By the time Amano Rei parted his eyelids once more, his consciousness had smoothly decoupled from her network, and he found himself laying flat across the floor of the second-floor hallway.
Prior to unlatching the entryway lock, to ensure Phoenis wouldn't stumble upon his unresponsive 'corpse' in the living room, Amano Rei had strategically utilized Lin Xingyao's vessel to transport his physical body upstairs. However, Senior herself lacked the borderline anomalous physical strength required to casually sling a grown man over her shoulder and sprint. Coupled with the active exhaustion debuff brought on by her illness, simply dragging his frame up the staircase had completely depleted her stamina, leaving her with zero remaining capacity to lift him onto the bed.
Consequently, after enduring a full sixty minutes camped out on the icy floorboards, Amano Rei was met with an unavoidable, heavy wave of physical stiffness.
But compared to the minor physical discomfort radiating through his muscles, the absolute dread consuming his heart was infinitely more severe.
The tactical confrontation brewing in the living room below... tell me it hasn't devolved into a physical brawl between two academy goddesses.
To be perfectly fair, this marked the secondary instance he had walked into a crossfire of this caliber. He was fully prepared to concede that the first修罗场 had stemmed entirely from his own greed—chasing a double optimization for affection ratings. But this time around, his motive had been entirely pristine; he had simply stepped into the residence to care for a bedridden senior.
Yet, despite his wholesome intent, a massive修罗场 had still locked onto his coordinates. And the underlying catalyst that exposed his position was simply running a high-stakes, heroic Shadow Duel to save the district.
Do I secretly harbor a hidden passive trait that unconditionally forces a修罗场 to anchor onto my position?
Amano Rei felt his current level of internal panic easily matched the raw terror he had faced when staring down the Wicked Gods. In fact, there was a faint, subtle trace of familiarity to the dread.
Familiarity? Wait... why on earth am I registering a distinct, structural trace of familiarity from this panic?
Amano Rei quickly activated his Eva terminal, which had begun flashing with an unorthodox rhythm amid the dim light of the hallway. The interface explicitly telegraphed an automated system notification: [One Unclaimed Card Asset Pending Retrieval].
Since when did I archive an unclaimed card within my terminal interface?
Amano Rei tapped the retrieval prompt, only to find an absolutely monumental card asset resting quietly within the chamber. Staring at the card illustration, his mind instantly connected the dots back to the specialized career feature his system had integrated upon clearing the god-war.
[CLASS PROFILE: "THE TRICKSTER"] [SYSTEM TRIGGER: "TRY EXECUTING A FABRICATED PROTOCOL TO CONVINCE THE EVA ARCHITECTURE THAT YOU HOLD A GOD CARD IN YOUR HAND~"]
Deceiving the Eva network architecture... Resting with absolute stability inside his database was the definitive rendering of The Wicked Dreadroot.
Through the raw application of a Trickster's deception protocol, he had successfully forced the overarching Eva network to validate the system assumption that a true Divine card belonged to his personal inventory.
Amano Rei initialized the card extraction. Countless clusters of dense, pitch-black data streamed frantically to his fingertips, solidifying into the card face of the supreme, absolute deity right between his fingers.
I actually hold a literal God Card in my hand now?
Even though it belonged to the Wicked line, within the parameters of the Eden Tower, a Wicked God carried the official pedigree of the DIVINE Attribute, reinforced by the rare Wicked Divine Beast Type.
Still, Amano Rei refrained from slotting the deity into his active deck list, choosing instead to secure it firmly inside his secondary Side Deck box. An entity of this caliber, acquired through highly unorthodox deception channels from an untraceable source, carried an exceptionally high volatility index. It was best to keep it shelved during conventional public duels; if this specialized power wasn't monitored with absolute caution, it could easily induce a catastrophic system-wide failure across the Tower.
Shifting his focus back to the immediate crisis...
Hiding out on the second floor for a few more minutes, Amano Rei noted that zero sounds of chaotic destruction or raised voices were wafting up from the living room below. Having properly safely archived Dreadroot, his internal panic cleared significantly, and he began stepping cautiously down the staircase.
Scanning the living area, he noted that Senior, who had smoothly reclaimed absolute control over her physical vessel, was no longer anchoring her head across Mother Phoenis's lap pillow. Of course, a highly plausible variable was that Phoenis had simply denied her access.
But the exact configuration didn't matter.
The two young ladies were locked in an intense, silent stare-down, neither party uttering a single syllable, as if attempting to run a comprehensive baseline evaluation through each other's eyes. Or perhaps they were simply performing a blunt visual audit—calculating the exact aesthetic strengths of the opposition to map out their own structural advantages and tactical vulnerabilities.
The exact fraction of a second Amano Rei's shoes met the living room floor, both targets smoothly pivoted their gaze, anchoring their focus squarely onto his frame.
