Duels should be played with a smile.

Look at Jack, he used to be so strong, but now he just disappears without you noticing. Those who know, know why!

Filled with a sense of grief and indignation, Kro kept hypnotizing himself in his mind, forcibly convincing himself not to look at the old man opposite him who was no longer hiding his unrestrained laughter, and activated Plan B of his deck.

"The black whirlwind, become wings soaring in the sky!"

One adjusted black feather and one non-adjusted black feather, the two monsters, took flight at Crow's call.

Then he plunged headfirst into the connection circuit.

"Connect Summon! Connect 2! [Crystal Mechanism Inherited Fiberglass]!"

"The Water Machine's effect allows the deck to Special Summon [Jet Synchron]!"

Azdia looked at the monster, which looked exactly like the elf who had been captured not long ago, with some surprise and doubt.

He had seen the Water Machine and knew its famous name, but he never used it because, for him, the deck of Chef of the Ruined, Countdown, and Five Elders was the most suitable for him.

Like his "colleagues," Ezdia's knowledge of duels is somewhat esoteric. He knows most about cards like 59, 41, and the Excavator with Link 3, as well as related decks.

Because he felt that these decks best suited his "non-killing" reputation—he didn't even have to lift a finger, and his opponent would fall down; it was simply perfect!

He can even enjoy the despair and helplessness of his opponents in the process, which is even more pleasurable.

"This is your Blackwing deck? Summoning this monster, what kind of desperate struggle are you planning?"

"Hmph! Then you just watch!"

Under Kro's skillful manipulation, the monsters on his field came to life—the Water Mobility was activated, and what was about to happen was obvious to everyone.

The jet-powered water machine and the hundred-headed dragon, an operation ingrained in their DNA, took only a few seconds, and tokens littered the ground of Kro's arena.

Having completed its mission of having offspring, the Hundred-Headed Dragon didn't linger for a second longer. It took a token and slipped away, letting Orion Lion take over for it.

Orion Lion was already a skilled worker, but this time its mission was not to call the librarian, but to go to the neighboring Dragon Star and ask the senior of the Divine Child to come out to work.

Jet, who had just finished get off work, was also caught and brought back. Together with the two tokens, he allowed Kro, who was using the Blackwing deck, to summon the Blackwing monster for the first time in this duel.

When Ezdia saw that a black-feathered monster had finally appeared, he immediately began to observe it. However, before he could even get a clear look at what the black-feathered monster looked like, the black fish monster disappeared.

5+7=12, and a seemingly incredibly powerful Blackwing 12-star Synchro Master has arrived!

Ezdia nodded slightly. It seemed that this was the opponent's ace. However, 12-star monsters rarely had the ability to penetrate defenses, so Ezdia was not worried.

To his surprise, the 12-star monster was just a decoy, appearing for only a few seconds before disappearing again. After being transformed into a 7-star monster through its effect, it was used to summon a 3-star monster of unknown significance from the Source Dragon Star, and then Synchro Summoned a 10-star Blackwing Monster.

This has confused Azdia. Should we get rid of the 12-star version and replace it with a 10-star version?

He was about to make a sarcastic remark when he saw Kro quickly set two backrow cards, ending his turn with only one monster with 3000 DEF on the field and two backrow cards.

One of the flames in the sky, representing the countdown to the end, disappeared.

“My Blackwing-Armored Raven is stronger than your Chef. It doesn’t need any other conditions and is unaffected by other cards,” Kro explained.

Azdia showed a slight surprise, then laughed and said, "Is this your struggle?"

He crossed his arms and found Crowe's behavior utterly ridiculous.

That's it?

Are they just giving up on each other?

In terms of simply surrendering, he has already started the countdown and has nothing to fear.

Even faster than the countdown, the Five Elders of Ezdia had also studied them—Elders of Ezdia held a special meaning in this world, and if his current boss hadn't been a card printer, he wouldn't have been able to collect all five Elders of Ezdia.

“Of course, that’s not all!” Kro shrugged nonchalantly, not even looking at Azdia, and waited for his next move.

After Azdia announced the start of his turn and drew another card, Kro finally revealed his true hidden trump card.

"After you draw a card, I will activate this card!"

"Continuous Trap Card! [Void Space]! As long as this card is in the Spell & Trap Zone, neither player can Special Summon monsters!"

A strange fluctuation enveloped the entire field, sealing off all special summons.

But Azdia just found it a bit funny and didn't say anything more before ending the round.

He only needs to wait 20 turns, or if he's lucky, 5 turns; he doesn't need a special summon at all.

Furthermore, the existence of the void space only interferes with Kro himself.

"You think you've already won?" Kro asked confidently, drawing his card for this round.

"Otherwise what? You've already cut off your own arm, so I have even less reason to lose to you... The Void Space is a good thing. If it weren't incompatible with my Chef, I would also like to get a few to play with."

Beneath the old man's outward appearance lay an incredibly wicked heart. Looking at Ezdia, Kro felt utterly disgusted—people who ventured into the void were disgusting!

