Chapter 297: The Phantom Gods' Chronicle Reward Cards
The hidden reward was Slifer the Sky Dragon, and unlike Obelisk the Tormentor before it, this one didn't come with any usage-count restriction.
Looked at that way, a genuinely complete God Card really did live up to an SSS-difficulty Chronicle reward.
The anime version of Slifer's summon-punishing effect meant the card alone could shut down plenty of Synchro and Xyz decks built around swarming with low-Level monsters.
Still, as powerful as that punishing effect was, its mandatory activation was also exactly why Slifer earned the nickname "the traitor dragon" in the anime.
That said, the only duelists capable of turning Slifer's own effect against itself were on the level of Atem or Yugi Muto. Among duelists at Eden's general skill level, Slifer's shutdown power was still plenty reliable.
In short: this Chronicle reward was an absolute jackpot!
"He, he won!"
Inside the Class 1-E classroom, a thunderous cheer erupted.
"The class rep won!"
"That 0-LP-locked comeback finisher was unbelievable!"
"Just like the man I admire most!"
The final winner of the war of the three gods: Amano Rei.
Thanks to KaibaCorp's main control computer briefly hacking into Eden's system, the duel had been broadcast live to 100 percent of Eden.
Of course, a 100 percent viewership rate alone wouldn't have caused much of a stir if the duel itself had been unremarkable.
But this duel just happened to be spectacular beyond words. Whether young or old, amateur duelist or professional, everyone who watched two players locked at 0 Life Points summon God Cards and trade blows in the final moments was left absolutely floored, without exception.
In the span of a single night, Amano Rei's name had spread through every street and alley in Eden in this uniquely dramatic fashion. Naturally, it also caught the attention of a great many professional duelist clubs in the Upper District.
With the duel finally over, Amano found himself already adrift in weightlessness, leaving the DM-era timeline inside the Chronicle.
Leaving this fast caught Amano off guard.
Based on his experience with past Duel Chronicles, even after winning a duel and having the system pop up a clear notification, he'd usually stay inside the instance for a while longer, going through a bit more story before he formally left.
But this time, the way it ended was completely different.
The duel had barely ended, the clear-condition notification had only been up for a few short seconds, before the scenery around him started collapsing like corrupted data.
Amano had assumed at first that this was KaibaCorp's Dimensional Domain System pulling everyone back from the scene of ancient Egypt three thousand years in the past.
He hadn't expected it to actually be his own Chronicle ending outright.
The mainframe Eva hadn't given Amano so much as an extra moment before pulling him straight back into Eden.
On every previous, far-less-important Chronicle storyline, Eva had always left him some free time to explore. And yet on a storyline this pivotal, the Eva system's response was this fast, almost as if it were deliberately kicking him out.
Compared to the familiar plots of past Chronicles, Amano was naturally far more curious about what happened after this grand finale, story territory the original material had never actually described.
So after being awakened, had the Pharaoh gone back to the afterlife again, or had he re-established some connection to the present world?
Halfway through the weightless drift back to Eden, Amano crossed his arms and filled in the rest of the story using what he already knew.
But the narrative voiceover that normally only appeared when entering a Chronicle spoke up again this time, even on the way back.
[Amano Rei, your story in DM ends here.]
[After this duel ended, you vanished without a trace, leaving behind no clues.]
[Your friends never gave up searching for you, but your disappearance was total, leaving behind no trace of the life you'd lived. Your former residence, your registered family records, none of it could be found anywhere. It was as if you existed only in everyone's memories.]
[Only Kaiba Seto and Yugi Muto seemed to have already anticipated this moment coming.]
[Kaiba Seto used every means at KaibaCorp's disposal to seal away most of the information related to you, on a global scale.]
[And you, under the identity of a different Amano Rei, began a second life.]
[Amano Rei, born into an ordinary family, grew into an ordinary duelist, and with ordinary grades barely scraped into the Duel Academy founded by Kaiba Seto, becoming an ordinary Slifer Red student. And so began your not-so-ordinary academy life.]
[That day, you collided with a Jaden Yuki running late just like you, and received the card Winged Kuriboh from a mysterious starfish-haired man.]
["My name's Jaden Yuki! You said your name's Amano Rei? That's the same name as a duelist I looked up to as a kid! No wonder I feel like we click so well!"]
["From now on, we're Slifer Red dorm-mates! Ha ha ha, take care of me from here on out, Rei!"]
