Yu-Gi-Oh!: I use an Orichalcos deck

Page 263

A piercing alarm suddenly blared from all directions. Yu Ji looked up and saw that all the electronic screens around the venue had turned blood red, with a huge number flashing "06" in the center:

00:14:59

00:14:58

00:14:57...

What is this? Yuki instinctively reached for the Duel Disk, only to find the Chaos Warrior card in his deck vibrating violently. He drew the card and was astonished to find that the warrior image on the card had transformed into his father's.

Travelogue.

Suddenly, the card emitted his father's voice, startling Yuki so much that he almost let go. The image on the card came to life; his father was wearing that familiar white lab coat, and the background was the laboratory from his memories.

If you're seeing this message, it means the New World has found Aya. The father's voice was low and urgent. "Listen," he said, "once the Electronic Tide is activated, all players who have connected to the Duel Network will be digitized. You must—"

The image suddenly distorted and cut off. Yuki slammed his hand on the card, but only received a piercing busy signal.

Damn!

He gritted his teeth, his gaze sweeping over Samejima Eiji in his arms. Suddenly, a glowing electronic emblem appeared on the young duelist's chest—a pattern of two snakes entwined around the number 13.

The symbol of the new world... Yuki had seen this symbol in his father's work notebook. He suddenly ripped open Samejima Eiji's collar and found that below the emblem were densely packed circuits that extended all the way to his heart.

Well...

Eijima Samejima suddenly opened his eyes, his irises turning a completely mechanical blue. He grabbed Yuki's wrist with astonishing force.

The...gate... of numbers... His voice trailed off, within... the cards...

Yuki felt a surge of electricity from the point of contact. The Duel Disk activated automatically, projecting a holographic map—a three-dimensional structural diagram of the Tokyo Duel Tower, with a flashing red dot marked 300 meters underground.

The older brother's will... resisting the program... Xiao Ai's voice suddenly came from the Duel Disk, "Yuki-kun... we must go there..."

The countdown timer is 00:12:34.

Yuki took a deep breath and laid Samejima Eiji flat on the ground. He took off his uniform jacket and covered the other man with it, his fingers touching a hard object in his pocket—the Chaos Creation Card that had never been used.

The card was terribly hot.

"Xiao Ai, can you hear me?" You Ji asked in a low voice.

A beam of blue light shot out from the Duel Disk, condensing into a miniature holographic image of Aiolia in front of him. The girl's figure was much more transparent than before, as if it might dissipate at any moment.

My core program... is severely damaged... Xiao Ai's image flickers, but the chaotic code... recognizes you as its master... We can...

A piercing electronic interference interrupted her voice. Yuki suddenly noticed that the glass shards on the ground were eerily levitating, forming some kind of complex geometric pattern in the air.

"Space is distorted!" Xiao Ai exclaimed. "They're here!"

Yu Ji instinctively rolled to dodge, but his previous location was struck by a purple data stream, instantly vaporizing the concrete floor and creating a perfectly round hole. He looked up and saw a crack appear in the air in the center of the venue, from which three humanoid figures wearing silver masks stepped out.

Target confirmed. The masked leader spoke in a synthesized mechanical voice: Chaos Inheritor and Core AI, Retrieval Priority: Double S-level.

Yuuki's Duel Disk automatically activated battle mode. The Chaos Warrior's cards flew out on their own, forming a golden barrier in front of him. The purple data stream struck the barrier, creating ripples.

"Yu Jijun, use that card!" Xiao Ai cried out urgently, "Chaos Creation!"

As soon as Yuuki's fingers touched the card deepest in the deck, he felt a sharp pain shoot through his fingertips. The card burned his skin like a branding iron, but he gritted his teeth and pulled it out.

Instead of the expected pattern, the card surface featured a constantly shifting chaotic vortex.

In the name of chaos—

Yuki instinctively shouted the summoning incantation. The card erupted with a blinding white light, and the entire venue began to distort and deform. The three masked men simultaneously took a step back, their silver uniforms fluttering without wind.

