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Chapter 398: White Snake? It's the Millennium Eye!
"Screech—!!"
Under the braking of the brake pads, the tires of the black luxury car rubbed against the ground, making noise. From the stopped car, Iso and a team of "Man In Black" from the KaibaCorp Security Department under his management got out.
As mentioned before, the "KC Cup" hosted by KaibaCorp this time received attention from all sectors. The Los Angeles Municipal Government, as the host city, naturally did its best to cooperate with KaibaCorp, the organizer of the "KC Cup", in all aspects of work, from firefighting and power supply to security work.
In this country where even the air is filled with the free atmosphere called "gunsmoke", security personnel only holding batons would have little deterrent effect on those skilled at looting. Therefore, with the assistance of the Mayor, the Security Department under Iso's command each received a gun permit and were equipped with firearms.
The men in black equipped with firearms who got out of the black luxury car, honestly, if Iso's subordinates were to cosplay Mars Assassin Soldiers, the recreation level would be at least ninety percent.
As for whether the Mayor's assistance was due to the sufficient weight of the alliance between the emerging KaibaCorp and the established American company Industrial Illusions, or because the smooth hosting of the "KC Cup" would leave a good political record on his resume and the generous amount given by Kaiba, this is unknown.
Due to the "collusion between officials and business" between KaibaCorp and the Los Angeles Municipal Government, most of KaibaCorp's actions required a very short reporting process, or arguably no reporting process at all.
For example, this time, after Kaiba used reverse tracking to hack the firewall that invaded Kaiba Land and the Duel Robot, he directly tracked the hacker's location via the network cable. He ordered Iso to lead a team to capture this hacker, merely notifying the municipal government.
"This is the place." Iso glanced at a translucent tablet in his hand. His location displayed on it had overlapped with a red dot, indicating he had reached the target location. The specific location could only be under Iso's feet.
With a wave of his hand, Iso struck a cool pose. The men in black following him approached the building in front of them, kicked open the door to the room, and rushed inside.
Although Los Angeles has laws allowing self-defense against trespassers on private property, Iso was confident in his subordinates. If the hacker, who was audacious enough to invade KaibaCorp, dared to resist, KaibaCorp's security would fully utilize the President's greatest hobby, Summoning in Double Fist Attack Stance and Equipping the Spell Card [Life Reset Device].
Not worried about any unexpected situations occurring during the capture operation, Iso even had the leisure to operate the tablet in his hand, directly updating the task progress on the network. He casually went to check the "Capture completed" option.
As expected, Iso watched as his subordinates escorted a black teenager with extremely heavy dark circles under his eyes out of the house. Although Iso wasn't sure where he saw the dark circles.
Such a task was really easy. Just ride in the car, wait for the subordinates to finish the job, and then clock out. It was much more interesting than being a referee for a Duel Monsters competition. Iso thought this, and the corner of his mouth couldn't help but slightly curl up. He was about to turn around and get back into the car, letting the men in black escort the black teenager into a truck that had arrived following the sedan, when suddenly, he heard the roar of his President—Seto Kaiba—in his ear: "Iso, what are you doing there?!"
Iso was slightly stunned.
He looked around but saw no sign of Kaiba. Everything was as calm as usual, with only his subordinates restraining the black teenager. It was as if the shout just now was merely an illusion.
Did I mishear?
Iso looked at his subordinates again with some doubt, but this time he noticed something was slightly off—until just now, including himself, there were four people he brought. With the reinforcements who got out of the truck, there were only seven people in total. How could there be a full ten people on site, including the black teenager?
"Iso!"
He heard Kaiba's shout again, and after this sound, Iso suddenly felt a wave of dizziness. His vision couldn't help but see double. Subconsciously, the dizzy and uncomfortable Iso reached out to the side, only to find that he, who had just been outside the car, had instantly returned inside the sedan, his hand resting on the car window.
