Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"At this moment, you have five cards on your field: [18 Large Charcoal], [Chalice Couple Aces], [Peacekeeper], and two [Wave Cannons], so I can only banish the top five cards of your deck at most."

"And add the effect of [Deception of the Divine Stele], banishing one more card from the top of your deck."

Lopte's deck saw a large number of cards disappear from the top again, leaving only four cards in a precarious situation. However, Lopte was completely relieved because he heard Hayato say that he no longer had the quick-play spell card "Divine Monument" in his hand.

Even if Hayato draws another [Divine Monument] card in his next turn to weaken and completely destroy his deck, it will be meaningless. He has already secured the victory; the combination of cards in his hand and on the field is enough to wipe out his opponent's Life Points. Victory will be revealed at the start of his turn.

Feeling something was off, Lopte looked down at his hand in confusion, only to see that his six cards, which had been full just moments before, were now disappearing one by one, turning into fragments and flowing into the graveyard of the Duel Disk.

“Not having [Divine Monument] in my hand doesn’t mean I can’t continue to disrupt your deck. How about [Hand Elimination]?” Hayato sent three cards from his hand to the graveyard, then drew three more cards. “Both players discard all their cards and then draw cards equal to the number of cards they discarded. You should understand this effect, right? So, I’ll draw three cards first.”

"But what about you? Having discarded six cards, do you still have enough resources in your deck, 'Lopt'?"

Before Loppt, the system had already determined the final result, with a line of letters displayed in front of both parties.

Game Over

You win!

Chapter 1331 Oh my god, a box!

"Hmph~ Hmph~"

“Just as I expected…” Hayato stroked his chin, a smile playing on his lips. “The power of the [Divine Monument] is just right. It’s perfectly integrated into my deck, and Powder has become even stronger than before.”

"Perfect, absolutely perfect! Hehe, hahahahaha, hahahahaha!"

Hayato laughed arrogantly, but after a few laughs, he saw that Lopto was still standing opposite him and asked in surprise, "Huh? You lost the duel, how come you're not dead?"

"Wow, that's a really dark idea. What kind of cruel world did you live in?" Mimir scoffed. "Why do you have to die if you lose?"

Hearing Mimir say this, Hayato suddenly remembered that this world didn't seem to be the real world, but just a virtual world made of data. Not to mention, the students of the Duel Academy were still in this world. It seemed that there was no data such as "death". Losing a duel was just like losing in reality, without any other effects.

"First I got the [Divine Stele] for free, then I was ambushed. I almost thought I was playing a dark game." Hayato shrugged and looked at the silent Lopto. "But I remember Mimir saying that 'the victor gets the spoils,' so there's such a rule, right? So, what can you offer me, 'Lopto'?"

Upon hearing Hayato's words, Lopto suddenly raised his hand, lifted his hood to reveal his blond hair, bowed solemnly, and removed his mask. He said to Hayato with great respect, "Through the battle just now, I have clearly understood one thing: you, my lord, are absolutely the destined king I have been waiting for!"

“Whether it’s breaking the seal or skillfully using its power, there is no doubt that this is proof that you are the King of Destiny, but I was foolish enough to only realize this now.” Lopte said humbly with his head bowed. “I hope that you, my lord, can forgive my sins and allow me to retain this body so that I may contribute my meager strength to your conquest of the Nine Realms.”

(Our own Yu-Gi-Oh! boy in black stockings (I'm sure))

"No, if I lose, I just break off my horn, but you're practically selling yourself?" Mimir retorted. "Was it really necessary to be so coy?"

"This is merely my basic duty as the king's shadow," said Lopt, revealing his true form—[Shadow of the King - Lopt].

However, he sneered inwardly.

'Although I misjudged it at first—that such an ordinary-looking human would pick up that thing—it doesn't matter; it's part of my plan.'

'That's right. No one can resist their desire for control and the thrill of being superior to others. Therefore, no one can refuse such humble loyalty. And if my loyalty is accepted, as a faithful subject, I will naturally tell the one I am loyal to how to gain greater power by defeating other kings in this world.'

