As Yugen expected, Mitsuzawa and Asuka both accepted his invitation.
When he revealed the modified "Mechanical Angel Ceremony" and "Carbon Dragon" cards—precisely the cards of these two people—they boarded the ship almost without hesitation after their initial shock.
Printing cards isn't just about knowledge and technology; it also depends on Destiny Power. Some senior students might have a bit more knowledge at this stage, but in terms of Destiny Power, they generally can't compete with the original characters.
Mitsuzawa goes without saying, a top scholar who learns everything quickly. In the original work, he transitioned to researching Duel Physics later on, going down the scientific research path. Honestly, Yugen has always felt that Mitsuzawa was born to be in scientific research rather than card games.
As for Asuka, she also has the same vibe, considering staying at the Academy for research after graduation. Sometimes Yugen feels they should directly switch to a research position instead of going to the front line to play cards, avoiding the unfavorable reputation they had in the original work.
Also, if printing cards involves Destiny Power, Yugen thinks having someone originally closely linked to a Card Deck involved in the research might increase success rates. Thus, Asuka is more suitable for the Digital Angels project than others.
Besides the Digital Angels, he currently thinks there is also potential for substantial enhancement in Cyber Dragons and Heroes.
Cyber Dragons are temporarily set aside partly because he hasn't met Marufuji Ryo yet, so they're not familiar. However, he might consider getting Caesar on board later. But he doesn't remember many actual cards in the Cyber Dragon Card Deck being obviously stronger than the animated version, so enhancing it would require printing new cards, which is a higher development difficulty, and might not be feasible.
Of course, his small laboratory has just been set up and is still in its infancy. Currently, the technical ability is lacking, but that doesn't mean it always will be. Once it becomes a large team in the future and both funding and technology are improved, they might be able not only to enhance cards but also to print new Card Deck series.
For the Hero Card Deck, the Masked Heroes in actual cards are generally much stronger than in the original work, but at present, it seems Judai only has Elemental Heroes.
Moreover, asking Judai to engage in research is indeed unreasonable. He belongs to the type who, as long as the atmosphere is right, can print cards on the spot with high Destiny Power. But usually, he either skips classes or sleeps, so asking him to work in research is unrealistic.
A couple of days later, Yugen finally received a message from the research team at the Kaiba Group.
The head of the research group was very excited to tell him that with the Spiritual Vision clue he provided, they had made breakthrough progress in developing the Chaos Warrior Card Deck theme and urged him to go and see immediately.
The enthusiastic group leader was almost going to send someone to pick him up right away even though it was nearly midnight. However, Yugen expressed that he still needed to request leave from the Academy and that it wouldn't be too late to go the next morning after getting some rest.
So, early the next morning, a helicopter bearing the KC Group logo flew to Academy Island. Yugen boarded and took the special plane straight to the legendary dueling haven, City of Duels, Tongshiyi City.
Which is where the Kaiba Group Headquarters is located.
Upon arriving at the Group Headquarters building, the aircraft had just landed when the group leader, wearing a white coat, enthusiastically greeted him, tugging on Yugen's sleeve and babbling incessantly about their team's tireless research over the previous days.
But even if he didn't say anything, Yugen could tell from the even more pronounced dark circles under the man's eyes than the last time.
He wanted to tell the guy to take it easy, as there's still a long way to go, and he'd be counting on him for future Chaos Enhancements. Working too hard to the point of sudden death wouldn't be good...
However, the leader seemed quite energetic. He swiftly led Yugen to their laboratory, where a room full of people seemed to have been keenly anticipating their arrival.
Yugen saw a researcher immediately stand up and head to a cylindrical device on the wall, which he didn't immediately recognize.
The group leader and another person took out keys, inserting them into two different keyholes, rotating them in opposite directions. With a click, the mechanism unlocked, and a code panel popped out from within.
Then the duo entered a set of passwords separately, each undergoing iris and fingerprint verification. Only then did the cylindrical device start to rumble and rotate slowly, ejecting outward as it did so.
