Duels should be played with a smile.

With a few minutes to go before the final, Jack and Yusei, who hadn't seen each other for a while, chatted casually. Qiu also sidled up to Carly, whispering to each other, with occasional bursts of laughter.

Soon, the final match began in this rather pleasant atmosphere.

If nothing unexpected happens.

"What?! You can't find anyone?" Jack asked angrily, looking at the virtual image that had suddenly appeared in his lounge.

According to him, he was one of the event organizers who had just been temporarily appointed, and he showed his credentials, which confirmed this.

"Uh... I'm very sorry, it happened suddenly, but things are urgent now. If the finals are just rushed through, the audience might not let it go so easily..." The person in charge wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and explained with a hint of helplessness.

I was temporarily assigned to finish this match, and I thought it was a great opportunity to show off in front of the Overlord. If I did well, I would definitely leave a good impression on the Overlord. It seemed like a very good job.

Who would have thought that such a huge pit awaited them right from the start?

The finals are about to begin, but someone is missing and we can't contact them at all. Can we handle this kind of thing?

"The moment we discovered that we couldn't contact Leyou, we initiated the emergency plan and tried to contact Jack and another top four player, but Zedu is currently unavailable due to other commitments. Jack, you are our only savior right now!"

The person in charge had an incredibly sincere expression, which made Jack hesitate to directly refuse.

Jack himself did not want to replace Leyou, whose destination was unknown, in the finals.

Even if participating in the competition gives him, who has already been eliminated, another chance to win the championship—what's the difference between that and being a backup option?

He loves winning, loves being the champion, the one and only king.

But he hates giving alms.

That's right, that's what Jack was thinking at that moment.

If he were to compete in place of Leyou and win the championship, Jack would consider it nothing more than charity.

Moreover, this should be considered as a gift from Leyou!

The reason the person in charge wasn't kicked out immediately was because Youxing and Qiu were there.

Besides, does a championship won by beating a woman really have any value?

He, Jack Atlas, has never hit a woman in his life!

Well... Carly's case is an exception; that was a special case.

In short, Jack had no opinion on the request for temporary leadership.

"My thinking is clear, it's impossible for me to... huh?"

Just as Jack was about to refuse the person in charge, another communication request came in.

"This guy... wasn't he busy helping out at the orphanage...?"

While Jack was still thinking, Yusei had already connected the communication for him.

Less than two seconds later, a figure who wasn't particularly tall, but whose height was considerable with his hairstyle, appeared in the lounge.

"Hey! Jack! Carly! Yusei and Aki are here too!" Crow greeted with a smile.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked expressionlessly, sensing that something else was about to happen.

Sure enough, less than half a minute after Crowe arrived, the communication rang again.

This time, the four characters "Kiryu Kyosuke" were clearly displayed in the very center of the communication request.

"What a lively day!"

Without Jack even needing to speak, Crowe immediately connected with Guiliu's request, and a few seconds later, a cool guy with white hair appeared in the room without saying a word.

After looking around and nodding slightly, Guiliu walked silently to Kuro's side, seemingly understanding the situation, as if nothing had happened.

Within just a few minutes, the former 5DS team and the Manzu team gathered here.

The event organizer had already wisely stepped aside; even though his task was extremely urgent, as a low-level employee, he dared not disturb the meeting of these important figures.

All he could do was cast a pleading look at Yusei.

Although this was Jack's lounge, he had heard of Yusei, the little-known savior, and he could tell that Jack seemed to have a respectful opinion of Yusei.

After Kiryu arrived, the group exchanged brief pleasantries. Just as the person in charge was sweating profusely, Yusei finally managed to draw everyone's attention to him.

"Jack, this competition is a grand event jointly organized by various dimensions. Given the current situation, if you can step in and win the championship, your name will resound throughout various dimensions. This is a great opportunity for you."

After Yusei spoke up, Kro immediately chimed in, urging Jack to temporarily substitute and win a championship to revitalize their 5DS team's reputation.

His friends' advice was quite helpful, especially after Cho and Carly both expressed their desire for him to be a substitute, Jack was already somewhat tempted.

However, he had a bad feeling about him—but he immediately dismissed that hesitation.

As a man, a king, how can I be timid and hesitant!

Could I possibly lose to a woman?

Recalling his previous duel with Ella, Jack even felt that he didn't need to go all out from the start. Otherwise, the final would have ended in one or two rounds, which might have made the audience feel it wasn't worth it and prevented them from properly experiencing his aura as the king.

"Hmph, I'll give you face this time." With a hint of arrogance, Jack turned to glance at the person in charge who was overjoyed.

"Go and make the arrangements. Tell them that I, Lord Jack Atlas, have granted your request. I will take the championship trophy of this first Entertainment Tour Competition with me!"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Lord Jack, I'll arrange it right away!" The person in charge nodded repeatedly, then thought for a moment and tapped the duel disk on his left wrist a few times.

"Lord Jack, this is some information about contestant Ella. Rest assured, it's just basic information and won't contain anything that would affect the fairness of the duel. This information is simply to give you a necessary understanding of contestant Ella, and it's also to ensure necessary fairness!"

After sending the information to Jack and thanking his family and friends again, the person in charge quickly left, as he still had many things to do.

Seeing that the only outsider had finally left, Jack raised his hand to close the door, turned around to look at his group of "insiders," and said irritably, "Now... are you all satisfied?"

"Hmm~ Of course, after all, Lord Jack made such a great sacrifice just to fulfill our small request to watch the game, we are truly honored!"

