Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

He certainly wouldn't use the Blue-Eyed Girl for experiments. Even if the experiment itself wasn't dangerous, why would he need to use the Blue-Eyed Girl when he had the Legendary White Stone?

Even Keihei, who was present at the experiment and witnessed the entire process next to Kaiba, found it somewhat incomprehensible, let alone Hayato, who heard Keihei recount it a second time. In short, Kaiba, through a duel with his unique human-machine opponent, "fully summoned" the card "Legendary White Stone" and then "fully summoned" the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" on the field. Through the resonance between the two cards on the field, which did not exist in the first place, for a moment, Kaiba, with the help of the "quantum observation device" he developed in his laboratory, which was similar to Sera's, captured the image of a new dragon-type monster that did not exist in this world!

It was ethereal and clear, yet it was a new dragon race that Kaiba, who claimed to be the world's best expert on Blue-Eyes dragons and said, "No one understands Blue-Eyes White Dragons better than me," could immediately identify with just one glance!

What's the difference between letting Seahorse, a terminally ill dragon cancer patient, see a new dragon race that captivates him, and letting Popo see a prosperous city?

—At least the people in Bobo need to sleep, but the research on the hippocampus won't stop.

According to Keipai, Kaiba was so excited after the experiment that he finally closed his eyes to rest—with the help of Keipai using an electric shock device. A byproduct of Kaiba's experiment was this device called the "Duel Energy Collection Device," which was supposedly invented by Kaiba based on the discovery that the overactive duel energy on the "Legendary White Stone" card existed because there were no active "journey particles" to act as a medium for transmitting energy.

Incidentally, besides this, Kaiba's "Legendary White Stone" has also undergone a further evolution, creating a new card called "Ancient White Stone." Because of this, Kaiba plans to research further to see if he can print a few new "Blue-Eyes Girl" cards.

Although it is not the core component of the perpetual motion machine, the Duel Energy Collection Device still plays a significant role. As Hayato and Bakura mentioned, it enables ordinary people without supernatural abilities, who cannot see spirits, or who have never even played the Duel Monsters game to materialize Duel Monsters with the supply of Duel Energy.

It doesn't even matter if they're not human; Hayato uses the energy generated from his card game with Kaiba to materialize the Duel Monsters on the island, but what maintains this state is a wide-area distribution device that Kaiba casually created.

Hayato only mentioned to Kaiba that in the future someone might use some kind of device to absorb duelists' dueling energy and collect it in one place. In less than an hour, Kaiba completed this countermeasure device, which can reverse the dueling energy in one place and spread it over a very large area. Even if someone does appear who wants to collect dueling energy for some purpose, this device can be used to thwart their efforts.

The materialization of all the Duel Monsters on the island can only be considered a side effect, as it is a phenomenon caused by the lack of people capable of accepting the Duel Energy that has been spread across the island.

This also shows the differences between people. Young people like Jaden and Manjoume would have to expend a lot of energy to replenish the energy of their duel when they materialized their closest Duel Monsters in a very short time. But the energy generated by just one duel between Hayato and Kaiba was enough to materialize all the Duel Monsters on the island for a week or even longer.

It's no wonder that the city of New Domino, where Yusei Fudo is located, receives a large amount of "duel energy" full of "emotional energy" from Yusei particles through the passionate duels of the duelists, thus achieving something that sounds like a "perpetual motion machine" that only exists in fantasy.

Hayato may not be very knowledgeable about physics, but he does know about Duel Monsters. The idea that he's actually a perpetual motion machine sounds reasonable, and it's more plausible than the idea that playing cards to a certain extent can destroy dimensions, right?

"The reason I invited you to the island as 'safety officers' is partly because I, as a responsible teacher, am thinking about the safety of my lovely students. But more importantly, it's because I need the dueling energy generated from duels among different groups of people, and I need to further analyze the 'duel energy' based on the data provided by these different samples."

Looking at the crowd before him, Hayato tossed the tube of Duel Energy in his hand, which he had taken from Sera's Duel Disk. Each of the others in front of him also had a tube of Duel Energy in their Duel Disks. "Will the energy gained from a victory that turns the tide be more concentrated? Will the energy gained from a duel filled with anticipation be as exhilarating as one's mood? Will the energy gained with arrogance or fear be diluted?"

