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Chapter 633: Rest in Peace
Dartz's words instantly made everyone tense up, fearing that the ground beneath their feet would be detonated just as Dartz had said.
There were plenty of scenes like this in movies and TV shows: the protagonist group arrives at some important location, accidentally triggers a trap left by the antagonist, and only narrowly escapes with the sacrifice of someone in the team.
However, after Joey Wheeler and Tristan nervously looked around with vigilance, they found that there was no commotion at all. Forget about impenetrable walls descending from the sky to turn this place into a Cell to prevent escape, or dangerous red lights suddenly flashing accompanied by alarms; there was only the buzzing sound of the server running.
Prying Rex's hand off his pant leg, Marik's expression was strange: "Looks like nothing happened?"
"Heh, isn't that obvious, Marik Ishtar? I just wanted to see what interesting expressions you would show when crisis arrives." Dartz had just put on a cold expression, as if he would really press "2887" and make Paradius Tower self-destruct. The next second, a smile full of malicious fun appeared on his face. "Industrial Illusions is an important asset of Organization Doma. How could I possibly bury a bomb here?"
Hearing that no bomb would be detonated, although they were annoyed at being tricked, everyone still felt a little relief and relaxed slightly. Dartz also watched everyone's reactions with great interest.
"You know me, Dartz." Looking at Dartz on the screen, who had a condescending attitude and a gaze like an entomologist observing the behavior patterns of ants moving in a terrarium, Marik frowned.
As the actual control of the former International Crime Organization Rare Hunters, Marik's name wasn't a secret due to being spread among Organization members. However, because of the Millennium Rod's mind control ability and Marik's own nascent homebody attribute from that time, it was actually Rishid who always showed his face using the Name "Marik" as his agent.
On one hand, it was because Marik himself felt that ordinary people weren't qualified to make him, who held two God Cards at the time, take action. On the other hand, compared to Marik, whose appearance was somewhat sickly and delicate, like a kept man, the bald giant Rishid, whose half body was covered in Ancient Egyptian priest script resembling a tattoo, had more of the aura of a Crime Organization Leader.
And the result of having Rishid act as his agent was that Marik didn't realize until he returned to his own body, which had been severely damaged by his dark personality, and received a second life intending to turn over a new leaf, that the "Marik" wanted poster internationally actually showed Rishid's image.
So much so that when Marik initially wanted to turn himself in, something like this happened—
Police (holding Rishid's photo): "Is this photo on the wanted poster you?"
Marik: "It is."
Police: "Is that so?"
Marik: "Yes. At that time, I liked wearing a cloak."
Police: "Then this isn't you."
Marik (pointing at the photo): "You're saying he isn't me?"
Police: "No."
Marik: "I said he isn't me either. This is fundamentally not me!"
———After a long back and forth, the result was that Marik, wearing an ahegao pain shirt with an incredibly embarrassing design, was kicked out by Interpol, who thought he was an otaku driven mad by anime/manga. They even warned him he'd be fined if he obstructed official duties again. This also greatly disappointed Hayato, who had wanted Marik to pull back from the Cliff and reform properly in a Cell.
Even turning himself in and actively admitting he was Marik was useless. However, ever since the faction of Organization Doma began to surface, Marik started to notice that everyone he encountered within Organization Doma could recognize that he was Marik, not Rishid.
Although somewhat touched, Marik also kept wondering why the people in Organization Doma possessed more information than Interpol. Could it be that Interpol agents were just freeloaders who got paid but could only solve cases an Elementary School Student could figure out?
Dartz's slender fingers twirled his green hair. He said casually, "Your information has never been a problem for Doma. Anyone with the power to control a country's government can easily obtain your file, which, although well-concealed by the Tomb Keepers, still remains within the Egyptian Government."
"Malik Ishtar, who could commit the sinful act of patricide, it's not just you. Everyone present here, and indeed every individual in the entire Human Civilization, has actually always been under Doma's watching."
Hearing Dartz's words, Tristan frowned and said, "What kind of crazy talk is that? How could such an organization possibly exist in the World?"
