The spy bro almost lost it and swung again, but he took two deep breaths and forced himself to calm back down.
He was a cold, emotionless spy. He'd come to this island with a mission, with a purpose.
No need to stoop to this lunatic's level; the mission had to come first.
However, the commotion here seemed to have drawn the attention of other idiots, and a bunch of players all around started gathering over.
"What's going on? Who's that?"
"A student? But he's not in uniform? Did he trigger some quest or something?"
Someone came up to YourWifeIsAwesome, patted him on the shoulder. "Hey, man, what's the situation? Weren't you designing a puzzle for your student?"
"No idea." YourWifeIsAwesome pointed at the spy bro next to him. "Dude was already lying on the ground twisting around when I got here, wiggling like some yangge star. I have no clue what the hell he was doing."
"That suspicious, huh?"
The spy bro's face went dark.
What yangge star, my ass!
He'd actually been mistaken for a lunatic by a bunch of lunatics, can you believe that!
Still, he'd picked up some key information.
That idiot earlier seemed to have said "your student"?
So that means these airheaded weirdos… are actually all teachers at the Academy?
And they're stationed way out here in this remote deep forest, which just happens to be the area where the Three Phantasm's energy reaction is strongest…
The spy's pupils shrank. His brain cells spun at full throttle, and with his meticulous logic and strong deductive ability, he quickly came to a conclusion.
These people who all look like they've got holes in their heads… might actually be hidden duel powerhouses!
Why hadn't he seen any facilities suppressing the Three Phantasm? Why hadn't he seen any security measures or protective means?
Because right now, these clowns in front of him were themselves the powerhouses guarding the Phantasm Seal!
The spy's thoughts suddenly became active.
If it were before, he would never have had the confidence to go up against true powerhouses, but it was different now. He had already been bestowed with power enough to rank among first-rate experts; even facing real powerhouses, he had nothing to fear.
But the purpose of this trip, when you stripped it down, was only intel gathering. If possible, he still had to avoid conflict as much as he could and not attract attention.
Since Duel King Youyu had these people stationed here to suppress the Phantasm, they were surely the Duel King's close confidants… or at least people he trusted, who should more or less know some intel.
Of course, one could imagine their lips would be sealed tight and they wouldn't casually leak important information. Which meant it was time for his professional spy skills to shine.
He quickly drafted an entire set of leading questions, from shallow to deep—start with small talk, then slowly edge into core topics, feel out how the Three Phantasm were sealed, best case learn how to undo the seal, and while he was at it, collect some detailed intel on the Duel King.
He never expected that all his predictions and the whole carefully designed routine would end up completely useless.
Because the moment he nudged the topic toward the name "Youyu", the idiots all started talking over each other like grade schoolers scrambling to answer a teacher's question in class, spilling everything…
Once they brought up Youyu-san, the clowns got fired up. They practically wanted to start all the way back from the Duel City era and narrate Youyu-san's path step by step, every inch of his progress.
"Heard of little six-year-old Marik? You know Ghouls, right? They were crazy badass back then—Slifer, Ra, all in their hands, they were seconds-from-heaven, seconds-from-earth, seconds-from-air itself… and now the whole Ghouls plus their entire warehouse of cards all changed their last name to You."
"You know Dartz, yeah? Ten-thousand-year-old geezer, mastermind behind human civilization, representative of the Orichalcos Evil God, the world's terminator… got trolled by Youyu-san into ten-thousand-year social anxiety."
"And you've heard of the Great Evil God Sok, right? Now that guy's even more insane—straddling a dragon, hanging all Three Egyptian God up and beating them like sandbags, ripped the Pharaoh to shreds with his bare hands… and still got insta-✰-killed by Youyu-san."
The spy bro listened while taking mental notes, feeling more and more shaken.
A lot of Youyu's feats had never been made public, and some of them the outside world had only heard rumors of without knowing the details. Now, after being embellished by this bunch of idiots, the spy was left stunned.
The more they bragged, the more outrageous it got. Bragging and bragging, they even veered off into the origin of the world.
Like one clown said, you already know the Great Evil God Sok, right? Do you know where Sok even came from?
Back when heaven and earth first opened, all was chaos, and God said "Let there be light," and so there was light in the world.
But where there is light, there must be shadow. The God of Light who created all things molded this world, and at the same time the corresponding darkness was born—that was the Great Evil God Sok. He attached himself to the host of the Millennium Ring, used a human body as his agent to stir up chaos and prepare for his resurrection.
And the one who foiled this plan and tore that darkness apart was the God of Light's agent, her avatar—
—and that is our Youyu-san!
Hearing this, the spy couldn't help but shudder, tiger body trembling.
This was earth‑shattering news he'd never even heard whispers of!
By this point, deep down he was already starting to back out. Thoughts of the Three Phantasm had been temporarily thrown aside; now his head was full of legends about this Duel King.
He knew the Duel King was strong and had heard some rumors about him…
…but never anything as absurd as what he'd heard today!
If this was true, then all of his boss's plans so far had to be scrapped. This ridiculous backstory of the Duel King's changed everything!
He had to inform the boss behind the scenes, make him understand how risky this whole "going after the Three Phantasm" idea was—if what this group of idiots said was true, then everything they'd done so far had to be torn down and reworked from scratch!
At this point, he tossed thoughts of Sealing Array and probing the Three Phantasm for intel completely out of his mind. All he could think about was getting out, fast, and bringing this crucial intel back!
After repeatedly confirming that this guy didn't seem to have triggered any hidden dialogue or secret plot flags, the clowns got bored and decided to let him leave for now.
The spy quickly left this bizarre area, slipped through the dense forest, and once he was sure no one was watching from behind, immediately pulled the phone out of his pocket.
It was a special phone with only a single pre‑saved contact—the man behind him, his handler. The line was encrypted, and it was the only way for him to contact his superior.
The spy tried calling—he didn't want to waste a single second in sending out this terrifying intel.
The busy tone echoed over and over after he dialed, each beep stretching into what felt like a century.
The call failed.
Seeing the big "No Signal" on the screen, the spy could hardly believe his eyes.
How was that possible? Duel Academy was personally built by Kaiba Company; the entire island was covered by a powerful wireless signal. How could something as ridiculous as "No Signal" happen?
Unless…
He stopped in his tracks, realizing something was wrong.
The whole scene started spinning. The ground seemed to sink, and the surrounding trees turned into transparent shadows one after another and faded away. A pitch‑black sky unfolded like a giant canvas overhead, concrete buildings shooting up out of the earth, with black spires on their roofs stabbing straight into the clouds.
Field Magic – Skyscraper!
It wasn't just a virtual image; this was a real scene drawn out of a Card and made physical by powerful transcendental force, a Darkness Game space that cut the designated area off from the outside world!
Realizing he'd stepped into a cage, the spy involuntarily held his breath.
He knew the rules. Once you stepped into the realm of a Darkness Game, the only way out was to become the winner.
Skyscraper was the exclusive field for the "Elemental Hero"s, almost their signature. And since the field here was Skyscraper, that meant…
"Yo, man."
Hearing the voice from behind, the spy stiffly turned his head…
…and, no surprise at all, saw behind him the Duel King Youyu, the one these clowns had hyped up as the child of the plane, incarnation of the card god, and agent of the God of Light.
Youyu walked toward him at an unhurried pace and asked, "What's wrong? Got lost?"