Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"It's about Manjoume. He said his older brother is coming to visit the school, so he asked us to help him maintain the exaggerated image he has in front of his brother so that it won't be exposed." Judai said casually, then turned to look at Manjoume and said, "But Manjoume, you still haven't told us what kind of image you have in front of your brother and the others."

"Let's get started while your brother is still away from school."

Not only Judai and Sho, but Daitokuji was also eager to try: "Now that we're living in Osiris Red, you can ask me for help if you need anything, meow, Manjoume-kun."

"Really? If you put it that way, then I won't hold back." Wan Zhangmu nodded and recounted all the boasts he had made to his brother.

While not as powerful as Kokusai Gensou-sha or Kaiba Corporation, the Manjoume Group was no small force; it had been a substantial and wealthy enterprise for at least a decade. After the birth of Manjoume Chosaku, the eldest son of the three Manjoume brothers, his father, then president of the Manjoume Group, decided to cultivate him from a young age into an outstanding businessman, to inherit and expand the Manjoume Group.

Years later, Manjoume's second elder brother, Manjoume Masaji, was born. From a young age, he showed certain talents, which made Manjoume's father very happy. However, he did not let his eldest son and second son fight each other for the right to inherit the group. Instead, he worked hard to cultivate his second son's talents in other areas, so that he could shine in other fields and make great contributions to the group.

Manjoume Seiji initially chose Duel Monsters, which were just beginning to gain popularity worldwide, hoping to become an entertainment star or a world champion with a strong following. However—

In high school, Tong Mino encounters Kobayashi Hayato, whose powerful "Heavy Pit Dog" technique is as strong as a monster, and even with all his strength, he cannot defeat him.

He is not a genius.

Although Masashi Manjoume possessed genius-level talent in the Duel Monsters field, almost all Duel Monsters players were geniuses, and there were even more geniuses than geniuses. Finding himself no match for Hayato, Yugi, Kaiba, and their group, Masashi Manjoume decisively changed his mind and sought another path, eventually entering politics after graduation.

However, before that, when Manjoume Masaji had not yet graduated, one day, the vigorous Manjoume's father was blessed with another son, his third son, Manjoume Jun, was born. This overjoyed him, as Jun had also shown considerable talent from a young age. The successive births of outstanding offspring fueled his ambition, and Manjoume's father, with his extraordinary wisdom, devised a brilliant idea—

The eldest, second, and third sons will each develop their talents in three different fields and gain leadership positions to contribute to the Manjoume Foundation, making it bigger and stronger, giving up the Kaiba Group and defeating the International Fantasy Company, making the Manjoume Foundation great again!

This was the "fate" that Manjoume's birth set for him before he even graduated from elementary school—the shrewd and calculating eldest son, Manjoume Chosaku, became a businessman who ran a conglomerate; the second son, Manjoume Masaji, became a shrewd politician with his talent; and the youngest son, Manjoume Jun, became an excellent duelist in the increasingly popular world of Duel Monsters.

Today, Manjoume Nagasaku has built the Manjoume Group into a behemoth that ranks among the top ten in the world, and it is still developing rapidly thanks to its cooperation with the first and second ranked companies, International Illusion Company and Kaiba Group; Manjoume Masaji has become the mayor of Domino City, which can be called the center of the world, and intends to run for prime minister next year.

The original plan of "three-in-one all-round domination" and "Make-Manjome-Great-Again" has been completed by the two older brothers, and the pressure has naturally fallen on Manjome. This has also made his eldest brother, Manjome Chosaku, extremely concerned about his performance in Duel Academy.

In order to cope with the pressure from his brother, Manjoume reported the following situation to his family:

"Shall we play the roles of Manjoume's underlings and fans?" Upon hearing Judai's words, Misawa and Asuka both gave him a "Are you kidding me?" look.

“Eunice, if my brother finds out what I really look like at school, Watashi—”

Chapter 1431 A Pound of Pear!

“Eunice, if my brother finds out what I really look like at school, Watashi—”

Seeing Manjoume's unusually respectful pleading with others, Misawa was quite surprised: "Manjoume, you look like you're about to break down?"

“It’s clear that Manjoume really cares about his brother coming to school.” Judai nodded. “Even though he’s always been a very assertive person since we were little, he’s actually so afraid of his brother.”

"It's less about being afraid of his older brother and more about being afraid of disappointing him?" Marufuji Sho said with deep feeling. "Especially when there is a very outstanding and successful older brother, the pressure on the younger brother is even greater. And Manjoume even has two older brothers."

"While I can't really empathize with the fear of having your older brother come to school—after all, you all know my brother's personality—he just doesn't make me nervous." Asuka somewhat agreed with Sho's words. "However, it's true that having an outstanding older brother can be stressful. To be honest, not only Manjoume and Marufuji, but I've also had my share of 'inferiority' because of my brother."