Looking around again, Iso's vision simultaneously showed two overlapping scenes—KaibaCorp security personnel detaining the black teenager and preparing to withdraw, and the other three people in the same car whose car head had crashed into a fire hydrant, saved from being thrown out of the car by their seatbelts.
"Iso!"
Tilting his head, Iso saw Kaiba. He was calling Iso's name through the car window.
Like a fully inflated balloon pierced by a needle, the moment he saw Kaiba, Iso suddenly remembered—he hadn't gotten out of the car at all.
Going back in time a bit.
Following the target location given by Kaiba, Iso sat in the black luxury car. As they approached the destination, he was instructing the other three people in the car about the precautions.
"Their offensive ability is very strong. They found and exploited the opening in the Kaiba Land firewall almost instantly without taking any detours, thereby gaining control over the camera equipment, network channels, and that Duel Robot within Kaiba Land."
"But on the other hand, their defense ability is almost nonexistent, riddled with vulnerabilities like a breeding ground for malware. If it weren't for the lack of cameras, their true identity would have been captured in the first place."
"Therefore, there is reason to suspect that they are not a professional hacker but an ordinary person who accidentally obtained a KaibaCorp vulnerability. They must be controlled and it must be confirmed whether they possess other backdoor vulnerabilities."
Reading the information provided by the KaibaCorp analysis team, even Iso, who was usually unshaken by major events, couldn't help but feel the urge to complain: "Isn't that a bit too ridiculous? The firewall program was personally written by Vice President Mokuba leading the team. If it was defeated, that's somewhat understandable, but to say it was defeated by an ordinary person using the program's opening?"
"Doesn't the analysis team's meaning imply that the program written by Vice President Mokuba is so flawed that anyone can easily find them and save them for later use, without worrying about them being fixed?"
The others also agreed with Iso's words. It wasn't to flatter their superior, but because they, like Iso, greatly respected Mokuba's talent and didn't believe that the vulnerabilities in the firewall program written by Mokuba would be exaggerated to that extent.
Casually flipping the page of this analysis, Iso reconfirmed Kaiba's command: "Then let me repeat it. Although the analysis team's statement is hard to believe, let's follow President Kaiba's instructions first. Find that hacker and control them. After the President arrives, test their ability before making a decision."
If the analysis team was wrong and the hacker had hacked into Kaiba Land with their own ability, it was highly likely that KaibaCorp would cancel the punishment for that hacker and instead offer them a position, as talented people are highly sought after.
But if the analysis was accurate, then the method of punishment for that hacker would very likely be as the analysis team judged, with a great necessity to force them to hand over the program vulnerabilities they possessed.
Of course, all of the above would have to be decided by Kaiba himself. If he was annoyed with that person, even if they were very capable, they would not be accepted by him.
Turning a corner at an intersection, the black luxury car got closer and closer to the target location. Iso lowered his head, watching his coordinate point about to overlap with the destination. When he raised his head again, he and the other three simultaneously discovered—
In front of the moving vehicle, a "boy" wearing a gray robe seemed to be crossing the road as if he hadn't noticed the car!
The reason "boy" was put in quotation marks was because the person wearing the gray robe had the hood attached to the robe covering their head. Iso only guessed their gender and age based on their flat chest and thin, short build.
"Beep beep!" From a long distance away, the security personnel driving the car began honking the horn to remind the boy to quickly get off the road. But no matter how loud the car's sound was, the gray-robed boy's pace remained steady and slow as he walked, as if deliberately waiting in front of the vehicle to be hit.
Damn it, they're trying to stage a car accident.
The thoughts of the four people in the car were quite consistent. The driver didn't need anyone to remind him; he moved his foot to step on the brake. But carelessly, he saw a golden lollipop without a stick in the gray-robed boy's mouth.
No, that's not right. That color seems to be real gold, and I've seen that shape somewhere!
The driver, who had worked at KaibaCorp since the time it was almost taken over by Industrial Illusions, remembered meeting the President of Industrial Illusions—Maximillion Pegasus—under the leadership of Saruwatari, the head of the Security Department at the time. Pegasus's silver hair was blown by the wind as he sat by the window of Duelist Castle enjoying the sea breeze, and he had seen the appearance of Pegasus's hidden left eye.
