Seto Kaiba stared at the video stream.

That insane kiddy tournament, the one that was covered in cartoonish frog imagery and merged with some sort of playground in a 'magical frog castle', had somehow acquired advanced technology.

No, not just ADVANCED technology… New hardware that blew HIS best offerings out of the water!

All that money sunk into research and development, the failed holographic systems and arena prototypes, even the recent successes with Duel Disks and so forth…

None of it compared to THIS!

Visual, audible, and tactile holographic projections.

Ones without dead angles, coverage issues, or visual glitches or oddities.

Features which HE was still perfecting, but already on display at THIS moment!

There had to be hidden setbacks here… Massive power requirements? Coolant issues? It was unclear… And how did this 'Emperor' animate the creatures to such an advanced degree!?

This wasn't simple movement loops of roaring animations or displays giving or receiving damage!

There had been fairies eating ice cream and wolves giving kiddy rides! Adaptive and real time interaction between these programs and actual people!

How many YEARS of secretive programing and heuristic modification had gone into this chaos!?

And beyond all those concerns:

Why FROGS!?

With the ability to choose any creature and any Archetype to display this astounding technology, why bother with anything other than the nobelist of Duel Monsters, the dragons!?

Seto tapped his desk…

He needed more information.

But going himself was NOT an option. Far too undignified for someone of his stature to personally attend.

He glared again at the RIDICULOUS outfits being worn on screen… Especially those horrendous frog hats. At the beginning of this video stream, only a few staff members and monsters were wearing the horrific things… But now?

Froggy hats. Everywhere.

He shuddered at the thought of being surrounded by the 'cutesy' things in person…

Mental note: Keep his little brother FAR away from this embarrassing travesty of a tournament.

If Mokuba saw this disaster in progress, he'd INSIST on participating.

He did NOT have the time, patience, nor inclination to indulge in such a fashion blind event. Not if he wished for his pride to survive.

But that technology… He needed to know more. "I need a status update on their holographic technology. What are we working with?"

It was likely too soon for ANY information to be public, but he couldn't help but ask anyway.

One of his team leads saluted. "Sir! The 'Froggy-mitters' are publicly available on the tournament's new website! The technical specifications are included on the purchasing pages, along with variations of the equipment to better operate with equipment produced by other companies in the market. This is the most recent report, Sir!"

Kaiba stared at the impossible document. "They… They are selling something this cutting edge directly to the general public!?" Not even delaying deployment for the usual military contracts and private interests!?

What madness is THIS!? "Pull up the live website to my tablet." "Yes Sir!"

Hmm… Various plush dolls, customized board games, personalized decks of standard playing cards with your Duel Monsters featured on them, pool floaties, all sorts of clothing options with images of your monsters on them…

Page after page of sales products, far too many to quickly scroll through…

Oh, there was a filtering option over there.

He starred in surprise at the sheer LIST of Holographic Equipment available for purchase, then that surprise shifted to shock at how low COST the damned things were!

Then all his emotions swirled into comfortable normality: Rage. Pure rage. "They are selling modular inserts of their holographic emitting technology so that OUR customers can easily use THEIR new hardware."

Modular inserts that would easily slip into his most advanced designs without issue.

Proprietary KaibiCorp designs that were STILL IN DEVELOPMENT!

Were these upstarts TRYING to taunt him!?

With pure control and deceptive calmness, he placed the tablet to one side. "Purchase a hundred units of everything and anything technological that is provided and available from this website. I want R&D to tear it all down! To rip it open and show us what they've done here."

A full security review was in order as well. Time to clean house, apparently.

And if he spied even ONE fragment of evidence that someone was building a frog themed empire using HIS advancements in advanced technology, he was going to bring down the wrath of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on their everything!

Forcing himself to outwardly remain calm, he began issuing orders… And paused after the first dozen or so. "Has Mokuba seen this yet? ANY of this?"

His employee shook his head. "No Sir!"

Good. "Censor any television channels it shows up on and filter it from the websites we can access from here. I know it may be a lost cause, but if at ALL possible I'd like to keep him out of this potential bloodbath."