“Right? That’s why Sho and I have agreed to help Manjoume.” Judai smiled. “When the wealthy give their surplus to the poor with a compassionate heart, that’s called ‘support.’ But to extend a helping hand to those in distress, that’s the instinct of a hero.”

"A hero cannot ignore someone like Manjou who needs help."

Judai's cool line earned Marufuji Sho's approval: "That's it! So cool, bro, that line really gives off a heroic vibe!"

"Right, right? When Manjoume asked me how to design his signature line during summer vacation, it took me several days to come up with it," Judai said, hands on his hips, quite proudly.

Misawa sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You're as energetic as ever, Judai. But I probably won't have that much free time this academic year. Dr. Bein Stein, a leading figure in the teaching of digital research theory, has been invited by the school to give a lecture this semester. I really don't want to miss such a great learning opportunity."

(A reference to Einstein)

"Bein Stein? Isn't that the dueling physicist who won the Duel Physics Prize for ten consecutive years?" Asuka remembered hearing the name before and said with some surprise, "But that 'Digital Research Theory Teaching School'... what's that name?"

"Asuka, you're lucky you can even pronounce that name. I've never even heard of 'Duel Physics.' What does dueling have to do with physics anyway?" Jaden retorted, then turned to Misawa. "But I do remember that when you introduced yourself, Rokkaku, you mentioned that you were the 'French Fries with Lettuce in Ketchup' duelist, right?"

"It's not 60% off, it's Misawa. Also, what's that name that sounds like a dish? It's the Digital Research Theory Teaching School."

Misawa corrected, "When I was in elementary school, that gentleman was already a very famous physicist. Later, with the popularity of Duel Monsters, he combined dueling with his physics research and proposed the Duel Unification Theory. This time, Dr. Bein Stein was invited to the academy in order to promote his theory and gain more recognition."

"Let me tell you, Dr. Bein Stein's theory is simply—"

"Whatever those things are, they're definitely not as serious as my brother coming to school!"

Manjoume interrupted Misawa, which made Judai and Asuka behind him breathe a sigh of relief. They were glad that Manjoume was the villain who interrupted Misawa's chanting. They weren't really interested in the detailed introduction that Misawa had almost given.

Holding Misawa's hand firmly, Manjoume said with utmost sincerity, "I can easily have my family invest in that doctor's research later, but right now I desperately need help!"

“While it’s good that you’re willing to sponsor the professor, Manjoume, it seems he already receives funding from the Kingdom of Mizgaruzeng, so he’s not exactly short of money,” Misawa said with some distress. “And frankly, having to give up such a rare lecture just to help you is really—”

"Then I can sponsor you with money!"

Manjoume's casual remark immediately made Misawa's expression turn serious: "Manjoume-kun, are you insulting my character? I am not the kind of person who would distort myself for money."

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, but this is the only time. If you say it again, I’ll get angry. The education I received growing up doesn’t support me giving up the pursuit of knowledge. You’ve misjudged me.”

Seeing Misawa's serious expression, Judai chimed in, "Even so, talking about money really hurts feelings. Manjoume, you were definitely wrong this time. Who uses money to ask for help? Just do what I did and treat him to a semester's worth of fried shrimp afterwards."

"And what about the cruise trip we were talking about? I've never been on a cruise ship in my life, and I've only ever flown once, once when school started," Marufuji Sho quickly reminded him.

"Hmph, don't worry, I won't go back on my word. It's not a huge expense," Manjoume said casually, then sincerely addressed Misawa, "I'm sorry, Misawa Daichi, I was just flustered and accidentally said—"

However, Misawa suddenly frowned and looked at Manjoume, interrupting him, "What did you just say?"

“Uh, ‘Sorry, Misawa Daichi’?” Manjoume repeated, somewhat puzzled.

Misawa's expression remained unchanged; he simply stared at Manjou, then after a moment, a deeply enigmatic smile appeared on his face: "You have a good eye for people~"

"That's all I have to say. I'm definitely going to help you out, Manjou!"

"Niiiiice!" Misawa's sudden surprise also excited Manjoume. "In this way, Judai and Misawa can serve as the representatives of the red and yellow dormitories respectively, and Marufuji can serve as the servants who serve tea and water. At least in terms of 'followers all over the dormitories,' we have made up for it."

Since Manjoume himself is from the Obelisk-Blue Dormitory, it saves him the trouble of finding Blue Dormitory students to act as his underlings. In fact, Manjoume himself has a certain number of admirers in the Blue Dormitory, so at least when Manjoume's brother visits the Blue Dormitory, he is unlikely to reveal any major flaws.

