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Thief Keith left whistling.
...
...
"So, you went to the Spirit World?"
A few minutes later, Kaiba Kiyoshi arrived at the ruins and looked at You Xuan in astonishment.
After defeating Keith in their duel, the Orichalcos Seal immediately contracted, extracting the soul of Thief Keith. Following that, there was a dizzying sensation as if riding through clouds, and soon after, You Xuan found himself back at the ruins.
As he landed, You Xuan let out a deep breath.
Finally, I'm back.
Phew, that was close. Thankfully, his quick reflexes allowed him to snatch the Duel Disk from Thief Keith's arm just before being teleported away. He held it tightly to his chest during the transfer. Even he couldn't help but admire his lightning-fast reaction time. If he had been even half a second slower, he might not have managed to grab the Duel Disk and would've been teleported away empty-handed—a huge loss indeed...
Meanwhile, Kiyoshi had come over personally after hearing about the disturbance at the ruins to assess the situation.
"It seems so."
"And then you encountered someone from New Doma?"
"Is that what they're called?" You Xuan rested his chin on his hand. "Are they related to the previous Doma organization?"
Kiyoshi replied, "There's no evidence of any direct connection so far. All we know is that they also use the 'Orichalcos Seal' and hunt souls of duelists through duels."
You Xuan nodded in understanding. "So, is this the group that President Kaiba has been investigating?"
It suddenly made sense why an organization like this warranted President Kaiba's personal attention and efforts to track down.
Eight years ago, Kaiba had personally experienced the power of the organization known as Doma and witnessed firsthand the might of the Orichalcos God. Now that the three Egyptian God Cards were no longer around, if that evil deity were to awaken again, Kaiba naturally became the primary line of defense for this world.
Even putting aside that angle, for Kaiba himself, this was undoubtedly a significant hurdle in his career as a duelist—one he wouldn't easily forget.
Back then, when facing Dartz, the leader of the original Doma organization, Kaiba had teamed up with his longtime rival, Yami Yugi, to fight him two-on-one. Yet, they still lost the duel, and Kaiba's soul nearly got devoured by the Orichalcos God. In the end, it took Yami Yugi improvising a blank card into two consecutive game-changing plays to narrowly turn the tide and secure victory.
In the end, it was Yugi who saved the day and brought down Doma. Now that Atem was gone, if there was ever a chance to settle the score with the Orichalcos God, President Kaiba would definitely seize it.
"So, the 'Judgment' figure that President Kaiba mentioned earlier—is that the leader of New Doma? Is it Dartz?" You Xuan asked cautiously.
Kiyoshi shook his head. "Their identity is still unknown; all we have is that codename. But I don't think it's him. It's likely someone else who somehow awakened the power of the Orichalcos that Yugi—err, I mean, the Pharaoh—had sealed away."
You Xuan tried recalling the plot of Yu-Gi-Oh! DM. Atem had ultimately used his "vessel of the heart" to seal away the Orichalcos God, which represented the dark will of this world. After seeing the tide turn against him, Dartz disappeared along with the ancient Atlantean ruins beneath the ocean. Though it seemed like his exit, since he didn't die outright, there was always the possibility of him coming back.
"Still, even someone like Keith joining New Doma... I never expected them to be targeting the Spirit World now..." Kiyoshi remarked. "I'm impressed you managed to beat him."
You Xuan nodded earnestly. "Yeah, yeah, it was incredibly perilous. My victory was mostly due to luck. Come to think of it, I feel like my deck still needs more upgrades. If only I had more rare cards..."
Kiyoshi scratched his head. "The branch here already showed you all the cards we had in stock last time... Oh, right!"
He smacked his forehead, suddenly remembering something. "You're a Duel Academy student now, right? Showing you 'that' shouldn't count as breaking any rules."
"Huh?" You Xuan blinked in confusion.
"It's the latest batch of powerful rare cards that the company just finished producing. They haven't been released yet," Kiyoshi smiled. "According to the plan, they're supposed to be shipped to Duel Academy anyway.
But since this batch is limited, once it arrives at the academy, it'll probably sell out quickly. Being able to buy one or two packs would already be lucky. Since you're a student there, giving you priority access wouldn't violate any rules."
Powerful rare cards destined for Duel Academy... Could it be...
You Xuan immediately thought of the early episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
There was an episode where, not long after school started, a naval fleet escorted by fighter jets approached Duel Academy Island. The captain, looking tense, carried a briefcase with the KaibaCorp logo, insisting, "We must deliver this safely no matter what."
At first glance, it seemed absurd—an entire fleet and fighter jets escorting a box of cards.
But upon further reflection, it felt even more ridiculous. Even if someone powerful tried to steal that box, what good would a fleet or fighter jets do?
After all, no matter how advanced aircraft carriers or cannons are, can they really compete with card games?
However, none of the students actually managed to buy those cards because Professor Cronos intercepted them before class ended. He bought all the packs and gave them to Manjyome to use against underperforming students like Jaden Yuki.
That's where Manjyome's famous VWXYZ series originated.
Thinking about it, You Xuan's eyes lit up.
Manjyome's VWXYZ series was still quite strong in this environment. In the anime, he showcased several unreleased support cards, such as the continuous spell Dimension Hangar, which bore a striking resemblance to the later-released powerful card Union Hangar in the real-world TCG/OCG environment.
Though the GX anime version of VWXYZ wasn't as strong as its later iterations bolstered by new cards, it was still a standout series in this meta.
As for what happened to Manjyome's original deck...
Well, that wasn't You Xuan's problem to worry about.
Though the series was rare, it wasn't excessively so, like some character-exclusive cards. In the anime, when Manjyome drifted to the Northern Branch of Duel Academy, his original deck was damaged beyond repair in a shipwreck, forcing him to cobble together a new deck from whatever he could find.
Theoretically, the VWXYZ set Cronos gave him should have been scrapped by then.
For a while afterward, he stopped using the series entirely, but later in the story, he suddenly pulled it out again. Either he hadn't taken that deck with him when he left the academy, or he simply bought a new one using his family's wealth.
"In a couple of days, when the cards arrive, I'll let you know so you can take a look," Kiyoshi said with a smile.
"Thanks a lot."
"No problem, no problem. More importantly, you should focus on preparing for upcoming tournaments," Kiyoshi chuckled. "The faster you grow stronger, the happier my brother will be.
If you get defeated too easily in a match, my brother might get angry, you know."
You Xuan: "..."
Just thinking about it made him feel the pressure again.
True, while there was no strict requirement for him to win every match, losing badly would almost certainly anger President Kaiba.
"Oh, right. The head of the research team here said he has some questions for you."
"The research team?"
"Yeah, the team responsible for studying these ruins," Kiyoshi explained. "Development of the Chaos Warrior has hit a bottleneck in academia for a long time. The team leader thinks this could be a big opportunity.
Who knows? You might become the first duelist to assist in developing new powers for the Chaos Warrior."