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Chapter 445: Konoha Collapse... KaibaCorp Collapse Plan
Logically speaking, it would seem quite strange for Zigfried von Schroeder, who strongly disliked KaibaCorp and Kaiba Seto himself, to buy an expensive ticket inside the Kaiba Dome and give Kaiba money.
However, today Zigfried von Schroeder was uncharacteristically sitting inside the Kaiba Dome Venue. After the Kaiba Dome suddenly blacked out and plunged into darkness, a proud and cunning smile appeared on his face.
The darkness only lasted for a few seconds. The audience didn't even have time to panic. With the standby generator, the various equipment inside the Kaiba Dome were repowered, and the lighting turned on, as if the power outage just now was merely an illusion.
However, above the central Duel Field in the Kaiba Dome, on the multi-directional big screen, the data of Hayato and Rayne, who were currently dueling, was no longer displayed. Instead, a strange clock appeared. The second hand was not rotating clockwise; instead, it was counting down counter-clockwise, retreating one second at a time like a countdown.
Tenma Tsukihiro, who was in the Monitoring Room Backstage and had arranged manpower to urgently activate the pre-prepared generator to restore the power supply, frowned when he saw the clock appearing on the screen. The time currently displayed on the clock was 1:00, but the second hand was moving backward two seconds per second, expected to retreat to 12:00 in half an hour.
Tenma Tsukihiro remembered that the original program shouldn't have such a strange function.
"Check the master control program. What is that anomaly?" he instructed. The standby programmers immediately began checking the program, and lines of code appeared on the computer screens in front of them.
However, the result of the check was that everything was normal.
And just at this moment, Tenma Tsukihiro received a phone call from Kaiba.
"Hello, Tenma Tsukihiro, what is that clock?!" It was clear that Kaiba's mood didn't seem very good. "I shouldn't have arranged this kind of 'unexpected surprise' for you. Quickly get rid of that thing for me!"
Although Tenma Tsukihiro was not an employee of KaibaCorp, as the organizer of the KC Cup, KaibaCorp had the absolute qualification to question Tenma Tsukihiro, who was dispatched to be in charge of Backstage supervision.
Tenma Tsukihiro's hands were not idle either. After ordering his subordinates to check the program situation without result, he also personally got to work, typing on the keyboard keys. Holding his mobile phone between his shoulder and ear while tilting his head, he calmly said, "I'm checking with others, Kaiba."
"But the current question isn't 'being unable to remove that clock', it's 'we can't see that clock at all'!"
"Cannot see the clock?" On the other end of the phone, Kaiba frowned. "At least ten thousand people saw that clock."
"No, not the clock that can be seen with the naked eye, but the clock written in the Kaiba Dome's Backstage master control program. There is fundamentally no 'clock' existence here!"
Tenma Tsukihiro paused for a moment, as if he suddenly remembered something, and then hurriedly added, "Besides here, are there other places that can control the situation within the Venue, Kaiba!"
Hearing Tenma Tsukihiro's words, Kaiba's expression froze.
Although according to the agreement with Pegasus, Kaiba had handed over the Backstage of the Kaiba Dome Venue to Tenma Tsukihiro, who was dispatched by Industrial Illusions for supervision, due to Kaiba's personal dislike for Pegasus, he had actually secretly made some arrangements.
The Monitoring Room Backstage could indeed serve as a dispatch center to control the lighting, power supply, speakers, and even the data transmission of the Duel System within the Kaiba Dome Venue. However, besides there, the Kaiba Land Building right next door also had control authority, and its authority was even higher than the Backstage here at the Kaiba Dome.
Reminded by Tenma Tsukihiro like this, Kaiba not only remembered that Kaiba Land had control authority but also recalled the incident where Kaiba Land's duel robots were hacked just recently.
The answer was obvious.
Even if it was breached by someone, the Monitoring Room shouldn't be unable to find the existence of a "clock" even when searching the underlying code. After all, even a Trojan horse virus needs space to store the "Trojan horse". Since there were no problems on the Kaiba Dome side, the problem must be the Kaiba Land side.
After verbally giving a perfunctory response telling Tenma Tsukihiro to continue his efforts to find the problem, Kaiba hurriedly hung up the phone and was about to turn around and rush towards the direction of the Passage from the Kaiba Dome to Kaiba Land, but suddenly discovered that not far from himself, a pink-haired man stood up from his seat and walked towards the direction of the Emergency Exit with a proud expression.
Zigfried von Schroeder?
No, it should be Zigfried von Schroeder.