Kaiba, however, said calmly, "Although I don't like to recall the past, I remember Gozaburo Kaiba mentioning it to me during the first lesson aimed at training me into an elite, just after I used a wager to force him to adopt Keipei and me."
"Beneath the peaceful surface of Human Civilization, there has always been an invisible hand pulling the strings. Whether it's ordinary people living mundane lives, capitalists dominating the business world, or even politicians governing great countries, they have actually always had their life and death and destiny manipulated by that invisible hand. At least, Gozaburo discovered the shadow of that hand behind the Kennedy incident."
"After learning of the existence of this hand, Gozaburo, unwilling to be manipulated, had a crazy idea. That was, he would plunge the world into war and disrupt the World Stage, forcing that hand to reveal its true body by becoming the ruler of the World."
Kaiba's words made Dartz smile as if recalling something interesting, but that smile was full of contempt. "Gozaburo Kaiba, one of the few who discovered Doma's existence. I must say, his ambition was indeed quite insane, and he certainly had the action to achieve it. Unfortunately, I had no desire to let his boring ambition be realized."
"So—"
"So, Doma also took action in the rebellion I launched against Gozaburo at that time?" Kaiba's gaze towards Dartz became quite dangerous.
Although the virtual projection system Kaiba invented for his dream of "Kaiba Land" at that time was used by Gozaburo for military purposes, and the rebellion he launched because he felt his dream was tainted by Gozaburo's dirty ambition was entirely out of his own subjective will.
But Doma actually dared to utilize him as a weapon to wield against Gozaburo. If Dartz himself weren't here, Kaiba would have already turned hostile and taken action. Would he still be enduring his temper like this, trying to extract information from Dartz?
Yugi looked up at Dartz on the screen: "I don't understand. How could Doma have such great influence? How could the power of one organization dominate countries?"
Yugi also spoke his inner thoughts casually, but unexpectedly, Dartz answered honestly: "Time. The answer is simply that I have extremely abundant time, time that is longer and more plentiful than anyone, any civilization."
And just as Dartz in the video was describing Organization Doma's tens of thousands of years of unremitting effort and the hardship of guiding civilization's growth to Yugi and the others, the helicopter carrying Hayato, Rafael, and Alister also landed on the Island of the Doma Organization Headquarters.
Although Dartz, who was "communicating" normally with Yugi and the others, looked like he was so normal, it was actually just a video file placed inside the Industrial Illusions Database that Dartz didn't care about at all. Dartz himself was still waiting for Rafael and the others' return in front of the Altar where he usually stayed.
Regarding the fact that neither Alister nor Rafael managed to defeat their respective opponents, Seto Kaiba and Mutou Yuugi, Dartz was somewhat annoyed. After all, at that time, he had specifically sought out Rafael and the other two, training them to grow into the "Doma Three Swordsmen," precisely to deal with Users of the "Legendary Dragon" like Yugi and the others.
However, although they failed to collect powerful souls, Rafael's statement that The Eye of Timaeus had abandoned the Nameless Pharaoh as its User was unequivocally good news. As long as they continued collecting souls in the future, the "Orichalcos God" could still be awakened. But dealing with the "Legendary Dragon" isn't an opportunity that comes around anytime.
Ten thousand years ago, the "Legendary Dragon" went from one to three. Dartz wasn't sure if the three "Legendary Dragons" would combine again under certain circumstances to give him a surprise. But even if they were to combine, they would have to gather the three "Legendary Dragons" in the Real World. Now that the Nameless Pharaoh had been abandoned by one of the "Legendary Dragons," Dartz suddenly felt no threat.
After the three returned to the Doma Headquarters, Dartz, with an attitude of great concern for his subordinates, told Hayato and the others that they were not far from awakening the "Orichalcos God." They would need about five or six more high-quality Duelist souls to gather enough power.
Therefore, Dartz had specifically prepared that video before, precisely to let Yugi and the others know where the Doma Organization Headquarters they were so eager to find was located. This was so they wouldn't run around the World aimlessly anymore but would hurry and come knocking, allowing Rafael and the others to take action one more time and capture them all.
