Duels should be played with a smile.

[Achievement: Luckily the opponent didn't have an egg (Condition for winning: Win without capturing the turtle, big baby, or egg after creating a big board)]

[Achievement: Don't waste time, hurry up and click, next round (Condition: Get the opponent to give up and surrender by manipulating the game)]

[Unlock hidden achievement: ******]

As soon as the system notification appeared, Leyou's eyes twitched, because he felt that the system was up to something again.

Otherwise, what's with that hidden asterisk?!

However, before he could even ponder the meaning of those asterisks, he sensed something stirring within the deck he had just used.

Two illusory dragon shooting stars flashed before his eyes. When the illusions disappeared, a somewhat familiar yet unfamiliar elf appeared beside him.

It was an elf that had shrunk countless times compared to its original form, becoming about the same size as its original body, but its appearance just didn't look right.

"You... used two of Long Huiqiao's older brothers as material to create your own image? That's way too extravagant!"

The left side is pure black, the right side is pure white, gold trim outlines the whole body, two-colored wings extend, and two tails of unknown symbolism appear on the back, dividing the body in two along the center line, with a golden halo hanging high above the head.

At the very center of the center line is a jade-colored core crystal that is exactly the same shape as Leyou's pendant.

It seemed to have a human face, but that face was mostly covered by a golden helmet, making it impossible to see its features.

Although the incredibly cool mecha in front of him was nothing like what he remembered, Leyou clearly sensed that this was the God-Slaying Spear that could destroy everything, defy fate, and symbolize the infinite possibilities of humanity.

【Skybreaker - Aeus】

Leyou was extremely surprised to see Aceus appear, not only because of Aceus's appearance and its heartbreaking way of making its entrance.

Leyou hasn't unlocked the Arceus card yet. Longhui Qiao's deck does have Arceus, but because it was a temporarily unlocked deck, it has been locked again after the duel ended. Arceus wasn't in any of the previous decks.

Without unlocked cards, the sprites can't appear, but Zeus just appeared anyway, and even got a super cool skin, which made Leyou wonder if the system was playing tricks or if this was some kind of reward.

Meanwhile, Zone, who was about to speak, swallowed back all her prepared remarks after seeing Aeus appear and began to think again.

He didn't know the card sprite, but he had a feeling that if he did something out of line, he and Apollia might not be able to leave here safely.

After much deliberation, he finally made his decision and slowly began to speak.

"We lost."

Chapter Forty: Is the world acting strangely, or am I acting strangely?

Zone represents Apolia, and also represents the surrender and defeat of the four members of Taiichi's group, but to be honest, Leyou really didn't feel anything.

Because it was Taiyi who suddenly appeared and caused trouble, and now it's also Taiyi who's been beaten so badly that even his own mother doesn't recognize him and is now giving a French military salute.

With all this back and forth, it's as if nothing was done!

"So, what's the point?"

"What's the point of all this charade you've put on for me?"

Leyou's question made Zone feel somewhat awkward. He had originally hoped to get more information from Leyou to find a way to save their world, but after this "peaceful and friendly" exchange, he had indeed obtained the information, but the result...

It can only be described as barely satisfactory.

Not bad.

"We've barely achieved our goal, and we recognize our shortcomings. From now on, we will no longer interfere with this spacetime. We will continue to watch and search for any remaining possibilities..."

Zone paused, wanting to leave, but seeing the two obviously formidable Pokémon beside Leyou, after much deliberation, she decided to say a few more words, lest she be unable to leave later.

"To express our apologies for any inconvenience our actions have caused you, we are willing to share some information we have previously gathered with you."

"Oh? Tell me about it, I'm quite interested in that."

Taichi and his four companions traveled from the future back to the past, but their initial point of travel was not the period when this Duel Monsters officially began to flourish.

They traveled back to an even more distant ancient era, and from that time onward they began to interfere with the course of the world.

Under the corrective force of history, although they believe that the world is developing according to their vision, in reality, if it really develops to their original time, no matter how history changes and the final appearance changes, the core will still be the same.

But at least, because they have existed since ancient times, they have a clear understanding of many hidden secrets in history, or rather, they were involved in many events.

In Leyou's view, the information they could provide was nothing more than information about the ancient "Pyramid of Light" or "Atlantis," so although he thought it would be a new source of amusement, he really didn't expect it to be this much fun.

Just because...

“From ancient times to the present day, our shadow has been present in the entire human society. In the process of interfering with human history, we have also discovered some things related to, or rather, similar to, the ‘Thirteen Secrets’.”

"At first, we just felt that those things were a bit unusual, but we didn't find anything noteworthy."

"It wasn't until we heard you mention the 'Thirteen Secret Words' that we realized those beings were all on the list."

"..."

Leyou fell silent.

Leyou fell into deep thought.

Leyou was completely baffled.

