Just heads up, this chapter is more of a build-up for some events that would happen later in the story. The actual raid of SOL's data bank will start next chapter!
Edit: There was a HUGE error with the duel part, should be fixed now.
A Lurking Lost Soul
[04:04:16 PM] Playmaker: There is something important, we need to discuss. Come to the hotdog stand, it's at the usual place.
I rubbed my fingers against the side of my Duel Disk. I read the same a second, a third, even a fourth time, but it just wasn't clicking into my head. Yusaku wanted to talk with me, even meet me, and I was unsure how to feel about it. Yes, a part of me was nervous about this message, but that wasn't the point! It was true that I would like to spent some time with him and Kusanagi, it was a while since we last met, but the atmosphere and my own life became a lot more difficult since that last meeting as well. I was a little unsure about the answer I was going to give him, but I couldn't just ignore his message either.
[04:11:48 PM] Proxy: Can't you write me what it's about? I don't think that I will be able to come.
I sighed in relief and waited for his response. Yusaku was a smart person, he would be able to tell that I was in a tight situation myself, wouldn't he? It made me feel a little bad for dumping him down like this.
[04:14:22 PM] Playmaker: There is a danger that SOL Technology could track down our messages, so sharing information through chat is unfavorable.
I felt like hitting my head against the nearest wall for how stupid my expectations were. That was Yusaku Fujiki that we talk about, of course he wouldn't be able to read the atmosphere! If I keep trying to push the message that I don't want us to meet, he might take it the wrong way, think that I was betraying him and Kusanagi. There wasn't a choice, I had to act!
[04:19:51 PM] Proxy: There are some difficulties on my part. If I come that could cause some troubles with your anonymity.
I just hope that he would be able to understand me. I was really pushed against the wall and there was absolutely no way for me to get there without at least one more person learning about Yusaku's secret identity. Actually, since Evan and Avice already knew who he was, what were the chances that they told Vermilya about it? The only person that didn't know that others knew about Yusaku's secret identity was Yusaku himself…
[04:22:43 PM] Playmaker: Is anyone with you right now?
That wasn't what I meant! I got no other choice, in order for my message to get across I would have to tell him directly about the issue that I was facing. I bit my lips and began to slowly type in my response to him. With my current track record about keeping Playmaker's identity a secret any other hero would have kicked me out of their team at least ten times by now.
[04:27:39 PM] Proxy: Would you mind if a friend comes along with me?
That was it, my time in team Playmaker was officially over with this message; I was sure about it. Leaning back against the wall, I titled my head and looked at the ceiling while waiting for Yusaku to respond, if he ever would.
"Hey Rox, where is the anime channel?" Vermilya shouted from the sofa.
"I'm amazed that you are unable to notice how similar you and Avice are." I sighed and walked over to the sofa, sitting down next to the red head.
I still wasn't comfortable around her, probably a side effect of her threatening me with physical violence not too long ago. Today she came very early, even had breakfast with us before Evan and Avice left for work and school respectively. Around nine hours passed since then, everything she did during the whole day was to either walk up to the third floor for a few minutes before coming back down, or to sit on the sofa and watch TV. At least I learned that she loves to watch action movies and her eyes widen in excitement every time there was an explosion on the screen.
"I'm not trying to be rude, but should you be at school today?" I asked her.
"Evan sighed a paper that I have to go to the hospital for examination during the remaining of this week, so I'm released from classes." I narrowed my eyes at her explanation. Didn't that mean she lied to the school?
"You haven't gone to any of these examinations, have you?" I asked her and she confirmed my assumptions with a nod. "The hospital is definitely going to inform the school out about that, aren't you worried what might happen after that?"
"The doctor that had to do the examinations is a close friend with Evan. He already did everything, but hasn't given the papers in yet, so when he does, at the end of the week, there will be nothing that the hospital could do about it."
I sighed, of course one of the siblings would be connected to this lie in one way or another. It amazed me how much they could lie to the system without getting caught, acting as hackers and stealing information inside LINK VRAINS while also working with SOL Technology. It was almost like tricking others was a second nature to them and it always left me amazed by how careful they thought about the details.
"Although I'm not very happy having to stay out of school myself." Vermilya admitted to me. "I will have to somehow get all of the notes for next week and I don't have anyone close at school to borrow notes from. Getting back to speed with studying is going to be one hell of a ride."
"You don't have it easy either." I believe everyone could relate to her experience. No, not the part where she got infected with a computer virus, but the school part, everyone was sick at least once during their school days and knows that catching up with the lessons wasn't an easy task.
*BEEP!*
"And you just got a message." I bit my lips while Vermilya stated the obvious. "Who are you texting with? A friend? Boyfriend maybe?"
"That's not funny!" I grabbed a pillow and hit her on the head with it, but she just laughed it off.
"Fine, fine. What's your friend texting you?" Vermilya began to claw toward me and my Duel Disk, leaving me to other option, but to jump off the sofa while reading the message I got.
[04:47:16 PM] Playmaker: Give me more information.
He… He didn't tell me to leave him alone! In fact, he asked me about more information, which meant that he wouldn't mind if Vermilya followed me, which I was 99.99 percent sure that she would do. It was what Avice asked her to do and surprisingly, she was pretty obedient to the Greysons' demands so far, almost like they have brainwashed her… Ok, ok, I'm exaggerating things, but last time we met she wanted to destroy them, so it got my curiosity.
But more importantly at the moment was what should I write to Yusaku? Knowing him, just one single wrong word could end badly for me, so I had to pick my choices of wording very, very carefully when talking – or in this case chatting – with him. And so I did.
[04:42:09 PM] Proxy: Would you mind sharing your school notes?
"So, this is where you spend most of your time?" Vermilya asked while I lead her toward Kusanagi's truck.
Surprisingly, I was able to get Yusaku to cooperate and let Vermilya lurk around. Don't ask me how it happened, I got no idea either, but if you had me to make a wild guess, then I would say that Kusanagi had some part in this too. As the friendlier one, he never seemed to mind some extra help and that could have been what caused Yusaku to not outright cast me out.
