Duels should be played with a smile.

"Sometimes, I wonder what my mindset would be if I had to engage in a dark duel where failure would come at a heavy price, and how my attitude towards dueling would change after experiencing such a dark duel."

Shang Mo looked up at the sky, somewhat lost in thought.

“That won’t happen,” Leyou suddenly said, handing the autographed photo back to Shangmo.

"Duel is a form of entertainment that you can enjoy, regardless of winning or losing. All you need to do is enjoy it."

"Some things are better left to others."

Some principles apply in any world.

Leyou recalled the words she spoke to Dartz when they confronted each other in the previous world, and also remembered the feeling of becoming everyone's hope.

It seems that the feeling is quite nice?

And coincidentally, he also possesses this ability?

It seems like it would be nice to try again sometime in the future if I have the chance.

……

"Sigh... Saving the world is just too heavy a burden. As someone who likes to slack off, I'll just stick to playing cards normally."

"Tsk tsk tsk... So this is what you call intermittent bursts of ambition followed by long-term complacency and waiting to die?"

After wandering around outside for a while, and having several lighthearted duels with ordinary passersby, Leyou figured that Philvo's anger should have subsided, so he leisurely strolled back.

However, when he returned, Philo didn't see her, but instead saw a snow woman lying motionless on the bed like a salted fish.

It looks delicious.

It's just not mealtime right now.

After he told Yuki-onna about his conversation with Sho-mo that day, Yuki-onna unsurprisingly started their usual bickering session.

"Speaking of which, how were you eliminated? I was actually looking forward to a tense and exciting duel between you and Ella in the round of 16."

"Come on~" The Snow Woman turned around and glared at Leyou, her dissatisfaction practically written all over her face.

"You were still looking forward to my duel with her, but in fact, I was eliminated by her... I admit I was a bit impulsive, but her duel was just too unfair!"

"Oh?" Leyou immediately became interested. "Judging from your expression, I'm guessing you used a counter card to fight Ella, and ended up getting beaten up, right?"

"You already know, why are you asking?" Xue Nu replied irritably, while taking advantage of Le You's inattention, she gave him a hard pinch on the waist.

While watching with amusement the wonderful expression on Leyou's face as his soft spot was pinched, the Snow Woman, whose mood instantly improved, briefly recounted her duel with Ella.

In short, Yuki-onna started the battle against Ayla while compressing the main deck as much as possible and stuffing in more Xyz Monsters and counter cards. Because the concentration of counter cards was high enough, Yuki-onna started with Dimensional Barrier, Flying G, and Demon Song, clearly outmaneuvering Ayla.

Once these three cards are played, even a regular Xyz deck would be defeated immediately.

However, the Snow Woman encountered Ella.

Ella demonstrated what true "extra infinity" means in front of the Snow Woman.

Yuki-onna is indeed full of Xyz Spells, but with two Level 4 monsters on the field, even if they become Level 3 due to the effect of Demon Song, they can still be transformed into Blue Lock Dragon Anaconda.

If one of them is a Tuner monster, then it can inherit the Crystal Machine skill in one turn.

In short, Yuki-onna watched helplessly as Ella, who had been beating her up with Color-based magic, suddenly switched to Link and summoned the Water Machine using two 3-star monsters.

Then came the Hundred-Headed Dragon, and with a series of fancy maneuvers, Ella's field was filled with all sorts of monsters. Even the Flying G monster thrown by the Snow Woman was used as Synchro Material to summon a big monster.

"Because he said before that after we finished our business in the Fusion Dimension, we should go to the Synchro Dimension for sightseeing. I thought that if I only knew Xyz and was targeted, it might cause him trouble, so I learned Synchro on the side."

Anyway, when the Snow Woman heard Ella's explanation, she turned ashen-faced. Heaven knows how she learned it so easily and ended up like that.

And... don't mistake learning how to use the water jet machine for mastering synchronization!!! That kind of tedious, boring memorization and synchronization won't bring you any smiles!

Hahahaha!!!

Leyou slapped his thigh with delight, "You always manage to come up with something new!"

He really didn't expect that before he even had a chance to persecute the Snow Woman, she would run right into Ella's line of fire.

Although similar situations have happened to Yuki-onna more than once or twice.

But it was really fun!