'But as the one who possesses that thing defeats the other kings one by one, my plan will unfold, and once it reaches its final stage, I will be able to reveal the location of the end to the world!'

'And the so-called 'king' to whom I serve is nothing more than a seemingly dazzling, but actually empty and transparent crystal, which I manipulate in the palm of my hand!'

Just as Lopte, head bowed, was envisioning pushing his plan to its final stage, revealing the "shocking truth" to the world, and enjoying the pleasure of manipulating and deceiving everything, Hayato nodded and said, "I see, I see. So you realized you couldn't beat me, so you plan to stay by my side as if you're subservient to me and then guide me down the path of being used by you?"

"What—?!" Lopte was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously looked up. He never expected Hayato to have such a thought. How did he know what he was thinking? He quickly lowered his head, afraid that Hayato would see through his true thoughts based on the look in his eyes. He pretended to be flustered and frightened and said, "That's not it, my king. How could I possibly have the idea of ​​using you?"

"There is no future in this world. Only the chosen one can break the shackles that this world is bound to. I love this world deeply, and naturally I am filled with reverence and loyalty to you, my king, who can save this world and become a hero." Adjusting his facial expression, Lopte raised his head with a serious and solemn look, raised one palm and swore, "I, Lopte, can swear on my personality and dignity."

"There can only be one sun in the sky, but in my heart there is only one sun—you!"

'Anyway, the one who swore the oath was [Shadow of the Kings - Lopte], and my real name isn't Lopte.'

Just as Lopte was feeling quite pleased with his acting skills, Hayato pointed at Lopte and said to Mimir beside him, "Look, still pretending, and he's doing it pretty well, acting like he really changed his name to 'Lopte'."

“Knock-knock,” Hayato mimicked knocking, looking at Lopte with a mocking gaze. “Hello, are you Mr. Loki, the son of Mr. Fabti and Ms. Laufey?”

Holy crap, a box?!

Lopte was starting to panic. Why was this person even opening a box? Who was this guy?

“The giant Fabti, representing lightning, and the female giant Laufey, representing trees, combined to ignite trees and create flames, thus giving birth to their son—Loki,” Mimir quipped. “I was only suspicious at first, after all, your disguise was quite good, I couldn’t tell at all, I just felt something was off, but when that [Big Charcoal 18] came out, I almost couldn’t hold back.”

"It was disguised, but not completely disguised."

Tossing the "gem fragment" aside, Hayato said, "I'm a fan of the [Divine Stele], and I've heard enough about its backstory. The [Divine Stele of Deception] card, which features your image, makes it clear that you're a fraud. And when it comes to fraudsters in Norse mythology, who else but Loki could it be?"

"As for this [Divine Stele Spike], isn't it just a fragment of the tip of the divine spear Gungnir?"

Mimir was somewhat surprised: "You know this too? I was just about to tell you about it later. Where did you get so much information?"

"Don't underestimate my intelligence network."

"Whose intelligence network knows so much? Oh wait, I do know that much."

Seeing Hayato and Mimir chatting so casually, completely ignoring him, Loki's eyes lit up, and a brilliant idea came to him.

“I originally intended to appear before the world as an ordinary person, but since you’ve already seen through me, I’ll stop pretending.” Smoothing his bangs and brushing his pink ahoge to the side, Loki’s earlier submissive humility vanished instantly, replaced by his usual arrogant and unruly demeanor. “That’s right, Lopte is my alias. I am the great god of mischief, fire, and wisdom—Loki!”

In Norse mythology, there are many different opinions about whether Loki is the god of fire. He is described as a god of fire who can bring both good and bad, but he has never used any fire-related abilities. Moreover, there is a lot of evidence that his connection with fire is more likely just a mistake made by the fire giant Loki in the original opera "Der Ring de Nibelungen".

But the specifics of the myth are not important. What is important is that in the general public's understanding, Loki, the son of Fabti, the giant representing thunder, and Laufey, the giantess representing trees, is the god of fire. There is also "evidence" in the epic story "Loki's Quarrel" that Loki threatened to burn all the gods' property. This is enough for the AI ​​to make the judgment that "Loki is the god of fire".

