The duel ended, and Tenjo Hikari waved to the audience as cheers erupted from all directions.
"Really strong, that Masked Hero." On the other side, Phantom Chen Lue also approached, scratching the back of his head and muttering, "As long as the Hero's Fusion Monster can change, doesn't that mean the admired can also transform into a Masked Hero?"
Even though Form Change was just used, Chen Lue heard the words "Mask Change," so he guessed there must be other transformation methods.
Tenjo Hikari turned back, smiling as he shook his hand: "Your Vision Heroes are also quite impressive, able to mobilize any Hero. I'm sure even Ed and Judai would love them."
"Ed and Judai? Oh—they're those two, right." Having been in the Critical Point for so long, Chen Lue naturally knew the two users of Heroes. Mentioning them, his curiosity was piqued, "Why haven't I seen those two?"
As a fellow Hero Deck user, he really wanted to see those two duelists.
After all, Tenjo Hikari isn't purely a Hero user, but rather a purer Fusion user.
"They're busy." Tenjo Hikari didn't elaborate.
Since Chen Lue wasn't familiar with him, although curious, he knew not to press further upon hearing this answer, so he nodded slightly. Then he took out a card, looking at the solitaire card.
"Actually, the Phantoms have already arrived in this dimension." Looking at the card, he seemed to obtain some information, then looked up at Tenjo Hikari and said, "Not just the Phantoms, but many interesting Spirits have come to this dimension as well.
After all, the Critical Point is a world connected to all Spirit Worlds, a world from which one can set off and reach any Spirit Dimension, so many Spirits curious about us human duelists have come here."
Oh?
Does this mean the number of Spirits in this dimension is actually more than it seems?
Indeed.
Tenjo Hikari looked at the nearby camera.
Earlier, he already had the feeling he was being watched by the camera.
Noticing Tenjo Hikari's action, Chen Lue smiled: "That's right, just like you felt. It seems some other Phantoms are also observing you, and they seem quite fond of you."
"That's great. I welcome any presence." Saying this, Tenjo Hikari waved at the camera, but this time, the camera seemed not to respond.
Chen Lue chuckled twice.
The heroes of the Phantoms are relatively solitary, and if discovered, they tend to move to another place to observe.
But—this also clearly indicates that Tenjo Hikari is quite liked by the Phantom Heroes.
Subsequently, he bid farewell to Tenjo Hikari and headed in another direction, while Tenjo Hikari returned to the preparation hall.
By the time Tenjo Hikari returned, the friends in the room had already started congratulating him, and at the same time, the next round of dueling began.
A total of 37 duelists collected 8 stamps, and the first round took several days, excluding one duelist who had a bye, totaling 18 people.
Afterward, the competition did not immediately proceed to the second round but started the "Resurrection Round."
Indeed, right after the first round, the Resurrection Round began.
Eighteen duelists will determine 9 duelists to re-advance, then these duelists will re-enter the competition to duel for two more rounds until 7 finalists are determined, and from the lost duelists, one more will be resurrected to duel the duelist who had a bye among the 7 finalists.
Then it's the regular top 8 tournament.
Because the number is odd, it's rather troublesome.
In any case, due to this schedule, the duelists who won the first round have a considerable amount of time to rest or gather intelligence on others.
"Please be aware, duelists, that in the second round of dueling, the gacha machine format for random matching will no longer be used; instead, there is a specific pairing chart. Please verify your pairing chart."
As they spoke, staff from Kaiba Company pushed out a machine. The machine played a holographic image for all the duelists in the hall.
This time, in addition to numbers, each duel also listed names. Besides the confirmed participants, there were some special blanks labeled "First Resurrection Race Winner #1."
"Am I fighting Winner #3?" Mitsuzawa Daichi looked at his number and then at the blank spaces on the list, pondering for a moment and figuring out the logic behind it.
"It's probably to give the winners of the first round more advantages, so the winners' group can know who the losers' group duelists are in advance and think and prepare strategically accordingly."
"I thought the winners' group was useless, just there to pad the numbers," Fubuki laughed and said.
He saw his name and knew who his opponent was, but that wasn't the main point.
If his calculations were right, as long as he won, then his opponent in the next round would be Ryo!
He didn't believe the current Ryo would lose to any professional duelist.
"It's a shame, I can't face you in the first round." At some point, a girl approached Tenjo Hikari. She had long golden hair and wine-red eyes, standing there with quite a presence; her black long boots and white long gloves gave her a bit of a feminine charm.
It was Gloria Tyler.
After coming to the hall, he hadn't spoken to her; her sister didn't participate in the finals, saying she didn't like solo dueling, so only she participated while her sister cheered from the stands.
According to Mitsuzawa, the two of them, after over a month of effort, were recognized by the Female Emperor and thus possessed the stronger and higher-level Fusion Monster "Amazoness Augusta." This time their goal was to defeat Tenjo Hikari.
But...
Tenjo Hikari raised an eyebrow as he looked at her name.
Her name and Tenjo Hikari's were just opposite, with Tenjo Hikari on the far right and her name on the far left.
"Confidence is good, but your opponent is Manjome, and he's quite formidable." Tenjo Hikari raised an eyebrow, pointing at Manjome, who was also looking at the match chart nearby. Noticing his action, Manjome looked back, waving his hand to him.
Gloria looked at Manjome, her confident smile undiminished: "Ha, Manjome Jun, right? Kaiba's disciple, veteran of the Fusion Department, but last time in your duel, he was nothing more than a supporting role.
I'll win."
Tenjo Hikari leaned back slightly, looking at Gloria in surprise.
He hesitated for a moment, feeling that their relationship wasn't that bad, actually quite good, so he simply said: "Gloria, you know, since I started taking classes at Duel Academy, everyone who claimed 'I'd win' lost."
"Ha? What's that, a mystic study?" Gloria responded in confusion, then gently waved her hand, saying she would definitely meet Tenjo Hikari in the finals...
In short, she left like that.
What could Tenjo Hikari say but wish her good luck.
Moreover, he also needed to think about how to face his opponent.
Because...
His opponent was #31—Ansueeru with Skill Drain!