Chapter 70: Beast, Sir!

Although the warriors still doubted You Tian's identity, under Fried's orders, they returned with him to the streamside camp by evening.

By the campfire, tree shadows swayed, and a gentle breeze brushed against their faces.

You Tian and Fried sat facing each other; the Card Spirit 【Narai】 stood behind You Tian with arms crossed.

The other warriors around them still watched You Tian and 【Narai】 with tense eyes.

"The story begins a week ago."

In the flickering firelight, Fried spoke slowly.

"In our dimension, countless Card Spirits live."

"Though the Northern Whitebone City harbors evil undead, and the Western Ten Thousand Demon Palace hides cunning demons, overall, it has been quite peaceful."

"But since a week ago, the entire world changed."

At this, Fried's face showed a trace of sorrow.

"A being calling itself the 'Ghost Princess' suddenly appeared in this dimension."

"Ghost Princess?" You Tian raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, the Ghost Princess."

"No one knows where she came from, or what her purpose is."

"But all we know is, she brought Duel Disks capable of Summoning powerful Card Spirits—those defeated by her are forcibly sealed into cards and become her servants!"

You Tian frowned.

"At first, the Princess targeted the demons of the Western Ten Thousand Demon Palace. Without warning, she used her Duel Disk to Summon a powerful Card Spirit and defeated 【Trembling Tyrant-Creator Demon】, sealing all the demons into cards."

"Then she went to Whitebone City, defeated its ruler 【Lord Hades】, and took his throne for herself."

Hearing this, You Tian grew slightly puzzled.

"If what you say is true, this Ghost Princess seems to be punishing evil and upholding justice?"

Fried shook his head.

"But later, for reasons unknown, the Princess, now as Lord Hades, ordered the undead to capture other peaceful Card Spirits."

"Now, though the demons and Lord Hades are gone, everyone's life has become even worse."

"I see." You Tian nodded.

"Of course, things were still manageable up to this point."

"The Card Spirit dimension has no shortage of battle teams like our Dimensional Squad, dedicated to maintaining peace and upholding justice."

"We didn't fear those pathetic undead."

"But after we held out for three days straight, something unexpected happened."

"Those undead somehow obtained Duel Disks from the Princess."

"With these Duel Disks, they could not only Summon powerful undead creatures but also wield dark magic and traps."

"Our battle teams were instantly crushed! Many warriors were sealed into cards."

As Fried spoke, the surrounding warriors, remembering their humiliation, lowered their heads.

Fried slowly picked up his own Duel Disk.

"Two days ago, by chance, we encountered the lone 【Shuten-doji】."

"This creature is addicted to alcohol. Last night, I specially procured fine liquor to lure 【Shuten-doji】 into drinking it, and successfully seized a Duel Disk."

"After two days of study, we discovered that a Duel Disk essentially concentrates the power of many Card Spirits into one."

"And when both sides possess Duel Disks, the undead can no longer oppress us at will."

"They must defeat us in a Duel to enact sealing."

"Now, we finally have a weapon to resist the undead army!"

"We contacted other teams and spread this good news."

"Some teams imitated us and successfully seized Duel Disks."

"Now, we finally have the means to counterattack!"

Fried lifted his head and looked around.

You Tian nodded slightly.

"I see."

"Hmm~ Then where did your card deck come from?"

You Tian asked another crucial question.

At this, Fried's eyes involuntarily glanced toward You Tian's pocket.

"We discovered that if a Card Spirit willingly lends its power to another, that Card Spirit can use the Duel Disk to manifest the borrowed power as cards."

You Tian: Oh! Card printing, huh? I'm familiar with that.

"My card deck is the combined power of all warriors in our Dimensional Squad."

"Without this deck, we have no way to fight the undead army."

You Tian nodded, then slowly pulled the newly seized loot from his pocket.

"Here you go."

Fried:!!!

"You!" Fried was stunned.

The surrounding warriors also froze in surprise.

"Aren't you going to use these cards to fight the undead army?"

Seeing You Tian's action, the 【Narai】 standing beside him unconsciously smiled.

"You're willing to give up your deck?" Fried asked.

"Sigh." You Tian let out a helpless breath.

"Card veterans love their cards, and there are proper ways to take them. These should be more important to you, right? I'm not the kind of person who snatches other people's stuff!"

General Fried, who had taken the deck, was slightly moved.

At that moment, the surrounding Soul Warriors finally dispelled their doubts about You Tian.

"Lord You Tian!" General Fried's voice trembled slightly.

"Thank you for your understanding!"

"Hey! No need to thank me, no need! This is all what a good young man of Jounouchi should do." You Tian hurriedly waved his hand.

