Yu-Gi-Oh!: This card wants to go to you.

The homeless man looked around warily again, and only after confirming that there was no trace of the [supervisor] among the bustling patrons did he cautiously and slowly pull out an old-fashioned and mysterious red box from the pocket of his tattered coat.

With a soft "answer," the homeless man carefully lifted the lid of the box, his movements as gentle as if he were handling a rare treasure.

He cupped his hands together, placing them in the center of his palms, trying his best to block the curious gazes of the surrounding cats, leaving only a narrow gap at the top, like a crescent moon.

Deep within the dim palm, a faint light flickered, like stardust in the night sky, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

"Why all the secrecy..."

Luo Bai frowned and headed towards the gap. In an instant, his pupils dilated slightly, and his wary gaze became complex and subtle, a mixture of surprise, doubt, and caution.

It was a ring.

It was covered in bloodstains.

Biantana has a rather romantic legend.

The couple successfully proposed using a negative cube crystal ring.

Rumors say they will grow old together and stay together for life.

Yilan gazed at the ring, her calm eyes flickering with a rare flutter of emotion.

If they did not bear the mission of saving their people.

She actually longed for something too.

...

...

Struggle progress: 9/30

Chapter 191 Tom and Jerry

“This ring of yours…” Luo Bai looked at the shocking bloodstains, then looked up at the homeless man, “It doesn’t seem to have a clean history.”

In fact, none of the negative cubes on the rat's hands were clean.

“This doesn’t affect the purity,” the homeless man said in a deep voice. “Just tell me if you want it or not.”

Luo Bai pondered for a moment, a hint of hesitation flashing across his brows, before asking, "Name your price?"

He planned to test the waters first.

"I don't want gold points!" Upon hearing this, the homeless man became somewhat agitated, staring intently at Luo Bai, and emphasized loudly, "I want magic cards!"

"Magic Card?" Luo Bai was taken aback.

"Yes, a rare card from the Magician race, or any extraordinary card, like the [Lemon Crystal Dragon] in your hand!"

Yi Lan, who was standing to the side, wanted to say something, but Luo Bai raised his hand to stop her.

"Isn't this an outrageous demand?"

"Two grams of negative square crystal has a market price of about 240 million yuan, while [Lemon Crystal Dragon] is now being traded on the exchange for 280 million yuan."

The difference between the two is 400,000, which is no small amount.

For Luo Bai, the refining cost of the [Lemon Crystal Dragon] is only about 200,000 in material costs.

"I absolutely need the Superpower Card!" The homeless man exclaimed excitedly, but quickly calmed down and said in a low voice, "How about this... let's play a game. If I lose, I'll only take two million from you."

"I won, it's your turn, [Lemon Crystal Dragon]."

The stakes are 400,000 each, so the bet is fair.

"Oh?" Luo Bai became interested. "What game? A duel?"

"Heh..." The homeless man gave a bitter laugh, raising his weathered hand, a hint of self-mockery and helplessness in his eyes. "These old bones of mine don't have the guts to duel a [cat]..."

"Bam—"

Just as the atmosphere reached a delicate point, a deafening crash suddenly came from the tavern door.

The previously closed door was violently kicked open, instantly shattering the tranquility, and a group of people dressed in sharp, neat suits burst into view.

Each of them wore a conspicuous badge on their chest, which was clearly a cat.

【Cat】 is a Dungeon Fighter Online slang term referring to: the Cleanser, the Supervisor, and the Hunter.

A commotion broke out in the tavern.

"Not again? What's going on today?"

"There are twice as many people as yesterday."

"A giant rat has come to the dungeon?"

"It's supposedly to be about tracking down the KC champion..."

...

All drinkers stopped drinking or dueling and voluntarily opened their arms to cooperate with the search.

A dozen or so smart police officers, each carrying a detector, walked among the crowd.

The main targets of the search were the Holy Stone Tablet and the Blasphemous Card, investigating the illegal trade in the patterns.

