Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"I see, so the hidden diary is the real diary?"

"No, the hidden diary is just an act that hasn't been revealed yet. Who keeps a diary? Who would write their true feelings in a diary? What you write down is not what you truly feel."

Seeing that Isis seemed quite interested in the "Duel-Links" world, Hayato smiled and said, "The contents of this diary are just some random writings, but if Isis wants to hear it, I can tell you in detail how I rebuilt that world after the sun disappeared."

"That line, 'I will destroy the world and create it again'?" Isis shook her head and said with a smile, "I'm not really interested in adventures in other worlds, I'm just interested in stories with you in them."

“I’m free tonight, so you can talk to me slowly then. But for now, let’s get down to more important things.” Isis raised her hand and straightened Hayato’s collar. “If you don’t go over there soon, President Kaiba will get angry again.”

"She'll get angry."

Hayato walked down from the second floor to the entrance hall with Isis. He casually picked up the card box on the shoe cabinet and attached it to his waist, where it automatically snapped shut. Even though Hayato never needed a card box to store cards, he couldn't forget the necessary decorations.

After putting on his shoes and turning around, Hayato looked at Isis, who was standing close by, and said, "Well then, I'm off."

Brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Isis stepped forward and gently replied, "Hmm, いってらっしゃい (Be careful on the road)."

Then, the distance between the two returned to zero.

Hearing the car door open, Guiping turned around and saw Hayato sitting down next to him. He looked at Hayato's face with some curiosity, which made Hayato quite puzzled.

"What are you looking at?"

"A lip print? Did you and Isis have a fight? I don't see any lip print on your face from your farewell kiss?"

"Read fewer comic books. Who would go out with a lip print on their face?" Hayato retorted upon hearing Keihei's guess. "Besides, not to mention that your sister Isis doesn't even wear lipstick, how could lips touching lips leave a lip print on her face?"

Hayato paused, then looked at the tablet in Keihei's hand: "What are you looking at now? A new manga?"

“No, this is a proper job.” Holding up the tablet to show Hayato, Keihei said, “It’s a professional duelist tournament. The results of this year’s world championship are already out.”

"Although Jonouchi and Mai didn't participate in the singles this year, they did register for the doubles. The Labyrinth Brothers, who used to be a sure-fire champion, could only get second place this year even with new cards."

"Let me see, let me see." Looking at the tablet in Keihei's hand, Hayato immediately spotted Jonouchi, who was hugging Mai and grinning foolishly, in the displayed images and text. "Wow, he looks so silly with that smile."

“Not only you, Hayato, but Yugi and the others had the same reaction when they saw this photo. Jonouchi even wanted me to help him change to another photo, but what can you do when your brother personally chose this one?” With a helpless shrug, Keihei grinned mischievously. “Although we outside couldn’t monitor what was happening inside after the ‘Duel-Links’ incident, my brother ‘accidentally’ overheard Jonouchi saying bad things about the Blue-Eyes White Dragon while reviewing the data.”

"You didn't see it, Hayato-nii, his face was almost burning red."

Hayato smiled and continued looking at the tablet, noticing that this year's champion in the most prestigious singles competition was not a regular from previous years.

Jonouchi and Mai went on their honeymoon. Ryuzaki and Kajiki also took a year off to improve themselves because Jonouchi didn't participate in the competition this year. Last year's tenth place winner, Maeda Kumozou, who is also Maeda Hayato's father, failed to advance because he came to the Duel Academy to take Maeda Hayato away when there was an important promotion match. He chose to withdraw from the match and failed to advance.

The other players also retired or withdrew from the competition for various reasons, which is quite unusual. As a result, this year's champion of the Professional Duelist World Championship was a boy who was only fifteen years old.

Even the caption he used to celebrate his victory over "Thief" Keith was titled "Ed Phoenix, the wielder of the power of 'fate' who is as fortunate as if blessed by destiny." In the picture, he is holding the championship trophy together with his professional dueling manager and friend, Takuma Saiou.