It was exactly the same as the one in the gray-robed boy's mouth!
The driver, who wanted to speak out and remind his colleagues in the car, didn't even have time to open his mouth before his vision was silently invaded by a dark magic. His consciousness became confused, and he lost the ability to speak. And just now, he clearly intended to step on the brake, but what he ended up stepping on was the accelerator.
Suddenly, the speed of the black luxury car surged violently. Then, under the driver's chaotic control, the steering wheel was sharply turned halfway. The black luxury car scraped against the roadside railing, making an unpleasant noise, and finally, the car head slammed heavily into the roadside fire hydrant.
"Screech—!!"
"Bang!!"
Iso's consciousness stopped there. After the driver's mind was dissolved, the others, including Iso, followed his path and fell into a state of mental confusion, sitting calmly unconscious in the sedan, immersed in a flawless illusion woven by someone unknown.
It wasn't until Kaiba's arrival that his continuous calls brought Iso's consciousness back.
Struggling to raise his arm and place his finger on the unlock button on the car door, using the weight of his arm to unlock it, the car door on Iso's side was opened. Kaiba's hand grabbed Iso, who was about to slide out of the car.
"Iso! What happened?"
Opening his eyelids to look at the furious Kaiba, Iso's voice was weak and powerless: "Gray-robed boy, and Pegasus's eye..."
After saying the two keywords he had racked his brain to come up with, Iso closed his eyes weakly, as if he had exhausted his last bit of power.
Kaiba quickly checked Iso's breathing. Fortunately, Iso's breathing was still steady. It seemed he had only fallen unconscious and hadn't died.
Temporarily placing Iso back in the car to rest, Kaiba finally had time to think about what Iso had just said.
"Gray-robed boy, and Pegasus's eye?"
The description "gray-robed boy" was too vague. Anyone could be a gray-robed boy by buying a gray robe and finding a boy to wear it. But Pegasus's eye...
Kaiba felt that the possibility of Iso referring to Pegasus's currently intact eye was small. The probability was much higher that he was referring to the "Millennium Eye" that Kaiba had also seen before—although Hayato had told Kaiba many times about terms like 【Millennium Puzzle】 and 【Millennium Eye】, he never believed that such unscientific items could possess any power.
Especially after the Duelist Kingdom incident ended, on the day Kaiba left Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus's "Millennium Eye" was lost, and Pegasus himself was hospitalized for a long time because of it.
At the time, when he heard about Pegasus's misfortune, Kaiba even gloated. Who told that guy to carry a golden eye with him every day? It was like showing off his wealth, afraid that others wouldn't know he was rich.
Kaiba never thought that one day he would hear news of Pegasus's stolen Millennium Eye again, and from Iso's mouth at that. Now, the basic clue could be confirmed. Even if the person with Pegasus's Millennium Eye wasn't the culprit behind this unexpected event, they were at least one of the informed parties; otherwise, Iso wouldn't have specifically mentioned it.
Kaiba, who had arrived at the car accident scene on a motorcycle, had immediately called an ambulance the moment he found the sedan Iso was in stopped by the roadside, and demanded that they dispatch quickly to save people. However, in free America, even a major customer like Kaiba couldn't take away the ambulance's freedom. The voice on the phone claimed it would take at least half an hour to reach the scene.
Kaiba, who was extremely annoyed at the moment, had no mind to go after that hacker anymore. All he felt now was the rage at his subordinate being harmed, only wanting to find someone to vent on.
Coincidentally, a blond man with a taste similar to Kaiba's, also wearing a long, ankle-length dark blue trench coat, walked out from the corner of the road under Kaiba's gaze. The duel disk worn on his wrist proved his identity as a duelist.
Initially, Kaiba just glanced at him dismissively. But the blond man said something that made Kaiba glare at him angrily:
"Are you looking for the one who attacked them?"
