Chapter 15: Awakening the Giant—Wait, No, There Is Only One Way to Get on the Ship

Chapter 15: Awakening a Giant—Wait, No, There is Only One Way to Get on the Ship.

Upon entering the [Mission] module, Hayato's first sensation was one of emptiness.

Compared to the densely packed feeling of the [Achievement] and [Shop] modules, the [Warehouse] and [Mission] modules felt more similar. Within the vast expanse of the screen, only two missions hung lonely in the mission list—

[Main Quest: The Enemy Lies Beyond the Sea]

[As a Duelist, how can you afford to miss this upcoming grand event? Find a way to board the cruise ship bound for the Duel Kingdom. 0/1]

[Reward Preview: 1000dp, R-Rank Card Pack *1]

And

[Side Quest: To Do a Good Job, One Needs Good Tools]

[Even a skilled woman cannot cook without rice. Collect powerful cards to strengthen yourself! Collect cards 0/20 (R-Rank or above)]

[Reward Preview: 1000dp]

The two missions hung in the [Mission] module with a laid-back attitude. There were only rewards, without any strange penalty items, which moved Hayato slightly—*Screw the systems that threaten punishment at every turn; this kind of chill system is true civilization.*

However—

Looking at the main quest, [The Enemy Lies Beyond the Sea], Hayato fell into thought.

Without much thinking, "Duel Kingdom" referred to the island where Pegasus, the president of Industrial Illusions and the inventor of Duel Monsters, was located. That was precisely where the story of the first major arc of *Yu-Gi-Oh!*, the "Duel Kingdom Arc," took place.

After defeating Kaiba, Yugi was targeted by Pegasus, who used the Dark Game to seal the soul of Muto Yugi, forcing Yugi to travel to the Duel Kingdom. Of course, the current "Millennium Host," Grandpa Yugi, had not yet been sealed; after all, even the first duel between Yugi and Kaiba had not yet begun.

The problem Hayato was considering was—in the original plot, only Muto Yugi was invited. Whether it was his companions Anzu and Honda, or Jonouchi, who also wanted to participate, they actually all stowed away on the ship. Furthermore, after arriving at the Duel Kingdom, one still needed to collect stars to earn the right to duel Pegasus; back then, Jonouchi and Yugi were even forced to split their only two stars.

If he wanted, he could certainly sneak onto the ship with Jonouchi and the others, but the biggest problem would arise after boarding the Duel Kingdom. Unless he intended to be a mere spectator like Honda and Anzu, Hayato would have to face the predicament of not having enough stars to share with Yugi.

Yugi needed to trade stars to get his grandfather back, and Jonouchi needed money for his sister's surgery. Hayato couldn't exactly snatch their participation rights just because "he wanted to play cards," could he?

Relying on Yugi's ticket seemed unfeasible for now. Therefore, there was only one method left for Hayato—he had to secure an invitation for himself in order to board the cruise ship.

It sounded simple in theory, but it was anything but easy in practice. The Duel Tournament Pegasus planned to host was a project he had poured a great deal of effort into, specifically to hype up the popularity of Duel Monsters as much as possible. Consequently, the strength of every participant was not to be underestimated, because being invited to the island itself meant being recognized by Pegasus.

While Hayato believed his own strength was quite good, his biggest problem was that he currently possessed not a shred of fame. Although Pegasus possessed the Millennium Eye, he wasn't Professor X; he couldn't see through Hayato's strength from across half the globe, let alone send him an invitation.

As for challenging other famous duelists? It might be somewhat feasible, but there were two major problems: first, time—the difficulty of gaining enough fame before Pegasus finalized the invitation list was far too high; second, Hayato had no idea where the other star duelists were located.

Although various Duel Monsters matches were often broadcast on television, he couldn't exactly fly to every tournament location to find a star duelist and say, "I want to challenge you," could he? Who would recognize a nobody like him?

Gaining fame might be out of the question, but ultimately, the invitation list itself was decided by Pegasus. Perhaps he could...

As Hayato was thinking, Honda, who was standing in front of him, was suddenly pushed aside, snapping Hayato back to reality. With a thought, he made the system screen vanish.

Having not only had his repeated intentions to purchase rejected but also being held up by a long, rambling monologue of nonsense, Kaiba's expression was currently quite terrible. In his bad mood, looking at the cards the KaibaCorp employees had just collected in the briefcase only brought him immense annoyance.

Stowing the briefcase away on his own, Kaiba pushed aside the obstructive Jonouchi with a dark expression and prepared to walk out of the house.

"I'm leaving!" Although he still bid them a polite farewell, anyone could hear the unrest in that "farewell."

*Bang!*

The door was slammed shut, and the sound of a car engine starting outside informed everyone that Kaiba had departed.

"What an unpleasant guy. Did you see that just now? He looks down on people with his nose," Jonouchi complained. "And he even needs a car just to go out. What's with the airs?"

It was already quite good that he was willing to sit in a ground vehicle; at least it wasn't a Blue-Eyes White Dragon jet.

Yugi wasn't focused on Kaiba's attitude, but rather on the inner sentiment Kaiba had unintentionally revealed just now: "Kaiba-kun... it seems he views cards merely as tools."

"Truly important cards have a soul residing within them."

Yugi's words suddenly triggered a thought in Hayato. After his duel with Yugi just now, during his final draw phase of the last turn, he felt as if he had sensed something from the cards.

Compared to Yugi and the others, who had not yet truly understood the power of Duel Monsters, Hayato knew that souls did indeed reside within the cards, but the cards themselves were also indeed symbols of power.

Yugi was not wrong to view cards as symbols of the soul, and Kaiba was not wrong to believe cards were power, because soul and power were never in conflict; rather, they had always existed in a state of mutual reinforcement.

However, while Yugi and the others simply did not yet know the power of the cards, Kaiba was actively refusing to accept that a soul could be placed within them.

"That guy seems to have gone somewhat astray. It really makes one worry about what he might do," Hayato remarked pointedly, knowing the future plot.

He indeed knew that Kaiba would later hire someone to take Muto Yugi away, then forcibly duel him with the [Blue-Eyes White Dragon] at stake. Muto Yugi had intended to use his communion with his deck to awaken Kaiba, but instead, he was terrified by the massive Duel Monsters projected by KaibaCorp's holographic technology, and was even rushed to the hospital.

But he couldn't say it outright, because he had no evidence to prove Kaiba would do such a thing. He also didn't possess any [Millennium Items] to make prophecies under the guise of "seeing the future." All he could do was provide this kind of indirect warning to let Muto Yugi be a little more careful about being kidnapped.

However, considering the nickname "Millennium Host," things would most likely unfold exactly as they originally did.