"Even though it's the Paralympic Cup, a champion is a champion, and it's better than a void champion, right?" Looking at the boy in the picture, Hayato couldn't help but recall a certain year in his previous life when the Paralympic Cup champion, whose title had been nerfed to all the mainstream decks, was won by Blue-Eyes White Dragon. That time and that moment are just like this now.

Just like the caption said, it was as if they were blessed by "fate".

Thinking this, Hayato turned his head to look out the window, the buildings and pedestrians along the road were quickly left behind.

As the car drove through the streets, Domino City, thanks to the long-term development plans of the Kaiba Group, was vastly different from what it was five years ago when Hayato had just graduated. The best example was the Kaiba Group headquarters building, the tallest building in Domino City, which still stood out like a crane among chickens, even though the high-rise buildings almost completely blocked out the sky.

For the Kaiba Corporation, which practically rules Domino City like an emperor, planning land is no different from assembling building blocks. Especially after several years of development, the Kaiba Corporation headquarters building, which was built before it transformed into an entertainment company specializing in Duel Monsters, is considered an outdated relic by Kaiba.

Since almost the entire city of Domino was undergoing "major development," it wouldn't make a difference if the Kaiba Group built one more building. Kaiba directly designated a large area on the very edge of Domino City as its new territory and then began large-scale infrastructure construction.

Keihei was naturally resistant to Kaiba's wasteful behavior of wanting to replace the building after only four or five years, but Kaiba, as the president of the Kaiba Group, had unlimited power. In the end, under Keihei's strong demands, Kaiba changed the design of the "tri-curved wing building" in the shape of a vertical axis wind turbine to two parallel twin towers. Then, under Hayato's warning, only one tower was built in the end.

However, although Kaiba carried out large-scale development and reconstruction of Domino City, he was surprisingly humane and chose to adopt different development methods for different areas. He divided the two sides into the "old capital" with relatively less renovation and the "new capital" that was changing rapidly, using the river embankment of Domino City, where countless events had taken place, as the boundary. This made Hayato wonder if he would rename Domino City to Fuyuki next.

The Muto family's Kameji Card Shop, the Domino City School where Hayato and his friends studied, the Black Crown Game Shop run by the Otogi family, and the villa area where Hayato lives are all located in the old capital, which can basically be considered residential areas. In contrast, the shopping streets of Domino City and the Kaiba Group industrial area are naturally located in the new capital. Hayato is currently hitching a ride with Keihei to the new capital.

However, although the two sides were separated, Domino City, despite its expansion, was still only a small area, and Hayato soon arrived at the Kaiba Corporation industrial park. But the car did not stop at the headquarters building; instead, it continued deeper into the back. Here, Hayato saw a giant man-made structure that had already been erected and was pointing towards the sky—a rocket codenamed "Blue Eyes," coated with a blue high-temperature resistant coating.

(It would look just right if the paint job were changed to cyan)

Although Hayato could see the rocket from Domino City, it wasn't actually located within the city limits, but rather on a platform at sea. Iso, who was driving, drove the car along the road to the back of the Kaiba Corporation headquarters building. After Keihei manipulated a tablet, the wall in front of the vehicle opened, revealing an elevator that carried the vehicle upwards.

The elevator finally stopped at about the 50th floor. After getting out of the car, Hayato saw Kaiba, who had arrived earlier. He was still wearing his usual white trench coat and posing with his back to Hayato and the others.

"Hmph, too slow!"

"It's obvious you came too early, brother. What time is it?" Guiping complained, glancing at the time on his tablet. It was still ten minutes to go before noon. "It's not even the scheduled launch time yet!"

“Private rockets are just like private planes. If they can’t be launched ahead of schedule or delayed, what’s the point?” Seeing that Kaiba was indeed throwing a tantrum for no apparent reason, just as Isis had guessed, Hayato shrugged. “Especially since that guy Seth can even ignore aviation planning.”

