Yu-Gi-Oh!: Starting With a Hellish Deck, Depressing the World

He had a feeling that the three of them, squeezed together as they were, would fall before they made it through the crack of light ahead!

Fortunately, Stealth Bird held on until the very last moment, just as it reached the crack of light! "Bang, bang, bang!!"

The next second, just after barely flying out of the Shadow Duel ritual space, Stealth Bird instantly turned insubstantial and vanished.

Jaden Yuki, Chumley, and Syrus fell to the ground in a pile!

The unfortunate Syrus was right at the bottom, and the weight nearly made his eyes pop out!

Not far away, Jiang He seemed to have anticipated it. Just before Stealth Bird's physical form disappeared, he jumped lightly and landed easily on the ground, which had never been very far below.

He also reached out and caught Alexis Rhodes around the waist as she fell, having been unprepared. "Ah...!"

The sudden disappearance of Stealth Bird's physical form had startled Alexis Rhodes.

But as soon as she realized she was in Jiang He's arms, she blushed!

She hurriedly got to her feet, held one arm with the other hand, and turned her head away in embarrassment.

She stopped looking at him.

Jiang He coughed and rubbed his nose.

He was willing to call Alexis Rhodes's reaction a textbook example of a mature beauty acting shy! But if he said that out loud, Jiang He had a feeling he might get a taste of Alexis's self-defense techniques...

The atmosphere grew a little awkward.

"Jaden, Chumley, get up! You're crushing me to death!" Fortunately, Syrus Truesdale's weak, struggling cry came from nearby.

It gave Jiang He a change of subject and broke the awkward silence.

Hearing him, Jaden Yuki and Chumley, who was on top, hurriedly separated and jumped off.

Then they helped the nearly suffocated Syrus Truesdale to his feet.

"We should hurry out of this abandoned dorm and get back before anyone else wakes up. It looks like it's almost dawn outside!" Alexis Rhodes suddenly proposed, as though she had noticed something surprising. "If anyone finds out we came to the abandoned dorm, we could get into trouble!" "Huh?" Jiang He glanced outside and gave a surprised murmur. It seemed as though they had spent very little time in the abandoned dorm and the Shadow Duel ritual space.

Yet the sky outside the abandoned dorm was already beginning to brighten!

"Did time flow differently in the Shadow Duel ritual space than it did outside?" Jiang He muttered to himself, guessing at the reason.

No wonder he remembered Jaden, that hot-blooded idiot, often spending whole nights playing "cards" with people in the original timeline.

It seemed that was why...

Chapter 61: Crowler's Dilemma: Playing Cards Until Someone Disappeared?

"Today we'll be holding another written theory test to determine dorm assignments, so all Duel Academy students, please do your best..."

The blond, mushroom-haired professor stood at the front of the lecture hall and rattled on.

Then the written theory test began.

Meanwhile, in the elevated seats at the back of the lecture hall,

Jiang He sat comfortably, half slumped over his desk, wearing a sleep mask with a pair of eyes drawn on it.

He looked as though his eyes were open and he was seriously pondering the questions.

But anyone who came a little closer would immediately see that he was fast asleep...

Alexis Rhodes, who was sitting at a distance and writing her answers, couldn't help laughing at the sight. Then she grew a little sleepy herself, raised a hand to cover a yawn, and continued answering.

Not far from Jiang He, Jaden Yuki, that hot-blooded idiot, and Syrus Truesdale had their heads resting against each other and were sleeping with their faces turned upward, snoring.

Nearly everyone was sleepy.

After all, Jiang He had dueled Titan the night before, and because of the difference in how time flowed in the Shadow Duel ritual space, they had played cards all night.

They hadn't slept a wink, so naturally they needed to catch up on sleep now.

As for getting another zero on the written test, Jiang He didn't care in the slightest.

He had no intention of moving up to Ra Yellow or Obelisk Blue anyway.

A zero made no difference at all...

Besides, his private luxury cabin was already more than halfway built. Wouldn't he be losing out if he moved to another dorm now?

Compared with the carefree Jiang He, who could even spare the time to sleep, Professor Crowler was growing restless at the front of the lecture hall.

He was terribly anxious!

From time to time, he covertly glanced toward Jiang He in the elevated seats at the back of the lecture hall, dark circles under his eyes as well!

He was worrying and wondering.

Had the Duel Hunter Titan destroyed the photo that poor student boy had last night...?!

A little after midnight, Crowler had been unable to hold back any longer and had gone to the abandoned dorm as agreed with the Duel Hunter Titan, whom he had hired.

Although he found some familiar footprints inside, he didn't see a single person, much less any sign of a destroyed camera.

In the end, he didn't even see the "expert" he had hired, Titan, come back afterward to collect his payment...

"Mamma mia, there couldn't really be such a thing as a Shadow Duel, and that hired expert couldn't have disappeared because of it... could he?"

Crowler clutched his mushroom haircut with both hands, a wildly exaggerated expression of shock on his face and several drops of cold sweat on his brow.

Someone disappearing because of a card game was just too absurd, none.

There couldn't possibly be such a thing as a real Shadow Duel!

