Yu-Gi-Oh! The Pitfall Hero

"At this moment, I activate the effect of Elemental HERO True Neos in my hand. I can discard this card from my hand and target 1 HERO monster on the field. That monster gains 2500 ATK until the end of the turn! This effect can also be activated during my opponent's turn!"

With the blessing of Sincere New Universe Knight, the attack power of [Masked Hero Dark Claw] has increased from 2400 points to 4900 points, which is far higher than the 3000 points of attack power of Demon Manifestation.

Naki: "Nani? (What?)"

Suddenly, white wings sprouted from the back of the Masked Hero Dark Claw. He flapped his wings and quickly dodged the incoming lightning ball, then swooped down towards the location of the Demon Manifestation.

"Heroic Flash!!!" [Demon Manifestation] was launched into the air by a diving kick from Friend Hero, and then shattered by the impact. Naki was hit by the attack and knelt on the ground. His health was also reduced by 1900 points. Now his LP has dropped to 2100 points, which is just equal to Yusei's LP of 2000 points.

[Demon Manifestation] can be Special Summoned when sent to the Graveyard. However, Naki's Graveyard has been locked by Friend's effect, so he cannot activate this last word effect now.

"It's not over yet!"

Naki did not give up; he has now entered Phase 2 of the main story and is ready to continue the development.

“我发动手牌里的【狱火机 别西卜】（恶魔族/炎属性/2星/攻击力0/守备力2000）的效果，从手牌里将【狱火机 莉莉丝】（恶魔族/炎属性/9星/攻击力2900/守备力2900）除外，将这张卡特殊召唤！”

Naki finally remembered that he was using the [Inferno] deck.

A demon resembling a fly appeared on the field, flapping its wings, with multiple arms waving around its waist.

Beelzebub, in terms of appearance, is a nightmare for people with trypophobia...

"Beelzebub's effect activates once per turn. You can target one face-up card on your opponent's field and return that card to its owner's hand! My choice is of course [Masked Hero Dark Claw]!" At this moment, Naki barely showed any villainous self-cultivation. He stretched out his right hand, pointing in the direction of Friend Hero, intending to activate Beelzebub's effect.

"Good judgment, but still too inexperienced!" Upon hearing the effect of [Beelzebub the Infernal], Yusei prepared to use a face-down card from the back row.

"I activate the counter trap card [Divine Announcement], paying 1500 Life Points to negate and destroy the effect of [Beelzebub the Infernal]!"

(Yusei's LP: 2000 → 500)

The divine light appeared on the field and swallowed Beelzebub, the Fly King, in an instant, then vanished from the field along with the monster.

"...Huh?" Naki remained motionless, his right hand still outstretched. All his movements had been abruptly stopped by Yusei.

He glanced at the last card in his hand, a [Inferno] monster that couldn't be Normal Summoned. His graveyard was empty, his field was blank, and he couldn't use any cards in his hand…

Now, he can only choose to end his turn and wait for Yusei's monster to attack him directly in the next turn.

“Return…to…end…” Naki lowered his head and looked at the ground, seemingly unable to believe his current state.

"My turn! Draw!" Yusei didn't care about Naki's feelings. After Naki announced the end of his turn, he decisively drew a card from his deck.

The card I drew is [Elemental HERO Sky Knight], which can search for [HERO] monsters in my deck, but at this point, there's no need to summon it anymore.

"Dark Claws launched a direct attack on Naki!"

Yusei gave the order to attack the Masked Hero Dark Claw on the field. After receiving the order, Dark Claw rushed towards Naki and punched him away. Naki's health dropped to 0 as a result of Dark Claw's attack. Yusei won the duel!

"Nothing special!" That was Yusei's assessment of the duel.

After the duel ended, Yusei put away his Duel Disk, and Tomokazu also disappeared from the field.

Naki was knocked away by Dark Claw's attack and is now half-lying in the nearby ruins. Because he is wearing heavy armor, Naki does not seem to have suffered any major damage.

"Damn it! How could I, the great one, be defeated by a nameless fool!"

Upon hearing Yusei's words, he sat up and pounded the ground beneath him, uttering words of complaint.

Just then, several black tentacles emerged from Naki's duel disk.

In an instant, the tentacles tightly enveloped Naki, tightening their grip until he was shredded into a black slurry before he could even scream.

A moment later, the tentacles, along with Naki, vanished from Yusei's sight. Where Naki had been, two cards fell to the ground.

Yusei walked up to the cards, picked them up and looked at them. They were the monster cards that Naki had just used: Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Summoning the Demon.

"Does this mean... that you get equipment drops from defeating monsters?"

"Was what I just had a dark duel, the kind where you die if you lose?"

Yusei casually put the card he had picked up into his pocket and began to consider his current situation—

The Naki we just defeated was merely a soldier under the Overlord's command; there must be far more powerful beings above him.

Naki seemed to have heard of his name.

The boy has escaped the pursuit and is now safe for the time being. It seems that he belongs to some kind of resistance force.

……

...

-【*

In Yusei's view, all these questions are mysteries that cannot be solved for the time being.

This includes the dream world itself.

039 Do people who play Friend Hero not have any friends?

"Naki... he actually lost to this kid!"

The winged humanoid scout hovering in mid-air witnessed the entire duel between the two.

After Naki was knocked away by [Masked Hero Dark Claw] and his LP was reduced to 0, the scout decisively chose to flee the area, presumably intending to report the situation to his superiors.

After collecting the card that Naki had dropped, Yusei wandered around the area for a bit.

