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Chapter 697: Who Writes a Diary If They're Serious?
After boarding Anasis's ship and leaving the Island a certain distance, Hayato and the others' mobile devices regained signal and could communicate normally again.
Because of Diabolo's setup on the Island, the entire Island was normally isolated from the Outside World. Without Professor Banner, it would usually be a problem just to enter the Island, let alone maintain communication with the Outside World from the interior. However, now that the signal was restored, Yugi and the others naturally reported their safety to their family immediately.
The airplane crash happened around noon, and now it was almost evening. Being missing for a full afternoon was enough to make Grandpa Solomon, Shizuka, and others who knew about the crash extremely worried. Fortunately, everyone was safe and sound.
As the ship sailed further away from the Island, Yugi and the others also noticed that the Duel Monster materialization phenomenon that had appeared earlier had also disappeared.
Hayato guessed that this might also be related to Diabolo's setup. Although the device he left on the Island collected energy from the entire Island, it also caused the energy around the Island to converge and accumulate like a vortex, creating a special environment that allowed card spirits to materialize.
However, this was just Hayato's guess. He didn't delve too deeply into whether this was the actual reason, because while on the ship, he used the virtual projection system running on his Duel Disk to make two video calls, one to Pegasus and one to Kaiba.
With Diabolo abandoned on the Island in a state indistinguishable from death, the uninhabited Island essentially became ownerless. Kagemaru therefore proposed that, on the one hand, to accelerate the completion of the "Sage's Stone" by introducing rich biological communities to the Island, and on the other hand, to recover costs and avoid loss, he planned to undertake some development on the small Island.
Simple tourist attractions were too much trouble, but an Island of such a vast area was just right for establishing certain institutions. Kagemaru proposed establishing an Academy on the Island, an Academy that systematically taught Duel Monsters knowledge.
However, Kagemaru's group was merely a Medical Group and didn't have much involvement in education or Duel Monsters. But that was okay; in today's globalization, a single group didn't need to be omnipotent, because cooperation was the future. And those he wanted to cooperate with were naturally the two largest groups in the Duel Monsters domain today—Industrial Illusions and KaibaCorp.
Upon receiving Hayato's video call, Pegasus agreed to this cooperation almost without hesitation. After all, for Pegasus, his current life's pursuit was only to create more interesting cards and to make Duel Monsters loved by more people.
An Academy that trained duelists was not as simple as it looked on the surface. Behind it also represented the systematization, standardization, and specialization of the duelist profession. If the Duel Academy could successfully appear, it would basically mean that there would be a sufficient supply of dueling talent for a considerable period in the future, continuously injecting vitality into the Duel Monsters circle so that it wouldn't become a stagnant pool.
It wasn't that the current Duel Monsters circle wasn't good enough; it was just that it could be better. It was like actors who learned on the job versus those who graduated from a proper academy; both types of actors had their strengths and weaknesses. The appearance of academy duelists could further prompt the professional duelists in the current Duel Monsters circle to spontaneously improve their competitiveness to avoid elimination.
Furthermore, besides duelists, the Duel Academy might also cultivate other Duel Monsters-related professional talent, such as Card Designers, professional judges, etc. After all, Duel Monsters was never just a single duelist's battle. With the increasing popularity of Duel Monsters and the increasing formalization of duel events, there might even be Tag Duels in the future, which would require even more specialized Duel Monsters professional talent.
And the Duel Academy could, while teaching students duel knowledge, also screen for talent in this area.
Pegasus was quite optimistic about the prospect of the Duel Academy, and Yugi, who also participated in the video meeting at the time, was also very supportive of the Duel Academy. Along with Hayato, the three major shareholders who collectively held 90% of Industrial Illusions all made the same decision, basically meaning that Kagemaru had the possibility of cooperation with Industrial Illusions. The rest was just haggling over profits such as shareholding.
On KaibaCorp's side, Kaiba, who received Hayato's call, appeared with a terribly sour face at first. "Almost dying for a reason that makes me want to laugh to death... it's too shameful for a duelist," and so on. Anyway, Kaiba tried to demand that Hayato and Yugi be as physically fit as he is, which allowed him to jump from an airplane without a parachute pack.
