Duels should be played with a smile.

There were three points of light flickering there, two of which were slightly dim, while the remaining one was like a candle in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

It wasn't Yuki-onna and the others, but three other people who had formed a fairly deep bond with Leyou—well... given certain actions of someone, one of them even had an unimaginable obsession.

Thinking of this, Leyou couldn't help but shudder... Kaiba was an ultimate fanatic, but unfortunately, Leyou didn't have time for a tense and exciting duel with him this time.

Thinking about how to get through this, Leyou continued on his way through the endless yellow sand.

Strangely enough, this place seems to be based on Egypt from three thousand years ago in Atum's memory, but Leyou has been walking for a long time without seeing a single person. If he weren't not a person now, he might have collapsed halfway there—the scorching sun and the endless yellow sand are a great test for both body and mind.

"I'm afraid that guy was lazy and saved on modeling materials by not including any NPCs... What's the point of an RPG game without NPCs? He'd probably get a lot of flak from the players."

Despite the complaints, the tasks still needed to be done. After an unknown amount of time of trekking, Leyou finally crossed the desert and arrived in town, still grumbling.

However, this town also seems to have been built with shoddy workmanship.

There wasn't a soul in sight. In this ancient city, there wasn't even a single guard at the gate, rendering Leyou's prepared explanations useless.

However, Leyou has also gradually become more vigilant.

The moment he chose to enter this game, according to the game's equal rule, K gained more authority to reshape this world. If K didn't trip him up in these areas, it must mean that something even more terrifying was waiting for him.

With a mix of doubt and extreme caution, Leyou followed the map in her sight, traversing the city. Before long, she arrived at a landmark building.

The Sphinx.

It is quite strange that this enormous landscape was not built outside the city, but rather a piece of land was specially designated inside the city for its construction.

What's even more noteworthy for Leyou are the two figures on the Sphinx.

They were the only two living people he had seen since arriving here, and also... one of his goals for this trip.

"Is this... going a little too smoothly?"

As Leyu slowly walked toward Jonouchi and Kaiba, who were standing at the foot of the Sphinx, he also paid attention to the various things around him, including the conspicuous Sphinx.

However, there was no other unusual movement until Leyou approached the two of them.

However, the moment he stood still on the Sphinx, the statue, which had remained unresponsive, finally moved.

"Mortal, answer my three questions."

Just as in the legend, the statue called the Sphinx spoke and asked a question, and according to the legend, anyone who could not answer its question would be swallowed whole.

The moment the Sphinx spoke, Leyou's heart sank—the surprise K had prepared for him was right there.

This statue was K's work. He used his authority to modify the answers to the questions into part of the game rules, and not just one, but three.

If all answers are correct, the statue will disappear. But if even one answer is wrong, the game is lost. Leyou will be fine, but the two people under the statue will become sacrifices again.

"Come on, ask your first question."

At this crucial moment, Leyou felt it necessary to provide some off-field assistance.

Before he could even take out his prop, Sphinx had already asked the first question.

The question left him speechless.

"Question 1: Suppose there is an Elemental HERO Bubble Fighter with 800 ATK on the field, and it is equipped with the Spell Card Bubble Launcher, increasing its ATK by 800 to 1600. Then, the Continuous Trap Card Pole Position is activated, and then an Elemental HERO Winged Warrior is summoned. How should you deal with the subsequent situation?"

"?"

When I type a question mark, it's not that I have a problem, but that I think you have a problem.

This is how Leyou feels right now.

He thought this thing would ask some riddles or brain teasers, but it started by throwing an unsolved Yu-Gi-Oh! mystery at him...

As for why it's considered an unsolved mystery... well, that all started when Dog K's brain went awry and he printed out a pole position chart.

The pole position effect has two parts, and the problem mainly lies in the first part—the monster with the highest attack power that is face-up on the field is unaffected by spell effects.

It looks ordinary, but it's a perpetual trap that stays active as long as it's present.

The scenario described by the Sphinx is a bug triggered by the pole position—after Winged Man appears, he becomes the monster with the highest attack power, so Bubble Man's equipment takes effect, increasing his attack power to 1600. In this situation, Bubble Man immediately benefits from the pole position's effect, becoming immune to magic effects, and his attack power immediately drops back down. As a result, the pole position becomes ineffective again, and the equipment takes effect once more.

An infinite loop then becomes possible.

As we all know, when there's a problem with a Yu-Gi-Oh! card, if you're unsure what to do, you should check the ruling. But Leyou clearly remembers that the ruling for the Pole Position card... was completely blank.

The reason is quite simple: even DogK himself couldn't handle the situation, so he simply chose to give up, gave a very frustrating explanation, and then turned around and deleted all the pole position adjustments.

The solution is... to find a referee.

That's right. If this kind of problem occurs in a real card battle, you should go to the referee and listen to whoever is right... Of course, the official statement is that, based on fully listening to the reasons of both parties, the referee will make a ruling based on the principle of fairness.

So here's the question: where can Leyou find a referee now?

Looking at Kaiba, who seemed frozen in place or as if time had stopped, Leyou thought he could step in and act as a referee, but he couldn't move right now. Otherwise, President Kaiba could have just said one sentence to resolve the issue.

After much thought, Leyou couldn't come up with a reasonable answer, because it was an unsolvable problem. So, the good-natured Leyou player chose to give up – DogK was good at sneaking around, and if all else failed, giving up an item was the only option.