Since they were waiting for Yugi and the others to come to them and fight at their leisure, Rafael and Alister didn't really relax during this rare period of rest. Instead, they returned to their respective resting places to adjust their Decks in preparation for the upcoming decisive battle. Hayato was the same.
After joining Doma Organization, Hayato's frequency of dueling was naturally not low due to hunting Duelist souls. After many duels, he had accumulated quite a few DP Points that he hadn't used, especially after recently participating in many high-quality duels.
Although currently, "as a member of Organization Doma," Hayato was using a pure 【Infernoid】 Deck and had gradually completed the synergy with the Deck, without the Link Summoning method, which brings a huge boost to Infernoids, the limit of 【Infernoid】 was set.
While it was sufficient against ordinary Duelists, it was still a bit lacking if the opponent was Dartz.
It was just like when Hayato used pure 【Drytron】 last time; he never expected Dartz to pull out a 【Ko'aki Meiru Doom】 with a backhand move. If he were to use 【Infernoid】 against Dartz, no one would know if Dartz would pull out a counter card like 【Statue of Wind - Barrier of the Heavens】 again.
Although the DP Points on hand were enough for Hayato to choose one or two powerful UR cards from the Shop that he could use and liked, such as the invincible 【Lava Golem】, the unstoppable 【Thunder King Rai-Oh】, or the full power 【Inspector Boarder】, which would make Hayato's Deck bring more smiles to his opponents.
But, Hayato had a bad habit: he always had a strange confidence in his luck. It was like those unlucky players of gacha mobile games who, despite knowing their luck, still stubbornly spent money on draw attempts, trying to sneak across the border. Hayato chose the affix gacha function in the Shop, planning to draw some powerful cards that would boost his existing Deck based on the few unlocked affixes.
As slow as DP Points were to accumulate, that's how fast Hayato was spending them now. Tens of thousands of DP Points were gone in the blink of an eye, leaving only a mere 500 Points. What appeared in his hand instead was a thick stack of unopened card packs. The affix Hayato chose this time was his old friend—【Gaia】.
As the card packs were opened one by one, Hayato's expression visibly darkened. Although he didn't fail to draw usable cards, the cards pulled from the packs were truly not worth the DP Points paid to open them. In the blink of an eye, more than half of the packs were opened, yet not even a single SR level card was pulled. It looked like he was about to lose everything.
However, the system's card pack opening did have a guaranteed draw. Just as he was opening the last pack, the one SR and one UR card guaranteed for every hundred card packs appeared together simultaneously. What surprised Hayato was that it wasn't one UR, but two UR-Rank Cards, instantly making it worth the price.
The five cards in the card pack spread out before Hayato one by one:
【Axe Raider】 (R), 【The Beginning of Heaven and Earth】 (R), 【Chaos Form】 (SR), 【Ritual of the Super Soldier】 (UR), 【Black Luster Soldier】 (UR)
Even though the chosen affix was 【Gaia】, Hayato didn't expect that he would actually draw a bunch of 【Black Luster Soldier】 cards.
Although, there is indeed a strong connection between 【Gaia The Fierce Knight】, a Normal Monster, and 【Black Luster Soldier】, a Ritual Monster, their system compatibility isn't very high. And honestly, he had always been a pure love faction player, always using a pure 【Gaia】 Deck. Although pulling two UR-Rank Cards was a small profit, he fundamentally wouldn't possibly use them—
【Ding~ New Quest Activated】
【Side Quest: Pioneering the Future's Ninety-Nine Slashes】
【Task Description: Defeat Dartz using a Deck containing the affixes 【Gaia The Fierce Knight】, 【Black Luster Soldier】, and 【Double Chance】 0/1】
【Task Reward: 【Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning】 X1, 1000 DP Points】
———He fundamentally couldn't possibly not use them, could he? He definitely had to use the newly acquired cards!
It wasn't that Hayato's will wasn't firm, it was just that Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning was too tempting.