[That would be an entirely new story.]
He'd vanished from the DM timeline?
And been reborn in the GX timeline?
The timing didn't add up, though.
If the GX timeline was calculated as eight years after DM ended, then during the events of Dark Side of Dimensions, his GX-timeline self should have already been seven or eight years old.
Could it be that he'd been sent back eight years and reborn there?
Just like Eva had said, everything after Dark Side of Dimensions was a chaotic, tangled timeline.
Maybe, in these tangled timelines, there really could be two versions of himself coexisting during the exact same period.
Amano opened his eyes again to find himself back in the luxury booth of the virtual network login point. Kaiba Chiaki, the shock still not faded from her face, had come back along with him.
"Senior Kaiba?" Amano waved a hand in front of Chiaki's face.
"You actually won!" The instant Chiaki snapped back to reality, that was the first thing out of her mouth.
"Yeah. I won."
"But Kaiba Seto said you shouldn't have been able to win."
Amano waved a hand helplessly. "Kaiba Seto also used to say all the time that he could beat the Pharaoh. Did he ever manage it? You can listen to your ancestor's nonsense, but you shouldn't take all of it at face value."
"Was it really nonsense, though..."
But her own ancestor had predicted things three thousand years into the future, and had even managed to link the two KaibaCorp control computers across that exact gap of three thousand years.
To correctly predict how KaibaCorp would develop three thousand years down the line, and then get the outcome of a single duel wrong.
What a strange ancestor to have.
Chiaki pressed. "Oh, right, what did you get as a reward from this Chronicle?"
Chiaki seemed even more invested in what cards Amano might have gotten than Amano himself was.
If Amano kept getting stronger at this rate, Chiaki felt her own revenge duel was going to get harder and harder to pull off.
Of course, as KaibaCorp's Chief Duel Advisor, Amano getting stronger was good news for the company too.
And Chiaki could tell at a glance that this SSS-difficulty Chronicle was on another level entirely, even surpassing the Wicked God instance that had stalled her out for two full years.
The Wicked God instance had gotten its brutal difficulty rating not just from a tough boss fight, but from the sheer length of having to fight thirteen consecutive Card Professors first, all of which pushed its combined difficulty rating through the roof.
But this Dark Side of Dimensions free-for-all had pushed the entire instance's difficulty up to SSS with a single duel.
Of course, the opponents' skill this time was more than enough to earn an SSS rating too. The reward was bound to be something serious.
And it really was something. Amano already had Slifer the Sky Dragon in hand now.
Still, a God Card wasn't the kind of thing you wanted to be flashing around outside of a necessary duel.
After all, no matter the era, a God Card was always something uniquely special.
Amano still remembered from the DM era: there'd been movie-canon material set after Battle City where, once Yugi had the God Cards, he got mobbed and chased down everywhere he went to and from school, all so people could challenge him to a duel with a God Card on the line.
Amano had no desire to enjoy that same kind of enthusiastic treatment while walking around Eden.
"Right. Let's check the rewards."
Without pulling out the God Card, Amano put on a casual air and walked over to the terminal.
Beyond the hidden reward earned for an ultra-high clear rating, the Eva system never shortchanged a Chronicle's normal clear rewards either.
The Chronicle's ordinary clear rewards had already been listed on the system interface before he'd even entered.
[Possible cards obtainable: Gandora the Dragon of Destruction, Gigarays Gandora the Dragon of Destruction, Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition, Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor, Palladium Oracle Mahad, Palladium Oracle Mana]
[Rating: SSS]
[Random draws available: 3]
Not bad. With an SSS rating, he'd get three random reward-card draws.
And right there among those reward cards was Obelisk the Tormentor, plain as day.
That God Card was visibly, obviously not in the same weight class as any of the others. It absolutely counted as the SSR-tier prize in this pool.
And with three draws to work with, the odds felt pretty good.
Except if he pulled the Tormentor with Chiaki standing right there watching, there'd be no way to keep his own God Card hidden anymore.
Talk about a luxury problem.
Here goes!
Amano tapped to claim the reward, and on the system interface, a cursor representing the random selection zipped rapidly back and forth over the handful of obtainable cards.
Higher odds mean better prizes~
Finally, the cursor stopped.
[Palladium Oracle Mahad]
Mahad was solid enough, but it wasn't a God Card.
"Whew~"
Amano could've sworn he caught the faint sound of a relieved breath from Chiaki's direction.
