Yusei's lab was packed with future tech.
According to Yusei, in a distant future, humanity in this world has basically died out, with only a handful of people left. To save the world, ZONE gathered the power of all the survivors and built a "Time Machine."
And in that process, they practically gathered up everything in the world that could still be used.
Some things were meaningless to them, but that Yusei felt might come in handy someday, were sent over to him one after another.
That was both support for Yusei, and also "payment" from Yusei and ZONE to Tenjo Hikari.
You can't just ask people for help for free. Even if Tenjo Hikari and Yusei did get along really well, at times like this it's better to keep accounts clear.
Because of that, Tenjo Hikari now had a lot of things he could experiment with.
The simplest among them was…
The manufacturing of "Qliphort."
Even though Tenjo Hikari and Tierra both knew exactly which Cards the Qliphort series should consist of, the lack of materials still gave them a bit of a headache.
All of Tenjo Hikari's previous Pendulum Cards and Materialism stuff had been made using Akaba Leo's "legacy." Tierra wanted to revive as soon as possible, but she also understood the importance of "investment." In terms of priority, of course it was more important to first create Polymerization‑support Pendulum Cards that could help Tenjo Hikari, rather than her own power.
Now, with the materials gifted by ZONE and the "Pendulum Assistant Cards" Yusei had sent over after specifically studying Akaba Leo's machines for a while, Tenjo Hikari instantly perked up, ready to try and manufacture some Qliphort Cards.
This also counted as preparation for what was to come.
Tenjo Hikari himself didn't really care that much, but what needed to be hidden still had to be hidden to some extent. Plus, he'd made an agreement with Tierra from the very beginning: Tierra would provide him with power for Duels, and in return he would help Tierra manufacture her revival components and teach her how to Duel.
Now, this WRGP Tournament just happened to be able to serve as one part of her practical training. Since that was the case, he obviously needed to make more Cards related to what she'd be using.
Because this was a cross‑country, cross–Dimension Level tournament, this WRGP Tournament was not the same as the WRGP in Tenjo Hikari's memories.
First of all, the schedule. Aside from the preliminary Duels held over these past six months and the official registrations that started yesterday, the formal WRGP Tournament also had a rather long "roulette phase."
The so‑called roulette phase meant that City's officials would sort teams by their team grouping and then randomly pair them off as a whole, making sure every team had opponents to Duel. Only those who reached the required number of Duel wins within the set time would be allowed into the final elimination bracket.
During this process, each team could choose to send out their substitute members to hide their core players as a tactic, or conversely, send out their strongest Duelists as much as possible to secure a spot in the elimination rounds.
For Tenjo Hikari and Tierra, this was quite meaningful.
On the one hand, it meant more appearances, letting Tierra get used to bona fide Duels; on the other hand, it also helped conceal the Duels of Yusei's side.
Unfortunately, the officials had also set a Rule that any given team member could only appear a maximum of three times, so they couldn't take everything on themselves.
Of course, thanks to the addition of a few extra substitute members, Izayoi Aki and the other two kids could participate as well, helping to hide information about the main lineup.
You have to understand, this was a Duel that people from all over the world, and from multiple Dimensions, would be entering. Intel was extremely important—otherwise, if you ended up facing some bizarre anti‑deck tech Card, it would be a huge headache.
Naturally—
Intel was a very important thing.
So aside from waiting for Jack's report, waiting on Yusei's news, and carrying out Alchemy experiments, Tenjo Hikari would also take the time to swing by the registration venue and check out opponents he might run into in the future.
Besides, when necessary, he could also try something even more important to him.
The second day, under the "who the hell is this guy" stares of the others, Tenjo Hikari swaggered into the stands.
Of course, if it were just the regular stands, people wouldn't be looking at Tenjo Hikari like that. The real key was that Tenjo Hikari just sat himself down openly and brazenly right next to the Pendulum spectators' section.
Unfortunately, the Xyz diplomatic team seemed to be busy today and weren't present. Otherwise, Tenjo Hikari would've really liked to ask them if they had any useful intel.
"You're… a member of 5DS's Light team?" Officer Yeager saw Tenjo Hikari sit down, turned his mind over a bit, recalled Tenjo Hikari's "name," and then continued, "This area is for Pendulum Dimension teams, you should probably…"
"Officer Yeager, it's not really a big deal, we're all Duelists anyway." Tenjo Hikari raised his hand, made a little "Yeager" gesture, then smiled and said to Yeager, "Since we're all Duelists, sitting together to talk about Duels isn't weird at all. I imagine my friends here won't mind either."
The Pendulum Team members glanced at each other, then glanced again. The black‑clad staff from the Pendulum Dimension who were in charge of leading the team were about to cough and persuade Tenjo Hikari to leave, when Akaba Ling'Er's voice sounded in their ears.
Ignore him. Listen to what he has to say.
"That's fine." The few of them hurriedly replied.
So easygoing.
Tenjo Hikari was a little surprised.
But surprise aside, since he'd managed to slip in, it was time to chat with them.
Tenjo Hikari swept his gaze over the members.
Three black‑clad staff, the original series' trio of students, a ninja, Sakaki Yuya, Hiragi Yuzu, Quanxian Ban Sheng, and Sawatari…