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**Chapter 830: Lowly Pauper**
Luxor, the pearl of Upper Egypt, is a concentration of Ancient Thebes artifacts, hailed as the largest open-air museum on Earth.
However, Hayato and the party chose this as their next destination not because they were interested in artifacts or anything of the sort, but because after comparing a modern map of Egypt with the map they had memorized from the World of Memories, Hayato and Atem both discovered—
Since Atem's father, King Aknamkanon, moved the capital, the new Royal City remained unnamed until Atem, who had only been the Upper Rank Pharaoh for a few days, left the world. Neither the Priests nor anyone else simply referred to this new city as the "Royal City."
But perhaps Seto, who succeeded Atem as Pharaoh, or later Pharaohs like Ramesses II, gave the city a formal name for ease of reference—Thebes.
Although everything from three thousand years ago is now past smoke and clouds, the Ancient City of Thebes located in Luxor is now the Thebes Ruins. But even so, Atem still wanted to go and see it, and Yugi and the others felt the same.
Marik and Bakura, who joined them halfway, were just slacking off with the group. After Pegasus also became interested in the Thebes Ruins, the party drove to Luxor to visit the Thebes Ruins. It's just that—
"Two thousand US dollars?! You *Egyptian Expletive*, this is robbery!" Marik looked at an Egyptian man in front of him, his expression full of anger.
"*Egyptian Expletive*, *Egyptian Dialect*" But even if Marik looked fierce and malevolent, the Egyptian man in front of him still had a smug appearance, shaking his legs triumphantly, seemingly certain Marik had no way to deal with him.
Even if Marik walked away from him, the man still looked indifferent, as if he had a handle on Marik and knew he would ultimately have to come back to him.
"You look so angry, what happened, Marik?" Since Marik was speaking Arabic when communicating with the Egyptian man, Tristan , who didn't know what was going on, couldn't help but ask when he saw Marik return with an annoyed expression.
"Just to visit the Thebes Ruins, a ticket scalper actually asked for two thousand US dollars. You'd get angry too. And it's not for everyone, it's *Egyptian Expletive* two thousand per person." Marik turned back and glared at the ticket scalper who was standing there looking leisurely, saying irritably.
"Two thousand US dollars? Heh, letting that kind of person make money is more uncomfortable than me losing money." Hayato also furrowed his brow, saying somewhat annoyed.
"Although I don't lack this little money, but just like Hayato boy said, even if we have money, it's not meant for that kind of person to make a markup." Beside him, Pegasus also spread his hands helplessly, "Just printing a piece of paper makes so much money, even if you robbed a bank, it wouldn't be that fast, desu."
Joey Wheeler glanced at Pegasus upon hearing this. Others might have the qualification to say that, but aren't you, a Card Printer, exactly the kind of person you're talking about? A single card can sell for thousands, tens of thousands, millions. What qualification do you have to say that someone "just printing a piece of paper makes money faster than robbing a bank"?
If the price was twenty US dollars per ticket, it would just be a bit expensive. Even at two hundred US dollars, you could bear with it and accept it. But two thousand US dollars per ticket is simply slaughtering people like pigs. Even pigs struggle and resist when being slaughtered. Only a ghost would buy that price, whoever buys it is an idiot.
Yugi looked at Marik and asked in confusion, "Can't we just find someone else to buy tickets?"
Marik also said helplessly, "Although the Thebes Ruins are managed by the local government, the sale of tickets is monopolized by the local Gang. That bastard is from the Gang, and he said that it would be the same thing with anyone else, this is the price for us foreigners, take it or leave it."
"It's because I've cultivated myself, otherwise I would have definitely used the **Millennium Rod** on him, making him think he's a fish and go dive in the Nile River for two or three days."
"Foreigners?" Hayato glanced at Marik's clothes. Because the weather was a bit hot, Marik had taken off the black jacket he was originally wearing outside, which looked somewhat decent, revealing the unbearable-to-look-at shirt underneath that was covered in ahegao drawings. "To be honest, I'm not surprised at all. I told you, you three-year-old, to wear something more decent."
