But no one dwelled on these trivialities. As comrades who had literally staked their lives together, the three members of the 5DS Team didn't pay much mind to the Gods, and instead started talking about other things.
First off…
"Hikari, look here." Yusei led Tenjo Hikari to the huge wall in the storage room. He pressed a button, and the massive wall slowly shifted, finally turning into a wall completely filled with screens.
Yusei flipped a switch, and various images began appearing on the screens one after another.
There was the Upper City Area, the Lower City Area, the Suburbs, and even some places Tenjo Hikari didn't recognize at all.
"During the half year you were back in your Dimension, I was adapting to my body and preparing for the tournament while also following ZONE's plan to set up more observation screens. At this point, we can observe places all over the entire world."
Yusei casually said something utterly terrifying.
"But outside the City, there are still relatively few spots we can observe. Even so, it basically counts as covering the entire Planet."
As he spoke, he selected a few targets and pointed them out to Tenjo Hikari, saying who were Divine Chosen of which pantheon, and who were Believers of so-and-so.
But—
"From when Ruri first mentioned this to me up until right after your Duel, I still haven't found your friends." Yusei frowned, staring at the screens as he spoke.
"Could they be in the wastelands?" Tenjo Hikari was a bit worried.
"No—if they were in the wastelands…" Yusei shook his head, then opened another program.
The entire wall of displays turned into a gigantic Planet, filled with countless lattice points whose purpose was unclear.
"These locations are our Dimension's spacetime fluctuation nodes. They include nodes for Divine Chosen of Other-dimensional Gods, Spirits who accidentally came to our world, transit passages to other Dimensions, and Future People's Dimension channels… I've already checked. Not a single point that could produce a Dimension Gate appears in an uninhabited area."
Tenjo Hikari knit his brows.
"You mean…"
"I'm afraid it's not that they've truly gone missing somewhere, but rather… someone deliberately hid their tracks." Yusei nodded, though his brows couldn't help but furrow tighter. "And we're talking about an existence capable of interfering with future-science equipment provided by ZONE.
At the very least, it's a God on par with Wiraqocha Rasca."
Tenjo Hikari rubbed his face to wake himself up a bit, then closed his eyes and thought carefully for a while. Suddenly he shot up a finger and asked, "In that case, Yusei, has anyone in your Dimension recently signed up for the WRGP wearing bizarre outfits or hiding their identity?"
Yusei looked at Tenjo Hikari.
Tenjo Hikari met his gaze for two seconds, then smacked his own forehead with a loud slap.
There were way too many of those—
He himself was a disguised entrant!
But then another possibility occurred to him: "There might be one more option… Let's say they neither randomly teleported into human cities, nor had their existence deliberately erased… Is it possible they ended up in this world's Subspace?"
Like some sort of Inner World or something.
He thought for a bit, then explained the concept similar to an "Inner World" from his own world to Yusei. Yusei pondered it for a while and couldn't quite deny the idea.
"So that makes two possibilities." Tenjo Hikari pinched the bridge of his nose.
Thankfully, the scope had already been narrowed down; that was something, at least.
After finishing that discussion with Tenjo Hikari, Yusei went on to share a few more details.
In fact, the 5DS Team had been doing quite well lately.
Unlike the original storyline, since Goodwin hadn't suddenly turned hostile and had instead become President, Jack as his top subordinate naturally still had a job, with a monthly salary that was an astronomical figure to ordinary people.
And Crow, having saved two children, was recognized as a Hero and became the first Lower City Area citizen acknowledged by the Upper Area. He was very popular in the Upper Area, his work went extremely smoothly, and lots of kids in the Upper Area liked playing with him—he was, in every sense, someone whose career was flourishing.
Yusei went without saying: he had connections in both the Upper City Area and the Lower City Area, and what's more, he had an ultra-luxurious "man behind the scenes" backing him, who controlled large amounts of technology that didn't exist in this era. His D-wheel modification tech had already advanced another step.
Because of all this, if Tenjo Hikari ever needed help, he could seek it directly here at their base, and he no longer had to rest at his previous hideout.
Until the WRGP ended, their tournament base was guaranteed not to be inspected.
For Tenjo Hikari, that truly was good news.
If he could spare himself some mental strain, it was definitely more comfortable that way. Who wouldn't prefer not having to think about a bunch of hassles every day and just enjoy life?
"Can this monitor keep watch on anything else?"
"No… I didn't install that many functions." Yusei hesitated. "This isn't a surveillance monitor. It's an instrument I use to observe our world's life cycle… I don't want to use this kind of means to 'monitor' other people."
Precisely because of that, he had absolutely no idea when Carly Nagisa was enticed by the Earthbound God.
Hearing this, Tenjo Hikari couldn't help nodding repeatedly in amazement.
"This guy's already about on par with you." Off to the side, Tierra was a bit shocked as well.
She'd thought he was basically a living Saint last time; now she was even more certain.
"It's Numbers." Jack Atlas, who had returned from the team to the base and found himself a small table to sit at and drink coffee, overheard their conversation and spoke up.
"What is?" Yusei didn't understand.
"Numbers?" Tenjo Hikari was taken aback as well when he heard this. "Numbers have appeared in your world too?"