Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"I'll trust you this once, brother."

Holding the holy sword, [Atoris] resolutely charged towards [Chronofighter - V-Snake].

Then, just as Hayato had predicted, Otogi Ryuji actually opened his third face-down card, which was [Curse of Darkness].

Chains precisely intercepted [Atoris], binding him like a dog, rendering him immobile.

"The effect of 【Dark Curse】 is..." Before Ryuji Otogi could finish speaking, Hayato interrupted him, "It prevents one of my monsters from attacking or changing form, and reduces its attack power by 700 points, right? What kind of trap deck are you playing?!"

"Hmph, Duel King, how do you feel seeing your monster become a defeated dog locked up like your friend?" Ryuji Otogi didn't refute Hayato's words, but said smugly, "This is just an appetizer for this duel. Enjoy the duel I've prepared for you, Hayato Kobayashi!"

"Tch, my turn isn't over yet." Hayato scoffed and activated the card in his hand, "【Price of Horse Bones】, I send my 【Paladin - Artorias】, which is chained up on my field, to the graveyard and draw two cards from my deck."

With 【Paladin-Atolis】 looking like he was betraying him, Hayato “reluctantly” sent him to the graveyard, drew two cards from his deck, and then flipped all three cards in his hand face down, “covering all three cards in my hand, end of turn.”

Chapter 208 If you can't beat them, join them

I absolutely hate decks that are too reckless or overpowered.

Hayato, who had said this, ultimately became the very thing he hated most. Looking at the three cards he had face down, Hayato ended his turn.

[Hayato: 4000LP, 0 cards in hand]

[GaiK] X3

"My turn, draw a card."

As he drew the card, a smile involuntarily appeared on Otogi Ryuji's face: "Fate is on my side, Kobayashi Hayato, I can already see victory waving to me!"

"Destiny favors me; I will defeat you and punish you. The future is in my hands!" Otogi Ryuji activated the card he had just drawn. "Activate Magic Card: [Restriction Release]!"

On the field of Otogi Ryuji, a speedometer appeared on a vehicle. The pointer rotated clockwise, ignoring the maximum speed marked on the dial, and continued to rotate outside the dial.

"The effect of this card is to make all Machine-Type monsters on the field exceed their safety threshold and double their ATK." As Ryuji Otogi announced the card's effect, his two Space Fighters on the field began to emit white smoke, looking as if they were about to explode. "However, in return, at the end of my turn, all Machine-Type monsters will be destroyed."

[V-shaped snake] [ATK1200→2400]

[Sub-machine] [ATK1200→2400]

"Two monsters with an attack power of 2400?! Oh no, Hayato's field is completely empty right now!" Honda looked at Hayato with concern, only to find that Hayato had a confident expression on his face.

Unaware of this, Otogi Ryuji was overjoyed by the victory within his grasp: "My two-bodied monster launches a direct attack on you. Drink the bitterness of defeat, you despicable Duel King!"

The first to act was the V-Snake. Despite being a space combat aircraft, the V-Snake was not equipped with any long-range firepower. Instead, it increased the thrust of its rear exhaust and rammed into Hayato.

Then, Otogi Ryuji looked disappointedly at the five cards blocking Hayato's path.

"Hmph, reckless and foolish. You think you can take me down with an attack of this level? You don't even take me seriously." Hayato said, opening his face-down card. "The effect of [Power Wall] reduced one instance of damage to zero. However, as a price, I have to discard one card from my deck for every 500 points of damage."

Hayato skillfully sent the top few cards of his deck to the graveyard, and then said, "Then, because they were sent from the deck to the graveyard, the monster I just discarded can also activate its effect."

After completely absorbing the impact of the V-shaped snake, the five cards that were blocking Hayato's way fell into the graveyard. But then, another card returned to Hayato's field, and a giant clay golem appeared out of nowhere.

[Regenerated Stone Golem] [DEF2100]

"The effect of [Regenerated Golem] can be activated when it is sent from the Deck to the Graveyard. I can choose to recycle it into my hand or Special Summon it from the Graveyard to my field."

“But the [Sub-machine] hasn’t attacked yet!” Otogi Ryuji said unhappily, directing his [Sub-machine] to smash into the [Regenerating Stone Golem], which had only been on the field for a few seconds, in the same way as [V-Snake].

This time, it failed to rise from the graveyard again. But it did manage to protect Hayato from two attacks.

Otogi Ryuji frowned, annoyed that he had been careless and attacked too hastily, which had allowed Hayato to escape unscathed: "Set one card, end my turn."

As soon as he finished speaking, there were two loud "bangs" as both of Ogiya Ryuji's fighter jets on the field self-destructed due to overload. After a round of attacks, both sides were left with empty fields.