"Brother-in-law, what do you know? What I'm wearing isn't clothes, it's love!"
"The love you're talking about refers to making those female characters show that kind of expression?"
"I prefer monster stealing, is that not allowed?"
Téa also turned her head away, somewhat not wanting to look at Marik's shirt, whose artistic quality was too early for human. She said to Yugi, "Looks like, we can't buy tickets to go in and visit now. Should we temporarily give up on this attraction?"
"I guess we have no choice but to do this, right? We can't possibly go into the attraction without tickets..." Bakura said quietly. But his words had just fallen when a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder, startling Bakura.
"For a True Duelist, nothing is impossible! Your idea is great, Bakura!" Giving Bakura a thumbs up, Hayato looked at Marik and said, "What do you think, Marik?"
"I think it's worth a try, Brother-in-law!"
"How many times do I have to tell you who is your Brother-in-law!"
"It's too late to correct me now, you've acquiesced several times!"
Bakura tilted his head in confusion, "Eh? Eh... I, did I propose any idea just now?"
So, the party began to implement a plan that even the proposer himself didn't know what they were going to do. Ten minutes later—
"Oh oh oh, truly interesting! Even I am doing such sneaky things for the first time, desu~" In the dark space, Pegasus's face, illuminated by the scattered light from the flashlight, was full of excitement.
"Hahaha, although we don't have tickets, wouldn't it be fine if we just bypass the entrances where they check tickets and sneak in from a place where no one can see? As expected of Bakura, he can easily think of such a cunning idea. Even I feel inferior, hahahaha!"
Hearing Hayato's words, Bakura looked anxious and quickly argued, "It's, it's not my idea! I didn't think of any of this, it was clearly Hayato who thought—"
"You're something else, Bakura!" "I already said it wasn't me!"
"Hey, quiet down a bit, what should we do just in case we get discovered?" Joey Wheeler interrupted the conversation between the two behind him and looked ahead. "But then again, I didn't expect there to actually still be such a Passage here that even the official didn't know about."
"Actually, what's even more worth exclaiming about is that this Passage still exists after so many years have passed," Yugi said with a smile. "The other... Atem said that even he didn't know about the existence of this Passage. It should have been built by people who came later, right?"
"I saw it in the Memory World of Meriamun, that guy Ozymandias. Seems like he prepared it just in case for Nefertari and the other Royal Consorts, as well as people of later generations. Given his personality, he probably wouldn't escape even if the City Gate was breached that day and he died in the Royal City, although that kind of thing didn't happen to him," Hayato said casually. "Seems like it was also built very well and wasn't put to much use, so as a result, even after Thebes became Ruins, even archaeological staff didn't discover this Passage."
"Oh, seems like we're almost there?" Tristan , who was walking at the very front, saw the bright light shining into the pitch-black Passage from afar and said to everyone behind him. Everyone also slightly quickened their pace, planning to quickly go to the exit.
After walking up the Stairs for a distance along the end of the Passage, everyone arrived behind a Stone Gate that was letting through a few rays of light, and were about to push it open.
But just at this moment, a person's voice suddenly sounded from behind that door, causing the movement of Tristan and Joey Wheeler, who had almost pushed open the door, to freeze. They quickly withdrew their hands and didn't dare to move again.
Immediately after, another voice sounded again. Seems like at least two people were talking behind the door. What was slightly strange was that at first, the few people thought it was just people from the Scenic Area happening to be talking at the Passage exit, but the language the two people talking were using was not Arabic but Japanese?
Putting their eyes to the gap and looking outside, the few people saw that outside the door were indeed not Egyptians, but a Black Person dressed as a fully armed Soldier talking with a White Person dressed as a Gentleman.
"I didn't expect you to actually have some ability when handling matters, Mercenary." The arrogant White Person looked at the Black Person and said contemptuously, "Faster than I expected with your movement, you really didn't waste that large and generous commission I gave you."
