At the same time, elsewhere.
Dinosaur Ryuzaki was in a pretty good mood today.
After several days of continuous seclusion, he finally found a dueling arena today and relentlessly beat up a few rookies, regaining his confidence and his dueling sense.
Right, dueling should definitely be like this.
His previous tournament performance definitely wasn't his fault.
After racking up seven consecutive wins, Ryuzaki left the arena feeling satisfied. He found a restaurant to buy some dinner, and unexpectedly encountered a fan outside.
"Ah! It's Dinosaur Ryuzaki!"
A young boy, seeing him from afar, immediately brightened up and quickly ran over.
"I'm your fan, could you please sign my autograph?"
Ryuzaki was immediately overjoyed. The last time someone asked him for an autograph felt like it was in the last century. For a moment, he felt like he had become irrelevant – of course, this also had to do with him not competing or appearing in public for many years.
"Consider yourself lucky, kid. Your old man is in a good mood today."
Ryuzaki cheerfully accepted the autograph book from the boy, scribbling his name in a flamboyant style.
"Thank you!" The boy took the autograph book, happily turned, and started to leave.
"Hey, wait a minute, don't rush off."
Ryuzaki grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back.
"You're just going to leave after getting your old man's autograph?"
The boy was startled: "Huh? Then..."
Ryuzaki extended his hand and wiggled it.
"Money, give me money. Your old man's autograph isn't cheap. If you don't have money, use cards to pay."
"Huh?" The boy's eyes widened. "It costs money?"
"What?" Ryuzaki feigned anger. "How dare you say that? Your old man is the mighty Dinosaur Ryuzaki. Do you think my autograph is worthless?"
"No, I wouldn't dare..."
"..."
So, a few minutes later, as Ryuzaki walked down the street, he had several new cards and a coin pouch in his hand.
"Hmph, poor kid, nothing valuable, huh?" He curled his lip.
Actually, he wasn't really short on cards, nor did he lack such a small amount of money. He just purely enjoyed doing things this way.
At this moment, he couldn't help but recall his good friend Haga from back then. There was a time when they were inseparable good brothers, and even things like signing autographs for extortion were done together back then.
Of course, they also endured being caught and beaten to near death together later.
He wondered where his good buddy was now and what he was doing.
As he collected his thoughts, he suddenly realized the atmosphere wasn't right.
It was clearly broad daylight, but at some point, the street had become completely empty.
No, wait, it seemed the sky had also darkened at some unknown time, and a heavy atmosphere pressed down, making it hard to breathe.
"I finally found you, Dinosaur Ryuzaki."
A somewhat rough voice came from a nearby alley. A man in a suit slowly emerged, a green glow flashing in his eyes, carrying a uniquely shaped duel disk.
Ryuzaki: "Who are you?"
"I am Fujimoto, the sworn brother of Onitsuka-kun, whom you killed."
Ryuzaki: "?"
Who is that again? Am I supposed to know him?
Ryuzaki looked bewildered, but Fujimoto gave him no chance, directly deploying his duel disk.
"Feigning ignorance is useless! No more pointless words, darkness duel, open!
Today, I shall use your soul to T_ribute the deceased Onitsuka!"
Ryuzaki: "??? "
So, who exactly are you talking about? Have I even met him?
Kaiba Land, Dueling Arena.
As the AI duelist's LP hit zero, the system lock was indeed released. The armored panels covering the surrounding windows rumbled open, and the folding doors rose, allowing sunlight to once again flood the arena.
The projected image on the stage remained in a glitched state, flickering continuously, its mouth still repeating: "Hit...fizz...you...fizz..."
"Is there something wrong with this AI?"
"Is it broken?"
"Hmm, it feels like it's completely broken, how pitiful."
The onlookers whispered amongst themselves.
However, no one paid attention to it for long, as the focus shifted to Yugen, who had brilliantly won the duel and lifted the system lock.
At least in the eyes of the audience below the stage, this duelist with the "Yu" in his name had surpassed human limits.
He faced an AI with Seto Kaiba's deck data, and at least in their opinion, whether it was its thinking, its tactics, or even its occasionally incomprehensible chuunibyo lines, everything was mimicked perfectly.
During the duel, the AI also displayed the Blue-Eyes' powerful dominance, yet it was effortlessly resolved by this person. And the most spectacular part was that in the end, it even died from its own "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's" breath attack.
The dojo students, led by Senior Sato Koji, were already filled with admiration during the duel. Throughout the entire process, they felt as if occasional eerie winds blew across the field, yet from an outsider's perspective, they strangely found it more and more enjoyable to watch.
As his dojo companions, they naturally shared in the glory, and it would be convenient for them to boast to others in the future, saying "I have a buddy who..." However, while revering him, there was also a hint of complexity in their hearts.
Because even the legendary figure at the pinnacle of the dueling world, the representative of power-type decks, was defeated by their shady junior, what would the future of this dueling world become?
Thinking of this, they couldn't help but feel that as Yugen, this new star, gradually rose, the entire card game world would also gradually be shrouded in a layer of dark clouds, a darkness that made people worry.
Kaiba Land staff had already arrived at the scene, apologizing and compensating the distressed visitors, while also shutting down the system to begin inspection and repairs.
Soon, someone from the company also arrived. Kaiba Seto's younger brother, Kaiba Mokuba, personally led the team to inspect the scene.
"Fujiki. Yugen, right? You were the one who stopped that dueling AI in time?"
Mokuba shook hands with Yugen.
"Thanks to your intervention, I represent Kaiba Corp. in expressing our gratitude."
Yugen waved his hand grandly: "It's a small matter, I merely did what every duelist should do. As for cash rewards, please omit them. Rare cards are completely unnecessary. There's really no need to be polite."
Mokuba blinked in surprise, then chuckled.
"You really are an interesting person. Well then, I'm currently heading back to the Kaiba Corp. local branch. There should be quite a few cards in stock in the warehouse there.
Why don't you come along and take a look? We also need to ask for details about the recent incident and the duel process."
Hiss~ Directly to Kaiba's family warehouse?
"Oh, how can I? That's too embarrassing..."
While speaking, Yugen had already started walking with Mokuba, as if they had become good friends upon their first meeting.
"It's nothing, no trouble at all. You saved our company from significant losses." Mokuba said with a smile.
"..."
The students watched Yugen's receding figure, speechless for a moment.
Half a minute later, Sato Koji couldn't help but say: "Junior brother... why does he seem so practiced at this?"
"Ha, you don't understand this, do you? This is also a type of talent."
Dojo Master Takeuchi looked at the direction Yugen walked away, and couldn't help but reveal an expression of "teachable youth" as he slightly nodded.
"You all still have a lot to learn from him."
The students: "..."