Even the end of the world can't stop the President's card addiction; this statement is absolutely without any exaggeration.
Neither Noah nor Gozaburo's little interlude can sway the President's determination to play cards; the Duel Boat, having regained control, quickly returned to its normal course, heading towards the final victory site — Demon Island.
It was mentioned earlier that the Demon Island is the wreckage left from Gozaburo's ambition to conquer the world. In fact, this tournament held on the Demon Island is a crucial turning point for President Kaiba's entire life.
Kaiba and Mokuba became orphans at a young age; their relatives fought bitterly for their inheritance, leaving the brothers to end up neglected in an orphanage.
Kaiba used his own strength to earn a chance to turn his life around, but even after becoming Gozaburo's adopted son, his childhood remained dark. Gozaburo always saw him merely as a business machine, trying to extract every bit of value from his genius mind, and even plotted to take his body, turning him into a vessel for the corporeally lacking Noah.
Now, Kaiba has overcome all of this. He acted preemptively to topple Gozaburo before he could make a move, seized the Kaiba Group, and emerged as the final winner. However, looking back at his journey to this day, there is nothing in Kaiba's life worth reminiscing about.
All he sees is the future.
In Kaiba's eyes, the future holds infinite possibilities, while the past is merely footprints. What has passed holds no meaning; a true conqueror should always focus on the future.
This is what he intends to do — to claim the title of Duel King in the duel on Demon Island and bid farewell to everything from his past, taking a new step forward.
Before reaching the target, Youyu did not hesitate and dumped all the new Crystal Stones acquired from the Noah arc into the System Card Pool.
To be honest, the rewards from this storyline are indeed substantial, as a single mission yielded nearly three thousand Crystal Stones.
Such a massive task reward is already enough to make most players wake up laughing, but to Youyu, who is accustomed to harvesting crops, he feels it's just okay, kind of average and acceptable, but still not as quick as harvesting crops...
Naturally, pouring three thousand Crystal Stones into the card pool didn't yield any high rarity cards; among the few URs and SRs, most were duplicates of cards he already had.
But Mokuba kept his promise and immediately dragged a box of cards up to the airship to replenish his ammunition.
Imagine since it's a gift from the Kaiba Group, it surely must be of rare quality; basically, the box was full of rare cards.
Though they are rare cards, most of them are actually Normal Monsters that can't be put to use, reflecting the proportion seen in the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! DM where the President used them to deceive Yugi's grandfather, trying to exchange for the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" with a box of Normal Monsters...
But useful cards are indeed there.
One is the "Card of Safe Return," which Youyu had longed for. Ideally, he would like to have several more, but maybe the President felt that carrying too many of these is useless, so there was only one in the box.
Additionally useful was another old Forbidden Trap Card from the DM era, "Ring of Destruction."
Ring of Destruction, a Normal Trap Card, destroys one Monster on the field, inflicting damage equal to the destroyed Monster's Attack value to both players.
Simple, forceful, and effective, this Trap Card was a Forbidden Card for a long time in the real card environment. In DM, it was a frequent card of President Kaiba, and in GX Animation, it appeared many times, with a relatively high screen presence.
This sure is a useful card.
Even though just two cards in a box proved to be usable, the sincerity was definitely there. Youyu boldly speculates that although President Kaiba now shows a face of disdain for others' affairs every time he sees him, he might still be quite grateful inside.
He just doesn't express it, letting his brother do all the work.
The Duel Boat landed on the island covered in ruins. The crowd followed Kaiba brothers into the towering tower before them, carrying a sort of sacred ritual feeling.
"So… still drawing lots now?" Jonouchi, now standing in the audience seat, looked left and right, "Hey! Kaiba, when drawing lots, you won't rig it, right? Like deliberately getting grouped with Yugi..."
Kaiba crossed his arms, snorted, and ignored him.
Meanwhile, four metal doors automatically opened on the surrounding walls, with an elevator equipped with a computer behind each door.
The invincible judge Izono appeared again, calmly explaining the rules of the semi-final grouping to everyone.
