Runaway AI

Kaiba Land, at the White Dragon Festival.

Sunlight streamed through the brightly colored amusement rides, casting mottled patches of light across the ground. The enormous park was packed with people and brimming with festive cheer.

Here, you could see Blue-Eyes White Dragons diving down thrilling roller coaster tracks, Blue-Eyes White Dragons shaped like flying chairs spinning around the rides, and Blue-Eyes White Dragons quietly lying atop the Ferris wheel like guardians.

In short, they were everywhere.

Kira once again realized just how influential the legendary President Kaiba truly was. He had actually given White Bride her own exclusive holiday called the "White Dragon Festival." It had even been designated a legal public holiday, and by tradition, everyone was supposed to spend the day having a blast at Kaiba Land.

The Duel Dojo had also organized an event under the festival atmosphere, bringing all the trainees to Kaiba Land for a group outing. Takeuchi Master's legendary excavation-team buddy had shown up as well.

"Ying Liu!"

"Kazuya!"

The two immediately went in for a bear hug.

"I missed you so damn much!" The man thumped the Master hard on the back.

Kira sized up the newcomer.

A flashy plaid shirt, a forehead as smooth as a mirror without a single unnecessary hair, a somewhat weathered face, and dark glasses.

Rather than a card player, he looked more like the evolved form of a programmer who had been coding for most of his life.

With eyes nearly narrowed into slits and that gleaming bald head, he combined the two legendary traits of squinty eyes and baldness into one body. In almost any other genre, he might have been a ruthless boss-level character, but unfortunately, this was not another genre.

Here, losing the flashy hairstyle contest already meant you had lost half the battle.

"Why haven't you come around in so long?" Takeuchi Master complained. "I thought you'd forgotten your old friends."

"Hey, work's been busy. Oh, right, let me tell you—I found another absolutely fantastic resource this time. I've got both the projection version and the VR version! The female lead isn't just big, she's also—"

"Stop! Stop!" the Master hurriedly cut him off, shooting him a look. "The students are here today."

Only then did the man understand. "Oh, oh, got it. We'll talk privately later."

All the trainees: "..."

No, we were actually more interested in what you Masters usually talked about in private.

"Let me introduce him. This is Saito Kazuya. He was also a duelist from our dojo back in the day, so he's practically half a fellow disciple," Takeuchi Master said.

The man named Saito gave a slight nod. "That's right. Back then, the previous Master told me that I possessed extraordinary talent for dueling, and that with only a little effort, my achievements would surely surpass Takeuchi's—"

Takeuchi Master glared. "I never heard that. If that were true, why would Master have expelled you from the dojo?"

"Haha, Senior Brother, that's where you're mistaken." Saito said cheerfully. "Master liked me a lot back then. Unfortunately, his daughter liked me even more. When Master found out, naturally, he flew into a rage."

Takeuchi Master was shocked. "That happened? Why have you never mentioned it?"

"Young people do foolish things. Why bring up old history?"

Saito Kazuya flicked his hand and put on an expression of reminiscing about the past.

All the trainees: "..."

"Ahem, let's talk about the ruins instead."

Takeuchi Master quickly interrupted him. He had a feeling that if he let this guy keep talking, even more inappropriate material would come out, which would do no good for the trainees' physical and mental health—or their future in dueling.

"Oh, the ruins, of course." Saito smiled. "This ruin is pretty interesting too."

Just as he said that, there was suddenly a sharp snap, and every light inside the Giant Dragon Duel Arena where they stood went out at once.

This was followed by the rumbling sound of rolling shutters dropping. Every door was sealed shut within a second, and the windows were closed as well. With every light source gone, the duel arena was plunged into darkness.

The crowd inside immediately erupted into an uproar.

"What's going on?"

"A system malfunction?"

"Give me my damn money back!"

"..."

Saito Kazuya looked around and muttered, "Strange, that shouldn't be possible. Even in the event of an accidental power outage, the duel arenas in the park all have backup generators. What's happening?"

Kira said nothing, but this turn of events gave him a familiar feeling.

Why did this seem like something similar had happened in the anime...

Back when Kaiba Land had just been built in Duel Monsters, the system had also been hacked and the duel arena sealed off. Then the story quickly turned into everyone having to duel the arena's AI, and if they lost, no one was allowed to leave.

The mastermind in the original story had been Zigfried von Schroeder, Seto Kaiba's business rival. But that guy should have been dealt with by Kaiba eight years ago.

Could it really be a system malfunction?

