Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Seeing his opponent draw a card from his deck, Manjoume immediately said, "Then during the opponent's preparation phase, the effect of my [Nightmare Mirage] in the back row will allow me to draw cards from my deck until I have four cards in my hand."

“Since I have zero cards in my hand, I can draw four cards from my deck. Draw!” After adding four cards to his hand, Manjoume continued, “However, during my next turn’s preparation phase, I will also need to randomly discard the same number of cards I drew.”

"But, all you need to do is get [Nightmare Mirage] off the field before that, right? Hayato-sama has used this move way too many times. So, I suppose one of your backrow face-down cards will also be [Extraordinary Food], which often appears alongside [Nightmare Mirage], right?"

Upon hearing this, Wan Zhangmu raised an eyebrow, not giving a direct answer: "Who knows? Maybe it's [Extraordinary Food], but it could also be [Mysterious Chinese Pot]. No, it might even be [Explosive Armor]."

"Does anyone actually put [Explosive Armor] in their deck?" the opponent asked rhetorically.

"At least it can be used to bait out the opponent's [Whirlwind], right?"

Upon hearing Manjoume's words, the duelist opposite him nodded: "That's true, hehehehe."

"Hey, you!" Seeing the other person laugh, Manjoume looked like he couldn't take it anymore. He pointed at the other person with an angry expression and said, "Stop making that stupid face in my face!"

Standing opposite Wan Zhangmu, Wan Zhangmu shrugged smugly: "You can only give orders if you can defeat me. I don't accept being told what to do by the weak."

"You have the nerve to say that, you bastard who stole my appearance!" Manjoume said through gritted teeth, "You born evil [Imitation Fantasy Master]!"

Unlike Asuka, who wasted a lot of time being chased by the Harpy, Manjoume also encountered a Duel Monster in the forest. However, whether it was good luck or bad luck, he encountered the Disruption Clan, and the leader, Disruption Yellow, was the same one he had seen with Hayato.

Although the [Disruption Yellow] was extremely arrogant at the beginning because a large group of its brothers followed it, and even dared to threaten Manjoume to demand "tolls", Manjoume possessed the rare qualities of a "spirit user". Even though he did not rely on specific analysis to find the answer like Asuka, the [Dragon of Light and Darkness] itself had already informed him of the abnormal state of the surrounding environment.

As a result, Manjoume immediately materialized and summoned the [Dragon of Light and Darkness]. Although [Disruption Yellow] initially remained arrogant because its brothers [Disruption Green] and [Disruption Black] were with it, thinking it could continue to contend with Manjoume, it wisely surrendered after realizing that its "good brothers" had betrayed it and run away at the first opportunity.

Despite its cowardice, [Disruption Yellow]'s loyalty was still unquestionable. Even though Manjou had threatened it, it kept its mouth shut and did not betray Hayato by telling Manjou too much information. It merely acted as a guide, indicating that it was willing to lead Manjou to various supply points.

The mischievous creature initially tried to lead Manjoume to the territory of the nearby Armed Dragon, but after Manjoume, disliking insects, casually killed a nest of Giant Moths as he passed by, Disruption Yellow immediately forgot its ulterior motives.

Having jumped off the plane earlier than Asuka, he naturally landed earlier as well. After all, he had learned parachuting before and wouldn't have been floating in the air for as long as Marufuji Sho. However, he also encountered the same situation as Asuka, which was that he was exhausted because he summoned a materialized card spirit.

Without special items like the Millennium Treasure or special powers like the Prana Power, Manjoume himself couldn't summon materialized card spirits in ordinary places. The only time he could do so was during the "Seven Stars" incident last year when he encountered Kagemaru. Unfortunately, he was defeated but was protected from injury by the "Dragon of Light and Darkness" that appeared for a moment.

However, because the way Judai and the others rescued him was too rough, and because his face was swollen for more than a week after falling to the ground, he was still in pain.

However, this also shows that Manjoume's [Dragon of Light and Darkness] has at least awakened to the second stage of the Card Spirit, namely "possessing the ability to materialize in a preliminary way to influence reality". In other words, even without Manjoume, [Dragon of Light and Darkness] itself could barely materialize, not to mention that the environment here is somewhat special.

