Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"Yes, that's what I wanted to say, but considering our opponents on the other side, I'm also a little worried about my junior."

"Ah, indeed. If the opponent is that person, even the Supernovas from Duel Academy can only be considered a big cup."

"Alright, next up is the prodigy duelist who accepted the challenge from our supernova 'Kaiser' Ryo, and won the championship at the age of 14 in the last World Championship! At the same time, his professional duelist rank has officially risen into the Top 10, becoming a Hall of Fame professional duelist!"

His name is—

"—Ed Phoenix!" x2

"Let's welcome Edward to the stage! Ladies and gentlemen, please look forward to the spectacular duel that these two duelists will present!"

As the commentator's voice rang out, the atmosphere in the arena heated up, and Edward took a deep breath and stepped forward—the cheers of the audience then reached his ears with crystal clarity.

Chapter 1421 Eternity VS Fate

“DOMO, Caesar = san, Ed desu”.

Speaking in a strange accent of Japanese, Edward greeted his opponent, Marufuji Ryo, with considerable politeness. Pre-battle greetings are a sacred and inviolable ritual for duelists, as recorded in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters).

However, upon hearing Edward's greeting, Marufuji Ryo, who had officially debuted as an outstanding graduate of the Duel Academy after his graduation model duel with Hayato and had been in the professional duelist circle for quite some time under the name "Hell Caesar," glanced at Edward with a rather strange look.

It has to be said that looking at people sideways can really create the aura of a villain: "Ha, is that kind of nonsense popular among professional duelists? Those weaklings are like that, I didn't expect last year's 'Lucky Champion' to be like that too."

The term "Lucky Champion" is a name that has been circulating for some time now, referring to Edward in front of Caesar. The reason is that his championship last year was too lucky and fortunate. Every opponent he encountered was countered by the cards he possessed. At the same time, the legendary duelists who could duel against him were all coincidentally either not encountering him or not participating at all for their own reasons.

As a result, the 2005 World Pro Duelist Championship was considered by most people to have very little prestige. To give an analogy, it was as if the TGA awarded Game of the Year to Dragon Age: Inquisition, but its contenders for Game of the Year were Bayonetta 2, The Fierce Rivals, The Lord of the Rings, and Dark Souls 2.

It's not that it's bad, but its "championship" is far less prestigious than the following year's Best of the Year, which competed with "Starting Point 4", "Super Mario Bros. Creation", "Yarnan Strangers: The Phantom of the Opera", and "Metal Gear Solid V: It Hurts" to win the Best of the Year award.

The situation is similar for Edward's "Lucky Champion" title. In fact, this is a more palatable title. There are plenty of people on the internet who take advantage of their anonymity to call him the "Paralympic Cup Champion".

He spoke in English. Not to mention that he had trained at the "Electronic Flow" dojo in America with Samejima Master when he was young, Duel Academy also has language courses. After all, some people will later work in large companies like Mirage International to translate cards, and mastering the language of Duel Monsters cards and translating them accurately into another language is also a discipline.

Having graduated with perfect scores in all subjects, Kaiser could translate phrases like "negate card effect," "negate card activation," "negate card effect activation," "negate card activation effect," "negate effect when card is activated," "negate effect of a card on the field," "negate effect activated on the field," "cannot activate card," "cannot activate card effect," "cannot activate effect activated on the field," "effect not applicable," and "effect not processed" into English.

Although Edward had always presented himself as a very elegant gentleman in public and was indeed a very polite person, that did not mean that he could greet Caesar with a smile when he was provoked to his face.

"It's not exactly trendy, it's just basic politeness." Edward said coolly, looking at Caesar. "Because you're an opponent you'll only meet once, how can you not take this last chance to give him a proper greeting?"

"After all—after losing to me in this duel, you probably won't have the courage to fight me anymore, and you won't even be able to have a normal duel. You'll become someone who can only keep falling into the hell called 'defeat,' right?"

Touching his temple, Edward said mysteriously, "This is all I know about your 'fate'—to be utterly defeated before me."

Edward wasn't just spouting pre-match trash talk to mess with his opponent's mentality; he was simply stating the facts honestly. His reasoning stemmed from a divination performed by his friend and professional dueling manager, Saiou Takuma, before each of Edward's duels.