General Fried wiped the moist corners of his eyes.

"But, I'd like to ask something." General Fried spoke up again.

You Tian: "Ask away, ask away."

General Fried looked at the deck of fewer than 20 cards in his hand, his hands trembling slightly.

"Why is this general's deck missing more than half?"

Everyone:...

【Relinquished】:...

You Tian:...

"Ahahaha, you're really sharp, huh? Can't even sneak a few cards away!" You Tian gave an awkward laugh.

Everyone:...

【Relinquished】:...

General Fried's eyelid twitched.

Sharp my ass! You didn't just sneak a few — you plucked away more than half! I'd have to be blind not to notice!

Under the speechless gazes of the crowd, You Tian pulled out the other half of the deck from his pocket.

"Here, here, this time I really didn't hide a single one!"

General Fried took the cards You Tian handed over, half-believing, half-doubting.

"1, 2, 3, 4..."

You Tian:...

"Hey! You old man! How can you not trust me!"

Everyone:...

【Relinquished】:...

After counting a full 40 cards, General Fried finally breathed a sigh of relief. But he did not immediately slot the deck back into his Duel Disk.

General Fried pondered slightly, his eyes sizing You Tian up.

"Lord You Tian, this general actually has a question for you as well."

After a long pause, General Fried spoke up again.

You Tian: "Mm? Go ahead."

General Fried's gaze turned toward You Tian's Duel Disk.

"May I ask where your Duel Disk came from? You didn't snatch it from the Undead, did you?"

At these words, the surrounding Soul Warriors also turned their gazes toward You Tian.

You Tian: "Oh, this one of mine?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I was previously participating in Duel City over at Jounouchi."

"This Duel Disk is standard issue for contestants — everyone has one."

"Jounouchi?" General Fried murmured.

Just now I heard Lord You Tian call himself some "good young man of Jounouchi."

But where is this "Jounouchi"? And what's this "Duel City"? Is the generation gap between me and the young people really this serious now?

General Fried looked helplessly at the young Soul Warriors around him, but the others were also exchanging bewildered glances.

【Relinquished】 seemed to understand the confusion of these Soul Warriors.

Sigh~ country-bumpkin spirits, that's what happens when you don't have an avatar residing in the human world — you spend your whole life in an information cocoon, completely unaware that there's a plane like the human world out there.

"My master comes from the human world. Jounouchi is a city in the human world, and he isn't a spirit — he's a human."

"Nani!"

At these words, the entire crowd was shocked.

"Run! There's a human!"

"We're done for, it's a human! Kill the spirit!"

The Soul Warriors who had just been gathered around scattered in panic in all directions, as if they'd run into a ghost.

In an instant, only a few spirits remained around: 【Warrior Lady of the Wasteland】, 【Command Knight】, 【The Warrior Returning Alive】, and 【Warrior Ra】.

You Tian:????

What's that supposed to mean? I'm a human, not a ghost! Why are you all so afraid of me?

You Tian looked on in bewilderment at General Fried, whose expression hadn't changed across from him.

"Oh, please don't take offense."

"Actually, the 'Ghost Princess' is rumored to be a human from the human world, so everyone got scared the moment they heard you were a human."

"Huh?" You Tian's eyelid twitched, and he looked at General Fried in confusion.

"Uh, then why aren't you afraid?"

"Don't you dare tell me 'I'm just not afraid, that's why'!"

General Fried smiled.

"Your attendant here really knows how to crack a joke."

"How could you possibly be a human?"

"When I was playing cards with you, I noticed your Duel tactics were utterly despicable, downright beastly — there's no way you could be human!"

The moment those words left his mouth, the few warriors who hadn't fled nearby all nodded in agreement.

You Tian:?????????

Looking at the slight upward curl at the corner of General Fried's mouth, You Tian's eyelid twitched.

Fine, fine, fine! Old coot! Insulting people without swearing, huh! It's not like I only beat one of your squads! Was it really necessary!

That's right — the well-traveled General Fried had long since seen through the fact that You Tian wasn't an elf.

However, he truly hadn't expected that the youth before him actually came from the same plane as the Ghost Princess.

General Fried pondered briefly in his heart, and a decision began to take shape.

"Lord You Tian! I wish to ask a favor of you!" General Fried spoke again.

"Just call me Lord Beastly, that'll do!" You Tian replied irritably.

"What is it, go ahead and say."

Off to the side, 【Sacrifice Demon】 was struggling hard to hold back laughter.

"Lord You Tian…" General Fried paused here.

He held out the deck in his hand toward You Tian.

"Please use this deck and lead us to defeat the Ghost Princess!"