Because he had completely exposed the Valkyrie Deck during the duel with Yugi, Kaiba followed the clues and found information related to Valkyrie on the network. He discovered that a long time ago, after Schroeder Corporation's new President, Zigfried von Schroeder, took office, while transforming the Arms Conglomerate into an Entertainment Conglomerate, he announced the acquisition of the Valkyrie Deck.
It can almost be said to be an operation completely identical to Kaiba's at that time: acquiring powerful Duel Monsters cards—Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Valkyrie—while simultaneously releasing information about the company's transformation, letting stockholders know that the transformation is not child's play but a major undertaking, utilizing double the traffic to stabilize the stock price.
Just like the one who uses Blue-Eyes White Dragon is Kaiba Seto, only Zigfried von Schroeder can use the rare Valkyrie Deck. Kaiba also confirmed the opponent's identity because of this.
However, it was also after that that Kaiba also became confused.
Because ever since Zigfried von Schroeder took office, the conflict between KaibaCorp and Schroeder Corporation, which had a slight conflict since the Arms Conglomerate era, had intensified, even after both transformed into Entertainment Conglomerates. Although Kaiba himself didn't really pay attention to the opponent, that Zigfried von Schroeder has always considered Kaiba a thorn in one's side.
So why would a guy who doesn't get along with himself come to participate in the KC Cup? Although the opponent had been defeated by Yugi and eliminated, Kaiba was still very concerned about Zigfried von Schroeder's presence, especially since he had never bought a ticket before and did not have the habit of watching KC Cup matches, yet he unexpectedly bought a ticket.
And at the moment, although his current sanity tells Kaiba that he needs to quickly go to the Kaiba Land Building, which is not too far from here, and dispel the countdown clock that currently appeared within the Kaiba Dome, his personal intuition tells Kaiba that he needs to quickly go and stop Zigfried von Schroeder, who stood up and was preparing to leave.
That guy absolutely knows something!
———Coughing sound coming from somewhere———
"Cough cough—"
Téa , who was sitting next to Yugi and happened to be drinking water, was a bit scared by the sudden darkness and couldn't help but cough, getting a bit choked.
"Are you okay, Téa ?" Yugi gave a concerned greeting to Téa who was coughing while covering her mouth, and also reached out and patted Téa 's back to help her breathe smoothly. This attracted a gaze full of jealousy from Rebecca sitting on the other side.
"Cough, cough!" Rebecca coughed twice very stiffly, then reached out and pulled one of Yugi's arms. "Darling~ I think I'm choked, it's so uncomfortable."
With such terrible acting, let alone Yugi, even Joey Wheeler, Tristan , and others sitting behind could tell Rebecca was faking it.
It's just that Tristan was quite perceptive and didn't say anything, but the outspoken Joey Wheeler pointed it out directly: "No way! You have nothing wrong at all. How can someone who is choked have such a strong voice!"
"So noisy, idiot!"
Rebecca, who was pointed out directly, became angry out of shame, turned her head and roared at Joey Wheeler with a red face, but only received a cheap smile from Joey Wheeler.
Honda was also laughing hehehe, but at this moment, he noticed that Keipei sitting next to him had a very serious expression.
"What's going on with that clock?" Although not old, Keipei, whose personality is quite mature for his age, seriously looked at the countdown clock displayed on the central screen. "Although I didn't help Brother arrange the various work for the KC Cup this time, I did check some minor problems."
"But that clock never appeared in any arrangement. I even checked the code of the Venue's Backstage master control program. What exactly is that thing?"
"And the blackout just now, what exactly was that?"
Honda listened to Keipei's monologue and was also stunned: "That just now, wasn't that a special performance arranged by Kaiba?"
"Who would arrange something that could accidentally cause panic as a special performance?!" Keipei ranted, standing up. "No way, I have to quickly go to the Backstage. The Backstage program is very likely to have problems, and it's even possible that like a few days ago, someone used hacking methods to break through the firewall!"
But just as he stood up, Keipei was stopped by Marik sitting by the Passage.
"Wait a moment, kid." At this moment, Marik's face didn't have the same lazy appearance as before. His expression became serious, as if he had turned back into the Leader of the Rare Hunters from before. He pointed around with a serious gaze. "Before taking action, you'd better first pay attention to the surrounding situation."
"Surrounding situation?"
Reminded by Marik like this, the few people present looked around, and then they were quite surprised to find that Téa 's cough just now seemed to be contagious, and someone else was also coughing. Although they were clearly within the Kaiba Venue where the KC Cup is being held, it looked like a concentration treatment center for some infectious disease.
Téa put down the hand covering her mouth. Although her cough had somewhat recovered, she suddenly felt a sense of weakness, as if she had a severe cold and her whole body was weak. While her breathing was a bit heavy, her eyelids also drooped a bit: "Yu, Yugi!"
