Snake River was still completely dazed in the end.
Because the result had come too suddenly, without any mental preparation.
From his perspective, he thought he'd performed quite well. In this round, he'd cleanly taken care of that annoying "Vampire Hunter" monster—specifically designed to counter his Dark-attribute deck—and had cleared his opponent's front and back rows. Normally, that should have been a perfect offensive wave.
And yet, he was just instantly defeated, just like that?
No monsters, no set cards; with an empty field, his opponent suddenly pulled out two trap cards from hand, seemingly out of nowhere, and summoned a Vampire with ten thousand defense points. Just a second ago, he'd felt he was in complete control, and the next moment he was wiped out at full health.
Who could take that?
Snake River was not convinced, and extremely unwilling to accept it—such a suffocating way to lose was unheard of.
But that's the nature of a Shadow Duel. One mistake means eternal doom, with no second chances. However unjust the loss, you can only swallow it, your anger and frustration swallowed by the darkness.
Snake River fell to his knees. When he slowly looked up, he saw his opponent, in the posture of a victor, standing before him. Firelight flickered across half the other's face, making him look sinister and strange, even the smile seeming to carry unsettling malice, which made Snake River shudder.
Then he saw the girl floating not far behind Kira.
She had smooth silver hair, a cold and elegant face that looked icy in the firelight, a white robe, a staff pointed diagonally at the floor, a transparent vortex swirling around her.
Earlier, thick smoke and the distance between him and Kira had kept Snake River from seeing the spirit clearly, even though he could sense the other's connection to a spirit. But now that they were close, he could finally see the mage's features clearly.
Snake River's pupils shrank in surprise.
Isn't that the Silent Magician!?
One of the signature monsters of Duel King Yugi Muto back in the day. In his hands, she was once considered the Light counterpart to the Dark Magician, a legendary spirit.
But the important thing wasn't the spirit herself—it was who possessed her.
Everyone knows Yugi Muto has long disappeared from the dueling world, but over the past year, the Silent Magician spirit had reappeared, now in the hands of the Big Boss whose name is now known everywhere.
Snake River looked at his opponent in fear and stammered,
"Y-you, could you be the Duel King…?"
"Oh? You recognize me?" Kira nodded. "Well, that makes things simple."
Snake River's face twisted in regret.
He did recognize him, but why couldn't he have realized it a bit later…
Who would have guessed that just taking a random job, he'd run into the Duel King head-on?
Wasn't the Duel King supposed to be at Duel Academy? Prison No. 7 is worlds away from there—what's he doing here?
If I'd known it was the Big Boss, would I have acted so arrogant? Waiting for him to show up, taunting him just now—wasn't that like putting my head on the block?
The more Snake River thought about it, the more he regretted it. Still, his earlier frustration at dying like this had mostly faded.
Even if the manner of death was humiliating, he'd heard the current Duel King was good at mentally breaking his opponents in creative ways. It wasn't a glorious way to lose, but knowing the opponent was the Duel King—no matter how the process went, losing was inevitable.
"Looks like you're behind this prison riot, so tell me," Kira asked, "why did you do it?"
Snake River knew he no longer had the right to refuse, so he answered honestly, "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"Yeah. I'm just doing a job for money. I'm a hired Shadow Duelist, and I took the job through the dark web.
The job description just said that at a certain time, the system at Prison No. 7 would go down, and a secret passage would open. All I had to do was sneak in as instructed, release all the prisoners, and set a fire to create chaos."
He thought of something and added, "Oh, and there was a bonus: for each Duelist from the Kaiba Corporation I could take out, I'd get extra pay."
So it's pay-per-head?
Kira nodded, understanding. "So that's why you rushed in like you were desperate to die?"
Snake River nearly cried.
He regretted it so much. If only he'd skipped the bonus, set the fire, and run away, nothing would have happened!
"You said you got this job from the dark web," Kira continued. "So is the dark web behind the attack on Prison No. 7?"
Snake River shook his head. "No, the dark web is just a platform. Lots of people look for work there. And it's common for us hired hands not to know the details.
Everyone knows the rules of Shadow Duels—anything can happen, like, well, like what's happening now."
Kira nodded. That made sense.
When you lose a Shadow Duel, you're at your opponent's mercy. That's why Shadow Duelists aren't like traditional hitmen—you can't expect them to protect their employer's identity, because it's impossible.
The only way to ensure secrecy is if they truly don't know anything.
"But since the dark web is a trading platform, both those taking jobs and posting them must be known to the platform, right?" Kira asked.
Snake River nodded.
"Of course. Especially for posting jobs, you have to register identity and affiliations."
He suddenly thought of something and stared at Kira.
"You… you're not thinking of…?"
"I didn't say anything," Kira shrugged.
But even if he hadn't said it, Snake River seemed to guess what he wanted to do.
Is he going to pick a fight with the dark web?
He may be the Duel King, arguably the strongest power in the world right now. But the dark web is no pushover—its waters run deep, and its secret masters are rumored to have world-class dark and chaotic powers, though who knows if that's true.
More importantly, nobody knows who they are.
The leadership of the dark web is a total mystery. Once you provoke them, you risk being hunted by the world's top masters. Almost nobody is crazy enough to pick a fight with them.
But Kira figured that rumors are just rumors, often exaggerated.
He had a friend named "Revolver" who openly defied the dark web, and nothing bad happened to him.
No terrible retribution.
He'd even taken down Doma and their Serpent God—he didn't think an underground trading platform could be stronger than Doma.
By now, the situation in the prison seemed under control, with Mokuba and the others arriving.
Kira had asked what he needed. He casually took Snake River's deck, then got up and walked back to Mokuba, gesturing behind him.
"Caught a hired goon. You can take him in for questioning, ask whatever you want. He's a nice guy—he'll definitely tell you everything."
He turned and winked at Snake River.
"Right?"
Snake River: "…"