Reading settings
Chapter 869: As Long As We Don't Stop, the Path Will Continuously Extend
Rewinding time to dozens of minutes ago, Kaiba parked the Blue-Eyes Jet at the airport.
Although the KaibaCorp Black Technology installed on the Blue-Eyes Jet meant there was still plenty of fuel inside, considering there were only so many airports in Egypt that could accommodate a jet, and it was unlikely Hayato and his party, whom Kaiba was looking for, would happen to be right next to an airport, Kaiba needed to stop here first.
He had it all planned out. The Blue-Eyes Jet had an Automatic Driving System that could be remotely controlled by a computer. He planned to fly the Blue-Eyes Jet to where Hayato and his party were – who were unaware he had come to Egypt – jump out directly to give them a scare, and then have the fully fueled Blue-Eyes Jet fly back to Domino City on its own.
Huh? That action is too dangerous, humans can't do it? What kind of foolish talk is that? In Kaiba Seto's dictionary, there are no such words as "cannot do". With the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, I can even jump out of a jet!
After arranging for the employees of KaibaCorp's Egyptian branch to refuel his beloved Blue-Eyes Jet and perform basic maintenance, Kaiba noticed that Keipei, who had flown to Egypt with him on the jet, was flipping through pages on a tablet in his hand.
The dazzling numbers on the tablet were data transmitted from KaibaCorp Headquarters in Domino City, concerning Kaiba's previous failed experiment, the "Dragon Wheel," which was a knock-off "D-Wheel."
These dense and complex numbers, even for an adult with relevant professional knowledge, would likely cause dizziness as if looking at incomprehensible divine script. However, Keipei easily understood this data, manually marking some data that had been verified as incorrect through previous experiments, and even correcting and modifying some data within his ability.
When mentioning the keywords "KaibaCorp" and "genius teenager," most people would probably only think of Kaiba Seto at first glance, after all, his resume is so brilliant and eye-catching.
Inheriting the Kaiba Military Industries before becoming an adult, and leading the transformed KaibaCorp to become the apex existence in the Duel Monsters domain through cooperation and mutual benefit with Industrial Illusions, inventing the virtual projection system and extending its development to create black technology products like the Duel Platform and Duel Disk, and so on.
However, both Kaiba and others who know Keipei are well aware that this teenager, only a little over ten years old, has talent no less than his brother, who always shines and attracts attention in front of others. His talent in fields like electronic information is even much higher than Kaiba's.
In the small orphanage where the Kaiba Brothers were adopted at that time, there were actually two such brilliant talents. Gozaburo Kaiba, who adopted the two brothers, truly found a treasure. Unfortunately, he played a good hand terribly.
Watching Keipei bury himself in processing data that even adults found troublesome, Kaiba didn't know what came over him, but on a whim, he said, "Take a break, Keipei. I'll accompany you for a walk on the Street."
"Annoying. Ugh, it's all your fault, I miscalculated the numbers." Without lifting his head, Keipei subconsciously said, then suddenly noticed that this wasn't a staff member at the company reporting various matters to him, but his brother Kaiba talking to him.
Lifting his head abruptly, Keipei scrutinized Kaiba Seto standing in front of him with a judging gaze. "To be able to say something like that, instead of just doing whatever you want and causing me a bunch of trouble like before, are you really Nii-san?"
Forcing himself to lift the corner of his mouth into a rare, stiff, and awkward smile at his younger brother, Kaiba immediately recovered his usual cold face upon hearing Keipei's words, and tsundere-ly snorted, "Hmph, what kind of strange appearance do you have of me in your heart, Keipei? If you don't want to go, then forget it."
"No, of course I want to go," Keipei said with a grin, putting down the tablet and turning it off. He followed behind Kaiba, who had turned his back to him.
Taking a private car from the Airport to a nearby Street, although it was the first day of the new year, the Street wasn't deserted. After all, this new year was merely the new year according to the Gregorian calendar. For Egyptians who use the Islamic calendar, their new year according to the Islamic calendar would be on March 15th this year.
