Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

And at this very moment, what is "the gentlest person on earth" doing? He tossed the torn card fragments within reach of [King of War Shadow - Lopte], letting the other party watch his card fragments fall.

"[Wang Zhan]...My [Wang Zhan]..."

Hayato's actions were almost the final straw that broke the camel's back. The Shadow of the King's War, Lopto, who was almost transformed into the "Extremely Sad Dragon," reached out to try to keep the card, but could only catch a handful of fragments. Unable to bear the blow any longer, he rolled his eyes and fainted, losing consciousness.

"I'm going to throw some dust in your eyes!" Hayato said, glancing down at [Shadow of the King - Lopto] after scattering the card fragments in his hand. He was somewhat surprised. "...Huh? Really fainted? That's too fragile. What kind of person is he? Can't even handle this little bit of a blow?"

"Actually, I think anyone would be unable to bear being hit like this by you, Master," [Summoner-Aleister] complained, standing silently to the side. "It's not that I have any emotional attachment to the cards, it's just that it's heartbreaking enough to have my hard work ruined. If you were to destroy the [Summoned Beast] that I've worked so hard to create one day, I'm afraid I would faint just like that."

"Shut up, Alai, don't ruin my plans." Hayato said, continuing to rummage through the cards he had left behind, [King's Shadow - Lopte], hoping to find something good. He would only sell them to the shop for recycling after confirming everything was clear. For Hayato, who was always short of DP points, not even a single one could be easily let go.

[Alai], whose robe was being used as a pocket, looked troubled: "Master, haven't you finished looking yet? Actually, I don't have any special interest in the same sex. If you've had enough, you can let go."

"Ugh! What a pathetic fellow! The Hero just had to include you in his deck, now look what you've done!"

【Temple's Water Spear】appeared from Hayato's deck, looking at 【Aleister】 with disdain, then blushed and approached Hayato, saying, "Actually, Hayato-sama, you can lift my robe~"

"You call that a 'robe'? The hem isn't as big as Alai's cloak, and the sleeves are all openwork. It's not even as practical as the 'Narcissus Mermaid's' skirt," Hayato said without looking up.

With a sneer at the heartbroken and petrified [Sanctuary's Water Spy], [Aleister] looked up at the sky. The thunderclouds that had enveloped [Todoroki Kai] were gradually dissipating because of the destruction of the [Todoroki Kaio Battle - Hal] card: "It's a beautiful day today."

He thought the weather was great, but some people didn't.

At roughly the same time, with [Destroyer Dragon - Gandora G] clearing the way, the opponent's monsters were completely wiped out. [Dark Magician - Dark Magician] swung his wand and delivered a four-stage staff strike to [King's Curse - Vara], shattering his sternum and sending him flying, while also wiping out his last Life Points.

【King's Curse - Vara: 2500LP → 0】

The attack sent him flying into the unchanging sunlight streaming down after the clouds dispersed. [Shadow of Kings - Vara], who wasn't wearing a hood and couldn't cast spells, suddenly let out a piercing scream as his body disintegrated into golden specks of light. In the blink of an eye, this once vibrant person, who had been playing cards, was reduced to nothing more than a red mage's robe lying on the ground.

"Just like that, he disappeared?" Game was a little confused. It was the first time he had ever seen someone die so cleanly. There was no character who was shot in an idol drama and fell into someone else's arms and recited lines for a long time, nor did he struggle frantically or say threats like a character who couldn't accept defeat. This clean and neat disappearance was the second time he had ever seen it.

—The last one to die so decisively was the “Dark Great Evil God” Zok Nerofa, who was instantly killed by the [Creator God of Light - Harakti] in the Stone Tablet of the King's Memory.

"When this world was first created, only nine [Kings] were designed. [King's Shadow - Lopte] is Loki's disguised identity, so [King's Curse - Vara] is naturally not a real existence in this world either."

[Summoner-Aleister] did not show any change in expression despite [Shadow of the King-Vara]'s dying wails. Although he acted like a gay man, he was actually always that ruthless mad mage who could laugh and sacrifice any life just to improve his magic. Yes, that's it. Any behavior that made him seem gay was just a disguise.

Watching Hayato reach out and brush over the cards, selling all the ones he'd acquired to the shop to earn a windfall of DP points, [Aleister] said, "Seeing lives disappear because of your actions, why don't you seem to have any reaction, Master?"

“What do you mean no? You’re slandering me!” Hayato quickly denied, pointing at [Aleister] while turning to [Temple’s Water Spy] and saying, “He’s slandering me, he’s slandering me.”

"I was so sad and disappointed when I saw that [King's Curse - Vala] died."

"Master, are you just regretting that you tore up the card too early and didn't have time to collect the other card as well?"

"You've been found out, huh~"

Chapter 1410: This topic is long past.