He himself is an exception; he only goes down when he has something to do—that's tactical! It's part of the duel!

"Hmph, I have something even better than the void space here!"

"Activate the face-down card before activation! [Royal Decree]! As long as this card is in the Spell & Trap Zone, negate the effects of all Spell Cards on the field!"

A single shout of "Silence!" was heard, and the surroundings instantly fell silent, an eerie silence.

Azdia, who had originally wanted to say something, remained silent for a long time under the influence of this power.

About half a minute later, he spoke again: "After I added a countdown for you, you added a new countdown for yourself... I have direct damage cards in my deck, so maybe I don't need to wait for 20 turns."

The decree costs 700 per turn, and there are only 11 turns in total. The remaining 300 points can be obtained with just one fireball.

"Is that so...then you'd better watch carefully from here on out!"

A glint of light flashed in Kro's eyes.

"Heh, sometimes I really have to thank my single status... Only single people would be so bored as to research some weird and unusual combinations."

"It was precisely because I figured out Kuroba's tanking tactics that I also studied how Kuroba would deal with tanking."

“Just right…” A smile appeared on Crow’s lips.

"Perfect timing, I need it today!"

A dark whirlwind gathered in front of him, and black feathers fluttered in the air.

"I'm so lucky today!"

Aside from mentally adding "lucky in love," Crowe held the card high in his hand.

"Look closely, this is the card that will shatter your complacency!"

"Normal Summon! [Black Feather - Black Spear Brast]!"

[Dark 4★ Bird/Beast 1700 Attack Power]

The enormous black lance could not mask the monster's unremarkable stats.

However, those unremarkable data could not overshadow his simple yet highly effective results at this time.

In short, it boils down to two words: protection.

"Advance! to! Battle! Rank!"

"Trying to give up? Did you even get my permission?"

"Black Spear! Attack the chef! With your jet-black spear, pierce the enemy's heart!"

……

In the remote town, the strong Western atmosphere, along with tumbleweeds, drifts through the town's streets.

The town seemed unusually peaceful today.

Guiliu took out a duel disk shaped like a left-handed pistol from under his cloak. With a "click" of the trigger, the duel disk quickly unfolded.

On the street where only Guiliu once lived, a blonde woman dressed boldly yet with a touch of heroism had appeared at some point.

It doesn't look like an ordinary blonde with big waves at all; if you really want to describe it, it's more like a free-spirited wanderer.

"Octoliss." The woman sized up Guiliu while giving a brief self-introduction.

"Kiryu Kyosuke," Kiryu replied, equally expressionless.

The moment Guiliu returned to the town, one of his informants told him that someone was looking for him and had even made some threats—at least that's what the informant said.

Given that Octoris's image is easy to arouse some people's imaginations, and that Kiryu has been single all this time, there have been quite a few rumors in the town recently.

However, all these rumors vanished without a trace the day before Guiliu returned.

It was only because those who loved to gossip lost their ability to speak overnight.

"What do you want with me?" Gui Liu and Octoris looked at each other, while Gui Liu reached behind his back with his other hand under his cloak and made a gesture to the spies hiding in the surrounding taverns.

"I need to ask you for something."

"what?"

"Your satisfaction."

Chapter Thirty-Nine: In order to clear out the hand, it's understandable that Infernal Flame would include some other cards, right?

"According to expert research, due to unknown reasons, various degrees of dimensional storms have recently appeared near dimensional portals in different dimensions. As the storms subside, experts advise everyone to minimize or stop dimensional travel to avoid accidents."

On the projection screen, the announcer read the script in perfect accent; it was a news report from just the last two days.

"Is this what you want us to focus on?" Jack crossed his arms and leaned back on the sofa, not paying much attention to the news report.

The dimensional storm phenomenon is not particularly rare; it happens every now and then. In Jack's opinion, this time it's just that the affected area is a little larger.

“It’s not just this.” Le You shook his head slightly, pointed at the projection screen, and more than a dozen videos were simultaneously projected onto the screen.

More than a dozen different channels were broadcasting similar content, all saying that a dimensional storm had occurred, increasing the danger of dimensional travel.

"So many appearing at once...that's noteworthy, but since you've listed them all, there must be more than that, right?"

“That’s right.” Leyou glanced at Jack, who seemed very honest, and shrugged.

After another round of pointing fingers and making pronouncements, Leyou prefers to use detailed evidence to illustrate the meaning she wants to convey rather than just talking.

"After returning, I noticed this situation by chance. Then I collected relevant news reports, both big and small, from the past month or so. After comparing them with previous situations, I confirmed that this matter was worth paying attention to and summarized a fairly obvious pattern."

"The related reports all appeared around the time of the Yuki-onna incident. I think you all know what this means... Now, in addition to finding other people we can't contact, we have another thing we can't ignore."

"If we don't have any special methods... at least for the time being, we won't be able to leave the Synchro Dimension."

Normally, this wouldn't be a big problem. An entire dimension isn't a small village, so it wouldn't collapse due to a lack of supplies after trade routes are cut off.