Chapter 119: Kaiba's Human-AI Challenge
"Mizuki, let me ask you—do you have an Exodia the Forbidden One card in your deck?"
"Eh? Why suddenly ask me that? Weren't we discussing streaming?"
Mizuki scratched her little pink hair in confusion, then honestly nodded.
"I do have it, Amano-bro. Though that card is rather special."
"Special—is it a soul-bound card?"
If it was soul-bound, Amano Rei had no options. He'd probably never have another chance at the head again.
He could suddenly empathize with Kaiba Chiaki not being able to obtain the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
As expected, only after experiencing the same pain could people truly understand each other.
"Not exactly soul-bound. But it's a card passed down through my family for generations."
No way—Mizuki didn't look like she came from any prominent family. How could they be passing down a single head for generations?
Could her ancestors going back six thousand years have been some pharaoh's priest?
Catching the skeptical meaning in Amano Rei's eyes, Mizuki patted her nearly flat chest, forcing momentum.
"Don't judge by my current poverty—my family ancestors were at least a prominent clan, just declined through changing times!"
If it was an ancestral heirloom card passed down through generations, Amano Rei didn't feel comfortable asking for it.
But this result was at least better than a soul-bound card. Even if Mizuki wasn't willing to transfer it, she could lend it. Worst case, he'd return it after a month.
Amano Rei activated the system, checking Mizuki's affection.
[Mizuki] [Affection: 58]
Three points higher than their initial meeting. Should be because she'd made money filming videos afterward, generating some grateful feelings toward him reflected in the affection.
But 58 affection points—at most counting as a relatively familiar stranger.
Made sense. Though Mizuki's personality was quite cheerful, calling him 'bro' constantly, they'd actually only met twice, and total time together didn't even reach an hour.
Amano Rei really wanted Exodia the Forbidden One to complete Dark Magician's final puzzle piece.
However, if that was Mizuki's precious family heirloom, a stranger suddenly asking for it would not only likely fail but also make Mizuki harbor reservations.
As expected, he still needed to grind the little streamer's affection.
On one hand, once Mizuki's affection rose, he might be able to borrow Old Exo.
On the other hand, since Exodia the Forbidden One was Mizuki's family heirloom card, maybe this girl's innate skill might relate to Dark Magician.
"So Amano-bro, what do you think of my proposal?"
Mizuki blinked at Amano Rei. Not caring at all why Amano Rei minded Old Exo's business, her mind was full of her streaming career.
"I think this proposal... is quite good, worth trying!"
"I knew it—Amano-bro, you'd definitely understand me!"
[Mizuki] [Affection +1]
Truly immediate results. After all, early-stage affection raised easily—this was normal.
Besides, even without grinding affection, since Amano Rei came over, he actually planned to try streaming anyway.
Didn't need to spend his own money, had chances to earn money, plus Amano Rei was quite interested in streaming card games.
Playing card battles through the Eva network felt like the Yu-Gi-Oh! online games from his past life.
"Wait, Mizuki-kouhai." Rin Seiya suddenly stepped forward to correct. "I remember Eva network has regulations prohibiting duelists from online matches, right? How are you streaming card games alone?"
Online battles weren't allowed?
True—compared to Amano Rei's past life where card games were purely recreational entertainment, Eden's definition of dueling was stricter.
In Eden, duels were combat methods adopted to replace violent conflict.
So even duels between friends had to "adjudicate" something.
Even if "adjudicating" who washes dishes tonight was acceptable, there had to be "adjudication" content.
But online network battles involved strangers on both sides. "Adjudication" content became hard to judge for legitimate existence. So Eva network simply made a blanket cut—no online battles allowed.
Most duel streams were offline duels being recorded and broadcast.
But Mizuki was not only alone, she was also an academy student prohibited from private dueling.
So how had she been streaming card games before?
"Hehe, Senpai, your nose for catching hot network topics isn't as sharp as mine."
Mizuki smiled proudly at Rin Seiya, then opened a website.
"Last month, Kaiba Corporation just launched a brand new service. Providing online human-AI battle service. Because it's not battling people but battling AI, it cleverly bypasses Eva network's prohibition on online duels."
"Kaiba Corporation's... human-AI battles?" Amano Rei raised an eyebrow.
This matter was also recorded in the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! DM.
