"Yugi↑! Yugi↓!"
"Kaiba!"
Kaiba Seto stood squarely in the center of the Dueling Arena, his hand holding a high-tech Duel Disc that shone with a blue glow, while his white trench coat fluttered dramatically behind him.
"I've been waiting for you, Yugi↑! Yugi↓!" Kaiba shouted, "Come on! Let's put an end to our destined battle!"
The man standing before him, with a vividly colored seafood-style hairstyle, had a golden pyramid-shaped pendant hanging upside down on his chest, the chain lightly clinking with metallic sounds.
His expression was solemn and steadfast, his gaze hard like a general drawing out a divine sword, flickering with a chilling glint.
That man was the Duel King Muto Yugi... no, more accurately, he was Atem.
The Pharaoh from the Netherworld, the undefeated War God!
"If you're so persistent, then come, Kaiba," "Atem" said coldly, "But no matter how many times you try, the result will always be the same."
"Hmph, arrogant!"
"Duel!" x2
"..."
Standing at the observation deck on the second floor, Youyu lost interest at this point.
They said it was "testing a new Duel Disc," but everyone knows it's just President Haima's usual routine of beating up humanoid machines...
Since Atem left, nearly a year had passed in the blink of an eye.
The departure of the true protagonist of the world not only meant the conclusion of a story but also ushered in a peaceful life. For a whole year, things haven't gone crazy like they used to; no ancient artifacts suddenly threatening to destroy civilization, nor any artists proclaiming the end of the world with a long, dark dragon head...
Of course, it's unrealistic to say things have completely calmed down. Yu-Gi-Oh World is one where, although card games are central, gods and demons run rampant. Even if there are no major events, supernatural occurrences related to card games are always happening.
From Youyu's observation, since the departure of Haima's beloved rival King, Haima, who usually scoffs at the "supernatural," has become more attentive to these phenomena, though he doesn't say it aloud.
Moreover, there's a more noticeable change: President Haima, already known as the "King of Humanoid," seems to have become even more obsessed with humanoid machines this past year.
But don't think that Haima's preoccupation with Atem's humanoid machines means he's forgotten about Youyu. That's not the case. Just two days ago, President Haima suddenly went crazy and dragged Youyu out of bed in the middle of the night, making him play cards with sleepy eyes, calling it "testing a new duel system"...
Testing, my foot!
Youyu wanted to curse as he yawned.
Crazy! Playing cards in the middle of the night!
He ended up staying awake all night, sporting panda eyes the next day at the shop, with Chinai immediately suspecting something, asking what he did last night to end up looking so weary...
Of course, Youyu could refuse to play cards with the boss if he really didn't want to, knowing the boss couldn't do much about it.
The reason he got up in the middle of the night to duel with the boss ultimately came down to... the money was just too good.
No choice, Youyu felt that as a true Duelist, he couldn't go against the voice of his heart. The deepest voice within kept telling him, "Take it if you can" and "Not earning is foolish."
Testing the duel system was indeed true. Kaiba Company achieved terrifying progress in technology this past year, and now President Haima has become obsessed with developing online card duel games.
According to his plan, Duelists can call upon global card data through the Duel Disc, transmit it via the Crystal Cloud network to the Duel Disc, and directly link with the Duelist's neural network, linking with the memory module of the human brain. Kaiba Company's high-tech will then visualize brain images in space, achieving dueling performance far beyond the past...
President Haima stubbornly named this system "Duel Links."
In fact, while this system is impressive, saying that it can completely replace traditional card dueling is still not realistic.
First, the high-tech Duel Disc obviously sounds extremely expensive, not affordable for all civilian Duelists. Furthermore, it involves the "neural link" module, so safety is also an unknown factor.
But Kaiba doesn't care; Kaiba insists on completing the development of this system.
The reason... is actually quite simple.
Based on research, Kaiba believes this system can synchronize and tune any Duelist's consciousness data, theoretically possessing the potential to surpass the dimensions themselves, opening paths to unknown dimensions.
For example...
...the path to the Netherworld!
Whenever Kaiba thought about this possibility, his fists would clench, his blood boiling.
Yugi↑! Yugi↓!
Do you think you can escape our destiny by going to the underworld?
Just wait!
I'm going to find you and duel!
To be honest, President Haima's imaginative idea might have something to do with the crazy players.
Because "Linked World" is temporarily shut down for maintenance, reportedly preparing for the new version.
Youyu wasn't surprised. In his past life, "Linked World's" 1.0 version did go through maintenance after ending, though in reality, it was just a few days of maintenance and updates. But when players logged in next time, the timeline had advanced to the 2.0 version, corresponding to the "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX" era in the anime.
When bored, Youyu occasionally wondered if Linked World was actually a parallel world. Somehow, someone had discovered a way to project players over, and they just sent them directly.
Because it's essentially a parallel world, even the person who sent players over naturally couldn't interfere with the game's progress and activities, so they claimed "absolutely open and free game" and "the officials won't intervene in any game process."
Sounds nice, but in reality, it might be because they simply can't do it.
It made Youyu recall novels where protagonists gained special abilities, projecting game players as their pawns to fight throughout the other world, while those players thought they were just playing games...
...Of course, it's just his personal idle imagination.
Thinking about these things doesn't have much meaning; rather, since he's already a part of this Yu-Gi-Oh World, he should adapt.
One can imagine how the sudden disappearance of so many quirky players who had integrated into this world would naturally make the NPCs surprised.
But soon, a consensus spread among the NPCs.
These quirky individuals with strange behavior and outfits, sometimes whispering things incomprehensible to everyone, seemed like aliens. Yet in critical moments when the world's existence was at stake, these individuals clearly contributed actively, saving many lives and playing crucial roles.
Thus, the NPCs quickly reached an agreement—
—These individuals might be Duelists from other dimensions!
Many professionals expressed agreement, believing this hypothesis was possible. The more they researched, the more they felt dueling was key to all technology, crossing spacetime and surpassing dimensions. Even from today's perspective, it's not entirely impossible...
This theory caught President Haima's attention immediately.
And so, the boss set his new goal—
—To surpass dimensions through the power of dueling!
And then go to the Netherworld to duel that person!
To be honest, seeing the boss so determined made Youyu feel a bit uneasy.
What if someday Youyu returns to the real world by chance, and years later, while living a peaceful ordinary life, walking down a familiar street, suddenly, a dimensional fissure tears open in the sky, and President Haima stands at the edge of some time-space machine, holding a Duel Disc, shouting—
—Youyu↑! It's finally you! Let's duel!
"..."
Just thinking about it is ludicrous.