" Téa !" Seeing his friend's state was quite bad, Yugi nervously pulled Téa who almost fell off her seat, and Tristan and Joey Wheeler were also quite nervous. Joey Wheeler, concerned about his Companion, even directly asked Marik loudly: "Do you know what happened, Marik!"
"Idiot, I don't even know where the End of the Universe is, how could I possibly know that kind of answer?" Marik sat down on the chair and raised his head, making Joey Wheeler notice that his expression was also quite bad. Leaning against the back of the chair, Marik calmly said, "Although not very sure, pay a little attention to the characteristics of those weak people, Joey Wheeler."
"It's Joey Wheeler, not ' Joey Wheeler-juice'!" Ranted, Joey Wheeler and Tristan immediately followed what Marik said and began observing the audience around them who were clearly showing signs of weakness. But the composition of the audience in poor condition was too mixed; while there were old people and children, there were also strong men and youth, both men and women.
"There are old people, teenagers, and youth. Seems like it has nothing to do with age?"
"And the proportion of men and women is also similar."
"This is some randomly appearing disease, right?"
Honda and Joey Wheeler didn't see any problems, but Kujaku Mai very keenly noticed something: "No, this isn't random? Don't look at those weak guys, pay a little attention to the people who haven't had problems!"
"They are all Duelists!"
Prompted by Kujaku Mai, Joey Wheeler then discovered that it was indeed the case. The characteristics of the people who collapsed are different, but those who are still completely normal are without exception all Duelists. Although they don't necessarily all wear their Duel Disk on their wrist, at least you can see that they seem to be wearing a shiny metal Deck Box on their waist as a Card Box for placing their Deck!
Yugi also raised his head and looked at the audience around him. And it was fine if he didn't look up, but as soon as he looked up, he noticed that far away there was a blonde man looking straight at him, and there was nothing unusual about him.
Yugi recognized the opponent. Wasn't that the person named "Rafael" who he dueled against in the previous round, but who surrendered halfway through?
'Aibo, that guy—'
Dark Yugi's voice came from within the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi nodded: "Yes, it's him. He suddenly surrendered during the duel yesterday."
'That Person's performance during the duel proved that he should be a True Duelist who can resonate with the Heart of the Cards. Logically speaking, he wouldn't just abandon the duel without reason.'
"But he still just abandoned the duel, without any reason." Yugi watched as Rafael in the distance stopped watching them and turned and walked towards somewhere. After lowering his head and looking at Téa , Yugi firmly said, "My Duelist's intuition tells me, Rafael, he should, no, he absolutely knows something!"
Looking at Rebecca, whose state was still okay, Yugi solemnly said to her, "Rebecca, can I ask you for a favor?"
"Darling?" Looking at Yugi's determined expression, Rebecca's confusion was temporarily thrown to the back of her mind, and she revealed a smile. "Are you asking me to help take care of Téa -chan? Okay, go and do what you need to do with peace of mind, Darling."
"Yes, I'm counting on you, Rebecca." Yugi nodded, then looked back at everyone. "Sorry everyone, I'm going to find That Person. Regarding what happened to Téa and the others, I think he definitely knows something."
Saying this, Yugi carried the Duel Disk he had taken off and put into his backpack earlier, as well as the Card Box for his Side Deck, and ran towards the direction where Rafael disappeared. While running, he put on his Duel Disk.
And just after running a couple of steps, Yugi heard Joey Wheeler's voice coming from behind: "Wait for me, Yugi!"
Turning his head, Yugi saw Joey Wheeler also fumbling to take out his Duel Disk from his backpack. It's just that he accidentally snagged and broke a thread on his backpack and was trying to use force to tear the thread and take out the Duel Disk, while ranting, "Why did that bastard Kaiba make the Duel Disk so sharp? Can't he make it a bit rounder, bastard!"
Finally managed to take out the Duel Disk, Joey Wheeler nodded at Kujaku Mai and jogged to Yugi's side: "Don't think about going it alone, Yugi! I also need to get a piece of that honor. I'll go with you."
Saying this, Joey Wheeler patted Yugi's shoulder without question: "Alright! Domino City Legendary Duelist squad, move out! Hero Joey Wheeler, Hero Yugi invincible, full power, unstoppable!"
"Joey Wheeler," Yugi looked at Joey Wheeler, smiled and nodded. "Okay, then let's hurry and depart!"
"Alright! Let's go!" Joey Wheeler said, turning his head with a grin. "Honda, you just stay here with Téa and wait for Lord Joey Wheeler and Yugi. Mai, I'll leave them to you!"