However, it was still a rare statutory holiday, and not the annoying holiday that feels like a compensatory day off like it would be ten or twenty years later, but a genuine break. Many local Egyptians still took advantage of the holiday to stroll on the Street with their family. The people returning home for the holiday and those going out for the holiday canceled each other out, so the number of people on the Street didn't change much compared to usual.
"The Street is really lively, but I don't see many Duel Monsters related Shops," Keipei said casually, looking around. In his hand, he held a pita bread he had just bought from the Street. This hollow pocket bread was filled with Keipei's favorite chocolate-flavored cream, transforming it from a sandwich-like main dish into a dessert. As he walked, Keipei took a bite of the pita bread.
Although Keipei had grown up and was no longer as mischievous as when young, becoming very polite and mindful of etiquette, there were plenty of people on this Street enjoying snacks while walking. In fact, the greatest fun of this kind of street food lies in eating it while walking. Keipei, too, was enjoying the food in his hand like a child for a change.
"Perhaps it's because the average consumption level here isn't high enough compared to Europe, Asia, and the Americas," Kaiba said casually, glancing at Keipei beside him. "Under the premise that most expenses are spent on basic necessities, even Duel Monsters, which has become popular globally, will encounter certain difficulties when being popularized in This World."
"You really like the chocolate flavor, Keipei. But, it's quite nice to be like a normal child occasionally. It would be even better if you weren't a picky eater."
"No, everything is negotiable except for celery."
The Kaiba Brothers walked on the Street, conversing casually like a normal pair of brothers. If someone familiar with Kaiba Seto were present, they would likely be surprised by this scene, especially by the corner of Kaiba's mouth turning up, and might even suspect they weren't fully awake because they stayed up too late watching the New Year's Eve fireworks performance last night.
The dreamlike experience in the Memory World, besides allowing Atem to successfully find his name and eliminate the Great Evil God Zorc Necrophades, also brought about some change in Kaiba Seto. After witnessing the matters that occurred in the Memory World, he, who had always only looked towards the distant Future, also learned for a rare moment to let his gaze linger slightly on his surroundings.
Besides that, he also had some kind of indescribable feeling, but Kaiba wasn't in a hurry to understand that profound thing. Because he knew the simplest and most effective method when encountering such a situation was to find someone to duel. Any problem could be easily resolved using a duel.
This was also one of the goals for Kaiba coming to find Hayato and Yugi. After all, he had previously attempted to collect data on numerous Duelists using Duel Robots just to satisfy his urge to duel, but the final result was a complete failure. Even the Duel Robots he planned to utilize as Entertainment Group projects in Kaiba Land as waste utilization went berserk and were directly destroyed by Hayato in a Duel.
Although he had always disparaged Joey Wheeler as a "second-rate duelist with a third-rate Deck," Kaiba also had to admit that even a "second-rate duelist" like Joey Wheeler wasn't easy to find. Someone who could duel him wasn't just anyone off the Street. Those who could go back and forth with him were few, and those who could satisfy his urge were even rarer.
Of course, satisfying the urge was one thing, and Hayato, who used an Underworld Deck to be annoying, was another. Dueling with the tricky Hayato, Kaiba felt he might as well go to the children's group at Kaiba Land to bully the weak. At least there, he could normally summon the invincible Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and have a good time.
Thinking about it more carefully, Mutou Yuugi wasn't a good choice either. In terms of the appearance rate of trap cards in his Deck during a Duel, he wasn't much better than Hayato Kobayashi. And then there was that Commoner Joey Wheeler. Although his courage to directly face the Blue-Eyes was indeed commendable, that indomitable spirit that couldn't be defeated no matter how much you fought was truly annoying.
Indeed, only The Other Yugi is my destined opponent!
Kaiba thought so, nodding to himself. Keipei, however, didn't know that his brother was thinking about dueling again after mentioning Duel Monsters. After taking another bite of the pita bread, he looked around and said, "But, it doesn't matter if there's resistance. Brother, I remember your wish. To help you achieve your wish and build Kaiba Land all over the World, I need to work harder too."
Hearing Keipei's words, Kaiba also showed a smile.
Yes, the things we have continuously accumulated over a long time all have meaning.
