite interested in what the NPCs in this virtual world are like."

"Yes, Lord Hayato!" After being patted on the shoulder by Hayato, [Sensen of the Temple] decided to cut off the piece of fabric from the spot on her clothes where the pat had been and keep it as a keepsake when she had time. She happily followed Hayato and walked with him into the deeper part of the valley.

Just after Hayato walked around a bend along the mountain path, near where he had just been, a small stone on the ground seemed to have been moved slightly by the wind blowing from the valley floor.

As Hayato moved forward, he could clearly see the surrounding air gradually becoming humid and full of moisture, changing from slightly cool at the beginning. At the same time, the rock walls on both sides gradually closed in on him, making the path narrower little by little. At the beginning, the place where Hayato entered the game was like a small square that could accommodate nearly a hundred people to move around freely, but now the path he was on had narrowed to the point where only two people could walk side by side.

"It's getting clearer, Lord Hayato. I can clearly sense something filled with magical energy ahead." Behind Hayato, [The Temple's Water Spirit] warned him, "There might be danger."

"It's alright. This is just a virtual world after all. Kaiba didn't turn the game pod into a microwave oven that can cook a person's brain in reality if they die in the game," Hayato replied nonchalantly. "But didn't you sense any otherworldly magic in this world?"

"Hmm... I'm so sorry I couldn't grant Lord Hayato's wish." [Sanctuary's Mizuki] said somewhat dejectedly, "Because a large number of students have entered this world, I can also use the life force they carry and emit as magic for reconnaissance. Although it's not as clear as my own magic, I can still use them as my eyes to monitor everything in this world."

"This virtual world is supposed to be a digital world, right? But for some reason, besides the real-world humans who enter the game and become players, there are many other beings carrying life force, some of which have even condensed into magic. However, there are no beings among them carrying alien magic from another world."

Filled with curiosity, [Sanctuary's Water Spy] asked Hayato, "By the way, Lord Hayato, what is that NPC you mentioned? Why do they possess a human-like aura?"

“It’s hard to explain the specific principles to you, but I can give you a general overview of the ‘creation’ process of this virtual world.” Hayato explained to [Sanctuary’s Water Rescue] without turning his head as he walked, his fingers occasionally tracing the rock wall, feeling the rough yet smooth weathered rock surface with his fingertips. “When I, Yugi, Jonouchi, and Kaiba entered before, Kaiba actually only used two parts of the whole process: construction and filling.”

"We will use real data to reconstruct the airship that the four of us rode in, and then use the shared impressions in our minds to reconstruct all the feelings during the airship ride."

"But this world is different. First, Kaiba used AI to automatically select themes on the Internet to complete the proposition he specified—a stage of destiny that no one can predict. However, the AI ​​seems to be mentally challenged and designed a game world that combines dueling monsters and epic adventure based on Norse mythology, which is based on the idea that 'destiny will surely come true'."

Looking up from the valley, even from Hayato's position, one could clearly see the colossal tree with its branches blocking out the sky—the World Tree "Yggdraill".

He paused for a moment, then continued, “AI anchors the theme, and the next step is to use data to construct the basic framework of the world based on this theme. For example, a ninja continent, a pirate world that is mostly covered by the ocean and divided by a ring continent, or a special world where three worlds exist at the same time and someone needs to maintain the balance of souls. The basic rules of such worlds need to be set using various data.”

"As you can see, based on the theme of 'Norse mythology,' this world is set as an adventure world with a huge World Tree in the center, and then a lot of characters are added to this world to create a world where everyone has their own life."

“And those ‘Non-Player-Character’ characters that are put into this world are what I call NPCs.”

【The Temple's Water Dispatch】 blinked, still not understanding: "But why would a non-real existence created by data possess life force and even magic?"

"This is the final step needed to create this world, and the most important step to give it a sense of reality—although someone once said, 'Anyone who seeks realism in a virtual world must have something wrong with their head.'" Hayato turned around at a Shinbo-style 45° angle. "That is to fill the skeleton with fantasy, the fantasy of every player using a virtual gaming pod."

"Even a simple action like a human reaching out to pick up a cup and drink water requires enormous computing power. After all, Hibma is also human. How could he possibly create a perfectly regulated world that is no different from the real world out of thin air? But the collective unconscious of humanity can do it."

"The collective unconsciousness of the vast number of players, superimposed on each other, gives real existence and even life to every blade of grass and tree in this world. This is why Kaiba only took me and the others to fight on an airship before, because the consciousness of just four people is not enough to support a living, vast world. The world of Duel Link was actually only officially completed after the players entered the game."

