"Yugen! Yugen! A major breakthrough!"
The next day, as Yugen finished his classes and stepped into the laboratory, he was immediately encountered by Sora Itsuzawa rushing forward, his face flushed and breathless. He stopped in front of Yugen, bending over with his hands on his knees, unable to catch his breath for a while, and couldn't speak a word.
"Don't rush, calm down and speak slowly." Yugen said, "Is there any progress?"
Starting from the latter half of last semester, Mitsuzawa had completely immersed himself in scientific research.
This thirst for knowledge about the essence of the card world, the exploration of latent future possibilities, seemed to surpass his addiction to cards. In the latter half of the semester, he even stopped playing cards, and was never seen in the dueling arena. As soon as class ended, he would spend nights and days in the laboratory, with almost nothing left in his life but research.
Even Yugen couldn't help but think that he had really found his direction. It turned out that, compared to playing cards, Mitsuzawa's talent in scientific research and development was much higher.
Especially after the explorations and studies over the entire past semester, Mitsuzawa's ability to study and research also advanced by leaps and bounds. Now that Yugen has pointed him in the right direction, the team he led was developing more efficiently than Yugen himself.
And this time Yugen entrusted him with another heavyweight project.
[Field Spell - Orichalcos Barrier]
[Only one card with this card name can be activated in a duel. When activated, destroy all Special Summoned monsters on your field. You cannot summon monsters from the Fusion Card Deck. All monsters on your field gain 500 Attack Power.
If there are two or more attack position monsters on your field, your opponent cannot attack the monster with the lowest Attack Power.
Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed by effects.]
Indeed, it was a neutered version of Orichalcos Barrier, and in its physical card form, it was translated as "Mountain Copper Barrier."
Yugen tasked Mitsuzawa with researching the Orichalcos series cards obtained from the Judge.
Of course, compared to the original animation, the physical card version of Orichalcos Barrier was comprehensively weakened. But the development value of this card lay in completely severing the barrier's connection with the Snake God, allowing it to become a card that could be used normally. Even if used, it would not force both parties into a fight to the death with the effect of "the loser's soul being drawn away."
Naturally, with this disconnection, the extraordinary power inherent in the barrier itself ceased to exist, and activating the barrier would neither confer any Destiny Power attributes. In this sense, compared to the animated version, it lost its original greatest functionality.
But such a sacrifice was certainly reasonable. After all, the Destiny Power obtained from the Orichalcos Barrier was originally borrowed from the Snake God. Since the connection with the Snake God was severed, it couldn't simply use its power for free.
But this was already a very encouraging progress.
First, this meant that the Orichalcos Barrier had transitioned from an unusable forbidden card to a usable state. Having this barrier as a support made it possible for the other cards obtained from the Judge that needed the barrier as a core to find a place to be used.
For example, the most powerful ones, the second and third layers of the Orichalcos Barrier.
Yugen also discovered this after research. Functions such as absorbing souls, enhancing Destiny Power, and connecting with the Snake God were all written at the bottom layer of the barrier, which is the first layer of Orichalcos Barrier.
While the second and third layer barriers have the effect description "This card's name is treated as 'Orichalcos Barrier' and inherits all effects of the 'Orichalcos Barrier' sent to the graveyard as a cost to activate this card."
In other words, using this physical card version of the first layer barrier they researched, it could also be used as a cost to activate the second and third layer barriers. However, using this method, the second and third layers can only inherit the weakened effects of the physical card version, not as strong as the original in the Judge's hands.
But it was enough to support the normal operation of the Orichalcos card deck.
"And you mentioned that other cards also have potential for improvement, and I found you were right too."
Mitsuzawa got more and more excited as he spoke, directly pulling up his research data on the terminal to show Yugen.
"I even think that even Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes could be..."
"Let's put that aside for now."
Yugen hurriedly interrupted him.
"That one is a god; let's study other things first, keep your mind off the Snake God for now."
The animated Vennominaga was a bona fide Divine Attribute, Phantom Divine Beast Race. Although Yugen knew Vennominaga could also be turned into a physical card by weakening its effects, the blood-soaked development history of the Three Phantom Gods by the International Fantasy Association had already proved that developing god-like clone cards in this world was too dangerous.
Designers might inadvertently incur Divine Punishment, and one could get hit by an unexpected thunderbolt on the street and end up as a vegetative.
So, although there was an idea to develop Vennominaga, Yugen decided to hold off for now. If a project had to be initiated, it would be better to collaborate with Franz from the Illusion Association.
Franz, being the chief designer of the Illusion Association and having researched Phantom Gods for so many years, must be relatively specialized in safety and protection measures. He could be more reassuring in all aspects if it's entrusted to him.
Yugen sat down at his station in the laboratory and suddenly turned around to see the newly arrived Vampire Princess standing by his side in her spirit body form, looking at him with admiration and surprise.
"What's the matter?" Yugen asked.
"No, nothing, just..."
She hesitated.
"...do you even make your own cards?"
Her eyes were filled with undeniable shock and reverence as she said this.
Yugen then realized.
To someone like the Princess, who lived in the Elf Realm and had never visited the Duelist Dimension, crafting cards must seem an unimaginable feat.
Yugen chuckled: "Some of the cards, yes."
"That... and the one with the scientist and Bouncing Turtle..."
She naturally linked it to the dazzling combo Yugen had used to obliterate Zor.
The Princess was greatly astonished when she first saw such an unconventional combination. Now that she knew it might have been self-created by the other party, her respect for the strength of her new master grew even more.
This was almost a god-like ability, right?
"Ahaha, that wasn't my creation." Yugen laughed, saying mysteriously, "That was the wisdom of predecessors."
The famed Magical Science Cannon, an OTK (One Turn Kill) that could be performed using just two cards, Magical Scientist and Bouncing Turtle, and with luck, even an FTK (First Turn Kill) - defeating the opponent before their first turn, it was once renowned as "the strongest card deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! history."
Yugen always said that same sentence: he only sees further because he stands on the shoulders of giants. He never thought of himself as special or a dueling prodigy.
Yet the Princess merely blinked in confusion, seemingly failing to understand.
"It's just the master's everyday humility, don't mind it," Soga appeared behind her, saying.
"You just need to remember one thing."
The Princess tilted her head in puzzlement.
"The master is... undoubtedly, among anyone you've ever met, an unprecedented, unparalleled, the strongest genius Duelist."
Soga said seriously.
The Princess fell silent in thought. Looking again at Yugen, who was already focused on his work in front of the desk with the sunset glow reflecting on the side of the boy's face, the Blood Race girl couldn't help but lose herself for a moment.
Evil Emperor Gaius again silently drifted out, standing beside Soga.
Soga frowned: "What now?"
Almost every time Gaius appeared with him, it was to argue.
But this time, it wasn't.
"Nothing,"
Gaius also glanced at Yugen, pondering for a moment, and then said to Soga.
"Just this once... I think you're right."