When the Duel Academy was mentioned, Kaiba, who would originally be one of the founders of the Duel Academy in the future, was instead uninterested.
"A giant dragon that stays with sheep will become a sheep, but a sheep won't be able to defeat a giant dragon just by becoming the king of sheep," Kaiba's original words were probably something like that. Anyway, he didn't think a place like the Duel Academy could cultivate any strong duelists.
However, Keipei, who appeared in the video at the same time, held a different opinion from his brother. Instead, he thought the concept of a Duel Academy was excellent and would definitely have significant help for the development of Duel Monsters. Even if it couldn't cultivate strong top-tier duelists, it could at least ensure that the intermediate layer wouldn't be missing.
Since the birth of Duel Monsters, although there have been many excellent duelists, the current Duel Monsters circle is in a relatively extreme state. That is, the top group of people are constantly gathering at the peak, while duelists who are just starting out or only have a certain strength are slow to improve, like Anasis. Only the intermediate layer that should exist is missing.
Such a structure is very dangerous because the strong duelists at the top either bully weaker opponents or compete with people of the same skill level or even stronger. Over time, it's easy for a complacent mindset to appear, leading to a decline in strength instead of progress. And the duelists at the bottom might also lose interest in Duel Monsters because they are slow to improve and see no hope of defeating those stronger than them.
This requires an intermediate layer, one that isn't too strong to make the bottom-tier duelists feel despair, nor too weak to prevent the strong duelists from experiencing fun.
Keipei's theory was quite reasonable, but Kaiba was just too stubborn and still didn't think the Duel Academy had any necessity. Kagemaru basically felt that his chances of cooperating with KaibaCorp were likely slim, but Hayato only said one sentence and successfully convinced Kaiba.
"That Jellyfish-haired Youth graduated from the Duel Academy, you know." That's what Hayato said at the time. Afraid that Kaiba wouldn't remember who he was talking about, Hayato was about to add a couple of sentences when Kaiba unexpectedly had a good memory. As if he'd been holding a grudge for a long time, he instantly remembered who Hayato was talking about.
Thinking of the crushing defeat that guy had given him, Kaiba immediately agreed to the establishment of the Duel Academy and the cooperation with Kagemaru. It wasn't that he wanted to get revenge on that kid in the future or anything; the main reason was that I, Kaiba Seto, care deeply about the future of Duel Monsters and am very concerned about the development of this circle.
On Anasis's ship, the three parties basically finalized the cooperation on the Duel Academy project and the specific implementation plan for the Duel Academy. However, further cooperation confirmation and project announcement would have to wait until the division of their respective profits and how they would contribute manpower and effort to the Duel Academy were confirmed.
These matters probably didn't have much to do with Hayato. He was more like a go-between. Although he was a shareholder of Industrial Illusions, Pegasus would naturally handle things, and he just needed to sit back and collect his share.
Although Pegasus was actually a lazy dog too. He had already landed in Morocco, Africa, and was traveling all the way to Egypt, waiting to meet up with Hayato and the others. He said that the cooperation matters would be discussed in detail later, but he just handed all the troublesome business matters over to his adopted son, Tenma Tsukihiro, to handle.
Why bother with troublesome business matters when you can read a few fairy tales and print yourself a few ridiculously powerful cards?
However, actually, Anasis was originally supposed to participate in this meeting as well, because Kagemaru thought that if they were going to build an Island Academy, there would naturally be a need to cooperate with Anasis's company.
After all, transporting materials to the Island for construction of the Academy, supplies after the Academy is built, and even the movement of personnel, none of these could be done without ships. Moreover, having only one Duel Academy would definitely not be enough; perhaps other Branch Schools would need to be established globally in the future, and ships would still be needed for transportation then.
However, after his duel with Yugi, Joey Wheeler, and Hayato, Anasis stood on the deck at the bow with a weathered face, facing the sea breeze and smoking. He had no intention of participating in the cooperation.
Most likely, he was defeated too badly while dueling with someone and entered Sage Time, questioning his life? Seriously, who was so excessive? They didn't even hold back. Hayato, walking out of the conference room, looked at Anasis, who was still standing at the bow of the ship, thinking helplessly, completely unaware of himself.