"Hmph, it's not that I'm ignoring it, it's just that I've already included the half-hour before and after the rocket launch in the air traffic control time. The sooner the launch, the sooner I can get on with my own business." Haima explained with a cold face, "Hima Group's rocket launch business is very busy these days. In addition to the card you need to launch, there's also the satellite of the Kingdom of Mizgaruzeng that needs to be launched."

"The name sounds familiar."

"That national emblem is 'Leviathan'."

"Oh, now I remember, it's that kingdom I told you last time to carefully check what kind of satellite was being launched."

"Hmph, I don't need you to tell me." The seahorse snorted and turned to look ahead. "Now that you're here, let's launch now."

Without paying any attention to Guiping's rambling, Haiba snapped his fingers, and the artificial intelligence "Ark" immediately transmitted Haiba's command to a distant location. Almost without delay, the rocket in the distance began to ignite.

Amidst a cloud of water mist, the rocket rapidly ascended and shot into distant space. Inside the rocket's cargo bay, a man's desperate and resentful voice emanated from a tightly sealed card: "How could they... how could they treat God like this!"

"I won't let you get away with this! I absolutely won't let you get away with this! You despicable Hayato Kobayashi, you trampled on my dignity, I will stain your dreams with my blood!"

"I curse the world! I curse your future to be filled with calamity! When you fall into purgatory, you will remember the wrath of me, Loki!"

Amidst the roar of rockets, the card sealed with [King's Shadow - Lopto] transformed into a shooting star hurtling towards the sun.

“Those who intend to use the sun to destroy the world will naturally be punished by being destroyed by the sun.” Gazing at the sky, Hayato sneered, “The final fate of a man who coveted the position of a god but failed to climb up is both comical and tragic.”

"The story of the visitors from another world ends here. However, the story of the new guests from the universe is just beginning." Hayato muttered to himself, thinking about the college application he had received that morning.

Chapter 1412 Graduation Duel

"A graduation duel? I think there's something like that."

Pushing up his non-prescription glasses, which were merely decorative on his nose, Hayato looked at Marufuji Ryo with some confusion: "Wait a moment, let me check this year's graduates' report cards first."

Every year at the end of the semester, Duel Academy holds an event called "Graduation Duel." Although it is called "Graduation Duel," all students in the school can participate, except for third-year graduates who have special requirements.

In the graduation duel event, graduates need to accumulate 100 duel points, which can be obtained through duels.

Regardless of the outcome of the duel, you are guaranteed to receive one duel point for each duel. You will receive an extra point for each duel you win against a first-year student, and so on. Winning against a second-year student will give you an extra two points, and winning against a third-year student will give you an extra three points.

However, you can only get points from the same opponent once, regardless of victory or defeat. Fortunately, duel points can only increase and will not decrease due to losses. Therefore, theoretically, if you only duel third-year students and win consecutively, you only need to duel 25 times to get 100 points and complete the graduation duel. Even if you just beat up first-year students, you only need to duel 50 times to complete it.

However, the graduation duel is not such a simple event. More importantly, the score of this duel can be accumulated indefinitely. If one can do it, one person can beat all the students in the school without any problem. And this accumulated score will be added together with the credits earned in each semester of previous years, and finally used as the final score of the graduation test.

In theory, if you can improve your grades all at once by relying on this activity, you can make up for the points required for graduation even if you never attend classes or take exams properly in the first three years, and even graduate with excellent grades. After all, the most important thing for a duelist is actual combat rather than theory - this rule was even set by Seto Kaiba, the founder of Duel Academy.

As for students like Hayato Maeda who have many shortcomings in dueling but are quite talented in other areas, the school naturally has corresponding special programs. Taking Hayato Maeda as an example again, he went through the school's special channels to go directly to the International Illusion Club before graduating. His studies at the Duel Academy were not "graduation" but "completion," which did not violate the relevant graduation regulations.