Kaiba Corporation President Kaiba Seto was famously an AI-bashing maniac.
Various simulations of rival Pharaoh's card-playing methods, compiled into AI data, then violently beating the AI, or being violently beaten by AI.
Never expected that three thousand years in the future at Eden, this side's Kaiba Corporation also inherited old Kaiba's tradition, even developing it into network services open to everyone.
Letting everyone have AI to bash.
This counted as a good development direction.
"Apparently combining Kaiba Corporation's external exploration business, AI data brought back from outside the Tower. Officially launched a month ago. Though currently not many people know about it, it's trending more popular recently—definitely will be a huge hot topic in the future!"
"AI data brought back from outside the Tower." This interested Amano Rei even more.
Looking at the interface Mizuki opened—AI levels from lowest difficulty T30 AI to highest difficulty T1 AI, thirty total tiers.
However, Mizuki's AI unlock progress only reached T28 AI. Higher difficulties were all grayed-out icons.
"What, do higher-level AIs cost money to unlock?" Amano Rei asked curiously.
"Um, currently this feature is still in testing phase—no paid items." Mizuki scratched her head awkwardly. "I just can't beat them, can't unlock higher difficulties."
T28—couldn't even beat easy AI?
"Can't help it! This AI challenge limits you to one attempt per day. Even if you lose, you have to wait until the next day to continue challenging—totally unreasonable! If you'd let me keep playing, I'd definitely win!"
Amano Rei actually thought this rule quite reasonable.
Letting you keep playing meant you'd eventually hit AI card-screw once, right?
Such ugly victories held no meaning.
Nanki'in Sakuya inquired curiously: "One challenge per day—since this feature launched a month ago, has anyone reached the top?"
If powerful duelists existed who won past one AI level per day, exactly thirty days would let them defeat T1 AI.
"Nanki'in-san, you seem to have potential for discovering hot topics."
"This is exactly why human-AI battles suddenly exploded in popularity these past few days."
"Initially everyone just casually tried each AI level's strength daily. Then more and more people discovered—the higher you go, the more absurdly strong these AIs become!"
Rin Seiya questioned skeptically: "Just AI—how hard could it be? Only because I didn't know before. If I'd known, I'd have cleared it ages ago."
"Senpai, not so~" Mizuki smiled proudly at Rin Seiya again.
"Quite a few professional duelists ate defeats at high-level AI hands. And just the day before yesterday, even President Kaiba challenging the current highest progress T2 AI failed."
"Kaiba Chiaki got beaten by her own company's AI." Amano Rei raised an eyebrow.
Felt unexpected yet completely reasonable.
This matter was also recorded in the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! DM.
Rin Seiya stopped talking too.
After all, looking at academy ranking points, Kaiba Chiaki ranked one place above her.
If even Kaiba Chiaki lost, she naturally couldn't guarantee stable victory either.
"So the streaming content you mentioned—you want me to also fight these AIs?"
"Mm! 'Alright, This Time We're Playing Cards' Episode 1 plan—have Amano Rei-bro challenge Kaiba Corporation's 30-level AI. Your inherent popularity plus recent AI popularity—double traffic boost will definitely go viral!"
Whether it could go viral, Amano Rei held skeptical attitude.
Only lunch break time available for streaming, streaming content just fighting one AI daily, today only able to fight lowest level.
Honestly, might as well have Rin Seiya and Nanki'in Sakuya do a "Try Not to Laugh Challenge" stream in Mizuki's room—making Nanki'in laugh counted as winning. That would definitely draw more viewers.
But since Mizuki requested this, for steadily rising affection, Amano Rei could only choose to cooperate.
"Amano-bro, just connect your Eva Terminal to my computer. My latest purchased equipment will let you battle immersively in the network world!"
Following Mizuki's prompts, the instant Amano Rei deployed his Duel Disk, the surrounding cramped narrow room environment suddenly transformed.
Changed into a tech-filled, blue-white interlaced, much more spacious duel hall.
"Is this a projection?" Amano Rei asked curiously.
Though surrounding environment changed, Amano Rei still didn't dare make large movements. After all, his actual body should still be in Mizuki's small club room.
"Don't worry, this is cognitive expansion space."
Next second, Mizuki, Rin Seiya, and Nanki'in all three appeared in the space.
