"Seto aaaaahhh!"
The final scream, like the wailing of a soul. Gozaburo, bathed in white light, desperately stumbled toward Kaiba, as if trying to reach him one last time, but ultimately failed to touch him.
The radiance of the white dragon surged over him like an endless flood. The virtual body rapidly disintegrated under the white light, torrents of data swept away by the Ultimate Burst Stream, vanishing as if drowned in an infinite river.
Kaiba watched coldly, arms folded, as the figure in the red suit faded away.
"The dead should stay dead," Kaiba said. "There's no place for you in this world anymore."
The white light faded, and the remaining afterimage disappeared completely. Darkness returned to silence.
A few seconds later, Kaiba spoke.
"Had enough?"
After a brief pause, Kira stepped out of the shadows nearby, chuckling: "President Kaiba, you're as sharp as ever. Even in virtual space, your caution never slips."
Though in his heart, he thought: The president always spies on my duels, and when he can't, he has his brother record them. So what's wrong if I sneak a peek at your skills?
Kira was in a good mood.
With his experience exploring link systems, he quickly adapted to moving and exploring in this similar virtual space. Soon, he was freely exploring.
He'd even encountered several other of Gozaburo's AI children, and after some friendly duels, had some enjoyable exchanges. As Delta had said, he really was the strongest of Gozaburo's AI kids—even Alpha, whom Kira first dueled, was already among the top in this batch.
The rest were basically small fry, which Kira defeated easily. He even shared the joy of dueling with them, and afterward, they all seemed quite emotional.
At this point, the president seemed to recall the scene Gozaburo had shown him of Kira's duel. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile faintly—though who knows if it was approval, or just amusement at the duel itself.
Especially since this time, the opponent was from the president's old nemesis, and Kira's opponent, Delta, was Gozaburo's favored AI general.
So, watching Delta go from calm to losing his mind, then getting his own monster stolen and one-shot KO'd, the president was quite pleased.
When dealing with enemies, you must show no mercy, crushing them both mentally and physically—this is the path of the king.
Just then, a storm of data suddenly rose in the black space. The closed space seethed, a tornado of data swirling upward, manifesting a crimson demon's image.
A massive, abstract, twisted body with claws and fangs, too blurred to see clearly. It roared deafeningly, filled with endless sorrow and rage, its body leaking data as if it were dying.
"Seto!!!"
The demon shrieked.
Kaiba frowned: "Gozaburo?"
"It's me. I lost. But I'm not going alone."
The data vortex gathered toward his body, and the demon's shell instantly swelled tenfold! Its sharp claw crashed down with a shriek!
"You're coming with me!"
Kaiba leaped back, nimbly dodging the blow. The walkway where he stood was smashed by the demon's claw, a blast of data surging out.
"Seto!!!"
Gozaburo's demon kept roaring, trying to pursue.
"Tch, stubborn old ghost. Blue-Eyes!"
A radiant white light burst from Kaiba, shining like a beacon in the darkness. The light became a shield, blocking the demon's charge, then soared upward, becoming a spirit.
Blue-Eyes White Dragon!
"Ultimate Burst Stream!" Kaiba commanded, "Die again, Gozaburo!"
A piercing dragon's roar, and white light shot from the dragon's mouth. The entire virtual world seemed pierced by the beam, endless darkness driven back, the destructive shockwave sweeping everything away.
Indeed, a spirit's power works even in virtual space—especially a god-tier spirit like Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which could clash with the Egyptian Gods three thousand years ago.
Gozaburo's digital ghost stood no chance before such divine might. The fearsome crimson demon's outline was mercilessly destroyed.
It let out a final roar but was swallowed by the dragon's cry. Its form finally broke apart in the white light, dissolving into data and disappearing completely.
It was over.
A minute later, data streams rolled past them. The darkness faded as if truly dispelled by the dragon's attack.
Everything created from virtual data, the space they stood in, vanished.
All virtual scenes disappeared. When the system shut down, the smell of electronics and cooling systems greeted them.
The scene changed. Neatly arranged metal racks lined the walls like silver fortresses guarding server clusters. Each rack was filled with variously sized, blinking servers. The air hummed with the low thrum of machines.
They were back in reality.
Kaiba had once again defeated Gozaburo's digital ghost, and KaibaCorp soon took over all the company's data. From the servers, they also found proof that all hacking against KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions had been orchestrated by Gozaburo and his AI.
But now, it was over.
Not only was their research and data seized, but all the cards stored in the building as well.
This time, Gozaburo finally realized that warships and weapons were outdated in this world—card games reign supreme. So, to challenge Kaiba, he'd collected and developed many new cards.
Now, of course, all of that was claimed by KaibaCorp.
Kira also got what he wanted.
First, the god card "Future Fusion"—a long-banned card notorious for graveyard dumping. With more fusion monsters and looser material requirements, this card's value in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! only rises each year. If not nerfed, it would probably never be unbanned.
There were other great finds, too. Once they entered KaibaCorp's inventory, Kira got permission to pick freely, and he didn't hold back, selecting many that interested him.
To his surprise, the "Buster Blader" deck Gozaburo used, which was designed to destroy Dragon decks, was thrown into the inventory as well.
Of course, he had no reason not to pick it—it's practically the ultimate anti-Dragon weapon.
What surprised him was that the president didn't seem to care.
But Kira could guess why.
He just didn't care.
Whether targeted or not, what kind of deck, what kind of strategy—it doesn't matter. As long as it's a challenge, he'll accept any duel, without fear.
That's the path of Seto Kaiba.