Chaos: Doomsday Storm!
The Black Luster Soldier's final strike shattered the Super Warrior's Sword Qi into pieces. Both his body and armor disintegrated in the storm, and the spreading shockwave swept over the Black Luster Soldier himself, taking away all his remaining LP.
The ceremony of the ultimate trial ended here.
The Black Luster Soldier swayed in the storm, took two steps back, and half-kneeled on the ground. The flying dust slowly dispersed, and the Super Warrior before him had vanished without a trace.
The NPCs in the Land of Trial stood dumbfounded in their places, with some involuntarily swallowing hard.
The legendary strongest warrior... actually lost?
"A perfect battle, I have nothing to say," the Black Luster Soldier said calmly.
The Black Luster Soldier's body was enveloped in a faint golden light, gradually becoming illusory and transparent, as if his time as a spirit had come to an end.
The warrior's body quickly vanished, leaving behind a huge golden stone slab standing in its place. The slab was clearly engraved with the posture of the Black Luster Soldier holding a sword, exactly like the card image on Yugi's "Black Luster Soldier" card.
Meanwhile, Youyu also received a system prompt, saying that this trial had finally been completed. He received the acknowledgment of the Black Luster Soldier, who was willing to transform into his sword and serve him from now on.
But Youyu thought the current problem was...
... Am I freaking going to have to carry this slab out?
And even if he managed to drag this slab, there's no way it would fit into his card deck, right?
Thankfully, the dog system was still competent and didn't actually make him carry the slab while walking. Youyu walked forward, lightly touched the surface of the slab, and the big thing immediately transformed into golden light spots and disappeared, turning into a card in his hand.
Youyu accepted this card.
This was more like it.
Next, it was time to smash some crystal stones to draw cards.
But problems that could be solved with crystal stones weren't much of a problem for Youyu. After all, he had a lot of this kind of thing...
The NPCs who watched this godly battle were now treating Youyu with reverence as if he were a deity, not daring to make a sound or approach to speak.
However, the players who were still in an excited state immediately gathered enthusiastically around, showing off their skills in speaking, and praising Youyu-san as amazing.
But they didn't forget the main task. Seeing that this task in the quest log seemed completed, Cola Sprite tiptoed and asked, "Youyu-san, where are we going next?"
"To the Royal Palace," Youyu replied casually.
The plot unfolding in the Egyptian chapter of the Linked World had some differences from the original. In the first two days of entering the Memory World instance, there weren't any major conflicts.
If Youyu's memory of the main storyline of this chapter wasn't mistaken, Bakura should be planning to take action around today or tomorrow as well.
Youyu turned to the nearby NPCs: "Hey, you... yes, don't look, it's you. Are you a priest in the Royal Palace?"
The apprentice priest Ding was still immersed in that incomprehensible duel just now, only now coming back to his senses.
Realizing that Youyu was calling him, he was a bit stunned.
"Huh? Me? I... um... I don't really count, I'm just an apprentice priest, not yet..."
"Doesn't matter." Youyu waved his hand, "Lead the way, we're planning to go to the Royal Palace next."
"Huh?" The young apprentice priest came back to his senses, "But ordinary people can't enter the Royal Palace..."
"We're just going to the capital city to have a look, to admire the grandeur of the Royal Palace from the gate."
Just linger outside, not going in.
... Or find a way to get in.
Anyway, from what it seems in the animation, their Ancient Egyptian Royal Palace was like a public toilet, coming and going at will. If it wasn't for the Pharaoh holding fort, Bakura alone could charge in and out multiple times without issue.
The young apprentice priest seemed a bit hesitant. He seemed to ponder for a while, like he was quite conflicted, then cautiously looked at a group of rather silly people engaged in a heated discussion nearby...
... Or more accurately, looked at Miss Yue Hua, who was seriously arguing with Cola Sprite.
"Okay, I'll take you there."
...
Memory World, elsewhere.