"Screech—!!"
Under the braking of the brake pads, the tires of the black luxury car rubbed against the ground, making noise. From the stopped car, Iso and a team of "Man In Black" from the KaibaCorp Security Department under his management got out.
As mentioned before, the "KC Cup" hosted by KaibaCorp this time received attention from all sectors. The Los Angeles Municipal Government, as the host city, naturally did its best to cooperate with KaibaCorp, the organizer of the "KC Cup", in all aspects of work, from firefighting and power supply to security work.
In this country where even the air is filled with the free atmosphere called "gunsmoke", security personnel only holding batons would have little deterrent effect on those skilled at looting. Therefore, with the assistance of the Mayor, the Security Department under Iso's command each received a gun permit and were equipped with firearms.
The men in black equipped with firearms who got out of the black luxury car, honestly, if Iso's subordinates were to cosplay Mars Assassin Soldiers, the recreation level would be at least ninety percent.
As for whether the Mayor's assistance was due to the sufficient weight of the alliance between the emerging KaibaCorp and the established American company Industrial Illusions, or because the smooth hosting of the "KC Cup" would leave a good political record on his resume and the generous amount given by Kaiba, this is unknown.
Due to the "collusion between officials and business" between KaibaCorp and the Los Angeles Municipal Government, most of KaibaCorp's actions required a very short reporting process, or arguably no reporting process at all.
For example, this time, after Kaiba used reverse tracking to hack the firewall that invaded Kaiba Land and the Duel Robot, he directly tracked the hacker's location via the network cable. He ordered Iso to lead a team to capture this hacker, merely notifying the municipal government.
"This is the place." Iso glanced at a translucent tablet in his hand. His location displayed on it had overlapped with a red dot, indicating he had reached the target location. The specific location could only be under Iso's feet.
With a wave of his hand, Iso struck a cool pose. The men in black following him approached the building in front of them, kicked open the door to the room, and rushed inside.
Although Los Angeles has laws allowing self-defense against trespassers on private property, Iso was confident in his subordinates. If the hacker, who was audacious enough to invade KaibaCorp, dared to resist, KaibaCorp's security would fully utilize the President's greatest hobby, Summoning in Double Fist Attack Stance and Equipping the Spell Card [Life Reset Device].
Not worried about any unexpected situations occurring during the capture operation, Iso even had the leisure to operate the tablet in his hand, directly updating the task progress on the network. He casually went to check the "Capture completed" option.
As expected, Iso watched as his subordinates escorted a black teenager with extremely heavy dark circles under his eyes out of the house. Although Iso wasn't sure where he saw the dark circles.
Such a task was really easy. Just ride in the car, wait for the subordinates to finish the job, and then clock out. It was much more interesting than being a referee for a Duel Monsters competition. Iso thought this, and the corner of his mouth couldn't help but slightly curl up. He was about to turn around and get back into the car, letting the men in black escort the black teenager into a truck that had arrived following the sedan, when suddenly, he heard the roar of his President—Seto Kaiba—in his ear: "Iso, what are you doing there?!"
Iso was slightly stunned.
He looked around but saw no sign of Kaiba. Everything was as calm as usual, with only his subordinates restraining the black teenager. It was as if the shout just now was merely an illusion.
Did I mishear?
Iso looked at his subordinates again with some doubt, but this time he noticed something was slightly off—until just now, including himself, there were four people he brought. With the reinforcements who got out of the truck, there were only seven people in total. How could there be a full ten people on site, including the black teenager?
"Iso!"
He heard Kaiba's shout again, and after this sound, Iso suddenly felt a wave of dizziness. His vision couldn't help but see double. Subconsciously, the dizzy and uncomfortable Iso reached out to the side, only to find that he, who had just been outside the car, had instantly returned inside the sedan, his hand resting on the car window.
Looking around again, Iso's vision simultaneously showed two overlapping scenes—KaibaCorp security personnel detaining the black teenager and preparing to withdraw, and the other three people in the same car whose car head had crashed into a fire hydrant, saved from being thrown out of the car by their seatbelts.
