Chapter 61: New Domah

The thief Kith walked away whistling.

“So you went to the Spirit Realm?”

A few minutes later, Kiyohira came to the ruins and stared at You Xuan in surprise.

After winning the duel against Kith, the Orichalcos barrier immediately contracted, sucking out the thief Kith’s soul. Then the surroundings spun wildly; after a brief sensation of flying through clouds and mist, You Xuan quickly returned to the ruins.

When You Xuan landed, he let out a long breath.

Finally back.

It was too close. Luckily, he moved fast enough—just before being teleported, he yanked the Duel Disk off Kith’s hand and clutched it tightly to his chest as he was pulled away. Even he couldn’t help but admire how reflexively quick he’d been. If he’d reacted half a second slower, he might’ve been teleported without even looting the disk—that would’ve been a catastrophic loss.

Kiyohira had come himself to verify the situation after hearing something had happened at the ruins.

“Seems so.”

“And then you encountered people from Shin Domah?”

“So they’re called Shin Domah?” You Xuan rubbed his chin. “What’s their connection to the old Domah?”

Kiyohira said, “No direct link has been found yet. We only know they also use the Orichalcos barrier and hunt duelists to harvest their souls.”

You Xuan understood: “So the organization Chairman Sea-Ma was investigating all this time… was it them?”

He suddenly grasped why an organization would warrant Chairman Sea-Ma’s personal, intense pursuit.

Eight years ago, Sea-Ma had personally felt the power of the old Domah organization and witnessed the might of the Orichalcos God. Now that the Three Sacred Beasts were gone, if that evil god awakened again, he would naturally become the world’s primary defense line.

And even apart from that, from Sea-Ma’s own perspective, this must have been an unforgettable hurdle in his career as a duelist.

Because back then, facing Dartz, the leader of the old Domah, he had teamed up with his longtime rival Dark Yugi—two against one—and still lost the duel, nearly having his soul devoured by the Orichalcos God. Only when Dark Yugi improvised two consecutive card effects using a blank card did they barely turn the tide and win.

In the end, it was Yugi who turned the tables and destroyed Domah. Now that Atem is gone, if there’s a chance to settle the score with the Orichalcos God, Chairman Sea-Ma would never miss it.

“So the ‘Judge’ Chairman Sea-Ma mentioned before—is that the leader of Shin Domah? Is it Dartz?” You Xuan probed.

Kiyohira shook his head: “His identity is unknown. We only know the codename. But I don’t think it’s him. Someone else—some unknown person—must have awakened the Orichalcos power sealed by Yugi. I mean, by the Pharaoh.”

You Xuan tried to recall the DM plot. In the end, Atem sealed the Orichalcos God—the embodiment of the world’s dark will—using his “Heart of the Cards.” Seeing his defeat, Dartz sank with the ancient Atlantis ruins into the ocean and vanished. Though he appeared to have exited the stage, he never died—so resurrection remains possible.

“Still, even Kith joined Shin Domah. I didn’t expect they’ve now launched attacks on the Spirit Realm,” Kiyohira said. “You actually beat him? Impressive.”

You Xuan nodded deeply: “Yeah, yeah, it was incredibly close. I barely won by luck. After thinking it over, I think my deck just isn’t strong enough—if only I had more rare cards…”

Kiyohira scratched his head: “But the company’s local inventory has already been shown to you, right? Oh!”

He slapped his forehead, suddenly remembering: “You’re a student at the Duel Academy, aren’t you? Then showing you ‘that’ shouldn’t violate any rules.”

“What?” You Xuan blinked.

“It’s a new, powerful rare card just completed by the company—still unreleased,” Kiyohira smiled. “It was originally scheduled to be shipped to the Duel Academy.”

“But this batch is limited. By the time it reaches the academy, everyone will be fighting over it—getting even one or two packs would be lucky. Since you’re already a student, selling it to you first won’t break any rules.”

The powerful rare cards scheduled for shipment to the Duel Academy—could they be

You Xuan instantly recalled the early episodes of GX.

There was an episode shortly after the start of the term where a naval fleet, accompanied by fighter squadrons overhead, sailed toward Academy Island. The captain looked like he was facing an existential threat, holding a briefcase stamped with the Sea-Ma Corp logo, insisting, “This item must be delivered safely at all costs.”

At the time, his first thought was: This is ridiculous—a whole fleet and fighter jets escorting a box of cards?

Then he thought harder and realized it was even more ridiculous. If some high-level duelist actually targeted that box, the fleet and jets wouldn’t help at all.

After all, no matter how powerful a carrier or cannon is, can it beat a duelist at cards?

But no students ever got those cards—they were all intercepted by Professor Chronos before class ended. He bought every single card and gave them to Bakura, instructing him to use the rare cards to punish the underperforming Yugi Tenya.

Bakura’s famous VWXYZ series originated from that.

Thinking of this, You Xuan’s eyes lit up.

Bakura’s VWXYZ series is still very strong in this environment. In the anime, Bakura demonstrated many powerful support cards never turned into real cards—most notably, the continuous spell “Dimensional Storage” he used in the TV series, which looks like the prototype of the powerful new card “Alliance Storage” released over a decade later in the real card game.

Although the GX anime-exclusive VWXYZ cards aren’t as strong as the real-card versions enhanced by Konami over the past decade, they’re still a standout series in this environment.

As for what Bakura would do after his deck was intercepted—

Well, that’s not his concern.

Though rare, this series isn’t as scarce as some characters’ signature cards. In the anime, when Bakura drifted to the northern branch of the Duel Academy, his original deck was destroyed in a shipwreck, forcing him to hastily assemble a new one from scraps at the northern campus.

So logically, the VWXYZ cards Chronos gave him should’ve been ruined.

Later, he didn’t use the series for a while—but in the latter part of the plot, he suddenly pulled it out again. So either he hadn’t brought it with him when he left the academy, or he later used his family’s wealth to buy a new set.

“I’ll let you know when the cards arrive in a couple of days,” Kiyohira smiled.

“Thank you.”

“Nah, no need to thank me. More importantly, worry about your upcoming match,” Kiyohira chuckled. “If you get stronger soon, your brother will be happy.”

“If you get crushed in three moves on the battlefield, your brother might get really angry.”

You Xuan: “.”

Just hearing that brought back the pressure.

Indeed, while there’s no official requirement to win the match, if he loses badly, Chairman Sea-Ma will probably be furious.

“Oh, by the way, the head of the research team wants to ask you some questions.”

“Research team?”

“Yeah, the team handling the ruins research,” Kiyohira said. “The development of the Chaos Warrior has hit a bottleneck in academia for a long time. The team leader thinks this might be a breakthrough opportunity.”

“You might become the first duelist to help unlock new power for the Chaos Warrior.”

(End of Chapter)