Europe, Industrial Illusions branch.
A man in a tailored white suit, black tie. He carried a cane, walked with calm, steady steps—just walking exuded the self-assurance of a winner.
He stopped at the base of the I.I. building, looked out over the sea of people, and smiled faintly.
Industrial Illusions had reportedly dug up something incredible—an archetype of tablets the industry believed had immense potential. It might become another rare deck and cause a stir in the dueling world.
Even if it weren't powerful, unearthing a complete system as tablets was rare on its own.
Local duelists, hearing the news, had gathered since early morning to catch a glimpse, flooding the plaza.
"Please step back—step back…"
Security struggled to keep order.
The white suit threaded through the noisy, eager crowd and flashed a card to the guard. It looked like a Duel Monster card, but it was actually an I.I.-issue access pass.
The guard nodded respectfully and stepped aside. At the turnstile, the man lightly swiped his card.
I.I. security is notoriously tight, doubly so when valuable items are stored in the building.
The turnstile system reboots periodically; each official pass is coded to its holder—cracking it isn't easy, even for a world-class expert.
But the card in the white suit's hand wasn't any I.I. pass—it was his own design.
And it could do more than just open doors. He had fully understood the lobby security's workings and memorized each reboot cycle.
He had swiped at the exact instant of a system reboot—the moment a weakness appears. In that instant, he injected a virus through the pass.
He stepped off the elevator on the 13th floor. Seconds later, every elevator in the building shut down.
By now they should sense something amiss. Security would try to trigger the alarm, only to find it dead. Their comms would be jammed, unable to alert the rest.
Boom!
A heavy door was blasted inward by an immense external impact.
The cane tip probed through the smoke first; the white suit strolled in unhurriedly.
"Stop! Hold it right there!"
Security inside aimed their guns.
"No need to be nervous, everyone."
The white suit ignored them, kept walking, and spoke with a smile.
His voice was rich and magnetic, almost magical. The moment they heard it, the guards froze like someone pressed pause.
A faint white light flickered in their eyes, and their gazes went vacant.
One by one, they holstered their weapons and said mechanically:
"Yeah, just a drill."
"Nothing to fuss about."
The white suit slipped past them. "That's better."
He raised his hand slightly, and the heavy black cane tapped a reinforced alloy door at the far end.
That gentle tap carried a crushing force; the door groaned and blew inward, the warped slab crashing to the floor.
The white suit strode in and glanced around, quickly taking in the stone tablets lining the room. Ancient and weighty, as if dug from dust long forgotten by history.
Sealed within were domineering emperors and fearless arena fighters. From the simple etched figures, cold, sharp stares seemed to shoot out.
"So these are a king's cards."
He smiled.
"Interesting. Then let me personally verify this power."
He slowly raised the black cane.
White light flowed from the cane, rippling outward and being drawn into the slumbering tablets.
The tablets seemed to awaken.
Ancient warriors, emperors who rode roughshod over the world—manifesting as Duel Monsters—stirred from the abstract pictures. Half-transparent like ghosts, they floated in midair, a royal army awakened across the gulf of ages.
Every gaze focused on the man in the room's center.
He lowered the cane and lifted his empty left hand.
He clenched a strong fist.
In an instant, a silent command went out in the sealed room.
All the images vanished. The kings and warriors were swallowed in white light and decomposed, turning into a sky of white motes.
The motes swirled, forming a miniature galactic vortex in the dark room. The man's raised hand was the eye of the whirlpool. The lights converged on his palm and solidified.
Card after card took physical form, stacking in his hand into a deck.
Just then, voices came from outside.
"Stop!"
The man in white slowly turned and narrowed his eyes.
A woman stood there. Blonde hair, long black dress, black headband, skin so pale it was almost unnatural.
Tilla Mook—Industrial Illusions' top enforcer, one of Yako' Card Professors, the manga's Cursed Vampire user, and one of the professors who tried to block Yugi Muto back then.
She was also the dueling mainstay of this European excavation team.
"I don't know who you are," Tilla Mook said. "But do you realize whose turf you're robbing on?"
She paused, glanced at the blasted alloy door, then at the guards standing around like they'd been brainwashed, and chuckled.
"Or rather, instead of stealing, perhaps we should call this a daylight robbery."
The white suit showed no ripples at being caught in the act—and when he spotted the duel disk on Tilla Mook's arm, he even seemed pleased.
"Finally, at least someone decent."
"What?" Tilla Mook frowned.
The cane twirled lightly in his hand, then transformed—somehow reshaping into a duel disk on his forearm.
He slid the freshly formed deck into the disk.
"Then let's have you verify just how capable this deck truly is."