"This is why I need you all to lend me your power, you 'Outsiders' who were once villains."

The former leader of "Grus", the former human form of the "Dark Great Evil God", the "thief" with a bad reputation, one of the three knights of "Doma", plus "Prana" who once surpassed humans, these are the special characteristics of the people that Hayato brought to the island, that is, they have all been involved in the dark side of the world to some extent.

Paradox, from the apocalyptic future, said that the degeneration of human nature led to the end of the world. Whether negative emotions would affect the duel energy, Kaiba didn't care, but Hayato did, which led to this "Great Expedition".

"A villain?" Kajiki Ryota didn't understand. He pointed to himself and said, "I used to stand in the way of Jonouchi becoming the world champion and faced him. Does that count?"

"Oh, you're in the control group."

While Hayato was speaking, Keith had already skillfully disassembled the Duel Disk. His past experience of depravity had taught Keith a cheating technique, and naturally, he had also studied how to crack the Duel Disk cheating method. However, the Kaiba Corporation's technology level was too high. He thought that the Duel Disk disassembly technique he had learned was useless, but he didn't expect it to come in handy at this time.

Upon disassembling the Duel Disk, Keith immediately spotted a glass tube placed below the display screen showing the basic score. Inside, the same liquid as in Hayato's test tube, though it appeared to be liquid, made no sound when shaken, which explained why he hadn't noticed it.

Without any intention of studying it, Keith casually tossed it to Hayato without caring whether he could catch it or not. Seeing Hayato stand still and easily catch the glass tube with a simple wave of his hand, Keith curled his lip and said unhappily, "You really have the talent of a capitalist to exploit me so thoroughly, Hayato Kobayashi."

“Don’t talk nonsense. I should be called a people’s entrepreneur,” Hayato corrected, taking the glass tubes that Ameruda and Kajiki Ryota handed him. The dueling energy stored inside them seemed to be less than that of Keith.

This doesn't necessarily indicate the skill level of the duel, but it can reflect the intensity of the duel and the emotional state it evoked. It's clear that Keith was indeed quite red-hot in his duel with Jaden; Hayato speculates that this was mainly due to the stimulation from Jaden's [E·Hero Chaos Neos] card, which plagiarized the coin-flipping ability.

"I have one too?" Malik was surprised to find that he had also taken out half a tube of Duel Energy from his Duel Disk. He was very puzzled. "I've only been playing games since I came to the island. I even just put on the Duel Disk today. I haven't really been dueling much."

Malik was telling the truth, after all, his dueling disc hadn't even had its elastic band adjusted; it was still loose and not properly secured.

"I said, all dueling activities. Theoretically, this device is completely complete. Even the spectators watching the matches can provide a certain amount of dueling energy. What's more—don't underestimate my intelligence network! Malik, the game you play is Duel Monsters League, and you got repeatedly frustrated by a top laner playing 'Golden Kingdom' during your Master to Grandmaster promotion match, right?"

"Playing online games can generate electricity? Wait a minute, how come you know so much about this, brother-in-law?"

"Although my main account is called 'Just Got Off the Steel Tank in Zeon,' my smurf account 'Cassidin Dreams Back to the Atlantic' is my Master rank account. By the way, my Platinum rank account is 'Li Abao Who Got Hit Twice'."

Hearing Hayato calmly admit to having so many alternate accounts, Kajiki Ryota remarked, "If this gets exposed online, the Duel King will get another nickname: 'Alternate Account Sage,' right? Hmm, wait a minute, that last ID sounds familiar?"

"Oh, I was the one who used [Silver City] to take down you, Jonouchi, and Ryuzaki in a 3-on-1 battle last time, causing you to lose your promotion match."

"*Fisherman's swear words*!"

"Anyway, I've accepted your duel energy, and the promised reward will be delivered to you soon." Hayato said, glancing at the five glass tubes containing duel energy in his hand. It wasn't the tired joke about "five tubes not enough," but rather that there were six other people present besides him.