Just as Hayato was filled with remorse for "killing" a life (and losing at least forty cards that he could have gotten for free), the sun in the sky grew bigger and bigger.

If enjoying a moment of long-awaited sunshine after being shrouded in dark clouds for a long time is a pleasure, then staying under this increasingly intense sunlight has become a form of torture.

With the retreat of the undead, Maeda Hayato and Tenjōin Fubuki, who no longer needed to stay at the Rainbow Bridge to continuously wear down the enemy forces, were the first to return. Looking up at the blazing sun in the sky, Fubuki couldn't help but sigh, "Does every adventure end with some kind of solar phenomenon? I remember it was like that at the [Valley of Royal Sleep] too."

"It's still a bit different. At least the Valley of Royal Long Sleep only uses three suns to represent whether the entrance is open or not, and it's not as sunny as here."

Maeda still has a deep impression of the Valley of the Royal Sleep that he experienced with Jaden. This is not only because it was the first time he met his card spirit, Death Koala, and was saved by it, but also because he was almost buried alive as a sacrifice by the spirits of the Gravekeepers during that adventure.

After a pause, Maeda suddenly realized something and looked at Tenjōin Fubuki beside him with surprise: "Wait a minute, Tenjōin-senpai, you also know about the [Valley of Royal Long Sleep]? Did you go there on an adventure before?"

"The Elder who guards the tomb said that someone else had passed his trial before. Could it have been you? And the other half of the disc that Judai later obtained also came from you?"

"That topic is long gone."

Hearing Maeda's words, Fubuki wiped the sweat from his brow with a mix of embarrassment and helplessness. It wasn't just because he'd been directing the [Red-Eyes Black Dragon] to attack the undead, but also because Maeda had left him speechless. He somewhat understood how the character in the tokusatsu series "Masked Rider Saber," which Judai had recommended to him, felt when someone mentioned that "the King Sword is actually Kamijou Daichi."

Looking up at the sun in the sky, Hayato frowned and asked, "Do you know what's going on?"

"Huh? Me?" [Summoner - Aleister] looked around, somewhat puzzled, and said, "I don't even know the ends of the universe—"

“We’ve heard enough of the same lines already, hurry up and take it away. Also, I wasn’t asking you, I was asking her.” Hayato interrupted [Summoner-Aleister], pointing to the side. [Aleister] looked in the direction Hayato was pointing, and only after confirming that there was no one else around did he suddenly notice a woman in a black robe standing next to Hayato.

"Huh? Where did you come from, getting so close to Lord Hayato!"

Seeing the woman who suddenly appeared so close to Hayato, almost touching his clothes, [Sanctuary's Mizuki] became anxious and, filled with anger and jealousy, was about to attack the woman when [Aleister] quickly grabbed her staff to stop her from swinging it.

"Calm down, calm down!"

"How could I possibly calm down! I've never been that close to Hayato-sama before! Such disrespectful behavior, something to be envied... I mean, I'm furious!"

"Hey, didn't you just tell the truth?"

Hayato turned his head to look at the woman in black who was examining Aleister and the Temple's Mizuki with great interest, and asked, "The Battle of the King of the Dead?"

Although it was a question, his tone was quite certain.

"It's [Hel], [Hel]! At the very least, call me 'Hela,' not 'King of the Dead War.'" With one hand on her hip, the woman in black—[King of the Dead War-Hel], who had been transferred from Helheim—raised a finger and corrected, "Besides, it's no fun if you guess the answer right away."

“That’s a real shame. I’m not the kind of person who enjoys the process of solving a maze. I prefer to just brute force my way to the destination.” Turning around and looking at [Death King Battle - Hel], Hayato shrugged. “Like right now, I’m not really concerned about the process of finding out about the anomaly that appeared in the sky. I just want to know the answer.”

"Although I really wanted to tell you, the truth is I'm just a poor soul who just escaped control. Even a minute ago, I was still in Helheim, and I only just moved to Jotunheim. I didn't even have time to see what the sun was doing before you found out."

【King of the Dead - Hel】shrugged helplessly. Compared to 【King of the Dead - Hel】as a Duel Monster, the hands of 【King of the Dead - Hel】in front of Hayato were not skeletal arms, but were growing with flesh and skin normally. In fact, the skin looked quite good. Perhaps it was because Hel was also known as the Land of Mist and was not exposed to the sun?

However, although he didn't know the answer Hayato wanted, [Death King Battle - Hel] pointed to someone still lying on the ground not far away and said with a grin, "It doesn't really matter if I don't know, right? After all, you see, some people probably do know~"

Lopto was woken up by Hayato's kick. As soon as he woke up, he saw Hayato's face, which terrified him, and he trembled all over.

"You're still alive? If you're not, get up right now."

