"This is the last message sent back by the Card Professor we dispatched three days ago."
In a sealed conference room, the holographic projection of Yako Tenma sat on one side of the table, his expression grave.
"We have been following the investigation into the AI hacker intrusion. The clues led us to Kazemari City," Yakou said in a low voice. "One of our Card Professors went there to investigate, but he encountered unexpected resistance. Now, we've lost all contact with him."
"Was he attacked?" Mokuba asked, frowning from the other side of the table.
Seto Kaiba spoke up. "I understand. KaibaCorp will conduct its own investigation into the matter."
"No, that is precisely the problem, President Kaiba." Yakou shook his head and lowered his voice further. "The last message our Card Professor sent before disappearing mentioned certain Shadow Duelists. Hireling assassins who specialize in taking contracts for various jobs."
"So your man was taken out by a hitman?" Mokuba asked.
"We believe so. We cross-referenced the coordinates from his final message and tracked the related capital chains. Then, we unexpectedly discovered the identity of the client who paid the assassin..."
Yakou paused for several seconds.
"...It was KaibaCorp."
Seto Kaiba narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Impossible," Mokuba blurted out. "We would never do such a thing."
"I believe that as well," Yakou nodded.
Mokuba froze. "You mean..."
"There is a mole inside KaibaCorp," Kaiba said softly. He followed the statement with a contemptuous snort, as if this were merely a minor annoyance rather than a crisis.
"I understand. I will handle this matter personally," Kaiba said coldly. "As it happens, I have a few accounts of my own to settle with the person behind the scenes."
"It seems the President knows something?" Yakou asked.
"A guess, nothing more. Once I am certain, you will be the first to know," Kaiba replied.
"Understood." Yakou nodded. "Then I wish you success, President."
With that, the hologram flickered and vanished.
Mokuba stood up. "So, are we going to Kazemari City?"
"Yes. This matter must be ended by our own hands," Kaiba said flatly.
"That makes sense..." Mokuba thought for a moment. "But I also promised Yugen that I'd update him if there was progress. After all, he was one of the enemy's targets. Should we call him?"
Kaiba pondered for two seconds before scoffing. "Do as you wish."
For Yugen, the battle with Jaden was more than just a simple duel. Jaden didn't care much about winning the right to be the school representative, and Yugen felt the same. They both cared more about the duel itself.
Yugen had sensed early on that a duel with Jaden might grant him some enlightenmenta summation of everything he had learned and practiced over the entire semester, potentially leading to a greater breakthrough.
As it turned out, his intuition was correct, and the results exceeded his expectations.
During the duel, he felt infected by Jaden's passion. He found himself becoming more invested in the act of dueling itself, immersing himself in every draw, every attack, and every clash, rather than obsessively calculating the results or worrying about victory or defeat with every step.
Theory, no matter how vast, could never compare to the realizations found in actual combat. That mysterious sensation was something no amount of coursework or expert sharing could replicate; it could only be deeply understood by experiencing it firsthand, memorizing it with both heart and body.
Though there was no physical evidence, Yugen felt as though he had shattered a bottleneck, much like a breakthrough in a cultivation realm. Even his connection with his Duel Spirits seemed to have grown tighter.
A new idea began to surface in his mind, prompting him to consider taking a step toward a phase he had never dared to tread upon before.
He wanted to try mixing different deck cores.
This was likely a necessary step to reach the absolute top tier of this world. Only the mixing of multiple archetypes could bring about more possibilities, raising the ceiling of a deck and reducing the chances of a "total lockout" where a single board state could shut down an entire deck.
Of course, truly being able to "break any board" was still nearly impossible. Achieving that would require the power to generate cards mid-duel, which belonged to an even higher realm of existence.
For now, it was just a preliminary thought. Putting it into practice would require a significant amount of time and effort for deck construction and testing.
However, only a day after this thought occurred to him, he was met with the enthusiastic "greetings" of his companions.
"Take a tutu!" Alexis Rhodes said warmly, holding out a card to Yugen.
It wasn't a real skirt, of course, but the monster Cyber Tutu. With 1000 ATK, she could attack directly if all monsters on the opponent's field had higher ATK than her.
