The clerk's smile did not change. "How can I help you?" After staring at her for two seconds, Yugen stepped closer and saw several buttons appear in front of him.
"Talk. Buy. Sell. Leave." Yugen: "..."
He had just been praising how realistic this place felt, and then the style suddenly turned into an old RPG. After trying the talk option a few more times, he realized the clerk was basically just an NPC. Her intelligence level seemed to be no more advanced than old RPG programming, not some cutting-edge artificial intelligence.
Maybe once the system officially launched, Kaiba Corporation and the Student Council would replace her with something smarter. Yugen selected "Buy."
There was nothing especially surprising about the selection. The Card available for purchase all seemed to be cards that could already be bought in ordinary real-world Card shops, and the variety was far smaller than the internal channels of Academy Department. Yugen casually tried buying one and discovered that it could not be added directly to Link System.
Even if he bought it here, he would still have to receive the physical Card in real life. After all, the Card used in Link System were not virtual data either, but real cards that a Duelist had to register into the system before logging in.
Aside from that, the shop also sold clothes, props, and other items for use inside Link System. Yugen even spotted motorcycles and flying boards. By participating in Duel activities in the linked world, players could earn points inside Link System and use them to buy these virtual goods.
Yugen had no points yet, so he backed out for now and continued wandering through the city. Another facility currently open was the arena, which was also the core of Link System. Here, anyone could ignore regional limits and match with Duelists from all over the world.
Mokuba Kaiba had said that quite a few people had received closed beta access, so if he could use this chance to play a few games with experts from the pro league, that would not be bad either. Yugen was strolling toward the arena when the phantom of Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning suddenly floated out beside him.
"What is it?" Yugen looked at him. The power of Spirits worked inside the virtual world too, and Yugen had already tested that the last time he came in with Mokuba Kaiba. Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning floated there as though he were considering something.
"Incredible," he said suddenly. "What do you mean?"
"This place," Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning said. "This space created by humans is so real."
"Oh, that." Yugen said, "This is a data world. It's all fake. Hard to explain to you, but things online are virtual."
"No." Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning shook his head.
"I understand what you mean by a data world. But this? Even if it is a space created from data, it is already more than that." Yugen froze. "What do you mean?"
Only then did he remember that Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning was a powerful Spirit with spatial abilities. Maybe he could see or sense things that Yugen himself could not notice. "As I said, this place is already close to an independent Dimension created by artificial power. To be honest, I find it hard to imagine that this is a domain humanity could build with its current level of power," he said.
Yugen did not fully understand at first, but one thought immediately flashed through his mind. No, it was not wise to use "current human power" to measure the president casually. After all, that was the man who had charged straight into the Underworld years ago just to find Yami Yugi and play cards with him. Common sense had never been enough to restrain his technical ability.
"Compared to the world where you usually are, this place is closer to our world," Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning said. "Spirit World?" Yugen asked.
"Correct. Right now, I can already sense that if we start from here, some Spirit World is only a wall away." As Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning spoke, he gestured with the sword in his hand. "If you wish, I can show you."
You could connect to Spirit World from this Link System? Yugen instantly realized that what Seto Kaiba had developed might be far more than a simple online dueling simulator. And Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning just happened to be the kind of Spirit who could uncover this system's true potential.
"Sure. Then let's go take a look."
After passing through the space gate opened by Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Yugen felt another dizzy, weightless sensation, as if he were tumbling through clouds. When his muddled senses finally settled, he realized the surroundings had completely changed.
It seemed to be night. A broken crimson moon hung in the black sky, its light spilling across the worn rooftops below. The uneven stone road reflected a dark red sheen.
Ancient medieval-style buildings lined both sides of the street. Every door and window was shut tight, and there was not a single sign of living people anywhere. From time to time, a faint wind stirred the curtains behind the windows, making a soft rustling sound like strange whispers.
"So this is Spirit World?"
Yugen frowned and looked down at his own body. He could not quite explain it, but something about it felt slightly wrong.
"Is this Spirit World a little different from before?" he asked, turning his head.
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning appeared beside him and gave him a strange look. After a moment, he said, "No, it is not Spirit World that is different. It is..."
He paused for a second. "...you who are different."
"Me?"
Yugen clenched his fist. The sensation was real, and everything he saw, touched, and smelled felt real as well, yet that sense of mismatch refused to fade.
"Yes. If I had to describe it, your real self is not actually here. This is some kind of projected form," Black Luster Soldier said. "It is somewhat similar to how we Spirit usually appear in your Duel World."
He paused again, and his expression became even stranger. "Is this because of that consciousness projection device? Even I have never seen a situation like this before."
Yugen had already guessed part of it. This had to be because of Kaiba Corporation's black technology, the Link System.
The Link System had originally been developed from the black technology Duel Disk used by the president in The Dark Side of Dimensions. It was designed to project the user's mind into a shared virtual platform for Yugi Muto to play in. But while logged in, Yugen had combined it with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning's rare spatial ability and somehow glitched his way into Spirit World.
Even the form he was using now was his avatar from the Link System, a false body shaped by the system using his consciousness as a base. He had no idea whether anyone at Kaiba Corporation realized their black technology could be used this way, but their tech was clearly advanced enough to keep functioning even in another world.
As long as he cut the link, he could log out at any time and return to his real body in Yellow Dormitory. Just as Black Luster Soldier had said, it was a lot like the way Spirit normally manifested in the human world. The only difference was that Spirit usually needed their corresponding Card as a medium.