[Otogi Ryuji: 4000LP, 0 cards in hand]

【GaiKa】

"Yosh, Hayato's chance has come!" Jonouchi, sporting a dog's head, excitedly leaned against the fence, about to say something more, when he noticed Otogi Ryuji glancing in his direction. Ryuji casually tossed a die at him, hitting Jonouchi squarely on the nose. "Ouch!"

"I don't recall ever giving you permission to speak, you castle dog." With disdain for Jonouchi, Otogi Ryuji toyed with a die in his hand, as if he would throw the die at Jonouchi if he did anything that displeased him.

Wow, so handsome!

"So manly!"

"Lord Oga!"

Hayato and Yugi weren't the only ones who witnessed this; a large crowd had gathered around the dueling arena, and most of them noticed that one of the duelists was throwing dice out of the arena.

What surprised both the game and Honda was that, despite seeing Ryuji Otogi's appalling behavior, many of his fans did not feel any ill will towards him. On the contrary, they were excited, as if Ryuji Otogi had done something incredibly cool.

"Tch, so your fans are involved in fandom? Disgusting," Hayato said unhappily.

"Hmph, as the founder of Monster Dragon Dice, this level of worship and adulation is just the most basic thing for me. No, I should say it's 'as it should be'."

Otogi Ryuji smiled and raised his hand to brush his bangs aside, but when he lowered his hand, his expression turned fierce. "If it weren't for you and Yugi Muto, I should be the one who gets the most attention!"

"As a genius game designer, I spent so many years designing and completing Monster Dragon Dice, and even gained the appreciation of Lord Pegasus. I should have officially signed with the International Illusion Company after the Duel Kingdom ended, and become widely known as the founder and first champion of Monster Dragon Dice!"

"It's all your fault, you two! You used some underhanded means to defeat Mr. Pegasus. I will definitely get my revenge!"

Seeing the agitated Otogi Ryuji, Hayato shook his head dismissively and drew a card: "My turn, draw!"

"Kobayashi Hayato!" Otogi Ryuji glared at Hayato across from him, gritting her teeth as she said, "Is it because I told you the truth that you're too scared to answer me?"

"Hmph, don't get me wrong, you idiot." Hayato glanced at the card he had just received and said coldly, "My appearance and the game disrupted your plans for the future? Is that the kind of ridiculous excuse that made you do something like hurting my friend?"

"Don't make me laugh, you idiot!"

Hayato stared intently at Otogi Ryuji: "The world doesn't revolve around you alone. How can the future's variables be fixed by your personal thoughts?"

“Pegasus’s matter has nothing to do with us. If you clarify that, I have no interest in explaining it to you in detail. Becoming the target of your revenge is also boring.” Hayato placed the card he had just drawn on the dueling platform. “What I want to do now is simply teach you a lesson!”

"Come forth, my Tamashii, [Dark Knight of the Gale] —"

Gaia!

Although it's a Dark Knight, Gaia is an Earth-attribute being; even with the "Gale" prefix, it only becomes a Dark-attribute being. Gaia was drawn into Hayato's hands. Because he only had Gaia in his possession, Hayato easily summoned it without any sacrifices!

【Gaia, the Dark Knight of the Gale】【ATK2300】

Chapter 209 Gambling Card Deck

"It's Hayato's [Gaia]! Ya☆Da☆Zai!" Honda exclaimed excitedly. "Otogi Ryuji is currently in an empty arena. If Hayato succeeds in his attack, he can reduce his life points by half in one go!"

Yugi shook his head: "No, there's another face-down card in Otogi's back row, so we have to be careful."

However, Hayato seemed not to notice the face card at all, and waved his hand forward: "[Gaia], direct attack on Otogi Ryuji, Whirlwind Charge Tornado!"

The lance, accompanied by a powerful whirlwind, hurtled towards Otogi Ryuji. Facing the direct attack from Hayato's monster, Otogi Ryuji calmly activated his face-down card: "You fell for it, Kobayashi Hayato! I'm activating [Explosive Armor]!"

"Watch helplessly as your trump card monster, Gaia, perishes because of your own recklessness!"

"It's an Armor Explosion? Does that mean my Gaia is dead again?" Hayato's face showed surprise, but then his expression changed. "Yeah, right. You idiot, you don't understand the 'can never take effect' curse on the Armor Explosion card."

"Open my face-down card, [Attack Invincibility], which can only be activated during the Battle Phase. Choose one of the effects to activate!"

Hayato revealed one of his two face-down cards, the very same one he had used in his duel with Pegasus: Attack Invincibility. This card protected the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that had been revived on Hayato's field from being destroyed.

