Chapter 26: When "Luck" Comes Knocking

After Hayato opened the booster pack he had exchanged for all his DP points, several messages popped up within the system

【Newbie Booster Pack detected. "Duelist System" fully activated. Installing upgrade patches for the Duelist...】

【Patch installation complete. Duelist "Individual" module enabled. Please click your avatar to view.】

【Upgrade rewards are being distributed automatically. Please accept.】

Hayato hadn't even had time to check which cards he had pulled before a barrage of messages hit him in the face. After much effort, he finally realized that his system wasn't actually the full version; it only became the official version once he opened that 【Newbie Booster Pack】.

As a bonus for the upgrade, the system granted Hayato the ability to communicate with "Card Spirits"—the "heart-to-heart" connection that is standard for high-level duelists.

*Who will my awakened Card Spirit be?* Hayato couldn't help but wonder. His deepest memory was that one "God Draw" of 【Dark Knight Gaia】. If he were to awaken a Card Spirit, it would most likely be Gaia.

Just as these thoughts crossed his mind, three palm-sized creatures smacked him in the face, accompanied by three "Big Brother!" calls in distinctly different tones.

This was also the reason why Hayato had looked so grim earlier at Kameki Game Shop. On one hand, there was the disappointment of not having Gaia awaken; on the other, he had been startled (no ambiguity intended) by being "cuddled" by three Disruptor monsters.

"Even 【Death Stalker】 would have been fine. He was a Tamashii that I acknowledged, and he was my first summoned monster after all," Hayato grumbled to himself as he walked home, looking at the thick stack of cards in his hand. "With so many cards, anyone would have worked. Why did it have to be this card?"

In his hand was the card 【Disruptor Trio】. Perhaps because they had helped Hayato create a winning opportunity during his duel with Manjou, this card had been randomly selected by the system to awaken Card Spirits—the three brothers, 【Disruptor Yellow, Green, and Black】. Furthermore, Hayato happened to have the physical copies of all three spirits on hand.

*Why did I impulsively buy these three back then? Out of so many R-rank cards, why did I pick these?* Hayato couldn't help but sigh.

"Big Brother~"

A cheeky voice drifted into his ear again. Hayato immediately reached out and grabbed 【Disruptor Yellow】, who had climbed onto his shoulder at some unknown moment. "I remember warning you. You'd better stay quiet, or I'll start imitating my classmate, Seto Kaiba."

"Eh~ Did your classmate do something, Big Brother?" Even though he was being lifted by two fingers, 【Disruptor Yellow】 refused to abandon its obnoxious nature. It wiggled its feet and looked up at Hayato with its eyes—which were detached from its head—wearing a mischievous grin.

Hayato kept a straight face. "Him? He tears up Duel Monster cards."

"Eek!" 【Disruptor Yellow】 let out a strange shriek at Hayato's words, its voice coming out like a rapid-fire machine gun. "Big Brother, please don't tear me apart! I'm much more useful than my other two brothers! If you're going to tear something, tear them!"

"Disruptor Yellow!" Two more shrieks erupted from Hayato's other shoulder. Shouting Yellow's name, Disruptor Green and Black leaped onto the body of Disruptor Yellow, who was currently being pinched by Hayato.

"You traitor!"

"I'm going to teach you a lesson!"

"Take this! Nine Heavens Thunder Double Kick!"

Watching the Disruptor Trio start brawling again, Hayato felt a massive headache coming on. He shouted loudly to interrupt their quarrel: "You're too noisy! Shut up, all of you! If anyone speaks again, I'll tear you apart!"

The Disruptor Trio was startled. They quickly looked at Hayato with apologetic smiles, making a mock gesture of zipping their mouths shut. However, they actually managed to pull a literal zipper out of their mouths; Disruptor Green's tongue even got caught in the zipper for a moment.

"Mama, mama, is that big brother over there the 'idiot' you told me about last time?"

"Don't go near him. It's contagious."

Watching silently as a passing woman walked away holding her child, Hayato, carrying the three Disruptor monsters, looked around. Finding no suitable place, he quickened his pace toward his home.

What he failed to notice was that in the dense woods by the roadside, a gaze had been locked onto him the entire time.

*——Being stalked——*

Lucky hid in the cool shade of the woods, watching the kid who clearly came from a wealthy family walk away. He hid in the trees both to evade the annoying police manhunt and to prepare for his subsequent escape.

He was a murderer currently in the state of being a fugitive. The escaped convict mentioned in the newspapers that Hayato had heard about on the bus was none other than Lucky.

To escape prison, the astrology-obsessed Lucky had specifically chosen his luckiest time to break out, and things had gone remarkably smoothly. Just last night, he had killed a prison guard to escape, taking a revolver with him in the process.

Escaping prison was not a single action, but a continuous state. After leaving the prison, Lucky had done everything in his power to shake off the police and avoid any eyewitnesses. According to the law, as long as Lucky could successfully reach international waters, he could secure a considerable amount of freedom; as long as he wasn't caught by Interpol, he could live outside the law indefinitely.

However, reaching international waters was no simple task; Lucky needed to secure a boat. He knew a human smuggler in Domino City, so finding a way out to sea wasn't the problem. The biggest problem was—as a fugitive, he didn't have a single coin on him.

Not only that, to facilitate his escape, he hadn't eaten anything since noon yesterday. Having not had a drop of water since then, he felt like he could barely walk. Rather than searching for a wealthy person, Lucky felt it would be better to just find a random target nearby to rob for both money and food.

And clearly, our protagonist, Hayato Kobayashi, was the unlucky soul chosen for the task.

"To find a target so quickly... as expected," Lucky gripped his revolver with one hand, while the other instinctively stroked the "777" tattoo on his forehead. "The magazines were right. Today is my lucky day!"

Scrambling up from the dirt, Lucky couldn't be bothered to brush the filth off his pants. In his view, since he was about to rob someone, stealing a new set of clothes wouldn't be such a big deal.

Following the lush greenery of Domino City, Lucky silently trailed behind Hayato.