Unfortunately, he wasn't trusting in me that much either and I knew that for a fact because he was right there, standing next to the closed truck with his arms crossed around his chest. His cold stare was as intimidating as ever, so he must be angry with me.
"Hey there." I waved awkwardly and stopped in front of him with Vermilya standing beside me. "I allow me to introduce you, Vermilya, this is Yusaku; Yusaku, this is Vermilya. You are both students at the same school and it's a little sad that you two didn't know that already."
"It's nice to meet you." Yusaku bowed a little. Despite his eyes giving away the fact that this meeting was unpleasant for him, he still tried to act polite and that was what amazed me about him.
"Yo." Vermilya on the other hand just raised her hand to acknowledge his existence. "So, are going to walk inside or are you going to keep us standing outside?"
"I waited here for you with a suggestion." Yusaku narrowed his eyes and then opened the door slightly to pull his school back out of it. "I'm going to give you my school notes, but you must waited for Roxanna here, outside."
"You are acting like there is something you are trying to hide inside that truck." I sighed, Vermilya was playing with Yusaku's nerves I could sense her intentions from a mile away. It was just obvious for someone who had more than five minutes to get to know either her or the Greysons. "I mean, it's still early and the truck is already closed? Also you asked a young girl to come here, maybe I should call the police."
Yusaku glared at me and I knew that it was partly my fault things were going this way. When he asked me to give more information about Vermilya, I told him that she wasn't going to be interested in what we were doing, so if he just gave her the notes she would leave us alone. I indeed thought that things were going to end like this, she was only here because Avice told her to be, so I expected her to grab onto the first chance to walk away. I was so wrong about Vermilya and her loyalty toward the Greysons that it made me surprised by how willing she was to go along with the demands of the same people that once left her.
"What is it that you want?" Yusaku suddenly asked. His voice was low and chilling, he must be really pissed off at the moment.
"For our groups to start acting like kids and think about the full extent of this situation!" Vermilya asserted. "Your group, our group, we both want the same thing, to defeat Hanoi, so why don't we help each other out instead of trying to hide from one another, huh? We got information about many things, including SOL Technologies' plans and the possible identities of some members of the Knights of Hanoi, so wouldn't it be better for both you and us, if we work as one team instead of two separated ones?"
Wow! I was left speechless; Vermilya really cared about LINK VRAINS and the fight against Hanoi. She was right that we were working against our own interests by not using our resources together as a real team. I mean, could you imagine what a team with Evan, Avice and Yusaku as our duelists would be? With Kusanagi having access all of the tech and data that the Greysons kept for themselves? Hanoi wouldn't stand a chance against a group like that!
"So, you want a partnership?" Yusaku asked for confirmation.
"Yeah, we already risk our lives anyway, so there isn't much to lose, is there?" I glanced at Vermilya.
She was playing with Yusaku's emotions and resolve to work alone, so that others wouldn't get involved in the dangers that he faces while fighting against Hanoi. She just negated that argument by stating that our lives were already put in danger, so things couldn't get any worse than that.
"How can I trust you?"
"I can't guarantee you anything right now, but if you trust in Rox over her just a bit, you might be willing to make an expectation, hmm?"
"Please stop." I whispered to Vermilya; she was embarrassing me with this.
"Fine, you can come in. Just don't touch anything." Yusaku muttered and opened the door to the truck.
Vermilya looked back at me with a grin on her face and hit my shoulder. "See? There is absolutely nothing to worry about."
"You were pushing him against a wall…" I muttered and walked inside the truck.
Like all the other times I visited, Kusanagi was once again working on the computers, but unlike the previous visits, Yusaku wasn't helping him out. Instead, he was standing behind the chair and watched at Kusanagi was doing.
"So what did you call me here for?" I asked Yusaku and shot a quick glance at the computer screen they were looking at.
It was a message from Ghostgirl and the subject was 'Hello Daddy-Long-Legs' (Excuse me, what?). The message itself was just a bunch of symbols that didn't mean anything together, there were almost no letters inside the text either!
"Do you know about Ghost Girl?" Yusaku asked me.
"Yeah, she was there when you saved Blue Angel, right?" I remembered that her avatar was working along with Aoi's older brother back then… "I also had an encounter with her a few days ago. Don't tell me that she found out about you guys from me!"
"Don't worry, it's not your fault." Kusanagi replied. "She sent this message through a popular hacking forum, she acquired my source code because I guided her during Yusaku's duel with Revolver."
"Oh." I sighed in relief. It would have been bad if everyone who learned about Yusaku's identity did so through me. Then again, his avatar had the same appearance as his real self anyways, so it wouldn't have been completely my fault if such a thing were to happen.
"She asked me to duel. If I win, she will give me the backdoor to SOL Technologies' data back, so I accepted." Yusaku told me. "Now we are waiting for her to show up."
"Ok… That's great and all, but I don't see what I got to do with all of it." Yusaku was going to be doing the dueling and all of that, so they called me, only to tell me that, or?
"The reason we called you here is because the LINK VRAINS' forums have exploded with complains about strange incidents occurring inside the network." Kusanagi leaned back into his chairs and looked at me. "We are going to be too busy lately with Ghost Girl, so Yusaku won't be able to check what all of the noise in the forum is about."
"I personally vote that we should go investigate the incidents instead of dueling Ghost Girl." Ai raised from inside Yusaku's Duel Disk.
"Can you tell me about the nature of these incidents at least?" I asked. They couldn't let me investigate without giving me just that much information, could they?
"They vary in type and level of effect, but the most common is about duelists' virtual decks being destroyed after they lose a duel." Kusanagi told me. "Normally we don't pay attention to such things, but there seems to be something more to these incidents."
"That's true." Ai nodded. "Lately I was able to feel several breaches inside the servers of LINK VRAINS. It was strangely familiar for some reason and if it's familiar then it could be connected only to either the Knights of Hanoi or my home world, the Cyberse."
"Something connected to the Cyberse, huh?" Vermilya raised her voice and I just remembered that she was there with us. "That could be interesting, I'm going to join in as well."
