Kaiba Park, at the White Dragon Festival site.
Sunlight poured through the colorful amusement facilities, creating patches of mottled light and shadow on the ground. The enormous park was filled with crowds, brimming with a festive atmosphere.
Here, you can see the Blue-Eyes White Dragon diving along the thrilling roller coaster tracks, see the Blue-Eyes White Dragon flying chairs spinning along the facilities, and even one crouching quietly like a guardian on the Ferris wheel...
...in short, they are everywhere.
Once again, Yugen realized how incredibly resourceful President Kaiba was, even gifting Bai Jia an exclusive festival called "White Dragon Festival." This festival was even listed as a statutory holiday. According to tradition, everyone was supposed to have fun at Kaiba Park on this day...
The Dueling Dojo also organized activities under the festival atmosphere, and the trainees all came to Kaiba Park in the city for team building. Master Takeuchi's legendary excavation teammate also made an appearance.
"Shadowflow!"
"Hayashi!"
The two greeted each other with a bear hug.
"I've missed you so much!" That person pounded the master's back.
Yugen scrutinized the newcomer.
A flamboyant checkered shirt, a forehead shiny as a mirror without a single stray hair, a somewhat weathered face, plus those dark glasses...
He didn't look like a card player at all, more like a veteran coder evolved to this form.
Narrowed eyes almost into slits, along with that bald shiny forehead, combined both "slitted eyes" and "bald" legendary traits in one. If cast in other settings, he could easily be a BOSS-level badass, but unfortunately not here.
Here, just not having a fancy hairstyle meant half the battle was lost.
"Why haven't you shown up for so long?" Master Takeuchi complained, "I thought you forgot about old friends."
"Oh, I was just busy with work. By the way, let me tell you, I found an incredible resource this time, both projection and VR versions! The female lead is not only large but also..."
"Stop! Stop!" The master quickly signaled with his eyes, "The students are all here today."
The man finally understood, "Oh, okay. We can talk privately later."
The trainees: "..."
No, we actually are more interested in the topics you masters discuss privately.
"Let me introduce, this is Saito Kazuya, who was also a Duelist from our dojo back in the day, we could say he's like half a fellow disciple." Master Takeuchi introduced.
The man named Saito nodded slightly, "Indeed. The sensei once told me, I had extraordinary dueling talent and with a little effort, my accomplishments could surely surpass Master Takeuchi's..."
Master Takeuchi widened his eyes, "I never heard that! How could the sensei expel you from the dojo if that were true?"
"Haha, my dear brother, you don't quite understand," Saito chuckled, "Sensei held great affection for me at the time...if only it weren't for his daughter who liked me even more. Later, sensei found out, of course, and threw a huge fit."
Master Takeuchi was shocked, "Is that really so? Why didn't you ever mention it?"
"Youthful indiscretion, why bring up old affairs?"
Saito waved a hand, acting as if reminiscing about the past.
The trainees: "..."
"Ahem, let's talk about the ruins instead."
Master Takeuchi quickly interrupted. He had a feeling that letting this guy continue would probably result in more inappropriate content, which wouldn't be beneficial for guiding the dojo's trainees in mental health and future dueling.
"Oh, the ruins, of course." Saito laughed, "This time, the ruins are quite interesting..."
The moment these words were spoken, a sudden "snap" resounded, and the lights in the dragon dueling arena where everyone stood suddenly went out.
Following quickly was the sound of rolling shutters descending, "clattering", sealing all the doors within a second, the windows were likewise sealed shut. All sources of light vanished, plunging the dueling venue into complete darkness.
The crowd inside the hall was immediately in an uproar.
"What's happening?"
"System malfunction?"
"Refund my money!"
"..."
Saito Kazuya looked around, muttering, "Strange, it shouldn't be like this. Even in the event of an unexpected power outage, the dueling venues inside the park are equipped with backup engines, what's going on?"
Yugen remained silent, yet this turn of events only gave him a sense of déjà vu.
Why did it feel like this happened in the anime back in the day...
Back when Kaiba Park was just built, the system was hacked, the duel venues were sealed off, and the plot quickly developed into having to duel the AI in the venue; if you didn't win, no one was allowed to leave.
The original villain back then was Kiku Lloyd, Seto Kaiba's business rival. But that guy was supposedly taken down by Kaiba eight years ago.