Although Egypt is not yet developed enough now, with the help of KaibaCorp, one day Kaiba Land will be built in This World, where children can laugh. Not just Egypt, but many more places. As long as we don't stop, the path of advancement will continuously extend.
"Thud—"
Keipei, walking on the road, seemed to have stumbled slightly on the uneven road surface. The unfinished pita bread in his hand also flew out due to his body losing balance, flying forward. However, instead of catching the unimportant pita bread, Kaiba, who seemed careless but was actually always watching over his younger brother, reached out his hand immediately, intending to help Keipei stand steady.
But his hand had only extended halfway when he was stunned.
Because he actually saw that the piece of pita bread that had slipped from Keipei's hand had bizarrely stopped in mid-air without continuing to fly, and Keipei, who was about to fall, was also frozen in a movement of swinging his hand, attempting to recover balance.
The surrounding noisy human voices also fell silent in an instant. Kaiba looked up at his surroundings and found that the surrounding crowd, like Keipei, remained motionless in a single movement.
It was as if, in an instant, the forward-flowing time in the entire World had been intercepted by something, and only Kaiba's own time was still flowing forward continuously. In other words, was it time stop?
Kaiba's first reaction was not to investigate what had happened, but to frown and squat down to check Keipei's state.
Helping Keipei stand upright, Kaiba found that during the time he was adjusting Keipei's body, he was fundamentally unable to react to any of his actions. However, other than that, he seemed normal. Kaiba casually picked up the pita bread that had stopped in the air and put it back in Keipei's hand.
Unable to dispel Keipei's state no matter what, Kaiba finally looked around helplessly, his gaze sweeping through the restricted crowd, and said, "Cowardly rats hiding their heads and tails, although I don't know what's going on, you are looking at me, Kaiba Seto! No matter what your goal is, come out into the light openly. Otherwise, when I find you, you will definitely face my wrath!"
Although he said this, Kaiba didn't actually think that the person who caused everything before him would really come out on their own just because of his words. But reality was much simpler than he thought. Just as Kaiba's voice fell, a voice that for some reason sounded quite familiar to Kaiba rang out behind him.
"Behind you."
Turning around sharply, Kaiba didn't even look to see what was behind him, and decisively swung his fist. Judging from the voice that suddenly rang out just now, Kaiba felt that the person who spoke was standing not far away behind him.
But the moment he turned around sharply, Kaiba found that the surrounding environment had changed in an instant, and even with his excellent dynamic vision, he couldn't figure out how it had changed. He, who should have been standing on the Street, suddenly had a wall appear abruptly behind him.
Just barely, Kaiba's full power punch was about to smash into the wall behind him. Even Kaiba knew the result of his mortal body colliding head-on with a wall – the wall would definitely not be the one hurting. Fortunately, he had learned some techniques from a coach named Kihara Amata in Hawaii. His fist stopped the moment it was about to touch the wall.
Putting his hand down and turning around, Kaiba found himself inexplicably in a place that seemed to be an Ancient Egyptian Tomb. Oil lamps filled with oil and burning flames were placed orderly on the surrounding walls for illumination, allowing Kaiba to clearly see that numerous Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were carved on the stone walls around him.
Even Kaiba, who didn't know much about ancient history, had learned a little from his experience in the Memory World that the so-called "hieroglyphs" were one of the oldest forms of text in the World, generally only carved on Temples and various commemorative Buildings, and were even called "divine script." And in the Memory World, Atem's name, which was originally carved in his Tomb, was written in hieroglyphs.
But in this place suspected to be a Tomb, hieroglyphs, which were restricted in use, appeared in large amount. This was far too strange. What was even more strange was that, just as he could inexplicably understand Ancient Egyptian hieratic text, Kaiba found that he could inexplicably understand what these hieroglyphs in front of him were writing.
"KanaKht-erymaat"
"Mekkemetwafkhasut"
"Userrenput-aanehktu"
"Usermaatre-Setepenre (Usermaatre-Setepenre)"
"Ramesses-Meryamun (Ramesses-Meryamun)"
As Kaiba read out one keyword after another, the names he read out lit up one after another, emitting points of radiance and drifting towards the distance. Kaiba saw that in front of him, a person stood clad in a black robe, within those points of light!
