New Domino City, on a certain Duel Highway.
Two Duel Runners were speeding along, their riders engaged in a duel.
One of the female duelists said, "My turn, draw!"
However, before she could perform any actions after drawing, a red light suddenly flashed on her Duel Runner's dashboard. After a series of beeping alarm-like sounds, the duel screen changed abruptly, and a voice came from inside the Duel Runner.
"Duel Mode Overridden. Entering Free-for-All Mode."
Both Turbo Duelists were greatly confused.
Free-for-All Mode? What did that mean?
In the female rider's rearview mirror, over a dozen pure black Duel Runners suddenly appeared. These machines leaned into the curves in perfect synchronization. Before she could press the communication button, the black-clad riders in the front row all raised their arms in unison. Their Duel Runner Duel Disks activated simultaneously, entering Duel Mode.
"Free-for-All Mode activated."
The girl's pupils contracted. She could hardly believe the scene before her eyes.
During her Turbo Duel, over a dozen opponents had suddenly burst in!
A Turbo Duel involving more than ten duelists at once—she had never even heard of such a thing before.
Similar incidents weren't limited to this location; they were happening across every district of the city.
The dusk of New Domino City was torn apart by the roar of engines. The first to notice the anomaly were the duelists training on the cross-sea bridge. They were all WRGP participants who had been training here during the break, adjusting their decks and tuning their Duel Runners.
While speeding along, dozens of pure black Duel Runners suddenly appeared in their rearview mirrors. Mechanical riders called "Ghosts" cut into the various lanes with perfectly synchronized trajectories, their helmet visors flashing with cold blue light.
Surveillance footage from across the city recorded hair-raising scenes. On the central overpass, several Ghost Duel Runners formed a moving phalanx, forcing a WRGP rider into a dead end on the bridge. In the abandoned factories of the Satellite area, young duelists were surrounded by black motorcycles arranged in a radial pattern.
It seemed that, all of a sudden, these things were everywhere.
The Sector Security's alarms blared. The Security Pursuit Teams were thrown into chaos.
Alarm messages poured in from all over. More and more Duel Runner riders were being ganged up on by these mysterious intruders.
Moreover, these Ghost riders' duels didn't seem to be ordinary duels. Soon, reports came in suggesting that their duels might actually be lethal.
Although they weren't Dark Duels, the monsters summoned during the duels carried real damage similar to that of Psychic duelists.
The intensity of the real damage might not have been very high—even among Psychic duelists, it would be considered relatively weak, far inferior to high-level Psychics like Akiza Izinski.
But Turbo Duels were already a more dangerous sport than traditional standing duels; there were inherent risks at high speeds. Suffering real impact damage during such a duel made crashing and serious injury perfectly normal.
In just over ten minutes, the Sector Security had already received continuous reports of riders suffering serious injuries or crashes from Ghost Duel Runner attacks.
When a pale bolt of lightning split the sky, all electronic devices across New Domino City emitted piercing static at the same time. A hurricane seemed to materialize from cyberspace, sweeping through the streets with a shrill howl of data streams. The glass curtain walls of skyscrapers shattered in the gale, and countless sparkling fragments reflected the black metallic tide stirred up by the Ghost Duel Runners.
Yes, a hurricane. At the same time the disaster struck, New Domino City was hit by a hurricane. It coincided exactly with the large influx of Ghost riders into the city, as if the Ghosts had brought the storm with them.
The once-straight asphalt roads now looked as if they had been gnawed by a giant beast. Large chunks of asphalt curled up like fish scales, exposing the rusted municipal pipes below. Traffic lights at intersections bent and collapsed, severed cables hissed in puddles, occasionally sparking with blue flames.
The glass curtain walls of shops along the streets had all turned into crystalline weapons. The floor-to-ceiling windows of cafés showed radial cracks, vending machines outside convenience stores were overturned, and various beverage cans rolled and clattered across the streets, producing hollow metallic echoes.
On these storm-ravaged, ruined streets, Ghost Duel Runners rampaged, indiscriminately attacking Duel Runner riders everywhere.
Kira immediately went to find Primo.
This was only natural. A similar situation had occurred in the original anime, and the culprit there had been Primo. Primo had deployed a large number of mass-produced Ghost robots to attack Duel Runner riders everywhere, intending to force them into desperate battles for survival. This would allow him to draw a massive amount of circuits in one go and accelerate the descent of the Ark Cradle.
Kira had previously fought against Ghost robots remotely controlled by Primo, so he knew Primo possessed such machines. Naturally, this person was the prime suspect.
However, when Kira arrived, Primo was also in a state of panic.
"My system has been hacked!"
Primo roared.
"Yes, these Ghosts are mine. But all my factories have been invaded. Someone tampered with the programming of these Ghosts!"
Kira raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Oh? So you didn't act on your own and send these machines out to draw circuits?"
He suspected this because that was exactly what had happened in the original story. Primo had an impatient personality. Although his teammates insisted on completing the circuits through the WRGP, he felt it was too slow. He preferred to directly invade the entire city and threaten everyone's lives to force the Duel Runner riders to unleash their potential, allowing the circuits to complete faster.
Primo's expression became extremely ugly. "These are indeed Ghosts I created, but I absolutely did not activate them. My system was tampered with…"
"Primo is probably telling the truth."
Jakob spoke up in a deep voice from the side.
Primo: "Jakob…"
Kira asked, "Oh? What makes you say that?"
"Although Primo is reckless, his goal is the same as ours. He also wants to see the circuit completed."
Jakob pointed to the circuits in the void below.
"But starting just now, there has been a massive outbreak of Ghost machines, and high-intensity duels are erupting all over New Domino City…"
"Eh, really!"
Lester's eyes widened too.
"The circuits haven't increased at all since just now. Why? There are clearly duels happening everywhere, and energy should be bursting out everywhere…"
"Probably because those Ghost Duel Runners have been modified," Jakob said gravely.
"Someone altered the perpetual motion engines of the Duel Runners so that they absorb the energy released by duels. As a result, the duel energy cannot be drawn into the circuits and is instead consumed."
"How can that be?" Lester exclaimed in shock. "Doesn't that mean…"
"Yeah. Someone is taking out the WRGP's Duel Runner riders to prevent the tournament from continuing. And the energy produced in the process cannot be used to draw circuits."
Jakob narrowed his eyes.
"We're being targeted."
…