Of course, there is another reason for not setting a score cap for the graduation duel: after adding the final scores to the previous years' grades to get the final score, a ranking is made for all students in the school. Because the previous years' credits will account for the largest proportion, no matter how hard the first two years' students work, it will be difficult for them to match the third year's students, so the top dozens will basically be third year students.

As the first-place winner, while they will be tasked with participating in a special graduation duel that serves as both a performance and a commemorative event, they will also receive a special graduation gift. Sometimes it's a rare card, sometimes it's a pathway to job placement after graduation, all depending on the graduate's own wishes—in other words, the first-place reward can even be understood as a "wish."

The entity that will make the "wish" come true is the entire Duel Academy, and even the Kaiba Corporation and the International Fantasy Club behind it. Naturally, this also includes Duel Academy's principal, Hayato Kobayashi, who will also contribute to the "wish" of the graduate representatives.

With such a vast supply of resources, as long as the wishes aren't outrageous like "resurrecting someone," "collecting all seven Dragon Balls," "I want a Blue-Eyes White Dragon," or "give me the Yamato," basically any wish that can be fulfilled in modern society can be realized.

Even asking for a hundred million dollars wouldn't be a problem; it would only surprise the seahorse who knew about the wish. He would definitely say things like, "I thought it was some kind of daydream, but it turns out he's a beggar."

Even if Hayato possesses the Quantum Cube and can freely open the gate to the underworld, he can grant wishes that are not for "resurrection" but simply for seeing someone who has died.

Therefore, even without knowing the second half, the mere fact that a wish for a hundred million dollars could be granted is enough to tempt students. After all, for most people, even if they have a well-paying and respectable job, it is difficult to earn a hundred million dollars in a lifetime.

"Hmm~ Obelisk-Blue's Shindo Sayaka, 941 points; Helios-Yellow's Yamashita Kenichi, 945 points; Obelisk-Blue's Matsumoto Atsuhisa, 966 points, and my roommate Yamaguchi idiot... I mean Yamaguchi Satoshi, 971 points. Then there's Urakami Yasunori, also from the Blue dorm, 987 points."

"Oh? You got the highest score, Marufuji Ryo, a perfect score of 1000. That's quite an achievement. So you'll be representing this year's graduates in the graduation duel."

Hayato looked up at Caesar and said with a smile, "Have you decided who you want to duel? You can choose any student currently enrolled."

“No, I have no opponent I want to duel with at school anymore. The duel with Jaden Yuki is the only one I can look forward to, but that should not happen now, but in the future when I have grown stronger.” Shaking his head, Caesar stared straight at Hayato and said, “Principal Hayato, the opponent I want to choose is you.”

"Me?" Hayato pointed to himself and asked Caesar for confirmation.

Caesar nodded: "That's right, and the one I want to challenge is not Kobayashi Hayato, the principal of the Duel Academy or a teacher, but rather you, the legendary duelist, the invincible Duel King, the absolute powerhouse Kobayashi Hayato, who will duel me. And this is the 'wish' I want to fulfill after receiving the 'wish' as ​​a representative of the graduates."

Caesar's words puzzled Hayato: "But the problem is, even as a teacher at the school, you've never won against him, have you?"

“It’s different. Even though you’ve fought us as a teacher and maintained an undefeated record for a long time, all of us students know very well that Principal Hayato has never used your full strength,” Caesar said earnestly. “I want to use my graduation duel with you to see the vastness of the world.”

"I see. Using this duel as a graduation gift for you as you embark on your journey into the world of professional duelists is indeed a very good choice."

Hayato turned off the graduation report on his computer screen, then saved the game before standing up and saying, "Alright, I accept your duel challenge. I truly heard your wish; you are the one destined to meet me."

