Hikaru drove through the City following Yusei's route map.
As before, the City was still that tower-like city and nation.
Along the spiraling roads, one could drive toward higher places, and the higher the place, the more vibrant it looked.
But...
Compared to before, the checkpoints on the various roads were no longer set up. Aside from the police checkpoints meant to prevent theft, only the dedicated dueling lanes and other parallel lanes remained.
People from the Downtown could now freely enter the Uptown to work, and people from the Uptown could normally head to the Downtown.
Although it seemed people from the upper and lower districts would still have verbal spats or other conflicts, and some Uptown people would still be afraid when they saw Downtown people and think them unclean, exchange seemed to have begun.
Hikaru, driving in the lane, glanced back below.
Half a year ago, when Hikaru first came here, the Downtown had been utterly dilapidated. Looking down from the elevated lanes, you could see trash everywhere, the whole Downtown a black-gray scene of ruin.
But now, the Downtown was decked out with lights and decorations. A great deal of infrastructure had been built, houses had been rebuilt, becoming clean little white buildings.
Although it was still far from the Uptown's high-rises, it had already advanced in a good direction.
Hikaru noticed that the freight drivers passing by all wore confident smiles on their faces.
But...
This confidence might not have come from the nation or the city, but from... "outsiders."
Not just inter-dimensional people. With the WRGP tournament being held, some foreigners had also come to the City one after another.
A very frightening thing: although the City looked decayed and old, its upper and lower layers full of conflict, the City was the most powerful nation and city in this world!
The reason was simple. The people of this nation controlled the "perpetual motion machine"!
While other nations were still using energy sources like oil or even firewood, their technology, armaments, and weaponry could all be used freely without cost. That was definitely formidable.
It was also for this reason that the City's first president, Rex Goodwin, seemed to have gained a very high reputation in this world.
In the occasional passersby discussions Hikaru overheard, all were praise for this great president Goodwin. On one hand, he had indeed unified the City's upper and lower layers; on the other, he had opened up the use of the perpetual motion machine and begun trading and even cooperating with other nations more frequently, giving people worldwide a chance to step into a new era. Such a person, in human history, could indeed be called "great."
But...
In other people's mouths, it might not be so.
In a sports car, three tall Nordic men leisurely drove while gazing around.
The man with gold-black hair wore a stern expression, gazing at the surroundings: "That Goodwin actually willingly gave up so much profit. It seems exchange with other dimensions has made his ambition grow larger."
"Haha, Dragan, maybe he can't swallow it all alone and has to have people from other nations help out." The red-haired guy laced his hands behind his head and said with a smile, "More than that, this time you finally have a chance to defeat that old rival of yours. Aren't you happy?"
"Hmph... the former King, huh..." Dragan muttered a couple of words in a low voice.
Three years ago, his father had fallen gravely ill. To obtain the medical fees, he'd entered the City's competition. But back then, Goodwin had used his father's treatment as leverage to make him deliberately lose to Jack.
This matter had always weighed on his mind.
"Dragan, Bommer, enough of this." The silver-haired gentleman, driving slowly, spoke languidly. "Haven't you noticed your conversation has been overheard this whole time?"
"What?!" "Could it be the security police!"
The two hurriedly looked out the window, only to see a man riding a bizarre skeleton D-Wheel leisurely proceeding ahead.
He wore a mask, which seemed to be the face of some monster. Other than that, everything looked perfectly ordinary. Seeming to notice the three's gazes, the man turned to look at them, raised his hand, and said: "Yo~"
"Bastard." Dragan rolled down the window directly, about to interrogate the man, but Bommer pulled him back.
He laughed. "Halldor, if you noticed, why didn't you warn us? Is it because... this guy..."
As he spoke, a strange symbol reflected in his eyes, meeting Hikaru's gaze. Hikaru glanced at them, casually raised his left hand, and a bizarre hound of mixed red and black materialized on his arm.
A Dark Signer.
The three confirmed in their hearts simultaneously.
At this point, Halldor, who was driving, spoke again: "There's only one direction ahead on this road, and that's the WRGP registration desk. Although the WRGP has several registration points, this road leads to only one destination. Dragan, Bommer, our enemies are the 'God's Chosen' from every nation, every city, even other dimensions and the spirit world... We mustn't take it lightly."