"Yugen, don't you like cards that can attack directly?" Alexis recommended enthusiastically. "Take this. The power of a direct attack is a game-changer, after all."
Yugen: "..."
This wasn't exactly a rare card. If he had wanted to use it, he would have added it long ago. Honestly, he felt it wasn't as good as the invincible Submarineroid...
Bastion Misawa also handed over his own soul card. "Then take my Water Dragon as well. It's a massive threat against the FIRE Attribute. If the opponent turns out to be a FIRE user, it'll be a huge help!"
Yugen: "..."
Brother, have you actually looked at the summoning requirements for your Water Dragon?
"This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must be Special Summoned with Bonding - H2O."
Bonding - H2O required Tributing two Hydrogeddons and one Oxygeddon on the field to Special Summon one Water Dragon.
In a real-life environment, it was almost impossible to summon. Yugen figured that even if he mastered the "Combo 502" technique of gluing cards to his hand for a miracle draw, he still had no reason to summon this thing.
It was a classic example of a card that consumed too many resources and too much mental energy only to be useless once it hit the field.
But out of respect for Bastion, Yugen couldn't just say, 'I think your soul card is too trash and I can't carry it.'
Seeing how passionate those two were, Chumley Huffington couldn't help but nudge his way forward. "Then my Koala cards..."
Syrus Truesdale wanted to join the fun too. "Then my roids"
He cut himself off halfway through, realizingoh wait, Yugen already played roids, and he was more famous for it within the Academy than Syrus was.
Especially Submarineroid and Cycleroid, which had already become widely known labels for the Lord in Yellow.
Never mind then.
Yugen smiled cheerfully. "How about I just shuffle all your decks together and I'll just play whatever I draw?"
To his surprise, the group looked excited.
"Really?"
"That's a great idea." Dr. Bastion began a serious analysis. "If we mix our decks together, the result would be a blend of hardness and softness, Yin and Yang. It would be able to attack and defend perfectly, with each part complementing the others..."
"That's right." Chumley punched his palm. "As expected of Yugen, another brilliant idea. During the representative duel, your style will be ever-changing. Every turn will feel different, and the opponent will definitely be caught off guard. Yugen, what do you think? Can it work?"
Yugen maintained his smile.
Work? Like a hole in the head, it'll work.
He suddenly realized his own thinking was still too conservative. He had only made that remark sarcastically because he thought the proposal was brain-dead and impossible to consider, yet these people were actually seriously debating the feasibility of Yugen using a hodgepodge pile of cards to win.
But then he thought about itit made sense. Back in the day, when Kaiba only had 100 Life Points left and couldn't continue, Pharaoh Atem had literally taken Kaiba's deck, shuffled it into his own, and taken over the duel. He had somehow made it work and achieved a limit-break comeback.
Yugi originally played a hodgepodge deck of various cores anyway, and Kaiba's deck back then was also an incomprehensible mess. A normal person couldn't even imagine how much those two decks would brick if shuffled together, but in the Pharaoh's hands, they actually produced combos.
Yugen realized his own perspective was still too small.
"I see," Yugen mused. "A true duelist must be skilled at making any deck shine in their hands..."
"Yes, exactly!" Alexis said eagerly. "So, you agree to take my Cyber cards into battle?"
Bastion: "And my Water Dragon."
Chumley: "And my Koalas."
Yugen gave them a polite, empty smile.
Heh.
"Alright, stop bothering him. Let Yugen decide on his own deck," Jaden appeared at that moment, patting Yugen's shoulder with a laugh. "Being a school representative doesn't really matter. Dueling is about being happy; that's the most important thing."
He gave Yugen a thumbs-up.
"If it's Yugen, I'm sure you'll show us another super interesting duel, right?"
Yugen smiled but didn't speak.
Jaden was the only reliable one here.
Just then, his terminal buzzed with a message. He pulled it out and looked; it was actually from Mokuba.
"There's progress on the last incident. Want to come?"
🚨 Note: Consider supporting this story on Patreon.com/Flokixy to access 400+ advance chapters and 2 new chapters daily! (Full story bundles also available without a subscription).