"Not bad... It's quite a feat for a zombie."
Yugen stepped forward to the zombie.
It's still a sinister environment, with invisible darkness surrounding them, like an unseen wall of shadows pressing from all sides.
But this darkness can no longer put any pressure on Yugen.
Because now it's under his control.
He had just won the duel. The power of the Dark Game activated, wrapping around the zombie.
"Don't be afraid, it won't hurt... well, it probably shouldn't."
Yugen thought about it and decided his words needed to be precise. After all, he had never experienced his own Dark Game, and didn't know what it felt like to lose a card game and be forced into various poses.
"Hmm, in any case, even if it hurts, it won't hurt for long," Yugen said. "I just need to ask a few questions. First one, what happened here? How did you become like this?"
The zombie lay on the ground, eyes wide open, unblinking, looking like someone who refused to die peacefully.
Then suddenly its whole body convulsed violently, looking just like a fish out of water, being scorched on shore.
Soon, its body started breaking down and disintegrating, its internal matter flowed like pus, the entire body deflated, leaving only a rapidly collapsing pile of clothes.
"Hmm?"
Yugen blinked twice.
This was not his doing.
He did activate the Dark Game, but not to a fatal degree. This zombie was likely just a thug, or perhaps even a victim, not the person responsible for the anomaly here.
Yugen merely wanted to gather some intelligence from him, using the Dark Game to help him speak.
Yet the guy vanished directly...
So defiant? Blew himself up to avoid spilling secrets?
Yugen stood up, furrowing his brows.
Could there be some mechanism set inside the body?
Maybe it was set to trigger self-destruction when defeated by a duelist wielding dark power, to prevent leaking information.
At this moment, a rustling sound came from the woods behind.
Yugen stood up, remained alert and turned his head to look. The Silent Magician had also appeared in spirit form, holding a magic staff, ready for battle.
But this time, it wasn't an enemy that appeared. Moreover, it was someone rather unexpected.
A blonde woman.
A blonde woman with an impressive figure... because her physique is indeed too striking, belonging to the rare level where one wouldn't see their feet when looking down. Her long, slender legs were clad in black over-knee boots, standing at the edge of the forest path, looking at Yugen with a peculiar expression.
"Are you... Peacock Dance?"
Yugen asked with a hint of uncertainty.
Peacock Dance, now a legendary duelist. A character from the DM era, a professional duelist, in the god-level battles of DM time, even as a mortal with no background or cheats, her strength was already top-notch.
Moreover, she was Joey's sweetheart... sort of.
Though the anime didn't explain if their relationship went anywhere, when Peacock Dance's voice actress got married, the official Yu-Gi-Oh! animation director drew a wedding congratulation image of Peacock Dance and Joey.
It's natural for Yugen to think that Keihei said Joey seems to be around here recently and tried contacting him for help to investigate Qingshui Town, but couldn't reach him.
Wonder how Sister Mai and Joey are doing in this world.
"An outsider duelist?"
Peacock Dance looked at him curiously, seemingly wanting to say something. But she glanced around at the gloomy darkness of the environment, finally changing her mind.
"Let's go, it's not safe here."
She said.
"Follow me, we'll talk later."
There weren't any other leads anyway, so Yugen hesitated not, directly following her.
...of course, didn't forget to pick up the fallen, ownerless card deck.
Yugen followed behind her, the two quickly traversing through the dark and shadowy forest.
"Are you a duelist in the professional circuit?"
Peacock Dance led the way in front while taking a moment to ask.
"No." Yugen admitted frankly, "I'm a student at Duel Academy."
"Duel Academy... student?"
Peacock Dance couldn't help but turn her head to glance at him.
She had seen Yugen duel earlier, and she had to admit it left a deep impression. His dueling style was peculiar, but she could see at a glance he was extraordinary.
She thought he must be at least a professional-level player, and while it seemed he was holding back, it was hard to gauge his depth just from this duel, but he should be at least upper-level in the professional circuit.
Turns out he's a Duel Academy student?
After a while, she couldn't help but say: "Hmm... you're quite a special student."
Yugen smiled: "Everyone says that."
Peacock Dance: "..."
No, she actually thought, "Special" really is an understatement.
She had encountered zombie-like duelists here before, but always treated them as instinct-driven puppets.
She never thought they could get so worked up to spit profanities...
"What happened to that guy earlier?" Yugen asked.
"An infected duelist defeated by a duel triggers a destruction mechanism. But using most methods other than dueling to attack them is ineffective."
Peacock Dance explained briefly.
"I once witnessed a beheaded guy reattach his own head; they're almost immortal."
Yugen: "..."
Okay, this is very Yu-Gi-Oh!
Zombies with immortality can only be defeated by card games; that makes sense.
"So how did he end up like that?"
"Who knows, I'm wondering too."
Peacock Dance cursed in a low voice.
"Suddenly, the whole area became like this. No one knows how it spread, but most people here are infected.
If those infected are ordinary people with no qualifications, they'll become regular infected, completely without reason, attacking others purely on instinct... You must've encountered quite a few earlier.
Whereas special individuals might become duel-infected, like the one you saw earlier. Those guys are more dangerous, possessing the ability to materialize card powers, their destructiveness and danger far higher than ordinary individuals.
You can only truly defeat them through dueling, using knives or guns to harm them is useless."
A duel-type zombie virus...
"By the way, is Joey Wheeler around here?"
Peacock Dance looked at him: "You know Joey?"
"No, but a friend of mine does; they asked me to find him."
"Tch, you're here looking for him too." Peacock Dance frowned.
"So he's here?"
"Who knows, I wish I knew."
Peacock Dance cursed again.
"If not for looking for this jerk, why would I come to such a ghostly place?"