"Need to correct you, mister, you only gave me a part of the commission, the remaining final payment hasn't been paid yet." The Black Mercenary saw the dismissive attitude of the opponent but didn't care much, saying seriously.
"Don't need you to remind me, Mercenary, or do you think I would default on your commission?" The White Person said with dissatisfaction, his gaze looking towards a box placed beside him, narrowing his eyes. His already somewhat obese cheeks completely hid his small eyes in the flesh, but even so, even if separated by the door, everyone could also see the greed in his eyes.
"Is that the item I want?"
The Black Person's gaze glanced at the briefcase beside him and said calmly, "My rules are payment and goods are settled, so before the final payment is settled, this thing temporarily cannot—"
"How many more times do you have to chatter? I won't short you money." The White Person heard the Black Mercenary's words and said with dissatisfaction again, softly muttering a sentence, "Tsk, lowly poor ghost." However, even Hayato and the others behind the door could hear the White Person's words, and that Black Mercenary heard it even more clearly, but even so, he still didn't react.
"I will settle your commission, but after you take this thing out and give it to me. But before that, to avoid you wasting my valuable time, I need to confirm first that you indeed got the item I want, and that what you got is the genuine article. There's no problem with this, right?" The White Person looked at the Mercenary and spoke again.
And the Black Mercenary thought for a moment, and still nodded, agreeing to the opponent's proposed idea of inspecting the goods beforehand. He lifted up the box by his hand and in a few quick movements opened the combination lock on it.
But before opening the box, he still said seriously to the White Person, "The time I bribed the Gang here to raise the ticket price is limited, and the Staff who were transferred away will also come back soon after a little more time. So, Mister Valentine, the time you can inspect is limited, you'd best be quick with your movement."
"Also, I need to remind you, this is just for you to check the trade item beforehand. You can touch it, but it's best not to let it leave my line of sight, otherwise, even if it's the employer, I will also shoot, unless you pay the final payment—"
"Enough, you lowly poor ghost, quickly open that damned box!" Seems like the obese White Person Gentleman called "Valentine" seemed to have reached the limit of his patience and ordered the Black Mercenary without any grace.
And the Mercenary just expressionlessly opened the box in his hand, flipped it over, letting a certain something placed inside be presented before Valentine's eyes.
Just in an instant, Valentine, who was just full of angry expression, became calm, looking somewhat infatuatedly at the thing inside the box, his gaze full of intoxication.
"This is it, this is what I want. Looking at the brilliant color and the luxurious charm, even if it has gone through a thousand years, it is still so charming. I can even see everything from the long years from it."
His hands wearing gloves reached out towards the treasure inside the box whose true form had not yet been seen by Hayato and the others. Valentine carefully picked it up from the box in his hand and said excitedly, "Such a beautiful thing, it is undoubtedly the genuine article, there's no mistake. Even if I don't use professional instruments to appraise it, relying on my Funny Valentine's experience, I can also determine that this is inevitably an ancient object from three thousand years ago!"
While Funny Valentine was speaking, Joey Wheeler was somewhat confused, because he heard Hayato beside him suddenly clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking.
"The stakes paid for obtaining this treasure, compared to this beauty, is simply a drop in the bucket! Relying on this beauty, I can absolutely sell it for an astronomical figure. There is nothing more exciting than this matter!"
"I'm about to obtain you—"
Because the Black Mercenary was always staring at him, Funny Valentine was somewhat bothered by being interrupted while appreciating beautiful things, but it was covered by the excitement of being able to obtain this treasure immediately. Holding the accessory in his hand and carefully observing it, Funny Valentine said affectionately,
"—three thousand years ago, the jewelry gifted by the famous Ramesses II to his most loved Royal Consort, Nefertari!"
"Bang!"
In the end, Hayato, who still couldn't control himself, smashed his punch on the Stone Gate. Seems like it triggered a mechanism somewhere. With a "Boom," the Stone Gate suddenly opened. Funny Valentine looked at the wall beside him suddenly opening to reveal a large group of people, his face full of astonishment.