"Oh." Hearing Hayato's words, [Shadow of the King] Lopto subconsciously nodded and prepared to get up. Suddenly, he remembered that he seemed to have been knocked unconscious by Hayato. How awful! He had to glare at him! Looking at Hayato, although he was the other's defeated opponent, it didn't stop [Lopto] from maintaining an arrogant attitude. "Hmph, a mere human, why should I listen to you?"

"If you like sitting on the floor to talk so much, then go ahead."

"Hmph, I hate it when people look down on me with such a condescending attitude!" Hayato told Lopto to get up, but he refused to get up and just sat on the ground. However, if Hayato said that he was going to continue looking down on him like he was an ant, Lopto would get angry and immediately get up from the ground.

However, upon looking up and seeing the blazing sun, he was somewhat surprised, and then laughed triumphantly: "Although you have defeated me, you still cannot change the inevitable destruction that this world is about to face, Hayato Kobayashi. Although the actors of 'Ragnarok' are not all here, this tragic drama that has already begun must continue until its end."

Hayato raised an eyebrow and glanced at [King's Shadow - Lopte], who was in a worse state than a beggar after being ganged up on earlier: "You actually know what happened?"

“Of course! Because this was one of my backup plans! Did you think I specially forged ‘Levantin’ just to transform into [Shadow King War - Levantin]?” [Shadow of the King War - Lopte] said smugly, “After I intervened in ‘Fimbourne’, I tried my best to expand its influence, but this power did not come from me, but was ‘borrowed’ from this world, strengthening the spell by issuing the loan in advance.”

"The natural counterpart to the harsh winter is the scorching heat. The price of this loan is a prolonged period of extreme heat after the 'Fimbulwinter.' But because you defeated me, the debt that should have been slowly repaid over tens of thousands of years has become a debt that must be settled all at once. This world will be burned to ashes in the flames, and all of this is your doing, Hayato Kobayashi!"

Hearing Lopte shift the blame to him, Hayato sneered without any remorse: "It's not like I'm right not to take you down. What does it matter to me if this virtual world is destroyed? It's better than letting you cause trouble in the real world."

"That's easy for you to say, but do you think the destruction of this world has nothing to do with it? I'll say the same thing back to you. What do you think this world is made of? Pure data and networks? No, it's your human consciousness, the collective consciousness of all humans who have entered this game!"

Despite the strange-sounding references to data and networks to Lopto, whose background is steeped in mythology and fantasy, Hayato instantly understood his meaning. Lopto continued, "You said before that I wasn't qualified to intervene in this so-called 'Duel-Links' network? Good! Excellent! In that case, your destruction will have nothing to do with me. Only you humans will be harmed by the destruction of the world."

"Depending on the strength of their will and the stability of their spirit, there may be humans who can still retain consciousness after the world is destroyed. You don't need to thank me for helping you select outstanding 'new humans,' but what is certain is that the vast majority of humans who enter this game will be brain dead and become living corpses, and then spread 'plague'!"

"Of course it's not a real virus, it's just a distortion of reality caused by the blurring of the line between reality and spirit when the spirit of death goes berserk. I've even thought of a name for you guys: 'Chaotic Openness,' not bad, right?"

"You, or those humans who came to Jotunheim with you, may be the outstanding 'new humans' who can survive, but what about the many more? For example, the human named 'Pegasus' who was sitting next to you before, who was invited into this world by its creators, or your students who are not so important but numerous?"

"Regret your enmity with me, Hayato Kobayashi! Even if you survive, you've only moved from one hell of death to another filled with suffocating pressure. This is my punishment for you! No one can defeat me, and even if I fail, you cannot be the victor!"

"You bastard!" A fist landed on Lopto's face, but he laughed as he was knocked to the ground. However, he suddenly realized that Hayato was not provoked into attacking him, nor was it Hayato who was in a fit of impotent rage. The one who attacked was a boy with jellyfish-like hair.

"Where did you come from, you rascal?!"

"Just a passing hero, remember that!"

He went to Hel with Manjoume to try to defeat Hel, but failed. He was then taken back to Todoroki by her. Although Jaden did not appear next to Hayato like Hel did, he was not far away. Not long after arriving, he saw Hayato wake up the unconscious Lopto and hear every word Lopto said clearly.

"You despicable bastard, how could you do such a vile thing!" Manjoume, who was traveling with Judai, also looked at [Lopto] on the ground with disdain. "How is this any different from threatening someone with jumping off a cliff to prevent them from losing to you!"

“Kaiba’s probably sneezing, but when I found out that Pegasus was also invited into this world by Kaiba, I had a feeling something was going to happen. Unforgivable, Pegasus!” Hayato said, glancing at [Lopto]. “I’ve pretty much got the details, so you’re no longer of any use. Yuki, Manjoume, this guy is yours to handle.”