"Who are you looking down on, Joey Wheeler!" Tristan said disdainfully. "You novice better not come back missing an arm or a leg!"
And Kujaku Mai, after hearing Joey Wheeler's words, just proudly raised her head and crossed her arms over her chest, as if not wanting Joey Wheeler to see her slightly flushed cheeks.
Watching Joey Wheeler and Yugi leave, belatedly, Tristan seemed to suddenly remember something and turned to look at Marik sitting on the chair: "That's not right. How do I remember, Marik, you were originally a very strong Duelist, right?"
"Very strong? Who are you looking down on?" Although Marik was a bit weak, after hearing Tristan 's words, he still tried hard to strike a cool pose on the seat. "Let me explain beforehand, Yours Truly is super~ strong."
In the International Crime Organization Rare Hunters, the supreme leader who ruled with absolute power and fear, controlling two of the Three Egyptian Gods, even among all the Duelists in Battle City, he was one of the top existences in terms of power. Marik at that time, saying "super strong" is not an exaggeration at all.
"If that's the case, how did you, as a Duelist, also become like this?" Tristan said with some suspicion.
As time passed, more and more people among the audience in the Kaiba Dome had their situation worsen. One by one, they sat down in their seats, fatigued like internet addicts who hadn't slept for three days and nights to reach "King" rank. However, there were still some people who could remain standing and move within the Venue, and these people were almost all Duelists.
Although there are 64 participants in the KC Cup Main Tournament, the number of Duelists among the spectators in the Venue is more than 64. It's just that compared to the large quantity of audience members who fell into weakness, the number of Duelists who can still move is a drop in the bucket. Even if they had the idea of wanting to take care of the audience who had problems, they couldn't take care of them all.
As for calling medical team? Someone had already made a phone call the moment someone next to them had a problem, but unfortunately, even the medical team was paralyzed because most of its members had "fallen ill".
Hearing Tristan 's words, Marik could only answer with an eye roll.
He was indeed incredibly awesome at that time, but that was at that time. Although Hayato "cured" his personality disorder, his body was left "worn out" by another Dark Personality that had already dispersed. Since then, even normal duels had to be played with some restraint and couldn't be played too much, let alone Dark Games.
To put it another way is, although he can still act as a Duelist to fight, he is fundamentally a glass cannon. Hitting people is fine, but once hit, he's finished.
And the current situation, although he doesn't know exactly what's going on, it's clearly some kind of supernatural event again. It's quite normal for him to be finished, right?
But this guy...
Looking at Tristan , who was completely normal, Marik frowned, his finger trembled as he put a french fry into his mouth: "What's going on with you?"
Honda, being asked by Marik like this, also forgot to rant that Marik, in this state, still didn't forget to get some french fries. He looked himself up and down with some confusion, scratched the back of his head strangely, and said uncertainly, "Probably, it's my natural strength?"
Marik and Tristan 's clowning around and banter somewhat eased the tense atmosphere. And Keipei, sitting in his seat, also gradually began to feel a bit of weakness. Because of Téa 's example, although Keipei wasn't completely weak yet, he also knew his upcoming situation. He had no choice but to take out his mobile phone and dial Kaiba's number.
It's just that, he didn't know if it was a signal problem or some other reason, the call failed.
'What exactly happened?' Keipei thought in his heart. 'Don't let anything happen, Brother.'
————————
"Rafael!!"
Listening to the voice coming from behind, the blonde man who had observed Yugi and the others from afar before—Rafael—straightened his trench coat and turned around to look at Yugi and Joey Wheeler who were running quickly: "Nameless Pharaoh..."
"Do you know something, Rafael!" At some point, Dark Yugi, who had already switched personalities, said urgently. The Duel Disk and Deck on his wrist were already set up.
Compared to Yugi Mutou, who is relatively more rule-abiding, Dark Yugi, or Pharaoh, has a more direct style of action. If it were Yugi Mutou, he might try to persuade the opponent patiently, but Dark Yugi would choose to directly use force to get the answer.
It's not that there's a difference in how much they care about their Companion, but compared to Yugi Mutou, Dark Yugi is more dismissive of rules and has more boldness to judge what can be given up.
Looking at Yugi's urgent expression, and Joey Wheeler, who looked like "If you don't speak, I'm going to take action", Rafael's expression was quite calm: "Yes, Nameless Pharaoh, I know where the incident within the Kaiba Dome originated."
"Moreover, it is in my hand."
While saying this, Rafael took out a card from his body that wasn't with his Deck.
Seeing that card, Joey Wheeler's expression was still relatively normal, but Yugi's pupils shrank.
Because that card was clearly the first enemy Yugi encountered during Battle City—
Uria, Lord of Searing Flames.
