Chapter 281: Can I Not Get On This Ship?

Chapter 281: Can I Not Get On This Ship?

After a long while, a KaibaCorp staff member named "Iso" came to the lounge to inform Hayato that the top 8 players had all arrived.

After opening the last pack of cards and getting a very useful field clearing card, Hayato tidied up his deck, walked out of the lounge, and once again arrived at the open space in the center of the Domino City Sports Center.

The open space in the center of the unfinished sports center had not yet been paved with a plastic track or lawn, revealing a flat, dusty ground. Since the top 8 players were almost all here, Kaiba ordered his subordinates to turn on the sports center's priority-completed lighting equipment. Eight large lighting facilities illuminated the central open space from various directions.

Hayato, walking out from the lounge, looked at the center of the open space where many people had gathered, and couldn't help but chuckle.

Kaiba, Yugi Mutou, Joey Wheeler, and Ryo Bakura, plus their companions Duke Devlin, Téa, and Tristan , and counting Hayato himself, these top 8 players almost made up a class reunion.

Besides these few people, Hayato also saw Ishizu Ishtar, dressed in white, standing a distance away from the crowd. As if sensing Hayato's gaze, Ishizu Ishtar turned her head towards Hayato and nodded with a smile.

In the opposite direction from Ishizu Ishtar, Hayato saw Marik, wearing a black cloak. Unlike his original timeline counterpart, this time Marik had no intention of hiding his identity. He openly held the **Millennium Rod** in his hand, glaring menacingly at Yugi Mutou, who was standing with Joey Wheeler and the others.

Adding Mai Valentine, who was joking around with Joey Wheeler, these were the top 8 players of Duel City.

"Hmph, with this, all eight participants have arrived. Hey, Iso! Bring that thing down!" Kaiba saw Hayato's arrival, merely glanced at him indifferently, and gave the order.

"What is that thing?" Joey Wheeler asked, somewhat confused. "Is it something like the scoreboard Maximillion Pegasus used?"

Joey Wheeler still remembered the giant screen inside Pegasus Castle during the Duelist Kingdom that was used to determine the order of participants' duels.

Kaiba glanced at Joey Wheeler contemptuously: "Hmph, you amateur, don't compare me to someone with such poor taste like Maximillion Pegasus. Or perhaps, your idiotic brain thought this was a duel arena befitting the King of Games?"

As soon as Kaiba finished speaking, accompanied by the roar of engines, an extremely massive airship, so large that even the spacious Domino City Sports Center could barely contain it, broke through the cloud layer and began descending towards the ground.

Joey Wheeler was just about to retort to Kaiba, but looking at the gigantic airship descending from the sky, he was so astonished by the unprecedented spectacle that he could barely speak: "Is... is that the real final battle location?"

"Dueling on an airship?"

"Amazing!"

And Kaiba's loyal subordinate, the referee for the upcoming Duel City matches, the black-suited man with sunglasses and a heart as steady as Mount Tai – Iso – picked up a microphone. Just as he was about to fulfill his duty and introduce the descending airship, he was kicked in the rear by his own Vice President, Mokuba, who snatched the microphone away.

"Players who have gone through the selection and obtained top 8 qualification, this airship before you is the location of the Duel City final battle!"

"The one who can defeat all players and reach the end will be crowned with the title of 'King of Games', and the birth of a king requires a fitting field! Which is this airship!"

"Next, you will cruise at an altitude of over a thousand meters above the ground, like a king touring his domain, spreading the brilliance of **Duel Monsters** and the glory of the King of Games throughout the world!"

Following Mokuba's passionate speech, not just the simple-minded Joey Wheeler, but even Hayato and Yugi Mutou began to feel some expectation for the upcoming duels.

As the airship's boarding ramp opened, Kaiba took the lead and walked towards the entrance. After demonstrating by showing an ID card in his hand, he walked up the steps. At the same time, a staff member loudly announced: "Participant Number One, Seto Kaiba!"

That ID card wasn't only held by Kaiba; Hayato also had one in his hand. Hayato had received it from the KaibaCorp staff members after completing his qualification registration. Hayato walked towards the boarding gate after Kaiba, showing his ID card. His card had the number "Two" on it.

"Participant Number Two, Kobayashi Hayato!"

Boarding proceeded in an orderly manner.

"Participant Number Three, Marik Ishtar!"

"Participant Number Four, Ishizu Ishtar!"

"Participant Number Five, Joey Wheeler!"

"Participant Number Six, Mai Valentine!"

"Participant Number Seven, Yugi Mutou!"

"Participant Number Eight, Ryo Bakura!"

Meanwhile, Téa, Tristan , Duke Devlin, and Serenity Wheeler, who wanted to watch her older brother duel – the four "companions" – were almost stopped when they followed the others onto the airship because they didn't have ID cards. Their reason was, "If you don't have an ID card, you are not a participant and are not allowed to board."

However, under Mokuba's quiet remark from the side, "I don't have an ID card either, does that mean I can't board?", the two staff members responsible for checking ID cards, feeling like they had offended the Vice President, hastily ushered Tristan and the others onto the airship.

After Tristan and the other three followed Mokuba onto the airship, only a few KaibaCorp ground crew staff members were left on the ground to handle matters after the airship took off. Everyone who had gathered at the Domino City Sports Center had now transferred into the airship.

"The duels for the top 8 players will begin tomorrow. The airship has reserved plenty of guest rooms, and you can choose your rooms to rest."

Watching Mokuba put down the microphone and start busy with other things, Hayato smiled and ruffled his spiky hair: "Good work, Mokuba-san."

"I told you my name is Sabo—huh?" Mokuba didn't react for a moment. Did Hayato just get his name right? This was the first time.

"Speaking of which, for such a huge airship, Kaiba actually managed to get his hands on it and get permission to fly it." Looking at the quite spacious interior of the airship, Hayato sighed with emotion. "So that guy Kaiba must have given this airship some bizarre name again, like Kaiba-maru, Blue-Eyes White Airship, or something?"

"No way! Older brother's taste isn't as... well, maybe not *that* bad as you say?" Mokuba immediately wanted to refute what Hayato said, but recalling the names of the Kaiba-led research projects in the R&D department's database, nine out of ten inventions had quite terrible names. "Besides, I'm the one who named this airship, the 'S.S. Anne'. How about it, isn't it a great name?"

"What ship!?"

Seeing Hayato's expression suddenly change, Mokuba said, somewhat confused, "The S.S. Anne, what's wrong?"

"Hmm..." Hayato looked out the nearby glass window towards the ground. In just a short while, the airship had already ascended a considerable distance, about forty to fifty meters from the ground. "Tell me, is it still not too late if I jump off now?"

In addition, besides Hayato, Yugi, Joey, Kaiba, and Marik, the top 8 players also include the ABC trio.

Regarding the participants, there hasn't been much change from the original participants, still just those few people - Mai Valentine, Ishizu, and Bakura.

You think I've changed, but I also haven't changed; this is also a kind of change.

(Actually, I originally wanted to include Cyber Dragon as a serious candidate, it would be very reasonable for the mighty Cyber Dragon to be shortlisted, but after thinking about it, I decided against it.)

(End of this chapter)