The two companions nodded.
Then Halldor spoke again: "Friend, you've followed us this whole way. Is there something you want to say?"
"You're... the God's Chosen of the Nordic gods, right?"
"Heh." He didn't answer, yet had already answered.
"I'm a bit curious. What are you participating in this competition for?"
The two in the back seat said nothing, silent, each with their own thoughts. Halldor calmly spoke: "To save the world."
"Is that so..." Hikaru nodded. "That's actually very difficult, isn't it."
Hikaru didn't mock the three, which made the two in the back seat even more puzzled.
This man, who exactly was he?
Hikaru naturally had no reason to mock Halldor's goal.
In the original work, although the three of them lost to Team 5D's, they were also a genuine part of "saving the world." Without the three of them building the "Rainbow Bridge" through the power of the Nordic gods, the protagonist group would have had no chance to participate in the final duel at all.
Not only that, the personalities and abilities of Halldor, Dragan, and Bommer almost perfectly mirrored those of Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas, and Crow Hogan. They could be called another trio of the world.
In a sense, the three of them were opponents Yusei's trio had to defeat, because only by surpassing the three of them could they prove themselves capable enough for the final task.
Thinking of this, Hikaru mulled it over a bit and said: "Then you really do need to be careful. Because it's not only this dimension's threat slowly being born. In fact, certain transcendent existences from other dimensions are also projecting their power into this world.
Don't go losing before you meet 5D's."
Hikaru thought for a moment and added: "Oh, that is to say, Jack Atlas is on the team."
What?
The three were startled simultaneously.
He actually knew which team the City duelists' "KING" was on? There hadn't been the slightest news of it before.
But before they could press further, they saw Hikaru step on the gas, and the D-Wheel sped off, instantly leaving them behind.
Halldor tried to accelerate, wanting to ask more, but still couldn't catch up no matter what, and could only shake his head helplessly.
"Damn it... Once I get my exclusive D-Wheel during the competition, I'll definitely modify it to ultra-high speed." Bommer, watching Hikaru disappear from earshot, sulkily slapped the car seat.
Before long, Hikaru arrived at the scene. Crow was anxious as an ant on a hot pot, pacing back and forth. Beside Yusei were two small children and a girl. The girl looked as if she wanted to speak but hesitated, looking like she wanted to share Yusei's burden. But just as she was about to speak, Hikaru's car stopped in front of them.
Yusei and Crow immediately broke into smiles. Crow even came right over to support Hikaru and help him quickly get off the vehicle.
"Great, Amagi, thank goodness you came!" Crow shouted excitedly.
"Whew. Thank you for your trouble, Hikari." Yusei let out a sigh of relief too.
Hikaru took off his helmet, revealing the mask beneath it. The two looked but didn't react much, both instantly understanding Hikaru was hiding his identity, and didn't expose it.
"What's the situation?" Hikaru said offhandedly.
As he took off his helmet, he looked at the two.
Compared to half a year ago, the two of them could be said to have changed drastically.
Yusei's clothes had been changed back to his usual set, his hair loose, looking like a crab as always, perfectly normal. And this was the biggest "abnormality," because Yusei had earlier undergone Zone's body modification and was now in a "unified god" state, both human and god, yet his appearance had lost any mechanical structure.
On one hand, this showed Yusei's body had adapted to the Timelord power. On the other, it also showed he had completely become a unified god, his lifespan further shortened.
Compared to him, Crow's appearance was the one that had truly changed drastically. Besides his everyday clothes, he had an additional outer garment that looked like the uniform of a food-delivery service. Clearly, like in the original work, he'd found a job in the upper district.
"It's Carly." Crow said helplessly.
Normally, given his temperament, if Jack dared to say "I'll arrive later" at a time like this, he'd absolutely grab Jack by the collar and greet him with a couple of punches. But he'd learned that Carly had been lured by some "strongest Earthbound Immortal" and become a Dark Signer.
Jack certainly couldn't leave that alone and had hurried off to find her.
Yusei had already done the dueling test with him. Next, they still needed a "team member" to participate in the registration test. If too much time passed, it would be considered forfeiture.
"Team 5D's, not ready yet?!" the referee called their names.
