Chapter 1073: The Otherworldly Contact

"Hey, hey, wake up."

"Are you there?"

The blinding white light sliced through Yamada Ken's consciousness like a razor blade. He heard his name floating in the gaps of the ringing in his ears, the sound as if it were separated by thick cotton. When his eyelashes finally managed to fight against his sticky eyelids, he saw the LED tube on the ceiling flickering at a high frequency, each alternation of light and dark bringing a new stinging pain to his temples.

When he finally managed to focus his vision, he immediately saw that sunny, handsome face occupying his field of view, tilting its head to examine him.

In an instant, this face awakened some unpleasant memories in him, making Yamada Ken almost jump up, his mouth blurting out uncontrollably: "Demon!"

Fujiki You Xuan was very dissatisfied: "What are you talking nonsense for? That's really rude."

Who are you calling a demon?

Is there a demon as handsome as me?

There is no duelist more loving than me, absolutely none.

Only then did Yamada Ken notice that he couldn't move.

The chill of the metal chair seeped into his spine through his thin shirt, and his bound wrists were marked with purple-red grooves. When he tried to move his right foot, he found that his ankle was fixed by an iron ring welded to the floor, and every struggle caused the clanking sound of chains. The one-way glass on the left wall reflected his distorted reflection, and on the interrogation table on the right lay his employee ID from the research institute—which was, of course, forged.

Yamada Ken took a deep breath and accepted his status as a prisoner.

"No matter what you ask, I won't say anything."

Yamada Ken said proudly.

"Show your dirtiest methods, otherworldly person."

Only then did he suddenly think that as an interrogation room, there didn't seem to be any tools used for interrogation here. A bit strange.

It seems that the people in this dimension are too amateurish. If it were in their Heartland, how could a spy be allowed not to open their mouth? Even if they had to pry it open, they would pry the spy's mouth open...

Just as he was thinking this.

Fujiki You Xuan asked expressionlessly: "Name, age, background."

Yamada Ken blurted out without thinking: "Yamada Ken, 24 years old, a native of Heartland."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he was startled.

What's going on? Why couldn't he control his own mouth?

Fujiki You Xuan smiled.

Little guy. Although I didn't take your life, you lost a card game to me, You-mou-ren; do you think I would allow you not to speak?

"You... what kind of sorcery is this!?" Yamada Ken was shocked.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL has a completely different power system from the first three generations. Although ZEXAL introduced heaven-defying things like the "Numeron Code," it did not have a more traditional Dark Duel system.

There is absolutely no mention of Dark Duels in ZEXAL. Even in life-and-death matches, duel damage is generally converted into real damage only when Numbers fight each other, which is more like the psychic duels in 5DS.

Although there are life-and-death risks, the dueling functions are far from as comprehensive as traditional Dark Duels.

And because it is not a conceptual soul-betting game like a Dark Duel, many duels in ZEXAL, even if they are said to be life-and-death matches, do not necessarily mean death if you lose. As long as you have a superhuman physique and sufficiently high physical defense, you can completely resist it with your physical fitness; even if you lose the game, it doesn't necessarily mean anything will happen.

Of course, conversely, if your physique is not that superhuman, it is possible that you will be killed by the opponent's physical damage before the game is over, even if you still have Life Points left.

Behind him, Judai asked curiously: "Heartland? Is that the name of a city?"

"Yes," Fujiki You Xuan nodded, "Dr. Ficker is probably the actual ruler behind the scenes of that city."

Heartland is the city where the story of the fourth generation is set, and its status is equivalent to Domino City in the first three generations.

Yamada Ken opened his mouth: "How do you know our dimension..."

"Yes, I know a lot. But I still want to ask about something I don't know."

Fujiki You Xuan asked: "For example, why did you come here? To this dimension?"

Yamada Ken tried his best to close his mouth, but after struggling for only half a second, his mouth opened uncontrollably.

"Dr. Ficker... transaction... uh uh..."

"Transaction?" Fujiki You Xuan asked, "Trading with whom?"

"... I'm not sure."

Yamada Ken seemed to have let out a breath he was holding. This was probably because he truly didn't know the answer to this question from Fujiki You Xuan, so there was nothing to hide and no need to fight against the mysterious power controlling him.

"Dr. Ficker has always had many secrets, and most of our subordinates don't know them clearly," Yamada Ken said, "I am relatively considered a confidant, but he still wouldn't tell me much.

But there is a rumor inside that Dr. Ficker once discovered a passage to a world outside of humanity."

Judai was interested: "A world outside of humanity? Is that the Fairy dimension?"

Yamada Ken asked curiously: "Fairy dimension? Never heard of it. I did once accidentally hear Dr. Ficker mention the name of that other dimension outside the door..."

He paused and lowered his voice, as if afraid of being heard by others.

"... Barian."

"Barian?" Judai repeated the name, seemingly wondering what the word meant.

Fujiki You Xuan naturally understood. Barian is the main hostile camp in ZEXAL, an otherworldly world opposed to the human world. The main boss on the surface of the story is the Seven Barian Emperors, but in reality, these seven emperors are also pawns of Don Thousand, who calculates everything behind the scenes.

He still remembered the original setting. Dr. Ficker is the final boss of the first chapter of ZEXAL. He explored the path to the Barian world in his early years, traded with the Barians, and obtained otherworldly power.

As long as he served the Barians as a puppet, the Barians would bestow upon him power in exchange—the power to save his son, Hart, who had been weak and sickly since childhood.

And at this moment, Yamada Ken said that Dr. Ficker had reached a deal with the Barians and sent him to this GX dimension to go undercover and gather information.

So, could it be that the Barians have set their sights on this dimension?

But why? There's no reason.

However, this person's job was just to come here to collect information, mainly about the top duelists in the GX dimension, mainstream decks, and so on. He didn't know any more information.

Of course, there was one more important piece of information he could provide.

"Since you were hired by Kaiba Corp, you have lived in the employee dormitory every day, come to work from the dormitory, and have not made any unnecessary movements every day."

Fujiki You Xuan paused and smiled.

"But we noticed that every Wednesday, you definitely go to the online arena to duel a fixed opponent. I remember the ID of that person was called something... Butterfly Under the Moon?"

Yamada Ken's expression changed instantly.

"Sure enough, that's your contact, right?"

Fujiki You Xuan smiled.

"Now Kaiba Corp's technicians are cracking the IP address of that Butterfly Under the Moon, tracking its location. But of course, if you could tell me directly, it would be faster, which would be even better.

So now, do me a favor..."

Fujiki You Xuan leaned forward and asked gently.

"Where is that contact?" ===== CHAPTER 1074 =====