Phoenis was the first to break the silence: "Amano, the hour has grown exceptionally late. Let us return home."
Intentionally framing their return to the student dorms as "returning home"—this was undoubtedly a highly precise, subtle tactical marker deployed by the young lady.
"Cough, cough, cough... Junior, my biological systems appear to still be experiencing a severe degree of instability."
Feigning a series of frail, forced coughs—this was undoubtedly a highly precise, subtle tactical marker deployed by his senior.
Phoenis immediately stepped forward, her hand moving with dominant speed to plant her palm squarely against Lin Xingyao's forehead.
"Rest assured, Senior Lin Xingyao's thermal stats have returned to absolute baseline; her fever has broke completely. If Senior insists on maintaining the claim that your systems are compromised, I shall unhesitatingly volunteer to remain behind tonight to oversee your caretaking parameters personally."
"Y-Your presence... is entirely unnecessary... my systems have stabilized remarkably."
Wielding an exceptionally dominant, unyielding disposition in every environment that sat outside a card game, Phoenis had completely locked down and suppressed the No. 1 duelist of the Synchro Academy.
"Senior Xingyao, I shall make my departure back to the dorms now. If your parameters experience a secondary regression, feel free to ping my terminal interface." Given that her fractured soul network had been restored to absolute integrity, Lin Xingyao should face zero further biological complications moving forward.
"Junior, ensure you integrate this card into your stash before you depart."
Right as he reached the threshold, Lin Xingyao reached out, firmly sliding a card into Amano Rei's palm.
[Omni Dragon Brotaur] [Level 1 / LIGHT / Dragon / Effect] [ATK: 0 / DEF: 0]
(Note: Recognizing his new engine support, Lin Xingyao gifts him the classic Level 1 Dragon searcher Omni Dragon Brotaur to maximize his playmaking fluidly!)
The rationale behind her gifting this specific card was remarkably clear. Senior had deduced that Amano Rei's active deck architecture lacked a viable, Level 1 Dragon-Type target to seamlessly trigger the secondary Special Summon parameter of Converging Wills Dragon. Given that she had coasted along to secure a premium reward from his proxy mission, it was only proper that she return the value. The Omni Dragon Brotaur resting in her inventory functioned as a flawless mathematical fit for Amano's newly upgraded deck.
Lin Xingyao stood at the open threshold, her face softening into a warm, gentle smile as she escorted Amano Rei out with her gaze.
"Although our evening ran into a minor, un-calculated detour at the conclusion, I still extend my deepest gratitude to you for tonight, Junior. Had it not been for your intervention, my systems would likely have suffered a fatal crash."
"Refrain from deploying such ominous phrasing, Senior. Rest up and allow your systems to fully reset. I expect to see your profile back at the academy tomorrow."
"Hehe, you got it~"
[Lin Xingyao] [Affection: +4] [Affection: 89]
Why on earth is her rating locked directly at the 89-point threshold again? Is the 90-point barrier within this system configuration truly this exceptionally difficult to shatter?
Up until this precise moment, Amano Rei had yet to unlock a single high-tier baseline capability tied to a 90-point affection rating.
Bidding farewell to his senior, Amano Rei navigated his way back down to the ground floor parking structure where his Duel Runner was stationed, only to find Phoenis quietly waiting beside the machine.
"That's strange. Did Uncle Gong refrain from piloting the corporate vehicle to fetch you tonight?"
"I explicitly instructed Uncle Gong to return to the estate ahead of schedule."
With that, Phoenis lightly patted the leather pillion seat of Amano Rei's Duel Runner.
"I received data indicating you had finalized the acquisition of a Duel Runner, so I purposefully routed my movements to experience the transit feedback firsthand. Amano, you wouldn't operate on such a narrow margin of generosity as to deny me a ride, would you?"
"Of course not. Commanding the privilege of chauffeuring the young lady of the Wayne family is an absolute honor."
"Hahaha, excellent~"Phoenis took the spare safety helmet from Amano Rei's hands and began to inspect it.
"Whose hair is this?"
Why do you all love playing this exact same game?
"Wanyuan You's," Amano Rei answered smoothly.
"Oh, Wanyuan's," Phoenis said, slowly pulling out a long, black strand of hair. "Since when did Wanyuan's hair get this long?"
"..."
You blockhead class monitor, why are you dropping hair too? You barely even use your brain!
"Forget it, it's fine. I can probably guess whose it is."
Phoenis casually tossed the straight, long black hair into the wind.
"I don't blame you. It's all my fault for being too busy lately and missing out on the priority seating rights for your Duel Runner's back seat, Amano."