Rewinding time to dozens of minutes ago, Kaiba parked the Blue-Eyes Jet at the airport.
Although the KaibaCorp Black Technology installed on the Blue-Eyes Jet meant there was still plenty of fuel inside, considering there were only so many airports in Egypt that could accommodate a jet, and it was unlikely Hayato and his party, whom Kaiba was looking for, would happen to be right next to an airport, Kaiba needed to stop here first.
He had it all planned out. The Blue-Eyes Jet had an Automatic Driving System that could be remotely controlled by a computer. He planned to fly the Blue-Eyes Jet to where Hayato and his party were – who were unaware he had come to Egypt – jump out directly to give them a scare, and then have the fully fueled Blue-Eyes Jet fly back to Domino City on its own.
Huh? That action is too dangerous, humans can't do it? What kind of foolish talk is that? In Kaiba Seto's dictionary, there are no such words as "cannot do". With the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, I can even jump out of a jet!
After arranging for the employees of KaibaCorp's Egyptian branch to refuel his beloved Blue-Eyes Jet and perform basic maintenance, Kaiba noticed that Keipei, who had flown to Egypt with him on the jet, was flipping through pages on a tablet in his hand.
The dazzling numbers on the tablet were data transmitted from KaibaCorp Headquarters in Domino City, concerning Kaiba's previous failed experiment, the "Dragon Wheel," which was a knock-off "D-Wheel."
These dense and complex numbers, even for an adult with relevant professional knowledge, would likely cause dizziness as if looking at incomprehensible divine script. However, Keipei easily understood this data, manually marking some data that had been verified as incorrect through previous experiments, and even correcting and modifying some data within his ability.
When mentioning the keywords "KaibaCorp" and "genius teenager," most people would probably only think of Kaiba Seto at first glance, after all, his resume is so brilliant and eye-catching.
Inheriting the Kaiba Military Industries before becoming an adult, and leading the transformed KaibaCorp to become the apex existence in the Duel Monsters domain through cooperation and mutual benefit with Industrial Illusions, inventing the virtual projection system and extending its development to create black technology products like the Duel Platform and Duel Disk, and so on.
However, both Kaiba and others who know Keipei are well aware that this teenager, only a little over ten years old, has talent no less than his brother, who always shines and attracts attention in front of others. His talent in fields like electronic information is even much higher than Kaiba's.
In the small orphanage where the Kaiba Brothers were adopted at that time, there were actually two such brilliant talents. Gozaburo Kaiba, who adopted the two brothers, truly found a treasure. Unfortunately, he played a good hand terribly.
Watching Keipei bury himself in processing data that even adults found troublesome, Kaiba didn't know what came over him, but on a whim, he said, "Take a break, Keipei. I'll accompany you for a walk on the Street."
"Annoying. Ugh, it's all your fault, I miscalculated the numbers." Without lifting his head, Keipei subconsciously said, then suddenly noticed that this wasn't a staff member at the company reporting various matters to him, but his brother Kaiba talking to him.
Lifting his head abruptly, Keipei scrutinized Kaiba Seto standing in front of him with a judging gaze. "To be able to say something like that, instead of just doing whatever you want and causing me a bunch of trouble like before, are you really Nii-san?"
Forcing himself to lift the corner of his mouth into a rare, stiff, and awkward smile at his younger brother, Kaiba immediately recovered his usual cold face upon hearing Keipei's words, and tsundere-ly snorted, "Hmph, what kind of strange appearance do you have of me in your heart, Keipei? If you don't want to go, then forget it."
"No, of course I want to go," Keipei said with a grin, putting down the tablet and turning it off. He followed behind Kaiba, who had turned his back to him.
Taking a private car from the Airport to a nearby Street, although it was the first day of the new year, the Street wasn't deserted. After all, this new year was merely the new year according to the Gregorian calendar. For Egyptians who use the Islamic calendar, their new year according to the Islamic calendar would be on March 15th this year.