"Iso!"
Tilting his head, Iso saw Kaiba. He was calling Iso's name through the car window.
Like a fully inflated balloon pierced by a needle, the moment he saw Kaiba, Iso suddenly remembered—he hadn't gotten out of the car at all.
Going back in time a bit.
Following the target location given by Kaiba, Iso sat in the black luxury car. As they approached the destination, he was instructing the other three people in the car about the precautions.
"Their offensive ability is very strong. They found and exploited the opening in the Kaiba Land firewall almost instantly without taking any detours, thereby gaining control over the camera equipment, network channels, and that Duel Robot within Kaiba Land."
"But on the other hand, their defense ability is almost nonexistent, riddled with vulnerabilities like a breeding ground for malware. If it weren't for the lack of cameras, their true identity would have been captured in the first place."
"Therefore, there is reason to suspect that they are not a professional hacker but an ordinary person who accidentally obtained a KaibaCorp vulnerability. They must be controlled and it must be confirmed whether they possess other backdoor vulnerabilities."
Reading the information provided by the KaibaCorp analysis team, even Iso, who was usually unshaken by major events, couldn't help but feel the urge to complain: "Isn't that a bit too ridiculous? The firewall program was personally written by Vice President Mokuba leading the team. If it was defeated, that's somewhat understandable, but to say it was defeated by an ordinary person using the program's opening?"
"Doesn't the analysis team's meaning imply that the program written by Vice President Mokuba is so flawed that anyone can easily find them and save them for later use, without worrying about them being fixed?"
The others also agreed with Iso's words. It wasn't to flatter their superior, but because they, like Iso, greatly respected Mokuba's talent and didn't believe that the vulnerabilities in the firewall program written by Mokuba would be exaggerated to that extent.
Casually flipping the page of this analysis, Iso reconfirmed Kaiba's command: "Then let me repeat it. Although the analysis team's statement is hard to believe, let's follow President Kaiba's instructions first. Find that hacker and control them. After the President arrives, test their ability before making a decision."
If the analysis team was wrong and the hacker had hacked into Kaiba Land with their own ability, it was highly likely that KaibaCorp would cancel the punishment for that hacker and instead offer them a position, as talented people are highly sought after.
But if the analysis was accurate, then the method of punishment for that hacker would very likely be as the analysis team judged, with a great necessity to force them to hand over the program vulnerabilities they possessed.
Of course, all of the above would have to be decided by Kaiba himself. If he was annoyed with that person, even if they were very capable, they would not be accepted by him.
Turning a corner at an intersection, the black luxury car got closer and closer to the target location. Iso lowered his head, watching his coordinate point about to overlap with the destination. When he raised his head again, he and the other three simultaneously discovered—
In front of the moving vehicle, a "boy" wearing a gray robe seemed to be crossing the road as if he hadn't noticed the car!
The reason "boy" was put in quotation marks was because the person wearing the gray robe had the hood attached to the robe covering their head. Iso only guessed their gender and age based on their flat chest and thin, short build.
"Beep beep!" From a long distance away, the security personnel driving the car began honking the horn to remind the boy to quickly get off the road. But no matter how loud the car's sound was, the gray-robed boy's pace remained steady and slow as he walked, as if deliberately waiting in front of the vehicle to be hit.
Damn it, they're trying to stage a car accident.
The thoughts of the four people in the car were quite consistent. The driver didn't need anyone to remind him; he moved his foot to step on the brake. But carelessly, he saw a golden lollipop without a stick in the gray-robed boy's mouth.
No, that's not right. That color seems to be real gold, and I've seen that shape somewhere!
The driver, who had worked at KaibaCorp since the time it was almost taken over by Industrial Illusions, remembered meeting the President of Industrial Illusions—Maximillion Pegasus—under the leadership of Saruwatari, the head of the Security Department at the time. Pegasus's silver hair was blown by the wind as he sat by the window of Duelist Castle enjoying the sea breeze, and he had seen the appearance of Pegasus's hidden left eye.