Each of the four semi-finalists has to stand on one of the elevators, scattered into four different corners, battling each other in a four-person melee.
Under the melee rule, all players cannot attack in the first round; each represents a faction, with no teammates, free to attack any party they like.
The LP of participants is directly connected to the elevator's computer beneath them. Every time a participant loses LP, the elevator rises to the corresponding height.
The grouping rule is simple as well. The first two people to have their LPs reduced to zero form the first group, while the remaining two with unzeroed LPs form the second.
The winners from each group in the semi-final will compete for the title of champion and the title of Duel King.
This plan is yet again very typical of the President — isn't there anything in the world that can't be solved by card battles, including even the order of groups in card battles...
However, this also makes the result of this duel become somewhat irrelevant now. Winning or losing doesn't yield any benefits, it's purely to decide the opponent in the semi-finals.
Realizing this point, the brains of the participants quickly became active.
Especially look at that President, he's just stood on the elevator, the machine hasn't started yet, his gaze already burning as he stares at the opposite Yugi, possibly silently shouting in his heart——
——Yu↑ gi↓!
This duel will be the location of our destined battle, get ready to move full speed ahead!
During this, the President seemed to remember something and glanced at Youyu, recalling Youyu's ownership of "Slifer the Sky Dragon," and their previous duel left incomplete due to a loose screw on the Duel Disc.
The President pondered for a second or two...
...then refocused his heated gaze on Yugi.
Indeed, the opponent he wants to duel most is still you! Yu↑ gi↓!
Though he's a man acknowledged by the President as well, the President and Youyu only couldn't determine a victor. But to him, Yugi is a peak standing strong in his heart, having made him feel almost defenseless in duels multiple times, a being he longs to surpass.
Apart from such "king's abuse" mentality, Kaiba even thinks that some kind of time-transcending factor is guiding him and Yugi to duel again, as if an invisible string ties them together — even though he won't admit such "supernatural tricks" verbally.
As compared with Yugi, about Youyu...
...well... just a bit better looking maybe.
As for Marik on the other hand, he is even less concealed. The guy hasn't even gotten on the elevator yet, already starting to smirk creepily at Yugi's back, like a creepy old man tailing a little girl.
The expression blatantly reads — I will only play against Yugi in this match!
Watching President Kaiba and Marik, one with eyes of passion and another with lecherous gaze, all four stares focused intently on Yugi. Youyu deeply felt himself like a transparent being ignored by all, but also couldn't help but worry about the Pharaoh's late stage disposition...
The competitors climbed their elevators with thoughts of their own; the devices activated, and all four elevators ascended to specified heights and stopped.
At Judge Izono's command, the melee involving the Pharaoh from three thousand years ago, the Priest who is the Pharaoh's successor, the heir of the Gravekeeper Race burdened with revenge destiny… and a certain You in surname outsider commenced.
"Duel!" x4
Going first is Dark Yugi: "My turn, draw! I summon 'Obnoxious Celtic Guard,' in attack mode!"
The projection equipment of the Dueling Arena operated, casting the image of an armored swordsman with a cloak, holding a treasured sword to defend its master.
[Obnoxious Celtic Guard, ATK 1400]
This is another representative Monster of Muto Yugi, having a screen presence possibly not lesser than Yugi's ace, the "Dark Magician."
However, his name might slightly be wrong, changing to "Fairy Swordsman Being Mocked by Enemy" might be more fitting. Because this unfortunate swordsman always takes the role of being summoned to the field first and gets beaten, thus affectionately and commonly nicknamed by players as "Cannon Fodder Knight..."
"My turn is over." Yugi declared.
"Then it's my turn, draw!" Next up was President Kaiba, "I summon 'Vorse Raider,' in attack mode!"
[Vorse Raider, ATK 1900]
"Next, I set a card facedown, and my turn ends!"
Quickly executing his card actions, the President's gaze returned to Yugi again, showing great impulsiveness to push Yugi to the ground and force him to play cards with him now...