"That's the plan then, I guess." I sighed and looked back at Vermilya. "The two of us will investigate it together while you are busy dueling Ghost Girl. Good luck Yusaku."
"She's here" Kusanagi called out and we all turned to look at the screen.
"Ghost Girl came?" I asked him.
"Yes, it's definitely her." He confirmed and Yusaku walked toward the front of the truck, where the hidden room was, well, hidden.
"You're really going to duel her?" Ai asked, his voice sounded somewhat worried…
"She might have set a trap again." Kusanagi gave a warning but despite of it Yusaku still put on his Duel Disk.
"Yeah, I'm fully aware of that. However…" And then Yusaku began to list his three reason why it was worth jumping in despite the dangers of falling into a trap. I didn't get to hear most of it because Vermilya pulled me out of the truck while also holding some of Yusaku's notebooks in her other hand.
I sighed watching the streets of LINK VRAINS from the rooftop of a building, kicking me legs from the edge. Could you believe that I used to be scared of highs? But I spent so many times on rooftops since I joined LINK VRAINS that it wasn't scary any more, in fact, the feeling of the breeze against my face while watching the lights of the server's night background. This place was so beautiful, I couldn't understand why anyone would want to destroy it, ruin it, make people associate it with pain and torment. When I come here, when I become Proxy, I had always felt like I'm living a second live, even the bad moments become memories that I would cherish until the end.
"I don't think we will be able to see things very clearly from here during night time." Blaze Rose, who was sitting next to me, spoke up. I looked over at her, the Charisma Duelist had her arms away from the edge with her hands pressed firmly against the ground and an expression showing nothing but seriousness to complete the picture. I noticed that Vermilya's personality changed when in LINK VRAINS as well, both her real and artificial selves were serious and quick to get angry with others, but unlike the online persona, the real her was also a teaser and would even laugh from times to times.
I looked at my Duel Disk, to see how Playmaker's duel was going. There was a pair of reporters that always followed him around during duels and recorded what was happening in lifetime. At the time Yusaku had some red robot monster with 1000 attack and 1900 Life Points while Ghost Girl had three monsters and 4000 Life Points, so the match wasn't going in his favor at the moment. I probably shouldn't interfere with it though, letting his opponent drop his Life Points to below 1000 and then using Storm Access was Playmaker's go-to strategy so I probably shouldn't worry about him too much.
"You are right." I stood up and looked down at Blaze Rose. "It will be hard to see anything from here, we should drop down and continue our search from there."
"Talking about dropping down, do you see who I'm seeing?" Blaze Rose leaned closer to the edge of the rooftop and pointed at something below us. I tried to follow where her finger was pointing at, but it was hard for me since I was looking at it from a completely different point of view and I couldn't make clearly what it was pointing at.
So I shook my head for a no.
"It's Go Onizuka!" Blaze Rose shouted at me. Since I already knew what we were looking for I was able to quickly identify him in the mostly empty street below us. He was walking toward somewhere, but I couldn't tell where. Come to think about it, the only time I ever saw this Charisma Duelist before was during his duel with Playmaker and that was from afar. I never talked with him, nor knew what kind of person he was.
"What's so interesting about him?" I asked Blaze Rose.
"I must ask him some things." She replied and ran off toward the side of the building, then jumped over, landing on the fire escape of the next building. I sighed and slowly followed after her, despite not liking her company I would rather have her with me than stay alone in a virtual city during the night.
After a bit of jumping and a lot of stairs, I was able to catch up to Blaze Rose just as she ran out of the alley. I fell on my knees right behind her and began to take deep breaths, feeling a strong pain forming in my chest after running down thirty-seven floors worth of stairs. I wasn't sure how Blaze Rose wasn't affected from all of the running and it started to worry me that this sort of amazing physical fitness might be required for someone to be accepted as a Charisma Duelist.
"Long time not seen, Number One!" I raised my eyes to look at Blaze Rose while catching my breath. We were standing in front of Go Onizuka and was he huge! Not one, he was two heads taller than Blaze, who herself three fourths of a head taller than me. In other words, he was so huge compared to me!
"Blaze Rose." Go mumbled. "I heard that you haven't show in LINK VRAINS for some time, did something happen?"
"A lot happened." Blaze Rose crossed her arms and rubbed her shoulders. "You were gone from here for a while as well, but do you have any idea what's going on with the Charisma Duelists?"
"Well, as you said I was gone from here for a while myself, so I'm not up to date with the recent events, but it seems like the remaining from the Top Ten are having it rough. Blue Angel, Gloomy Ruby and Rocketeer have disappeared from LINK VRAINS around the same time as you and I heard that since yesterday Private Unit wasn't responding either. Many duelists are trying to use our absence and the chaos that the Knights of Hanoi brought to take our places."
"That was to be expected, everyone wants to be a Charisma Duelist and get all of the benefits that come with it." Blaze Rose stepped back toward me and put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm honestly not interested in being a Charisma Duelist any longer, there are more important things in my life now. Problem is, if I officially retire I'm afraid that some bastard who only wants to abuse the system will take my place."
"So you won't be a challenger for my title as Number One Duelist in LINK VRAINS anymore?" An almost sad smile formed on Go's face with these words. "So, who's your friend?"
"I was never really interested to begin with." I took Blaze's hand and allowed her to help me stand up. She looked me into the eyes for a moment, then turned back to face the other Charisma Duelist. "Ask her, she was a mouth to introduce herself, right?"
"S-sorry!" I bowed before the two Charisma Duelists. Blaze was right, she shouldn't be the one introducing me. "My name is Proxy, I'm a friend with Blaze Rose. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Go Onizuka."
"So you got yourself a friend at long last." Go's words made Blaze to look away abashed and I smiled a bit at her reaction; it was also sad that she apparently wasn't able to make any friends before me.
"So, Mr. Go Onizuka, have you noticed anything strange happening around LINK VRAINS lately?" I asked the huge Charisma Duelist. He seemed like a nice person, but I was trying to talk extra nicely, because I didn't want to disrespect him.