Warning! Genesis Protocol activated! The masked man's electronic voice is fluctuating; emergency interception initiated!

Yuki felt the card in his hand absorbing his life force. His vision began to darken at the edges, and he heard the roar of blood rushing through his ears. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, Xiao Ai's image suddenly enlarged, and the girl's hands reached out from the Duel Disk, gently covering the back of his hands.

Together. Xiao Ai's voice was clearer than ever before, just like during our first duel.

A cool energy flowed into his body from the point of contact. Youji saw Xiao Ai's body gradually become transparent, turning into countless glowing 0s and 1s, flowing along his arm towards the Chaos Creation Card.

The vortex on the card surface suddenly stopped.

Then it erupted.

The white light engulfed everything.

When Yuki regained his sight, he found himself standing on a pure white circular platform, surrounded by an endless starry sky. Floating in the center of the platform was a door made of cards, each engraved with a monster image he recognized.

This is...

In the midst of chaos, Xiao Ai's voice came from all directions, yet she was nowhere to be seen—my home.

Yuji walked towards the card gate and found the center position empty. He subconsciously raised the Chaos Creation card in his hand, and the card flew out automatically, accurately embedding itself in the empty space.

The door opened.

Inside wasn't the room I'd imagined, but a tunnel made of flowing data. Countless fragments of memories floated on the tunnel walls: my father adjusting equipment in the lab, my younger self watching the rain from the window, my mother placing a deck of cards next to my birthday cake...

These are...

Your memory data. Xiao Ai's figure emerged at the end of the tunnel, also a carrier of chaotic code.

Yuji walked forward, finding that the deeper he went, the more blurred his memories became. At a certain point, the scene suddenly shifted to one he had no recollection of: a huge blue crystal container containing a girl who looked exactly like Xiao Ai; his father frantically operating a control panel; a group of people wearing silver masks bursting through the wall...

The truth from three years ago. "The one you've always wanted to know," Xiao Ai whispered.

The tunnel suddenly shook violently. Yuki turned around and saw that the entrance was collapsing, and three silver-masked men were forcibly breaking through the defenses of the card gate.

There's no time. Xiao Ai grabbed You Ji's hand and said, "Come with me."

She led Youji towards the end of the tunnel. There, a mirror-like surface floated, but instead of reflecting their images, it showed a huge underground facility.

The Digital Gate beneath Tokyo Duel Tower. Xiao Ai explained, "This is what my brother wanted to tell us."

Yu Ji reached out and touched the mirror, feeling a cool sensation on his fingertips. The mirror rippled like water, and his arm passed right through it.

The electronic tide will start in seven minutes. Xiao Ai's voice was urgent; this route would take them directly to the Digital Gate.

Wait a minute. Yuki withdrew his hand. If I go to the electronic world, what will happen to my physical body in the real world?

Xiao Ai paused for a moment: "It will enter a dormant state, like... a vegetative state."

The tunnel shook violently again. A masked man had breached the first line of defense; a crack appeared in his silver mask, revealing a mechanical face beneath.

You have to make a decision. Xiao Ai grasped Youji's hand: stay and protect the physical world, or risk entering the electronic world to stop the tide.

Yuki looked at the fragments of memory floating on the tunnel wall. In one small scene, his father was speaking to the camera: ...Remember, true chaos is not destruction, but the possibility of reconstruction...

The countdown timer is 00:07:15.

"Let's go." Youji gripped Xiao Ai's hand tightly, but wanted to leave himself an escape route.

He drew the Amazon swordsman's card and affixed it to the edge of the mirror. The card melted into a pool of golden liquid, forming a glowing pattern on the frame.

That way we can find our way back. After saying that, Youji pulled Xiao Ai into the mirror.

Falling.

An endless fall.

Yuki felt himself being broken down into countless data packets, drifting in an ocean of fiber optics. At one moment, he saw Xiao Ai's data stream intertwined with his own, and the strings of 0s and 1s looked strangely familiar—exactly the same as the pattern on the back of the Knight of Chaos card.

