Chapter 116: Invitation from Headquarters

Just as You Xuan had expected, not long after they left, Hayato and Sho contacted the academy.

The disappearance of a student from the Old Dormitory was naturally a top-priority matter, so the incident was reported to the academy's board of directors. Kaiba Corporation dispatched a relevant team to investigate, and Katsuya, having heard about the matter, came along with them.

You Xuan briefly recounted his experiences and observations from that journey to the Spirit Dimension, and after finishing his statement, he began chatting with Katsuya.

"I see, so that evil god from the new Doma has simultaneously invaded many Spirit Dimensions," Katsuya mused. "You actually encountered one of the new Three Knights as well?"

"It's remarkable that you managed to win. I've heard that none of the Three Knights are easy opponents."

"Pure luck, pure luck," You Xuan said, looking visibly shaken. "But the situation back then was truly perilous and incredibly difficult; even with Jaden and I fighting two against one, we suffered greatly before barely securing victory."

This time, however, before he could even finish his humble brag, Katsuya interrupted his recitation.

"Mm-hmm, it's best to strengthen your deck as much as possible. You need rare cards, right?"

You Xuan smiled.

Indeed, it was always easier to deal with acquaintances; Katsuya had already developed such tacit understanding with him.

"I anticipated you might say something like this even before I arrived," Katsuya chuckled. "As it happens, I heard the research team over at the Chaos Soldier division has recently made progress, thanks largely to the information you provided earlier. I estimate it won't be long before they contact you as well."

"When that happens, just come to headquarters while you're at it; I'll see what we have that you can use."

You Xuan's eyes lit up.

Kaiba Corporation's headquarters? Now that was something worth considering.

He would go take a look then to see what good items they had.

In fact, over these past few days, You Xuan had already outlined ideas for several different decks. Sometimes he would ponder the potential shortcomings of his current decks when facing different situations, and in striving to compensate for those deficiencies against specific opponents, various new strategies and construction concepts would naturally arise.

At other times, new ideas would stem from newly acquired cards, prompting him to attempt building new constructions centered around a specific card, much like the [Abyss Control] deck he had just recently completed.

While the components for this particular deck were fairly versatile and easy to gather, he still had many other ideas lacking key components; his list of missing cards had already grown quite long.

Especially after obtaining "Nephthys the Phoenix God" this time, he felt even more strongly that his main deck could be further upgraded.

It happened to be a former World Champion deck: [Mutation Chaos Phoenix God].

As the name suggested, the three core components of this deck were Sudden Mutation, Chaos Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and Nephthys the Phoenix God.

Needless to say, Great Opening was an absolute main attacker, the strongest fighter in the meta. Nephthys the Phoenix God, with its 2400 ATK, was also quite formidable in those days; furthermore, it possessed resurrection resistance against various mainstream board-clearing Spell/Trap cards and came with its own "Great Storm"-type board-clearing effect, making it extremely powerful as well.

Sudden Mutation allowed one to transform monsters on their field into Fusion Monsters according to the situation, effortlessly summoning various large Fusion Monsters to handle any circumstance. It could be said to be a top-tier deck performing excellently in both offense and defense.

However, within his conception of this deck, he was still missing quite a few things.

For instance, Fusion Monsters. Perhaps because GX was also known as the "Fusion Era," he quickly discovered that Fusion Monsters in this period were especially expensive; even the prices of those Fusion Normal Monsters he wouldn't even glance at made one frown, and overall, they were relatively scarce.

The Fusion Monsters currently available for purchase were mostly not to his liking, and even if he acquired them, he felt the prices were a terrible loss. Moreover, most of the Fusion Monsters he wanted were simply unavailable for purchase.

The opportunity Katsuya was now offering was quite good; Kaiba Corporation's headquarters should not lack these items. It looked like another big shopping spree was in store.

Kaiba Corporation's professionals had already surrounded the room in the Old Dormitory, with people constantly entering and exiting carrying equipment to survey and investigate. You Xuan leaned against the perimeter with Katsuya, chatting idly while asking about the CEO's recent status, particularly regarding the progress of the investigation into the new Doma.

But upon mentioning this, Katsuya shook his head.

"It's not that there's been no progress... We've taken down many hideouts and uprooted many dark duelist factions colluding with them. I believe this has impacted their organization's movements, but it's hard to say we've struck at their foundation."

Katsuya sighed.

"Mainly, we noticed things a bit too late. Back in the day, Dartz established the old Doma's influence spanning the entire globe; he had permeated both the business and political worlds to their very core."

"Although my brother and Yugi later joined forces to defeat Dartz, such a massive organization couldn't just vanish into thin air. We suspect that the current new Doma was rebuilt upon the remnants of that organization, which is why it has become so enormous and difficult to deal with."

Pausing for a moment, Katsuya frowned.

"Additionally, that hacker incident has also distracted us somewhat recently."

You Xuan asked, "You mean the hacker who breached the Kaiba Land arena that time? Have you found out who it was yet?"

"It's precisely because we haven't found them yet that it's giving us a headache. It's strange; how could such a powerful hacker suddenly appear out of nowhere? There hasn't been a single trace until now."

With his hands tucked into his pockets, Katsuya looked somewhat depressed as he spoke of this.

"And of all times, they chose to strike at this critical juncture in the development of the 'Link System'..."

"'Link System'?" You Xuan asked.

He had never encountered this term either at the academy or online; this was the first time he was hearing of it.

"Oh right, this hasn't been made public yet; it's a trade secret, so I won't say too much about it for now," Katsuya smiled. "But you should be able to see it the next time you come to headquarters; just treat it as a surprise and look forward to it."

Just as they were chatting, an expert quickly stepped forward to report.

"Preliminary on-site analysis is complete; subsequent data processing will have to wait until we return to headquarters," the person reported. "However, we speculate that the primary cause is likely something that occurred in this Old Dormitory many years ago, resulting in this location having relatively unstable space."

"Therefore, if something akin to supernatural Spirit power approaches, there is a certain probability of causing a dimensional rift. But that should have been a coincidental phenomenon; readings have now returned to normal."

Something that happened in the Old Dormitory many years ago...

Combining this with the original work, You Xuan reasoned that it likely referred to the major plot hole running through the entire GX storyline: the incident involving Darkness.

Back then, a group of death-seeking students conducted dark power research here, making contact with GX's final villain, Darkness. The relevant students subsequently all disappeared from this location, turning this abandoned dormitory into a weak point in the dimensions.

"Understood."

Katsuya looked at You Xuan.

"As long as you're all safe, that's what matters. Today's investigation should probably end here; go back and rest for now. See you in a few days."

You Xuan also let out a long yawn. "Alright, I should go back and catch up on some sleep too. I'm off."

After unexpectedly struggling in another dimension until now, he was utterly exhausted upon returning; fortunately, tomorrow was the weekend, so he planned to go back and at least sleep through the morning.

Teachers and students who had heard the news and came to watch from afar pointed and whispered as they saw the person involved emerging from the dormitory.

"Hiss~ Actually chatting and laughing freely with that Kaiba Katsuya; what background does this student have?"

"I heard people saying something like he's the man favored by the legendary Kaiba Seto himself."

"Whoa, really?"

(End of Chapter)