(End of Chapter)
Dartz's words instantly made everyone tense up, fearing that the ground beneath their feet would be detonated just as Dartz had said.
There were plenty of scenes like this in movies and TV shows: the protagonist group arrives at some important location, accidentally triggers a trap left by the antagonist, and only narrowly escapes with the sacrifice of someone in the team.
However, after Joey Wheeler and Tristan nervously looked around with vigilance, they found that there was no commotion at all. Forget about impenetrable walls descending from the sky to turn this place into a Cell to prevent escape, or dangerous red lights suddenly flashing accompanied by alarms; there was only the buzzing sound of the server running.
Prying Rex's hand off his pant leg, Marik's expression was strange: "Looks like nothing happened?"
"Heh, isn't that obvious, Marik Ishtar? I just wanted to see what interesting expressions you would show when crisis arrives." Dartz had just put on a cold expression, as if he would really press "2887" and make Paradius Tower self-destruct. The next second, a smile full of malicious fun appeared on his face. "Industrial Illusions is an important asset of Organization Doma. How could I possibly bury a bomb here?"
Hearing that no bomb would be detonated, although they were annoyed at being tricked, everyone still felt a little relief and relaxed slightly. Dartz also watched everyone's reactions with great interest.
"You know me, Dartz." Looking at Dartz on the screen, who had a condescending attitude and a gaze like an entomologist observing the behavior patterns of ants moving in a terrarium, Marik frowned.
As the actual control of the former International Crime Organization Rare Hunters, Marik's name wasn't a secret due to being spread among Organization members. However, because of the Millennium Rod's mind control ability and Marik's own nascent homebody attribute from that time, it was actually Rishid who always showed his face using the Name "Marik" as his agent.
On one hand, it was because Marik himself felt that ordinary people weren't qualified to make him, who held two God Cards at the time, take action. On the other hand, compared to Marik, whose appearance was somewhat sickly and delicate, like a kept man, the bald giant Rishid, whose half body was covered in Ancient Egyptian priest script resembling a tattoo, had more of the aura of a Crime Organization Leader.
And the result of having Rishid act as his agent was that Marik didn't realize until he returned to his own body, which had been severely damaged by his dark personality, and received a second life intending to turn over a new leaf, that the "Marik" wanted poster internationally actually showed Rishid's image.
So much so that when Marik initially wanted to turn himself in, something like this happened—
Police (holding Rishid's photo): "Is this photo on the wanted poster you?"
Marik: "It is."
Police: "Is that so?"
Marik: "Yes. At that time, I liked wearing a cloak."
Police: "Then this isn't you."
Marik (pointing at the photo): "You're saying he isn't me?"
Police: "No."
Marik: "I said he isn't me either. This is fundamentally not me!"
———After a long back and forth, the result was that Marik, wearing an ahegao pain shirt with an incredibly embarrassing design, was kicked out by Interpol, who thought he was an otaku driven mad by anime/manga. They even warned him he'd be fined if he obstructed official duties again. This also greatly disappointed Hayato, who had wanted Marik to pull back from the Cliff and reform properly in a Cell.
Even turning himself in and actively admitting he was Marik was useless. However, ever since the faction of Organization Doma began to surface, Marik started to notice that everyone he encountered within Organization Doma could recognize that he was Marik, not Rishid.
Although somewhat touched, Marik also kept wondering why the people in Organization Doma possessed more information than Interpol. Could it be that Interpol agents were just freeloaders who got paid but could only solve cases an Elementary School Student could figure out?
Dartz's slender fingers twirled his green hair. He said casually, "Your information has never been a problem for Doma. Anyone with the power to control a country's government can easily obtain your file, which, although well-concealed by the Tomb Keepers, still remains within the Egyptian Government."
"Malik Ishtar, who could commit the sinful act of patricide, it's not just you. Everyone present here, and indeed every individual in the entire Human Civilization, has actually always been under Doma's watching."
Hearing Dartz's words, Tristan frowned and said, "What kind of crazy talk is that? How could such an organization possibly exist in the World?"
