Across the ocean, in a brightly lit international city.
The entire city's traffic seemed to have gathered in one place, with streets packed to the brim. Tens of thousands of people surrounded a white circular open-air arena, with ivory-colored watchtowers standing tall around it, and spotlight beams cutting through the night like golden swords.
Today, this place is the much-anticipated annual final of the professional Duelist league. Almost half of the city's population had gathered here—even those who couldn't get tickets.
The venue, both inside and out, was packed beyond capacity, with Kaiba Group hot air balloons leisurely floating above the arena. A giant electronic screen hung in mid-air, displaying the contestants for today's match.
The reason this match received so much attention is because one of its protagonists is a rising star in the professional circle.
A young man with silvery-white hair and deep, sharp blue eyes. He always wears a well-tailored white suit, with a confident yet graceful smile on his handsome face, as if he has everything under control.
Ed Phoenix, a rising star in the professional circle. Although it's his first year entering the league, he hasn't suffered a single defeat so far.
As a rookie, Ed's path to the top has truly shocked many experts. During his matches, he repeatedly encountered strong opponents, and almost every time, as a newcomer, he wasn't favored by the experts.
An overseas commentator, known as "Old Immortal," repeatedly claimed that the time had come for this rookie to hit a wall. Yet every time, Ed was able to refresh everyone's perception with near-flawless performances, defeating opponents and slapping the commentator's face hard.
In just one season, Ed won himself a large number of fans—it seems mostly female fans, actually.
You can't help it; being handsome comes with its own set of troubles sometimes.
Ed's handsomeness was written into his character setting. When he made his debut at Duel Academy in the animation, Asuka's two fangirl roommates quickly defected to support Ed—it couldn't be helped, he was just too handsome.
Even Youyu, upon accidentally seeing Ed on a TV interview, had to concede—
—Not bad, not bad, the young man almost has half as much charm as I do.
Though he could never compare to You, it's still commendable.
Everyone was curious about when this rookie, making his debut, would finally face a setback. Instead, Ed miraculously kept refreshing records and defeating strong opponents, winning all the way through.
His number of victories kept increasing until his name was filled in the entire circle of those following the professional league. Headlines in newspapers and magazines, people's daily discussions, almost all couldn't avoid the name Ed Phoenix.
With this came a question that everyone finally had to start taking seriously—
—Could this kid actually take the championship?
Winning the world championship in his first league season, that's just too far-fetched, right?
Then, under everyone's eyes, he actually reached this point, standing on the grand stage of the league finals.
All the spectators present felt like they were witnessing the birth of a brand new legend.
And today, as Ed's opponent appears, a bald, muscular giant of a man, entering the stage still wearing a prisoner's straitjacket unique to prisoners.
According to the referee's introduction, this is the famous prisoner Duelist, the criminal with a super high IQ of 200, currently serving a sentence in prison, Dr. Krejuta!
As soon as the host finished the introduction, this muscular man roared and used his monstrous muscle power to tear the straitjacket into shreds, revealing the solid muscles beneath.
Yes, that's right, heavy criminals in prison these days can still somehow take to the stage for card duels...
Perhaps it's in the society dominated by Kaiba Group that the right to duel takes precedence over everything. Perhaps the ones in power feel it's too cruel and inhumane to deny prisoners the ability to duel during their lengthy sentences, so they allowed him the privilege to duel during his imprisonment...
There are also rumors that Dr. Krejuta is assisting the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) while being imprisoned, which may have earned him the privilege to participate in dueling while serving his sentence.
It's said that crime through dueling is quite popular among gangs, with many people in the underworld now going out without guns and instead carrying Duel Discs.
The FBI has been stepping up efforts to deal with transnational dueling crime groups in recent years, with agents reportedly required to carry not just guns but also Duel Discs on assignments...
In the second season of the GX Animation's professional league finals, the same Dr. Krejuta stepped onto the finals stage, except in animation his opponent was said to be the DD who had been world champion for ten years—host father to Ed, possessed by the "Light of Destruction".
Of course, that part of the Light of Destruction was already destroyed by Youyu six years ago, so naturally, there's no business here for the Light of Destruction.
So replacing the original history's DD on the finals stage is Ed himself.
Dr. Krejuta stood on the stage, looking at Ed, who was a head shorter, and coldly smiled.
"My opponent in the finals is such a wet-behind-the-ears brat... Seems like the talk about the league's standards declining each year isn't unfounded."
Ed maintained his usual graceful smile, seemingly unfazed by the pre-match trash talk. He calmly activated his Duel Disc, and the Card Deck rapidly shuffled itself in the slot.
He made a gesture of "please," indicating he was ready.
"Tch, pretentious brat." Dr. Krejuta scoffed and also activated his Duel Disc. "I'll soon wipe that smile off your face."
"Duel!" x2
[Krejuta, LP 4000]
[Ed, LP 4000]
"I'm taking the first turn, draw." Ed said, "Magic Card 'Take Over5,' discarding the top five cards from the Card Deck to the graveyard.
Then I summon 'Destiny Hero Diamond Dude' in attack mode!"
[Destiny Hero Diamond Dude, ATK 1400]
"Diamond Dude's effect allows me to check the top card of my Card Deck. If it's a Magic Card, it goes to the grave, and I can use the effect for free during my next standby phase.
If it's not a Magic Card, it goes to the bottom of the Card Deck."
True card duelists using "Diamond Dude's" effect might draw a Magic Card only once in ten tries, but duelists like our friend Ed have, throughout the animation, never failed to draw a Magic Card.
"I draw a Magic Card 'Destiny Draw.'" Ed said, "'Destiny Draw's' effect lets me draw two cards by discarding a 'Destiny Hero.'
But thanks to 'Diamond Dude's' effect, next turn I can draw two cards without discarding a 'Destiny Hero.'
He then drew another card.
"Set one card face-down, turn end."
Dr. Krejuta looked at the lone Diamond Dude and one set card on Ed's field, and laughed.
"Ha, people hype you as some rising star of the Duel World, but you don't seem all that impressive. This sort of setup can be wiped out instantly by me.
My turn, draw!"
Dr. Krejuta made a large gesture, indicating he's all about revenge on society!
"Continuous Magic 'Dimensional Fissure!'" he played the first card, "As long as this Magic Card is on the field, all Monsters sent to the graveyard from both sides aren't sent to the grave, but banished from the game instead!"