"No, I haven't." I looked down in disappointment. "What are you looking for anyways?"
"We heard that some weird incidents were happening around the server." Blaze Rose answered before I could. "We are trying to figure out the cause. It might be something connected to the Knights of Hanoi."
"I might help you then." The Number One Charisma Duelist stated firmly. "After my lost to Playmaker and spent some time away from LINK VRAINS to updated my deck with next cards and tactics. I was looking for a chance to test it out in a life duel. A Knights of Hanoi could do a good practice dummy as well."
"Problem is, how are we going to find the source of the incidents?" I asked the two Charisma Duelists. We didn't know anything about how it looked and if it was even a physical being and not a glitch in the network.
"Well, if most people haven't heard about these incidents then they probably happen at places without many people." Go pointed out. "Maybe the best place to search would be the alleys."
"Come on, that's just cliché!" Blaze Rose grumbled. "Can't you two think of a different place to search?"
"I don't mean to be rude, but I'm sure that the source of the incidents won't just show up out of nowhere." I responded. As cliché as it was to search for a bad guy in abandoned alleys, it was the only idea we had at the moment. No one said that we had to find the cause in one day either, so I might ask Evan to help me out tomorrow. He had information about everything that happens in the servers, so if there really was someone messing with the program, he would know everything about it.
Then, something pushed me from behind. I had no time to reach, nor was able to see what it was, but it was strong and felt like it had large claws for arms. My nerves felt everything from the something pushing me hard in the back to the harsh impact after I fell on my face a moment later. A large black claw made from data slammed itself into my Duel Disk and it began to make strange noises while two more arms were pushing my back to keep me down. I couldn't move, nor turn my head any more to see what exactly attacked me, but I could hear Blaze Rose yelling curses beside me.
Just as quickly as the strange thing got us pinned on the ground, it suddenly got dragged off us. I heard Go groan and then the black creature was throw a good few feet away from us, crashing into the street.
"What is this?" I heard the Number 1 ask, but I had no answer ready since I didn't know it either!
I looked at the creature again and got a clearer look at what it was. Its whole body was made from black data with four long and slender arms and two pointy legs without feet. Its head, if there was one (there was no neck to separate it from the rest of the body) had a single blue orb located at the far left side.
"It obviously isn't a pet." Blaze Rose retorted.
"But why did it attack us?" I asked her and looked at my Duel Disk. I tried to turn it on and it glow for a few moments before turning back off; I couldn't enter dueling mode anymore! "Also, my Duel Disk is low on battery now!"
"That thing messed up our devices." Blaze Rose bit her lip. "We can't duel!"
"D-Du… Dueeel…" A very quiet and distorted voice came from the strange black creature while it collected itself from the ground. "I… Duuueeeellll."
"So, it can duel after all…" Go's shoulders visibly raised and he took a step forward, clenching his fists. "Very well, then. I will be your opponent!"
"Be careful, we still don't know if, and how that thing destroys decks." Blaze Rose warned the Number 1.
"I think we just figured it out." I replied and hit my fist against my Duel Disk, but nothing happened. Let's just hope my cards weren't destroyed or broken from that thing's claws.
"Don't worry Blaze, I will make it quick." Go activated his own Duel Disk. "Let's duel!"
『Go Onizuka LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Unknown LP: 4000 Hand: 5』
One of the creature's arms reached out and grabbed onto the Charisma Duelist's Duel Disk, shocking him with electricity. Go yelled and stepped back, holding a hand over the one that was shocked by the monster's actions. He gritted his teeth and looked at the black humanoid.
"We haven't even started and you are already using cheap tricks to distract your opponent!" the Charisma Duelist shouted. "You have no honor as a duelist!"
"Data obtained." The creature looked at its arms and spoke clearly, but its voice was still distorted. "Taking on first turn. Doesn't draw a card."
"This thing is talking just like some sort of AI." Blaze Rose stood up and looked at Go. "We haven't faced such a threat before, be careful about any sort pf tricks."
"I'm not worried at all." The Number 1 turned to look back at us. "Fighting strong opponents is part of being a Charisma Duelist. I wouldn't be a coward if I ran from a challenge, even if my opponent cheats, I will still find a way to overcome the odds and win!"
"Turn start, Main Phase One." The strange creature held out its top left arm and five cards appeared inside of it. "I activate One for One! Discard a monster, Special Summon Formud Skipper (Lv.1, ATK: 0)! A grey robot monster whose head looked like that of a frog appeared on the field with green eyes.
"But that's a Cyberse monster!" Blaze Rose exclaimed and I looked at the creature that just summoned the monster. Only Playmaker was supposed to have this type of monsters!
"So, Playmaker wasn't the only one after all." I heard Go mutter to himself. "But what good is a monster with zero attack power in attack position?"
"Aactivate Formud Skipper's effect." The creature raised its other left arm and a card appeared in it. "Reveal Knightmare Cerberus from Extra Deck, change Formud Skipper's name to Knightmare Cerberus!" The Cyberse monster's body began to change and it transformed into an orange dog-like creature with three heads and a large ring around all of their necks.
'A monster that could take the name of a monster in the Extra Deck… What sort of effect is that?' I thought while looking at the duel.
"Circuit open!" the Unknown - that's how I will call the creature from here on – raised its right arms in the air and the Link Square appeared above it. "Arrowhead confirmed! Summoning condition is one Knightmare monster! Set Formud Skipper renamed to to Knightmare Cerberus in the Link Marker! Link Summon! Knightmare Mermaid (ATK: 600, Link-1)!"
The same mermaid monster appeared on the field and took the place of the fake Formud Skipper. So the whole use of the Cyberse Monster was for it take on the archetype requirement needed to summon the Link 1? Well, no wonder that Playmaker didn't have such a card in his deck, it wasn't very useful for him.
"The effect of Knightmare Mermaid! Discard a card, Special Summon Knightmare Corruptor Iblee (Lv.2, DEF: 0) from deck!" A girl in black clothes appeared under Knightmare Mermaid's Link Arrow. "Effects from Graveyard activate: Sea Archiver (Lv.3, DEF: 2100) and The Fabled Cerburrel (Lv.2, ATK: 1000) Special Summon!"