Kaiba, however, said calmly, "Although I don't like to recall the past, I remember Gozaburo Kaiba mentioning it to me during the first lesson aimed at training me into an elite, just after I used a wager to force him to adopt Keipei and me."
"Beneath the peaceful surface of Human Civilization, there has always been an invisible hand pulling the strings. Whether it's ordinary people living mundane lives, capitalists dominating the business world, or even politicians governing great countries, they have actually always had their life and death and destiny manipulated by that invisible hand. At least, Gozaburo discovered the shadow of that hand behind the Kennedy incident."
"After learning of the existence of this hand, Gozaburo, unwilling to be manipulated, had a crazy idea. That was, he would plunge the world into war and disrupt the World Stage, forcing that hand to reveal its true body by becoming the ruler of the World."
Kaiba's words made Dartz smile as if recalling something interesting, but that smile was full of contempt. "Gozaburo Kaiba, one of the few who discovered Doma's existence. I must say, his ambition was indeed quite insane, and he certainly had the action to achieve it. Unfortunately, I had no desire to let his boring ambition be realized."
"So—"
"So, Doma also took action in the rebellion I launched against Gozaburo at that time?" Kaiba's gaze towards Dartz became quite dangerous.
Although the virtual projection system Kaiba invented for his dream of "Kaiba Land" at that time was used by Gozaburo for military purposes, and the rebellion he launched because he felt his dream was tainted by Gozaburo's dirty ambition was entirely out of his own subjective will.
But Doma actually dared to utilize him as a weapon to wield against Gozaburo. If Dartz himself weren't here, Kaiba would have already turned hostile and taken action. Would he still be enduring his temper like this, trying to extract information from Dartz?
Yugi looked up at Dartz on the screen: "I don't understand. How could Doma have such great influence? How could the power of one organization dominate countries?"
Yugi also spoke his inner thoughts casually, but unexpectedly, Dartz answered honestly: "Time. The answer is simply that I have extremely abundant time, time that is longer and more plentiful than anyone, any civilization."
And just as Dartz in the video was describing Organization Doma's tens of thousands of years of unremitting effort and the hardship of guiding civilization's growth to Yugi and the others, the helicopter carrying Hayato, Rafael, and Alister also landed on the Island of the Doma Organization Headquarters.
Although Dartz, who was "communicating" normally with Yugi and the others, looked like he was so normal, it was actually just a video file placed inside the Industrial Illusions Database that Dartz didn't care about at all. Dartz himself was still waiting for Rafael and the others' return in front of the Altar where he usually stayed.
Regarding the fact that neither Alister nor Rafael managed to defeat their respective opponents, Seto Kaiba and Mutou Yuugi, Dartz was somewhat annoyed. After all, at that time, he had specifically sought out Rafael and the other two, training them to grow into the "Doma Three Swordsmen," precisely to deal with Users of the "Legendary Dragon" like Yugi and the others.
However, although they failed to collect powerful souls, Rafael's statement that The Eye of Timaeus had abandoned the Nameless Pharaoh as its User was unequivocally good news. As long as they continued collecting souls in the future, the "Orichalcos God" could still be awakened. But dealing with the "Legendary Dragon" isn't an opportunity that comes around anytime.
Ten thousand years ago, the "Legendary Dragon" went from one to three. Dartz wasn't sure if the three "Legendary Dragons" would combine again under certain circumstances to give him a surprise. But even if they were to combine, they would have to gather the three "Legendary Dragons" in the Real World. Now that the Nameless Pharaoh had been abandoned by one of the "Legendary Dragons," Dartz suddenly felt no threat.
After the three returned to the Doma Headquarters, Dartz, with an attitude of great concern for his subordinates, told Hayato and the others that they were not far from awakening the "Orichalcos God." They would need about five or six more high-quality Duelist souls to gather enough power.
Therefore, Dartz had specifically prepared that video before, precisely to let Yugi and the others know where the Doma Organization Headquarters they were so eager to find was located. This was so they wouldn't run around the World aimlessly anymore but would hurry and come knocking, allowing Rafael and the others to take action one more time and capture them all.
