Late night.
A white sedan sped along the elevated highway in the dark night, with the engine accompanied by a pleasant hum. That was the sound of the perpetual motion machine operating.
In this dimension, most energy sources other than the perpetual motion machine had already been phased out. Cars had long stopped using fuel and electricity for propulsion. After the miniaturization of the perpetual motion machine was successful, not only the D-Wheel but other vehicles also began to slowly replace the old energy systems with perpetual motion machines.
Another convenience for household vehicles was that driving skills were no longer a mandatory requirement for purchasing a car. The comprehensive maturity of the automatic driving system made manual driving a rare skill, and except for those with professional needs and special groups interested in driving, it was rare to see manually driven cars on the street.
At this time, Yugen was sitting in this officer's special vehicle, browsing through a new batch of cards he had acquired today.
The Public Security Maintenance Bureau's officer vehicles were naturally high-end, equipped with the latest driving AI from the Kaiba Group, boasting experiences and reflexes superior to human drivers.
Yugen quite believed in this advertising slogan. Even in the Otherworld, after all, it was still a Kaiba Group product. From what he knew, the Kaiba Group's intelligent driving systems had been sufficiently mature years ago, and at this time, the technology was even more advanced.
Midway through the journey, suddenly, lights approached from behind.
The hum of a D-Wheel, accompanied by the pleasant sound of a perpetual motion machine, swept past one side of the car window.
If it was just a regular overtaking, it would be fine. But after passing on one side, the D-Wheel arrogantly changed direction, sliding forward sideways and sparking a string of bright sparks on the elevated road surface.
Then that D-Wheel came to a complete stop horizontally, arrogantly blocking the path ahead like a roadblock.
The automatic driving system detected an obstacle and immediately braked to a stop.
Yugen frowned slightly, looking forward through the car window. In the darkness ahead, on the stopped D-Wheel was a man in a black leather jacket. His face was gloomy, almost blending into the night darkness, but with Yugen's keen eyesight, he could still see that inhuman cold face.
"Ghost?"
Yugen recognized it.
This Ghost wasn't a supernatural specter, but the first enemy to appear in the new chapter of the 5DS original animation after the protagonist group defeated the Dark Markers.
An unknown D-Wheel Hand self-identified as Ghost wreaked havoc in New Tongshiyi, attacking lone D-Wheel Hands through card games and sending multiple duelists, including Ushio, to the hospital.
After Yusei faced this person, he discovered the person wasn't real, but a remotely controlled robot. The mastermind behind it, named Placido, was one of the Taiyi Three Emperors, an organization aimed at rewriting human history, also a subordinate of the final antagonist Z-ONE in 5DS.
But obviously, compared to the original history, this Ghost—perhaps actually Placido—appeared a bit too early.
Yugen got out of the car, calmly standing beside it, facing Ghost.
"This is the end."
Placido spoke through the Ghost Robot, coldly towards Yugen.
"I don't know where you coming from, bug, but Rex Godwin is a pawn of our Taiyi. You replacing him is a challenge to us.
And now, your reckless actions on the timeline end here."
"Am I the reckless one?" Yugen raised an eyebrow.
In truth, he was trying to maintain the historical integrity. He was using equipment confiscated from Paradox to detect historical anomalies, theoretically aligning with the Taiyi group.
Previously, upon learning that someone was altering history, causing two dimensions to collide, the first suspect in Yugen's mind was Z-ONE and his subordinates, the Taiyi Organization. After all, Taiyi was founded to alter history, making them the most likely.
But as Paradox previously stated, they altered history to save the world, to allow their dimension to escape a destructive future, for humanity to continue.
But once two dimensions collide, everyone ends, and what future is there left?
Before, Yugen thought that if someone placed Godwin in this dimension to cause trouble, by replacing Godwin and removing that pawn, the opponent might personally show up to cause him trouble.
Unexpectedly, the ones causing trouble in front of him really turned out to be Taiyi...
Could the real mastermind be Z-ONE?
At that moment, Ghost continued: "Of course, you still have a chance to live... the only chance."
Ghost chuckled coldly and activated the duel disc on the D-Wheel.
"A duel?" Yugen asked.
"Correct. Through a duel, I will remove you, this anomaly, from the timeline. If you manage to defeat me, you might gain a glimmer of hope."
Ghost sneered.
"Of course, if you're too afraid to accept, it will be seen as an automatic forfeit and surrender."
"Oh, so it seems I have no choice."
Yugen shrugged.
"Alright. But as you can see, I don't have a D-Wheel, nor do I excel at Riding Duels. How about a standing duel?"
Ghost smirked: "It doesn't matter."
Saying so, he got off the D-Wheel, unlocked the duel disc, and approached Yugen.
On one hand, Yugen indeed lacked a D-Wheel; on the other hand, he didn't particularly like Riding Duels. The restriction on using Magic Cards significantly impacted many card decks, although it was something he could adapt to, he just preferred standing duels.
"Then it's a duel!" x2
[Yugen, LP4000]
[Ghost, LP4000]
"I'll go first, draw."
Yugen took the first move, casually drawing two cards from his hand.
"Set a monster face-down in the front, then set two Covering Cards in the back. Turn ends."
"My turn, draw!"
Ghost drew a card, looked at his hand, and curled his lips into a cold smile.
Although a robot, Taiyi's technology was otherworldly, with such lifelike skin, even facial expressions perfectly mimicked that of a real person.
"Summon 'Core of Wisdom'!"
A blue starlight vortex appeared on Ghost's field, with an oval white metal ball rising from it, exploding into starry starlight. Then the ball divided at the waist, revealing a hidden azure energy core inside its metal shell.
[Core of Intelligence, Defense Power 0]
Yugen was not surprised. As expected, it started with the intelligent core.
Placido used a card deck called "Machine Emperor," where this intelligent core was the central core card for the Machine Emperor's setup.
In the original series, although the Taiyi Three Emperors had numerous duels, they never used any search methods, but they seemed never to fail to draw the core card in the first turn once they got started.
Severely skeptical that these three never shuffled their decks before dueling...