Just like that, with the effect of discarding one card, the Unknown summoned three new monsters, two of which were, once again, Cyberse. I bit my lip and looked at Go, but he was unimpressed by his opponent's moves so far.
"Circuit open!" The square appeared above the Unknown once more. "Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning condition are twomonsters with different names! Set Sea Archiver and Knightmare Corruptor Iblee in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Knightmare Phoenix (ATK: 1900. Link-2)!" A red phoenix monster flew onto the field and landed behind the mermaid monster with its wings spread wide over the field.
"Knightmare Corruptor Iblee's effect, Special Summon on your side of the field." The girl in black clothes reappeared once more, but this time it was summoned on Go's side of the field.
"Why would this thing give their opponent a free monster?" I asked Blaze Rose, but she was just as confused about it as me.
"It doesn't really matter, Go can only use Gouki monsters as Link Materials, so that Knightmare Corruptor Iblee will only take up a monster zone until Go manages to get rid of it." So, the idea was basically to make one of Go's monster zones basically useless?
"Circuit open!" for a third time, the Unknown summoned the Link circuit; just how many Link Summons was it planning to do. "Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning condition are twomonsters with different names! Set Knightmare Mermaid and The Fabled Cerburrel in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Knightmare Goblin (ATK: 1300, Link-2)!" A green humanoid with a large, messed up head holding a shield and some sort of other weapon in its arms landed next to the right side of Knightmare Phoenix.
"Effect activate, discard one card to Summon twice. Additional, co-linked draw one card." The Unknown quickly replaced one of the cards in its hand with another one. Setting up Graveyard presence while also keeping the size of the hand, it was truly an amazing display!
"So, if your monster's effect allows you to Normal Summon twice this turn, I take it that you aren't done with your moves yet." Go crossed his arms. "Am I correct?"
The Unknown didn't seem to pay attention to the Number 1's words and just pressed a card in its hand. "Normal Summon Gouki Suprex (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)!" A blue humanoid warrior with claws on its arms jumped onto the field and threw a few punches in the air.
"A Gouki?!" Both Go and Blaze Rose exclaimed at the same time.
"What kind of trick is this?" Go asked in a demanding tone. "How did you get my cards?"
"Gouki Suprex's effect. Special Summon Gouki Riscorpio (Lv.5, ATK: 2300) from the hand." A large red humanoid with a scorpion tail appeared next to the blue one. "Circuit open!"
The square appeared above the Unknown's head and its two Gouki monsters shot into the bottom left and right arrows, making them glow as a new Link Monster was on its way to appear.
"Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning condition are twoWarrior monsters! Set Gouki Suprex and Gouki Riscorpio in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights (ATK: 1600, Link-2)!" a young woman with blonde hair and a red attire fitting only for a queen appeared in the Extra Monster Zone with a bow. "Effects activate! Search two Gouki cards, add a warrior to the hand!"
"This… It has copies of all my cards!" Go stepped back shocked and Blaze Rose who was standing next to me but the nail of one of her fingers.
"Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights's effect! Send Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade from deck to Graveyard, Special Summon Gouki Octostretch (Lv.1. DEF:0)!" And yet another one of Go's monsters was summoned on the opponent's field. This was getting better with every second, and yes, this sentence was sarcastic.
"Four Link Summonings already and it's not stopping… Don't tell me that this thing is planning to do an Extra Link!" Blaze Rose called out.
"What is an Extra Link?" I asked her. I never heard that name before, no one mentioned it during a duel before.
"Extra Link, it's the concept that allows you to Link the two Extra Monster Zones." Blaze Rose paused and turned back to look at me. Her expression was more serious than previously. "It means that if this thing succeeds to pull it off, they are going to be able to summon a monster in the other Extra Monster Zone as well."
"But isn't controlling two Extra Monster Zones against the rules?" The rules did state that a duelist could use only one of them at time.
"It's an exception that only a few skilled individuals were able to achieve." So if I took that correctly, if the Unknown managed to pull it out, they must be a very skilled duelist.
"Circuit open! Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning condition are two or more monsters with different names! Set Gouki Octostretch and Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Knightmare Unicorn (ATK: 2200, Link-3)!" Next of course came the yellow Link monsters, unlike the previous ones, it was a Link 3 monster. "Effects activate! Search one Gouki card. Activate Gouki Rematch, revive Gouki Suprex (Lv.4, DEF: 0) and Gouki Riscorpio (Lv.5, DEF: 0)!" The two Gouki monsters appeared in defense position.
"Don't tell me that it's planning to do what I'm thinking!" Go called out. I had no idea what he was referring to!
"Circuit open!" The square appeared above the Unknown for the nth time this turn. "Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning condition are two monsters with different names! Set Gouki Suprex and Gouki Riscorpio in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Knightmare Cerberus (ATK: 1600. Link-2)!" The orange monster appeared on the field with a roar. "Effect activate! discard a card to destroy Knightmare Corruptor Iblee, then draw a card. Activate Monster Reborn to revive Knightmare Corruptor Iblee!"
The Unknown destroyed the monster that it gave to Go while it also added another card to its hand, bringing it up to four! I couldn't tell what would happen next, there were four co-linked monsters, the creature was so close to finished the Extra Link!
"Circuit open!" Again?! "Arrowhead confirmed! Summoning condition is one Knightmare monster! Set Knightmare Corruptor Iblee in the Link Marker! Link Summon! Knightmare Mermaid (ATK: 600, Link-1)!" The phoenix that was moved away from its previous zone shot into the circuit and a beam of light fell from it, landing on the other Extra Monster Zone.
"I can't believe it…" Blaze Rose muttered.
I couldn't believe my eyes either, this being, whatever it was, just managed to make an Extra Link on its very first turn! Not only that, but none of the monsters pointed at Go's field which meant that the Charisma Duelist was completely looked out of his Extra Deck!