End of Chapter
Logically speaking, it would seem quite strange for Zigfried von Schroeder, who strongly disliked KaibaCorp and Kaiba Seto himself, to buy an expensive ticket inside the Kaiba Dome and give Kaiba money.
However, today Zigfried von Schroeder was uncharacteristically sitting inside the Kaiba Dome Venue. After the Kaiba Dome suddenly blacked out and plunged into darkness, a proud and cunning smile appeared on his face.
The darkness only lasted for a few seconds. The audience didn't even have time to panic. With the standby generator, the various equipment inside the Kaiba Dome were repowered, and the lighting turned on, as if the power outage just now was merely an illusion.
However, above the central Duel Field in the Kaiba Dome, on the multi-directional big screen, the data of Hayato and Rayne, who were currently dueling, was no longer displayed. Instead, a strange clock appeared. The second hand was not rotating clockwise; instead, it was counting down counter-clockwise, retreating one second at a time like a countdown.
Tenma Tsukihiro, who was in the Monitoring Room Backstage and had arranged manpower to urgently activate the pre-prepared generator to restore the power supply, frowned when he saw the clock appearing on the screen. The time currently displayed on the clock was 1:00, but the second hand was moving backward two seconds per second, expected to retreat to 12:00 in half an hour.
Tenma Tsukihiro remembered that the original program shouldn't have such a strange function.
"Check the master control program. What is that anomaly?" he instructed. The standby programmers immediately began checking the program, and lines of code appeared on the computer screens in front of them.
However, the result of the check was that everything was normal.
And just at this moment, Tenma Tsukihiro received a phone call from Kaiba.
"Hello, Tenma Tsukihiro, what is that clock?!" It was clear that Kaiba's mood didn't seem very good. "I shouldn't have arranged this kind of 'unexpected surprise' for you. Quickly get rid of that thing for me!"
Although Tenma Tsukihiro was not an employee of KaibaCorp, as the organizer of the KC Cup, KaibaCorp had the absolute qualification to question Tenma Tsukihiro, who was dispatched to be in charge of Backstage supervision.
Tenma Tsukihiro's hands were not idle either. After ordering his subordinates to check the program situation without result, he also personally got to work, typing on the keyboard keys. Holding his mobile phone between his shoulder and ear while tilting his head, he calmly said, "I'm checking with others, Kaiba."
"But the current question isn't 'being unable to remove that clock', it's 'we can't see that clock at all'!"
"Cannot see the clock?" On the other end of the phone, Kaiba frowned. "At least ten thousand people saw that clock."
"No, not the clock that can be seen with the naked eye, but the clock written in the Kaiba Dome's Backstage master control program. There is fundamentally no 'clock' existence here!"
Tenma Tsukihiro paused for a moment, as if he suddenly remembered something, and then hurriedly added, "Besides here, are there other places that can control the situation within the Venue, Kaiba!"
Hearing Tenma Tsukihiro's words, Kaiba's expression froze.
Although according to the agreement with Pegasus, Kaiba had handed over the Backstage of the Kaiba Dome Venue to Tenma Tsukihiro, who was dispatched by Industrial Illusions for supervision, due to Kaiba's personal dislike for Pegasus, he had actually secretly made some arrangements.
The Monitoring Room Backstage could indeed serve as a dispatch center to control the lighting, power supply, speakers, and even the data transmission of the Duel System within the Kaiba Dome Venue. However, besides there, the Kaiba Land Building right next door also had control authority, and its authority was even higher than the Backstage here at the Kaiba Dome.
Reminded by Tenma Tsukihiro like this, Kaiba not only remembered that Kaiba Land had control authority but also recalled the incident where Kaiba Land's duel robots were hacked just recently.
The answer was obvious.
Even if it was breached by someone, the Monitoring Room shouldn't be unable to find the existence of a "clock" even when searching the underlying code. After all, even a Trojan horse virus needs space to store the "Trojan horse". Since there were no problems on the Kaiba Dome side, the problem must be the Kaiba Land side.
After verbally giving a perfunctory response telling Tenma Tsukihiro to continue his efforts to find the problem, Kaiba hurriedly hung up the phone and was about to turn around and rush towards the direction of the Passage from the Kaiba Dome to Kaiba Land, but suddenly discovered that not far from himself, a pink-haired man stood up from his seat and walked towards the direction of the Emergency Exit with a proud expression.
Zigfried von Schroeder?
No, it should be Zigfried von Schroeder.