That being said, in Hayato's view, it's more magical to imbue a world with life through human consciousness than to construct it from pure data. The former might be achievable someday with technological advancements, but the latter already falls into the realm of cutting-edge technology.

What's even more ridiculous is that the prototype of the "Legendary White Stone" game pod, which uses this technology, was actually developed by Haima five years ago. However, due to the limitations of the time, Haima kept it in the "museum" at the Haima Group headquarters for a period of time.

(The foreshadowing of the game pod's activation message, Volume 9, Chapter 127)

At that time, because of the Neurons helmet and the then incomplete "Duel-Links" world, even though it was not the complete form, it still had the ability to interfere with the "dimensional ascent" plan carried out by Deva, who was known as "Blue God", and Sera and his group of Prana, and Sera even came to target him.

"I see, I understand completely now!" Although he said that, Hayato could see that [Sanctuary's Mizuki] looked completely bewildered, obviously not understanding anything and pretending to understand.

After all, it was a piece of advanced technology developed by Kaiba, so it's normal for people in modern society not to understand it, let alone the "Temple's Water Dispatch." Hayato didn't say anything to her, but continued on his way, finally reaching the end of his path a few minutes later.

Upon arriving at this place, Hayato realized that the source of the humid air was the gushing spring. However, when he saw the creature with a single scarlet left eye, ram's horns on its head, wings and claws on its back, and sharp hands, resembling a demon, encircled by bricks inscribed with strange characters, he felt his PTSD flare up.

"What the heck?! A monument?!"

Chapter 1327 Mimir: We Will Win

The [Divine Stele] deck is a mortal deck full of virtues, and its use can be described as a "spiritual practice" (I'm sure of it).

Humility—the first player won't make any moves;

Tolerance—it won't stop you from using your gray, G, bubble, and other hand-picked items;

Generous – allows you to use any unfolding method;

Temperance – Recycle three cards from the graveyard each turn;

Courage – skipping all phases of your own battle;

Loyalty – Five-backcourt start, five-backcourt finish;

Diligent – ​​actively banishing the opponent's deck regardless of whether it's your turn or the opponent's turn.

Players of [Divine Stele] are generally of high taste, quality, and refinement. This is the destiny of [Divine Stele], and also the way of a gentleman and a virtuous person. They abandon low-level interests and become progressive players.

—These are my thoughts when Hayato himself was playing [Divine Monument].

But what if it wasn't him playing the [Divine Monument] but the opposing player...

How could there be such a despicable player as [God's Monument]? First, a set of insidious combos interrupts the opponent's development and locks them down. Then, [God's Monument] cards are used one after another to humiliate them, destroying their front and back rows and wiping out their deck. And because almost all of their cards can be recycled, this torment is almost endless.

What's even more outrageous is that when the opponent of the [Divine Stele] player is out of resources in both the front and back fields, and their resource chain is broken, and they are about to lie on the bed with their legs spread open and let their opponent kill them—[Divine Stele] doesn't touch you even a finger, and still stops the challenge!

Looking at the spring before him, Hayato was somewhat stirred by past resentments, and couldn't help but curse, "Damn [Divine Stele], you actually excluded my [Divine Stele Spring]! You inherently evil [Divine Stele], I will—"

"The Rune Spring... is it referring to this place?" In the spring, the "demon" that looked like a rock statue scratched its cheek in confusion. "But I didn't do anything, did I?"

The Japanese card name "ルーン" for "Divine Stele" is "Rune," and the English card name "Runick" is a compound word combining the general rune letters "Runes" and the old word "Magick" for "magic." It's not a big deal that the "Demon" statue mistook Hayato's "Fountain of Divine Stele" for "Fountain of Runes," but what Hayato should be more concerned about is—

"You can actually talk?"

"What kind of talk is that?! What do you mean I can't talk, buddy!" the "demon" statue in the spring said unhappily. "I was actually hoping to chat with this rare talking guy and share some mead with you, but now I regret it!"

"Mead? Don't tell me it's the kind of mead that's been sitting in someone's stomach for three days and then vomited up," Hayato retorted.

The "demon" statue glanced at Hayato with surprise: "Huh? You know quite a lot, but don't you really want it? This is mead that can grant unparalleled talent to whoever drinks it."

"I have serious doubts about what kind of talent someone who is inseparable from spit from birth to death could have."

Hayato and the "demon" statue may seem a bit strange, but those familiar with Norse mythology will certainly remember one of Odin's three attempts to gain wisdom—stealing mead.