When the detector scanned the homeless man's body, it was clear that his whole body was tense, and he was gripping the red ring box tightly in his hand.

Fortunately, the detector did not sound an alarm, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

This additional search was not aimed at [illegible] or [theft].

Next, Luo Bai followed the others and opened his arms. The detector scanned his entire body and the supercomputing ring, but there was no alarm.

A first-class good citizen.

As the AI ​​police officer approached Yilan, she calmly pulled out an ID card with a gold border and the academy's emblem.

Identity verification successful

The robot first used a high-precision scanner to identify her documents, and then it skipped the body search and the supercomputing ring inspection, leaving the onlookers stunned.

"Fall back!" the head supervisor shouted impatiently.

"Garbage time".

"How could the KC champion possibly be in our fortress..."

A single sentence from their superiors, "Strengthen supervision," increased their patrols from twice to three times a day without any pay increase. Frustrated, they became less diligent in their overtime work, merely going through the motions.

It was a simple interlude that didn't cause much of a stir.

“Go on with your game,” Luo Bai said, turning to the homeless man.

The homeless man pointed at Yilan, his voice becoming somewhat tense: "The game is simple. We each choose a [Monster Card] and compare their attack power. This lady can choose whether to compare the higher or lower attack power."

"If the attack power is the same, it's a tie."

“You must be the dean.” He looked at Yi Lan.

"I believe you will be fair and just."

After explaining the rules of the game, let's put a hat on Yilan first.

The game seems rather random, as neither side knows the other's card pool. Even if a monster with 0 attack is drawn, if the referee, Ilan, chooses to compare monsters with higher attack, she will most likely lose.

If there's any skill involved, it's the tacit understanding between the gamblers and the referee.

If a gambler bets on a 0-attack strategy and gives the referee a signal to go for a low-attack strategy, their chances of winning will be much higher.

However, the rules were proposed by the homeless man, and Luo Bai and Yi Lanren had not prepared for them beforehand.

“Okay, let’s go.” Luo Bai nodded, accepting the game.

The two opened their card decks one after the other, their eyes scanning each other.

As Luo Bai swiped his card, he suddenly said, "Monsters with high attack power are usually quite expensive. I'm afraid you can't afford them, old man."

The homeless man was taken aback at first, his hands stopping abruptly. Then, he forced a smile and asked, "Is that so? Are you going to send out a high-attack monster?"

The two probed each other, each giving a mysterious smile.

He would occasionally wink at Yilan.

Yi Lan's expression was indifferent: "Stop dawdling and hurry up and leave."

The two stopped abruptly, their pupils contracted, and they each pushed out a magic card.

“Lower,” Yi Lan said without hesitation.

In his haste, Luo Bai gave her a look, as if to say, "You'd better read my eyes and act accordingly!"

Yi Lan's expression turned indifferent, as if to say, "I don't know what you're up to."

"Looks like you two aren't very coordinated," the homeless man said, flipping over his cards first. "Do you have any cards with lower attack power than mine?"

[Xunfeng Falcon, 600/1400]

Xunfeng Falcon

"You bought three [Trion] cards from Old Black, right? It's a [Trapika] deck, you can't find any lower than mine, [Lemon Crystal Dragon] with 2000 attack power."

"Don't underestimate the intelligence network of rats."

"Then you need to update your intelligence network." Luo Bai slowly flipped over his cards.

【Crystal Mechanism - Matrix Citrine, 500/500】

"I won."

"How could this be..." The homeless man's eyes widened, speechless for a moment, "Do you have the complete...?"

Luo Bai interrupted his murmur: "Let's settle this with cash on delivery."

The homeless man, seemingly lost in thought yet reluctant, took out the red ring box, his eyes filled with profound despair.

Seeing that expression, Luo Bai felt a sudden blow to his heart. He lowered his voice and asked, "Imi is a very important person to you, isn't she?"

"Hmm." The homeless man nodded absentmindedly.

"You and she can no longer recognize each other for some reason, right?"

"Um…"