Senior Kaiba, don't tell me you can't stand to see me do well?
Draw again!
[Palladium Oracle Mana]
Great, treating him like the Pharaoh again, both Oracle cards in a row.
You two are supposed to be guarding the old king, not running off to guard the guy who just beat him.
Last draw!
The rapidly spinning cursor finally slowed to a stop, sliding right past the Tormentor.
[Gandora the Dragon of Destruction]
The original, earliest ace of the three, and the progenitor-tier card among the family of Gandora dragons.
Its overall effect wasn't as domineering as Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition's, but flipping the table on both sides of the field at once was still plenty domineering by Eden's standards.
"Such a shame, Amano." Chiaki smiled and patted Amano's shoulder. "You didn't pull that card."
"Senior Kaiba, why do you seem kind of happy about that?"
"Happy? Me? No, not at all. You're imagining things."
She was obviously gloating, and even the number of words she'd just used was noticeably more than usual.
Oh well, missing out on the Tormentor was missing out. He still had one Trial Card copy of the Tormentor left anyway.
Thinking of it that way, if he had pulled it, the trial-card reward would've technically gone to waste instead, which actually made Amano feel a lot better about the whole thing.
"It's getting pretty late." Chiaki checked the time.
The two of them had started the Duel Chronicle right after school let out, and by the time it ended, it was already pitch dark outside.
Chiaki asked, "Are you planning to head home and rest, Amano Rei, or come work overtime with me at the company?"
President, do you hear yourself right now?
Rest, or overtime. What other option is there for me to pick?
If you love working that much, go do it yourself.
Amano decisively chose to slip back to his own warm, comfortable little villa.
As Amano pulled out his D-Wheel key card in the parking lot, his hand brushed against something hard in his pocket.
This felt familiar. He'd pulled something out of his pocket just like this before.
Sure enough, Amano drew a fragment of the Millennium Puzzle out of his jacket pocket.
Going by the pattern so far, did every Chronicle storyline tied to the Pharaoh drop a Millennium Puzzle fragment?
And this time, the fragment he'd gotten was an especially unusual one. If there was one piece of the Millennium Puzzle that stood out as the most special, the most iconic, it was naturally the core piece shaped like an eye.
This time, the piece Amano got was that exact eye-shaped fragment.
A moment later, the golden fragment vanished from Amano's palm, successfully absorbed by the system.
[Host detected to have obtained a fragment of the Millennium Puzzle. The Duel King System will begin automatic upgrading in 12 hours.]
[Millennium Puzzle (3/4)]
So the system was finally done pretending, huh. It used to put on airs and call itself a Romance Development System, and now it had gone right back to calling itself the Duel King System.
Fair enough. With three out of four fragments recovered, it might as well stop being coy about it. No more disguising itself as some broken romance system that was secretly all dueling skills anyway.
He had no idea what skill the system would offer up this time, having absorbed such a major fragment.
But one thing was for certain: his Limited Link Zone skill had definitely just gotten stronger.
[Available uses of Link Summon scale with the number of Millennium Puzzle fragments held. Millennium Puzzle fragments (2/4)]
Now that he had three fragments, his available Link Summons per duel would rise to three.
Combined with Nanki'in Sakuya's 90-affection skill, Ultimate Circuit Connecting to the Future, if he burst it all out in a single turn, he could Link Summon four times in a row.
Word had it that, according to Eden's historical records, the strongest Link duelist from 180 years ago had once managed six Link Summons in a single duel.
Looking at it that way, being able to hit four Link Summons right now, and five once he finished collecting every Millennium Puzzle fragment, really wasn't bad at all.
Only where was he supposed to find that last fragment?
Going by his experience these past few times, only storylines tied to the Pharaoh ever dropped a Millennium Puzzle fragment.
And Eva's mainframe had just told him his story in the DM era was finished. Did that mean there were still Pharaoh-related storylines waiting in later eras?
The only thing Amano could think of right now was Jaden Yuki's actual graduation duel.
Amano got back to the villa and was immediately mobbed by Rei, Shio, and Finesse. Only belatedly did he realize the duel had been forcibly broadcast to every single screen inside Eden Tower.
This wasn't like the time Mizuki had accidentally kicked off that live broadcast of the HERO battle. This had been a full 100 percent viewership rate, spreading like a virus.
Amano was completely stunned. How had this happened?