Two warring gods held a ritual to seek peace, spitting into a barrel one after the other. The barrel full of saliva was then used to create a human—said to be the most intelligent person in the world. His name is unimportant; all that matters is that this person was casually killed while traveling and sharing knowledge, and his blood was mixed with honey to make three barrels of wine. In a sense, he was born from the barrel, died, and returned to the barrel.

The three jars of mead later fell into the hands of a giant, who hid them in the mountains and had his daughter guard them. Little did he know that Odin, the old man, had his eye on the three jars of mead in order to bring wisdom to his Aesir tribe. He devised a plan to sneak into the mountains where the mead was hidden and began to seduce the giant's daughter, tricking her into sleeping with him for three nights.

Every night he would beg for a sip of mead, but it was like saying "I'll just have a sip" and then eating a whole piece of fried chicken, or "I'll just rub it in" and coughing. In short, Odin said he would only have a sip, but he ended up drinking a whole barrel in one go. Three days later, he finished the mead and ran away as an eagle without even thanking or apologizing to the girl who had been tricked. After returning to the Aesir, he spat the mead from the sky onto the ground.

(Odin and the abandoned giant's daughter)

Let's leave aside the scoundrel Odin for now, but after learning this story, Hayato can no longer be interested in things like mead, especially since the "mead" in the mouth of the "demon" statue in front of him might actually be Odin's wisdom mead.

However, although Hayato mentally referred to the other person as a "demon" statue, he knew that the other person was not actually a being of the "demon" level. He asked the other person to confirm, "There's something I want to confirm first. What's your name?"

“That should have been the question asked in the first place. Who would come up and say someone is ‘born evil’ or something?” The “demon” statue stroked the horns on its head with a rather narcissistic air and introduced itself in a singing tone like a bard: “Ymir, who was forced to sacrifice her body to create the world, is my ancestor; the thorns of calamity are my father; and the goddess of marriage and trees are my elder sister.”

"The Memory Man and the Wise Man are both my other names. I stand guard beside one of the three roots of the World Tree. The Galar Horn carries spring water for me to drink from. I am the giant of wisdom—Mimir!"

"...You could have just said the name directly. The preamble was too long and tedious," Hayato retorted after a moment of silence.

"How outrageous! I spent so long thinking about this self-introduction, and revised it almost six hundred times. Can't you at least say something nice to make me feel better?" The "demon" statue in the spring—no, the giant Mimir, the guardian of the Fountain of Wisdom in Norse mythology—had a wounded expression on his face.

(The image may not be very clear, but Mimir is not actually a statue. He is standing behind the spring, reaching out to scoop up water from the center of the spring.)

As he spoke, under Hayato's gaze, the Mimir giant rose from its base, stepped down from the spring, and came to stand before Hayato.

Because Hayato had modified his height in the game, he was slightly shorter than in reality. But even without the modification, when Mimir stood in front of him, he still had to look up at him. While his height wasn't quite ten or twenty meters, it was definitely over three meters, truly deserving of the title "Giant."

As for the ram's horns? They were simply an excuse used by sailors during the Age of Exploration to justify their behavior of finding sheep on board to vent their desires. They forcibly attached sheep's hooves and horns to the "demon." Ymir's horns were nothing special among giants. Among the giants, symbols of natural phenomena, there were even animal-shaped beings like Fenrir and Jormungandr. Some giants, especially the female giants, were not even that big and were no different from humans.

(Mimir, who was on the set of the new God of War next door, also had horns.)

"Wow, when I saw the card before, I thought you were a statue in the middle of the spring. Turns out you can not only talk but also walk out on your own?" Hayato was not afraid of Mimir's size at all, and even comforted the [Temple Water Executioner] who hid back in the card and dared not face this wise man from Norse mythology.

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘Katu,’ but I don’t think I could possibly be a statue, right?” Mimir pointed behind him. “Otherwise, who would guard this spring? It would be such a waste if some random guy took away its power.”

Peeking out from Mimir's side, Hayato watched as water began to flow again from the base in the center of the spring, which was inlaid with some kind of gemstone, and rippled as Mimir left. He remarked, "You weren't sitting on that rock blocking the spring the whole time, were you? I suddenly have a feeling that the spring water in that basin definitely has a bad smell."

"Huh? How could that be? This is the most precious spring water in the world, the Spring of Wisdom, okay? How could it have a taste? Even if it did, it would be the taste of knowledge."

"The taste of knowledge? The taste of a ditch!" Hayato pointed to the spring. "Why don't you go and take a sip yourself?"