Crowler hurriedly shook his head hard, driving away what he considered an absurd thought.

But now he faced a dilemma: if poor student boy Jiang He still had that incriminating photo of him behind the Obelisk Blue girls' dorm that night,

then he would have to hurry and take care of the trouble, covering up the fact that poor student boy Jiang He, Jaden Yuki, and the others had entered the forbidden abandoned dorm last night.

If Titan had already destroyed the photo in poor student boy Jiang He's possession, however, he could do the opposite and stir things up.

The blond, mushroom-haired professor thought this with a comical expression and gave a sly grin.

But he quickly fell back into indecision!

Which was it...?

Crowler didn't have long to worry over it.

Just as the written test was nearly over, Jiang He woke up, fully satisfied with his sleep, after Sphere Kuriboh reminded him.

He took off his sleep mask.

Soon afterward, he saw several people wearing the green uniforms of Duel Academy's security staff enter the lecture hall.

"We discovered that someone appears to have entered the off-limits abandoned dorm last night, and we've roughly determined who it was. Would the students who went there please come to the Duel Academy chancellor's office?" said the woman in green at their head. "So they came after all." Jiang He gave a small yawn, unsurprised. In any case, he had slept enough.

He wasn't sleepy at all now.

He didn't mind paying a visit to Bald Wuke-no, Chancellor Sheppard's office.

Before going to the abandoned dorm last night, he had already considered the possibility that this would happen.

Alexis was startled, but after glancing at Jiang He and seeing that he didn't seem worried at all,

she felt much more relaxed for some reason.

Jaden Yuki, Syrus Truesdale, and Chumley, who were still fast asleep, had it worst. The people who had come over picked them up and carried them, flailing, to the chancellor's office.

Even Chumley, the simpleminded fatty, was no exception...

A little later, in the spacious chancellor's office.

"This matter of you, student Jiang He, and the rest of you, including Alexis, trespassing in the abandoned dorm is rather difficult to handle," the bald Chancellor Sheppard said, sitting at his desk with a troubled expression and his hands clasped beneath his chin. "According to the rules, you should be expelled." "Huh?! Expelled?!" Jaden Yuki, Syrus Truesdale, and the others cried out in shock! Crowler, who had come along, immediately nodded in agreement. That was exactly how it should be handled!

At that moment, Jiang He coughed and tugged at his clothes as though he were feeling a little hot.

A small portion of the little camera in his pocket was exposed.

"..." Professor Crowler's expression instantly froze, and the corner of his eye twitched.

Cold sweat poured down his face like rain.

Super mamma mia!

There was no need to wonder anymore.

The photo really was still in poor student boy's hands!

If Chancellor Sheppard followed through on what he had said, then he, Vellian Crowler, Duel Academy's head of practical instruction, might end up getting expelled too, none!

Chapter 62: Bald Wuke, Nice Assist!

"Chancellor Sheppard! As Duel Academy's head of practical instruction, I don't think we can place all the blame for this on poor... student Jiang He, student Alexis, and the others." After seeing the little camera deliberately peeking out of Jiang He's pocket, Crowler immediately made a complete turnaround.

He braced his hands on the desk and made a forceful appeal to the bald chancellor. "Please, you must give them another chance!"

"Hm?" Chancellor Sheppard was bewildered.

He hadn't said they would definitely be expelled immediately, had he?

He had clearly spoken as though delivering bad news before good, leaving himself some room.

Alexis Rhodes, Syrus Truesdale, and the others, who knew something about Professor Crowler, were also surprised!

They had no idea why Professor Crowler had suddenly made a complete turnaround after nodding in agreement just moments ago. "Since Professor Crowler says so too, how about settling this with a duel as an alternative punishment?"

Chancellor Sheppard made the suggestion.

Although he didn't quite understand why Crowler had suddenly started acting silly, he was happy to have a way out.

He had never intended to expel these Duel Academy students so hastily in the first place.

After all, that matter might begin before long.

Duel Academy needed several powerful students.

And two or three of them were right here...

Not to mention that among those who had gone to the dorm this time was Alexis Rhodes, the younger sister of Atticus Rhodes, the student who had disappeared in the previous dorm incident.

That made it even less appropriate to expel them outright.

"Settle it with a duel?" Jiang He raised an eyebrow, but didn't mind.

He even had an inkling of which storyline this was.

So he casually asked the bald Chancellor Sheppard, "Who are the opponents, then?"

"I've already tried to invite two legendary duelists who specialize in tag duels, so you'll also need two people to face them in a tag duel," Chancellor Sheppard said with a smile and a nod to Jiang He.

"If you win, we can act as though nothing happened this time and let the matter drop." "A tag duel?" Alexis Rhodes, Syrus Truesdale, Jaden Yuki, and Chumley were all taken aback.

They had never expected those to be the rules.

"So that's how it is..." Only Jiang He showed a hint of having expected it and felt no surprise.

Although his presence had changed things a little,

originally, the blond, mushroom-haired professor should have called in two legendary tag duelists to deal with Jaden Yuki, that hot-blooded idiot, and Jaden's sidekick, Syrus Truesdale.