"Have you heard? Someone saw a stunning beauty out on the lake."
"For real?"
"Yeah, and she actually had fangs peeking out from the corners of her mouth..."
"Isn't that just a vampire then!"
"And there are rumors about students going missing lately. It's so scary."
Inside the classroom, students were tensely discussing the recent rumors regarding a vampire. For the past three days, sightings of a beautiful vampire had been reported in the thick mist surrounding the Duel Academy lakeside.
Similarly, several boys had been lured toward the shore, only to never be seen again. As the stories circulated, a wave of panic began to spread through the student body.
"It looks like the enemy has already landed on the island."
Inside the Chancellor's office, Chancellor Sheppard stood with his hands behind his back, staring solemnly out the floor to ceiling window. "Regarding Shadow Duels, I'm sure you all understand much more now after Jaden's previous battle."
"Yes..."
The six people behind him looked at one another, their expressions heavy. Even Dr. Crowler, who had been the most skeptical of Shadow Duels, was now wearing a deep frown.
"By the way, where is Jaden? I haven't seen him at all for the past few days." Dr. Crowler suddenly realized. He glanced around the room but found no sign of the boy.
"Jaden likely has things he needs to take care of himself," Alexis Rhodes said, her brow furrowed. "We can't just leave everything to him..."
At the very least, they had to rely on their own strength to defeat their opponents in this upcoming duel.
"That's true, but..."
Hearing Alexis's words, the group exchanged glances. Although they were determined to fight the Shadow Duels to the end, humans still harbored a sliver of fear for the unknown. And Jaden, their ultimate trump card, was nowhere to be found at such a critical moment.
"Jaden..."
Looking out the window, a flash of worry flickered in Alexis's eyes.
At that moment, Jaden Yuki was still on the Duel Academy island, but he had traveled far from the campus, heading toward the opposite side of the island.
With his Duel Disk equipped on his left arm, Jaden pushed through the dense jungle. His eyes shimmered with a dull gold light as he searched for any traces of spirits.
"According to the System Quest, if I want to raise my Link Summon level and stabilize the technique, I have to duel against powerful duelists. But I've basically dueled every student in the academy already. Even if I duel them again, I doubt it'll provide enough experience to level up."
Jaden let out a long breath and stretched. Link Summons provided an incredible boost to his deck's power. He needed to raise the skill level so he could consistently perform a Link Summon even during the intense pressure of a Shadow Duel.
Since the students couldn't help him anymore, and the vampire Camula had gone into hiding after he severely wounded her, Jaden had to look for the duel spirits he remembered being on the island. The most iconic among them was undoubtedly the avatar of the President, the righteous Kaibaman.
As the second 'duelist' to ever make Jaden lose in the original story, Kaibaman's dueling strength was beyond question. However, in the original plot, Jaden only encountered the spirit's guidance to find Kaibaman after defeating Camula and dealing with his own psychological trauma. Now, without that guidance, finding him was proving to be much more difficult.
"Kuri kuri." Winged Kuriboh floated beside Jaden, slowly shaking its head.
"Is that so? Even you can't sense Kaibaman's presence..." Jaden sighed. He decided to find a spot to sit down and rest. "Fine, I've been walking for so long; I might as well take a break."
He pulled a rice ball from his backpack and began to eat while looking over the cards in his hand.
[Xtra HERO Dread Decimator], [Xtra HERO Wonder Driver], [Xtra HERO Infernal Devicer], [Xtra HERO Cross Crusader].
"Spending all those points to buy these four Xtra HERO cards from the System Shop was really painful... I was planning on saving up for other cards."
Jaden sighed again. He had originally thought his tens of millions of Duel Points were an enormous fortune. But he hadn't expected that once the full card pool was unlocked, those millions of points would vanish in the blink of an eye when faced with tens of thousands of available cards. He was back to being broke. He had to start accumulating points from scratch all over again.
After finishing his rice ball and a bottle of mineral water, Jaden rested for a moment before standing up and exhaling. His current position was very far from the academy, and the aura of spirits here was much thicker than it was back at the school.
"Jaden, there's a strange aura nearby."
Just as Jaden was shouldering his backpack to continue, Yubel's voice rang in his ear. Jaden froze, his expression instantly becoming serious.
"Yeah, I feel it too."
He snapped his head around just in time to see a dark shadow flash through a corner of the forest.
"It's gone." Yubel was slightly stunned. It seemed she hadn't expected a spirit to move at a speed that even she couldn't track.
"Wroughtweiler!"
Jaden immediately activated his Duel Disk. With a wave of his hand, a black mechanical dog materialized from a burst of light.
[Wroughtweiler]
[Level: 3]
[ATK: 800 / DEF: 1200]
"Woof!" Wroughtweiler barked and immediately ran to the spot where the shadow had vanished. It lowered its head to sniff the ground and then took off in the direction of the scent.
Seeing this, Jaden immediately followed the dog, running toward the eastern side of the forest. After half an hour of tracking...
"Woof!"
Wroughtweiler stopped in front of a deep, dark cave. After barking once more, it turned into a beam of light and returned to Jaden's Duel Disk.
"Is it in here?"
Jaden put the card away and stared solemnly at the dark cavern. At the entrance, a barrier that looked like a large bubble blocked the way, reflecting rainbow colored spots under the sunlight.
"I can't sense any aura inside... it's almost as if this is a gateway to another world." Yubel frowned and reached out to touch the barrier.
However, the moment her fingers made contact, Yubel's pupils shrunk, and she was suddenly pulled into the entrance and vanished.
"Yubel!"
Jaden was startled. He didn't hesitate to push through the barrier and charge into the cave.
Voom!
A blinding light flashed before his eyes. When his vision cleared, Jaden found himself standing in a completely foreign land. There was no longer any scent of humans in the surrounding forest. Instead, there was only the vast, boundless aura of spirits.
This was the Duel Monster Spirit World!
"Looks like I found the right place after all," Jaden murmured softly as he took in his surroundings.
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