Inside, a few cards were preserved.
"These are the cards we just finished."
The group leader handed the cards to Yugen almost reverently.
"The testing field is already prepared."
Yugen took a quick look after receiving them.
Indeed, they were the very cards he had previously described.
[Pioneer Knight, Level 4, Attack Power 500, Defense Power 2000]
In simple terms, using this card as a ritual material to summon a "Chaos Warrior" grants two effects. Once per turn, you can banish one monster from your opponent's field out of play. Additionally, when it destroys an opponent's monster in battle, it can attack again.
It's similar to the Great Opening effect but even stronger. The Great Opening cannot attack in the turn where "Dimension Slash" was used, but a Chaos Warrior summoned with this card as a ritual material faces no attack restrictions even if the banish ability was used.
This card is of Light Attribute, and there is a similar Dark Attribute card.
[Knight of the Night, Level 4, Attack Power 500, Defense Power 2000]
Similar to Pioneer Knight, when used as ritual material, it grants additional effects to the "Chaos Warrior". The first is also "Dimension Slash", to banish one monster from the opponent's field.
The second effect allows you to randomly banish one card from your opponent's hand. However, the banished card returns to your opponent's hand at the end of their next turn.
If both these cards are used as ritual materials to summon the Chaos Warrior, the Chaos Warrior will gain the abilities to banish the opponent's monster, make additional attacks, or banish a card from the hand.
In today's dueling realm, it will undoubtedly become a premier powerful monster, allowing the Chaos Warrior, who previously only had the title of "Legendary Warrior" and was merely a 3000 attack ritual Mortal Bone, to finally live up to his name.
In addition, there are new Ritual Magic cards developed from his last description, with two kinds.
[Super Warrior Ceremony], a Chaos Warrior-specific Ritual Magic. When this card exists in the graveyard, by banishing itself and both a Light Attribute and a Dark Attribute monster out of play, you can Special Summon a [Chaos Warrior] Ritual Monster from your hand, ignoring the summoning conditions.
In other words, when it exists in the graveyard, it can make the summoning conditions for any Chaos Warrior ritual monster in your hand the same as the Great Opening.
[Super Warrior's Bud], allows selecting a Light and Dark Attribute monster from both the hand and deck as material to ritual summon a Chaos Warrior, making it currently the strongest Ritual Magic in this system.
The difficulty of printing these new cards out of nowhere is much higher than enhancing an already existing original card to the effect of the actual card, achievable only with Kaiba's top-notch team.
Actually, Yugen also revealed some information about new Chaos Warrior avatars, but when inquired, the group leader said they're still trying, but currently it's not going very well.
This aligns with Yugen's understanding during the card-making learning process. The stronger the monster, the harder it is to print. Even such a top team, the developed ones are all support-level subordinate monsters and Magic Traps.
Powerful Card Deck end cards don't seem so easy to make.
The research group impatiently called him over to have Yugen, who holds the Chaos Warrior Elf, use these newly developed cards for a ritual summon to collect data for further development and adjustments.
This naturally wasn't difficult; it was as simple as opening a Duel Disc and performing a set of martial arts punches against a wall.
After assisting in completing the tests, Yugen returned to the control room from the field, seeing Keihei had already arrived.
"The development seems to be going smoothly, thanks for that," Keihei said with a smile. "Once these new results are published, it should be a groundbreaking breakthrough that shakes the academic world once again."
The two exchanged a few customary pleasantries, then Keihei quickly got to the point: "Later, I'll take you to see the company's inventory. Of course, don't get your hopes too high. Our inventory doesn't always have everything. Don't expect super rare cards like Black Mage or True Red-Eyed Black Dragon."
"No worries, I'm just looking around," Yugen replied with a smile.
"By the way, there's also the surprise I mentioned before."
Keihei smiled mysteriously.
"That 'Link System' we talked about last time is nearly complete. Want to give it a try?"