But Manjoume felt an enormous loss of energy, not just a large amount. It was as if he had run a race with Uma Musume and was exhausted, especially since the race horses were legendary ones like Golden Master, Great Shock, and Good Opera. This was just too abnormal!

Although [Disruption Yellow] said he couldn't answer, the answer itself was the answer. It's estimated that this, like the special environment on the island that allows Duel Monsters to materialize, is the work of their good teacher, Hayato Kobayashi.

Due to the loss of stamina, Manjoume, who summoned materialized card spirits more frequently than Asuka, also had to eat early. He ate two meals to use up his daily quota, and even gave one to [Disruption Yellow] in return for its gratitude—although in Manjoume's opinion, receiving such a small fry's favor was completely useless.

After careful calculation, Manjoume realized that although he had indeed carried enough food for an average person to consume for a week, as Hayato had said, even if he only summoned materialized card spirits twice a day, the food would be exhausted in five days at most. If the frequency were increased by one or two more times, he probably wouldn't even last three days.

Hayato's earlier question about whether even the fastest among them would take a week to reach the finish line was answered when Manjoume encountered [Disruption Yellow]. Since Hayato said that, it's likely they really will have to "survive in the wilderness" on the island for at least a week, making the lack of food an issue that cannot be ignored.

Originally, Manjoume thought there was no need for him to go to the supply point, as he could try to reach the destination within a week with the supplies he had. But now it seems that he has no choice but to go to the supply point.

Under the guidance of [Disruption·Huang], even though Wan Zhangmu didn't remember the detailed map of his area, he found the supply point very smoothly. After reading the text on the sign, he decisively stepped into the supply point.

Since Asuka encountered the materialized Duel Monster, [Sonic Bird], after finding the supply depot, this situation inevitably occurred to Manjoume as well. The Duel Monster he encountered at this supply depot was the "Manjoume" before him—or rather, [Imitation Dreamer].

Asuka's encounter with the "Sonic Bird" was just a normal game of cards, but Manjoume's encounter with the "Imitation Dreamer" was a huge surprise from the start—it actually used Manjoume as a template and "imitated" him to become another "Manjoume"!

Even though the two sides used different decks, even if Manjou's two older brothers came, they would have difficulty distinguishing which side was their younger brother.

【Manjou: 4000LP, 4 cards in hand】

【Dragon King of Light and Darkness】【ATK3400/2000】

【Dragon of Light and Ascension】【DEF2100】

[Nightmare of the Mirage Tower] [Ruins of the Giant Dragon] [Given Card] x3

On the surface, Manjou's field control is very strong. The [Light and Darkness Dragon King] can provide two forced activations of the three-color counters, and the [Light and Ascended Dragon] also has the ability to reduce the opponent's attack power by lowering its own attack power and defense power when the opponent declares an attack, thus preventing the opponent from directly using battle to clear the field after weakening the [Light and Darkness Dragon King].

Needless to say, 【Nightmare of the Mirage】is the strongest restriction card currently on Manjoume's field. While Manjoume has the Level 8 Dragon monster 【Light and Ascendant Dragon】 on his field, 【Relics of the Giant Dragon】can negate the effects of all monsters that are not Special Summoned from the Graveyard for one turn.

Not to mention the three face-down cards in his back row—although Manjoume knew that only one of them could probably be activated successfully, wouldn't a back row full of cards be scary enough? As long as he could scare his opponent, then the face-down cards he set up would be meaningful. After all, as he just said, who knows, he might even be able to trick someone into using a [Whirlwind] card.

But the problem is, the deck used by that "Manjoume" on the other side—oops, what "Manjoume," I mean, that [Imitation Fantasy Master]—

[Imitation Fantasy Master: 2000 LP, Hand 0→1]

【Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon】(Mixed Origin Dragon - Giant Vortex Progenitor God)【ATK3000】

【Millennium Eye Sacrifice to the Demon】(Dragon of Darkness and Annihilation)【ATK2600】

The Magician's Left Hand The Magician's Right Hand

That's right, the deck used by [Imitation Fantasy] is none other than the famous deck that Pegasus, the "father of Duel Monsters," created for himself in the past, the deck related to [Requiem]!

—Don't ask where he came from. Others rarely see Pegasus, this increasingly reclusive manga otaku, so how could Hayato not find him? Even if the drop rate is low, with enough attempts, it's easy to collect all the [Requiem] series cards that Pegasus can drop, or even more than three. It's a piece of cake to put together a [Requiem Demon] specialized deck.