On the other side, the boy among the two children chimed in noisily too, saying Jack should use his privilege to let them register later. But that sort of thing was too conspicuous and too inappropriate. The upper and lower layers could already interact freely, and to still use privilege to let them be counted later was too against the rules. So Yusei wanted to hurry and find someone to duel.
Speaking of which, he felt a bit of regret too, because he also wanted to be a substitute.
By the normal process, they could only "prepare" for one more hour. By coincidence, at that very moment, Hikaru appeared, and Yusei's eyes immediately lit up as he called out to him.
Hikaru looked at the others. Of the two children, one waved at him casually, the other nodded at him a bit timidly. The older girl gave a slight bow.
Yusei briefly introduced the three and had Hikaru give a bit of a self-introduction too.
After the introductions, Hikaru asked: "Is there a limit on the number of substitutes?"
"This... actually no?"
"Then why not just bring all of them along?" Hikaru asked, puzzled.
Everyone seemed to have that kind of drive.
"Just Jack alone is enough for the Signers." Crow said offhandedly.
Although Hikaru's left hand would normally manifest a Dark Mark, they all knew Hikaru's true "divine favor" wasn't that Earthbound Immortal at all, so it didn't matter.
"I see, so it's for balance?" Hikaru understood.
"But... Yusei, you're doing it so that everyone advances hand in hand together, right?" Hikaru countered with another question.
This...
Yusei actually didn't much want more people getting involved, but Hikaru putting it that way instead made him start to examine and reflect.
It made sense.
He wasn't a pedantic person; he'd just been a bit fixated before. But the moment someone spoke up, he'd immediately correct course. Regrettably, none of the others had brought this up before.
So he simply looked at his other companions: "Leo, Luna, Akiza, are you interested in participating in the WRGP?"
Seeing this, the twin brother and sister immediately cheered, and the red-haired girl broke into a smile too, nodding like she was pounding garlic, and casting a grateful look toward Hikaru.
Hikaru raised an eyebrow slightly.
Akiza... what a brother can do to help you ends here.
He could tell at a glance that this red-haired girl, Akiza Izinski, had a strong fondness for Yusei Fudo, but seemed to find it hard to speak up, so Hikaru gave a bit of a nudge.
Then Hikaru got out of the car and took the Duel Disk down from it. Crow noticed Hikaru's Duel Disk was an old model, and connecting it with some other things, understood even better, and asked: "So, Amagi, what name do you want to go by? I'll go register."
"Light, I guess. Simple and direct."
"You really don't put on any airs at all." Crow grumbled.
"Just for show, enough to pass on the surface. No one should bother arresting me specifically over this sort of thing anyway." As Hikaru worked his wrists, he took the Team 5D's uniform Yusei handed over and quickly pulled it on.
Even Goodwin wouldn't bother with him over something this trivial, and besides, last time he came, Goodwin hadn't bothered with him.
But he couldn't go too far either, or it might really cause a diplomatic problem. He wasn't worried about the Synchro Dimension; the key point was that the Xyz Dimension should be quite sensitive right now.
"Yusei, I'll have something I'd like your help with later too. My classmate and friend seem to have gone missing in this dimension."
"Don't worry, I learned of this from Lulu earlier and have already started screening for you."
"As expected of you. Truly reassuring."
Hikaru, for once, enjoyed the situation of a teammate arranging everything, and it felt pretty great.
As for the qualifying-duel matters, he'd heard Yusei explain it all on the way, so he didn't need to ask further. So he simply readied his deck, raised his hand, and called out to the referee: "Team 5D's substitute, coming, coming! Sorry about that—"
He walked onto the stage waving his hand.
And just at that moment.
The Fusion Dimension's diplomatic team, the Xyz Dimension's diplomatic team, and the Pendulum Dimension's diplomatic team all looked toward the stage at the same time.
The team said to have the "KING" most worth watching in this world, this city, was the last person finally about to arrive?
The "champion team" always drew more attention. But once the duelist stepped onto the stage, this group was all disappointed.
It wasn't that "KING," and it was even a weirdo wearing a mask!?
Among them, the people of the Fusion Dimension had an even more uncanny feeling.
This person...
Although wearing a mask, he felt so familiar?
...
STONES 💎
Read upto 15 chapters ahead@ keepsmiling818 p2reon