Looking at the fragment of Gungnir in Hayato's hand, Loki said with a gloomy expression, "Human, you are an unexpected variable in my plans. I originally intended to find a stupid fool to take the fragment and use it for my purposes, but you have ruined everything."

“But there is still a chance to redeem yourself. Hand over the fragments of Gungnir to me, and I will forgive your offense against me as a god.”

"Huh? Don't you understand the situation? Isn't this the time for me to collect your spoils as the defeated one?" Hayato raised an eyebrow as he looked at Loki, who was standing upside down, and glanced in the direction of the exit.

Loki crossed his arms and said arrogantly, "Your victory is only due to my indulgence, but even so I will still give you the spoils of war, which is the forgiveness of God."

"Time is running out, God's patience is limited, don't make me lose my temper again, humans!"

"So what if he gets angry? At most, he'll just get defeated again, right? If he were truly a great being, he'd have a special aura or a sense of oppression when he's angry. But all you can do is threaten him verbally? What a weak god." Mimir casually remarked, looking at Loki who was standing motionless, and then frowned. "Hmm? Something seems... off?"

Although Hayato had retrieved the cards, including [Fountain of the Gods], after the duel ended, Mimir remained outside, still materialized. Curious, he casually broke off a piece of rock from the cliff and threw it at Loki.

However, Loki didn't dodge at all, just letting the stone hit him... and then it passed right through him as if there was nothing there.

Mimir finally understood where the strange feeling came from and quickly said to Hayato, "Oh no! This guy's illusion magic even fooled my eyes. The Loki here is just an illusion; the real one has already escaped!"

"Hurry and chase after it, don't let your spoils get away!"

Seeing that Mimir had seen through his trick, Loki's illusion laughed smugly: "Foolish Mimir, the Well of Wisdom you guarded isn't all that great, is it? In the end, it only gave you such poor eyesight? Too late! I have the Flying Shoes that allow me to travel a thousand miles a day and traverse mountains and rivers as if on flat ground. I've already run so far ahead, you have no chance of catching up with me!"

"Insignificant humans, remember this day! You were just a hair's breadth away from capturing the great Loki. But if you want to take the spoils from me? You're still 20,000 years away, hahahaha!"

While they were laughing, and neither Hayato nor Mimir made any move, Loki's illusion suddenly fell to the ground as if kicked by someone. Clutching his stomach and convulsing, he had an incredulous expression on his face and seemed to be talking to something, saying, "What is this towa? Guh—!"

Immediately afterwards, Loki's illusion shattered and disappeared.

"What's going on?" Mimir looked at Hayato with some confusion. "Did you do this?"

“Actually, before I found this place, I had a feeling that someone was following me on the road. When Loki jumped out, I realized that my feeling was right.” Hayato nodded and walked back in the direction they came from with Mimir. “Thinking about it, the coordinates I set earlier were not wrong. They did teleport me to the vicinity of the NPC, but not to you, Mimir, but to Loki’s side.”

"He probably hid as soon as he noticed my sudden appearance."

Mimir nodded: "But what about Loki's illusion just now?"

"Because I felt my intuition wouldn't be wrong, I left a little surprise along the way. Anyway, I'll be taking this route back later, so I can retrieve it without worrying about losing it. As for Loki, he seemed to think I didn't notice you while I was talking to you, so he quietly disappeared and left an illusion to cover his escape."

Hayato looked at him with pity. "And then, he probably stepped on the little surprise I left behind."

"You call this a 'little' surprise?!" Loki, hanging upside down, said angrily upon hearing Hayato's words, then glared at someone, "To use such methods to offend a god is utterly disrespectful!"

Around Loki, knights wielding lightning swords, demons with ram horns, blue-silver evil dragons, masked puppets burning with dark flames, and spearmen riding chariots all stood silently in place. Only a giant of earth and stone, though much smaller than its complete form, was still extremely tall, carrying Loki and swinging its arm as Alai, who sat on its arm, shook his staff, making Loki sway back and forth.