Luxor, the pearl of Upper Egypt, is a concentration of Ancient Thebes artifacts, hailed as the largest open-air museum on Earth.
However, Hayato and the party chose this as their next destination not because they were interested in artifacts or anything of the sort, but because after comparing a modern map of Egypt with the map they had memorized from the World of Memories, Hayato and Atem both discovered—
Since Atem's father, King Aknamkanon, moved the capital, the new Royal City remained unnamed until Atem, who had only been the Upper Rank Pharaoh for a few days, left the world. Neither the Priests nor anyone else simply referred to this new city as the "Royal City."
But perhaps Seto, who succeeded Atem as Pharaoh, or later Pharaohs like Ramesses II, gave the city a formal name for ease of reference—Thebes.
Although everything from three thousand years ago is now past smoke and clouds, the Ancient City of Thebes located in Luxor is now the Thebes Ruins. But even so, Atem still wanted to go and see it, and Yugi and the others felt the same.
Marik and Bakura, who joined them halfway, were just slacking off with the group. After Pegasus also became interested in the Thebes Ruins, the party drove to Luxor to visit the Thebes Ruins. It's just that—
"Two thousand US dollars?! You *Egyptian Expletive*, this is robbery!" Marik looked at an Egyptian man in front of him, his expression full of anger.
"*Egyptian Expletive*, *Egyptian Dialect*" But even if Marik looked fierce and malevolent, the Egyptian man in front of him still had a smug appearance, shaking his legs triumphantly, seemingly certain Marik had no way to deal with him.
Even if Marik walked away from him, the man still looked indifferent, as if he had a handle on Marik and knew he would ultimately have to come back to him.
"You look so angry, what happened, Marik?" Since Marik was speaking Arabic when communicating with the Egyptian man, Tristan , who didn't know what was going on, couldn't help but ask when he saw Marik return with an annoyed expression.
"Just to visit the Thebes Ruins, a ticket scalper actually asked for two thousand US dollars. You'd get angry too. And it's not for everyone, it's *Egyptian Expletive* two thousand per person." Marik turned back and glared at the ticket scalper who was standing there looking leisurely, saying irritably.
"Two thousand US dollars? Heh, letting that kind of person make money is more uncomfortable than me losing money." Hayato also furrowed his brow, saying somewhat annoyed.
"Although I don't lack this little money, but just like Hayato boy said, even if we have money, it's not meant for that kind of person to make a markup." Beside him, Pegasus also spread his hands helplessly, "Just printing a piece of paper makes so much money, even if you robbed a bank, it wouldn't be that fast, desu."
Joey Wheeler glanced at Pegasus upon hearing this. Others might have the qualification to say that, but aren't you, a Card Printer, exactly the kind of person you're talking about? A single card can sell for thousands, tens of thousands, millions. What qualification do you have to say that someone "just printing a piece of paper makes money faster than robbing a bank"?
If the price was twenty US dollars per ticket, it would just be a bit expensive. Even at two hundred US dollars, you could bear with it and accept it. But two thousand US dollars per ticket is simply slaughtering people like pigs. Even pigs struggle and resist when being slaughtered. Only a ghost would buy that price, whoever buys it is an idiot.
Yugi looked at Marik and asked in confusion, "Can't we just find someone else to buy tickets?"
Marik also said helplessly, "Although the Thebes Ruins are managed by the local government, the sale of tickets is monopolized by the local Gang. That bastard is from the Gang, and he said that it would be the same thing with anyone else, this is the price for us foreigners, take it or leave it."
"It's because I've cultivated myself, otherwise I would have definitely used the **Millennium Rod** on him, making him think he's a fish and go dive in the Nile River for two or three days."
"Foreigners?" Hayato glanced at Marik's clothes. Because the weather was a bit hot, Marik had taken off the black jacket he was originally wearing outside, which looked somewhat decent, revealing the unbearable-to-look-at shirt underneath that was covered in ahegao drawings. "To be honest, I'm not surprised at all. I told you, you three-year-old, to wear something more decent."