Last turn, Manjoume was mocking his opponent for using two face-up Attack Position monsters, [Narcissus] and [Thousand-Eyes Narcissus], with no equipped monsters, while Special Summoning two high-ATK Dragon-Type monsters, [Dark and Destroy Dragon] and [Mixed Dragon - Giant Vortex Primordial God], to quickly defeat his opponent. Who knew that [Imitation Fantasy] would pull out a quick-play Fusion card, [Narcissus Fusion], and Fusion Summon [Thousand-Eyes Narcissus].

Along with one of the fusion materials, the Golden Cult God, Manjou's Primordial Dragon - Giant Vortex was immediately taken away as an equipment card for the Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon. Even though Manjou tried to destroy the Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon with the effect of the Dark and Destroy Dragon, it was directly destroyed by the effect of the Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon and turned into an equipment card as well. Even the effects that had already been activated were negated by the Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon.

With a Spellcaster monster on the field, [Magician's Left Hand] and [Magician's Right Hand], which can negate Spell Cards and Trap Cards once each, tried their best to play cards like [Lightning Strike], and even had [Light and Darkness Dragon King], which uses [Armored Knight Dragon - Knight Armored Dragon -] as Fusion Material, negate the opponent's effect once, but they could only barely reduce the opponent's cards on the field to the current level.

The current situation is that no matter which effect either side activates, my [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] will be forced to trigger its effect to negate it. However, at the same time, it will trigger the effect of [Millennium Eye Requiem], allowing the opponent to add any effect monster from my field or graveyard to my Equip Card. In addition to increasing the ATK and DEF of the equipped monster, it can also further negate the effects of monsters with the same name as the equipped monster.

Combined with the ability of [Thousand-Eyed Sacrifice Demon] to seal the attacks of all monsters on both sides except itself and to change their battle modes, it made Manjoume extremely uncomfortable and completely unable to play Duel Monsters properly.

As everyone knows, Duel Monsters is a brutal game; if you can play on one side, that's pretty much it. Since Manjoume's side wasn't having much of a gaming experience, a smile naturally appeared on the face of Jaman—that is, "Jamanjoume" in the form of the [Imitation Fantasy Master].

"Hmph~ Hmph~" With a relaxed smile, Xie Wan enjoyed Manjoume's smug expression. "This is the feeling, Manjoume. No wonder Hayato-sama enjoys stealing other people's monsters so much. This feeling is so wonderful. This strange feeling of using other people's monsters to attack others, and being attacked while the attacker can only glare at you with a frustrated expression."

"That's the expression! That expression of wanting to kill me but being powerless to do anything about it, hahaha!"

Jake pulled out a card from his hand and showed it to Manjoume, saying, "You seal the effects of monsters that I Special Summon that aren't from the Graveyard, right? That's easy, I'll just Normal Summon them, won't I?"

"I usually summon myself—[The Imitation Fantasy Master]!"

From his hand, a monster card was played, and a monster with a mirror covering its face emerged from Jōjō's body and appeared on the field. It immediately pointed the mirror at the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] on Manjō's field. This was the prototype of the [Steel Fantasy Master] previously used by Fubuki, and the true form of Jōjō standing before Manjō—[Imitation Fantasy Master]!

[Imitation Fantasy Master] [DEF0]

"When the 【Imitation Fantasy】 is successfully Summoned, Special Summoned, or Flip Summoned, select one face-up monster on your opponent's field to activate this effect. Change its ATK to the same value as the original ATK and DEF of the monster that was flipped. The monster I want to select is, of course, the 【Light and Darkness Dragon King】 on your field, Manjoume."

Xie Wan paused, then opened his arms. "It doesn't matter whether your [Light and Darkness Dragon King] reduces attack power or not, because [Imitation Illusionist] reads your original attack power—but I suppose before that, your [Light and Darkness Dragon King] will also forcefully activate its own effect to nullify mine, right?"

"In that case—the effect of [Millennium Eye Sacrifice Demon] will soon meet the activation conditions, stealing your [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] as an Equip Card!"