Bakura scratched the back of his head sheepishly and said to Hayato, "Although you invited me to the island, I've only been enjoying the scenery and having a picnic with the animals in the forest these past few days. I haven't had any duels or encountered any situations that required one."

"Um... I'm so sorry I couldn't gather enough duel energy for you, Hayato!"

Even though it wasn't his fault, Bakura still took the blame upon himself. Seeing this, Hayato couldn't help but sigh, "How kind of you, Bakura. But we're best friends, there's no need to say such formal things."

"How could such a trivial matter possibly damage the proof of our friendship?"

“Yes, yes, yes, it’s both ‘Heart Transformation’ and ‘Spiritual Exophysical Body’. Anyone who has fought you knows how deep your bond is with this guy named Bakura. We’ve all witnessed it.” Ameruda couldn’t help but retort, “What a deep friendship.”

"I have no interest in those things, but since there's nothing else, I need to go back and prepare for this year's competition." Keith's face was expressionless, using a sour face to hide his true feelings. He had long wanted to get away from here, from Bakura Malik and Ameluda. "The reward for getting me to do this..."

"It will be delivered to you on time. I'm not going to be greedy for just a few cards."

Although Hayato said that, after witnessing how his opponent would steal his deck every time he won a game, Keith suddenly felt that the claim was a little less credible.

Tsk, I definitely won't do it again next time—

"You can get your cards customized anytime at the International Illusion Society. But speaking of which, are you guys interested in this event?" Hayato tempted them by pulling out a GeneX competition poster. "Lots of prizes!"

Incidentally, the name of the GeneX tournament has been crossed out on the promotional poster in Hayato's hand, and replaced with the words "The Second World Martial Arts Tournament".

"To determine the strongest below the Duel King?" To be honest, Keith, who knew his own limitations, wasn't very interested in this, but his eyes behind his sunglasses became hot. The reason was that he saw the newly added invited participant on the poster - that guy, Kobayashi Hayato. Even Pegasus, that lazy otaku who likes to slack off, was invited to participate!

Chapter 1528 On the other hand, things are really going badly for Manjoume.

“There’s something I find strange, Mr. Hayato.” Watching the helicopter carrying Ameruda and the others leave the island, Sera looked at Hayato with a puzzled expression and asked, “You treat others as tools to be used, so why aren’t the others angry with you?”

"You were taking advantage of them without their knowledge."

Sera is not only using the duels of Amelda, Ryota Kajiki, and Keith to collect duel energy for herself under various circumstances, but she is also referring to Jaden and the others who were sent to the island by Hayato for an adventure and were immediately sent back to the Duel Academy by Hayato after the event.

It can't really be that Hayato cares about his students and is concerned about their growth, right? That kind of reason can only fool guys like Edward who have a fan filter for Hayato. If you told Malik and the others that, no one would believe it.

Not only Sera, but Bakura was also looking at Hayato with a "I'm curious" expression, waiting for his answer.

"Because I'm very strong."

Hayato said matter-of-factly, "I'm stronger than any of them individually, even stronger than them combined. So no one will be angry about being my pawn. After all, I'm using them as valuable pawns, not sacrificing them as useless pawns. That should be enough for them to be grateful, right?"

"For that reason?" Sera raised an eyebrow.

"As the old saying goes, 'To be a dog of the Ming Dynasty is the greatest honor.' So what if I used Kajiki Ryota and the others? It's not like I didn't pay them." Hayato shrugged. "Besides, I used them to help my students grow because I care about them. Sigh, how can there be such a compassionate duelist in the world?"

Hearing Hayato's words, Bakura said with great emotion, "He's as gentle as ever, Hayato-kun."

"Hmph, as expected of my best friend, Bakura, you really understand me. I can't help it, I'm just too kind-hearted and care too much about my students."

"Huh? Someone actually believes what you say, brother-in-law?" Seeing that Bakura had so easily believed Hayato's nonsense, and that Hayato was even going along with Bakura's words, Malik couldn't help but complain, "You treat those students the same way, don't you? You treat everyone like pawns, sending them around at will without caring about their feelings, summoning them when you want and dismissing them when you don't." Is your so-called "care" the kind of concern you show to useful pawns?