As expected, Crow's obviously flirtatious words attracted Jack's attention. He stared at Crow for a long time without saying a word, until Crow couldn't stand it anymore, and then slowly withdrew his gaze and looked back at Yusei and Kiryu.

"It's rare for us to get together again, especially Guiliu. It's really kind of you to come all the way to watch my match..."

“Just because it’s online…” Guiliu said in a low voice with a calm expression. He didn’t even look directly at Jack as he spoke, but instead looked up at the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought.

"And...it seems I'm too late; you've already lost a match..."

With his calm tone and casual attitude, if Jack hadn't known Guiliu's personality, he probably would have been furious by now.

However, Jack quickly noticed Gui Liu's slightly upturned lips and immediately realized that although this guy looked like a cool guy, he was still the same guy who always talked about "satisfaction".

It's not surprising that this kind of guy would do something like this "prank".

In a sense, it wouldn't be wrong to call the original "Satisfaction Team" the "Fun People Team".

After discovering Kiryu's thoughts, Jack glanced at Crow, Yusei, Aki, and Carly out of the corner of his eye. Unsurprisingly, these people all seemed to be thinking the same thing at this moment.

"You guys... I get it now, you're all here to laugh at me, aren't you?" Jack asked again, annoyed. He had been wondering why even Gui Liu, who never left that town, was watching the game in the virtual world. Now it seemed that these guys had been secretly plotting something behind his back.

Even though the virtual world is already quite widespread, it's still impossible for Kiryu's remote town to directly connect his consciousness to the network. Kiryu is probably already with Yusei and Kuro right now.

Faced with Jack's "questioning," everyone reacted in a surprisingly similar way: they remained silent and uniformly looked up at the ceiling.

The overly synchronized movements made Jack both angry and amused.

What a great group of friends!

"Hmph, just you wait! Watch me easily defeat that Ella and come back with the trophy!"

"When the time comes, you must be prepared to welcome the victorious king!"

"Then we look forward to Lord Jack Atlas's triumphant return!" Crowe replied loudly, with a spectator's mentality.

Qiu also chimed in, "It's rare that Guiliu is here this time. Long Ke and Long Ya's schools are already on holiday. We've already booked a high-end hotel in advance, just waiting for you, Lord Jack Atlas, to win the championship in this competition, and then we'll celebrate together."

As she spoke, she rolled up her sleeve, revealing a red dragon mark on her wrist that was now gleaming.

"You guys are in the Fusion Dimension, while Ryūkorōya is still on the Xyz Dimension. We're just waiting for you to win the championship here so we can summon the power of the Red Dragon and teleport you and your two siblings back to the Synchro Dimension for a proper get-together."

Upon hearing this, Jack also rolled up his sleeve, and the mark on his wrist was also emitting a red glow, as if responding to the other marks.

"How extravagant... Considering the surprise you've prepared for me, I won't pursue the matter of your expiration of my term!" Jack nodded slightly, crossed his arms, and responded with a very smug air.

The Duel Disk beeped, and Jack collected his thoughts, took his Duel Disk from Carly, nodded to Yusei and the others, and then went out.

"The family reunion banquet is about to turn into a victory celebration!"

Leaving behind a remark perfectly in line with his style, Jack disappeared at the end of the passage.

Inside the lounge, watching Jack leave, the group exchanged glances and burst into laughter.

"Now, the troublesome person is finally gone," Crowe joked.

"Why didn't you say that when Jack was here?" Yusei smiled and put his arm around Crow's shoulder.

"I wasn't wrong, he really was the one in the way just now."

Aki clapped her hands to draw everyone's attention, glared at Yusei, and said, "Alright, alright, stop fooling around. While Jack's away, we should start preparing!"

"Carly, how's the gift you prepared for Jack coming along?"

"Of course, we're fully prepared!"

"On January 11th, if he goes and gets first place again, hmm... a perfect match!"

And so, without Jack's knowledge, he had been completely manipulated by his teammates and lover.

……

In the arena, the shouts of "RNM refund!" that had filled the air after the announcement that Leyou would be absent from the finals were immediately replaced by the announcement that Jack would replace Leyou in the finals. The audience who had just been shouting "RNM refund!" suddenly said "It's so good!" Some audience members who no longer cared about anyone in society even shouted socially stupid remarks such as "I want to be Miss Ella's dog".

During this time, numerous social terrorists spouted all sorts of shameful remarks, turning the entire arena into a chaotic scene that could even be used to study the diversity of human society.

Of course, some people were also whispering about what Leyou, who was supposed to participate in the competition, was doing now.

"Hey, have you heard? Apparently, someone saw Leyou come out of Miss Ella's lounge. They might have some secrets going on between them."

"Wow~ Really? If what you're saying is true, then if Leyou doesn't come to the competition this time, then wouldn't that mean..."

"Shh, I didn't say anything unnecessary. It's all your own guessing, it has nothing to do with me... But if that's really the case, then Leyou's choice isn't entirely incomprehensible... You know what I mean, right?"

“I understand, I understand, all men understand... But have you considered another possibility? That Leyou looks so handsome and refreshing, and when he dueled with Lord Jack before, he also seemed very... And then look at Miss Ella, she always seems to have a cold face, and she always acts very assertive... You understand what I mean, right?”

"Wow... your line of thinking is brilliant! I get it, I get it, I completely understand it now! It's just a little bit of a pity..."

"What's a pity?"

"Too bad, it wasn't me..."

"...You dare to challenge me?"