Light soon appeared in the darkness. The only illumination focused on the center of the arena, where an incredibly arrogant figure stood beneath the spotlight with his arms folded, brown hair, blue eyes, and a white trench coat.

Then he threw back his head and let out a signature laugh. "Hahaha—"

"That's Seto Kaiba!" the crowd immediately cried out.

"What's going on? Why is Seto Kaiba himself here?"

"Is this some kind of surprise attraction?"

Saito Kazuya immediately realized something was wrong. "Wait, that isn't Seto Kaiba. That's the newest-generation dueling AI in this facility!"

Everyone: "!"

"KaibaCorp's dueling program has been fed the AI data of the most famous duelists from every school of thought. It can perfectly reproduce each of their tactics, thought processes, and even personalities. Combined with today's virtual imaging technology, which is realistic enough to pass for the real thing, it can give visitors the authentic experience of dueling the world's strongest experts!" Saito explained.

President Kaiba's obsession with playing against machines was no secret. Ever since the Pharaoh went to the afterlife, he had become addicted to dueling AIs, pouring himself into research and constantly upgrading them. If anyone could look through his development files, they would probably find thousands of different versions of Pharaoh AI inside.

At the beginning of Pyramid of Light, Kaiba had even lost a duel against AI Pharaoh, then stormed off in a rage to find a way to defeat him. Later, in The Dark Side of Dimensions, Kaiba dueled AI Pharaoh again and won—only to rage afterward that defeating an illusion of the past was meaningless.

Takeuchi Master asked, "So now...?"

"Someone hacked into this facility's system and set the AI's appearance to Seto Kaiba," Saito said grimly. "I'm afraid the facility's systems have now been linked to the AI. Strange. I'd heard that amusement facilities weren't supposed to have AIs of this level. AI based on Legendary Duelists like Yugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba are generally used internally by their companies for testing. They're supposed to be the most advanced dueling AIs in existence. Under normal circumstances, they shouldn't be available to the public."

Sure enough, after AI Kaiba finished a string of three-part laughter, he unfolded his Duel Disk. "If you want to leave this place, you must first defeat the deck in my hand!"

Kira was not surprised in the slightest.

See? Just as expected, it came down to cards.

The trapped crowd inside the facility immediately erupted into commotion.

"Nani?! We have to beat Seto Kaiba? How is that even possible?"

"But it's only an AI. Whatever else it has, it can't possibly have Blue-Eyes White Dragon, right?"

"You don't even know that? Precisely because it's a dueling AI, the deck it uses is purely data. It's been loaded with the data of all kinds of powerful duelists, so of course it has every card!"

"What? So it even has the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon... Then how the hell are we supposed to duel that?"

The crowd below descended into chaos.

Everyone present was merely an amateur tourist. In their eyes, this AI had not only copied Seto Kaiba's personality and tactical thinking, but also possessed the complete data of his entire deck. It was practically infinitely close to the True Form.

That was the man standing at the pinnacle of modern duelists, wielding the deck universally recognized as the strongest in the Dueling World. How could anyone possibly win?

If someone could win, wouldn't they have to be Yugi Mutou?

Kira, on the other hand, remained quite calm.

It was only a temporary lockdown, after all. It did not matter much to tourists like them. KaibaCorp was surely already trying to repair the malfunction, and the lock should be lifted before long. If it came down to it, they could simply break down the doors physically. At worst, the tourists would lose a little time, and perhaps even receive compensation from KaibaCorp.

For KaibaCorp, however, this was a serious incident. Their competitors would undoubtedly make a huge deal out of it. Having finally caught such an opportunity, no one would let it go easily.

But that was Kaiba's problem to worry about.

Takeuchi Master leaned close to Kira and asked quietly, "This is an opportunity to duel the deck of the legendary Seto Kaiba. Want to give it a try?"

Kira shrugged, not finding it particularly special.

It might have copied his personality and his deck, but it was still an AI. Could it copy a miraculous topdeck, too?

Then Saito Kazuya quietly reminded him, "Based on what I know about Seto Kaiba, if someone defeats this AI and releases the system lock before the intrusion is dealt with, saving the company from further losses, he might offer a great deal of money—or a lot of Rare Cards."

"You don't need to say another word."

With a wave of his hand, Kira strode toward the Dueling Field, leaving everyone with a dashing silhouette.

Money and cards were merely worldly possessions. They did not matter that much.

But as a duelist, he could not miss the chance to challenge a legend.

Anyone who tried to take it from him would have a problem.

"Come on."

Kira stopped before the AI Kaiba projected in holographic form.

"I'll be your opponent."

Three updates today, totaling seven thousand words. Cards tomorrow~