"Extra Link: Completed! Banish Gouki Suprex and Gouki Riscorpio, add Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade to hand!" The Equip Spell appeared back into the Unknown's hand and got pushed aside. "Turn end!
"So, you were able to lock me out of my Extra Deck, huh?" Go looked forward at the five Link Monsters before him and was actually smiling! Could it be possible that he actually enjoyed that situation?!
"You sound like you got some sort of plan." Blaze Rose crossed her arms. "I sure hope that you do."
"I don't have a plan for this situation." Go shook his head and turned back to look at us, his smile still there. "But when a duelist is faced with a challenge like this, rational strategies won't work, all we can trust on are our instincts and mine tell me that there is still a way to win this. Even without Link Monsters, I will push my way through this offense! My turn, draw!"
『Turn 2 [Go Onizuka] LP: 4000 Hand: 6』
"Perfect hand! I "Normal Summon Gouki Suprex (Lv.4, ATK: 1800) and activate its effect to Special Summon Gouki Bearhug (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)!" A huge brown monster with a red fur cloak falling from its back landed next to the first Gouki and roared like a bear. "Now Gouki Bearhug's effect activates! When it's Special Summoned by the effect of a Gouki card, I can target a monster you control and halve its attack points! I target Knightmare Unicorn!" The huge bear-like monster slammed its fists into the ground and threw a rock at the Knightmare.
"Move is illegal." The Unknown called as a barrier blocked the rock and destroyed it. "Goblin's effect: Co-linked monsters can't be targeted by effects. Cerberus's effect: Co-linked monsters can't be destroyed by card effects. Phoenix's effect: Co-linked monsters can't be destroyed by battle."
"WHAT?!" My eyes bulged hearing all of those effects. These Knightmare monsters were completely indestructible, weren't they? If Go couldn't get rid of them, then how was he supposed to summon a Link Monster and turn the tides around?
"An absolute lockdown is it then, huh?" Go clenched his fists.
"Mermaid's effect. All monsters that aren't co-linked lose a thousand attack and defense points!" The two Gouki monsters on Go's field seemed to feel bad and fell on their knees, wiping sweat off their foreheads.
Gouki Suprex, ATK: 1800 – 1000 → 800
Gouki Bearhug ATK: 2400 – 1000 → 1400
"Hmm, your monsters are indeed strong." Go said and pointed a finger at the sky. "But I'm not Number One for nothing! I discard Gouki Twistcobra to Special Summon Gouki Headbatt (Lv.2, DEF: 0)!" A purple and black humanoid monster with an appearance very similar to that of a bat. "When Gouki Headbatt is summoned, I can increase the attack of a Gouki by six hundred! I choose Gouki Bearhug!"
Gouki Bearhug ATK: 1400 + 8000 → 2200
"Next, I activate the Spell, Gouki Face Turn to destroy Gouki Headbatt and Special Summon Gouki Twistcobra (Lv.3, ATK: 1600) from my Graveyard!" A green humanoid with a snake motive jumped out of a black portal and note to its comrades. "When Gouki Headbatt leaves the field I can add a different Gouki card to my hand! I add the Equip Spell, Gouki Grit and activate it to Special Summon Gouki Headbatt (Lv.2, ATK: 800) and equip it with Gouki Grit!"
"Mermaid's effect. All monsters that aren't co-linked lose a thousand attack and defense points!" The Gouki's new monsters took deep breaths, already looking extremely tired.
Gouki Twistcobra, ATK: 1600 – 1000 → 600
Gouki Headbatt ATK: 800 – 1000 → 0
'Why would he use this effect to Special Summon a monster whose attack is zero?' I thought watching Go's moves. He was a Charisma Duelist and the best one as well, so it couldn't be that he forgot about the Mermaid's effect, right?
"Lastly, I activate the Continuous Spell, Gouki Shout! With this card's effect, when a Gouki attacks an opponent monster, it will gain three hundred extra points for every Gouki that I control!" 300 per monster? But there were four of these out, so that meant all of his monsters were going to get 1200 bonus points when they attack! "I'm going to end the whole duel in this turn! Gouki Bearhug destroy Knightmare Mermaid! And since it declared an attack, the effect of Gouki Shout increases its attack by three hundred per Gouki monster I control!"
"Counter! Banish Necro Gardna from the Graveyard to negate your attack!" A grinning warrior appeared in front of Gouki Bearhug and blocked its attack with its bare hands before it disappeared again.
"I was expecting that much." Go replied. "Let's go! Gouki Headbatt attack next!" The bat-like monster jumped into the air and threw a kick at the mermaid.
Gouki Headbatt ATK: 0 + 1200 → 1200
"Phoenix's effect protects Mermaid from destruction." The Phoenix flew in front of the water monster and used its wings to shield it from the kick.
"But you still take the damage!" Go called out and indeed, the Unknown had to step back and its body cracked a bit.
『Unknown LP: 4000 - 600 → 3400』
"Next, Gouki Twistcobra!" The snake monster seemed to smile hearing its name and jumped at the mermaid, pushing the water monster into the ground. Due to Gouki Shout its attack got a boost as well!
Gouki Twistcobra, ATK: 600 + 1200 → 1800
『Unknown LP: 3400 - 1200 → 2200』
"Phoenix's effect protects Mermaid from destruction." The Unknown being repeated the same phase after Go's monsters failed to finish it off once again.
"That's exactly what I was betting on." Go put a hand on his hips seemingly in triumph. "Since your weaker monster can't be destroyed by battle and it's a Link Monster, it becomes the perfect target to score damage through. Wasn't it for Phoenix's effect negating its destruction, this wouldn't have been possible!"
"Unable to… comprehend…" The Unknown took a step back, its body kept breaking down and one of its arms fell on the ground, disappearing from the server.
"I activate Gouki Twistcobra's effect!" Go pumped his fist forward. "Once per turn, I can release a Gouki monster and give its attack points to another Gouki monster! I release Gouki Bearhug to increase Gouki Suprex's attack by two thousand and four hundred!"