As Xie Wan explained his open scheme, [Imitation Fantasy] had already locked onto [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] with a mirror, and the latter, feeling its dignity challenged, was about to activate its own effect to negate [Imitation Fantasy]'s effect.

Chapter 1460 Is it strange that a pure dragon deck has Gaia?

"Chain with [Imitation Fantasy], the effect of [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] activates automatically." Although reluctant, Manjoume was forced to state the effect of [Dragon King of Light and Darkness]: "When a monster's effect, Spell Card, or Trap Card is activated, this card's ATK and DEF decrease by 1000 points, and negate that activation!"

"The Breath of Gold!"

Since the reduction in attack and defense is not the cost of activating the [Light and Darkness Dragon King] effect but rather part of the effect itself, the attack power of [Light and Darkness Dragon King] remains unchanged at 3400 points for the time being. However, with a threatening roar, it seems about to unleash a portion of its power as a golden dragon breath with nullifying effects to repel the [Imitation Fantasy Master] that is trying to offend it.

But this was the moment Xie Wan had been waiting for!

"This self-activating effect, just like the [Sky Dragon of Osiris], no wonder Lord Hayato called it the 'Traitor Dragon'!" Xie Wan looked at the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] with a satisfied smile. "But this is the moment I've been waiting for!"

"Although you only used the effect of [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] once last turn, I've already figured it out. Its effect can only be used once in a chain, right? In that case, as long as I bait out its effect with any effect first, and then add the effect of Spell Speed ​​2, I can activate the effect!"

"C1 [Imitation Fantasy Master], C2 [Dragon King of Light and Darkness], then C3! My [Millennium Eye Sacrifice Demon] effect activates!"

With a wave of his hand, Xie Wan said, "Once per turn, when your opponent activates a monster effect, you can target 1 Effect Monster on your opponent's field or in their Graveyard—equip that Effect Monster to [Millennium Eye Reaper] as an Equip Card!"

"The monster I've chosen is naturally your 'Dragon King of Light and Darkness'! Monsters with the same name as the monster card equipped by the effect of 'Millennium Eyes' will be unable to attack and their effects will be negated, thus negating the effects activated by your 'Dragon King of Light and Darkness'!"

The countless golden eyes that covered the hand of the [Millennial Eyes of the Sacrifice Demon] suddenly opened, and its body shone brightly. In an instant, the sky was covered by its power. Upon closer inspection, one could see that countless "thousand eyes" were floating in the air, looking down from above at the ten thousand-foot eye and the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness].

"With a hundred eyes and a thousand gazes, blending in with the world!"

The golden dragon breath of the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] entered the golden light emanating from the [Millennial Eye Sacrifice Demon], but it failed to cause the slightest ripple. Instead, the golden light expanded further, intending to encompass and devour the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] as well!

"Damn it! How am I supposed to resist such a powerful force! [Millennium Eye Sacrifice Demon] is terrifyingly strong. It's really frustrating that I couldn't let it have its fill—" Manjoume showed a panicked expression, but as he spoke, he couldn't help but complain, "It's no good. I can't portray that feeling of being truly desperate at all. Tsk, I still need to practice more in this area."

"Huh?" Xie Wan was taken aback, looking at Manjoume, who seemed completely unconcerned about him, with some surprise.

Just as he was about to say something, he heard Manjoume speak up: "It seems that the strong can attract a lot of fans by marching triumphantly on the road to invincibility, but I still have some self-awareness. That kind of battle is not very suitable for me. There was an American guy on the duelist forum named 'Aspiring to be a Manga Artist' who replied to me, saying that a more dramatic duel process is actually very popular, such as the protagonist encountering a strong enemy and struggling hard before winning or something."

"I was thinking of having a duel with you, who has my face on it, and trying to act out that kind of struggle, but I feel like Caesar is more experienced in this area. Should I go and learn from him? Tsk, absolutely not!"

Hearing Wan Zhangmu talking to himself, Xie Wan still didn't quite understand and pressed, "I still don't understand why you have such a leisurely attitude, when your [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] is about to—"

"About to be devoured by your [Millennium Eye Sacrifice Demon]? Tsk tsk, still haven't realized it? You only imitated my handsome face but failed to learn my perfect personality as well." Manjoume narcissistically flicked his bangs and pointed at Jaman. "Then let me tell you the truth! The answer is actually—when did you start having the illusion that I really find your [Millennium Eye Sacrifice Demon] troublesome?"