The game's duel is inherently a multi-faceted game of strategy, with information asymmetry and "resource reserves" being key elements. This particular instance is equivalent to DogK using information asymmetry to forcibly exchange a crucial item for Leyou.

However, Leyou didn't intend to just give it away for free. After switching to Lezi's mindset, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and came up with an answer that wasn't really an answer.

"To ensure fairness in the quiz game, I would like to raise a question: for questions that do not have a standard answer, what will be the basis for judgment?"

"......feasibility."

After a moment of silence, the Sphinx gave a somewhat ambiguous answer, which gave Leyou some new ideas.

After another moment of thought, and combining what he knew of some rumors, Leyou slowly spoke.

"To answer the first question: Before the physical card duel, both sides are required to submit their card lists according to the rules. When the referee checks the card lists and finds the pole position card, he can directly contact the player, emphasize the possible situations that the pole position card may cause, and discuss a feasible solution in advance. The previously discussed solution will then be applied during the competition."

Leyou chose a somewhat opportunistic answer.

In a proper duel, most people wouldn't use the Pole Position card. At least, Leyou hadn't seen anyone use it during his previous journey. Perhaps this world hadn't even printed this card. Based on this premise, Leyou gave an answer that met the feasibility condition, limited to the actual card.

Since the question is about how to deal with this situation during a duel, wouldn't it be the same if I avoided it before the duel?

Anyway, he didn't say how he played the cards. As long as he answered part of the question and it was feasible, that should be considered passing the test, right?

You can find loopholes to ask questions, but I'm not allowed to find loopholes to answer them?

To put it bluntly, with pole position like this, who in their right mind would bring a card? Bringing a card is just asking for trouble with the referees!

If the referee doesn't punch you twice, you're considered well-mannered.

The Sphinx was probably stumped by Leyou's answer. K probably hadn't expected that his question about slacking off would get such a lame response. The Sphinx, which had crashed, was taken over by the game's operating system after several more minutes of waiting, and finally gave a reply.

"First question, passed."

The Sphinx's voice became somewhat mechanical and rigid, and Leyou keenly noticed this, revealing a mischievous smile.

Are you messing with me? We, the Fourth Calamity, have never been afraid of anyone when it comes to causing trouble! You know, DogK was annoyed by the players' mischievousness, which is why he made the pole position card the way it is now.

This time, it's just a repeat of the past.

It seems that because the first question crashed the Sphinx, the subsequent two questions were not so outrageous. Although they were relatively obscure, Leyou was able to provide the correct answers after some thought.

"Second question: Which cards have 'robot' in their name but still contain the 'robot' field?"

"Le, it's that classic question again, isn't it? I still remember this one... [Dark Colloidal Man] [Reincarnated Flame Beast Hybrid Zebra X] [Elemental Hero Necromancer] [Magic Artificial Man]."

"Oh right, and the spell card [Necromantic Synchro]!"

Leyou felt a bit annoyed. This dog K really knew how to ask questions. The "machine" part was a meme that many people knew. He had looked it up when he was bored, so he answered the questions about the monsters right away.

But right after the fight, he felt something was off. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that the Sphinx was asking about cards, not monsters!

The Necromancer Synchro spell card is also an organic field!

I almost fell into the pit!

"Correct answer, next question."

"Third question: What are the different races of monster cards that include the character 'Hope'?"

Upon hearing this question, Leyou revealed a subtle smile.

If nothing unexpected happens, the pitfalls in this question are similar to those in the previous one.

"Demons, birds and beasts, dragons, beastmen, mages, angels, warriors, aquatic creatures... and reptiles."

Hope's main family is mostly warriors, with one or two dragons and beastmen making cameo appearances... The rest of the miscellaneous races are all Hope's swords—the weapons of the different heat and the same heart!

The records contain fields XX and XX, and the differences between them are significant.

As for why there are demons... the God of Despair is also Hope, who is a genuine demon, although Leyou has never sensed any demonic aura from Ella.

And then there's that last crawler class... which brings us to the question: why does the name "Hope Zerg" in a Zerg field contain "Hope"? Its effects have absolutely nothing to do with "Hope."

"Correct answer."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Sphinx vanished instantly, and Jonouchi and Kaiba, who had been in a state of suspended time, returned to their original state.

The next second, the three of them stared at each other, wide-eyed.

"I understand the logic... what are you guys playing cards for?"

Is the infinite loop fun?

At the same time, a phantom golden figure appeared around the two of them, then vanished in an instant, turning into golden specks of light that flew into the crystal on Leyou's chest.

"Wow...you guys are really lucky." Lappyu said to Jonouchi and Kaiba, swiping the crystal on his chest and a seemingly ordinary card appeared in his hand.

The card itself is ordinary, but its name and the spirit residing within it are anything but ordinary.

"This is pretty much what it means to be treated like a protagonist... You're really lucky to have a portion of Victory Dragon's spirits personally protecting you!"

---

To be honest, I really enjoyed writing this chapter.

By the way, tonight's Direct... a rehash session and a SE session, huh? It seems like they copied this from Capcom.

烂

This Direct ended after watching the first Joycon video and the last one, featuring the Japanese version of Genshin Impact.

To be honest, that pile of rehashed material in the middle really wouldn't have been as good as showing it in Genshin Impact; at least then you could see rivers of blood, which would have been much more entertaining.

Chapter Two: Thank You, Wan Suilong

"My task is now complete; the rest is up to you."