However, the fact that the Blue Dormitory had admirers was not enough to prove what Manjoume had boasted to his brother about having "many admirers and followers throughout the dormitories" at school. That's why he asked Misawa and Judai for help so that they could appear before Manjoume Chosaku when he came to school as students from the Yellow and Red Dormitories, respectively.

If any students from the red or yellow dormitories you happen to meet on the street express feelings of admiration for Manjoume, then you can definitely gloss over the fact that he's the head of the Manjoume dorm.

However, aside from the part about "admirers" and "followers," when Manjoume made his boast, he accidentally went a little too far and even fabricated the fact that he was actually very popular with girls at school.

During summer vacation, he asked Fubuki for advice on how to become popular, which led his older brother, Nagasaku Manjoume, to want to visit the school after witnessing his chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) behavior. Now he had to find a way to make himself really popular at school—even if he wasn't very popular, he had to at least appear to be popular.

Thanks to his excellent grades, good looks, and strong abilities, although he sometimes acts like a comedian, he actually has quite a few female fans at school.

However, due to his various habits—an arrogant personality, a fondness for showing off, a tendency to look down on others, always hanging out with Jaden and the others and playing childish games, a preference for staying in his dorm on weekends to surf the internet, and wiping soy sauce off the table with his sleeve while eating ramen—even though he had quite a few fans who didn't know much about him when he first enrolled, after a year, they had mostly fallen for other, better admirers.

It's not that there really weren't any left, but the number was simply not enough to prove Manjoume's boast that he was "very popular with girls at school."

However, if quantity isn't enough, quality can make up for it, so besides Misawa, Asuka was also present...

Noticing that Manjoume had turned his gaze to her, Asuka said without hesitation, "I'm not the kind of person who's swayed by money, nor will I be easily swayed just because someone calls me by my name. If you want me to pretend to be your suitor, give up on that idea now, Manjoume."

Asuka's tone was quite cold when she said this, which made Jaden realize that the rumors that others had said before that "Asuka has a cold personality and is nicknamed the 'Ice Queen'" seemed to have some credibility.

However, Manjoume completely ignored Asuka's attitude and said, "Of course I know you won't help me. Tenjouin, who doesn't know that you're only interested in that Judai guy?"

Asuka, who had just been keeping a straight face, froze for a moment. She quickly glanced at Jaden beside her and said in a panic, "W-what nonsense are you talking about? Don't say things that are easy to misunderstand!"

"Hahaha, that's right, Manjoume." Judai, who was receiving a lot of attention from Asuka at the moment, patted Manjoume on the shoulder and said with a grin, as if he thought that Manjoume's words were just a joke. "Even I know that you can't joke about girls like that."

"Heh, then just take it as a joke." Manjoume didn't explain, or rather, he was happy to watch the show—about how the relationship between Asuka and Judai would develop in the future. He turned to look at Asuka again and got back to the point, "Inviting you to be my suitor is just your own interpretation. I never made such a request."

"What I'm really looking for are your two friends, Junko Hamazu and Momoe Pillow..."

"I don't remember anyone else's name at all. It's Junko Makita and Momoe Hamaguchi."

Asuka corrected him helplessly. Hearing that Manjoume wasn't looking for her but for her two best friends, and that Judai hadn't "misunderstood" anything because of Manjoume's previous words, she felt relieved, but at the same time, she felt a little disappointed for some reason.

"I see, that's why you came to me. After all, it seems like not many guys have girls' contact information in their phones—or rather, none of the guys have girls' contact information at all. Only Judai could contact me. Are you trying to ask Junko and Momoe for help through me?"

Asuka understood perfectly that most boys her age only thought about "I want to become the world's number one duelist, and women are just a hindrance." Moreover, as far as she knew, there really weren't many known couples in the academy. On the contrary, there were quite a few dueling pairs who often teamed up to duel, such as Ohara and Kohara from the Blue Dorm.

Seeing that Manjou nodded, Asuka continued, "They haven't returned to school yet, but I can help you contact them. However, I can't guarantee whether they will agree to help you."

"After all—although they were your fans and had feelings for you for a while when you were in middle school, it seems that they had long since stopped being fans of you because you always laughed loudly and were not elegant at all after playing cards. It's hard to say whether they would be willing to play the role of your suitors."

“I have special measures prepared for this,” Manjoume said confidently, while pulling something out of his pocket—a few tickets-like items. “It doesn’t matter if they’re not interested in me, but they’re very interested in that guy Caesar. On the first day off after school starts, Caesar will face off against the renowned professional duelist ‘Ryuzaki of the Dinosaur.’ These are the VIP tickets for that professional duel.”

