Chapter 448: Settlement

Right in the center of White Dragon Island, the tournament organizers officially held the awards ceremony. Under the gaze of the masses, Fujiki You Xuan was officially granted the title of the new generation Duel King.

Well, of course, there was also a large sum of prize money.

After all, it was a competition hosted by the Kaiba Corporation; the Battle City tournaments throughout history had never been stingy with prize money. This year, with the President personally participating and wagering the title of Duel King, it had even more extraordinary significance compared to the past, so the prize money was naturally even more generous.

Fujiki You Xuan's recent card deck procurement had been quite fierce; not only was it a supplement to his own deck, but a large portion was for research purposes.

Although his laboratory had always had research funding, the funding had to be divided among multiple project teams. And Fujiki You Xuan often invested in the research of his own frequently used decks; many cards purchased were for research, and coupled with various equipment and facilities, his savings had indeed been spent quite a bit.

But fortunately, what he spent still didn't come in as fast as he earned. This wave immediately allowed him to refill more than half of his savings, and even exceed it. It seemed that for a long time to come, he shouldn't be short of money.

And this was just the prize money. Now that he had become Duel King, his fame and influence would only be greater. The investments received driven by his fame would only be more, and the funding would certainly be much more sufficient than in the past.

In addition, if he were interested, there would certainly be no shortage of advertising endorsements, public activities, and paid appearances at various tournament events in the future. The opportunities brought by fame and strength were countless, and he could choose entirely based on personal interest.

However, although there was more funding, it might not necessarily be enough to spend.

Scientific research was a bottomless pit; for example, the development funding invested by the Kaiba Corporation in various departments every year was absolutely an astronomical figure.

And Fujiki You Xuan's trip to Battle City, even excluding the tournament rewards, had truly earned quite a lot. Just from the Arbiter, he had plucked the Dark Armed Dragon that had ravaged the environment back then, the Yubel which, although its subsequent potential hadn't been developed, was quite rare, the Elemental HERO deck used to mess with Xiang Hongye's mentality, and even the Orichalcos full set from the Wicked God himself...

The Seal of Orichalcos naturally couldn't be used casually. Although the effect was very strong, the buff that required soul extraction once opened was very annoying; as a bright and upright righteous person, Fujiki You Xuan naturally disdained using such evil things.

Not to mention that this thing also had an ominous debuff of "whoever uses it dies." Although that Arbiter had relied on strength to break the curse and defeated Xiang Hongye in the barrier, just this one match wasn't enough to erase the barrier's illustrious battle record of the past.

Not to mention that this thing was suspected to have a direct connection with the slippery snake. Although a certain snake now looked like it was dead, it had also said that as long as the darkness of the human heart was not extinguished, it would never die. What if the barrier was used too much and the slippery snake took advantage of the loophole to fake its death and come back? Wouldn't that be terrible?

So it was better to forget about this thing.

But among the pile of original cards printed by Xin Xin Duoma itself, there were really quite a few that were heaven-defying. The Orichalcos series had also released a few cards in the physical game many years later; although the effects had been modified beyond recognition and had become useless cards used to fill card boxes and consume nostalgia by the time they were released, they weren't unusable in the early environment and had development potential.

However, the most valuable thing in this harvest was definitely Yubel.

Future players knew how high Yubel's potential was. Many of the new series released were old cards with new skins used in the Yubel anime, but their strength had risen by who knew how many dimensions. As long as one or two could be printed, they would be incredible trump cards.

Winning the Duel King title seemed like reaching the top, but the work on hand hadn't been finished much, and the to-do list had instead become longer and longer.

The Battle City battle might have only made him look like a god of war in the eyes of others, but in Fujiki You Xuan's own eyes, it was the first time he felt he had vaguely touched his own limits, only making him understand more that he couldn't be slack from now on.

The final two battles had the blessing of the Seal of Artifacts, and even the assistance of The Winged Dragon of Ra; the improvement to the duelist was naturally huge, needless to say. But he knew in his heart that this couldn't be counted as his own strength, at least not at the current stage.

After the God of Orichalcos was resolved and the Arbiter completely disintegrated and perished, he picked up the card of The Winged Dragon of Ra from the Duel Disk, held it in his hand, and observed it for only a moment, when a golden light lit up on the card.

The golden light gradually dimmed, as if it had also taken away the supreme divine power contained in this card. At first, the card image gradually became blurred, followed by the text below, as if the golden light had turned into water, washing away all the information on the card together.

Finally, until all the content dissipated, the card itself began to virtualize, and finally turned into a burst of flying golden light spots and disappeared from his hand.

Fujiki You Xuan understood in his heart.

He was, after all, not the Pharaoh, nor was he a member of the Tomb Keepers, or someone related to the Millennium Items.

The Winged Dragon of Ra appeared only following the Pharaoh's order, coming to deal with the God of Orichalcos. Now that the mission was completed, it naturally went back to find its master.

If one had to say, this trip was just getting familiar with The Winged Dragon of Ra, and could be considered comrades who fought side by side to some extent. It was just hard to say whether it would give some face for the sake of old times if they met again in the future.

The light of the Seal of Artifacts also dimmed, returning to the appearance before the competition, its luster dull and without movement. However, this artifact didn't disintegrate and disappear, but remained in Fujiki You Xuan's hand, just temporarily lying low.

It was unknown if it could be activated again if there was an opportunity in the future.

But Fujiki You Xuan didn't think too much about it.

He had a premonition that his fate with the Sun God shouldn't be just this. The days ahead were long, and there would be opportunities to meet again.

The road to walk was still very long, and he still had many things to do.

Just as in reality, Yu-Gi-Oh! was a game with constantly developing versions and constant updates, the anime was the same. From Duelist Kingdom to Battle City, and then to the subsequent generations of anime, the rules and cards were constantly being perfected and evolved.

With the full-force development of institutions around the world and archaeological institutions digging everywhere, the card system was becoming increasingly mature, the series were becoming more perfect as development filled them in, and the effects were becoming stronger, which was inevitable.

Even representative masters of the past like Yugi and Kaiba had a large number of new cards and new skins after appearing a few years later, and would invest in new decks in accordance with the changes of the times.

If one couldn't keep up with the version of the new era, even masters of the past had the risk of being eliminated. A true master would constantly become stronger as time passed, and even his version evolution speed would be faster than others.

A typical example was the President; back then he was already a top master of his generation, and over these years, he had led the environment by several generations, progressing rapidly.

Although Fujiki You Xuan had temporarily reached the top, he also knew that in the way of dueling, if one didn't advance, one would retreat. From now on, he must move forward at a faster speed to avoid being surpassed by latecomers.

"After Dartz fell back then, the remnants regrouped and became what they are now. But that won't happen again."

Seto Kaiba said in a deep voice.

"This time, I will ensure these scumbags are doomed forever."

Now that the leader had been beheaded and the Three Musketeers had been defeated, the President was clearly preparing to settle accounts with the remaining small fry.

Fujiki You Xuan's eyes lit up when he heard this.

Right, the new Xin Xin Duoma forces were spread all over the world, and their unique card-printing technology was not weak. The Three Musketeers had each brought out quite a few exclusive good things; just the Arbiter alone had a pile of epic equipment.

Then if he could touch their card-printing arsenal, wouldn't there be more peerless good goods?

So Fujiki You Xuan immediately stepped forward to express his stance.

"Count me in." He said righteously to the President. "As the Duel King now, I also have the responsibility and obligation to contribute to the construction of a bright future for the dueling world!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 449 =====