“Is there anything wrong with that? Rather, should I treat them as ‘soldiers’ that can be sacrificed at will?” Hayato spread his hands. “There is never love or hate without a source in the world. Even the feelings between relatives are driven by blood ties or years of shared experiences.”

"My attitude towards Kajiki Ryota and the others stems from their strength. The fact that they are strong enough to catch my eye is the root of my ability to treat them this way. In chess, people generally have different attitudes towards the Queen, who can move freely, and the Rook, which can only move in a straight line, and the Bishop, which can only move diagonally, right?"

"Abilities, or abilities that haven't yet been discovered and can only be called 'talents,' are the key to my special attitude towards them. After all, I don't have a relationship with them that can influence my attitude enough." After a pause, Hayato continued, "That's true for professional duelists, even for people like Jaden Yuki."

"Only things that can be used by me are worth taking seriously, while things that have no use to me should be discontinued!"

Sera looked at Hayato and said, "Trying to use people as chess pieces? Do you consider yourself the king of chess, Mr. Hayato?"

But Hayato shook his head without hesitation and denied it: "No, I have never considered myself the king piece on the chessboard that can determine the outcome of the game—I am just a chess player."

"To be able to say such things so confidently, as expected of my brother-in-law, he easily did what I couldn't do. It really makes me feel excited and full of admiration!" Malik said, not disgusted at all, but in full agreement with Hayato's theory that objectified people to an extreme degree. At the same time, he looked at Bakura beside him, "But isn't it a bit too dark for this guy?"

"Huh, really?" Bakura tilted his head, seemingly understanding but not quite, and said in confusion, "Doesn't Hayato mean that although he is very realistic, he can still be influenced by emotions and change his judgment? After all, he also said that the reason he used other people was simply because they didn't have enough of a relationship with Hayato."

"However, when you were talking to me, Hayato casually glossed over the fact that I couldn't help him gather duel energy. Doesn't that mean that you think my feelings for you are even greater than the strength of Mr. Kajiki Ryota and Mr. Keith, plus the benefits they can bring to Hayato?"

At this point, Bakura suddenly paused, then turned his head away shyly: "I suddenly feel...so embarrassed..."

"No, why are you blushing like that [Pot of Greed]?" Malik complained. "Every time I browse the forum, I see that confident and dashing look in your ads, and you seem pretty normal when you're with Yugi and the others. So why do you only show that girlish expression in front of my brother-in-law?"

“Because commercials are all scripted performances, I don’t need to show any real emotions, so there’s no need to be shy,” Bakura said. “But even so, many people still develop real feelings for me because of my performances, and I have a lot of headaches with those female fans and even male fans.”

“But Hayato is different. He is an extremely important person to me who changed my life.”

Bakura omitted some details, such as Hayato changing Bakura's life mainly referring to the control that the Dark Evil God exerted over Bakura through his persona as "Dark Bakura," and Hayato being the hero who banished him and Bakura.

"Wow, you guys aren't up to something in Nantong, are you? And one of them happens to be my brother-in-law, what a mess! You're not planning to take advantage of my sister's absence, beat him up, and force him to have sex—"

"Oh!"

Using a silencing spell (physical), Hayato made Malik crouch on the ground, clutching the large bump on his head. Hayato retorted, "You *Domino Ichi* swearing caterpillar, what's the point of having such a vivid imagination?"

“Although his actions are full of cold reality, he still has human emotions at heart…” Sera muttered to herself as she summarized Hayato’s words, then breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s good.”

As a fellow "New-Type," Hayato immediately guessed what Sera was thinking: "Are you worried that because I've been standing alone in a high position for so long, I'm gradually losing my empathy for other humans and turning into a machine that doesn't understand people and only cares about practical interests?"

"Because there are precedents. Wise rulers work diligently in the first few decades of their reign, but in their old age they become senile and indulge in absurd ways; heroes who uphold justice are defeated and corrupted by cruel reality; and dragon slayers become the next dragons. The only lesson that mankind can learn from history is that mankind cannot learn from history."

