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## Chapter 765: A Classic Flickering Candle
While called a Chessboard, the large area before him was actually closer to a sand table, filled with miniature terrain and Ancient Egyptian Architecture. However, because the sand table was marked with a grid, and Hayato also saw several game pieces, Hayato felt it was a Chessboard.
The few game pieces before him immediately captured Hayato's attention the moment he saw them. It wasn't because the game pieces were exquisitely made, but because Hayato felt an unusual familiarity looking at them.
Aside from that, the game piece closest to Hayato, with its simple yet spirited facial details, was none other than Hayato himself!
Not only that, Hayato looked beside the game piece representing himself and also saw a game piece that looked very much like Nefertari.
Is this some kind of board game? Reminded by the game pieces before him, Hayato suddenly recalled something — from beginning to end, although on the surface the Dark Game Bakura had set up seemed like a traditional role-playing game, as if the game would end if the controlled character died.
But actually, the premise "tabletop" had to be added before "role-playing game". The gap between the two was as vast as the gap between **Lightsworn** and **Infernoid**. Although both decks involved Milling, their approaches were completely different.
"Role-playing" meant you had to face and think about problems from the character's perspective. However, in "tabletop role-playing", you became the Player of numerous game pieces, able to view everything happening In the Game from multiple perspectives. Even if the primary controlled game piece died, you only needed to replace it with another game piece.
The so-called "tabletop role-playing", this ultimate Dark Game, was precisely such an Existence. It was only because of the subjective first impression left by his past life's memory that Hayato subconsciously forgot this point.
Although he didn't know what means Meriamun had used to bring himself to the perspective of a Game participant, it was thanks to the opponent that Hayato was able to realize that he wasn't one of the many "game pieces" he thought he was, but the Player. He should actually thank him for that.
And since Hayato had already moved his perspective to a position outside the Game, that meant —
"Tsk, should I say it's expected of the Duel King? You actually realized the truth behind this Game." A familiar voice came. Hayato looked over, only to see Bakura, wearing a sailor shirt, sitting on a seat by the Chessboard, speaking to him through gritted teeth, his face annoyed. "Hayato Kobayashi!"
On the surface, the Bakura before him looked exactly like the evil will within the Millennium Ring that Hayato had just eliminated. But now that Hayato recalled the truth of the Dark Game, he knew the two were not the same Existence. The latter was merely an NPC replicated in the Memory World Three Thousand Years Ago, and the same went for Bakura.
The Bakura before him was the true Person who dragged Dark Yugi and Hayato into the Dark Game. He was the one controlling game pieces like Bakura to oppose Hayato and Dark Yugi. And if Hayato remembered correctly, at the same time, Bakura was also the true form of the evil will left within the Millennium Ring.
Even though he only realized the truth of the Dark Game thanks to Meriamun, that didn't stop Hayato from putting on a confident expression to bluff: "Isn't that natural? The Game you set up is simply too boring and too crude. It's still twenty thousand years away from the birth of a game that could completely deceive me."
Bakura, who didn't know of Meriamun's Existence, didn't doubt him. Frowning, he said, "Still talking big, huh? Tsk, just now one of the game pieces I controlled disappeared. That must be thanks to you, right?"
Although it was a question, Bakura's tone was very certain, after all, there weren't many other answers.
Just a moment before Hayato, the Game participant and Player, woke up before this Chessboard, one of the many game pieces controlled by Bakura was eliminated. That game piece was an evil will injected into the Millennium Ring by Bakura after he controlled Bakura to take the Millennium Ring from Mahad and recreated the history of three thousand years ago.
One benefit of doing this was that it could increase the power limit of the "Bakura" game piece. Another benefit was that if "Bakura" was eliminated, if someone touched and retrieved the Millennium Ring, that will could seize the opportunity to take over the toucher's body, providing Bakura with a new game piece.
Even if it didn't succeed in taking over the body, as long as that will remained within the Millennium Ring, the Millennium Ring could still serve as an item providing vision, offering Bakura information about the surroundings.
It's important to know that although in this Dark Game, both Bakura and Hayato had many game pieces at their disposal, these game pieces were actually not much different from NPCs. They weren't directly controlled by them but had their own action logic.
For example, Seto and Mahad were game pieces under Dark Yugi's name, but Dark Yugi only had the authority to command them. How Mahad and Seto did things and what choices they made when facing problems were not something Dark Yugi could control.
Bakura and Hayato, as Players, could actually only control their own game piece. The existence of other game pieces was more to provide them with backup options. In case the game piece they controlled died, as long as the other game pieces completed the final goal of the game, they could still achieve victory.
Actually, even though Hayato immediately entered the Millennium Ring after repelling Bakura to eliminate the evil will within it, the journey as Yugi and Seto brought Dark Yugi, Shada, and Hayato back to the Royal Palace had already provided Bakura with quite a bit of information.
He now knew that this bastard Hayato was fundamentally just bluffing to scare him before. The moment he controlled Bakura to escape, that guy actually collapsed. If he had made Bakura fight to the death and stay before, perhaps he could have wiped out Dark Yugi and Hayato completely, but he had foolishly missed the opportunity.
Then, that will was eliminated. Combined with the information from before, it could only have been done by Hayato.
Now it was too late to regret. Hayato, who was now recuperating in the Royal Palace, would soon fully recover. However, as long as the other piece of information he had obtained was accurate and the action he was undertaking based on it succeeded, he could still recover his losses.
Thinking of this, Bakura couldn't help but provoke Hayato: "Heh heh, I'll let you taste a little sweetness first. Anyway, I'm getting closer and closer to victory. Once I complete my final goal in this ultimate dark game, both your life, Hayato, and the Nameless Pharaoh's life will be nothing but a flickering candle!"
