Chapter 50: Ancient Duelists
Atop layered building ruins, a tall woman in a silver trench coat held cards in hand, yet her gaze fell upon the distant tower piercing the clouds.
This was the outer exploration zone 14,800 kilometers from Eden Tower.
Kaiba Corporation President Kaiba Chiaki—during this past month, she'd occasionally take out three Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards from her deck like this, falling into contemplation.
"Blue-Eyes..."
The cards in the girl's fingertips faintly glowed, seemingly transmitting some kind of message.
Though not believing in card spirits' existence, Kaiba could vaguely guess the answer through her intuition.
"The final Blue-Eyes has appeared."
"President! President! You're not wearing your protective suit again!"
Below Kaiba's standing ruins, Kurosaki wearing heavy protective outerwear displayed panicked worry through his helmet.
Their president was impossibly willful, not knowing how to properly protect herself at all.
Though the war that destroyed the outside world had passed a thousand years ago, radiation toxins lingering in surface air had mostly dissipated—
Long-term skin exposure could still cause irreversible bodily harm.
The reason being—no living creatures with life had yet appeared outside the tower.
Whether animals, insects, or even microorganisms—none showed any signs of recovery.
This sufficiently proved the war's lingering harm hadn't completely vanished.
"No matter." Kaiba refused the mask Kurosaki offered, then inquired: "Did the analysis results come out?"
"Yes, they're out." Not wanting to waste time letting their president remain exposed, Kurosaki immediately pulled up freshly completed analysis footage from his Eva terminal.
It was a card album page restoration.
This month, Kaiba Corporation had discovered in the outer ruins a card album dating approximately three thousand years back.
Fortunately, the album hadn't been destroyed by war flames.
Unfortunately, even unburned, the cards inside after three thousand years' erosion could no longer show their true card faces.
Nearly half a month was spent before Kaiba Corporation researchers barely restored card faces to viewable condition.
Kaiba Chiaki's gaze swept across the restored album images.
"This is?!" The girl's eyes widened, pupils seemingly contracting from severe stimulation.
The restored card faces looked extremely blurry—barely discerning monster form outlines.
But the upper-right corner marking monster Attributes had been clearly restored.
This album's cards—all 135 of them.
Every single card's upper-right corner Attribute marking was—DIVINE.
"How could such a thing exist..."
Eva's recorded historical text stated humanity's history only produced nine DIVINE-Attribute cards.
Among them, three were the Three Egyptian Gods standing atop all spirits—strongest and invincible.
"Three thousand years ago, this many Divine cards existed?"
The more Kaiba Chiaki traced history's tracks, the more terrified she felt.
Even Divine cards appeared so abundantly—what terrifying battles were ancient duelists three thousand years ago experiencing?
Was human civilization's destruction simply due to war?
Was this world real?
Kaiba Chiaki couldn't help doubting.
"President? President!" Kurosaki attempted rousing shocked Kaiba.
"I-I'm fine." Kaiba struggled to regain calm.
"By the way, tomorrow's Duel Academy's new semester opening day. Should we pack up and return? Miss Chiha said she misses you."
"Mm, let's return. We've been delayed quite long this time."
This outer exploration's information volume was far too massive. Kaiba Chiaki felt she needed more time to accept it.
First returning to a period of academy life might benefit both herself and all of Kaiba Corporation.
=====
"Eva Terminal upgrade complete~"
"Mr. Amano, wishing you pleasant mid-level district life~"
Withdrawing his wrist from the sealed upgrade module before him, Amano successfully completed his Eva terminal's update.
Transit Tower's final procedure was upgrading this Eva terminal that couldn't even connect to networks in lower districts.
Clicking the upgraded Eva terminal presented Amano with a palm-sized screen projection.
He could swipe the screen projection to operate it—using it felt exactly like previous life's smartphones!
After eighteen years, Amano finally got to play with phones again.
Hehe, phones are fun~
The upgraded Eva terminal could download various APP software.
Amano glanced at the rankings. Currently the highest-downloaded software was Bilibili focusing on short videos.
Even three thousand years later, humanity still couldn't escape short videos' grasp—truly terrifying.
Download one to try.
"Brother, you got addicted so easily."
"Haha, Rei adapts to new things really fast."
Inside the rail elevator from Transit Tower to mid-level—Amano spent nearly the entire journey fiddling with his just-upgraded Eva terminal.
For Amano, most of this wasn't new—rather, reuniting with old friends.
"We're almost there." Finesse checked the rail elevator's displayed height.
Accompanying ascending gravity's gradual disappearance, the tight mechanical doors opened from both sides.
Sunlight—shone into the space connecting two worlds.
Finesse spread her arms, smiling as she introduced to the three: "Welcome to Academy City~"
Rising from Transit Tower's Elevator 4 led directly to Academy City's center.
Right now outside the elevator, the Academy City before Amano's eyes truly belonged to a completely different world from lower districts.
A clear, bright artificial sun illuminated clean, tidy streets.
Along the roadside, uniformly designed academy dormitories lined up in neat rows. Combined with carefully arranged greenery and streetlamps, the simple layout looked extraordinarily pleasing.
Most importantly—the students in uniforms moving between them, every person's clear eyes seemingly sparkled with anticipatory light for the future.
Eyes Amano had never seen before.
Amano admitted he was stunned.
Not amazed by the beauty before him—rather, pained by it.
He'd lived eighteen years in lower districts, eyes long accustomed to poverty and dilapidated streets.
Yet merely vertically separated—according to Akira, 648 meters, not even one kilometer's distance—people living within Eden Tower could create completely different worlds in the same space.
Was this world real?
Amano couldn't help doubting.
"Amano? Amano!" Finesse attempted rousing him.
"I-I'm fine." Amano struggled not to dwell on these thoughts.
"Time to go, Amano. Don't keep standing in the rail elevator—it's about to descend."
"Yeah, I know."
Stepping out from the rail elevator would greet him with another chapter of life.
Before leaving, Amano glanced at the deck in his hands.
Now wasn't the time to stop and space out.
His battle was just beginning.
Amano: "Let's go, everyone!"
Eve: "╭(･ㅂ･)و̑̑ Oshi!"
Yuyu: "-_,-!"
Blue-Eyes White Dragon: "Roar~"
***
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