Since they were waiting for Yugi and the others to come to them and fight at their leisure, Rafael and Alister didn't really relax during this rare period of rest. Instead, they returned to their respective resting places to adjust their Decks in preparation for the upcoming decisive battle. Hayato was the same.
After joining Doma Organization, Hayato's frequency of dueling was naturally not low due to hunting Duelist souls. After many duels, he had accumulated quite a few DP Points that he hadn't used, especially after recently participating in many high-quality duels.
Although currently, "as a member of Organization Doma," Hayato was using a pure 【Infernoid】 Deck and had gradually completed the synergy with the Deck, without the Link Summoning method, which brings a huge boost to Infernoids, the limit of 【Infernoid】 was set.
While it was sufficient against ordinary Duelists, it was still a bit lacking if the opponent was Dartz.
It was just like when Hayato used pure 【Drytron】 last time; he never expected Dartz to pull out a 【Ko'aki Meiru Doom】 with a backhand move. If he were to use 【Infernoid】 against Dartz, no one would know if Dartz would pull out a counter card like 【Statue of Wind - Barrier of the Heavens】 again.
Although the DP Points on hand were enough for Hayato to choose one or two powerful UR cards from the Shop that he could use and liked, such as the invincible 【Lava Golem】, the unstoppable 【Thunder King Rai-Oh】, or the full power 【Inspector Boarder】, which would make Hayato's Deck bring more smiles to his opponents.
But, Hayato had a bad habit: he always had a strange confidence in his luck. It was like those unlucky players of gacha mobile games who, despite knowing their luck, still stubbornly spent money on draw attempts, trying to sneak across the border. Hayato chose the affix gacha function in the Shop, planning to draw some powerful cards that would boost his existing Deck based on the few unlocked affixes.
As slow as DP Points were to accumulate, that's how fast Hayato was spending them now. Tens of thousands of DP Points were gone in the blink of an eye, leaving only a mere 500 Points. What appeared in his hand instead was a thick stack of unopened card packs. The affix Hayato chose this time was his old friend—【Gaia】.
As the card packs were opened one by one, Hayato's expression visibly darkened. Although he didn't fail to draw usable cards, the cards pulled from the packs were truly not worth the DP Points paid to open them. In the blink of an eye, more than half of the packs were opened, yet not even a single SR level card was pulled. It looked like he was about to lose everything.
However, the system's card pack opening did have a guaranteed draw. Just as he was opening the last pack, the one SR and one UR card guaranteed for every hundred card packs appeared together simultaneously. What surprised Hayato was that it wasn't one UR, but two UR-Rank Cards, instantly making it worth the price.
The five cards in the card pack spread out before Hayato one by one:
【Axe Raider】 (R), 【The Beginning of Heaven and Earth】 (R), 【Chaos Form】 (SR), 【Ritual of the Super Soldier】 (UR), 【Black Luster Soldier】 (UR)
Even though the chosen affix was 【Gaia】, Hayato didn't expect that he would actually draw a bunch of 【Black Luster Soldier】 cards.
Although, there is indeed a strong connection between 【Gaia The Fierce Knight】, a Normal Monster, and 【Black Luster Soldier】, a Ritual Monster, their system compatibility isn't very high. And honestly, he had always been a pure love faction player, always using a pure 【Gaia】 Deck. Although pulling two UR-Rank Cards was a small profit, he fundamentally wouldn't possibly use them—
【Ding~ New Quest Activated】
【Side Quest: Pioneering the Future's Ninety-Nine Slashes】
【Task Description: Defeat Dartz using a Deck containing the affixes 【Gaia The Fierce Knight】, 【Black Luster Soldier】, and 【Double Chance】 0/1】
【Task Reward: 【Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning】 X1, 1000 DP Points】
———He fundamentally couldn't possibly not use them, could he? He definitely had to use the newly acquired cards!
It wasn't that Hayato's will wasn't firm, it was just that Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning was too tempting.
(End of Chapter)