"Before I tell you what new tricks I'm going to come up with, could you please move your hand away? I don't want you to leave a handprint on my white stockings."

"I can tell you're happy, but don't stare at my legs while taking pictures!"

"You won't have this problem if you switch to black stockings~"

"Is this about black stockings or not?! You bad thing! Ah!"

Chapter Sixty-Seven: On What Else Can Hyperfusion Fusion Fusion?

"Yes, that's it... Lower the level of this arena a little more, it's too high and the view isn't good... Yes, yes, yes, that's the height... Okay, two centimeters lower... Wait, too low, one centimeter higher... Never mind, let's go back to the initial height... Wait? What's with that look? Why are you glaring at me? I just asked you to slightly adjust the height of this arena, I didn't ask you to do anything complicated! Hey! Stop it!!!"

In the virtual world, noticing a little farce involving civil engineers not far away, Judai's lips curled up slightly, and his tense nerves relaxed a bit. However, when he remembered that the people around him who were modifying the virtual world were all "outsiders" from the Pendulum Arc, he immediately straightened his face again.

I've gotten used to it; it's almost a conditioned reflex.

Since becoming the Overlord and taking on the responsibility of protecting the Fusion Academy, he has had to consider all sorts of things in various situations, including his dignified image, his every move, his every word, and even every subtle expression. He must plan and handle all of these things in advance.

Fortunately, with that imposing armor that elevates one's status, Jaden, who is relatively young-looking, can use his mask to slightly conceal his expression. He only needs to keep a straight face to maintain his "cool" persona.

Even though the merged dimension became the basic dimension through his efforts, and the other dimensional leaders maintained peace, he continued to maintain the persona he had established in similar public occasions.

Because I've gotten used to it.

Although it was tiring, it was also very useful.

As long as he consistently presents himself as a ruthless tyrant, outsiders will not easily question him. In public, no one will think that he or the fused dimension is easy to bully, and no one will try to test his bottom line for personal gain.

It was precisely because of his cold-blooded image that the dark duels he used to fight to the point of vomiting in the other world never came after him again.

An image of keeping strangers away can always avoid a lot of trouble, just like now.

"With only a few days left until the finals, you must get everything set up here in advance, and in addition to matters related to the competition, your plans must also be flawless!"

Like a chilling gust of wind passing through his back, the bald, thin man standing next to Jaden shivered and hurriedly said with a forced smile, "Your Majesty, please rest assured, the interests of all dimensions are aligned on this matter. Even if it's just for our own sake, we will not be careless in the slightest."

"That would be for the best." Judai continued to play the role of a ruthless and taciturn person. After speaking, he fell silent again and began to inspect the area that was almost completed.

Among the four dimensions, the Fusion Dimension has become the basic dimension, but that's only because the top combat power of the academy is indeed high, and it can compete with the strongest Xyz Dimension. In terms of overall strength, the Fusion Dimension is actually the weakest.

Because... the academy is called an academy because after the dimensional upheaval, the original Earth was reduced to a dimensional world rebuilt around the academy.

Previously, the academy, built by the Kaiba Group, could be described as a small but complete "nation." However, due to dimensional turmoil and the upheaval caused by its integration with the Pokémon world, much of the academy's resources, including scientific research and technology, and researchers, were lost.

The original researchers at the college, in this relatively short period of time, were limited by various conditions and were simply unable to restore the research to its previous level.

However, this problem does not exist in other dimensions.

Synchronous cities possess a bug-level ability called perpetual rotation, and the original city is a "utopia" built by infusing resources from countless other cities, making its technological level far superior to that of the Academy.

While the Supercell Garden isn't quite as extreme as the Synchro City, their technological level is significantly higher. They even had a mad scientist as their leader. The Pendulum Arc is even more outrageous, with countless bizarre research projects. Currently, many people in the academy are using strange gadgets from the research labs in the Pendulum Arc.

The difference in technological level caused Jaden to suffer a lot at the beginning. Even now, with the frequent exchanges between different dimensions, the level of each other has improved rapidly, and some plans are even led by the Pendulum Arc Domain.

Take this time, for example.

Although the scientists and researchers in the Pendulum Arc Domain are not particularly trusted due to some historical issues, when there is no other choice, everyone has no choice but to try anything as a last resort.