Unlike most people who use divination merely for the sake of ritual, Saiou's hobby of becoming a professional duel manager was something he developed for Edward; being a fortune teller was his true profession. And he did indeed possess remarkable abilities when using tarot cards for divination, with an accuracy rate of 99.99% to date! If it weren't for his encounter with Jonouchi Katsuya at the Duel Academy a year ago, Saiou's accuracy rate would have been as high as 100%.

In Tarot readings, the Chariot, when upright, represents complete victory. This was the result of Saiou's divination for Edward's duel, which meant that Caesar would be defeated in his duel with Edward. Subsequent divinations by Saiou to provide Edward with information about Caesar's deck further confirmed this conclusion.

The Fool reversed represents a sharp decline in grades; the Magician reversed represents weak willpower and failure; the High Priestess reversed represents excessive pride and biased judgment.

Interpreting the various symbols together, Saiou tells Edward what he learned in his divination about Ryo Marufuji's future fate—Ryo Marufuji, an "academic" duelist who has long been arrogant and self-important as an outstanding graduate of the Duel Academy, will be defeated by Edward, a "practical" duelist, and suffer a complete defeat.

His pride and arrogance will make it difficult for him to recover from this setback, and his status as a supernova in the professional duelist circle will plummet. He may even make an unintentional wrong judgment under the weight of the defeat and fall into a dangerous predicament.

The card drawn corresponding to the final outcome is the Nine of Wands, representing injury, a trapped struggle, and unreleased energy. It is likely that Marufuji Ryo's fate will be to struggle and perish in a desperate situation where he cannot exert his power.

Looking at Marufuji Ryo with pity, who was sneering at him, Edward continued, "To pay homage to that legendary dueling tournament—the 'Duel City' of Domino City—every year, the Professional Duel World Championship holds a points-based tournament before the official matches to select sixteen qualified duelists. In order to achieve a higher ranking and qualify, most people will choose opponents who have achieved the highest possible ranking in the previous tournament, while ensuring that they can defeat them."

"But you've only defeated a few duelists at the very bottom of the professional duelist circle and accumulated enough points to issue a challenge, and you've already come looking for me? What, do you want to use me as a stepping stone on your path to advancement? You're that confident?"

"Confidence? No, it's just that I'm fed up with crushing those weaklings. Now that I have enough points to challenge top professional duelists, why shouldn't I choose the opponent who can raise my level the fastest?" Caesar sneered, not taking Edward seriously at all. "Winning last year's world championship has put your level in the Top 10 of professional duelists. Looks pretty good."

(The original work did rank professional duelists; for example, in Duel City, Joey was ranked LV3 and was specifically marked as a mortal.)

“I see. Defeating high-level duelists or winning major tournaments is indeed the fastest way to improve one’s professional rank, which is why you came to me.” Edward smiled slightly, then shook his head and said, “But that won’t work. Although you are older, I am the senior in the field of professional duelists. ‘Haste makes waste.’ The price for your reckless choice of me as your opponent will be your defeat.”

"This is the 'fate' you are about to face!"

As Edward raised his duel disk and assumed a ready-to-duel stance, the arena where the two were located immediately erupted in enthusiastic cheers from Edward's admirers!

Wow! EDOsama's smile is so innocent!

"Oh no! Without EDOsama, Watashi!"

"Look this way, EDOsama! We can do anything!"

(As is well known, mygo has a ygo field)

However, although he entered the professional duelist circle later than Edward, Caesar's popularity is no less than that of Edward, a "pure boy" without even a formal education, who graduated from a "higher education institution" like the Duel Academy. Although strictly speaking, the Duel Academy can only be considered a "vocational school," in this world of card players, even top international universities like the Masonic University of Technology and Harbin Institute of Technology cannot compare to the value of the Duel Academy.

"Lord Caesar! Suki~"

"Love, Love, Love~"

While having more fans than any other group, they also have a natural dominance over Edward's fan base, which is generally younger.

"Suwako! Didn't you say you were taking the money to a foreign language class? You actually bought that Ed's t-shirt!"

"Quack! Sanae, don't come any closer! Kanako, save me!"

However, the audience's enthusiasm did not seem to affect Caesar and Edward, who were already at odds and had started exchanging barbs. Seeing Edward's actions, Caesar sneered and said, "You keep talking about 'fate,' are you some kind of slave to fate?"

"If you don't even dare to fight against fate, what's the point of talking about fighting for victory in a duel? What a boring man." Caesar said disdainfully, raising his Duel Disk. "Your so-called predetermined 'fate' will be destroyed by my 'Electron Stream'!"

