The bustling restaurant.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Ten sat at a corner table, wolfing down a bowl of char siu rice.
Yubel hovered beside him, arms crossed.
Watching the boy devour the meal like a starved ghost, a smile crept onto her lips.
“Only when it comes to eating do you act your age,”
Yubel said with a touch of wistfulness.
He had changed a lot.
But Yu-Gi-Oh! Ten was still Yu-Gi-Oh! Ten.
Unbelievable luck in drawing cards, a bottomless stomach, and a natural tendency toward darkness.
Even with the awakening of the King, some traits remained.
“Ah.”
Setting the empty bowl down on the table, Ten let out a satisfied sigh.
The Duel Restaurant in Domino City.
Though the prices were rather high, the food definitely suited Ten’s taste.
This bowl of char siu rice cost about nine hundred yen. The generous portion was worth the price.
In this city, where prices were generally higher, especially in the bustling commercial street outside Duel Academy, this was quite affordable.
Beep, beep, beep, beep…
Ten was opening a can of soda when he heard the phone in his pocket ringing.
He picked up the phone, sighed upon seeing the caller ID, and answered.
“Hello.”
“Ten-boy, I assume you’ve dealt with that Dark Duelist by now?”
It was Pegasus.
The CEO of Industrial Illusions, who was far away, seemed very concerned about the Dark Duel.
“Yeah, but he wasn’t really a Dark Duelist… he was more of a fraud posing as one, trying to scam people.”
Yu-Gi-Oh! Ten finished the soda in a few gulps and took another deep breath.
“Oh, is that so…?”
Pegasus was momentarily taken aback, but quickly continued, “Thank you for taking care of this matter, Ten-boy. Is there anything you’d like in return?”
“Reward…?”
Ten pondered for a moment.
A year ago, he had won the Junior Division championship in the Professional League.
The total prize money was twenty million yen, roughly one million RMB.
He gave half to his parents and kept the other half.
So he didn’t really need money.
He was also using the limited edition, latest model Duel Disk that Kaiba Corp. had developed. It was designed to adapt to various duel environments and came equipped with multiple functions.
It was far superior to any Duel Disk currently available on the market.
So Ten didn’t need that either.
“Cards.”
After some thought, Yu-Gi-Oh! Ten spoke.
“I hope Mr. Pegasus will create some new Heroes for me.”
Yu-Gi-Oh! Ten’s current deck was based on Yu-Gi-Oh! Ten’s late-game deck from the manga.
Masked Heroes.
It was a high-ceiling speed-based deck that utilized the spell card “Masked Change” to switch between different forms.
This deck, while powerful, lacked certain survivability.
Ten enjoyed adding loads of traps to his decks, traps designed to mess with opponents.
However, these traps didn’t synergize well with the speed-oriented Masked Heroes.
This led to Ten winning every match in the Professional League the previous year, but not truly enjoying it.
The battles ended too quickly, leaving no time to torment the opponent.
He wanted more new heroes, ones that would supplement his current deck and make it more well-rounded.
Pegasus paused for a moment.
Then, he burst into laughter.
“Hahaha, Ten-boy, I didn’t expect you to be so dedicated to new cards.”
“However… in recent years, I’ve noticed that the card spirits are frequently going berserk.”
“Ten-boy, I can’t guarantee when these new cards you want will be ready.”
Each card contained its own unique card spirit.
And in the Duel World, creating a card wasn’t as simple as pressing a print button and churning out a new card.
First, the card had to have a corresponding Duel Spirit.
Second, the Duel Spirit’s power had to be usable by humans.
This explained why, after Ten’s childhood submission of the “Hero” card, it took Industrial Illusions a whole year to produce it.
“Ah, I understand…”
Ten replied and slowly hung up the phone.
He wasn’t particularly anxious about when the new Heroes would arrive.
He was more concerned about what Pegasus had said.
‘Card spirits frequently going berserk…'
Ten frowned.
“Is it because the King’s power is starting to awaken?” Yubel asked with a faint smile.
The King.
The one who had enslaved the Spirit World for thousands of years with absolute tyranny.
As Ten’s King power continued to awaken, the Spirit World was probably descending into chaos.