Sera said seriously, "Even you, Mr. Hayato, can't guarantee that you will never change, right? Especially since you are the strongest in the world, the weight of that lonely strength can easily crush the thinking of ordinary people."

“But I’m not an ordinary person. That’s all I’m proud of.” Hayato chuckled and patted Sera’s head. “Besides, it’s not the old folks who create the new era. Although that’s what I said earlier, the main purpose of this event was to help Jaden Yuki and the others grow enough. I also wanted to check their current level and see if they needed someone else to back them up.”

"A safety net?" Sera asked, puzzled. "Mr. Hayato, are you implying that they're about to encounter some danger?"

"Before the entrance exams, we always have to take mock exams to check our level. Next, the 'Second Martial Arts Tournament in the World'... I mean the 'GeneX' tournament will cause quite a stir at Duel Academy. Of course, I need to make sure their level is enough to protect Duel Academy. Otherwise, if I blindly trust their strength and cause my Duel Academy to be lost, wouldn't that be a huge problem?"

Upon hearing Hayato's words, Malik muttered under his breath, "Others would say 'protect the academy,' but how come you, brother-in-law, say 'protect my academy'?" Seeing Hayato raise his hand, he quickly pretended to zip up his jacket and made a gesture across his mouth to indicate that he would shut up.

Lowering his hand, Hayato pointed to the sky: "Have you heard that rumor? The Kingdom of Mizgarzon launched a satellite carrying a laser device into the sky, which orbits the Earth and can fire a laser beam powerful enough to burn up the world at any time."

Bakura nodded: "Yes, I've heard about it. Apparently, because of this incident, the Mizgaruzeng Kingdom, which was previously subject to economic sanctions by neighboring countries on the grounds of 'possessing weapons of mass destruction,' suddenly got rid of its previous predicament, gained a pivotal position in international affairs, and even its economy was revitalized and suddenly became rich."

"It just feels so strange. Why was everyone sanctioning the Kingdom of Mizgaruzen before, but suddenly they've withdrawn their previous economic measures?"

"Customs inspector A detained passerby B's goods because he suspected him of carrying dangerous goods into the country, but let terrorist C, who was strapped with explosives, go free because he actually was carrying dangerous goods." Malik answered Bakura's question with a calm expression that he was used to it. "When someone says you have a handgun, you better actually have one. That's a valuable lesson I learned while traveling in America."

Where did you get that kind of experience?

“I saw it when the police caught a thief on the street and then let the robber go,” Malik said, glancing at the sky. “But why are you suddenly bringing up that satellite, brother-in-law? You can’t see any satellites in outer space from here, can you?”

"Because someone wants to use the 'GeneX Tournament' to gain control of that satellite from the Mizgarzon Kingdom, that's the challenge the Duel Academy students will face next," Hayato said, his face serious. "This is a very important matter. I made a bet with Kaiba. If Jaden and the others don't protect that satellite from being launched, I'm going to treat Kaiba to a meal by Saria!"

"Is the safety of the world less important to you than a meal of Saizeriya?"

"Hippocampus said he would treat me to McDonald's for a year if he lost."

"Then it's not surprising, that's not surprising."

“But there’s still one thing, Hayato.” Bakura looked at Hayato, who was leading the group back to the villa in the center of the island, with a puzzled expression, and asked, “Collecting Mr. Keith’s dueling energy didn’t take too long, and now you have enough dueling energy, Hayato-kun, so why do we still need to stay on the island?”

“Although it’s an uninhabited island that hasn’t been fully developed, there’s no need to worry about people getting hurt by the Duel Monsters on the island.” Hayato led the group to the garden in front of the villa and stood in front of a pond, saying, “However, I think it’s still necessary to reclaim the remaining Duel Energy on the island. We can’t keep wasting it on maintaining the physical forms of the Duel Monsters, can we?”

"However, there is no need to remove this device. If there are outstanding students in the next few years, we can bring them back to the island to experience it again."

Facing physical Duel Monsters without inflicting fatal damage is a training method that even Hayato couldn't think of better than. It helps duelists quickly "connect" with their cards, but unlike Kaiba's "Duel-Links," it doesn't require multiple players to connect and create a sufficiently realistic virtual world, which would be too much of a hassle.