Chapter 228: Millennium Rod (88)
Hayato vaguely remembered seeing a question that seemed like clickbait on some pretentious website a long time ago, before he had transmigrated:
"What should I do if my girlfriend accidentally tears up my entire Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck?"
Hayato didn't really care about other people's choices, whether it was advising a breakup, arguing, or demanding compensation. But if that question were real and not clickbait, Hayato would only have one choice—
Apologize to his girlfriend immediately!
It wasn't because he was a simp. A Deck without an Extra Deck has at least 40 Cards. Someone who could accidentally tear up 40 Cards by hand could easily be called a superhero; ordinary humans simply couldn't do such a thing.
And standing before Hayato, there was just such a person challenging this feat.
"How dare you unauthorizedly print so many Fake Cards, especially daring to make Fake Cards of my Blue-Eyes! You're finished!" Glancing at Hayato, who had also drawn his Deck, Kaiba took the Deck from the fallen Epimetheus's Duel Disk.
Hayato looked at the Cards in Kaiba's hand. "Don't hold back. There isn't a single Real Card in this guy's Deck."
Then, with the look of someone watching an idiot, Hayato watched Kaiba struggle with that Deck, seemingly wanting to tear them all up in one go. He inwardly suggested, *Perhaps you should transform into Balcan first, my dear.*
Meanwhile, driven by a desire to uncover the truth, he flipped through Pandora's Deck one Card at a time. Although, like Epimetheus, a large number of Fake Cards were used in the Deck, Pandora hadn't gone completely overboard; there were still some genuine Cards.
For example, the three **Dark Magician** Cards Hayato was holding now. This guy Pandora, even though Cards like Magic Formula, Position Exchange, and Safe Zone were Fake Cards, his three Ace Monster Cards were genuine Real Cards, and...
Looking at the Dark Magician Card Spirit in Pandora's **Dark Magician**, which was glaring angrily at him for defeating its master, Hayato smiled and placed the three **Dark Magician** Cards back into Pandora's Duel Disk.
Although he had a habit of taking things that weren't his, Monsters that had awakened Card Spirits were not within his hunting range.
Moreover, Hayato observed through the Magic Power of the Millennium Puzzle that on the back of several **Dark Magician** Cards, faint traces of blood were visible beneath the scraped-off card backs, but there was no so-called "resentment" or "obsession" on the **Dark Magician**'s Card Spirit.
Especially since the **Dark Magician** on the Card Art was clearly male, yet Pandora's **Dark Magician** had a face that leaned towards female, this sparked a guess in Hayato's mind.
He remembered that the reason Pandora wore a mask was because he was disfigured after a failed Magic Show, and it was also after that Magic Show that he lost his beloved wife.
In that case, perhaps this **Dark Magician**...
"Hehehehe..." Hayato's thoughts were interrupted by Pandora, who was lying on the ground and suddenly started laughing. As if his upper body had no bones, Pandora sat up from the ground without using his hands for support, his eyes behind the mask looking at Hayato in front of him.
His pupils turned gray and dim, and even though there was a mask in the way, Hayato could see a Millennium Eye appearing on Pandora's forehead.
"Marik?" Hayato frowned, looking at Pandora. "Are you too cheap to hire a voice actor? You use someone else's voice every day."
"Hehehe, actually, I'm quite surprised myself. My incompetent subordinate's voice is exactly the same as the King of Games. It truly is his honor." Miles away, Marik was flipping through Pandora's past memories with interest, discovering some amusing things.
Although Pandora and Epimetheus claimed to be elite executives of the Ghouls, Marik wouldn't particularly value them because of that. Forget about the two of them, the entire Ghouls organization was nothing more than pawns that Marik could discard at any time.
He had originally planned to keep Pandora to deal with Mutou Yuugi, but judging from Epimetheus's fate beside him, these subordinates of Marik were simply useless. Since they were useless, if they were no longer needed, he might as well discard them.
Kaiba also noticed Pandora's current state. First, he kicked Epimetheus unconscious and took the opportunity to tear his Deck apart Card by Card. Only then did Kaiba walk over to Hayato.
"Hmph, even President Seto Kaiba is here? No wonder those two useless guys lost."
Hayato pouted. "As if you didn't know, you watched the whole thing. The Millennium Rod is quite handy, isn't it, Marik? You can control others from thousands of miles away."
"Marik? Isn't that the second personality split from 'Thief' Keith?" Kaiba heard a familiar name.
This guy consistently refused to believe in the existence of Millennium Items, always firmly believing that it was Keith's other personality named "Marik" who had tried to seize his Obelisk back then.
Ironically, in a sense, the "split personality" statement was actually correct; Marik truly was a split personality.
"Hehehehaha, President Kaiba is as stubborn as ever." Pandora chuckled sinisterly, then suddenly turned his head to look at Hayato. "King of Games, since you know the power of the Millennium Rod, you should also understand that if I wished, I could control both of you, right?"
"Forcing two people who were just fighting side-by-side to suddenly turn their weapons on each other—for the two of you who dared to offend our Ghouls, there couldn't be a more fitting punishment!"
The Millennium Eye on Pandora's forehead flashed violently, and an invisible Dark Energy swept over. A strange gust of wind actually appeared in this Basement!
Marik looked at Hayato expectantly, anticipating his unwilling struggle and helpless, unsightly appearance after falling under his control. Last time at the Egyptian Artifact Traveling Exhibition, Hayato had made Marik "carry a bag of rice up several floors" through a Dark Game; he held a serious grudge.
The airflow gradually subsided, but Marik frowned, looking down at the Millennium Rod in his hand. It hadn't accidentally slipped from his grasp like last time, so why wasn't he feeling any control over Hayato?
Hayato looked at the vacant-eyed "Pandora" with the look of someone watching an idiot and chuckled softly, "Can't do it? It's unavoidable with age. Want to try again?" As he spoke, he raised a finger and tapped the Millennium Puzzle hanging on his chest.
Marik wasn't very bright, and his eyesight wasn't great either. Only then did he notice the presence of the Millennium Puzzle. "So that's it. You actually have a Millennium Item too. No wonder you can block my power."
"But can you protect your companion!"
The Dark Energy struck again. Kaiba only felt a strong wind suddenly blow in front of him, and then—
Nothing happened.
"What in the world is going on!" Marik clearly couldn't accept this. The Millennium Rod in his hand was glowing strangely, flashing like a bomb about to explode.
"Is this guy an idiot?" Kaiba asked, puzzled.
After thinking about the various actions of the three-year-old, Hayato nodded affirmatively.
If it were any other Millennium Item, it might be understandable, but the Millennium Rod was originally Seto's item. Want to control Kaiba? No way!
In my memory, the Millennium Rod is also the only Millennium Item that reacts to a non-current holder—when Kaiba was Dueling Ishizu, just as Kaiba was about to be defeated by Ishizu, the Millennium Rod directly transmitted memories to Kaiba right in front of Marik.
It's like thinking the Goddess is yours all along, only for the Goddess to go find another man right in front of you, practically NTR right to your face.
(End of Chapter)