Because he had completely exposed the Valkyrie Deck during the duel with Yugi, Kaiba followed the clues and found information related to Valkyrie on the network. He discovered that a long time ago, after Schroeder Corporation's new President, Zigfried von Schroeder, took office, while transforming the Arms Conglomerate into an Entertainment Conglomerate, he announced the acquisition of the Valkyrie Deck.
It can almost be said to be an operation completely identical to Kaiba's at that time: acquiring powerful Duel Monsters cards—Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Valkyrie—while simultaneously releasing information about the company's transformation, letting stockholders know that the transformation is not child's play but a major undertaking, utilizing double the traffic to stabilize the stock price.
Just like the one who uses Blue-Eyes White Dragon is Kaiba Seto, only Zigfried von Schroeder can use the rare Valkyrie Deck. Kaiba also confirmed the opponent's identity because of this.
However, it was also after that that Kaiba also became confused.
Because ever since Zigfried von Schroeder took office, the conflict between KaibaCorp and Schroeder Corporation, which had a slight conflict since the Arms Conglomerate era, had intensified, even after both transformed into Entertainment Conglomerates. Although Kaiba himself didn't really pay attention to the opponent, that Zigfried von Schroeder has always considered Kaiba a thorn in one's side.
So why would a guy who doesn't get along with himself come to participate in the KC Cup? Although the opponent had been defeated by Yugi and eliminated, Kaiba was still very concerned about Zigfried von Schroeder's presence, especially since he had never bought a ticket before and did not have the habit of watching KC Cup matches, yet he unexpectedly bought a ticket.
And at the moment, although his current sanity tells Kaiba that he needs to quickly go to the Kaiba Land Building, which is not too far from here, and dispel the countdown clock that currently appeared within the Kaiba Dome, his personal intuition tells Kaiba that he needs to quickly go and stop Zigfried von Schroeder, who stood up and was preparing to leave.
That guy absolutely knows something!
———Coughing sound coming from somewhere———
"Cough cough—"
Téa , who was sitting next to Yugi and happened to be drinking water, was a bit scared by the sudden darkness and couldn't help but cough, getting a bit choked.
"Are you okay, Téa ?" Yugi gave a concerned greeting to Téa who was coughing while covering her mouth, and also reached out and patted Téa 's back to help her breathe smoothly. This attracted a gaze full of jealousy from Rebecca sitting on the other side.
"Cough, cough!" Rebecca coughed twice very stiffly, then reached out and pulled one of Yugi's arms. "Darling~ I think I'm choked, it's so uncomfortable."
With such terrible acting, let alone Yugi, even Joey Wheeler, Tristan , and others sitting behind could tell Rebecca was faking it.
It's just that Tristan was quite perceptive and didn't say anything, but the outspoken Joey Wheeler pointed it out directly: "No way! You have nothing wrong at all. How can someone who is choked have such a strong voice!"
"So noisy, idiot!"
Rebecca, who was pointed out directly, became angry out of shame, turned her head and roared at Joey Wheeler with a red face, but only received a cheap smile from Joey Wheeler.
Honda was also laughing hehehe, but at this moment, he noticed that Keipei sitting next to him had a very serious expression.
"What's going on with that clock?" Although not old, Keipei, whose personality is quite mature for his age, seriously looked at the countdown clock displayed on the central screen. "Although I didn't help Brother arrange the various work for the KC Cup this time, I did check some minor problems."
"But that clock never appeared in any arrangement. I even checked the code of the Venue's Backstage master control program. What exactly is that thing?"
"And the blackout just now, what exactly was that?"
Honda listened to Keipei's monologue and was also stunned: "That just now, wasn't that a special performance arranged by Kaiba?"
"Who would arrange something that could accidentally cause panic as a special performance?!" Keipei ranted, standing up. "No way, I have to quickly go to the Backstage. The Backstage program is very likely to have problems, and it's even possible that like a few days ago, someone used hacking methods to break through the firewall!"
But just as he stood up, Keipei was stopped by Marik sitting by the Passage.
"Wait a moment, kid." At this moment, Marik's face didn't have the same lazy appearance as before. His expression became serious, as if he had turned back into the Leader of the Rare Hunters from before. He pointed around with a serious gaze. "Before taking action, you'd better first pay attention to the surrounding situation."
"Surrounding situation?"
Reminded by Marik like this, the few people present looked around, and then they were quite surprised to find that Téa 's cough just now seemed to be contagious, and someone else was also coughing. Although they were clearly within the Kaiba Venue where the KC Cup is being held, it looked like a concentration treatment center for some infectious disease.
Téa put down the hand covering her mouth. Although her cough had somewhat recovered, she suddenly felt a sense of weakness, as if she had a severe cold and her whole body was weak. While her breathing was a bit heavy, her eyelids also drooped a bit: "Yu, Yugi!"
