"AHHHHHH—!"
Attacked directly by the 6000-ATK Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Primo was sent flying, wide-eyed and doubting reality.
"Impossible—"
He'd been OTK'd?
He'd called out his so-called invincible Wisel on turn one, and yet he was one-shot...
Chimeratech Fortress Dragon... What the hell kind of broken monster was that?
Why could it just gobble up all five of his Meklord cards, unconditionally, in one move?
Eat up five monsters at once and then hit for 6000 ATK? How was anyone supposed to respond to that?
Even more infuriating: while Primo was reeling from being OTK'd, Lester was holding his stomach, doubled over in laughter, tears streaming down. As if seeing Primo roasted had finally washed away the frustration of being OTK'd by Fortress Dragon himself earlier.
Primo's face darkened. "Is it really that funny?"
This only made Lester laugh harder. Even the usually stoic Jakob couldn't help making an odd sound as if struggling to hold it in.
Indeed, sharing is life's greatest joy. True brothers don't just share happiness—they also share pain—or more accurately, deflect it.
When suffering is shifted from your own shoulders to your teammate's, you can't help but feel happier.
Primo was furious, loudly grumbling. The words weren't clear, but it was obvious he was cursing Fortress Dragon for being overpowered, feeling it unfairly countered Meklords, and that winning this way was hardly honorable.
Kira laughed. "So, your Meklords can absorb Synchro Monsters and are called 'Synchro Killers'. How is my Fortress Dragon any different?"
If there was a difference, it was simply that Fortress Dragon was even easier to summon, could use more materials, and was much simpler and even more brutal.
But fundamentally, it was the same: both directly targeted a specific type of monster and duelist, both were bulls in a china shop.
You can run rampant with your Synchro Killers in this dimension, but someone else can't counter your Meklords in turn?
Primo continued to fume, but Jakob patted him on the shoulder. "Enough. You've seen the difference in strength for yourself. This man truly is God's chosen messenger."
"Even if we don't want to admit it, his power is above ours now," Jakob said quietly.
Primo glowered. "Not necessarily. If the three of us combined all our power..."
He trailed off, not finishing.
But Kira knew what he meant.
As mentioned before, Jakob, Primo, and Lester were originally the same person, split into three robots. In this divided state, their strength is limited; only by merging—all three into Aporia—could they access their full personality, memories, and true strength.
Even if all three were getting stomped individually now, once they fused into Aporia, their combined power and fate as a duelist would skyrocket. Plus, their deck would get cards none of them had individually.
But it wasn't time for that, not yet.
Kira chuckled. "If you want a challenge, you're welcome anytime. Come at me one by one, together, or even three-in-one as Aporia; I'll take you all on."
The trio's expressions shifted—shocked that Kira even knew about their fusion.
But on second thought, since God himself had told Kira to take over as Iliaster Boss, knowing some internal secrets wasn't unreasonable, so they let it pass.
"Well then, if there are no objections, I'll graciously accept the post of Iliaster Boss. I've said my piece—everyone has work to do."
Kira waved them away.
"Now, go get busy!—Oh, right, before that."
He paused, a meaningful smile on his face.
"Someone take me to the Iliaster printing plant and card warehouse—I want to have a look around."
As the new Iliaster Boss, Kira first ransacked the local card warehouse and added a trip to the card printing plant to his to-do list.
Printing cards was a technical job—something Kira had plenty of experience with by now.
First, the key was to identify deck themes worth developing. Then, he needed to set the overall direction, always guiding his team on reinforcing specific series. Finally, the best outcome was to find duelists with matching "fate" for the archetype, but who also had strong research ability, to join the team.
Take Yusei Fudo, for example; in all of Yu-Gi-Oh's history, he was probably the most suited for this job, being a tech geek with obvious research talent.
Yes—Yusei was known as "Crab", since his hairstyle looked like a crab...
Currently, Kira was on good terms with Yusei's group, so it shouldn't be hard to rope him in to join the project. Z-ONE would likely support that, too—as long as this increased card-printing efficiency. After all, Z-ONE had invested so many resources into seeing Yusei and company "evolve".
And with Yusei's deck, there were so many directions for upgrades: Junk, Stardust, Majestic, and tons of later themes all massively outclassed the present day. Just picking any one of them for a boost could send Yusei soaring.
Recruiting Yusei would also bring heavy Z-ONE support, and grant unprecedented research funding and resources. Kira was sure that with Z-ONE's tech, even monsters as godly as "Cosmic Blazar Dragon" could be printed.
Aside from Yusei, Kira also thought Sherry had potential. After her parents' deaths, she trained in all kinds of skills—astronomy, geography, numerology, martial arts, dueling... She was practically Batman, wandering the world and learning everything.
Sherry had amazing research potential. Her deck also still lacked some VIPs like "Baronne de Fleur". In the original, Z-ONE seemed to rate her highly, even tried to rope her in. She might get some support, too.
Currently, Sherry was already half-convinced; Kira thought he had a good shot at recruiting her.
Other candidates—say, Jack Atlas—had deck potential and untapped trump cards, but his nature as a duelist was purely that of a battle maniac, not a researcher. So, at this stage, Kira left him off the shortlist.
"That's basically settled, then."
Sitting on the Iliaster throne, Kira closed the floating screen.
For now, at least for a couple of days, he had nothing pressing to do.
"Come to think of it, maybe it's time to head back and check in."
…