Gouki Suprex, ATK: 800 + 2400 → 3200
"When Gouki Bearhug leaves the field I can add a different Gouki card to my hand!" Go called out showing the card that he added, Gouki Octostretch. "Now for the finish, Gouki Suprex attack Knightmare Mermaid!" The Gouki jumped in front of the mermaid and grabbed the monster, suprexing it into the ground. "And because of Gouki Shout my monster gains even more attack points."
Gouki Suprex, ATK: 3200 + 900 → 4100
『Unknown LP: 2200 - 3500 → 0』
『Winner: Go Onizuka』
Amazing… No extra deck monsters used, despite the huge disadvantage he was at, Go was able to create a strategy that would give him the victory within one single turn! No wonder he was the Number 1 among Charisma Duelists, suck skills, they couldn't be imitated, he must have had many duels, gathered much experience in order to master the use of his deck like that. Would it be weird if I asked for his autograph?
"N-No… Noooooo…" The Unknown creature's voice broke down and the 'no' turned into some strange noise as more and more parts of its body began to collapse and disappear. "E… Erro…Errooor. Ca-canooot-t-t… Sta-" Unable to finish its sentence, the being's body completely collapsed and just a glowing card filled with data remained behind.
"I couldn't understand how it was able to get a copy of my Gouki cards." Go muttered. "They aren't rare, but it was a bit too much of a coincidence that it had them too, wasn't it?"
I looked at Blaze Rose. The female Charisma Duelist walked over to the card and took it from the ground then threw it toward me. My eyes widened and I quickly took several steps back to catch it before it hit the ground. Putting it close to my chest, I breathed in relief, Blaze Rose shouldn't have thrown it that high knowing that my avatar was tiny!
"You still haven't figured out what happened, did you?" Blaze Rose spoke up. "It didn't have your cards, it must have downloaded a copy of them while it caught your Duel Disk. That was probably how it was able to 'break' decks, perhaps it also injected a virus into the decks, destroying them."
"Why would anyone do such a thing?" I looked over at Go, he gritted his teeth in anger and clenched his fists. "What would they gain by stealing and destroying others' property?"
"The answer on the first question is, not a human. That thing you dueled, it was an AI for sure, it's dueling was clumsy and no skilled enough to manage an Extra Link duelist would actually fall on the first turn by a Beatdown strategy. Your opponent was obvious an amateur when it came to actual dueling."
"An AI, huh? Many weird things were happening in the last few days." Go took a deep breath. "It still doesn't explain why it would steal others' cards and how it got those Cyberse monsters."
"It's just a guess that I have, but that AI didn't seem to be having a functional deck. There were obviously unnecessary and weird cards inside of the deck that it used against you." Blaze Rose rubbed her chin in thought. "But the Cyberse cards really intrigued me. They are extremely rare, Playmaker is the last known duelist to have them, so there wouldn't be a way for this AI to have stolen them from another duelist, which means…"
"The Cyberse Cards belonged to it from the start." I conclude. It reminded me what AI said when we talked about the incidents.
Lately I was able to feel several breaches inside the servers of LINK VRAINS. It was strangely familiar for some reason and if it's familiar then it could be connected only to either the Knights of Hanoi or my home world, the Cyberse.
Why would the Knights of Hanoi create an AI and send it to roam the servers of LINK VRAINS and steal other duelists' cards? If this AI was truly from the Cyberse, could we have just destroyed one of Ai's kind? No, don't think like that! I would have to talk with the Greysons and Yusaku about it before reaching to crazy conclusions.
"I suggest we all leave now." Blaze Rose said, catching our attention. "This thing got its arms on all of our Duel Disk, I don't know how long after that a deck gets completely destroyed, so we better log out and run scans on our Duel Disks for any viruses it might have left behind."
"That's a reasonable suggestion." Go nodded and reached out to log out. "Stay save you two."
"You too, Mr. Go Onizuka." I responded.
"Heh, please, just call me by my name." Go chuckled and pressed a button on his Duel Disk, logging out from LINK VRAINS.
"I have the feeling that you two are going to be very good friends." Blaze Rose put a hand on my shoulder.
"Huh?" I looked back at her a bit confused as to why she was telling me that. "Do you really think that?"
"Of course. Not." I puffed my checks, her lack of confidence in me was a little insulting.
3rd POV
Inside SOL Technology, Akira Zaizen leaned his back against chair he was sitting on and groaned, his tense muscles starting to relax a little as he was finally able to take a break from typing on his computer. The time as Security Manager made him forget how much work the normal staff of the company had to carry through during the whole day. His current occupation as Chief Hacker wasn't anywhere near an easy job, but he was quickly starting to get used to it. As someone who spent the last ten years doing all sort of work to keep a roof over his sister's head, there was almost no job that he couldn't do.
The door of his office slide open and the Zaizen's pink eyes glanced at the person who stepped inside. Akira tensed a bit and pushed himself away from the comfort of his seat, putting his hands on top of the desk. Evan removed his sunglasses – don't ask why he wore them inside the building – and smirked. It was a look that Akira has gotten used to, the white and red haired man was up to something again.
"Lately you spent a lot more time at our company than at yours." Akira couldn't help put point out this fact. Evan wasn't working for SOL, he was a business partner and as such it was unusual to see him there every other day.
"I had to meet with your crazy boss today." Evan sighed and walked over to the glass that kept the current room separated from another one that was holding all of SOL Technology's data inside. "I didn't ask him due to my obvious desire to see him fail and get fired for his stupidity, but could you help me get the camera records of this building from yesterday? There is an employer I want to identify."
"Just what are you up to this time?" Akira asked him. SOL Technology's employs had their personal data protected from the company and no one was allowed to spread or make it public, so what Evan was asking him for was pretty much illegal.
"Have you even heard about the Trojan Horse?" Evan asked a question on his own and turned to look at Akira. There was no longer a smirk on his face which told Zaizen that they were talking about serious business.
"Do you mean the computer virus or the Trojan Horse from the Greek mythology?"
"The second one." Evan replied and put his sunglasses back on. The ChronoGear duelist put his hands into the pockets of his pants and walked back to the door. Before leaving however, he left Zaizen with some last words. "I'm asking because SOL Technology's might have just turned into Troy."