"Tsk, why don't you believe me after I told you? How could I, Mimir, possibly lie?" Somewhat eager to prove that his ditch hadn't polluted the spring, Mimir pointed to a ring of bricks beside the spring, or more precisely, to the inscriptions carved on them. "See those runes? Although an ordinary person like you probably can't understand them, they're actually composed of magic that can protect the spring, maintain its purity, and detect pollution."

Hayato glanced at the inscription and subconsciously retorted, "You still say you won't lie? There's no combination on it at all. It's clearly just a bunch of runes written on it like 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' as decoration. Not a single spell was created, and it's supposed to be clean?"

(Author's note: This is not made up. Some people compared the runes in the card and thought they would have some special meaning, but it turns out that it is just the ancient Futhark rune alphabet.)

"Hmm, I was found out..." Mimir didn't expect that his casual lie would be exposed by Hayato so easily. He was about to turn his head away in embarrassment when he suddenly realized something was wrong and turned back to look at Hayato in surprise. "Wait a minute, how do you understand runes?"

"There's something strange about this. We've probably just met for the first time, so why do I feel so close to you? To be honest, I'm actually a very aloof person. Maybe I've become too talkative because I haven't spoken to anyone in so long?"

"Perhaps your eyesight isn't very good," Hayato said, glancing at Mimir's only eye. "I remember Odin gave you his right eye in exchange for a spring of water, so why is your right eye still empty?"

"Why do you have the illusion that your eyes can be grafted onto plants like branches and leaves, plug and play?" Mimir complained. Today was probably the day he, the "wise giant," had the most questions. He heard too many things from this human in front of him that even he couldn't understand. "And one more thing—who is Odin?"

"You don't know Odin?" This surprised Hayato. "You mean Odin, the son of King Bauer, the king of the Aesir, the one who killed Ymir and created the heavens and the earth?"

In Norse mythology, Odin has existed since the birth of the earth and only met his "destined death" at Ragnarok. In a sense, he is the absolute protagonist. It can be said that without Odin, the story of Norse mythology would be almost entirely lost. However, Mimir said that he did not know Odin.

Where did his mead come from, and what runes were inscribed by the spring? The third thing Odin did in his quest for wisdom, besides stealing the mead and obtaining the spring, was to hang himself upside down from the World Tree, becoming a lamb to his own sacrifice, in order to obtain the runes.

The Edda, a book of mythology, contains the poem "The Words of the Wise Man," in which Odin recounts his own experience: "For nine nights I hung from a tree in the wind, wounded by spears; I was offered as a sacrifice to Odin, a self-sacrifice, on a great tree unknown to anyone! There was no bread to eat, no water to quench my thirst. I looked down, picked up runes, and cried out as I picked them up, and fell from the tree."

Mimir's account in the Psalms states that "every morning Mimir would drink the mead left by Odin as a wager."

Noticing the troubled expression on Hayato's face, Mimir didn't pay much attention to his previous question. He stepped aside to let Hayato walk unimpeded to the flowing Fountain of Wisdom and said, "I refuse to believe there's no way to prove it. If you really can't, go and taste the water yourself and see if it really has a flavor."

"Let me make this clear beforehand, I wasn't provoked. Those mortal tricks are completely ineffective against someone as wise as Mimir. It's just that it's rare to see someone like you. If you don't want mead, then I'll have to serve you spring water." As he spoke, Mimir grinned and gave a simple, honest smile, making it impossible to tell where his "wisdom" lay.

Hayato didn't answer anything, but walked towards the Fountain of Wisdom. Standing in front of the clear water, he felt the abundant moisture and magic within. Although it was just a pool of water, Hayato could clearly feel the sweetness and deliciousness rising in his mouth as if he had already drunk it. His brain was telling Hayato that this deliciousness and pleasure was the pleasure of having his thirst for knowledge satisfied.

"Drink it, it's part of your destiny..." A voice could even be faintly heard in Hayato's ears.

"So, Mimir, what is the price?" Hayato asked, his back to Mimir, without turning around.

"Hmm? Why are you suddenly asking me this? I don't really want anything, but since you've said that..." Standing still without making any move, Mimir scratched his head in confusion when Hayato suddenly said this, then an idea popped into his head, "I've got it, how about you have a match with me? Using the cards you have?"

Are you sure you want to duel me using cards?

"Of course, I am a giant of wisdom; no one can beat me in a battle of wits!"

"I'm very strong, you know?"

"But I am the strongest!" Mimir pointed to himself with his thumb. "I will win!"

Having not encountered a conversation partner for a long time, Mimir excitedly declared his victory!