"Brother-in-law, what do you know? What I'm wearing isn't clothes, it's love!"
"The love you're talking about refers to making those female characters show that kind of expression?"
"I prefer monster stealing, is that not allowed?"
Téa also turned her head away, somewhat not wanting to look at Marik's shirt, whose artistic quality was too early for human. She said to Yugi, "Looks like, we can't buy tickets to go in and visit now. Should we temporarily give up on this attraction?"
"I guess we have no choice but to do this, right? We can't possibly go into the attraction without tickets..." Bakura said quietly. But his words had just fallen when a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder, startling Bakura.
"For a True Duelist, nothing is impossible! Your idea is great, Bakura!" Giving Bakura a thumbs up, Hayato looked at Marik and said, "What do you think, Marik?"
"I think it's worth a try, Brother-in-law!"
"How many times do I have to tell you who is your Brother-in-law!"
"It's too late to correct me now, you've acquiesced several times!"
Bakura tilted his head in confusion, "Eh? Eh... I, did I propose any idea just now?"
So, the party began to implement a plan that even the proposer himself didn't know what they were going to do. Ten minutes later—
"Oh oh oh, truly interesting! Even I am doing such sneaky things for the first time, desu~" In the dark space, Pegasus's face, illuminated by the scattered light from the flashlight, was full of excitement.
"Hahaha, although we don't have tickets, wouldn't it be fine if we just bypass the entrances where they check tickets and sneak in from a place where no one can see? As expected of Bakura, he can easily think of such a cunning idea. Even I feel inferior, hahahaha!"
Hearing Hayato's words, Bakura looked anxious and quickly argued, "It's, it's not my idea! I didn't think of any of this, it was clearly Hayato who thought—"
"You're something else, Bakura!" "I already said it wasn't me!"
"Hey, quiet down a bit, what should we do just in case we get discovered?" Joey Wheeler interrupted the conversation between the two behind him and looked ahead. "But then again, I didn't expect there to actually still be such a Passage here that even the official didn't know about."
"Actually, what's even more worth exclaiming about is that this Passage still exists after so many years have passed," Yugi said with a smile. "The other... Atem said that even he didn't know about the existence of this Passage. It should have been built by people who came later, right?"
"I saw it in the Memory World of Meriamun, that guy Ozymandias. Seems like he prepared it just in case for Nefertari and the other Royal Consorts, as well as people of later generations. Given his personality, he probably wouldn't escape even if the City Gate was breached that day and he died in the Royal City, although that kind of thing didn't happen to him," Hayato said casually. "Seems like it was also built very well and wasn't put to much use, so as a result, even after Thebes became Ruins, even archaeological staff didn't discover this Passage."
"Oh, seems like we're almost there?" Tristan , who was walking at the very front, saw the bright light shining into the pitch-black Passage from afar and said to everyone behind him. Everyone also slightly quickened their pace, planning to quickly go to the exit.
After walking up the Stairs for a distance along the end of the Passage, everyone arrived behind a Stone Gate that was letting through a few rays of light, and were about to push it open.
But just at this moment, a person's voice suddenly sounded from behind that door, causing the movement of Tristan and Joey Wheeler, who had almost pushed open the door, to freeze. They quickly withdrew their hands and didn't dare to move again.
Immediately after, another voice sounded again. Seems like at least two people were talking behind the door. What was slightly strange was that at first, the few people thought it was just people from the Scenic Area happening to be talking at the Passage exit, but the language the two people talking were using was not Arabic but Japanese?
Putting their eyes to the gap and looking outside, the few people saw that outside the door were indeed not Egyptians, but a Black Person dressed as a fully armed Soldier talking with a White Person dressed as a Gentleman.
"I didn't expect you to actually have some ability when handling matters, Mercenary." The arrogant White Person looked at the Black Person and said contemptuously, "Faster than I expected with your movement, you really didn't waste that large and generous commission I gave you."
