Eddie, after the duel ended, knelt on the ground. His expression was stiff, and his face was as pale as a zombie. But there remained a somewhat eerie smile on his face.
"Not bad, the king of this world. With just two cards, you can easily reach the 'Infinite' that countless duelists could not touch in their lifetime.
Well, it's only fitting for someone with the title of 'King' to have such abilities."
Eddie laughed dryly, but it seemed not to be heartfelt and more like a forced smile tugged from his facial muscles.
"More interesting than the kings I've met before."
Yugen looked at him calmly and asked, "Muto Yuugi?"
Besides himself, the only one who ever held the title of king was Yuugi.
"Ha, Yuugi, huh? Well, I did deal with that guy, but... hey, I wasn't referring to him."
Yugen felt a bit puzzled.
If not Yuugi, then who else could be king besides him?
No, wait, he just said, "the king of this world." Could he mean outside the current dimension?
That is not impossible. After all, Yugen himself often roams the Other Dimension.
"Today was just a greeting, and I've gained a lot from dueling with you."
Eddie seemed to continue talking, but his face and mouth were still eerily motionless, as if a loudspeaker was hidden inside him, and the voice was intentionally tuned to sound very underworld-like.
"We will meet again, but don't rush, it's not the time just yet."
Eddie pulled out another smile on his stiff face.
"The so-called 'Evil God' of the Descent Sect should be here soon, and it will greet you as well. It looks like you'll be quite busy lately, so I won't disturb you for now.
Our time together, let's leave it until you handle these troubles, oh mighty King."
Followed by a series of strange laughs.
Then the aura around Eddie vanished instantly, and his entire body collapsed like a puppet whose strings were suddenly severed.
"He just said, the so-called Evil God of the Descent Sect..." Yan remarked in puzzlement, "So, he's not with those searching for me?"
"Hmm, it sounds like that. But we can't rule out the possibility of him misleading us."
Yugen pondered, took a picture of the unconscious Eddie with his portable terminal, and quickly sent it to a contact in the Kaiba Group through the company's internal network.
He has a broad network at Kaiba Group now, having collaborated multiple times and gotten to know many people in the company.
"Mr. Yugen?"
A communication quickly came from the other side, very polite and courteous.
"I received your message, is there anything I can assist with?"
"Sorry for bothering you so late, Brother Yosida."
"Ahaha, no problem, being able to help Mr. Yugen is my honor. Please feel free to command."
"I just sent a photo over. I'd like to know as much detailed identity information about this person as possible," Yugen said.
"A background check, is it? You've found the right person. Please wait; it shouldn't take long."
"..."
The person on the other end was not exaggerating; the influence of the Kaiba Group is nothing short of extraordinary. That very night, Yugen got the identity of the person.
Eddie is a duel archaeology expert who once led explorations into multiple artifacts related to ancient Duel Monsters. However, according to the information retrieved, his name had been listed among archaeologists missing for years.
Archaeology is a high-risk job, especially duel archaeology. You never know when you might uncover some temple with a sealed Evil God or the tomb of some ancient king, or perhaps an elf with a very bad temper. Incidents of missing archaeologists happen every year.
During Eddie's team's last mission, it's said that a collapse occurred at the site. The rescue team later spent a long time finding the archaeologists' bodies, but no matter what, they couldn't find one last person - that was Eddie.
The other members were all found, but no one survived whatever happened beneath the ruins.
Their commonality was that they all died horrifically, with expressions of extreme terror, as if they saw something utterly terrifying before they died.
The autopsy report couldn't determine the cause of death, as they seemed to have died before the collapse. The visible wounds on their bodies were mostly inflicted post-mortem, with the fatal cause being untraceable.
If it were only the annihilation of an archaeological team with one member missing, it wouldn't be quite noteworthy. Though it sounds harsh, excavations are inherently risky, and similar accidents happen annually.
However, this incident was of high concern to the Kaiba Group because markings were found post-excavation inside the ruins.
Zok.
Yugen thought about it, then crouched beside Eddie and pulled out his card deck from the Duel Disc.
He unrolled the deck and quickly scanned through it.
There wasn't anything special about the deck. Like most duelists in this world, it was mostly a mix with no clear theme. However, it did contain several components supporting Ritual Summons, like Ten Thousand Hands God, High Ritual Technique, and Preparation for the Ceremony.
But strangely, there were no Ritual Monsters.
Yugen carefully searched through it twice and checked the surroundings to ensure he hadn't missed anything.
But there indeed were none.
The card "Dark Ruler Zok" seemed to have disappeared with the end of the duel.
Silence quietly watched on the side for a while and couldn't help stepping forward, looking at Yugen with some concern.
Yugen, as if sensing something inside, turned back and looked at her: "You're thinking if this is 'that' Zok?"
Silence nodded.
"I can't rule out that possibility," Yugen paused but frowned, "But he just said that this Dark Ruler he found was nothing more than an empty shell once used by the Great Evil God.
If he truly were Zok, isn't that statement a bit odd?"
Silence tilted her head, then nodded, acknowledging the doubts.
At this moment, another communication came through the terminal.
This time it was Teacher Dade Temple.
"Are you there meow?"
Yugen: "Teacher, you've completely acclimated to living as a cat, haven't you?"
"Cut the small talk meow," said Teacher Dade Temple, "The Descent Sect you asked me to investigate, the location of their headquarters is more or less cleared up meow."
"Oh? Finally found it?"
"Indeed. These people hid deep in the wilderness, making it quite hard to find. I'll send you the address shortly."
Dade Temple paused.
"So what are you planning to do this time? Are you sending someone over to check it out?"
But before Yugen could speak, he immediately said seriously,
"Just so you know, Teacher is just a cat. This time, no matter what, I'm not going meow."
Yugen laughed: "Alright. Don't worry, Teacher. This time, I'm going to check it out myself."