"Hey, Master, look what I caught! A unique material like never before!" Alai waved excitedly to Hayato. "I've done a great job, haven't I?"

Loki was furious that Alai ignored him, but his expression changed when the sorcerer who had ambushed him called Hayato "Master." He looked up at Hayato, forcing a smile, and said, "Heh! Can we make peace?"

"At this moment? You must be joking." Hayato beckoned. "Go, Arai. I'll give you permission to use him as experimental material for your summoning magic."

"Hehe, I definitely won't let you down, Master!" Alai wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth as Loki looked on with fear. "Hehehe, I need some magic power~"

"Croak! Don't come any closer!"

Chapter 1332 King's Battle (Anti-censorship)

"It's...not a single drop left..." As if he had burned out, Loki lay sprawled on the ground, weak and listless, his entire body devoid of color, reduced to white ash.

Next to Loki, Alai pulled up his pants, looking quite pleased with himself.

Hayato gave him a disdainful look: "Isn't it just about stripping Loki's magic out of you? Why are you acting like you just had a great time? You magicians are disgusting."

"It's all because of scumbags like you, Aleister, that Lord Hayato has so many misunderstandings about us!"

Behind Hayato, [Temple's Water Spy] jumped out impatiently to clarify, "Lord Hayato, you must see the truth! We mages aren't perverts, it's only Aleister who's like that!"

"Hmph, you talk so nicely, but when you're with Master, you're just a pervert, huh?"

"I'm not a machine, and I can't suppress the desire to get closer to the past that arises after seeing such a brilliant mind," [Sanctuary's Mizuki] retorted, then suddenly had a look of realization on her face, "So? So that's why you were also attracted to Hayato-sama?"

"Really? So what attracts me most about Master is his soul? I only realized that now."

"Why is a magician like you so narrow-minded!"

"Hayato Kobayashi is the man who can become my Master. How dare you, who are trying to compete with me for him, say such things!"

"Master? Hayato-sama... Wow!"

Hayato casually snapped a picture of the two of them into a card and remarked, "Two pathetic guys, spouting nonsense that only Newtypes can understand."

"They're probably bound by gravity, right?" Mimir asked, looking at [Summoner-Aleister] and [Temple's Water Sprite] trapped inside their respective cards. "You didn't take me back too?"

"Guess why I wanted to kick you out before?" Hayato rolled his eyes at him. "I don't need card spirits that aren't prepared to dedicate their lives to me."

Some people might be overjoyed to have gotten a card spirit for free by having Mimir enter their own card without permission, but Hayato is not interested in him at all, especially since Mimir even has the ability to resist his control and decide whether to appear or not.

On a smaller scale, he might not necessarily obey commands when he's needed to fight or provide answers. On a larger scale, if he were to feign inactivity during a duel, along with the cards in Hayato's deck, that would be a serious problem!

—Yes, I didn't say it the other way around; it's definitely true that playing cards is more important than fighting.

In contrast, Hayato's other cards, although they often appear, are actually intentionally indulged by Hayato. If Hayato wanted to, the "Disruption Yellow" cards would at most grumble in the cards and wouldn't be allowed to appear on their own. Moreover, they are all prepared to give everything for Hayato.

In short, if loyalty is not absolute, then it is absolutely disloyal. In that case, Hayato was naturally very resistant to Mimir's behavior of running into his deck. As soon as the duel ended, he took back the card of [Fountain of the Gods] before Mimir could react, and did not take the card out again to give him another chance to sneak in.

—And all of this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the [Fountain of the Gods] where Mimir resides is just a Field Spell Card and not a Monster Card, and cannot be Tributed by Hayato. Yes, absolutely nothing.

Despite Hayato's resistance, the outgoing Mimir winked playfully at him: "Don't be so resistant, bro. Putting aside the long term, I helped you obtain the power of the 'Gungnir Fragment,' didn't I? You'll need my help on your journey ahead."

"On this land," Mimir said confidently, arms outstretched, "I know everything."