In the end, Yugen accepted the mission proposed by ZONE God.
Substituting for the original Godwin, he was to face Yusei and the other two alone, pretending to be a villain to train and improve them. Honestly, Yugen himself wasn't very confident in facing three opponents, and he had some doubts even when watching the animation.
Although Godwin in the original was indeed very skilled, wanting to take on three opponents seemed a bit disrespectful. Both Yusei and Jack were authentic top-tier experts with the Red Dragon Printing Machine cheat, and they themselves weren't weak either.
Godwin actually wanted to take on three opponents, and even allowed the other side to have three turns against his one, creating a huge deficit of two turns each round. With a comprehensive disadvantage in hand cards, turns, and field numbers, Godwin's only request to offset the disadvantage was to have his own twelve thousand Life Points matching their combined total.
It could be said that Godwin was either supremely confident in his dueling skills, or perhaps inflated by the dual Divine Power blessings of the Red Dragon and Evil God; or maybe, deep down, Godwin hoped to be defeated by Yusei and the others as he sought death in this battle.
Facing three alone, Yugen himself wasn't very confident either, but he considered that it didn't matter whether he won or lost. After all, Yugen didn't plan to really engage in a Dark Game betting on lives, just to play a villain threatening to destroy the world to frighten the protagonist group of 5DS for training purposes, so winning or losing didn't really matter.
However, ZONE seemed unexpectedly more confident in Yugen than Yugen himself.
According to ZONE, Yugen had ascended as a King for some time, having walked quite far on the path of a king. Based on ZONE's personal experience, he believed that Yugen's current level should make it easy to handle three strong players who haven't yet reached the threshold of becoming a Duel King.
What Yugen was more concerned about was that he had smoothly obtained his "cooperation funds."
ZONE promised that after this matter, he could exchange with him some of the cards held by himself and the Taiyi Organization.
In Yugen's view, this was quite a good condition. These people shuttle through various timelines daily, and many of the cards they collect might be invaluable in the current era, including rare cards, world-exclusive rare cards, cards not yet born in this era, and even original cards developed by ZONE and others, all of great collection value.
The negotiations were concluded, and finally, ZONE said: "Additionally, as a bonus... the Public Security Maintenance Bureau, your deputy might know something he shouldn't."
"My deputy?"
Yugen was puzzled.
It took him a while to realize who ZONE was referring to.
That clown, Yego?
Now that it's mentioned, over the past few days, that clown had been seen less frequently at the Public Security Maintenance Bureau. What was that guy up to?
After the conversation ended, Yugen exited this space, returning to the control room of the supercomputer inside the Public Security Maintenance Bureau.
However, looking around, Shirley, Goukou, and Qiu were not by his side. The three of them had been transported outside the Public Security Maintenance Bureau, landing on a grassy field in the wilderness.
Unsure whether ZONE was only conversing with him or had dialogues with everyone individually, Yugen temporarily didn't ask much, deciding to ask the others later what they saw before the recent teleportation.
For now, he needed to find that clown, Yego.
...
...
Yego indeed had appeared less frequently lately.
He hadn't been to the Public Security Maintenance Bureau much, taking several days off citing reasons. Previously, he would brush up his presence to the officer at least twice a day, even if no substantial work was done, he would at least flatter the officer. Yet lately, even that had become rare.
All of this was due to a message he received a few days ago.
An anonymous email, the source untraceable. When Yego opened it, he found it contained only a video recording.
Upon clicking it open, the image that abruptly appeared was of Officer Godwin.
In the video, Officer Godwin's face looked dark, the expression wasn't pleasant, and his tone was rather heavy.
"If you are seeing this message, then I should already be dead."
Yego was startled at once.
Dead?
Isn't Officer Godwin still alive and well?
Then the video continued with Godwin saying: "I may not be able to hold on any longer, another self has been inserted into my body... my consciousness could disappear at any time.
I have no relatives or friends left in this world, so I can only leave this warning to you, Deputy Commissioner.
When you see this video, you must be alert. Rex Godwin beside you is no longer me, but an impostor.
He comes to bring disaster to this world, and every citizen of this city, you, and your cherished family, everything might be destroyed by that disaster.
You must warn others, you must take measures against that guy..."
"..."
Yego was dumbfounded.
Honestly, he was just someone waiting for a free ride, promoted to Deputy Commissioner simply because of good flattering skills, never expecting to bear such a huge responsibility?
So, upon receiving the warning, Yego's first decision was—
—Destroy the video evidence, pretending he saw nothing.
Kidding, let him report the officer, take measures?
Yego believed a mere video recording couldn't serve as evidence. More importantly, he realized that the entity impersonating Officer Godwin was likely someone he couldn't provoke.
Isn't this looking for trouble?
Yego climbed from the bottom of society to his current position relying on the principle that aside from knowing how to join teams and flatter, the most crucial was avoiding trouble whenever possible, especially major issues get away as far as possible.
Now Yego was hiding in his safe house, sighing melancholically.
"Life is hard..."
It was better before, idling and flattering his way to become the deputy. But recently, things started spiraling out of control, the prior Earth-Bound God incident, the city-threatening Dark Duel, now an unidentified entity suspected of possessing command...
Yego sighed again.
He dearly missed the times when the world wasn't so crazy...
At this moment, a voice emerged from behind him inside the safe house.
"Godwin actually left such a contingency plan... well, though it's not aimed at me, but I have to bear the brunt, really, what a troublesome guy..."
The voice startled Yego, leaving him utterly frightened, springing into the air.
Turning around, he saw "Officer Godwin" had somehow stood behind him, terrifying him to the point of nearly losing his soul.
"G-G-Godwin Officer..." Yego trembled like a leaf.
Yugen already understood the situation.
Godwin of this dimension had originally been replaced by another Godwin from a slightly future timeline. But before being destroyed, Godwin of this dimension probably anticipated his death, thus leaving a warning for others.
After which, Yugen came to this dimension, eliminated the Godwin that replaced Godwin, then took the place himself.
This warning video was originally meant to guard against the new Godwin, but unexpectedly, this burden now fell onto Yugen...
"Alas, let's say I'm just unlucky."
Yugen sighed subtly, then squinted his eyes, smiling at Yego.
"As for Vice Commissioner Yego... though I really dislike doing this, I have no other choice..."
"... you know too much."