In a corner of the map as remote as the Land of Trial, a group of The Walking Dead, clad in rusty armor and with skin like withered wood, is digging in the desert.
And the leader of these undead, the agent of the Great Evil God Sock, Thief King Bakura, is sitting arrogantly on a large stone heated by the sun...
...chewing garlic?
That thing looks white and clove-like, it does resemble garlic...
Laugh? What's so funny?
How can the garlic our Great Evil God Sock chews be ordinary? This is a millennium garlic, far from those common and cheap goods, you know?
It's just unfair. Yugi starts off as the Pharaoh, with the Three Egyptian God cards in hand, and under his command are the Seven Great Priest and countless troops, a bit like starting a game at max level.
And as for Bakura?
He started with just a pair of shorts, relying on plundering for all his equipment.
Imagine the dignified Great Evil God Sock having to cross the desert naked, attacking passersby just to steal some underwear—can you believe it?
After some development, he's managed to acquire clothes and even an ancient Duel Disc to summon Monsters.
And now, three meals a day at least include garlic!
But before he's ready, he doesn't want to attract the attention of Yugi, who is the Pharaoh, so he's been keeping things low-key, acting mostly under the cover of night.
He usually robs and then escapes, frequently changing locations to avoid encounters with the Royal Palace's people.
He even managed to bring his Card Deck from the real world, but unfortunately, the ancient Duel Disc cannot use modern cards. So he needs to find forty stone tablets to project each card in his deck onto them.
Anyway, troubles like these are something that the Pharaoh, sitting on the country's wealth, does not have.
The more he thinks about him laboring away here, while Yugi enjoys the luxurious life with people waiting on him hand and foot, perhaps even a harem for entertainment...
...the angrier he gets.
But Bakura was well-prepared before entering this Memory World.
Considering the overwhelming numbers on Yugi's side, and himself just a lone wolf, he found a way to bring a helper into this Memory World.
The person wears white pants, a cloak, has explosive white hair, and facial muscles twisted with a unique character, appearing fierce and unnatural.
Marik Ishtar!
Of course, this cannot be the real Marik inclined toward becoming Youyu on the outside world.
Here appears a new personality born from Marik's hatred, a dark amalgamation, an embodiment of rampaging malevolence, once respected as the master of the supreme Egyptian God, The Winged Dragon of Ra, known as—
—Six-Year-Old.
Originally, Six-Year-Old was done for after a battle with Youyu. But don't forget, Marik and Bakura once had an intense engagement, intruding into each other's consciousnesses.
Bakura's Millennium Ring, one of its main functions is the power to "split souls." According to the animation's revelation by Bakura himself, the Millennium Ring's power is "injecting a soul's avatar into tangible objects."
The Great Evil God Sock, back then, relied on this capability of the Millennium Ring to leave fragments of his soul in this Divine Artifact to survive. Bakura also relied on this ability multiple times to cling to life.
After the intense confrontation, Dark Marik also left a fragment of his soul in the Millennium Ring. When his persona was obliterated in the duel with Youyu, this fragment in the Millennium Ring became his only remaining being.
Six-Year-Old now lives at the mercy of others, with Bakura fully capable of obliterating what remains of his consciousness with a mere thought; he has no choice but to collaborate with Bakura.
In fact, if it weren't for the virtual world constructed on the Darkness Game, he wouldn't even have a physical body.
Bow down to dark forces.JPG.
...Oh wait, that's not right; he himself seems to be part of the dark forces, my bad.
Turns out the dark force is I myself.JPG.
Bakura glanced at Marik standing to the side, considering that he's now somewhat an ally, so he casually fetched a piece of garlic from under his coat—even though the only thing he wore apart from his shorts was this coat, no idea where the garlic came from—and threw it to Marik.
Marik caught it, showing a somewhat disdainful look.
"I'll pass on that." Six-Year-Old grumbled, "I don't eat garlic."
Bakura's face turned black: "This is mangosteen! A fruit! Not garlic!"
You think our dignified Great Evil God Sock is so poor he chews garlic for lunch?