Unfortunately, I didn't have a 500 yen coin on hand, otherwise Hayato felt he would have delivered that line with more force.

"But speaking of which, you want to become a professional duelist after graduation, right? Have you found a professional duelist agency to sign with?"

Caesar nodded: "The Duel Academy has a quota every year to send graduates to the professional duelist agency of the Seahorse Group for interviews. I have passed the preliminary test and will be able to sign a contract with the agency after graduation."

"Kaiba's company is not bad. At least it's a legitimate one and won't send its contracted duelists to underground dueling arenas without authorization." Hayato smiled. "Moreover, although it's a highly competitive and extremely cutthroat place for ordinary people, it's quite suitable for strong people with real skills. After all, Kaiba is really willing to spend money on this."

“Take Jonouchi for example, he saved enough money to buy a house in Domino City in five years.”

"Mr. Katsuya Jonouchi, the four-time champion of the Pro Duelist World Championship... Should I say that the housing prices in Domino City are high, or should I marvel at the generous prize money of the world champion?"

Even Caesar couldn't help but speak up after hearing the news revealed by Hayato.

The reason why housing prices in Domino City are high is because even legendary duelists like Katsuya Jonouchi had to use up all their prize money from the past four years to afford a house; the reason why the world champion's prize money is so generous is because Jonouchi only won prize money four times and was able to afford a house in Domino City.

However, this was also because Jonouchi did not use the installment mortgage offered by the Kaiba Group, which most people would choose, but paid the full amount in one go. Furthermore, the place he chose was not a remote, out-of-the-way area, but a house in the new capital of Domino City, and it was even a three-story building.

When Hayato went to Domino City, he took the opportunity to look at Jonouchi's house. Jonouchi told Hayato that he had made all the plans: the first floor could be rented out to quiet shops like cafes to collect rent, the second floor would be used as an office for his own duelist agency that he planned to open in the future, and the third floor would be for his own residence. It was fortunate that Jonouchi disliked gambling and only drank in moderation, otherwise Hayato was really worried that he would quarrel with Mai and separate in the future and then only be able to live with his daughter.

The graduation duel between Caesar and Hayato, representing the graduating class, was scheduled for Friday, the last day of the semester. The end of the graduation duel would also mark the official graduation of Caesar and the other students from the class of 03.

Regardless of Hayato, who was still playing games in his office and seemed completely unconcerned about the upcoming duel, Caesar went to the vice principal's office after issuing Hayato a "challenge."

"Please come in."

"Ryo?" Samejima was somewhat surprised to see Caesar standing in front of him as he opened the office door. "Shouldn't you be preparing to choose your opponent for the graduation duel right now?"

"I've already chosen my opponent, Principal Hayato."

"Oh, it's Jaden. I knew you'd choose... Wait, Hayato?!" Samejima, who had subconsciously assumed Caesar had chosen Jaden as his opponent for the graduation duel, suddenly realized halfway through her sentence that Caesar was actually talking about Hayato, and looked surprised. "How could you have thought of—"

“No, it’s not wrong to say it’s Hayato. In fact, it could only be Hayato.” Samejima thought for a moment and understood why Caesar chose Hayato. “Having tasted the bitterness of defeat and experienced the joy of victory, you now have the passion for dueling and the desire for victory. As a professional duelist, your only deficiency is probably your perspective. And a duel with Hayato is precisely the choice that can broaden your perspective the most.”

Will we win?

“I will lose,” Caesar said calmly, his face serene. “I have won too many times in the past, and I have long been numb to victory. It was only recently that I rediscovered how sweet victory is compared to the bitterness of defeat. But precisely because of this, now is the time when I need a defeat that is heavy enough.”

"Manjou Jun gave me the pressure of being on the verge of defeat; Yuki Judai gave me a real sense of defeat, which made me crave victory even more; and Principal Hayato, even before the duel began, I knew I could gain something precious from my duel with him: complete defeat."