I just said it casually, and you just listened casually. How could it possibly come true?

I can't just make my words law, can I? I'm not surnamed Huang.

It's impossible that all the random guesses I made just happened to be right, right? Out of more than 10,000 cards, I picked a dozen or so, and some of them were from a series. How could I possibly get them all right?

Is something wrong with the world or with me?

But when she came to her senses and thought about it carefully, Leyou realized that it seemed, perhaps, that something really had gone wrong.

"Are those the sprites you found card sprites?" Leyou asked.

"Yes, but not entirely. When we discovered them, they were in a very magical state, and we don't know how to describe that state."

"In short, when we find them, we can only see a blurry outline and we can't do anything about it. They disappear from their original location within a day of our discovery. Throughout history, we have found traces of them more than once, but it's always the same."

"Later, we conducted an investigation based on the time and place of their appearance and roughly summarized some patterns."

"They only appear at the sites where duels have taken place, seemingly to draw energy from the duels, and only the duelists can detect their presence."

"This is the information we can provide you."

"Then, farewell. We will continue to search for hope at the other side of time and space. If we cannot interfere with the past, then we will watch over it."

"Goodbye, traveler from an unknown time and space... savior."

Zone and Apollia left, and this unknown space gradually shattered and dissipated. In the blink of an eye, Leyou returned to its original place.

Beside him, Ella and the elves of Aeus stood like two guardian deities, protecting him on either side. Moreover, they were in a spirit form and could not be seen by ordinary people.

Take a deck from the Duel Disk and place one card from the deck on the Duel Disk. This card is familiar to most card players and should definitely spawn a spirit, but there is no reaction at all.

Before the appearance of the spirits by Arceus, Leyou might have attributed the inability to appear to the card not being unlocked in the deck. However, now, Arceus's spirits have appeared on their own simply because the Dragon Primal deck was temporarily unlocked once and the card hasn't even been played.

There's no reason why the famous [Crystal Mechanism - Inherited Fiberglass] sprite shouldn't be able to come out!

"I'm saying, do you guys know what's going on here?"

Azeus remained motionless, the crystal on its chest flashed twice, and its meaning appeared directly in Leyou's mind—"I don't know."

Ella didn't speak, but shook her head slightly to indicate that she didn't know.

"System, can you explain this to me?"

【I see】

"???"

"If you understand, just say it!"

What I understand is that you don't understand this.

"No? What are you doing here???"

Leyou really wants to smash this system's head in frustration; what on earth is this system?

【I see】

The stage is set, the actors, the lights, the props—everything is in place. The door to possibilities is open; all that's needed is to shine.

"..."

"Hehe... If you say so, then so be it. It seems I really need to go find the stuff I made up... It's really outrageous. Did I dig a hole and bury myself in it?"

Shaking his head to clear his mind of these absurd ideas, Leyou thought for a moment and then set off with the two elves.

Regardless of whether those thirteen secret messages might actually be true, the most important thing right now is to get into the top eight.

Reaching the quarterfinals is considered a success.

It was around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, and at this moment, Leyou still only had two puzzle cards in his hand.

Now, Leyou joins the hunt!

Chapter Forty-One Gaia!!!!

"Hahaha, I have five monsters on my field, with a combined attack power of 5000 points. And next turn, I can use them to summon my ace monster. Your 4000 life points are like a candle flickering in the wind! You'll be defeated next turn! Hand over your puzzle card!"

The nameless passerby laughed heartily, but Leyou really couldn't understand what was so great about five blank monsters with 1000 attack power standing on the field.

Not to mention, these monsters all have attack gestures, it's like they're saying to people, "Come and hit me!"

Moreover, this thing has no back row at all. What's the difference between it and a female creature running wildly in the street without Clothes?

"Alright, it's my turn. Draw a card!"

"Oh my, you're all such kind people who love to help out! Thank you, but you don't get a turn now!"

"I activate the Ritual Spell Card 'Noble Ritual' from my hand, until its total Levels equal the level of the Ritual Summoned monster. I Tribute a Normal Monster from my hand, Ritual Summon 1 Ritual Monster from my Deck, Tribute 'Dark Knight Gaia' (Level 7) from my hand, and Ritual Summon 'Destroyer Lord Garlandolf' (Level 7) from my Deck!"

"Dark Knight Gaia?! Isn't that one of Yugi Muto's ace cards, the champion of Duel Kingdom?! Who are you to possess such a rare card? And you even used such a powerful card as a sacrifice?"

"Ha, but it doesn't matter. Once I defeat you, your Gaia will be mine!"

The passersby seemed to have some knowledge, or perhaps Yugi Muto was famous enough to recognize Gaia.

But that was all he knew; he was unaware that there were special secrets to using Gaia.

Those who don't know this secret will never be able to truly tame this untamed knight.

"Let's put Gaia aside for now. First, let me show you what ritual summoning is all about!"