Chapter 357: Anyway, You Have to Play Cards

Fujiki You Xuan yawned, leaning against the bumpy window of the jeep, flipping through the cards in his hand.

They were all new cards he had picked up on the ground during the Duel City competition over the past two days, and the quantity was quite large. He was roughly sorting these cards, distinguishing between useful, pending, and those to be sold, as well as thinking about which cards might be used to build new routines.

It was just dark, but the night was as thick as ink, and there seemed to be no moonlight. The woods were like a silent, ancient temple.

The twisted and stretched branches around were like countless withered arms reaching out from the darkness. The leaves rustled in the wind, like whispering ghosts.

The jeep bumped along the small path in the woods, the headlights like weak fireflies. The wheels rolled over dead branches and fallen leaves, making a creaking sound.

The man in the passenger seat turned and poked his head over: "Are you a duelist?"

He was a guide from the nearby city district, and he and the driver beside him were arranged by the Kaiba Corporation to wait for Fujiki You Xuan at the station in advance. Fujiki You Xuan transferred to this off-road vehicle after arriving in the city district and headed straight for Qingshui Town.

"Yeah." Fujiki You Xuan said.

"Amazing... I've always admired you card players, because I can't play." The guide said.

The driver beside him joked: "Forget about your brain and dueling, forget it. You should figure out how to play Connect-the-Dots first."

"What's wrong with Connect-the-Dots?" The guide held his head high, "Connect-the-Dots is also quite difficult."

The driver was happy and didn't speak. He asked casually while driving: "I don't understand dueling or anything, but I know that... there's a monster called Dark Magician Girl, right?"

"I recognize that one, it's really big."

Fujiki You Xuan: "..."

Never heard of Final Fantasy, but recognize Jerusalem, huh?

"Tch, what's the use of just being big." The guide shook his head on the side, "I still like diligent and capable ones."

The driver looked at him with empty eyes: "If you relax the conditions, diligent can be removed, right?"

"Ha, brother still understands me..."

"..."

The two joked for a few sentences, seeing Fujiki You Xuan silent and uninterested in participating, they felt bored and quieted down for a while.

After driving for a while, the guide couldn't help but turn his head and ask again: "But having said that, what are big-city duelists doing in such a bird-pooping place?"

"It's not that I'm saying, if it weren't for the fact that your company gave too much, I really wouldn't want to come." The driver also said, "A few people have gone missing here in the past two weeks."

"Oh?"

This topic made Fujiki You Xuan slightly interested.

"Isn't it. Last week I also came here with the Security Bureau, saying I was looking for a missing traveler, but in the end, I didn't find him, and it just ended like that." The guide said.

Fujiki You Xuan pondered for a moment.

In this way, the speculation of the Kaiba Corporation might be correct, and there might really be some problems in this place.

The trees became denser, the jeep moved forward along the path by the road, and slowly stopped.

"Let's take a break, get off the car to relieve ourselves or something. Sitting for so long, people are stiff."

The guide got out of the car and stretched, taking out a cigarette.

"I have to smoke a cigarette."

He handed one to Fujiki You Xuan who was sitting in the car to indicate.

"Want one?"

"Thanks, but I don't smoke." Fujiki You Xuan declined.

"Ha, not smoking is good, good habit."

The guide expressed approval, and then hummed a little tune and went to smoke by himself.

Fujiki You Xuan didn't get out of the car, just continued to count the cards in his hand.

I don't know if it was an illusion, but the night seemed to become thicker. Even the wind held its breath, and every tree stood strangely in the darkness, the twisted branches like demonic claws reaching out from the darkness.

Ten minutes passed.

"Strange... haven't come back yet?"

The driver muttered strangely, saying he was ready to get out of the car.

"I'll go take a look."

"I'll go."

Fujiki You Xuan opened the door and got out of the car.

The atmosphere was a bit wrong. But he wasn't very worried, after all, he had many spirits under his command now, and there were really not many things in this world that could threaten him.

Still the same sentence. No matter which monster it is, can't they play cards when they come here?

Walking for a while in the direction the guide went, Fujiki You Xuan soon noticed something.

Half a cigarette butt.

The cigarette hadn't gone out yet, lying quietly on the damp ground, the smell of smoke mixed with the smell of damp soil and tobacco, the smell was quite strange.

Walking a few steps to the side, there seemed to be traces of dragging and pulling between the bushes and grass, looming in the darkness.

Was this guy attacked?

But this place was clearly not far from the car, yet there was no sound at all.

And a few steps forward, the traces disappeared. It was abruptly cut off halfway, as if the person had evaporated into thin air after being dragged here, leaving no trace.

He retreated to the car first. However, when he came back, he found that the car was also empty.

Again, there was no sound, just a few steps away, but in the blink of an eye, the driver was gone. And this time, there were no signs of struggle or fighting.

The thick darkness seemed to press in from the woods, surrounding the jeep. The headlights became the only light point in the darkness, but it was so weak in the boundless darkness, a remnant candle that could be extinguished at any time in the wind.

No, it wasn't an illusion, the darkness was really pressing in slowly.

It was individual figures.

Floating footsteps, strange postures, bodies swaying as they approached his direction, raising their arms toward his direction like instinct.

From the appearance, they might be nearby residents, but each one's eyes were empty and godless, simply like a bottomless black vortex. Under the illumination of the jeep's headlights, each one's thick dark circles were simply like pitch-black charcoal fire.

This posture and body shape made people's first reaction associate them with zombies.

But they were not traditional zombies, but similar to the "Duel Zombies" infected in the academy when the whole academy was teleported to another dimension in the GX anime's other-dimensional chapter.

That is, card-playing zombies who have nothing in their heads but card games.

Hiss, this description actually sounds a bit like student Judai.

However, although the scene was a bit strange, Fujiki You Xuan was not nervous.

"Silent." He whispered.

White light erupted from him, and the magic circle opened at his feet. Silent Magician flew out, her staff spinning, and a circle of magic explosion light bullets scattered around, exploding one after another with a boom.

The explosion of the light bullets blew mud everywhere, and a group of zombies were blown over.

But when the smoke cleared, a figure still stood in the last row of the zombie group.

It looked like a zombie with a leader image, although it also had empty eyes and a swaying figure, its momentum was clearly a cut stronger.

It swayed over from between the rows of teammates who were lying in a mess, narrowed its eyes and looked at Fujiki You Xuan.

Following that, it slowly raised the duel disk on its hand, making a vague, groaning sound in its mouth.

"Duel..."

Fujiki You Xuan felt settled.

Look, sure enough, there's nothing to be afraid of.

Even zombies have to play cards.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 358 =====