In Hayato's opinion, was his dueling excessive? It was just a Meteor; wasn't it something that could be split with a Sword Finger? And monsters being Tributed was also an important part of the Duel Monsters experience, something you have to experience.
As dusk approached, the exploration ship finally sailed into the coastal waters. Looking at the land that was continuously growing larger before them, Joey Wheeler, who had experienced a complicated day, stood on the deck and couldn't help but exclaim, "The first day of the holiday was so exciting, it's hard to imagine what kind of exciting experiences we'll have in Egypt later."
"Spare me, one such excitement in a lifetime is enough," Tristan said with a look of disgust, having experienced parachuting from an exploding airplane and escaping from a mad scientist. "Do you want something else to happen to us, Joey Wheeler?"
"Hehe, not really. Besides, we've already been through so much today, it's not like we'll be unlucky enough for something else to happen, right?" Joey Wheeler said with a grin. "I was mainly thinking that if there were a lot of things happening just today, but then the next month was calm and uneventful, there wouldn't be much left to write in my diary."
"Diary?" Marik heard this and glanced at Hayato beside him. "Who writes a diary if they're serious?"
"Yeah, who would write their true feelings in a diary?"
Marik raised an eyebrow: "You call what you write down 'true feelings'?"
"Despicable!" (Both)
Watching Hayato and Marik clink glasses with their colas, Yugi smiled helplessly and said to Téa beside him, "Yemen is just ahead. Hayato and I just explained the situation to Mr. Pegasus. He said he has arranged an airplane in Yemen to pick us up and take us to Egypt."
"That's good. I was just worrying about what we would do since none of us had ever been here before." Hearing Yugi's words, Téa couldn't help but feel a little relieved.
The ship gradually approached the dock. However, before Hayato and the others went ashore, Anasis stepped forward to handle the matters after they landed. After all, none of them had prepared passports for entry in Yemen. However, because they were survivors of the crash, the customs in Yemen were quite accommodating, and it didn't take long for Hayato and his group to be granted entry.
The speed of the process must have been the result of the staff's efforts. The stacks of green US dollars that Anasis took out were naturally a reward filled with respect for these diligent people.
Okay, to be honest, Anasis once again used the "Hidden Card" he had once intended to use against Hayato, accelerating the process by bribing the customs personnel. However, Hayato actually didn't actually discriminate against these people.
Because of a movie by a certain martial arts superstar in his past life, Hayato knew about this small country. In Yemen, a country so chaotic due to civil war, everyone lived day-to-day. These staff who accepted bribes weren't so much greedy as they were just trying to earn more money to keep their family alive.
Before boarding the bus to the airport, Hayato seemed to remember something and confirmed one thing with Anasis.
"My ship? There's no problem. All the employees on the ship are people I know, and I myself am the captain."
Hearing Anasis say this, Hayato also felt somewhat relieved. "Oh, that's good. I was worried that a fake captain might sneak onto your ship. After all, we've already encountered an airplane crash before, so Dark Blue Moon after Grey Tower is also a perfectly reasonable occurrence."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing, don't mind what I said." Hayato waved his hand and bid farewell to Anasis. "See you around, Uncle Anasis. If we meet again next time, I can duel you again."
"No, no, no, let's not do that." Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Anasis quickly refused.
Hayato also chuckled and got into the car, leaving his last sentence: "Finally, let me give you a piece of advice, Uncle Anasis! Change the name of your ship!"
"Stop picking nonsensical names like Pegasus and Kaiba do!"
As the bus started and drove away, Anasis, standing in place, heard this and couldn't help but turn back to look at the name "Vasa" printed in orange paint on the hull of his exploration ship docked in the Port. He asked Socrates beside him somewhat strangely, "Is there something wrong with the name Vasa?"
"Whatever makes you happy, Boss." Socrates shrugged. Although he remembered seeing the name Vasa when visiting a museum somewhere, it shouldn't be a problem. It couldn't possibly be the name of a ship like the Titanic that sank on its maiden voyage, could it?
(Author's Note: Vasa, a famous shipwreck, met the same fate as the Titanic, sinking on its maiden voyage.)