We are one. Xiao Ai's voice rang directly in You Ji's consciousness, it had been from the very beginning.

Suddenly, the fall stopped.

Yu Ji crashed heavily onto some kind of metal platform. He struggled to his feet and found himself in a huge spherical space, with walls made up of countless electronic screens, each displaying a different duel scene.

The control center of the Digital Gate. Xiao Ai's figure materialized beside him, becoming more solid than before; theoretically, this place could monitor the entire global dueling network.

Yuki walked towards the central control console, above which floated a miniature 3D projection of Tokyo. Hundreds of red dots were marked throughout the city, each transmitting a data stream into the sky.

The nodes of the electronic tide. Xiao Ai touches one of the red dots, zooming in to show the scene of the Duel Tower, where they use the brainwave resonance of duelists to build a transmission network.

Yuki suddenly noticed a flashing blue dot at the edge of the projection. Upon zooming in, he saw Samejima Eiji, who was unconscious and placed in some kind of capsule device, with dozens of data cables connected to his body.

History! He's still alive!

The body survives, but the consciousness has been uploaded to the electronic world. Xiao Ai's voice was heavy: "We must first shut down the Tide Generator, otherwise millions of duelists will..."

A cold laugh suddenly echoed through the space. Yuji whirled around and saw three silver-masked figures descending from the ceiling. This time, they encountered no hindrance; clearly, the Digital Gate had granted them permission.

A brilliant deduction, the successor. The masked leader removed his helmet, revealing a face familiar to Yuki—Kane Walter, the chief technology officer of the International Illusion Society. Unfortunately, it was too late.

Yuuki's Duel Disk activated automatically. The Chaos Warrior's cards flew out on their own, forming a defensive stance in front of him.

Mr. Walter? Yuki looked at the man who had given a speech at his father's funeral in disbelief. "You're also a member of the New World?"

"Members?" Walter laughed. "I'm one of the founders. Your father is the traitor; he stole the core of the creation code and implanted it into that AI."

He snapped his fingers. The other two masked men immediately walked towards the control panel. Xiao Ai tried to stop them, but was repelled by an invisible force field.

The electronic tide will begin in three minutes. Walter proudly announced that at that time, the consciousness of all players who have connected to the Duel Network will be uploaded, becoming the first citizens of the new world.

Yuji looked at the countdown: 00:03:27.

Why? He clenched his fist. Why did he do that?

Evolution, child. Walter's eyes gleamed with fervor. The human body was too fragile. In the electronic world, we could live forever, we could reconstruct matter at will, we could—

"You can become a god?" Yu Ji sneered. "My father was killed because he opposed this, wasn't he?"

Walter's expression darkened: Professor Wise was too stubborn. He could have been the creator of a new world, but instead chose to protect the old humanity destined to be eliminated.

00:02:59.

Xiao Ai suddenly tugged at Yuji's sleeve. Yuji followed her gaze and discovered a hidden interface beneath the control panel, its shape perfectly matching the Chaos Creation Card.

"We need to distract them..." Xiao Ai told You Ji through thought transmission.

You Jiwei nodded almost imperceptibly. He deliberately raised his voice: "Even if you succeed, the international community will not recognize this inhumane act!"

Who would know the truth? Walter spread his hands; to the outside world, it was just an accidental system glitch that caused duelists worldwide to fall into a coma. But in reality...

00:02:15.

Yuki suddenly launched an attack. The Chaos Warrior's card transformed into a golden light, aiming straight for Walter's face. The two masked men immediately returned to defend, but they didn't expect this to be just a feint. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xiao Ai rushed towards the control panel, her body transforming into a data stream and entering the main system.

"Stop her!" Walter roared.

The entire control room suddenly turned blood red. Alarms blared throughout the space: Core program intrusion! System emergency shutdown!

Yuki was pressed against the wall by an invisible force. He struggled to look at the control panel, but Xiao Ai's figure had disappeared, replaced by a stream of code jumping wildly.

00:01:30.