Although Amano Rei already knew the reality of his young lady's beauty and kind heart, for some reason, Phoenis gave him a distinct feeling tonight—a feeling that no matter what mistake he made, Mother Phoenis would always embrace him with love.
Did something happen on the Wayne family's side with the young lady over the last few days?
Amano Rei mounted the Duel Runner, and Phoenis wrapped her arms tightly around his waist just the same.
This sensation?!
The expected softness like when Nangouin Sakuya sat in the back failed to manifest.
It was a sensation fully on par with Wanyuan You.
This was probably one of the very few shortcomings of his young lady.
No, perhaps it couldn't loosely be categorized as a shortcoming at all.
With the roaring ignition of the Duel Runner, Amano Rei carried Phoenis, hurtling through the night-shrouded streets of the Middle District.
"Amano, your driving technique is exceptionally good!" Phoenis called out against the wind from the back seat.
"Thank you for the compliment, Young Lady!"
"Are you interested in becoming my exclusive Duel Runner chauffeur? I'll pay you a high salary!"
"This is the absolute first time I've ever heard of a motorcycle having an exclusive chauffeur!"
"Hahaha, now you know~!"
From the residential complex where Lin Xingyao lived to the dormitory sector was a full thirty-minute journey.
Although the clock digits sat at exactly 10:00 PM, for the Middle District where night life was only just initializing, there was still a substantial volume of vehicles on the streets, so Amano Rei didn't dare to blast forward too quickly.
However, occasionally carrying a beautiful girl on a leisurely ride like this was a completely different tier of enjoyment.
Unfortunately, this enjoyable span of time did not endure for long.
As they rode, Amano Rei progressively detected that something was amiss.
Even though it was still early, the surrounding vehicles began to vanish in a bizarre, inexplicable fashion.
While the surrounding vehicles scaled down, the Duel Runner that had been trailing them from behind since a moment ago drew increasingly close.
The exact fraction of a second the roar of its engine drew level with his own, the black Duel Runner executed a sharp right turn, smashing violently into the side of Amano Rei's machine.
Fortunately, Amano Rei had maintained a high baseline of mental preparation, warily keeping an eye on this machine the entire time. He swiftly re-established his equilibrium, successfully avoiding a catastrophic wipe-out.
"Do you even know how to ride a motorcycle, you bastard?! Are you completely blind?!" Phoenis barked furiously from the back seat.
However, a highly sinister, cruel smile carved across the lips of the man on the black Duel Runner beneath his helmet visor.
"Young Lady, the opposition is doing this intentionally!" Amano Rei discovered that the exact millisecond after being struck by the man's machine, the dueling interface on his own Duel Runner initialized automatically.
A Turbo Duel?!
Wait... we're executing a Turbo Duel right inside the city grids?
You had to keep in mind that the Middle District within Eden didn't map onto the structural layout of Neo Domino City from the 5D's animated storyline.
In the anime's Neo Domino City, because the energy parameters of the entire city were driven entirely by Turbo Duels, the moment a Turbo Duel initialized on the streets, an emergency automated race track would generate across the grid, forcefully compelling all public vehicles to yield the right-of-way.
But the Middle District of Eden wouldn't step in to clear a path for a Turbo Duel inside the city streets.
According to the official regulations established within the Eden Tower, Turbo Duels were strictly mandated to occur exclusively on specialized circuits inside dedicated arenas; executing them on public streets was entirely forbidden.
Furthermore, initializing a Turbo Duel without securing his explicit compliance was incredibly bizarre.
This sensation was precisely like—
"A Shadow Duel!" Phoenis felt her footing being forcefully wrapped in a localized shroud of darkness.
Amano Rei's brow knit together tightly: "Forcefully initializing a Shadow Turbo Duel right inside the city streets? This bastard means to transform the entire metropolis into an active battlefield!"
To be perfectly frank, the physical and mental exhaustion of running back-to-back Shadow Duels delivered a severe doubling of his fatigue parameters.
But compared to being dragged into a Shadow Turbo Duel himself, the current configuration was infinitely worse.
The opposition had targeted Phoenis, dragging her exclusively into the Shadow Duel.
The person currently piloting the Duel Runner was him, but the target parameter initialized for the Shadow Turbo Duel was locked onto Phoenis.
Under these parameters, there was absolutely no way to play cards!
Deploying an illegal, out-of-game exploit... what an exceptionally despicable strategy.
"Phoenis, do you have any structural capability to pilot a Duel Runner?"
"I... I have absolutely zero experience!"
The situation grew exponentially more troublesome. To make matters worse, his personal "Moonlight Butterfly" model lacked an automated pilot convenience module.
Currently, a machine forcefully dragged into a Shadow Duel lacked the capacity to execute a manual stop.