"Huh? Could it be that it wasn't true?" Xie Wan was stunned. The [Millennium Eye Sacrifice Demon], which clearly possessed the ability to sense emotions, had told him that the other party had indeed experienced a troublesome emotion for a moment. Could it have been mistaken?

"Of course it's not real, it was all a perfect performance by me!"

—This is a lie. Manjoume did panic, but he calmed down immediately after seeing the perfect hand he drew with [Nightmare of the Mirage] and continued his performance.

Now he intends to attribute both the real and the fake to acting, forcefully muddle through, and change the subject, saying, "In my last round, you tested the flaws in the [Light and Darkness Dragon King] effect, but I also tested the flaws in your setup in the last round!"

"That's right! That's it—although [Magician's Left Hand] and [Magician's Right Hand] protect you from being affected by Spell/Trap Cards, and [Millennium Eyes Revenge] effectively counters Monster Effects, the problem is that each of their effects can only be used once!"

"Just like you dodged the first effect of 'Dragon King of Light and Darkness' with two consecutive effects, I only need to use two Spell/Trap and Monster effects to evade your seal!" Manjoume said arrogantly, drawing a card from his hand. "Using the Pegasus Deck, the originator of Duel Monsters, this card is more suitable to deal with you, isn't it?"

"I can activate this effect by Tributing one of my Dragon-Type Fusion Monsters on the field - Special Summon this monster from my hand!"

"The card of Hayato-sensei who defeated Pegasus—[Dark Knight - Gaia Warrior]!"

Before Xie Wan could react, the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] on the field of Wan Zhangmu had already disintegrated itself and transformed the power of light and darkness into armor before being absorbed by the power of [Millennium Eye Sacrifice Demon], and flew into Wan Zhangmu's hand!

As Manjoume placed a card on the duel disk, a warrior wielding a gun made a dashing entrance!

【Dark Knight - Gaia Warrior】【8☆/Dark】

[Warrior Race/Effect]

[2600/2100]

A pure dragon deck, balanced between light and dark? The deck of Manjou is not as simple as people might stereotype it to be; it underwent special adjustments during the past holiday. Among these adjustments was the addition of "Dark Knight - Gaia Warrior," specifically designed to address the vulnerability of the newly acquired "Dragon King of Light and Darkness" to being tricked into having its effect canceled out quickly.

Although the Gaia deck was a frequently used deck by Hayato Kobayashi in his early days in Duel King, causing the prices of Gaia series cards—especially powerful individual cards like Dark Knight Gaia Warrior—to rise along with the increasing popularity of Duel Monsters and the spread of Duel King's fame, Manjoume acquired this card six years ago, before Duel City was even finished.

Because Hayato saved the brothers, after giving Hayato the "Dragon of Light and Darkness" that he had always disliked, Manjoume got this card from the card shop under the Manjoume Foundation to fill the gap in his deck of only 39 cards. Even if he couldn't summon it, it didn't matter. A true duelist can still win a duel even with a useless card.

—Then, the next day, Manjoume discovered that a new "Dragon of Light and Darkness" card had inexplicably appeared in his deck by his bedside. Even though he had already given the card away, it was as if the deck had been haunted.

With tears in his eyes, he put the "Dragon of Light and Darkness" back into his deck. Manjoume simply put the "Dark Knight - Gaia Warrior" in a card sleeve and sealed it in a card brick, placing it on his bedside table as a collectible. It wasn't until this holiday that he finally put this card, which, like "Daughter's Red Wine," became more and more valuable the more he collected it back into use.

Don't think that Manjoume's idea was just a wild fantasy. His idea of ​​adding the Dark Knight - Gaia Warrior was quite ingenious - a fact proven by countless duels he had with the dueling robots from Kaiba Park.

"Lord Gaia!?" Xaya's eyes widened, completely unable to believe that Manjoume, who had just been playing with a pure dragon monster, would suddenly pull out a card disguised as "Dark Knight Gaia." Although he quickly realized that the "Dark Knight Gaia Warrior" before him was just an ordinary Duel Monster and not the Gaia beside Hayato, Xaya showed anger for the first time. "You actually used that lord's card to fool me!"

"Why does your deck have those meaningless cards?!"