"Need to correct you, mister, you only gave me a part of the commission, the remaining final payment hasn't been paid yet." The Black Mercenary saw the dismissive attitude of the opponent but didn't care much, saying seriously.
"Don't need you to remind me, Mercenary, or do you think I would default on your commission?" The White Person said with dissatisfaction, his gaze looking towards a box placed beside him, narrowing his eyes. His already somewhat obese cheeks completely hid his small eyes in the flesh, but even so, even if separated by the door, everyone could also see the greed in his eyes.
"Is that the item I want?"
The Black Person's gaze glanced at the briefcase beside him and said calmly, "My rules are payment and goods are settled, so before the final payment is settled, this thing temporarily cannot—"
"How many more times do you have to chatter? I won't short you money." The White Person heard the Black Mercenary's words and said with dissatisfaction again, softly muttering a sentence, "Tsk, lowly poor ghost." However, even Hayato and the others behind the door could hear the White Person's words, and that Black Mercenary heard it even more clearly, but even so, he still didn't react.
"I will settle your commission, but after you take this thing out and give it to me. But before that, to avoid you wasting my valuable time, I need to confirm first that you indeed got the item I want, and that what you got is the genuine article. There's no problem with this, right?" The White Person looked at the Mercenary and spoke again.
And the Black Mercenary thought for a moment, and still nodded, agreeing to the opponent's proposed idea of inspecting the goods beforehand. He lifted up the box by his hand and in a few quick movements opened the combination lock on it.
But before opening the box, he still said seriously to the White Person, "The time I bribed the Gang here to raise the ticket price is limited, and the Staff who were transferred away will also come back soon after a little more time. So, Mister Valentine, the time you can inspect is limited, you'd best be quick with your movement."
"Also, I need to remind you, this is just for you to check the trade item beforehand. You can touch it, but it's best not to let it leave my line of sight, otherwise, even if it's the employer, I will also shoot, unless you pay the final payment—"
"Enough, you lowly poor ghost, quickly open that damned box!" Seems like the obese White Person Gentleman called "Valentine" seemed to have reached the limit of his patience and ordered the Black Mercenary without any grace.
And the Mercenary just expressionlessly opened the box in his hand, flipped it over, letting a certain something placed inside be presented before Valentine's eyes.
Just in an instant, Valentine, who was just full of angry expression, became calm, looking somewhat infatuatedly at the thing inside the box, his gaze full of intoxication.
"This is it, this is what I want. Looking at the brilliant color and the luxurious charm, even if it has gone through a thousand years, it is still so charming. I can even see everything from the long years from it."
His hands wearing gloves reached out towards the treasure inside the box whose true form had not yet been seen by Hayato and the others. Valentine carefully picked it up from the box in his hand and said excitedly, "Such a beautiful thing, it is undoubtedly the genuine article, there's no mistake. Even if I don't use professional instruments to appraise it, relying on my Funny Valentine's experience, I can also determine that this is inevitably an ancient object from three thousand years ago!"
While Funny Valentine was speaking, Joey Wheeler was somewhat confused, because he heard Hayato beside him suddenly clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking.
"The stakes paid for obtaining this treasure, compared to this beauty, is simply a drop in the bucket! Relying on this beauty, I can absolutely sell it for an astronomical figure. There is nothing more exciting than this matter!"
"I'm about to obtain you—"
Because the Black Mercenary was always staring at him, Funny Valentine was somewhat bothered by being interrupted while appreciating beautiful things, but it was covered by the excitement of being able to obtain this treasure immediately. Holding the accessory in his hand and carefully observing it, Funny Valentine said affectionately,
"—three thousand years ago, the jewelry gifted by the famous Ramesses II to his most loved Royal Consort, Nefertari!"
"Bang!"
In the end, Hayato, who still couldn't control himself, smashed his punch on the Stone Gate. Seems like it triggered a mechanism somewhere. With a "Boom," the Stone Gate suddenly opened. Funny Valentine looked at the wall beside him suddenly opening to reveal a large group of people, his face full of astonishment.