(End of Chapter)
After boarding Anasis's ship and leaving the Island a certain distance, Hayato and the others' mobile devices regained signal and could communicate normally again.
Because of Diabolo's setup on the Island, the entire Island was normally isolated from the Outside World. Without Professor Banner, it would usually be a problem just to enter the Island, let alone maintain communication with the Outside World from the interior. However, now that the signal was restored, Yugi and the others naturally reported their safety to their family immediately.
The airplane crash happened around noon, and now it was almost evening. Being missing for a full afternoon was enough to make Grandpa Solomon, Shizuka, and others who knew about the crash extremely worried. Fortunately, everyone was safe and sound.
As the ship sailed further away from the Island, Yugi and the others also noticed that the Duel Monster materialization phenomenon that had appeared earlier had also disappeared.
Hayato guessed that this might also be related to Diabolo's setup. Although the device he left on the Island collected energy from the entire Island, it also caused the energy around the Island to converge and accumulate like a vortex, creating a special environment that allowed card spirits to materialize.
However, this was just Hayato's guess. He didn't delve too deeply into whether this was the actual reason, because while on the ship, he used the virtual projection system running on his Duel Disk to make two video calls, one to Pegasus and one to Kaiba.
With Diabolo abandoned on the Island in a state indistinguishable from death, the uninhabited Island essentially became ownerless. Kagemaru therefore proposed that, on the one hand, to accelerate the completion of the "Sage's Stone" by introducing rich biological communities to the Island, and on the other hand, to recover costs and avoid loss, he planned to undertake some development on the small Island.
Simple tourist attractions were too much trouble, but an Island of such a vast area was just right for establishing certain institutions. Kagemaru proposed establishing an Academy on the Island, an Academy that systematically taught Duel Monsters knowledge.
However, Kagemaru's group was merely a Medical Group and didn't have much involvement in education or Duel Monsters. But that was okay; in today's globalization, a single group didn't need to be omnipotent, because cooperation was the future. And those he wanted to cooperate with were naturally the two largest groups in the Duel Monsters domain today—Industrial Illusions and KaibaCorp.
Upon receiving Hayato's video call, Pegasus agreed to this cooperation almost without hesitation. After all, for Pegasus, his current life's pursuit was only to create more interesting cards and to make Duel Monsters loved by more people.
An Academy that trained duelists was not as simple as it looked on the surface. Behind it also represented the systematization, standardization, and specialization of the duelist profession. If the Duel Academy could successfully appear, it would basically mean that there would be a sufficient supply of dueling talent for a considerable period in the future, continuously injecting vitality into the Duel Monsters circle so that it wouldn't become a stagnant pool.
It wasn't that the current Duel Monsters circle wasn't good enough; it was just that it could be better. It was like actors who learned on the job versus those who graduated from a proper academy; both types of actors had their strengths and weaknesses. The appearance of academy duelists could further prompt the professional duelists in the current Duel Monsters circle to spontaneously improve their competitiveness to avoid elimination.
Furthermore, besides duelists, the Duel Academy might also cultivate other Duel Monsters-related professional talent, such as Card Designers, professional judges, etc. After all, Duel Monsters was never just a single duelist's battle. With the increasing popularity of Duel Monsters and the increasing formalization of duel events, there might even be Tag Duels in the future, which would require even more specialized Duel Monsters professional talent.
And the Duel Academy could, while teaching students duel knowledge, also screen for talent in this area.
Pegasus was quite optimistic about the prospect of the Duel Academy, and Yugi, who also participated in the video meeting at the time, was also very supportive of the Duel Academy. Along with Hayato, the three major shareholders who collectively held 90% of Industrial Illusions all made the same decision, basically meaning that Kagemaru had the possibility of cooperation with Industrial Illusions. The rest was just haggling over profits such as shareholding.
On KaibaCorp's side, Kaiba, who received Hayato's call, appeared with a terribly sour face at first. "Almost dying for a reason that makes me want to laugh to death... it's too shameful for a duelist," and so on. Anyway, Kaiba tried to demand that Hayato and Yugi be as physically fit as he is, which allowed him to jump from an airplane without a parachute pack.