This world is nothing but ruins.

Unknown monsters patrolled and lingered in the sky from time to time. Within the range of Yu Xing's naked eye, no human figures were found; it seemed that they had all been eliminated by the Overlord's subordinates.

However, it's also possible that the survivors hid in underground spaces and simply haven't been found.

At least the boy that Yusei encountered seemed to belong to some organization that was resisting the tyrant, which shows that there are still humans in this world, but they just cannot appear openly in the outside world.

Yusei found another high spot in the ruins and looked into the distance.

This time, he spotted a peculiar tall building in the distance, and the scouts from before had also flown in the direction of the building.

It was a towering black tower that stood out starkly against the surrounding dilapidated landscape, and its silhouette could be seen from a great distance.

Looking into the distance, countless flying creatures hovered around the tower, and on the backs of some of them, one could vaguely see the figures of humanoid monsters similar to Naki.

Yuxing immediately deduced that the black tower must be the lair of the "Overlord" that Naki had mentioned.

Naki, as we just heard him, was a soldier directly under the Overlord, and his mission was to hunt down a boy who was a member of the resistance.

For Naki, this operation was originally just a simple hunt, as easy as a cat catching a mouse.

However, Yusei, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, ruined his plans, and he himself lost his life due to the backlash from the failed duel.

Naki was swallowed by tentacles right before Yusei's eyes, and Overlord should also learn of this from the scouts.

It's estimated that they'll respond soon, and there might even be stronger enemies coming. We should probably retreat for now...

As Yusei looked up at the tower, he also sensed someone's gaze from inside the tower.

It was an inexplicable feeling. Logically speaking, at such a distance, it should be impossible to see any details, but Yusei's intuition told him that someone was indeed watching him.

The duel between Yusei and Naki generated enormous energy in these ruins.

Especially with the buff from the [Sincere New Universe Hero] effect, Friend Hero's attack power soared to 4900 for a finishing blow, defeating [Demon Manifestation] and dealing massive damage to Naki, while also causing the entire arena to shake.

The impact produced a tremendous noise, which could not have gone unnoticed by other creatures.

It's estimated that it won't be long before not only the Overlord's troops, but also people from other forces will come to check on the situation here.

Now that the duel was over, Yusei had no reason to stay any longer. He immediately made a decision, withdrew his gaze, and prepared to leave the ruins.

Before leaving, he turned and looked at the tower one last time; the feeling of being watched by someone had vanished by now.

The gaze I just saw seemed to be just Yusei's illusion.

Yusei shook his head, dispelling the doubts in his mind, and turned to walk towards the boy.

The boy had just stepped forward to protect him, a stranger; now it was time for him to lend a helping hand to the unconscious boy.

Yusei helped the boy up, found a relatively secluded room nearby, and left the boy there. Before leaving, he also found some stones and plants around to cover the entrance.

In this way, the boy was temporarily safe.

After finishing all that, Yusei wiped the sweat from his brow and found a place to sit down and rest.

He knew he was currently in a dream world, but he didn't know how to get out. Surely it wasn't like in the anime, where he had to die in this world to return to the world where Yui and Ria were...?

Just as he began to think about his next steps, he suddenly felt everything go black and he fainted.

From an outsider's perspective, Yusei simply vanished from the world out of thin air.

-------------------

On a balcony of a palace high up in the black tower stood a man wearing a black horned helmet, a demon mask, a red cloak, and covered in red and black armor. On his left hand, he wore a grotesque, jet-black duel disk.

The man was nearly 1.8 meters tall, and he had his hands behind his back, gazing at the endless ruins as far as the eye could see.

Looking down from where he was, he could clearly see almost everything in the vicinity.

The man looked toward the spot where the massive energy of the duel had just been generated, and his gaze met that of Yusei in the distance.

Behind the man, a humanoid creature wearing a massive helmet with bull horns and heavy black armor knelt down, relaying intelligence from a scout: "Your Highness, according to the scout's report, Naki appears to have been defeated by a duelist wielding a [Hero] monster!"

"Oh?" The man named "Overlord" withdrew his gaze and turned to the direction behind him, seemingly interested in the topic.

"According to intelligence, the creature that just generated such a huge amount of energy seems to be a monster called [Masked Hero Dark Claw]!" the creature wearing a giant helmet with bull horns continued.

“Dark Claw…Friend Hero?” Overlord placed his left hand on his chin, as if he had thought of something.

He drew a card from the Duel Disk in his left hand, and that card was also [Masked Hero Dark Claw], exactly the same as the monster that Yusei controlled.

"You mean, the duelist who defeated Naki used the same deck as me, 'Masked Hero'?" The Overlord's face was covered by a mask, so his expression was not visible, but one could sense a hint of surprise in his tone.

“…That’s right.” The creature wearing the horned helmet hesitated for a moment before answering the Overlord’s question. As one of the Overlord’s direct subordinates, he couldn’t remember the last time he had felt the Overlord’s emotional fluctuations.

This is enough to prove how huge an impact Yusei's actions have had on the world.

He then suggested to the Overlord, "This duelist seems to have appeared here suddenly. According to intelligence from the scouts, his dueling skills should not be underestimated. I believe we should arrange for more people to eliminate this threat!"

"It's alright, Adan. Just continue leading your troops to scout and eliminate the rebels according to the original plan." The Overlord returned to his calm tone and waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to pay too much attention to Yuxing.

“But…” The creature called Adan looked puzzled, as if it wanted to say something more, but in the end it couldn’t say it.