Caesar's words greatly displeased and annoyed Edward: "If it were so easy to change, what kind of 'fate' would it be?"

At the same time, the two realized a fact—that although they both had proud personalities, their inner selves were full of contradictions and conflicts, and they were completely incompatible.

Regardless of how Caesar's dueling style changes, whether it's during the "Electronic Flow" period, the "Hyper-Electronic Flow" period, or now as he begins to explore "eternity," he has always possessed a strong will as a duelist and has never believed in things like fate, which is inconsistent with Edward's ideas.

Ed, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Caesar had no idea what kind of thoughts filled his heart beneath that elegant exterior, but deep down Ed was filled with obedience to fate, which Caesar could not stand.

In a music or dance anime, two people with conflicting ideologies would probably only have a showdown or a rain-soaked dance battle. But this is a world of card players, so for Caesar and Edward, who happen to be rivals, the best course of action at this moment is—

"Duel!" x2

In the newly built dueling arena of the Kaima Entertainment Group—the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon Arena," which is filled with the personal preferences of a certain president—the duel between two "supernovas" in the professional dueling world has officially begun!

Ed Phoenix: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand

[Ryo Marufuji: 4000LP, 5 card in hand]

Compared to the "wild" duels where "whoever draws first and shouts first gets the first turn," professional duels are much more formal. The intelligent referee system awarded the first turn to Edward's side, and he drew a card from his deck: "The first turn is on my side... So, my turn, draw!"

As Edward, who was going first, drew a card from his deck, Caesar recalled someone who had approached him not long ago.

"Destiny... the hero of 'destiny,' [D·hero]? Sounds like a card related to [E·hero]?" Looking at the information in his hand, Caesar subconsciously read out the card's name, "[D·hero Blood Demon-D], can be Special Summoned by Tributing any three-body monster, can equip an opponent's monster and steal its effects, and when combined with [D-Power], can further negate the effects of all monsters on the opponent's field, and gain unlimited times to target Spell/Trap Cards and Counterspells..."

"Is it in accordance with the rules to directly reveal the specific effects of my opponent's cards like this, Principal Hayato?"

"What Kobayashi Hayato? There's no one here with that name. Just call me Pantyhose-Off or Casey." Someone casually made up a name and said, "Besides, it's just revealing which cards the other person has and what their effects are. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not like I'm revealing their deck to you."

(Brother IV, who caught a shark while fishing: Indeed)

"If I had to put it in perspective, this could only be considered basic intelligence gathering. This task is usually handled by your agent, but your opponents didn't need to gather intelligence before."

"Even so, there's no need for you, Principal Hayato, to specifically seek me out, is there?"

"I've already told you, I'm not a gentle and kind powerful duelist like Hayato Kobayashi." The person who was lying through his teeth rummaged in his card box. "I just want to annoy a certain 'Destiny' enthusiast, starting with the duelists under his command."

"As for the title, is it a graduation gift to make up for it? Or to celebrate your ten-game winning streak after your debut? Anyway, I got an extra one when I was drawing cards recently. Rather than selling it to the shop and letting the unscrupulous merchants make a profit, I might as well give it to you."

"Please use it carefully~"

The image of Caesar looking down at the cards he had received then overlapped with the image of Caesar now glancing down at the cards in his own hand. Looking up again at Ed, who seemed to have made up his mind and was about to play his card, Caesar sneered: 'Bring it on, Ed Phoenix. I'll use you to test my current 'capacity,' and...'

Is the "eternity" on that card just a fleeting illusion, or true "infinity"?

Chapter 1422 The strength of the Destiny Hero is 1000% of that of the Elemental Hero!

In the original timeline, Ed Phoenix used a variety of different decks during his time as a professional duelist, and under this premise, he was still able to demonstrate considerable strength and rise to the Top 10 of professional duelists.

However, because the environment of this world was completely changed six years ago due to the existence of a certain person, the dinosaur Ryuzaki, who should have retired from the world of Duel Monsters with a certain insect bastard, is still active. The decadent and degenerate thief Keith has been revitalized, and Jonouchi and Mai Kujaku are showing off their love on the stage of the World Championship every year.

In the fiercely competitive world of professional dueling, everyone has to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book if they don't want to be eliminated. There's no room for anyone to hide their skills, and Ed Phoenix is ​​no exception.

Even so, if he hadn't been "too lucky" last year when the legendary duelists collectively skipped the competition, and Maeda Kumozou, who had long been ahead of him, happened to give up the competition and go to the Duel Academy because of his son's situation, he probably would still have had a hard time winning last year's championship.