As he spoke, Hayato walked toward Caesar, who was still an ice sculpture, completely ignoring the fact that Lopto was being beaten up by Jaden, Manjoume, and the others who were arriving one after another—after all, they had almost died because of this bastard, and beating Lopto, who now had no spellcasting ability, could even be considered gentle.

Before Caesar's ice sculpture, Hayato kept examining it. While [Sanctuary's Water Shield] was blocking [Death King War - Hel] from getting close to Hayato, [Aleister] took the opportunity to stand beside Hayato and asked curiously, "Master, you've already thought of a solution to the problem? By the way, how did you discover that invisible woman just now?"

“Although [Lopto] is just a clown, his ‘Runic Eyes’ are actually quite useful. Not only can they see through illusions and ignore invisibility, but they can even find hidden spells.” As if he had found something, Hayato pointed a finger at the ice sculpture, “Like… this!”

It seemed like he didn't use much force, but when Hayato touched the ice sculpture, the ice sculpture suddenly exploded, and Caesar was sent flying backward and fell flat on his back.

"Am I...recovered?" Although he had been frozen by magic, Caesar still had his own consciousness and knew what had happened, but what puzzled him was, "I fell to the ground, but why didn't I feel any pain? Did my nerves get frozen and die?"

"Because you sat on me, Ryo!" Fubuki, who had just returned to the plaza, was caught off guard by Caesar, who slammed her feet on the ground. "Get up! Hey, you're going to break my back!"

Meanwhile, Hayato, who had unsealed Caesar by touching the ice sculpture, gripped his hand, held the piece of ice firmly, and watched it slowly transform into a bright green mistletoe arrow.

"...You have no objections? That's good."

Hearing Hayato's mutterings to himself, [Aleister] tilted his head: "Master, are you talking to me?"

"Of course not, I'm asking about [Long Huiqiao] and the others."

Looking up at the sky, even though the blazing sun was almost blinding to most people, Hayato, whose eyes were flashing with runes, could still clearly see the azure sky and the starry sky above. Since the world of "Duel-Links" was created based on collective consciousness, even if its basic framework was set as the "Nine Realms" of mythology, how could this large group of modern people who entered the game not be able to imagine the existence of the starry sky?

"I asked them if they would mind having another star by their side." In the sky, the constellation Draco shone brightly.

Chapter 1411 I will destroy the world, and then create it again.

"...At that moment, everyone knew that the world would be very different. Some people laughed, some cried, and many more remained silent. I still remember the Hindu scripture Bhagavan Gita, which says that the guardian deity tried to persuade the prince to take on his responsibilities, and in order to make the prince remember it, he opened his thousand arms and said: 'I am now the god of death, the destroyer of the world.'"

"However, I am a kind-hearted person and cannot bear a bad ending. Under my guidance, the story's ending must be solemn and beautiful. Therefore, if you ask me, I must add this sentence to the words of the guardian deity—"

"I will destroy the world, and I will create it again." Hayato muttered to himself as he wrote the last stroke on the paper.

Standing behind her lover, watching Hayato finish writing in his diary, Isis asked curiously, "Which anime is that last line from?"

"Hmm~ It's a story about a brother who gained the ability to hypnotize others."

"That sounds weird, like something out of an anime?"

"There are quite a few female characters in the book, but what can you do when another book, 'The Romantic Comedy of the Passerby Heroine with 103,000 Little Yellow Books, the Tsundere Electric Female Supporting Character, and the Unlucky Hedgehog,' was released in the same year?"

"The name is so long. The original name definitely wasn't this long."

Isis chuckled and made a sarcastic remark. Knowing Hayato's personality, she naturally didn't believe that the name he mentioned was his real name. After glancing at the diary entry that ended with a rather chuunibyou (delusional) line, she wondered, "But, ending with such a vague riddle? Why not continue writing? Didn't it take you a long time to wrap up the 'Duel-Links' world, Hayato?"

"It was indeed a long time—meaning that by the time we returned to the real world, it was already 11 p.m. on the same night we entered the game. Hiba's technology is quite impressive."

Hayato stood up and stretched his joints. "Besides, there's really not much to write about the ending. In that world, because of the Nine Realms' story background, the sun isn't a real star at all; it's just a simulated giant fireball, not even as big as the World Tree. I used that arrow to launch it into space to find [Ryuki Takumi] and the others, and that solved the problem. In fact, if [La] hadn't said that eating that stuff might cause diarrhea, it would have been solved even faster."

"I can't exactly write about how Jaden and the others performed the 'Duel Academy Eighteen Bronze Men' in front of [Lopto], can I?"

Blinking, Isis asked, somewhat puzzled, "Writing it on something that other people will see might be a bit violent, but writing it in a diary should be fine, right?"

“You don’t understand, do you?” Hayato said, pointing at the diary. “The publicly available diary is just an act. It’s written for others to see, not for myself.”