"This guy Yugen, really... no matter how long it's been, it's hard to get used to him."
Keihei muttered to himself as he watched Yugen's first duel through the surveillance footage.
Even as an opposing camp, suddenly he felt a bit sorry for the guy on the other side. In a short duel over a few turns, he experienced deck destruction and hand destruction, and finally fell into an Infinite Slap Loop...
But in the end, that guy seemed to have fallen under the effect of his own Orichalcos Barrier.
The duel ended with LP hitting zero, and the Orichalcos Barrier rapidly spun and closed in, with the green light beam converging on his body.
Night Shadow's eyes turned void, and he staggered back two steps, about to fall, but Yugen quickly stepped forward and caught him.
Night Shadow was stunned.
He looked up in surprise, a bit unexpectedly at Yugen, as if he didn't expect this person's play to be a killer blow but then unexpectedly came forward to support him after the duel.
What does this mean? Showing sympathy?
However, in a life-and-death gamble, what's the point of the winner's pity for the loser?
But within a second, he realized he was overthinking it.
After stepping forward to support him, Yugen, without a word, swiftly snatched the Duel Disc with the card deck from his hand and then immediately let go.
Night Shadow, losing his support, instantly toppled to the ground with a thud, looking like a discarded rag.
Night Shadow: "You @%#%&!"
The damn guy, killer blow wasn't enough, he didn't even spare his cards!
He actually had a lot more to curse, even feeling an impulse to grab the opponent and duel him physically, but alas, he didn't have the chance anymore.
The power of the barrier contracted, and his soul was forcibly extracted from his body, as if pulled by an invisible gravity, continuously rising along the green light, watching helplessly as his body slumped to the ground like a lifeless puppet, and that demon casually walked away with his card deck.
His soul disappeared in the whirl of the barrier, and in the last moment before losing consciousness, he felt a heavy hammer on his chest, a strong urge to spit blood...
"Tsk tsk, the quality of the New Doma members is really worrying. Not even giving more rare cards..."
Yugen, walking while casually flipping through the card deck, could only shake his head repeatedly.
"This one might be useful... but it seems useless. Better sell it..."
Keihei in front of the surveillance monitor:"..."
He suddenly thought that maybe collapsing quickly after the duel could be considered a stroke of luck for this person. If he saw Yugen picking through his card deck before he passed out, who knows if he would suddenly revive out of anger...
He knew Yugen's duels would be the most interesting, and indeed, this time he didn't switch the perspective wrongly.
Keihei contentedly withdrew his gaze and began switching the surveillance view to find his brother Seto Kaiba's location.
Now Yugen's Puzzle Card count is +1, with a progress of 2/6 in the tournament. I wonder if his brother got the first card yet...
...
...
Yugen had already realized that this duel might not be so simple.
Initially, he thought the main challenge of the competition might be after the advancement. Seto Kaiba was undoubtedly the biggest challenge in this tournament, and Yugen didn't really have any intention of necessarily winning the championship when he entered.
For him, dueling with Kaiba was just part of a phase trial. So far, he had successfully overcome every phase challenge and hurdle he'd set up for himself, without encountering anything particularly difficult.
A duel with Seto Kaiba might bring a new breakthrough.
However, now it seemed there were other matters to address before reaching the finals.
His acquisition of the "Sealing Artifact" had obviously been noticed by New Doma. Members stationed locally had infiltrated this Duel City tournament, and what just happened was likely just the beginning.
That guy Night Shadow was undoubtedly just a vanguard. Surely others had observed this duel in secret and were evaluating Yugen's dueling, possibly already gathering intelligence and strategizing for the next round of attacks.
Of course, for Yugen, the problem wasn't that serious. After all, he never used a fixed strategy or card deck; if others studied him, he could simply switch to a different deck next match and carry on.
But the real critical issue was being targeted as an objective.
It's foreseeable that they would seize the opportunity of this grand tournament to launch another attack. They would strike relentlessly, trying their best to strategize in different ways, continually studying him...
... That's intolerable!?
We need to realize this is a branch of the world's largest Dark Duelist terror organization, and these dangerous people have set their sights on a regular student from Duel Academy like Yugen...
... even just an ordinary student from the Winged Dragon of Ra, not even the elite from Obelisk Blue.
Such treachery, too terrifying.
Yugen subconsciously clenched the still-warm card deck he had just snatched, realizing he couldn't let this continue.
It's too slow to bet one card at a time against other duelists...
... No, wait.
It's too dangerous to let these dangerous individuals run rampant outside.
The enemy is in the dark, we are in the light. It's predictable that the opponents will keep attacking constantly, possibly using all kinds of dirty tricks. Staying passive and waiting for them to strike is certainly not a wise choice.
He must find a way to take the initiative.
Yugen walked out of the alley, the pitch-black mist dissipating behind him. He smirked and let out a light chuckle.
It's hunting time.
...
...
"... Night Shadow has failed."
Still in that dark environment. The green light flickered like ghostly flames, and the cloaked leader spoke silently in the darkness.
He scanned his gaze across the remaining four people in the room.
"Does anyone want to say something?"
Everyone: "..."
They all had glimpsed the process of the duel just now through the power of Orichalcos. The room had maintained an eerie silence ever since they had watched, up until now.
What was there to say?
The Black Scorpion Thief Gang. They knew this card deck too, a commoner's deck you could practically buy at any store.
And unlike in the animation where despite being considered trash, they often had shining moments disrupting situations, in the animation aside from the few episodes where their elves appeared, the Black Scorpion group's elves, after being added to Chazz's deck, found themselves benched until the conclusion, never appearing again.
So evidently even Chazz, who started realizing that "even trash has its use" later on, didn't find much use in them...
Yet with this stuff, Yugen overwhelmed Night Shadow with a deck destruction right from the start, then countered with an Infinite Loop.
This world rarely sees Infinite Loops, but they aren't unheard of. For example, during the first Duel City tournament, Duel King Muto Yuugi first used an Infinite Loop against the Phantom God, defeating "Osiris the Sky Dragon".
Though back then, the early duel rules differed from now, that legendary duel is still talked about passionately by duelists today.
The Infinite Loops documented in publicly recorded matches often represent duelists racking their brains and giving their all to execute the combinations, many even during Destiny Power bursts to turn the tables, often recorded as magnificent moments in duel history.
However, this person's execution of an Infinite Loop felt more like a casual attack...
It had a breezy, effortless feeling.
"Hmm... so, who intends to step forward for the next fight?"
The leader looked around.
Everyone: "......"