" Téa !" Seeing his friend's state was quite bad, Yugi nervously pulled Téa who almost fell off her seat, and Tristan and Joey Wheeler were also quite nervous. Joey Wheeler, concerned about his Companion, even directly asked Marik loudly: "Do you know what happened, Marik!"
"Idiot, I don't even know where the End of the Universe is, how could I possibly know that kind of answer?" Marik sat down on the chair and raised his head, making Joey Wheeler notice that his expression was also quite bad. Leaning against the back of the chair, Marik calmly said, "Although not very sure, pay a little attention to the characteristics of those weak people, Joey Wheeler."
"It's Joey Wheeler, not ' Joey Wheeler-juice'!" Ranted, Joey Wheeler and Tristan immediately followed what Marik said and began observing the audience around them who were clearly showing signs of weakness. But the composition of the audience in poor condition was too mixed; while there were old people and children, there were also strong men and youth, both men and women.
"There are old people, teenagers, and youth. Seems like it has nothing to do with age?"
"And the proportion of men and women is also similar."
"This is some randomly appearing disease, right?"
Honda and Joey Wheeler didn't see any problems, but Kujaku Mai very keenly noticed something: "No, this isn't random? Don't look at those weak guys, pay a little attention to the people who haven't had problems!"
"They are all Duelists!"
Prompted by Kujaku Mai, Joey Wheeler then discovered that it was indeed the case. The characteristics of the people who collapsed are different, but those who are still completely normal are without exception all Duelists. Although they don't necessarily all wear their Duel Disk on their wrist, at least you can see that they seem to be wearing a shiny metal Deck Box on their waist as a Card Box for placing their Deck!
Yugi also raised his head and looked at the audience around him. And it was fine if he didn't look up, but as soon as he looked up, he noticed that far away there was a blonde man looking straight at him, and there was nothing unusual about him.
Yugi recognized the opponent. Wasn't that the person named "Rafael" who he dueled against in the previous round, but who surrendered halfway through?
'Aibo, that guy—'
Dark Yugi's voice came from within the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi nodded: "Yes, it's him. He suddenly surrendered during the duel yesterday."
'That Person's performance during the duel proved that he should be a True Duelist who can resonate with the Heart of the Cards. Logically speaking, he wouldn't just abandon the duel without reason.'
"But he still just abandoned the duel, without any reason." Yugi watched as Rafael in the distance stopped watching them and turned and walked towards somewhere. After lowering his head and looking at Téa , Yugi firmly said, "My Duelist's intuition tells me, Rafael, he should, no, he absolutely knows something!"
Looking at Rebecca, whose state was still okay, Yugi solemnly said to her, "Rebecca, can I ask you for a favor?"
"Darling?" Looking at Yugi's determined expression, Rebecca's confusion was temporarily thrown to the back of her mind, and she revealed a smile. "Are you asking me to help take care of Téa -chan? Okay, go and do what you need to do with peace of mind, Darling."
"Yes, I'm counting on you, Rebecca." Yugi nodded, then looked back at everyone. "Sorry everyone, I'm going to find That Person. Regarding what happened to Téa and the others, I think he definitely knows something."
Saying this, Yugi carried the Duel Disk he had taken off and put into his backpack earlier, as well as the Card Box for his Side Deck, and ran towards the direction where Rafael disappeared. While running, he put on his Duel Disk.
And just after running a couple of steps, Yugi heard Joey Wheeler's voice coming from behind: "Wait for me, Yugi!"
Turning his head, Yugi saw Joey Wheeler also fumbling to take out his Duel Disk from his backpack. It's just that he accidentally snagged and broke a thread on his backpack and was trying to use force to tear the thread and take out the Duel Disk, while ranting, "Why did that bastard Kaiba make the Duel Disk so sharp? Can't he make it a bit rounder, bastard!"
Finally managed to take out the Duel Disk, Joey Wheeler nodded at Kujaku Mai and jogged to Yugi's side: "Don't think about going it alone, Yugi! I also need to get a piece of that honor. I'll go with you."
Saying this, Joey Wheeler patted Yugi's shoulder without question: "Alright! Domino City Legendary Duelist squad, move out! Hero Joey Wheeler, Hero Yugi invincible, full power, unstoppable!"
"Joey Wheeler," Yugi looked at Joey Wheeler, smiled and nodded. "Okay, then let's hurry and depart!"
"Alright! Let's go!" Joey Wheeler said, turning his head with a grin. "Honda, you just stay here with Téa and wait for Lord Joey Wheeler and Yugi. Mai, I'll leave them to you!"
"Who are you looking down on, Joey Wheeler!" Tristan said disdainfully. "You novice better not come back missing an arm or a leg!"
