Chapter 972: The Stirring Anomaly

In an endless expanse of pure white space. There was no direction, no boundary, not even the shadow of oneself—only eternal silence, and the ground beneath his feet faintly glowing with cold light.

This was Zone’s domain, a unique space that no one else could enter without Zone’s permission.

You Xuan dumped here the pile of D-cards and mechanical debris from the explosion—blackened gears, shattered circuits, twisted alloy skeletons. These fragments stood out sharply against the void’s whiteness, like stains of dirty blood on snow.

“Zone, you there?”

You Xuan looked up and asked the infinite void.

A moment of silence, then the space rippled slightly. Zone’s massive nautilus floating device materialized out of thin air and slowly descended before You Xuan.

“What now?”

“Something happened just now. Someone hacked into my database, trying to probe Taiyi, probe my origins. I caught them.”

You Xuan pointed at the scattered debris on the ground.

Beneath Zone’s mask, his blue eyes narrowed slightly.

“A machine?”

“Yeah, felt like a clone of Breo from the Unicorn Team,” You Xuan said. “Perfectly lifelike—I had to admit. Until he blew himself up, I truly thought it was the real guy.”

“To perfectly replicate a duelist’s personality and transplant it into a mechanical body—to create a copy indistinguishable from the original—this level of technology shouldn’t be possible in this era, right?”

“No, it isn’t.”

Zone said.

“Let me see…”

As Zone spoke, the mechanical fragments floated up within streams of data, reassembling as if guided by invisible force. The scorch marks faded, the twisted metal returned to its original shape, the circuits reconnected—finally, a complete mechanical humanoid appeared midair. Its face was smooth metal, devoid of features, save for a single dark red optical lens flickering.

“Hmm. Interesting.” Zone said.

You Xuan asked: “Oh? You found something?”

“Yes.” Zone said flatly. “It’s my technology.”

You Xuan: “?”

He stared at Zone for a moment, confirming he hadn’t misunderstood.

You Xuan asked: “This thing was made by you?”

“No, that’s not what I said,” Zone said coolly. “I said it’s my technology—not that I built this machine.”

You Xuan said: “But no one in this world can replicate your technology.”

“True. ‘In this world,’ no one can.” Zone said.

You Xuan froze, quickly grasping his meaning.

No one in this world—what about other worlds?

The primary threat they now faced came from beyond this dimension. The enemy had already brought here Rex Goldwin, and Ludger Goldwin—so why not another Zone?

The multiverse is vast, countless worlds holding countless possibilities. It’s not impossible that other Zones exist in other dimensions.

Only Zone—

the last human, the man representing the pinnacle of technology in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series, whose tech and dueling skills both reached the peak, the ceiling of 5D’s.

If such an “abnormal” version of this being descended into this dimension, no one could predict the disaster it might bring.

“But I don’t understand,” You Xuan frowned. “Suppose there really is a parallel dimension, another ‘you’ out there. Then why would ‘you’ create a clone of Breo from the Unicorn Team?”

He had no doubt Zone possessed such technology, but couldn’t fathom the motive. He didn’t look down on the Unicorn Team—but though they were a top-tier dueling squad, they were merely elite duelists of this era, possessing no extraordinary abilities, no special backstory, no hidden potential.

Was cloning him really necessary?

Zone said dryly: “I don’t know.”

You Xuan stared at him.

“I’m just being honest,” Zone said. “I only know the possibilities within this timeline. As for what other worlds, other ‘me’s’ might think—I have no idea.”

“Alright.”

Overthinking was useless. Either way, when the troops come, send soldiers; when the water rises, build a dike. Carry on as usual.

You Xuan decided his top priority now was to use his status as Emperor Taiyi and commanding officer to print more cards as fast as possible.

In the deepest recess of the abandoned industrial zone, a dilapidated factory.

Several blurred figures flickered in dim light. Rusty metal pipes occasionally dripped murky droplets, producing a steady “drip, drip” sound, adding an eerie atmosphere to this secret meeting.

“That Breo guy—”

One man slammed his fist onto a rusted metal table beside him; the clang echoed through the empty factory.

“He acted on his own, exposed our existence, exposed our secrets—”

He spoke through gritted teeth, red glints flashing in his eyes.

In the corner, a towering figure nearly two meters tall snorted dismissively. He casually flexed his wrist joints, producing a “crack, crack” sound—whether bone or metal, it was unclear.

“Let them know. Saves us the trouble of hiding anymore,” he said scornfully. “I’ve been tired of this life for a long time.”

“Calm down,” a third voice spoke. “That You Xuan, the one called Tengmu, isn’t ordinary. His duels… are abnormal. Unlike anyone we’ve ever seen.”

The first man paced restlessly, his boots scraping harshly against the floor: “What’s the point of saying this now? The plan’s already ruined. We need to revise it—”

“Enough!” The towering figure roared suddenly, shaking dust from the ceiling. “This waiting is torture—pure waste of time!”

The first man asked: “Then what do you suggest?”

The towering figure ignored him, drawing a card glowing with eerie red light. Energy patterns surfaced on its surface, pulsing like veins, each vein flowing with molten lava.

“Since none of you dare go,” his voice suddenly turned eerily calm, yet brimming with chilling malice. “Then I’ll face him myself. Let’s see how long he can hold up against my absolute power.”

As he raised the card, the temperature in the factory surged. The patterns on the card writhed like living things, then erupted in blinding flame. Fire twisted and coalesced in midair, forming the silhouette of a monstrous dragon. It spread wings of burning flame, its crimson scales shimmering with molten radiance, its golden vertical pupils burning with pure destructive desire.

The blurred image was unmistakably Jack Atlas’s Wangpai —the Crimson Demon Dragon of the Dragon Emperor!

The towering figure burst into mad laughter, shaking the entire factory. “Let the game begin! My Tamashi is starving!”

The dragon’s shadow tilted its head and let out a silent roar; searing heatwaves swept through the space. Rusty metal began to melt, pooled water instantly vaporized—the factory became a colossal furnace.

A figure murmured: “Calm down. Our dimensional rejection hasn’t fully faded—we can’t use full power yet.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

The towering figure sneered.

“Before I find that commanding officer… I’ll test my hand against the real thing first. Hehe.”

(End of Chapter)