Chapter 317: Who Else Wants to Give it a Try?
Chapter 317: Who Else Wants to Give it a Try?
"You Xuan, that guy, is really hard to get used to, no matter how long it's been."
Keihei watched You Xuan's first duel via the surveillance footage and muttered to himself.
Even as an opponent, he suddenly felt a bit of pity for the other guy. In a short duel of just a few turns, he had suffered both deck and hand destruction, not to mention the endless loop of Slaps in the end.
However, it seemed like the guy ultimately lost due to the effect of Yugi's Orichalcos Barrier.
As the duel ended and LP dropped to zero, the Orichalcos Barrier rapidly spun and retracted, the green pillar of light converging onto the defeated duelist.
Yami, with hollow eyes, staggered back a couple of steps and was about to fall, but before he hit the ground, Yugi was quick to catch him.
Yami was stunned for a moment.
He looked up in surprise, glancing at Yugi with a mix of astonishment, seemingly unprepared for Yugi's ruthless dueling style, and even more so by his action of supporting him after the duel.
What did that mean? Was it an act of consolation?
However, in a life-or-death duel, what value did the winner's pity hold for the loser?
But within a second, he realized he had overthought it.
Yugi had come to support him, and without another word, he swiftly took the Duel Disk with the deck from Yami's hand and then immediately let go.
Without support, Yami's body immediately swayed, and he fell to the ground with a thud, looking like a tattered rag doll that had been used and discarded.
Yami: "@%& you!"
That damn Yugi, after crushing his soul, he even took his cards!
He had a thousand curses he wanted to hurl, and he even felt an impulse to ignore everything and grab Yugi for another duel, but he knew he no longer had that chance.
As the power of the barrier converged, his soul was forcibly drawn out of his body, as if being pulled upward by an invisible force along the green light. He could only watch helplessly as his body, now devoid of vitality, fell limp like a puppet, and that devilish duelist walked away with his deck, exuding an air of nonchalance.
His soul vanished into the vortex of the barrier, and in the last moment before losing consciousness, he felt a hammering blow to his chest, an urge to cough up blood.
"Tsk tsk, the quality of Doma's members is worrying. They shouldn't be so stingy with giving out rare cards."
As Yugi walked, he casually flipped through the deck he had taken, but only shook his head in disappointment.
"This one might be useful. Nah, it's probably useless too. Might as well sell it."
Keihei, watching the surveillance footage: "..."
He suddenly thought that, in a way, it might have been a blessing for that guy to pass out quickly after the duel. If he had seen Yugi taking his deck and then being picky about the cards right before he kicked the bucket, who knows, he might have suddenly unleashed hidden potential and forced himself back to life out of sheer rage.
He knew that Yugi's duels would be the most interesting, and he was glad he hadn't switched to a different camera angle.
Satisfied, Keihei withdrew his gaze and started switching through surveillance angles to find his brother, Kaiba.
Currently, Yugi has one Puzzle Card (+1), and his advancement progress is 2/6. I wonder if my brother has obtained his first card yet.
Yugi had realized that this duel might not be as simple as it seemed. He had initially thought that the real challenge of this tournament would come after advancing to the later stages, where Kaiba Seto would undoubtedly be his biggest obstacle. Participating in this tournament, Yugi didn't have any absolute desire to win.
For him, the duel with Kaiba was just one part of a series of trials he had set for himself. So far, he had successfully overcome all the challenges and trials he had set for himself, and he hadn't encountered anything particularly difficult yet.
The duel with Kaiba Seto might bring about a new breakthrough.
However, it seemed that before reaching the finals, there were other matters to attend to.
It was clear that Doma had noticed him obtaining the "Seal Instrument." Doma members stationed locally had infiltrated this Duelist Kingdom tournament, and the incident with Yami was likely just the beginning.
"But the real issue is that I've become their target."
"It's foreseeable that they will take advantage of this tournament to launch another offensive. They will keep coming at me, thinking of new tricks and studying my every move."
"That won't do! This is a branch of the world's largest and most formidable dark Duelist organization, and they've set their sights on me, an ordinary Duel Academy student—a plain student from Ra Yellow, not even an Obelisk Blue elite."
"How treacherous and terrifying."
You Xuan subconsciously tightened his grip on the warm deck he had just drawn, his expression determined. "I can't let this continue. Relying on duels to win a single card at a time is too slow."
"No, that's wrong. It's too dangerous to let such dangerous individuals roam free."
"They have the advantage of anonymity, and I can predict that they will keep coming at me, perhaps resorting to despicable means. It's unwise to stay passive and wait for their next move."
"I must find a way to take the initiative and strike back."
You Xuan strode out of the alley, the dark mist dissipating behind him. A smile played at the corners of his mouth. "Hunting time."
".Yami failed."
In the dimly lit room, the green light flickered like will-o'-the-wisps, and the hooded leader spoke silently in the darkness.
His gaze swept over the remaining four people in the room.
"Does anyone have anything to say?"
The group remained silent.
They had all witnessed the duel through the power of Orichalcos. An eerie silence had permeated the room since then.
What could they say?
Black Scorpion Thief Group. They knew this deck, a common one that could be purchased in almost any store.
Unlike the anime, where the members of this group had their moments to shine despite being minor characters, in the manga, aside from the chapter where their monsters were introduced, they remained unused by Manjoume until the end.
So, even after Manjoume started to realize the value of even the weakest cards, he didn't seem to favor them much.
Yet, with this deck, You Xuan had dominated Yami from the start, crushing him with a deck destruction strategy and finishing him off with an infinite loop.
Infinite loops were rare in this world, but they weren't unheard of. For example, in the original Duelist Kingdom arc, Yugi had used an infinite loop to defeat Pegasus and his "Toon" deck, a legendary battle still talked about by Duelists to this day, despite the early rules being somewhat different.
Infinite loops that had been recorded in public tournaments were always the result of Duelists wracking their brains and exerting all their efforts to create powerful combinations. Many of these moments were turning points in Duelist history, forever etched in the annals of Dueling glory.
However, the way this person executed the infinite loop felt... casual.
"So, who's next? Who wants to take a crack at him?"
The leader's gaze swept across the room.
The group remained silent.
(End of Chapter)
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