Chapter 41: Scientific Dark Duel

What was happening before his eyes was undoubtedly a Shadow Game. However, as far as Yuxuan knew, although Ryuzaki wasn't exactly a stellar guy—aside from being duped by Doma during the Waking the Dragons arc—he was generally a decent duelist who didn't usually dabble in such life-or-death wagers.

Right now, the two sides looked like they had been going at it for a while. Their respective fields were completely empty. Both had very little Life Points left, looking disheveled, their faces covered in soot, as they barely propped themselves up and breathed heavily.

[Ryuzaki, LP 700]
[Fujimoto, LP 300]

The Shadow Duelist, Fujimoto, paused to catch his breath, then said in a deep voice, "As expected of a legendary duelist. To actually push me this far, you've got some skills."

Changing his tone, he proclaimed loudly, "However, I have sworn to use your soul as a sacrifice to avenge my fallen brother! I will not fall in such a place!"

"I keep telling you, I've never even seen this ghost-whatever guy you're talking about!" Ryuzaki roared.

Being forced to risk his life for someone he had never even heard of made him feel like he had never been closer to a complete mental breakdown.

"His name is Genichiro Onizuka. Remember it well!" Fujimoto shouted. "Because you are about to go to hell and repent to him!"

"Like I said, I've never seen him..." Ryuzaki groaned, feeling deeply depressed.

Was this guy out of his mind? He started screaming about revenge right off the bat and completely refused to listen to anyone.

If he lost his life over such an inexplicable card game, Ryuzaki felt he would never be able to rest in peace.

Hearing this, Yuxuan fell silent.

Genichiro Onizuka... Such a familiar name.

Come to think of it, that guy who ambushed him that night and insisted on dragging him into a duel really did mention that he was originally going to challenge Ryuzaki, but changed his mind at the last second after seeing Ryuzaki get brutally crushed in a match...

It couldn't possibly be that much of a coincidence, could it?

At that very moment, a roaring sound echoed from the sky, followed by flying dust and a sweeping gale. Yuxuan involuntarily raised his arm to shield his face, looked up toward the sound, and saw a white helicopter sweeping across the sky, descending toward the direction of the nearest block at the end of the alley.

The spinning blades sliced through the air, generating a fierce storm. The wind was violent and powerful, like a giant dragon thrashing in the air. While still in mid-air, the cabin door of the aircraft was violently pulled open, and a figure leaped headfirst down, their trench coat fluttering behind them like a cape in the mid-air.

The newcomer executed a magnificent superhero landing, crouching on the ground before rising with crossed arms. His trench coat billowed wildly in the hurricane generated by the rotors.

Such an exaggerated entrance inevitably caught the attention of the two individuals playing a life-or-death card game, leaving both of them staring in astonishment.

Ryuzaki: "It's you!?"

Fujimoto turned deathly pale: "The legendary duelist... Seto Kaiba!?"

Yuxuan: "......"

It took a special kind of person to show up at a card game like a superhero. Moreover, the super-soldier-level physique that allowed him to jump down from that height completely unharmed was equally baffling.

Could playing cards actually strengthen your body and turn you into Superman?

"Brother!"

Mokuba quickly arrived behind his older brother, pointing at Fujimoto in the arena.

"That guy! The sensors indicate that the source of the Shadow Game is right over there!"

Fujimoto: "......"

At that moment, he desperately wanted to shout that it wasn't him, he was innocent, and they had the wrong person. However, being caught red-handed didn't leave him much room for sophistry...

"End this foolish duel."

Kaiba stepped forward, speaking coldly.

"Bullying small fry is no real achievement. If you want to play, I will be your opponent."

Ryuzaki was furious: "Who are you calling small fry!?"

Yet Kaiba completely ignored him.

Fujimoto swallowed hard.

Although everyone called him a legendary duelist, challenging Ryuzaki was one thing, but facing Seto Kaiba was entirely another.

Even though everyone knew Kaiba's signature card was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, it had been many years since his last public duel. The world hadn't seen him make a move in ages, but everyone knew he had a top-tier research team working day and night to frantically develop new outfits for the White Dragon. Heaven only knows to what terrifying extent card-printing technology had reached by now...

"Hmph... Ha-ha."

Fujimoto decided to buy some time first.

"Good... Very good. I've long wanted to experience the power of Blue-Eyes myself. However, once a Shadow Game begins, it cannot be stopped. Let me finish off this fellow Ryuzaki first—"

"There's no need."

Kaiba abruptly raised the Duel Disk in his hand.

Only then did everyone notice that the Duel Disk on his arm was not a standard model, but some kind of advanced, high-end product—a custom-made luxury item never released to the public market.

This pose and the design of the Duel Disk suddenly made Yuxuan realize that this scene also looked somewhat familiar.

In *The Dark Side of Dimensions* movie, the antagonist Aigami tried to use his Millennium Item to bypass playing cards and send Kaiba straight to another dimension. In that scene, Kaiba struck the exact same pose, lifting his Duel Disk and claiming that the disk amplified his ego, using the power of science to neutralize the supernatural ability...

The Duel Disk on Kaiba's arm right now bore a striking resemblance to that one, and it was also emitting a dazzling radiance.

Fujimoto frowned: "I don't know what you're trying to do, but I told you, once a Shadow Game begins, it cannot be stopped. Unless—

...Nani!?"

The Shadow Duelist looked as though his eyeballs were about to pop out of his head.

What was he seeing?

The barrier of the Shadow Game was actually... dissolving under that layer of light?

Nani?! Impossible!

Fujimoto was completely thrown into disarray.

He was a man who wielded the power of darkness!

What happened to "the times have changed, occultism is supreme, and science has become obsolete"?

Why on earth was something like this happening?

This was also Yuxuan's first time witnessing such a spectacle, but he remained calm.

Although the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! treated card games as the sole supreme law, it didn't mean science had been completely phased out. For instance, the final boss in *5D's* hailed from the scientific faction and proved that science could also materialize Duel Monsters, achieve effects similar to Shadow Games, and even travel through time to destroy the world...

President Kaiba had suffered greatly from supernatural forces eight years ago, and throughout *DM*, he never gave up trying to crack occultism with science. It was entirely reasonable that he had made a breakthrough after eight years.

"This is the latest model of Duel Disk developed by Kaiba Corporation. It can maximize the mental energy of a duelist, specifically designed to deal with scum like you."

Kaiba sneered.

"Furthermore, it can also do this."

An even more dazzling blue radiance erupted from the Duel Disk, and massive amounts of data spread out like azure water, quickly occupying the entire arena.

The ground beneath their feet and the stone walls on both sides of the alley completely vanished, replaced by a holographic duelling arena glowing with a blue, ethereal light, with nothing else around them.

"A solid-vision dueling death match! Though projected, the monsters we summon and the impacts we sustain during the duel will acquire actual physical mass!"

Such a grand formation and overbearing aura began to make Fujimoto feel a little intimidated.

It sounded unbelievable even to say it out loud, but he felt like he had just stumbled into a scientific Shadow Game today...