Using the strategy of "Exodia," Youyu swiftly defeated Ota Soichiro, one of the Big Five, and a door soon appeared on the map before him.
Youyu, who had watched the animation, wasn't unfamiliar with this process. After winning a duel, a door leading to the next map would appear, somewhat like a classic level-clearing game.
Without much hesitation, Youyu strode in and opened the door, promptly entering a new map.
The scenery shifted dramatically. Just a second ago, he was standing in an area reminiscent of an industrial zone, but now he found himself on a floral and fragrant tree-lined path.
Tall trees stood on both sides of the road, casting dappled shadows beneath the sunlight, and a faint scent of sandalwood lingered in the air.
Since everything here was pre-arranged, Youyu didn't overthink it. He walked confidently along the path, even taking the time to browse the forum as he walked.
This was the advantage of having a built-in forum, allowing him to keep an eye on how the two other players were doing.
Lady Yue Hua was streaming the whole time, and her stream had a link on the forum. By checking the screen on her side, Youyu could know what was going on with her.
Even without the stream, Xue Lang and Lady Yue Hua couldn't wait to start posting to show off.
Youyu glanced at their posts and found it amusingly difficult for them—they both experienced the same process, yet their boasting posts were somehow different.
To be precise, their focus and approach were different. Youyu guessed that the two backups had momentarily reached a consensus and discussed their posts before making slight edits.
After all, if they boasted about the exact same things, it wouldn't benefit either of them.
Walking to the end of the tree-lined path, another door quickly appeared in front of him. Youyu pushed the door open again, and a burst of strong light flashed, temporarily blinding him. When he came to his senses, he was standing on a barren wasteland, having left the tree path.
A glow appeared on the stone directly in front of him, and soon, a silhouette emerged. A green-haired boy with his hands behind his back descended slowly, wearing an expression of superiority.
That was Kaiba Noah, or more accurately, the AI with Noah's memories.
"Oh? Is it really okay to appear before me directly as the final boss?" Youyu smiled, "I've just passed the first stage."
Noah chuckled, "But your performance exceeded my expectations, and nowadays, very few things in the world can surprise me."
This might actually be true. As an AI, Noah essentially had the learning ability of a supercomputer, a mastery of knowledge across Earth's various fields, hence anything surprising was indeed rare.
That's why he took interest in the occasional anomalies.
"Exodia... Kaiba Company's database indeed contains these five cards. But to construct an entire card deck around it and lift the Dark Great Mage's seal in one turn, as far as I know, you're the first to do so."
Strategies built around Exodia aren't unheard of in the animation. Ghouls who played cards in turn among players were one example, and Amon in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX ten years later had a similar deck build.
But so far, Noah hadn't heard of anyone capable of emptying their deck to gather all five parts in one turn.
"I remember you're Youyu, right?" Noah added, "A top-eight Duel City Tournament participant... Now in the top four."
He smiled lightly, "I'm quite interested in you, Youyu. I feel there's something about you that other duelists don't possess.
You might have already realized that this is a world entirely under my control. If I wished, I could forcibly take your body right now. But rest assured, I'm quite a nice person, I wouldn't do that. What I'm offering you instead is a chance to cooperate."
Here we go again, the same old routine.
But Youyu paid it no mind at all.
Noah believed he could take Youyu's body at any time, but Youyu thought otherwise.
As if he'd enter the virtual world so recklessly without any backup or protection strategies!
Even though his spirit, the Dark Magician Girl couldn't follow him into the real world, if Noah were to cheat and attack directly without dueling, Youyu still had countermeasures.
But of course, it was just a hypothesis.
Dueling was inevitable, especially for a player like Noah with such hair color, you could tell how addicted to cards he was.
"Ultimately, my target was Seto from the start; everyone else was just an unintended consequence, which doesn't really matter. However, your strategic thinking as a Duelist intrigues me. If you can prove yourself in a duel, I wouldn't be opposed to having you as an ally."
Youyu rolled his eyes and raised his Duel Disc, "If we're going to duel, let's get on with it. But as for allegiance, I'll pass. I'm not interested in little kids."
Noah merely chuckled, "Is that so? Well, it doesn't matter. Perhaps after you lose to me, you might change your mind."
Meanwhile, a card list interface appeared in front of Youyu, containing all the card data recorded by Kaiba Company.
Youyu skimmed through it, realizing that the list didn't seem to include the stack of draw filters he added to the Exodia deck, or the "Makyura the Destructor" that let him activate Trap Cards from his hand...
However, ubiquitous cards like Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity remained. With the remaining deck cards, pulling together the pieces for Dark Great Mage in one turn might be challenging.
Youyu squinted at Noah, feigning a nonchalant demeanor on the side.
Tch, talking big, but he's still scared of Exodia...
But no worries.
With Youyu's unrestricted access to the complete card archive, he had countless choices. If Noah removed Exodia, he just wouldn't use it, no biggie; with so many cards here, the strategies were countless.
Youyu pondered for a second, and this time selected a card deck from the System Card Pool.
The forty-card deck was ready, and the deck automatically appeared in his Duel Disc on his arm.
"So now, both sides choose their 'Deck Commander.' I believe I don't need to explain this rule?" Noah said, drawing a card from his deck, "My Deck Commander is... 'Shinato's Ark!'"
The ground behind Noah cracked open, and a gigantic wooden ark emerged with a roar, hovering behind Noah.
"Hey, is this really okay?" Youyu raised an eyebrow, "Didn't you say we were all using cards from Kaiba Company's database? I don't recall such a card in the company's records. Surely you just made this up for yourself, huh?"
Noah smiled, "The game rules state that any Duel Monsters card can be used in this space, as long as the Duel Disc can acknowledge it."
"Alright then, that'll do." Youyu nodded, seemingly accepting this setting cheerfully.
Then he also drew a card from his deck, "Well, my Deck Commander choice is this... 'Elemental Hero Airman!'"
The likeness of a hero clad in blue armor appeared beside Youyu, crossing his arms and floating in mid-air, equipped with metallic glider wings. Spinning turbines whipped up a whirlwind, keeping him afloat.
This time, Noah's expression slightly changed.
"A card I haven't seen before?" he frowned, "What kind of Monster is this?"
Youyu grinned softly.
Didn't see this coming, Noah! I forged a card too!