"I choose its first effect: target one of my monsters so that it won't be destroyed by battle or effects during this battle phase!" Hayato commanded. "Charge head-on, [Gaia]!"

A laser beam shot out from the [Explosive Armor] that Otogi Ryuji had opened, heading straight for [Gaia], but he seemed oblivious, his charging speed undiminished. Just as the laser was about to strike, a beam of light flew out from behind [Gaia] and intercepted it.

"Brilliant support!" King Yu nodded approvingly as he watched Gaia plunge its spear into Ryuji Otogi. Duelists trust cards, and cards respond to the duelists' calls; monsters trust duelists, and duelists protect monsters in return.

[Otogi Ryuji: 4000→1700LP]

Hayato: "My turn is over."

[Hayato: 4000LP, 0 cards in hand]

【Gaia, the Dark Knight of the Gale】【ATK2300】

【GaiKa】

"Hmph, where did that confidence go when you were bragging, Otogi Ryuji?" Hayato, with zero cards in his hand, crossed his arms and looked at Otogi Ryuji, who was slightly hunched over in pain. Although the duel seemed quite ordinary on the surface, Hayato had actually lost more in terms of stakes.

However, Hayato secretly added a little something to Gaia's attack, supplying it with some dark power, giving the attack a certain degree of real-world damage. While it wouldn't cause physical wounds, the pain would be left for Otogi Ryuji to savor.

Although he knew that Otogi Ryuji would eventually realize his mistakes and repent, it didn't mean Hayato would tolerate the boy bullying Jonouchi. He couldn't bring himself to do anything too serious, but he wanted to at least teach him a lesson.

"My turn, draw a card." Due to the unexpectedly intense pain, Ryuji Otogi's hand trembled slightly as he drew a card. "Activate the Spell Card, [Treasure Card of Destiny]!"

After activating the card he had just drawn, a die appeared in Otogi Ryuji's hand: "The effect of this card is to roll the die once, draw cards from the deck equal to the number rolled on the die, and banish the top card of the deck equal to the number rolled on the die from the game."

"Without a doubt, fate is on my side!" he said, tossing the dice. The dice spun around on the field, finally coming to rest with the highest number, 6.

"Tch, consider yourself lucky."

Ignoring Hayato's envious gaze, Otogi Ryuji drew six cards from his deck and then banished them from the game: "Kobayashi Hayato, fate has guided everything. You are destined to fall into my hands and descend into endless darkness!"

"Activate the Spell Card, [Summon Dice], pay 1000 Life Points to roll a die, then apply the effect based on the number that appears!"

【Yuga: 1700→700LP】

As Yugi rolled another die, the player outside the arena frowned. Honda noticed this and asked, "What's wrong, Yugi?"

"The deck that Otogi Ryuji is using seems to be a gambling deck," Yugi explained to Honda. "Although it carries a high risk, the potential reward is also extremely high, just like gambling, where it's either win or lose."

"Furthermore, Otogi Ryuji's gambling deck seems to be similar to the Monster Lungmen Dice, mainly based on dice. For someone as skilled with dice as him, he can probably easily control what number he will roll."

"Doesn't that mean he can activate whatever effect he wants? That's a bit too much of a cheat!" Honda looked at the arena with concern. The dice that Otogi Ryuji had just rolled stopped, and unsurprisingly, it was another six.

"When the roll is 5 or 6, the effect of [Summon Dice] is that I can Special Summon 1 Level 5 or higher monster from my hand!"

As he spoke, Otogi Ryuji drew a card from his hand and summoned it: "Cruel ultimate warrior, defeat the despicable person before me!"

"【The Cannibalistic Demon】!"

A monster that everyone present was quite familiar with appeared on Otogi Ryuji's field. Its muscular, strong body, sturdy full-body armor, and the giant sword in its hand were none other than the [God-Ghost Ogre] that had dealt the final blow to Jonouchi in the previous Monster Dice event!

[God-Demon Cannibal] [7☆/Land]

[Warrior Race/Effect]

[2500/2450]

“Most of the monsters in Monster Lungmen Dice are Duel Monsters authorized by Mr. Pegasus, but this one, [God-Ogre], is an original monster unique to Monster Lungmen Dice.” Ryuji Otogi looked at [God-Ogre] and said to Hayato, “He is the embodiment of my wrath. Face the ultimate power, you despicable Duel King!”

"Activate the effect of [Ghost Ogre], roll the dice 3 times, and this card's ATK and DEF increase by a total of 100 until the end of your opponent's turn!"

Three more dice were rolled by Otogi Ryuji, but it seemed that because the number of dice had increased, he was beginning to lose control over the numbers they rolled. This time, only one die rolled a six, while the other two rolled two.