It was exactly the same as the one in the gray-robed boy's mouth!
The driver, who wanted to speak out and remind his colleagues in the car, didn't even have time to open his mouth before his vision was silently invaded by a dark magic. His consciousness became confused, and he lost the ability to speak. And just now, he clearly intended to step on the brake, but what he ended up stepping on was the accelerator.
Suddenly, the speed of the black luxury car surged violently. Then, under the driver's chaotic control, the steering wheel was sharply turned halfway. The black luxury car scraped against the roadside railing, making an unpleasant noise, and finally, the car head slammed heavily into the roadside fire hydrant.
"Screech—!!"
"Bang!!"
Iso's consciousness stopped there. After the driver's mind was dissolved, the others, including Iso, followed his path and fell into a state of mental confusion, sitting calmly unconscious in the sedan, immersed in a flawless illusion woven by someone unknown.
It wasn't until Kaiba's arrival that his continuous calls brought Iso's consciousness back.
Struggling to raise his arm and place his finger on the unlock button on the car door, using the weight of his arm to unlock it, the car door on Iso's side was opened. Kaiba's hand grabbed Iso, who was about to slide out of the car.
"Iso! What happened?"
Opening his eyelids to look at the furious Kaiba, Iso's voice was weak and powerless: "Gray-robed boy, and Pegasus's eye..."
After saying the two keywords he had racked his brain to come up with, Iso closed his eyes weakly, as if he had exhausted his last bit of power.
Kaiba quickly checked Iso's breathing. Fortunately, Iso's breathing was still steady. It seemed he had only fallen unconscious and hadn't died.
Temporarily placing Iso back in the car to rest, Kaiba finally had time to think about what Iso had just said.
"Gray-robed boy, and Pegasus's eye?"
The description "gray-robed boy" was too vague. Anyone could be a gray-robed boy by buying a gray robe and finding a boy to wear it. But Pegasus's eye...
Kaiba felt that the possibility of Iso referring to Pegasus's currently intact eye was small. The probability was much higher that he was referring to the "Millennium Eye" that Kaiba had also seen before—although Hayato had told Kaiba many times about terms like 【Millennium Puzzle】 and 【Millennium Eye】, he never believed that such unscientific items could possess any power.
Especially after the Duelist Kingdom incident ended, on the day Kaiba left Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus's "Millennium Eye" was lost, and Pegasus himself was hospitalized for a long time because of it.
At the time, when he heard about Pegasus's misfortune, Kaiba even gloated. Who told that guy to carry a golden eye with him every day? It was like showing off his wealth, afraid that others wouldn't know he was rich.
Kaiba never thought that one day he would hear news of Pegasus's stolen Millennium Eye again, and from Iso's mouth at that. Now, the basic clue could be confirmed. Even if the person with Pegasus's Millennium Eye wasn't the culprit behind this unexpected event, they were at least one of the informed parties; otherwise, Iso wouldn't have specifically mentioned it.
Kaiba, who had arrived at the car accident scene on a motorcycle, had immediately called an ambulance the moment he found the sedan Iso was in stopped by the roadside, and demanded that they dispatch quickly to save people. However, in free America, even a major customer like Kaiba couldn't take away the ambulance's freedom. The voice on the phone claimed it would take at least half an hour to reach the scene.
Kaiba, who was extremely annoyed at the moment, had no mind to go after that hacker anymore. All he felt now was the rage at his subordinate being harmed, only wanting to find someone to vent on.
Coincidentally, a blond man with a taste similar to Kaiba's, also wearing a long, ankle-length dark blue trench coat, walked out from the corner of the road under Kaiba's gaze. The duel disk worn on his wrist proved his identity as a duelist.
Initially, Kaiba just glanced at him dismissively. But the blond man said something that made Kaiba glare at him angrily:
"Are you looking for the one who attacked them?"