Roxy's POV
I lied on my bed and watched the ceiling inside the darkness of my bedroom. Thankfully, Avice had finished school and was at home to check our Duel Disks and repair anything that might have been broken. After that we had dinner and Vermilya remained to speak with her about the incident and how the creature might have been lured to attack us by our oGear decks. I still had no understanding about the true nature of my deck, but if that theory was true, it was probably connected to the Cyberse in some way.
Today was another weird day, wonder if Playmaker had a better time with his objectives that I did with mine. Perhaps it would be too bad to ask how he was doing, it was still pretty early in the day.
[08:45:05 PM] Proxy: Hey, how did the duel with Ghost Girl go?
I lied down and waited for his response. Of course, he must have won, that was Playmaker that we talk about, the best duelist in LINK VRAINS. He even beat Go Onizuka and I already saw what that Charisma Duelist was capable of even without an Extra Deck.
[08:50:21 PM] Playmaker: It was a success, she was true to her word.
So she gave him the backdoor to SOL's data bank? Of course he wasn't going to say that in the chat since this was, after all, part of SOL Technologies' features. That didn't stop me from sighing in relief though, somehow hearing that Playmaker was achieving his goals made me feel more relax, perhaps even happy about him.
[08:57:43 PM] Proxy: I investigated the incidents like you asked me to. There was something extremely weird, I don't know for sure what it was, but it used Cyberse cards and left some sort of data after it disappeared.
I still had the data in my avatar's inventory, unsure what to do with it. On the one hand, I could give it to Evan and Avice for analyze, but on the other it was Playmaker and Ai that asked me to check it out and the creature was using Cyberse cards so its connection to them was definitely more important than the Greysons in this scenario.
[09:02:17 PM] Playmaker: It used Cyberse cards? I thought that Hanoi destroyed all of those that remained. Was there anything else about it that you noticed?
Blaze Rose said a similar thing about Cyberse cards being extremely rare, so I guess this confirms they weren't stolen from another person's deck. Ugh, thinking about it too much makes my head hurt!
[09:04:49 PM] Proxy: It seemed to be an AI, but it wasn't anywhere near the level of Ai, so I'm unsure how important that was. I got the data that it felt behind on me, so I could come tomorrow and give it to you to examine it.
This time, his response was a very quick. It amazed me too about how quickly he responded.
[09:06:12 PM] Playmaker: I won't be available tomorrow.
The infiltration into the Data Bank, right. For the record, I didn't forget about that, but I wasn't expecting Playmaker to jump into action so fast. Then there was another beep and another message came from him.
[09:08:36 PM] Playmaker: I never asked you, but you make sure to delete your message logs afterward, don't you? SOL can't figure my location, but I'm not sure about yours…
Ha, I could actually delete the messages after sending them? Oh, wait. I should have deleted them?! Of course, I should have done that, how dumb could I be to forget to do so.
[09:11:05 PM] Proxy: Of course I do! There is nothing for you to worry about.
DELETE FREAKING EVERYTHING!
A/N: So, some of you might be scratching your heads about what the heck is happening lately, while others probably gave up halfway through (akward laugh). I don't want to spoil anything, but the sewers monster that made a cameo in the laster chapter and the strange creature we saw in this one are actually going to play an important role in the later part of the story and mostly during the events that will happen in Season 2. Before we continue I want to tell you all that today is a special day for me! I'm not going to get into details about it, but as a treat today I'm putting a new chapter for bot this and my Arc-V story, so for those of you who are following both of them, here, I got something for you guys!
So, what are you thoughts on Go's duel against the Knightmare deck? I wanted to use a real meta version of the Knightmare deck for this duel and the only versions of Knightmare that I found online were Gouki builds. It strangely reminds be about how the most popular Sky Striker decks are Sky Striker Trickstars... I originally wanted to make this a struggle with Go and the Unknown trading blow after blow until the Number 1 found an opening, but come on, wasn't a first turn, indestructible Extra Link with no monsters pointing up cooler? Of course Go found a way around it, but I don't think that there would be a better way to show how awesome he can be than letting him destroy the Extra Link and win with an OTK. The poor Unknown probably lost whatever brain capability it had after making such an indestructible combo and still loses to Gouki Beatdown like an absolute noob.
But enough with the self-praise, time to respond to our sole review for the day!
ScalchopWarrior: Just to clear something up, Vermilya/Blaze Rose isn't living with Roxy and the Greysons. She will indeed spent most of her time with them, but she lives in the school dorms, so there is that. In fact, you aren't really wrong about the last part, Blaze Rose was indeed designed to be Proxy's rival, although they don't exactly have much rival-like dinamic at the moment.
I'm not sure if you paid attention, but I did mention in the A/N last time that Nulline would be the base of the WATER Ignis only if VRAINS doesn't reveal the real one. If they reveal it, then Nulline with just be another member of Hanoi and nothing more, her backstory won't be explored much until the end of Season 1/during Season 2 so VRAINS got enough time to show us who the WATER Ignis was based after.
And about that thing with Arc-V and VRAINS... Yeah, I noticed it too, some people are still trying to point out that VRAINS is better because they don't use "but you still take the damage" in every episode and such. While I too was extremely hiped for VRAINS and believed that it would be better than Arc-V, unlike others I didn't expect it to be 'cool' or 'epic', just barely above the extremely low standards that the last 50 episodes of Arc-V set up. And while I said that I don't want to watch VRAINS any more because of how stupid it became, it has no Yuya so its still better for me than Arc-V. I know, I know, it's childish to judge a whole show based of a single character, but when that character is incluencing badly all other characters (that egao bullshit) it's somewhat fair. If the writers didn't allow him to influence how the other characters THINK I would have said that Arc-V and VRAINS have equally bad writing, which is sad because both shows had a lot of characters and plot points with potential.
And I somehow ended up ranting again *sigh* can't be helped I guess. Well, see you all next time and don't forget to F/F/R!
Diabolic Tracer out!