NO one would get away with mocking Seto Kaiba! NOBODY!

~~~Pocket System~~~

Temptation moved down her list and made the next call. "Hello, is this 'Girls and Boys: Games and Toys'? Lovely! Would you happen to know if the owner is able to take a call? Oh thank you, that would be very helpful!"

Another teenager broiling in hormones, how helpful.

After a moment, a grumpy man answered the phone… She could work with this. "Good afternoon, Mr. Dawson! My name is Temptation Doe, of the Doe Family Froggy Emporium. How are you today? Do you have time to talk for a moment?"

Most people did.

And once they heard what she was offering, the vast majority had been jumping to join up with her new virtual marketplace…

It wasn't exactly Amazon or anything, but the Doe Family Froggy Emporium had already transitioned from a niche shop selling plushies to an online distributor for a good number of local stores in the area.

Probably because the fees for joining the Emporium were ridiculously low, the logistics for distribution and packaging was handled via [[Home]] shenaniganry,

She hummed… "I have digital documentation and such… Is there an email address you'd prefer me to send this to?"

This whole initiative was more Grace's idea than hers, to be honest, but it was a good one regardless. After all, a short term festival or tournament is something ALL local businesses seem to love…

But a long term competitor? THAT was a horse of a different color!

So to head off future issues, hopefully, they were establishing relationships with the locals.

First of all: Purchasing raw materials from local sources. The various conversion and Crafting machines that John had set up would turn whatever they bought into something required or sold online, so it would all get used… But this would ALSO stimulate the local economy on the backend if they were all lucky.

Secondly, the other local producers. Those who made games or dolls or sleeping bags or…

Basically all the local shops that might have been crushed by their froggy dominance over the new online market. Now THEY were all exposed to a massive online fan base of customers, drastically expanding their potential sales base.

Hopefully, theoretically? That would prevent her Master from incidentally CRUSHING all local shops and stores with his high quality products that cost nearly nothing to Craft and deliver.

She smiled. "Of course! When you make a decision one way or the other, feel free to just call back at this number or call the castle directly. Have a lovely day!"

Next, that small bakery a couple of blocks over. They'd probably be interested in the 'practically free' international delivery services using the crazy methods of the Froggy Emporium. Maybe they'd like to make some Duel Monster themed snacks for sale here in the ongoing festivities?

Time to find out. "Hello, 'Half Baked Full Flavor Bakery'? Is your owner available for a short conversation? Yes, I'll hold."

Glancing over the data the Mistress gathered earlier on this place… Well.

Even if they ended up saying no, she was still going to order a few of their chocolate decadence muffins. Mmmm… Oops. "Good afternoon, is this Ms. Herman?"

Don't get distracted by tasty snacks! Focus!

~~~Pocket System~~~

John stared at his hand of cards in frustration. "But shouldn't I play this one?"

A dozen Duel Monsters in his Soul Network all began arguing with each other.

Again.

GAH! "Look, I let you guys design most of my deck… And yeah, fair enough: You guys know your own abilities better than I could." Probably. "But we can't go through this every time I try to play a card!"

Some ranted that yes, they COULD have a healthy and active debate. Especially BECAUSE each card played in a duel was so critical to the potential victory to come!

Others argued that some organization or structure could fix all this mess into an agile and adaptive playstyle, a cohesive whole.

More complained that they were all being too loud, and they just wanted to laze about on their pads and sleep.

John on the other hand was starting to lose his patience. "Guys, gals… I NEED to learn how to play this game. Not just how to do a dozen steps and summon out one massive frog, or a bunch of tricky combos to defeat my opponent in a single turn… Basic stuff."

Because John had made a critical error setting up this tournament: He ended up blocking most of the best cheating methods.

WITHOUT his interference, every card he drew would cause his foe to faint, the card text to perfectly shift and alter to address any situation, and even the most complicated and overwhelming pits of defeat to transform into undeniable and unrestrained victory.

But now he had to actually think about building his deck, how to play the cards, and above ALL that: Play politics with his own damned Duel Monsters. "I can't just ignore those guys, Substitoad. Even if other options could let us win faster in the short run, offending half my deck is a BAD idea!"

Especially considering that ALL his deck lived in a section of his Pocket!

He frowned, looking a the training simulation again. "Right, in this case I SHOULDN'T just play the highest attacking monster, because his card type would trigger the ongoing spell effect over there, yes? Oh, but maybe I SHOULD do that, so my next plays won't be hindered by that thing hanging over our heads…"

The boy absently shifted the cards in his hand as he looked down at the 'solid' holographic play surface. It was part of the 'dynamic duel system' the [[Home]] had established, and before full deployment John was trying to test it out to ensure its stability in real life first.

It was a clever idea, in his opinion: When two Duelists yelled 'It's time to DUEL!' at the same time, his [[Home]] would establish protective holograms separating the two into a magically expanded space and begin projecting the needed equipment.