"You can move freely in cognitive expansion space, but reality won't make overly large motions. Combines mental consciousness cognitive expansion to enlarge actionable space. So even though I only applied for a small club room, I can still play cards freely."
"Equipment bought for thirty thousand can achieve this level."
This was probably the most cyber thing Amano Rei had encountered recently.
"Without further ado, let's start streaming!" Mizuki excitedly clicked the [Start Stream] button.
At the same time, Kaiba Corporation, upper-floor office.
After ending two weeks of confinement, Kaiba Chiha was finally released from the detention room.
But because the arranged marriage plan fell through, Chiha still wasn't allowed to appear publicly. Daily life was just two-point commute between academy and company office.
Anyway, as long as she didn't have to marry Karl, Chiha could completely accept these restrictions.
At this time, the black-stockinged female secretary in office attire knocked and entered again.
"Young Master Chiha, the small streamer you asked us to monitor started streaming again at noon today."
"Oh, I've been throttling her this long and she's still this persistent." Chiha clicked her tongue in displeasure. "Keep throttling her—stream room can't exceed ten people, and arrange half of them as haters inside."
After speaking, idle Chiha also opened Mizuki's stream room, treating it as lunchtime entertainment.
[["Oh, the niche streamer I follow is streaming again."]]
[["Great, still this niche today. Keep it up~"]]
[["What boring content is streaming today."]]
[["Suggest streamer just go work factory assembly line."]]
[["Actually, I think the streamer is pretty cute." (This account has been officially muted for 30 days)]]
Watching lines of barrage floating past in the stream room, Mizuki proudly boasted.
"See, I told you—though my stream room doesn't have many people, interaction rate is really high!"
The three were speechless.
Even Nanki'in Sakuya could tell this wasn't "interaction" but pure mockery.
Stream effects and card-playing skills aside, just Mizuki's mentality—simply born to eat the streaming bowl of rice.
"Family, today the streamer has brought completely different content! And today our show's specially invited regular guest is online—that is..."
"Hah?" Kaiba Chiha looked at that sinful face frequently appearing in her nightmares on screen. "Amano Rei!!"
Even with few stream room viewers, Mizuki still energetically introduced Amano Rei's identity and future stream content challenging AI battles.
"Interesting—starting challenges from easiest AI." Chiha's lips curled in a wicked smile, immediately instructing the black secretary beside her.
"Go, cancel stream room throttling—no, push her stream, the more people see the better. Also fastest speed, contact tech department!"
Kaiba Chiha detected her chance to turn things around had arrived.
She'd already reached T3 level in AI challenges. So if under numerous stream room viewers' witness, Amano Rei crashed at easiest T30 AI—by comparison, wouldn't that prove this guy actually had no real strength, beating her that time was pure luck?
Kaiba Chiha felt like concentrated genius!
"Amano-bro, stream room numbers are really rising! You truly have traffic appeal!"
Watching stream room numbers climb from initial single digits toward breaking three digits, Mizuki grew increasingly excited.
"Without further ado, let's begin today's first duel challenge!"
"Alright, this time I'm playing cards!"
Following Mizuki's instructions, Amano Rei also opened his waist card box to retrieve his deck. Under Rin Seiya and Nanki'in's eager expectant gazes, he stylishly inserted the deck into his Duel Disk.
[AI Challenge Activated]
[Challenger: Amano Rei]
[Challenge Level: T30]
[Generating AI Data]
Accompanied by electronically synthesized voice announcements, the darkness at the duel hall's far end was suddenly illuminated by light revealing a path.
A duelist wearing blue school uniform, arm equipped with first-generation Duel Disk, slowly walked out from darkness—each step's rhythm appearing steady and powerful.
Suddenly, familiar yet rousing BGM sounded in Amano and others' ears.
How did this AI come out carrying speakers?
And this BGM—wasn't this "Passionate Duelist"!
Sensing something wrong, Amano Rei looked toward the AI duelist gradually revealing true appearance from darkness.
"Amano-kun, your opponent is me."
Voice gentle yet confident.
The duelist stepping out from darkness—that starlight-characteristic hairstyle, Amano would never mistake it even in death.
Family, who could understand—playing easy AI, result was a starfish-head appearing with dedicated BGM, that despair feeling?
Yugi Mutou!
What the hell level AI is this?!
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