While called a Chessboard, the large area before him was actually closer to a sand table, filled with miniature terrain and Ancient Egyptian Architecture. However, because the sand table was marked with a grid, and Hayato also saw several game pieces, Hayato felt it was a Chessboard.
The few game pieces before him immediately captured Hayato's attention the moment he saw them. It wasn't because the game pieces were exquisitely made, but because Hayato felt an unusual familiarity looking at them.
Aside from that, the game piece closest to Hayato, with its simple yet spirited facial details, was none other than Hayato himself!
Not only that, Hayato looked beside the game piece representing himself and also saw a game piece that looked very much like Nefertari.
Is this some kind of board game? Reminded by the game pieces before him, Hayato suddenly recalled something — from beginning to end, although on the surface the Dark Game Bakura had set up seemed like a traditional role-playing game, as if the game would end if the controlled character died.
But actually, the premise "tabletop" had to be added before "role-playing game". The gap between the two was as vast as the gap between **Lightsworn** and **Infernoid**. Although both decks involved Milling, their approaches were completely different.
"Role-playing" meant you had to face and think about problems from the character's perspective. However, in "tabletop role-playing", you became the Player of numerous game pieces, able to view everything happening In the Game from multiple perspectives. Even if the primary controlled game piece died, you only needed to replace it with another game piece.
The so-called "tabletop role-playing", this ultimate Dark Game, was precisely such an Existence. It was only because of the subjective first impression left by his past life's memory that Hayato subconsciously forgot this point.
Although he didn't know what means Meriamun had used to bring himself to the perspective of a Game participant, it was thanks to the opponent that Hayato was able to realize that he wasn't one of the many "game pieces" he thought he was, but the Player. He should actually thank him for that.
And since Hayato had already moved his perspective to a position outside the Game, that meant —
"Tsk, should I say it's expected of the Duel King? You actually realized the truth behind this Game." A familiar voice came. Hayato looked over, only to see Bakura, wearing a sailor shirt, sitting on a seat by the Chessboard, speaking to him through gritted teeth, his face annoyed. "Hayato Kobayashi!"
On the surface, the Bakura before him looked exactly like the evil will within the Millennium Ring that Hayato had just eliminated. But now that Hayato recalled the truth of the Dark Game, he knew the two were not the same Existence. The latter was merely an NPC replicated in the Memory World Three Thousand Years Ago, and the same went for Bakura.
The Bakura before him was the true Person who dragged Dark Yugi and Hayato into the Dark Game. He was the one controlling game pieces like Bakura to oppose Hayato and Dark Yugi. And if Hayato remembered correctly, at the same time, Bakura was also the true form of the evil will left within the Millennium Ring.
Even though he only realized the truth of the Dark Game thanks to Meriamun, that didn't stop Hayato from putting on a confident expression to bluff: "Isn't that natural? The Game you set up is simply too boring and too crude. It's still twenty thousand years away from the birth of a game that could completely deceive me."
Bakura, who didn't know of Meriamun's Existence, didn't doubt him. Frowning, he said, "Still talking big, huh? Tsk, just now one of the game pieces I controlled disappeared. That must be thanks to you, right?"
Although it was a question, Bakura's tone was very certain, after all, there weren't many other answers.
Just a moment before Hayato, the Game participant and Player, woke up before this Chessboard, one of the many game pieces controlled by Bakura was eliminated. That game piece was an evil will injected into the Millennium Ring by Bakura after he controlled Bakura to take the Millennium Ring from Mahad and recreated the history of three thousand years ago.
One benefit of doing this was that it could increase the power limit of the "Bakura" game piece. Another benefit was that if "Bakura" was eliminated, if someone touched and retrieved the Millennium Ring, that will could seize the opportunity to take over the toucher's body, providing Bakura with a new game piece.
Even if it didn't succeed in taking over the body, as long as that will remained within the Millennium Ring, the Millennium Ring could still serve as an item providing vision, offering Bakura information about the surroundings.
It's important to know that although in this Dark Game, both Bakura and Hayato had many game pieces at their disposal, these game pieces were actually not much different from NPCs. They weren't directly controlled by them but had their own action logic.
For example, Seto and Mahad were game pieces under Dark Yugi's name, but Dark Yugi only had the authority to command them. How Mahad and Seto did things and what choices they made when facing problems were not something Dark Yugi could control.
Bakura and Hayato, as Players, could actually only control their own game piece. The existence of other game pieces was more to provide them with backup options. In case the game piece they controlled died, as long as the other game pieces completed the final goal of the game, they could still achieve victory.
Actually, even though Hayato immediately entered the Millennium Ring after repelling Bakura to eliminate the evil will within it, the journey as Yugi and Seto brought Dark Yugi, Shada, and Hayato back to the Royal Palace had already provided Bakura with quite a bit of information.
He now knew that this bastard Hayato was fundamentally just bluffing to scare him before. The moment he controlled Bakura to escape, that guy actually collapsed. If he had made Bakura fight to the death and stay before, perhaps he could have wiped out Dark Yugi and Hayato completely, but he had foolishly missed the opportunity.
Then, that will was eliminated. Combined with the information from before, it could only have been done by Hayato.
Now it was too late to regret. Hayato, who was now recuperating in the Royal Palace, would soon fully recover. However, as long as the other piece of information he had obtained was accurate and the action he was undertaking based on it succeeded, he could still recover his losses.
Thinking of this, Bakura couldn't help but provoke Hayato: "Heh heh, I'll let you taste a little sweetness first. Anyway, I'm getting closer and closer to victory. Once I complete my final goal in this ultimate dark game, both your life, Hayato, and the Nameless Pharaoh's life will be nothing but a flickering candle!"