Could it really be a system malfunction?
In the darkness, a quickly appeared light. The only light source focused on the center of the venue, where a figure stood boastfully with arms crossed under the spotlight, brown hair and blue eyes, dressed in a white trench coat.
Then he tilted his head back and let out his signature laugh: "Hahaha—"
"That's... Seto Kaiba!" the crowd immediately exclaimed.
"What is going on? Why is Seto Kaiba himself here?"
"Is this some kind of surprise event?"
Saito Kazuya immediately noticed something amiss: "Wait, that's not Seto Kaiba, that's the venue's latest Duel AI!"
The crowd: "!"
"Kaiba Company's duel program has inputted AI of the most famous duelists from various factions, capable of perfectly replicating their tactics, mindset, and even personalities.
By combining this with today's lifelike virtual image technology, guests can have an authentic dueling experience with the world's top duelists!" Saito said.
President Kaiba's obsession with AI was no secret. Since the Ousama went to the Netherworld, he had been obsessed with machines, madly researching to upgrade AI. If someone could look into his development files, they would probably find thousands of different versions of the Ousama AI in there.
In the opening of "Light Pyramid," Kaiba lost a duel to the Ousama AI and was in a rage searching for a strategy to defeat him. Then in "Dark Side of the Dimensions," Kaiba dueled the AI Ousama again and won, yet even winning left him in a rage, saying that defeating such past illusions was meaningless...
Master Takeuchi: "So now..."
"Someone has hacked into this venue's system and set the AI to be in the image of Seto Kaiba," Saito said gravely. "I'm afraid the venue's system is now already linked to the AI.
It's strange, I heard there shouldn't be such level AIs in amusement facilities. AIs of legendary duelists like Muto Yuugi and Seto Kaiba are usually used for internal testing within their company, being today's top-tier duel AIs. They shouldn't be publicly accessible..."
Sure enough, shortly after, the AI Kaiba followed up his triadic laughter by unfolding his Duel Disc: "If you want to get out of here, you'll have to win against the Card Deck in my hand first!"
Yugen wasn't surprised at all.
See, it's really about playing cards.
The crowd trapped inside the venue immediately became unsettled.
"Nani? We have to beat that Seto Kaiba? How is that even possible?"
"But this is just an AI. Not to mention, it can't possibly have the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, right..."
"You don't know? Precisely because it's a Duel AI, the Card Deck it uses is purely data, input with the data of powerful duelists, so it has every card!"
"What? Even the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon... so what's the point of dueling then?"
Chaos erupted in the audience.
Those in the venue now were just amateur tourists, and in their eyes, this AI not only copied Seto Kaiba's entire personality and tactical thinking but also had the complete data of a full Card Deck, which was near indiscernible from the real thing.
He's the man standing at the pinnacle of today's duelists, wielding the most powerful Card Deck recognized in the Dueling Realm. How can he be beaten?
To win against him, you'd have to be Muto Yuugi, right?
Yugen, however, remained calm.
After all, the doors being closed for a while wouldn't significantly impact these tourists. Kaiba Group was definitely working to fix the malfunction, so it shouldn't take long to unlock the doors. In the worst-case scenario, physically breaking the door is an option. For these tourists, it was merely a loss of time, and they might even receive compensation from Kaiba Group.
But for Kaiba Group, it's a malicious incident. Diverse competitors undoubtedly will write extensively about it, and no one will let such an opportunity slip away.
But that's Kaiba's problem to deal with.
Master Takeuchi leaned in close to Yugen, whispering, "This is an opportunity to battle with the legendary Seto Kaiba's Card Deck. Want to give it a try?"
Yugen shrugged, not finding it particularly special.
Even if the personality and Card Deck were replicated, it's still an AI. Could it replicate Divine Draw?
However, Saito Kazuya quietly reminded, "From what I know of Seto Kaiba, if anyone here defeats this AI before the hack is resolved and lifts the system lock, sparing the Group from losses, he might offer a lot of money or rare cards..."
"No need to explain further."
Yugen waved a hand, already stepping toward the duel field, leaving the audience with a confident back.
Money and cards are inconsequential in comparison.
But as a duelist, he couldn't miss this chance to challenge the legendary.
If someone snatches it, they'll have to deal with me.
"Let's go."
Yugen stood firm, facing the holographic AI Kaiba.
"I will be your opponent."