Chapter 4

Seto Kaiba sat in his office, staring out the window in utter boredom. He'd had so little work to do recently that he'd started playing computer games just to kill the time until he could challenge Yugi again. It hadn't been as bad as he'd thought….while he was completing Level 50 of a game called Magic's Play, he'd run across a newbie calling herself Chiu. Seto remembered seeing the name Chiu before….he'd checked out the homepage of a 'net-idol named Chiu once or twice on the recommendation of someone he'd instant messaged while playing another computer game, an unofficial adaption of Duel Monsters that he'd beat easily (as he had expected). The idol, Chiu-chan, had been kind of interesting, but Seto had been too busy too look into it that much. When he saw that the Magic's Play Chiu had looked exactly like the idol Chiu, he'd been intrigued.

He'd wondered if the newbie wizard character calling herself Chiu was just some lame wannabe cosplaying as the idol, or if perhaps she could be the same person. He'd almost grown disinterested with trying to find out when a bunch of other newbies clustered around gamer-Chiu had started spamming the Magic's Play chat-box claiming that they were somehow magically 'trapped' in the game. Seto was too smart to believe that nonsense….obviously, these idiots were just like that pathetic Yugi and his friends: convinced that 'magic' and ancient spirits lurked behind every hologram they dueled with.

The idiots in Chiu's group would probably also believe Yugi's cockamammy story that Yugi and himself were reincarnations of Egyptian wizards that had battled thousands of years ago. Right, Seto smirked to himself, and I'm the Emperor of Japan, too. It was quickly made obvious to him by the inane comments of Chiu's friends that they had gotten themselves stuck in a virtual reality device and had been too stupid to even realize it. Frowning, Seto remembered how a hologram malfunction during his duel in Battle City with Yugi had caused that pointy-haired idiot of a duelist-damn Yugi- and his friends to conclude that 'magic' had sent Yugi and himself to ancient Egypt. Seto guessed that the idiots following Chiu through Level 1 of Magic's Play had similarly used 'magic' to explain their lack of understanding of technology.

However, the fact that this Chiu had likely created the virtual reality machine her friends had mistaken for 'magic' intrigued him. He knew that the idol Chiu was also a famed Internet hacker, according to Google. So, he had guessed that if gamer Chiu was the same person, then it could easily be guessed that 'Chiu' had the technological know-how to build a virtual reality device good enough to fool her friends into thinking they were actually in Magic's Play's 'Enchanted Forest' play area. If such a machine existed, he, Seto Kaiba, would find it. And, when he found it, he would get that amazing device for himself.

That was why he'd sent gamer-Chiu a note. He had to know if this Chiu was the same Chiu he knew to be capable of such invention. If she was, it would explain everything. The idiots who thought they were 'trapped' in Magic's Play would have to be fans of 'Chiu's Homepage' who had met up with her and stumbled into the virtual reality system she'd been testing at the time…a system that Seto would covet until he saw it himself.

As he stood at his window, grinning at the thought of acquiring such technology, he heard a ding coming from his computer that told him he had a message. The mysterious Chiu had finally written him back! As he sat down in his chair, eagerly leaning forward for information regarding the virtual reality simulator that had fooled those idiot Chiu fans, he smirked haughtily and began to read:

To: Kaiba_Man

From: CHIU

Re: Re: Your Idiot Friends

Hello, Kaiba-sama. This is Chiu…you're correct, I am the same Chiu famous for appearing on 'Chiu's Homepage'. My friends did indeed mess with my 'virtual reality device'. For reasons I'd…..rather not state, I can't give you specifics of how the virtual reality works over the Internet. If you can come to Mahora Jr. High for Girls in Mahora City, I might be able to let you test this….simulator. Please come to the enclosed address. If you use my 'virtual reality' with me, I REALLY hope you can help me beat the game and get my…peers….out of it! It's URGENT.

Help!

-Chiu-chan

As Seto continued reading the message, his smirk vanished. 'Reasons she'd rather not state'? What the hell did that mean? Was this chick seriously going to make him travel all the way to Mahora City? Seto wondered as he stared at the screen, frowning. I guess she's paranoid that I'll steal her idea if she explains the workings of it over the 'Net. Seto thought, a pout of frustration blooming upon his face as he stared at the screen some more. Of course, I do want to check out this new virtual reality tech. Badly. I can imagine how it would improve by hologram production for the next Duel Disk I make to challenge Yugi with. I need to have every possible edge against my competition, no matter what. And this Chiu girl's tech, if I can get it, would totally help with that. Hmm.., he thought, mulling over how much he was willing to do to get Chiu's virtual reality tech. I guess Mahora City isn't that far away. I'm bored anyway, so I might as well check it out. It will be good to get some fresh air, at least. Even if Chiu's tech is a bust. His decision made, he smirked. "Mokuba-kun!" he called. "Go prepare our new Blue-Eyes Jet. We're going to Mahora City!"