"I lost."
Standing at the entrance of the "Blue-Eyes Hotel," Mr. Phoenix regretfully spoke once again before departing.
"Mr. Youyu's dueling is as flawless as ever. I know it might seem like I had a chance to win this round, but I really didn't, right?"
"Not exactly."
Youyu shrugged, pressing down on Judai's little jellyfish head beside him to prevent the little one's active cells from running wild everywhere.
"Your 'Vision Hero' is indeed impressive," Youyu said sincerely. "I believe when they officially debut, it should be a groundbreaking deck.
Their arrival will be an important turning point in the development of the 'Hero' series, marking a new era for 'Hero'."
"It's my great honor that you think so." Mr. Phoenix's eyes gleamed.
For a designer, the greatest honor is the recognition of their work. Having his deck personally acknowledged by the Duel King himself—especially someone seen as the iconic figure of the 'Hero' series like Youyu—is already a high level of honor and award.
"However, they are not completely finished yet," Mr. Phoenix said. "What I brought today are just the newly completed samples. I tried combining them with my previous 'Destiny Hero' designs, creating this deck, which I personally feel has a good synergy."
He paused, then added, "Of course, this is just my personal nonsense. When it comes to 'Hero' decks, they can only fully unleash their power in Mr. Youyu's hands.
Even though they are just samples now, if you're interested, you can take these samples first...
Youyu waved his hand, "No need, no need, just give me a priority purchase channel when they officially release."
Honestly, he doesn't lack money. He's willing to buy cards that can be bought with money, no need to take advantage of others for such a small favor.
..... Excluding President Haima.
To be honest, he no longer remembers how many cards he's snatched from Kaiba Company's card warehouse. Kaiba never asked, and he never brought it up voluntarily.
Anyway, the president is wealthy, missing a few cards doesn't matter...
But Mr. Phoenix was quite insistent in this regard: "It won't do any harm, why don't you just accept these few cards first? Even though they're just a few cards, they should be quite helpful to you."
Youyu glanced at them, and they were the more common small creatures of the Vision Hero series.
"Ah, this is quite inappropriate..."
An unnamed passerby named You seemed to refuse while accepting those cards from his hand.
Mr. Phoenix laughed, lightly adjusting his glasses that seemed ready to slide down his shiny nose at any moment.
"I hope it can be of help to you. After all, I'm just a small card designer, besides this, I can't do much else."
Mr. Phoenix gently rubbed Ed's little head, whispering, "If it weren't for Mr. Youyu, this child might not have a father now."
Little Ed was dazed, looking a bit frozen. However, he quickly held tightly onto his father's waist, as if afraid the person would slip away from his grasp if he let go.
"...Alright." Since the other party said so, Youyu didn't refuse (the cards were already in his pocket, actually), "Thank you."
"There's one more thing." Mr. Phoenix said, "I heard that President Haima is planning to establish a World Dueling League system?"
"Hmm... There is such a thing."
Youyu reminisced, recalling it seemingly.
Just a while ago, the president summoned him to the office, blabbering about the future planning of the Dueling Domain, mentioning constructing a league system.
According to his vision, the league would operate worldwide on a city basis, where investors purchase league seats to establish clubs, recruiting outstanding duelists to compete globally.
Obviously, Youyu wasn't very interested and didn't pay much attention. After all, it doesn't have much to do with him.
He only remembered mentioning to the president that he wanted to become a teacher at the soon-to-be-opened Duel Academy.
This time the president didn't reject him, but instead suddenly pulled out a Duel Disc, saying that it's possible, but—
——You still have to ask if my deck agrees!
Come on, You↑Yu↓, duel!
Youyu: "..."
Because Youyu was already the Duel King, a person standing at the pinnacle of the Dueling World. With this status, he generally wouldn't participate in regular leagues.
In fact, not only him, but the same applies to Yugi as well.
In the GX Animation, Ed's adoptive father, the thief DD who was possessed by the "Light of Destruction" and stole the Blood Demon D card, in the animation even claimed to have continuously won the world championship for ten years.
This pathetic character, whose demeanor and card-playing skills are both lacking, and even his name is already quite weak, managed to win ten championships. First of all, it shows "Light of Destruction" is indeed impressive, and secondly, it only proves that during those years, Muto Yugi and even Kaiba Seto himself didn't participate in the league.
Otherwise, how would that weakling win the championship?
In fact, now for both Yugi and Youyu, they are already considered "eternal Duel Kings" in the industry. They rarely attend regular major tournaments or need to frequently accept challenges from other duelists to defend their title.
As First Duel Kings, their appearance fees have skyrocketed to unimaginable heights, and even famous companies have to think carefully about hiring them for events at times.
But then Youyu thought he always seemed to be at a loss.
His value is so high now, yet he gets constantly exploited for free by President Haima!
The president frequently sends him messages saying there's an event on a certain day, and he must be present.
Yet the president never mentioned appearance fees...
Rumor has it that Kaiba also plans to host the second "Duel City" tournament to determine the new Duel King title. Naturally, the two First Duel Kings will permanently hold the title of 'Duel King' without needing to participate in new competitions.
Initially, Youyu thought the president's maneuver was quite clever. Exclude the two people he couldn't beat from the competition, so the new Duel King title would be his for the taking?
Then realized he truly misunderstood the president.
Because President Haima clearly stated that he wouldn't join any competition for the Duel King title anymore either.
Not that he's lost interest in the title.
But...
"Duel King? Don't joke!" Kaiba Seto shouted sternly, "Before defeating Youyu... and that guy, the title of Duel King is an insult to me!"
This is Kaiba Seto, a perfectionist.
He can't tolerate being titled "King" while there are those two still above him.
Most frustrating is that the damn You↑gi↓ plays and then runs!
Unforgivable!
"..."
"This might be an inconvenient request, if you find it uncomfortable, you can forget about it," Mr. Phoenix paused and glanced at his son before continuing, "I hope... Ed can enter the professional circle."
Little Ed widened his eyes, full of surprise.
"Oh?" Youyu was surprised, "But Ed is still quite young, isn't he?"
"Not really, in a couple of years he should be about the right age."
The professional league indeed doesn't have age restrictions requiring players to be of age; after all, in the original series, Ed debuted as a professional player at just 15 years old.
"Ed really has a great talent for dueling, and at that time, I also hope Mr. Youyu you could look after him, if possible, it'd be best to guide Ed by your side..."
Youyu understood.
Mr. Phoenix might have seen him take in Judai as a disciple and felt intrigued, wanting to give his son to him...
But Youyu politely declined, only guaranteeing that when Ed truly enters the professional circle, he would offer guidance.
After all, taking disciples is an exhausting task. It takes both time and effort.
Even with just Judai, a troublesome student, he sometimes finds himself exhausted with no energy or mood to take on more students.
Speaking of which, not long ago, Chinai listened in on Youyu tutoring Judai for a while and suddenly wanted to join the fun, saying she wanted to be Youyu's disciple and wanted him to teach her personally.
But Youyu didn't accept.
Ed was one thing, but Chinai's interest clearly wasn't in card playing at all!
If he really accepted her, she'd probably turn things chaotic!