Playing surfaces for the cards to be placed, areas for the deck and graveyard to interact with the hardware and equipment, all the holographic emitters needed to project the creatures and special effects and stuff…

Not to mention your 'team' of Duelists, if you chose to get support from one of your Duel Monsters.

The problem here, at least for John?

Substitoad was TOO laid back!

He had almost no opinion on the game itself, he found the army of hyperactive toads and frogs arguing over game play to be hilarious, and the guy had been spending MOST of this duel snickering behind John while he fumbled his way through these training simulations his sister set up!

…Then again, having his friend make all the decisions here wouldn't exactly be TEACHING John anything, but the jerk could at LEAST keep quiet while he was suffering through this! Sheesh!

Fine. "All right everyone be quiet for a bit and let me give this a shot on my own, okay? I think I can do this!"

Cards were placed on the field and projected in front of him as avatars. "I summon [Submarine Frog] in attack mode, and equip it with the [Blade Graveyard]!"

The adorable frog in diving equipment casually released his propeller powered spear while facing the enemies as a massive and gloomy sword tore its way up from the swampish soil below, arming the Submarine Frog with an additional 800 attack points and his new deadly weapon.

Great, now his monster could attack for 2,000 total damage per swing! "The special effect of my monster allows him to pierce through any defensive creatures, with excess damage DIRECTLY attacking my opponent! And if anyone manages to destroy him at any point, the special effect of [Blade Graveyard] will be able to activate from the beyond, banishing itself and allowing me to return one card from my graveyard to my hand!"

This should work, right? Because the simulation had put that opposing monsters into defense mode to PREVENT combat damage. And 2,000 was a HUGE attack stat, so it should clobber anything hidden under there into pieces, right?

Right, it was time to swing in for a MAJOR ATTACK! "Go [Submarine Frog]! And DESTROY the face down monster on the left!"

Softly, in the background as [Submarine Frog] prepared to strike, he heard a quiet 'Tink'.

[[Opposing face down monster has received 100 attack damage! It is flipped face up to reveal the Spirit monster [Aratama] with 1,800 defense! The backlash from your failed assault causes you 1,700 Life Point damage!]]

John froze, eyes wide… What? "But… He hasn't attacked yet?"

The simulation zoomed in… And showed the Submarine Frog's original spear gently drifting away.

The one his monster had casually tossed aside back when getting equipped with the [Blade Graveyard].

A spear that had somehow floated across the entirety of this stupid swampy battlefield and pinged against the opposing monster!?

That… That was BULLSHIT! "NOTHING on the cards says that can happen! It doesn't count!"

John waved at the confused frog on the field. "Go on, [Submarine Frog]! Smash that creature!"

[[[Submarine Frog] has already attacked once this turn and is unable to battle.]]

No! "That is SO bullshit! I should have SMASHED that thing out of the park and even given them 200 Life Point damage!"

The simulation said nothing. GAH! "Fine then… Uh. I set a card face down in my spell/trap zone and end my turn." It wouldn't be useful now, but hopefully it would help turn stuff around later.

[[The special effect of [Aratama] has been activated during the End Phase due to being flip summoned: It is returned to its owner's hand! In addition, the simulated opponent is now searching their deck to add one other Spirit monster aside from [Aratama] to their hand as well.]]

John gasped! "YOU CHEATER!"

Damn it Substitoad! Stop laughing at me! "You KNOW this is bullshit too! This CAN'T be legal!"

His 'friend' shrugged. "Ribbit."

God damn it. "Whatever, I can get out of this mess." Somehow.

[[The simulated opponent draws, and has tributed two monsters on the field to summon [Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi] to battle! It attacks your 2,000 attack positioned [Submarine Frog] with 2,800 damage! You have received 800 battle attack damage!]]

What.

[[The special effect of your [Blade Graveyard] can now be activated due to the monster equipped being destroyed and sending both cards to the graveyard! Banish it at any point to return another card from your graveyard to hand.]]

But… He hadn't even gotten to USE it yet!

[[The special effect of the opponent's [Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi] has been activated due to causing you battle damage! Discard all cards in your hand during your next draw phase, before drawing your next card!]]

What!?

[[The simulated opponent casts the Spell Card [Dimensionhole], temporarily banishing [Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi] from the battlefield until their next standby phase. Due to [Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi] no longer existing on the field for the remainder of the turn, the curse requiring the spirit to return to its owner's hand at the end of the turn it was summoned no longer applies! They end their turn.]]

John starred in growing horror at the board, slack jawed and shocked!

[[It is your turn to draw! Please discard your entire hand before doing so.]]

"BULLSHIT!"