Since the professional dueling world championship was first held in 2001, Ed Phoenix, the 2005 champion with the least prestigious title, did not continue to use a deck to hide his strength. Instead, he pulled out his real deck right at the start of the duel!

“I’ll pay half of my Life Points to activate this card.” Edward drew a card and showed it to Caesar, shouting, “Normal Spell Card, [Hero Arrives]!”

"It's a hero deck!?"

Caesar looked shocked when he saw the card Ed played. However, Ed frowned when he saw the expression on Caesar's face: "Could you be any more fake?"

It's no wonder Edward said that. Although Caesar's lines sounded quite shocked, his expression remained completely unchanged, and his eyes even conveyed the feeling of "I knew it would start like this."

Unfortunately, someone unwilling to admit they were Kobayashi Hayato had already told Caesar that Edward's real deck was [D·hero], which was closely related to [E·hero]. If he didn't know, he might have been slightly surprised to encounter a [Hero] deck user again, but now, he's unlikely to be surprised by the appearance of [Hero Arrival].

"I'm just giving you some positive feedback. I wouldn't bother pretending if you didn't need it."

"Although you're new to the professional dueling scene, your agency is quite good at gathering information." Not knowing where Caesar's information came from, Edward assumed it was from his manager's investigation and didn't pay much attention. "If I don't have a face-up monster on my field, you have to pay me half of your Life Points to activate [Hero's Arrival]."

"Special Summon one Level 4 or lower [E·hero] monster from my Deck!"

[Ed: 4000→2000LP, 5 cards in hand]

"Before I graduated from school, my most worthy opponents used monsters with the [E·Hero] rank. Now that I've graduated, the opponents I face still use [E·Hero] rank. It's like I graduated for nothing!" Muttering to himself like Captain Ja, Caesar glanced at Edward's deck. "So, the monster you need to Special Summon should be—"

"Do you have some knowledge of the [E·hero] deck? Compared to me, who hasn't faced any powerful 'Cyber ​​Stream' duelists, you have a certain information advantage." Edward had encountered other duelists who had studied "Cyber ​​Stream" before, but at most they could pull out some [Cyber ​​Ogre], and it was already considered good if they could use [Cyber ​​Dragon]. There were very few strong players who could pull out [Cyber ​​Ender Dragon], so they were almost useless for predicting the duel against Kaiser.

Catching the card retrieved from the Duel Disk, Edward placed the Monster Card on the Disk: "That's right! This is the monster I want to Special Summon—"

"—【E·hero Bubble Man】!" "—【E·hero Sky Man】!"

However, after Edward put the card down, he and Caesar uttered two completely different card names, which surprised both of them.

"...Hmm?" "...Huh?"

"Hey, what's with that look on your face? Why do you think I'd Special Summon [E·Hero Bubble Man]?" Edward looked at Caesar's bewildered expression, somewhat puzzled. "Wait a minute, you don't actually think that [E·Hero Bubble Man]'s effect has no activation restrictions and that you can draw two cards just by Special Summoning it, do you?"

"His effect of drawing two cards can only be activated when I only have one card, [E·Hero Bubble Man], in my hand and on the field. You students from the Duel Academy don't even understand this effect, yet you're considered strong enough to be recognized as outstanding graduates?"

As Caesar continued speaking without any response, Edward grew angry. "This is utterly disgraceful. You're supposed to be from an academic school, yet this is all you've achieved. How can you be worthy of being students at the Duel Academy? You're simply wasting the Duel King's youth."

"When [E·Hero Sky Warrior] is successfully Normal or Special Summoned, I choose one of its effects to activate. I choose to add one [Hero] monster from my Deck to my hand!"

【E·hero Sky Knight】【ATK1800】

Seeing that Edward had already begun to unfold, Caesar realized something: he seemed to have gotten so used to playing cards with Jaden that he had forgotten that Jaden's [E·hero Bubble Man] was different from most [E·hero Bubble Man] on the market.

Although both can Special Summon themselves when they have only one card in their hand, Jaden's second effect of [E·hero Bubble Man]—which is the card-drawing ability that gives him the nickname "Greedy Man" from Hayato—only requires that "there are no other cards on your field besides him," and does not require a card in your hand. Therefore, Jaden often uses [Hero Arrival] to Special Summon [E·hero Bubble Man] in his starting hand to gain a card advantage.