Bandit Keith was screaming as he left.
"So you went to the Spirit World?"
A few minutes later, Kaiba Mokuba, who had arrived at the ruins, looked at Yugen in surprise.
After winning the duel against Keith, The Seal of Orichalcos immediately contracted, drawing away Bandit Keith's soul. Immediately after, the surroundings spun, and after a moment of teleportation, Yugen quickly returned to the ruins.
Yugen breathed a sigh of relief as he landed.
Finally, he was back.
That was close, really close. Good thing he was quick on his feet and acted fast, grabbing Bandit Keith's Duel Disk right before being teleported away. When he was teleported, he hugged the Duel Disk tightly to his chest. He couldn't help but admire his own reflex-like speed in snatching the Duel Disk. If his reaction had been even half a beat slower, he might have been teleported before he could even loot, and that would have been truly regrettable.
Mokuba had also rushed over personally to confirm the situation after hearing that something was happening at the ruins.
"Looks like it."
"And then you met the new Doma people?"
"So they're called the new Doma?" Yugen stroked his chin. "Are they related to the old Doma?"
Mokuba said: "Currently, investigations haven't found any direct connection. We only know that they also use 'The Seal of Orichalcos' and hunt duelists' souls through duels."
Yugen understood: "So, President Kaiba was investigating them all this time? Is that who they are?"
He instantly seemed to understand why an organization would be worth President Kaiba making such a big fuss and personally tracking their traces.
Eight years ago, Kaiba personally experienced the might of this organization called Doma and witnessed firsthand the power of the Orichalcos God. Now that the Three Egyptian God Cards are gone, if that Evil God were to awaken again, he would naturally become the main line of defense protecting this world.
At the same time, even if not from this angle, for Kaiba himself, this must have been a difficult hurdle to forget in his duelist career.
Because back then, when facing Dartz, the leader of the previous Doma organization, he didn't hesitate to fight alongside his old rival, Yami Yugi, taking on two against one, but he still lost the duel, and his soul was almost swallowed by the Orichalcos God. Later, it was Yami Yugi who used a blank card to perform a double attack with the "Kako" effect, and only then did he miraculously turn the tide.
So, in the end, it was still Yugi who turned the tide and destroyed Doma. Now that Atem is gone, if there's a chance to reclaim his honor from the Orichalcos God, the President certainly wouldn't miss it.
"So, the 'Arbiter' that President Kaiba mentioned earlier is the leader of the new Doma? Is it Dartz?" Yugen probed.
Mokuba shook his head: "His identity is currently unknown, we only know that title. But I think it shouldn't be him. It's someone else who, through some unknown means, awakened the Orichalcos power that Yugi—I mean, that the Pharaoh sealed."
Yugen tried to recall the DM storyline. Atem ultimately used his "vessel" to seal the Orichalcos God, which represented the dark will of this world. Dartz, seeing that the tide had turned, disappeared by sinking into the seabed with the ancient Atlantis ruins. Although he seemed to have exited the stage, he didn't actually die, so the possibility of his return couldn't be ruled out.
"But even that Keith joined the new Doma. I didn't expect them to be attacking the Spirit World now," Mokuba said. "It's a miracle you were able to defeat him."
Yugen nodded in agreement: "Yes, yes, it was incredibly risky. It was truly fortunate to win in the end. The more I think about it, I feel that perhaps my deck isn't strengthened enough. If only I had more rare cards..."
Mokuba scratched his head: "But the company's branch here already showed you its card inventory last time... Oh, right!"
He slapped his forehead, suddenly remembering something: "You're already a Duel Academy student, aren't you? Then showing you 'that' shouldn't violate any rules."
"What?" Yugen was stunned.
"It's the newest, most powerful rare cards that the company just finished, which haven't even been released yet," Mokuba smiled. "According to the plan, they're meant to be transported to Duel Academy.
However, this batch of cards is limited in number. By the time they actually reach the academy, they'll probably be highly sought after. Getting even one or two packs would be good. Since you're also an academy student, selling them to you first wouldn't be against the rules."
Powerful rare cards meant to be transported to Duel Academy... could it be?
Yugen immediately remembered the plot of the first few episodes of the GX Anime.
There seemed to be an episode where, not long after the school year began, a large naval fleet drove towards the academy island, with fighter jet escorts in the sky. The captain looked as if he was facing a great enemy, carrying a briefcase with the Kaiba Corporation LOGO, saying something like "No matter what, this must be delivered safely."
At the time, his first reaction was that it was too ridiculous; a full fleet and fighter jets escorting a box of cards was excessive.
After thinking about it carefully, he felt it was still ridiculous. Because if some master really had their eye on that box of cards, the fleet and fighter jets probably wouldn't be of any use.
After all, no matter how powerful an aircraft carrier's cannons are, can they really be used to fight a card game?
However, it seemed no student actually bought that box of cards because Professor Crowler intercepted them all before the students were dismissed. He bought all the cards and gave them to Manjome, then had Manjome use this box of rare cards to punish the delinquent student, Jaden Yuki.
Manjome's famous VWXYZ series later came from that.
At this thought, Yugen's eyes couldn't help but light up.
Manjome's VWXYZ series was actually quite strong in this environment. In the anime, Manjome displayed quite a few powerful support cards that hadn't been made into physical cards yet, such as the representative Continuous Spell Card [Different Dimension Hangar], which seemed somewhat like the prototype for the powerful new card [Union Hangar] that came out more than 10 years later for the VWXYZ series in the physical card game.
While the GX anime-exclusive VWXYZ probably wasn't as strong as the physical card version that was boosted by new cards from Kaiba Corp more than 10 years later, in this environment, it should still be a relatively outstanding series.
As for what Manjome would do if his deck was intercepted...
Well, that's not his problem to consider.
Although this series was rare, it shouldn't be as rare as some character's signature cards. In the anime, when Manjome drifted to the Duel Academy North Branch, his original deck was completely damaged and unusable in a shipwreck, which was why he had no choice but to temporarily cobble together a new deck at the northern school.
So, theoretically, the VWXYZ cards Crowler gave him should have been damaged.
For a period after that, he indeed didn't use this series anymore, but then sometime in the middle-to-late part of the storyline, he suddenly pulled out this deck again. So either he just didn't bring this deck when he left the academy, or he later used his "Manjome Group" money-making ability to buy a new set.
"Then I'll inform you when the cards arrive in two days so you can take a look," Mokuba smiled.
"Thanks."
"Oh, no problem, no problem. Compared to that, you should worry more about the upcoming tournament," Mokuba chuckled. "If you can get stronger quickly, big brother will probably be happy.
If you get defeated in two or three turns during the match, big brother might get very angry, you know."
Yugen: "..."
At this, he immediately felt the pressure again.
Indeed, although theoretically there was no mandatory requirement for him to win the upcoming tournament, if he lost very badly, President Kaiba would probably be furious.
"Oh, right, the head of the research team here said he has some questions for you."
"Research team?"
"Yes, the team responsible for researching the ruins," Mokuba said. "The development of Black Luster Soldier has been at a bottleneck in the academic world for a long time, and the team leader feels this is a great opportunity.
Perhaps you'll be the first duelist to assist in developing the new power of Black Luster Soldier."