However, it was still a rare statutory holiday, and not the annoying holiday that feels like a compensatory day off like it would be ten or twenty years later, but a genuine break. Many local Egyptians still took advantage of the holiday to stroll on the Street with their family. The people returning home for the holiday and those going out for the holiday canceled each other out, so the number of people on the Street didn't change much compared to usual.
"The Street is really lively, but I don't see many Duel Monsters related Shops," Keipei said casually, looking around. In his hand, he held a pita bread he had just bought from the Street. This hollow pocket bread was filled with Keipei's favorite chocolate-flavored cream, transforming it from a sandwich-like main dish into a dessert. As he walked, Keipei took a bite of the pita bread.
Although Keipei had grown up and was no longer as mischievous as when young, becoming very polite and mindful of etiquette, there were plenty of people on this Street enjoying snacks while walking. In fact, the greatest fun of this kind of street food lies in eating it while walking. Keipei, too, was enjoying the food in his hand like a child for a change.
"Perhaps it's because the average consumption level here isn't high enough compared to Europe, Asia, and the Americas," Kaiba said casually, glancing at Keipei beside him. "Under the premise that most expenses are spent on basic necessities, even Duel Monsters, which has become popular globally, will encounter certain difficulties when being popularized in This World."
"You really like the chocolate flavor, Keipei. But, it's quite nice to be like a normal child occasionally. It would be even better if you weren't a picky eater."
"No, everything is negotiable except for celery."
The Kaiba Brothers walked on the Street, conversing casually like a normal pair of brothers. If someone familiar with Kaiba Seto were present, they would likely be surprised by this scene, especially by the corner of Kaiba's mouth turning up, and might even suspect they weren't fully awake because they stayed up too late watching the New Year's Eve fireworks performance last night.
The dreamlike experience in the Memory World, besides allowing Atem to successfully find his name and eliminate the Great Evil God Zorc Necrophades, also brought about some change in Kaiba Seto. After witnessing the matters that occurred in the Memory World, he, who had always only looked towards the distant Future, also learned for a rare moment to let his gaze linger slightly on his surroundings.
Besides that, he also had some kind of indescribable feeling, but Kaiba wasn't in a hurry to understand that profound thing. Because he knew the simplest and most effective method when encountering such a situation was to find someone to duel. Any problem could be easily resolved using a duel.
This was also one of the goals for Kaiba coming to find Hayato and Yugi. After all, he had previously attempted to collect data on numerous Duelists using Duel Robots just to satisfy his urge to duel, but the final result was a complete failure. Even the Duel Robots he planned to utilize as Entertainment Group projects in Kaiba Land as waste utilization went berserk and were directly destroyed by Hayato in a Duel.
Although he had always disparaged Joey Wheeler as a "second-rate duelist with a third-rate Deck," Kaiba also had to admit that even a "second-rate duelist" like Joey Wheeler wasn't easy to find. Someone who could duel him wasn't just anyone off the Street. Those who could go back and forth with him were few, and those who could satisfy his urge were even rarer.
Of course, satisfying the urge was one thing, and Hayato, who used an Underworld Deck to be annoying, was another. Dueling with the tricky Hayato, Kaiba felt he might as well go to the children's group at Kaiba Land to bully the weak. At least there, he could normally summon the invincible Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and have a good time.
Thinking about it more carefully, Mutou Yuugi wasn't a good choice either. In terms of the appearance rate of trap cards in his Deck during a Duel, he wasn't much better than Hayato Kobayashi. And then there was that Commoner Joey Wheeler. Although his courage to directly face the Blue-Eyes was indeed commendable, that indomitable spirit that couldn't be defeated no matter how much you fought was truly annoying.
Indeed, only The Other Yugi is my destined opponent!
Kaiba thought so, nodding to himself. Keipei, however, didn't know that his brother was thinking about dueling again after mentioning Duel Monsters. After taking another bite of the pita bread, he looked around and said, "But, it doesn't matter if there's resistance. Brother, I remember your wish. To help you achieve your wish and build Kaiba Land all over the World, I need to work harder too."
Hearing Keipei's words, Kaiba also showed a smile.
Yes, the things we have continuously accumulated over a long time all have meaning.
