From every aspect of this Duel City tournament, we can see the wealth and influence of the Kaiba Group in this country.
After all, not just any corporation has the ability to stop an entire city from its regular operations, and clear the streets for card playing.
To gather crowds just to play cards at such a scale, globally, only President Kaiba could achieve this.
This shows President Kaiba's immense commitment to the card playing project. For him, dueling is not just entertainment and enjoyment; it's the meaning of his life, the direction of his ultimate goal.
Through dueling, he rejected everything from his adoptive father, Kaiba Gozaburo, and transformed the Kaiba Group from a large arms manufacturing enterprise into his own game company focused on card games. Therefore, dueling for him is akin to the direction of his life, representing the new path he chose after surpassing Gozaburo.
Kaiba Gozaburo, during his lifetime, often showed disdain for Kaiba's ambitions. The old man insisted card games were just for children; a real man should set his sights on the stars and sea.
He believed Kaiba's obsession with card games was neglecting serious business and that he should rather use his talents in military endeavors, perhaps constructing Gundam to conquer the world.
However, Gozaburo was indeed mistaken; in this world, abandoning card games to construct Gundam is truly neglecting actual business.
Military weapons are just for fun; if one truly wishes to conquer the world, it must be done through card games.
In fact, ever since the completion of DM, the Kaiba Group's virtual imaging technology seems to be trending towards global coverage, predicting soon various corners of the world will be directly linked to Kaiba Group's servers.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the Kaiba Group expanded the aerospace industry to create cards, launching cards deep into space using rockets. This is how Yuki Judai's famous ace, Elemental Hero Neos, was born.
In Dark Side of the Dimension, in Domino City, under mandates of the Kaiba Group, those not playing cards wouldn't even be allowed household registration.
Further along the timeline, into the era of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, people even developed a perpetual motion machine through card games, ushering the entire Earth into the era led by perpetual motion machines, with Duel Monsters becoming the world's main theme...
...In some sense, Kaiba may indeed have fulfilled Gozaburo's expectations.
The Kaiba Group really has conquered the world... albeit in a different manner.
The Duel Boat carrying eight participants and their entourage has set sail.
The sumptuous meal in the hall quickly made the participants, led by Jonouchi, feel that this trip was worthwhile.
Entering the hall, the gambling god promptly switched to a gluttonous mode; after confirming with the steward that the plethora of dishes were generously provided by the president free of charge to reward the hardworking contestants, Jonouchi immediately began eating without hesitation.
Kaiba, with arms crossed, walked beside him and sneered, "A normal monster is just a normal monster. As expected, fools have empty heads; at best, you can be relaxed and optimistic like this before the competition, but you can't imagine what a brutal battle you are about to face."
"What!?"
Being perpetually at odds with Kaiba, Jonouchi immediately bristled, angrily raising the chicken leg in his hand, ready to strike...but upon second thought, calling it strict might be a bit of a stretch as it indeed belonged to Kaiba. With the saying "a full mouth is short of words," Jonouchi shrugged it off, feigning disinterest in bickering with Kaiba.
But Jonouchi wasn't the only one who immediately began eating upon entering.
Youyu wasn't polite with the president either, grabbing a plate of pasta and diving in.
It was free from the president; eating it was better than wasting it!
After playing cards all day without having dinner yet, it's impossible to face those gods above with an empty stomach.
Youyu was mentally prepared for the semifinals to be much tougher than the preliminary rounds.
Though in the DM era, duelists mostly used card piles, the majority of those entering the top eight were duelists level 8 or above, some even at the "inhuman" elite level.
Playing cards with them defies common reasoning, and Youyu didn't feel confident holding a steady advantage against any of them...
...but then he glanced at Xue Lang, who was waving his knife and fork preparing to tackle a giant Australian lobster.
...Well, perhaps this guy is an exception.
At this point, Kaiba came over to Youyu.
The president still had his arms crossed, wearing his cool and brash expression, chuckling quietly: "Hmm, as expected of you, dining calmly at such a moment—are you already well-prepared?"
Not far away, Jonouchi, who had just calmed down, bristled again.
Hey Kaiba, what do you mean by this? Why is it that my eating equals stupidity, yet for others it means they're well-prepared? So double-standard?
...Could it be just because I'm not as handsome?
"It doesn't matter how tense one gets." Youyu shrugged, continuing to eat his pasta, "Best to eat well first to adjust to the best state."
"Hmm, I see."
Kaiba retracted his smile, his face becoming serious.
"That guy Marik mentioned earlier, you have 'Slifer the Sky Dragon' in your hands, right?"
Youyu didn't deny it.
"If you haven't done so earlier, I advise you to do so now—add the Divine Card to your card deck." Kaiba said solemnly, "The upcoming battles won't be won with a half-hearted attitude.
If I am to complete our unfinished duel from last time, I hope to see you give it your all, otherwise it holds no meaning!"
Youyu: "..."
What? Why not include Slifer?
Obviously, because it's both treacherous and clumsy!
Actually, Slifer is sort of included in his deck, but not the original version, rather it's the physical card rewarded by the system.
And the card placement is purely to draw upon the "force" contained within this card, allowing his duelist level to increase to 5 stars, raising the chances of forming bonds with the deck and lowering clumsiness.
Presumably the system rewarded card can only borrow a small portion of the deity's power, so its borrowed "force" is quite limited.
However, after his speech, the president didn't wait for a reply and turned to walk away.
Because Yugi approached.
"Yugi!" Kaiba stopped Yugi passing by, "This duel not only determines the title of Duel King but also marks the endpoint of our battles."
Yugi stopped, turning his head towards him: "Kaiba."
"I hope you're prepared to bring your best state to face this." Kaiba said, "Because I will defeat you and continue to move forward!"
With narrowed eyes, Youyu watched from the side.
Clearly, just a second ago, Kaiba spoke of a fate-deciding duel with him, but the moment he saw Yugi, he instantly forgot about it, feeling somewhat subtle...
And though the president spoke of this being the "end of battle," Youyu didn't quite believe it.
Do you genuinely think the president won't chase after Yugi after today's duel?
Not sure who it was that a year later kept traversing space, traveling to the Netherworld seeking King Yugi for a duel...