And Kujaku Mai, after hearing Joey Wheeler's words, just proudly raised her head and crossed her arms over her chest, as if not wanting Joey Wheeler to see her slightly flushed cheeks.
Watching Joey Wheeler and Yugi leave, belatedly, Tristan seemed to suddenly remember something and turned to look at Marik sitting on the chair: "That's not right. How do I remember, Marik, you were originally a very strong Duelist, right?"
"Very strong? Who are you looking down on?" Although Marik was a bit weak, after hearing Tristan 's words, he still tried hard to strike a cool pose on the seat. "Let me explain beforehand, Yours Truly is super~ strong."
In the International Crime Organization Rare Hunters, the supreme leader who ruled with absolute power and fear, controlling two of the Three Egyptian Gods, even among all the Duelists in Battle City, he was one of the top existences in terms of power. Marik at that time, saying "super strong" is not an exaggeration at all.
"If that's the case, how did you, as a Duelist, also become like this?" Tristan said with some suspicion.
As time passed, more and more people among the audience in the Kaiba Dome had their situation worsen. One by one, they sat down in their seats, fatigued like internet addicts who hadn't slept for three days and nights to reach "King" rank. However, there were still some people who could remain standing and move within the Venue, and these people were almost all Duelists.
Although there are 64 participants in the KC Cup Main Tournament, the number of Duelists among the spectators in the Venue is more than 64. It's just that compared to the large quantity of audience members who fell into weakness, the number of Duelists who can still move is a drop in the bucket. Even if they had the idea of wanting to take care of the audience who had problems, they couldn't take care of them all.
As for calling medical team? Someone had already made a phone call the moment someone next to them had a problem, but unfortunately, even the medical team was paralyzed because most of its members had "fallen ill".
Hearing Tristan 's words, Marik could only answer with an eye roll.
He was indeed incredibly awesome at that time, but that was at that time. Although Hayato "cured" his personality disorder, his body was left "worn out" by another Dark Personality that had already dispersed. Since then, even normal duels had to be played with some restraint and couldn't be played too much, let alone Dark Games.
To put it another way is, although he can still act as a Duelist to fight, he is fundamentally a glass cannon. Hitting people is fine, but once hit, he's finished.
And the current situation, although he doesn't know exactly what's going on, it's clearly some kind of supernatural event again. It's quite normal for him to be finished, right?
But this guy...
Looking at Tristan , who was completely normal, Marik frowned, his finger trembled as he put a french fry into his mouth: "What's going on with you?"
Honda, being asked by Marik like this, also forgot to rant that Marik, in this state, still didn't forget to get some french fries. He looked himself up and down with some confusion, scratched the back of his head strangely, and said uncertainly, "Probably, it's my natural strength?"
Marik and Tristan 's clowning around and banter somewhat eased the tense atmosphere. And Keipei, sitting in his seat, also gradually began to feel a bit of weakness. Because of Téa 's example, although Keipei wasn't completely weak yet, he also knew his upcoming situation. He had no choice but to take out his mobile phone and dial Kaiba's number.
It's just that, he didn't know if it was a signal problem or some other reason, the call failed.
'What exactly happened?' Keipei thought in his heart. 'Don't let anything happen, Brother.'
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"Rafael!!"
Listening to the voice coming from behind, the blonde man who had observed Yugi and the others from afar before—Rafael—straightened his trench coat and turned around to look at Yugi and Joey Wheeler who were running quickly: "Nameless Pharaoh..."
"Do you know something, Rafael!" At some point, Dark Yugi, who had already switched personalities, said urgently. The Duel Disk and Deck on his wrist were already set up.
Compared to Yugi Mutou, who is relatively more rule-abiding, Dark Yugi, or Pharaoh, has a more direct style of action. If it were Yugi Mutou, he might try to persuade the opponent patiently, but Dark Yugi would choose to directly use force to get the answer.
It's not that there's a difference in how much they care about their Companion, but compared to Yugi Mutou, Dark Yugi is more dismissive of rules and has more boldness to judge what can be given up.
Looking at Yugi's urgent expression, and Joey Wheeler, who looked like "If you don't speak, I'm going to take action", Rafael's expression was quite calm: "Yes, Nameless Pharaoh, I know where the incident within the Kaiba Dome originated."
"Moreover, it is in my hand."
While saying this, Rafael took out a card from his body that wasn't with his Deck.
Seeing that card, Joey Wheeler's expression was still relatively normal, but Yugi's pupils shrank.
Because that card was clearly the first enemy Yugi encountered during Battle City—
Uria, Lord of Searing Flames.
End of Chapter