If Phoenis lacked the capability to pilot the machine, and given that he couldn't easily deploy his Mind Hack skill onto Phoenis—doing so would cause his native physical body to lapse into complete unconsciousness and immediately crash off the motorcycle—they were trapped.
Within a Turbo Duel, if a machine suffered a wipe-out, the system automatically processed the event as an absolute defeat.
Right as Amano Rei was wracking his brain to compile a desperate counter-measure, a third roaring engine note forcefully breached the dark parameters of the field.
However, the vehicle entering the perimeter this time wasn't a secondary Duel Runner, but rather a black hyper-car.
Phoenis identified the vehicle at a single glance: "That's my second older brother's car!"
"Karl's?" Amano Rei's mind executed a hyper-accelerated calculation loop, instantly mapping out a borderline insane method to shatter the deadlock.
Currently piloting the open-top hyper-car, Karl accelerated to match the pace of the decelerating Amano Rei, maintaining a parallel alignment with the machine.
"Second Brother, why on earth did you route your movements here?!"
"I noted that you had pulled my student identification card from my stash, and feeling remarkably uneasy about your safety parameters, I purposefully set out to track your coordinates. It appears you've run directly into a severe complication, Phoenis! This Shadow Duel... it's undoubtedly the handiwork of the Puppeteer again!"
"Karl, bring the car closer!" Amano Rei bellowed against the wind.
"That voice... Amano Rei?!" Having failed to immediately identify Amano beneath his safety visor, a sudden flash of intense delight and shock crossed Karl's eyes.
"There is zero time to deploy a comprehensive explanation. Phoenis, listen closely to my inputs—the exact fraction of a second I launch myself onto Karl's car, you must find a way to maintain the stability of this machine at all costs."
"M-Me pilot the machine?! But I have absolutely zero baseline competency!"
"You don't need to navigate or steer; you simply need to grit your teeth and ensure the machine doesn't wipe out. One minute... no, thirty seconds is more than enough. I shall deploy my Mind Hack capability to relieve you!"
Swallowing hard in intense panic, Phoenis optimized her mental focus at breakneck speed.
"Understood, I shall execute my utmost efforts! I place absolute faith in you, Amano!"
Amano Rei accelerated the Duel Runner sharply right before launching his leap; executing this automated velocity increase ensured that even when his hands detached from the bars, the machine's forward momentum would carry it straight along a stable path for a brief window, leaving Phoenis with the necessary transition time to secure the handles.
Detecting Amano Rei's sudden acceleration, Karl—despite similarly lacking a complete grasp of the tactical logic—perfectly synchronized his movements, slamming his foot onto the accelerator to maintain a flawless parallel alignment between the black hyper-car and the Duel Runner.
Right before executing his leap, to anchor a double insurance policy for her survival, Amano Rei tore a card from his Side Deck box, sliding it firmly into Phoenis's card container.
"I'm coming over, Karl! Ensure you catch my landing path flawlessly!"
Riding along the high-velocity streets, Amano Rei launched his frame into a desperate leap toward Karl's open-top hyper-car.
"Amano Rei, you are an absolute maniac!"
Despite barking the criticism, Karl adjusted the vehicle's position with blindingly fast reaction speed, cleanly catching Amano Rei's landing trajectory with pinpoint precision.
Having successfully forced a landing into the passenger seat, Amano Rei's heart was racing at an unprecedented cadence. He felt exactly like Jackie Chan executing an absolute stunt sequence in an action film.
"Amano Rei, you bastard, why on earth did you abandon Phoenis entirely alone on that Duel Runner?!"
"I am moving to establish pilot control right now, Second Brother!"
Lacking a solitary second to deploy an explanation, Amano Rei lit up his wrist terminal. A brilliant golden light flared out against the darkness, tracing a high-velocity, shimmering trajectory through the air.
"Establish control? What exactly does that map onto? Furthermore, who gave you the structural authorization to address me as Second Brother?!"
"—'Mind Hack'——!!"
Amano Rei navigated through Phoenis's light crimson consciousness tunnel at absolute maximum velocity, seamlessly linking his awareness with her ego inside her mental chamber.
"Tag-team swap!!"
By the time Amano Rei's conscious awareness re-stabilized, his soul was back on the seat of the Duel Runner.
In this precise fraction of a second, Amano could clearly detect the young lady's hands—entirely drenched in perspiration from sheer panic—clinging to the handlebars with an iron grip.
You put in an exceptional effort to maintain the baseline, Phoenis!
Illuminated by the shadows of the night, the young lady's light crimson hair whipped violently against the howling gales of their transit.
Since the opposition had systematically converted the entire metropolis into a playground for a Shadow Duel, he could no longer afford to operate under any conservative constraints.
Amano Rei smoothly reached into Phoenis's card container, retrieving her native deck list along with the specialized Side Deck asset he had slide into her inventory right before jumping car.
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