"Brother!"
Mokuba suddenly waved. Yugen followed his gaze and turned to see President Kaiba appearing at the entrance.
"How is the situation with those AIs?" Mokuba asked.
"Nothing but boring tricks," Kaiba said coldly. "A pack of clowns who won't be jumping around for much longer."
He paused, then shifted his gaze to Yugen.
He seemed to notice that Yugen had chosen that newly developed Kuriboh Structure Deck, and a slight smirk played across his lips. It was as if he felt Yugen had a keen eye for choosing it, while also stirring up the President's long-standing grievances regarding the Kuriboh God Dragon...
Perhaps it was because this choice allowed him to see glimpses of an old acquaintance in Yugen, for the President once again emphasized that Yugen must not disappoint him in the competition before turning to leave.
Yugen suddenly thought to himself that saying the President had never lost his original intentions while struggling through the darkness wasn't entirely accurate. In fact, when Seto Kaiba first appeared in the original story, he had likely lost himself completely.
It was only because he encountered the Pharaoh.
After losing to Yami Yugi, he took a Mind Crush straight from the Pharaoh. The darkness within his heart was torn apart, yet his stubborn self-will remained. In a way, it could be said that Yugi helped him find his true self again.
Perhaps it was partly due to factors like these that the President could never forget Yami Yugi as long as he lived.
"Oh, right. The Link System I showed you last time the hardware debugging is almost finished."
Mokuba walked to the console, opened a case, and pulled out a device shaped like a headset.
"This is the new model after the latest round of debugging. It can be linked directly to that newest Duel Disk you received earlier," Mokuba explained. "The system is currently in its internal testing phase. If you have some free time, you can log in and give it a try. You can duel against other duelists from all over the world."
Yugen examined the device with great interest. "The duelists participating in the internal test should be quite skilled, right?"
"That's not necessarily true. Some of the slots were given out through a random lottery, so the skill level of the duelists might vary. Of course, some are professional league players, so they should be relatively more professional. Then there are our business partners, friends in the political world who asked for slots, and so on..."
"I see." Yugen rested his chin in his hand.
In that case, the dueling environment of this Link System seemed quite rich. When he was idle, it would indeed be a good place to practice online.
While he could still find opponents at Duel Academy, he was already too famous within the school. Even when the students took a beating, they were more or less mentally prepared for it. It was time to expand the opponent pool and let more duelists from around the world experience the joy of dueling.
"Alright, I have to go to a meeting now. If you have nothing else, you should head back first."
Mokuba stood up and gave a mysterious smile.
"Speaking of which, your school might be in for a surprise tomorrow."
"Oh?" Yugen asked. "A new card box?"
"Hahaha, no, not that." Mokuba kept him in suspense. "You'll find out tomorrow."
However, even without him saying it, Yugen had already guessed what he was referring to.
The replica of the legendary first-generation King of Games, Yugi Muto's deck.
Going by the timeline of the original plot, it was about time for that event. The incident where a student named Dimitri from the Ra Yellow dorm steals Yugi's deck.
To be fair, Dimitri actually played quite well with Yugi's pile of cards. He executed all the necessary tactics, and even with a bunch of high-level normal monsters in the deck, he somehow avoided bricking. It was just that, in the end, his luck couldn't match his opponent's top-decking skills.
If the opportunity arose, playing a match to experience Yugi's deck wouldn't be a bad idea...
"Whoa, did you guys hear? Mr. Yugi Muto's deck!"
Jaden was so excited after hearing the news that he couldn't even sleep during class. By noon, he was talking while munching on bread at the school store.
"Tomorrow we'll get to see the legendary Mr. Yugi's deck! That's the strongest duelist in history..."
"Bro, you've said that many times already," Syrus Truesdale said with a laugh.
Chumley added, "To be more precise, it's actually arriving tonight. Although the exhibition doesn't open until tomorrow, they say the deck is landing on the island tonight..."
"For real?" Jaden became even more excited. "Great! Then tonight we'll sneak in and take an early look..."
Syrus hesitated. "Eh? That's not a good idea, right? Isn't that a violation..."
"Heh, what's there to be afraid of?" Jaden waved his hand dismissively.
It was as if he were saying: Have we ever done anything that WASN'T a violation?
"Ah, Yugen! Over here, over here!"
The moment he entered the school store, Yugen spotted Jaden waving at him with exaggerated motions.
"What a coincidence! Are you here to have lunch at the store today too?"
Jaden intentionally or unintentionally nudged Syrus into the corner to make room for his best buddy.
"No, I'm just here to pick up some pre-ordered cards," Yugen said. "Cards I ordered a long time ago. They just arrived today."
"I see... Ah, speaking of cards."
Jaden pulled back his smile and thought seriously for a moment.
"The machine that invaded the academy island the other day... I could feel that it seemed to possess a power similar to what you mentioned before, Yugen. Dueling it felt very dangerous, just like those 'Shadow Duels' you talked about."
Yugen nodded. "Yes. There's a dangerous group behind them, but Kaiba Corporation is already working on handling it."
"Mm. And then, after dueling that guy, I remembered what you told me before. We can't let the power of cards be abused by evil-doers, so..."
He pulled out a deck.
Yugen stared. "!"
Good lord, I was just talking. You actually snatched it?
Yugen looked Jaden up and down, as if seeing the Jellyfish Head in a completely new light.
Are you still the Jellyfish Head I know?
"But it uses some kind of Virus Lockdown Deck. It has terrible synergy with me, so I can't use it at all, haha," Jaden scratched his head. "Then I thought, maybe Yugen would be interested..."
Yugen was speechless.
He originally wanted to say, is this really okay? Even if you can't use it, couldn't you keep it to trade for something else?
Then he suddenly remembered oh, right, Jaden is from a wealthy family; he probably never lacked money.
Well then, never mind.
He took a deep breath, accepted the deck Jaden handed over, and gave his hand a firm squeeze.
His solemn gaze seemed to say: From this day forth, we are brothers for life.
Such gravity made Jaden feel a bit uncomfortable for a moment, and he scratched his head blankly. "Ah, I didn't really do much... Anyway, if it helps you in any way, that's great, haha..."
Yugen suddenly felt a bit guilty for snatching so many of Jaden's duels...
Sigh, whatever.
I'll let you have the match tonight.
Yugen knew that according to the original plot, half the academy would simultaneously try to sneak into the exhibition hall tonight to catch a glimpse of the King of Games' deck. In the end, Dimitri would be the fastest, beating everyone to the punch and stealing the deck directly.
Jaden would be the first to find Dimitri. And because of that, Jaden would have the chance to battle against Yugi's deck.
In the first season of GX, where the main plot was mostly slice-of-life daily episodes, this was one of the most important duels for Jaden.
Since that was the case, it was better to leave it to Jaden, lest the kid's dueling addiction become unbearable.
Thus, Yugen simply stayed in his dorm that night and didn't join in.
However, he never expected that sometimes, when fate arrived, it was impossible to block it.
Yugen, who was just returning to his dorm after taking a few laps for a post-meal walk, was surprised when someone suddenly jumped out from the bushes by the road.
Yugen stopped in his tracks, slightly frowning. "Dimitri?"
Why aren't you dueling Jaden? What are you doing back at the dorms?
"Ra Yellow's Number One, Fujiki Yugen!"
Dimitri deployed his Duel Disk, standing tall and proud.
"I have now obtained the strongest deck and possess unprecedented power! I will no longer lose to anyone! Come! This is my battle for revenge and to clear my name! This duel will decide who is the new king of the Ra Yellow dorm!"
Yugen: "..."
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