When the Duel Academy was mentioned, Kaiba, who would originally be one of the founders of the Duel Academy in the future, was instead uninterested.
"A giant dragon that stays with sheep will become a sheep, but a sheep won't be able to defeat a giant dragon just by becoming the king of sheep," Kaiba's original words were probably something like that. Anyway, he didn't think a place like the Duel Academy could cultivate any strong duelists.
However, Keipei, who appeared in the video at the same time, held a different opinion from his brother. Instead, he thought the concept of a Duel Academy was excellent and would definitely have significant help for the development of Duel Monsters. Even if it couldn't cultivate strong top-tier duelists, it could at least ensure that the intermediate layer wouldn't be missing.
Since the birth of Duel Monsters, although there have been many excellent duelists, the current Duel Monsters circle is in a relatively extreme state. That is, the top group of people are constantly gathering at the peak, while duelists who are just starting out or only have a certain strength are slow to improve, like Anasis. Only the intermediate layer that should exist is missing.
Such a structure is very dangerous because the strong duelists at the top either bully weaker opponents or compete with people of the same skill level or even stronger. Over time, it's easy for a complacent mindset to appear, leading to a decline in strength instead of progress. And the duelists at the bottom might also lose interest in Duel Monsters because they are slow to improve and see no hope of defeating those stronger than them.
This requires an intermediate layer, one that isn't too strong to make the bottom-tier duelists feel despair, nor too weak to prevent the strong duelists from experiencing fun.
Keipei's theory was quite reasonable, but Kaiba was just too stubborn and still didn't think the Duel Academy had any necessity. Kagemaru basically felt that his chances of cooperating with KaibaCorp were likely slim, but Hayato only said one sentence and successfully convinced Kaiba.
"That Jellyfish-haired Youth graduated from the Duel Academy, you know." That's what Hayato said at the time. Afraid that Kaiba wouldn't remember who he was talking about, Hayato was about to add a couple of sentences when Kaiba unexpectedly had a good memory. As if he'd been holding a grudge for a long time, he instantly remembered who Hayato was talking about.
Thinking of the crushing defeat that guy had given him, Kaiba immediately agreed to the establishment of the Duel Academy and the cooperation with Kagemaru. It wasn't that he wanted to get revenge on that kid in the future or anything; the main reason was that I, Kaiba Seto, care deeply about the future of Duel Monsters and am very concerned about the development of this circle.
On Anasis's ship, the three parties basically finalized the cooperation on the Duel Academy project and the specific implementation plan for the Duel Academy. However, further cooperation confirmation and project announcement would have to wait until the division of their respective profits and how they would contribute manpower and effort to the Duel Academy were confirmed.
These matters probably didn't have much to do with Hayato. He was more like a go-between. Although he was a shareholder of Industrial Illusions, Pegasus would naturally handle things, and he just needed to sit back and collect his share.
Although Pegasus was actually a lazy dog too. He had already landed in Morocco, Africa, and was traveling all the way to Egypt, waiting to meet up with Hayato and the others. He said that the cooperation matters would be discussed in detail later, but he just handed all the troublesome business matters over to his adopted son, Tenma Tsukihiro, to handle.
Why bother with troublesome business matters when you can read a few fairy tales and print yourself a few ridiculously powerful cards?
However, actually, Anasis was originally supposed to participate in this meeting as well, because Kagemaru thought that if they were going to build an Island Academy, there would naturally be a need to cooperate with Anasis's company.
After all, transporting materials to the Island for construction of the Academy, supplies after the Academy is built, and even the movement of personnel, none of these could be done without ships. Moreover, having only one Duel Academy would definitely not be enough; perhaps other Branch Schools would need to be established globally in the future, and ships would still be needed for transportation then.
However, after his duel with Yugi, Joey Wheeler, and Hayato, Anasis stood on the deck at the bow with a weathered face, facing the sea breeze and smoking. He had no intention of participating in the cooperation.
Most likely, he was defeated too badly while dueling with someone and entered Sage Time, questioning his life? Seriously, who was so excessive? They didn't even hold back. Hayato, walking out of the conference room, looked at Anasis, who was still standing at the bow of the ship, thinking helplessly, completely unaware of himself.