Just earlier that day, he'd been thinking about staying low-key when he got the God Card, keeping himself out of the spotlight as much as possible. And now he turned around to find the sky had fallen: his own god-slaying duel had already been seen by every single person in Eden.
No wonder Nanki'in Sakuya and Rin Seiya had both sent him such strange messages on VSN that he hadn't gotten around to answering yet.
Nanki'in Sakuya: [Well fought!]
Rin Seiya: [Nicely done, I'll reward you later~]
So that's why those two had messaged him, because they'd seen this god-slaying duel too.
But that night turned out to be nothing more than a brief calm before the real storm of viral fame broke.
By the time Amano woke up the next day, or more accurately, was jolted awake by a racket outside, it was only six in the morning. Why was it already this loud outside the villa? Hadn't Finesse said this was a high-end neighborhood?
Amano pulled back the curtains and noticed the street outside their front door was already packed, first thing in the morning, with a crowd of people in sharp business suits, looking every bit like corporate elites.
"T-this is bad, big brother!" Shio, still in her shark-print pajamas, came dashing excitedly into Amano's room. "Outside, outside there are as many people as there's trash on the streets of District 32!"
Shio, hadn't he told her before not to keep comparing people to trash?
To keep the disturbance from escalating any further, Amano changed into his school uniform and headed out to see what was going on.
Coming downstairs, he found the rest of the villa's residents had also been woken up and were standing downstairs, looking like they were bracing for a siege.
"Rei, that's not a mob out for revenge, is it?" Kikawayu asked cautiously. "I say we call Sakuya and have her send some muscle over."
"No need." Finesse said. "I've already called in backup. If they really are here to cause trouble, the Wein family's fists aren't exactly unreliable either."
"Why do you all keep jumping to the worst-case scenario?" Amano sighed helplessly.
Yui said, "Because you just look like the type who's easy to make enemies with, Amano."
Saotome Rei chimed in in agreement. "Yeah, yeah, exactly, the type where you're just standing there and some rich family's spoiled heir has to come pick a fight, and then you crush him and he loses face, and it all turns into a grudge that comes knocking on your door."
Rei, I told you to uninstall those trashy web novel apps last time. Did you still not do it?
To prove his own innocence and wholesome-young-man image, Amano confidently threw open the villa's front door.
The crowd of corporate elites outside spotted Amano opening the door, gave him a careful once-over to confirm it was really him, and once they'd settled on it being the genuine article, every one of their faces lit up with delight.
"He's out, he's out!"
"It's really him!"
"We're from Hanno Club, would you be interested in considering joining the club as a professional duelist?"
A professional duelist club? Nanki'in Yukihime had mentioned something like that before.
Amano took the stack of business cards being handed his way and looked through them one by one.
Hanno Club? Do I get to use a mirror force if I join?
"We're the Starfall Alliance, please seriously consider our professional team!"
"Please take a look at our Time Magic Workshop!"
"The God Draw Dogs Association!"
"Hearthstone Tavern!"
So many bizarre, oddball professional club names, and a few of them didn't even sound like they had anything to do with Yu-Gi-Oh! anymore, more like they'd wandered in from some other card game entirely.
"What kind of poaching operation is this supposed to be?"
The elite crowd, still arguing over each other a second ago as they pitched their own leagues and clubs, suddenly fell silent at the sound of a low, resonant woman's voice from beyond the crowd.
The people instinctively parted to either side, opening up a path.
"Even she's here?"
"Well, once a God Card showed up in yesterday's duel, there was really no reason for her not to make a move."
"The Holder of the Sun God! Chosen of the Gods Alliance: Celestia!"
Amano thought he caught the words "sun god" somewhere in the crowd's murmuring.
Was it the sun god he was thinking of?
Winged Dragon of Ra?
Down the middle of the path the crowd had opened up, a tall woman with long gray hair in a yellow casual outfit was walking his way, hands tucked into her pockets.
The moment he laid eyes on this woman, whatever the crowd had just been murmuring about, some sun god or Chosen Alliance or Winged Dragon, went completely out of Amano's head.
Celestia's exposed skin, a warm brown, tan complexion, really did look like it carried on the Egyptian bloodline of the anime's Ishtar tomb-keeper clan.
But that wasn't the point right now.
The point was:
Finesse, jaw hanging open in shock, wore an expression that looked shaken clean to the bone. It took her a good long while to finally choke out two words.
"So big!"
That had to be at least a G-cup over there, right?
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