Although Egypt is not yet developed enough now, with the help of KaibaCorp, one day Kaiba Land will be built in This World, where children can laugh. Not just Egypt, but many more places. As long as we don't stop, the path of advancement will continuously extend.
"Thud—"
Keipei, walking on the road, seemed to have stumbled slightly on the uneven road surface. The unfinished pita bread in his hand also flew out due to his body losing balance, flying forward. However, instead of catching the unimportant pita bread, Kaiba, who seemed careless but was actually always watching over his younger brother, reached out his hand immediately, intending to help Keipei stand steady.
But his hand had only extended halfway when he was stunned.
Because he actually saw that the piece of pita bread that had slipped from Keipei's hand had bizarrely stopped in mid-air without continuing to fly, and Keipei, who was about to fall, was also frozen in a movement of swinging his hand, attempting to recover balance.
The surrounding noisy human voices also fell silent in an instant. Kaiba looked up at his surroundings and found that the surrounding crowd, like Keipei, remained motionless in a single movement.
It was as if, in an instant, the forward-flowing time in the entire World had been intercepted by something, and only Kaiba's own time was still flowing forward continuously. In other words, was it time stop?
Kaiba's first reaction was not to investigate what had happened, but to frown and squat down to check Keipei's state.
Helping Keipei stand upright, Kaiba found that during the time he was adjusting Keipei's body, he was fundamentally unable to react to any of his actions. However, other than that, he seemed normal. Kaiba casually picked up the pita bread that had stopped in the air and put it back in Keipei's hand.
Unable to dispel Keipei's state no matter what, Kaiba finally looked around helplessly, his gaze sweeping through the restricted crowd, and said, "Cowardly rats hiding their heads and tails, although I don't know what's going on, you are looking at me, Kaiba Seto! No matter what your goal is, come out into the light openly. Otherwise, when I find you, you will definitely face my wrath!"
Although he said this, Kaiba didn't actually think that the person who caused everything before him would really come out on their own just because of his words. But reality was much simpler than he thought. Just as Kaiba's voice fell, a voice that for some reason sounded quite familiar to Kaiba rang out behind him.
"Behind you."
Turning around sharply, Kaiba didn't even look to see what was behind him, and decisively swung his fist. Judging from the voice that suddenly rang out just now, Kaiba felt that the person who spoke was standing not far away behind him.
But the moment he turned around sharply, Kaiba found that the surrounding environment had changed in an instant, and even with his excellent dynamic vision, he couldn't figure out how it had changed. He, who should have been standing on the Street, suddenly had a wall appear abruptly behind him.
Just barely, Kaiba's full power punch was about to smash into the wall behind him. Even Kaiba knew the result of his mortal body colliding head-on with a wall – the wall would definitely not be the one hurting. Fortunately, he had learned some techniques from a coach named Kihara Amata in Hawaii. His fist stopped the moment it was about to touch the wall.
Putting his hand down and turning around, Kaiba found himself inexplicably in a place that seemed to be an Ancient Egyptian Tomb. Oil lamps filled with oil and burning flames were placed orderly on the surrounding walls for illumination, allowing Kaiba to clearly see that numerous Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were carved on the stone walls around him.
Even Kaiba, who didn't know much about ancient history, had learned a little from his experience in the Memory World that the so-called "hieroglyphs" were one of the oldest forms of text in the World, generally only carved on Temples and various commemorative Buildings, and were even called "divine script." And in the Memory World, Atem's name, which was originally carved in his Tomb, was written in hieroglyphs.
But in this place suspected to be a Tomb, hieroglyphs, which were restricted in use, appeared in large amount. This was far too strange. What was even more strange was that, just as he could inexplicably understand Ancient Egyptian hieratic text, Kaiba found that he could inexplicably understand what these hieroglyphs in front of him were writing.
"KanaKht-erymaat"
"Mekkemetwafkhasut"
"Userrenput-aanehktu"
"Usermaatre-Setepenre (Usermaatre-Setepenre)"
"Ramesses-Meryamun (Ramesses-Meryamun)"
As Kaiba read out one keyword after another, the names he read out lit up one after another, emitting points of radiance and drifting towards the distance. Kaiba saw that in front of him, a person stood clad in a black robe, within those points of light!