In Hayato's opinion, was his dueling excessive? It was just a Meteor; wasn't it something that could be split with a Sword Finger? And monsters being Tributed was also an important part of the Duel Monsters experience, something you have to experience.
As dusk approached, the exploration ship finally sailed into the coastal waters. Looking at the land that was continuously growing larger before them, Joey Wheeler, who had experienced a complicated day, stood on the deck and couldn't help but exclaim, "The first day of the holiday was so exciting, it's hard to imagine what kind of exciting experiences we'll have in Egypt later."
"Spare me, one such excitement in a lifetime is enough," Tristan said with a look of disgust, having experienced parachuting from an exploding airplane and escaping from a mad scientist. "Do you want something else to happen to us, Joey Wheeler?"
"Hehe, not really. Besides, we've already been through so much today, it's not like we'll be unlucky enough for something else to happen, right?" Joey Wheeler said with a grin. "I was mainly thinking that if there were a lot of things happening just today, but then the next month was calm and uneventful, there wouldn't be much left to write in my diary."
"Diary?" Marik heard this and glanced at Hayato beside him. "Who writes a diary if they're serious?"
"Yeah, who would write their true feelings in a diary?"
Marik raised an eyebrow: "You call what you write down 'true feelings'?"
"Despicable!" (Both)
Watching Hayato and Marik clink glasses with their colas, Yugi smiled helplessly and said to Téa beside him, "Yemen is just ahead. Hayato and I just explained the situation to Mr. Pegasus. He said he has arranged an airplane in Yemen to pick us up and take us to Egypt."
"That's good. I was just worrying about what we would do since none of us had ever been here before." Hearing Yugi's words, Téa couldn't help but feel a little relieved.
The ship gradually approached the dock. However, before Hayato and the others went ashore, Anasis stepped forward to handle the matters after they landed. After all, none of them had prepared passports for entry in Yemen. However, because they were survivors of the crash, the customs in Yemen were quite accommodating, and it didn't take long for Hayato and his group to be granted entry.
The speed of the process must have been the result of the staff's efforts. The stacks of green US dollars that Anasis took out were naturally a reward filled with respect for these diligent people.
Okay, to be honest, Anasis once again used the "Hidden Card" he had once intended to use against Hayato, accelerating the process by bribing the customs personnel. However, Hayato actually didn't actually discriminate against these people.
Because of a movie by a certain martial arts superstar in his past life, Hayato knew about this small country. In Yemen, a country so chaotic due to civil war, everyone lived day-to-day. These staff who accepted bribes weren't so much greedy as they were just trying to earn more money to keep their family alive.
Before boarding the bus to the airport, Hayato seemed to remember something and confirmed one thing with Anasis.
"My ship? There's no problem. All the employees on the ship are people I know, and I myself am the captain."
Hearing Anasis say this, Hayato also felt somewhat relieved. "Oh, that's good. I was worried that a fake captain might sneak onto your ship. After all, we've already encountered an airplane crash before, so Dark Blue Moon after Grey Tower is also a perfectly reasonable occurrence."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing, don't mind what I said." Hayato waved his hand and bid farewell to Anasis. "See you around, Uncle Anasis. If we meet again next time, I can duel you again."
"No, no, no, let's not do that." Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Anasis quickly refused.
Hayato also chuckled and got into the car, leaving his last sentence: "Finally, let me give you a piece of advice, Uncle Anasis! Change the name of your ship!"
"Stop picking nonsensical names like Pegasus and Kaiba do!"
As the bus started and drove away, Anasis, standing in place, heard this and couldn't help but turn back to look at the name "Vasa" printed in orange paint on the hull of his exploration ship docked in the Port. He asked Socrates beside him somewhat strangely, "Is there something wrong with the name Vasa?"
"Whatever makes you happy, Boss." Socrates shrugged. Although he remembered seeing the name Vasa when visiting a museum somewhere, it shouldn't be a problem. It couldn't possibly be the name of a ship like the Titanic that sank on its maiden voyage, could it?
(Author's Note: Vasa, a famous shipwreck, met the same fate as the Titanic, sinking on its maiden voyage.)
(End of Chapter)