If something really goes wrong, then after the matter is resolved, we can just send all those researchers to develop new cards for the duelists as an apology.

It is said that the unique summoning method of the Pendulum Arc, Pendulum Summoning, was originally conceived by a scientist who had committed a crime.

"Let's put the Faceless Ones aside for now. I'll confirm one last time: no Faceless Ones are allowed to cause trouble during this competition. You should be able to handle this small matter, right?" Jaden suddenly stopped and turned around to ask.

He had a vague premonition that his teacher had returned in a strange state, and that his former friends had left the academy to seek a path to become stronger. These things seemed to be hinting to him that something was about to happen.

He didn't know if this change was good or bad; he just wanted to continue playing the role of the overlord and continue to protect the Fusion Academy.

Even though he didn't have much affection for the guy who always shamelessly called him "big brother," the thought of him dying in front of him made him feel as if he could see his other cherished companions dying because of his powerlessness.

He is outwardly warm but inwardly cold, but he never hesitates to lend a helping hand to his true friends.

In order to prevent that tragic future from happening, he never dared to relax too much after that. Only when he was really too tired, or had a moment of leisure, would he dare to go to the classroom where he used to study, to reminisce about the leisurely time he used to have, and to relax his tense body and mind a little.

"Definitely!" The tall, thin man stood up straight instantly and answered loudly.

"Fine!" Overlord snorted coldly. "Dark Claw! Write down all the identification information of him and his colleagues. If nothing goes wrong, then nothing will happen. If something does go wrong... then you can go and befriend them!"

The dark-skinned hero appeared beside the Overlord at some unknown time, staring intently at the tall, thin man, and replied, "Yes!"

The oppressive gaze almost made the tall, thin man lose control and do something embarrassing, but fortunately, this wasn't the first time he'd experienced something like this, and he managed to control himself.

"That concludes today's inspection. You continue with your plans. Next, Dark Claw, go and ask Zero when the Super Magician will arrive, as he mentioned before. If he can arrive sooner, I have other tasks for him to complete."

"Yes!"

……

"What?! You're saying you can't find Manjoume? Wait, what do you want to do with Manjoume? If it's for the plan I told you about, finding Manjoume alone doesn't seem to be of much use, does it?"

"While Armed Dragon is indeed powerful, with Disruption added, it might not be easy to contend with an unknown opponent. And if something really goes wrong, how will his Disruption deck synergize with your Ancient Gear?"

The back mountain of the academy, the place where Yata-u broke free from its seal, is where Professor Chronos arranged to meet Leyou, and immediately threw a question at him upon meeting.

As per his previous agreement with Professor Chronos, the professor was supposed to find a few powerful duelists who could hold their own. However, after several days, the professor suddenly said that the powerful duelists he was supposed to contact had disappeared.

What made Leyou even more upset was that the powerful duelist the professor mentioned was Jun Manjoume.

While Manjoume is indeed very powerful in the manga, and the manga's ace, Panda Dragon, served as a powerful, versatile monster in the OCG for a period of time, at least for now, the general direction of this world is still following the anime.

In other words, the Manjoume here, barring any unforeseen circumstances, is a deck that combines Union Monsters, Armed Dragons, Disruptions, and other related series.

Each of these three series is rather subtle on its own. The Allied Monsters have the incredibly powerful ABC, but it's unclear whether Manjoume actually possesses one.

Armed Dragon has received many enhancements, and with a specialized build, it's not impossible to defeat it.

As for Disruption, it can only be said that it is not useful in most cases, and it is not good enough for acrobatics. On the contrary, Disruption Blue cards other than the Disruption Trio often go on business trips in some acrobatic decks in conjunction with the family's spell cards, while the family's Trio are not very common.

The combination of these three somewhat awkward series, to put it in high EQ terms, means that this deck is a great test of synergy.

Low emotional intelligence: What card deck? Even a dog wouldn't play that.

Leyou asked the professor to contact the powerful duelists because he deduced from Philvo's intelligence that something big might happen during the finals, and he planned to use this "big event" to achieve a certain goal.

He had other things to do, and he never liked using Snow Maiden Ella and the others as tools, after all, he wasn't some seafood tycoon who "relies entirely on women" and "loses women."

So he contacted the professor and briefly revealed his purpose. After learning about some details, including Leyou's true strength, the professor readily agreed.