"Oh! Tickets to the duel that Caesar is participating in, even I can't refuse." Jaden looked conflicted. "Oh dear, if I had known, I wouldn't have agreed to use a year's worth of fried shrimp as payment so early on. But even if I could back out now, it's still hard to choose between fried shrimp and duel tickets."

"To be honest, big brother, you're too obsessed with fried shrimp. It's not that addictive, is it?" Marufuji Sho, who lived in the same red dormitory, had eaten Daitokuji's special fried shrimp many times in the past year, but he didn't think it was any different from the fried shrimp he usually ate. In fact, because it was a frozen semi-finished product, it was not as good as the fried shrimp that could be bought in the market. "Besides, there are only two tickets here. Big brother, you can't choose even if you want to."

"Sorewatoka na!" Manjoume suddenly raised his other hand, which was holding five more tickets. "These two are for 'bribing' my 'suitors,' but I never said there were only two tickets!"

At this point, Manjoume was also somewhat proud: "Caesar signed with a professional duelist agency under the Kaiba Entertainment Group, but the agency that Dinosaur Ryuzaki signed with is under the Manjoume Foundation. Although he is the only contracted duelist who can fight well, that is enough to make the agency bigger and stronger. It is easy to reserve a few tickets for the duels that his duelists participate in with the agency's reputation."

"It's said that scalpers are already selling them for as much as 60,000 yuan apiece."

"Even so, these tickets are not very useful as gifts for business entertainment, and they are not presentable for testing cadres, since which cadre cannot withstand such a test? So all these tickets ended up in my hands and I can distribute them freely."

Manjoume paused, then looked at Judai and the others, "I'm deeply grateful to Mr. Manjoume. This is an unexpected reward, not part of the agreement. Consider it a 'celebration' after dealing with my brother. We'll take my family's cruise ship to the Kaiba Dome in Domino City to watch the final battle—"

"objection!"

Before Wan Zhangmu could finish speaking, a voice suddenly rang out, interrupting him.

Annoyed, Manjou turned around and saw a boy with a dinosaur headband standing not far behind him. It seemed that he was the one who had interrupted him.

Chapter 1432 Dinosaur DNA Makes its Debut

My name is Dirano Sword Mountain.

Diranno is "Tyranno," the "Tyranno" in "Tyrannosaurus-Rex." As we all know, dinosaurs were the strongest creatures on Earth, and among dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex was arguably the strongest. Therefore, I, Diranno Sword Mountain, named after Tyrannosaurus Rex, am currently striving to become the strongest!

However, even dinosaurs have a larval stage, during which they need to constantly acquire nutrients to grow. Therefore, in order to become the strongest duelist, I enrolled in the Duel Academy this year and became a first-year student. The Duel Academy is the nest I've chosen; the legend of the strongest dinosaur duelist will begin here!

—That's what they say, but they encountered a Waterloo from the very beginning.

(Just like the year that Judai and his classmates took, the ranking of their written test scores was used as their candidate number.)

(Although it's blurry, you can see that Kenzan, number 31, was ranked eleventh in the admissions process.)

That is, the school's admission system is completely unreasonable. I was admitted to the Duel Academy's advanced division with a written test score of 31 and an overall score of 11 after the practical assessment. I learned that the students admitted to this school later, no matter how excellent their grades were, could only enter the Sun God-Yellow and not the Obelisk-Blue!

I don't care what the people who ranked ahead of me in entrance exams think, but I absolutely cannot accept being relegated to those blue-dorm students who can easily surpass me just because they attend Duel Academy's middle school!

I've already decided that after enrolling, I'll find a place that's not too remote but not usually crowded to ambush people and specifically challenge those arrogant guys in the school to duels—by betting their dueling discs.

One, two, five, ten, or even a hundred! Even if I'm forced to be assigned to a mere yellow dormitory now, it would still prove that I'm no less capable than those students in the blue dormitories.

Of course, this was just a recent "venting" moment. Ultimately, he still wanted to advance towards the top of Obelisk Blue, because his goal was never just to become stronger, but to become the strongest. In the process, he would have to defeat many enemies. His ultimate goal was to become both the Duel King and the principal of this Duel Academy, Hayato Kobayashi. But in the process of becoming stronger, he would also have to defeat legendary duelist Seto Kaiba and Ryuzaki Dinosaur, who was also a user of the Dinosaur deck.

My latest goal is to become a Charisma (authority) within the academy. I will defeat strong opponents to establish my authority within the Duel Academy, and then further establish the "Dilano Group" named after myself, gradually growing it into a student force that even the teachers cannot ignore.

At that time, I might be able to use the power of the Duel Academy to more easily find the legendary duelists there and gain their recognition to become a strong person.

"Dilano, you are too strong. I look forward to your growth. So let me introduce you to some powerful duelists I know as your opponents."