Chapter 313: Noah, My Name is Noah
"What's going on!" Relying on his powerful, even superhuman, balance, Kaiba steadied himself without needing the handrail. He turned his head and shouted at Iso, who was gripping the handrail tightly with both hands,
"Stabilize the airship immediately!"
"Also, what is this? Who shut down the Duel System!"
"This is completely out of the ordinary! It's nothing like what was agreed upon!" Mokuba complained, his hands gripping the handrail tightly.
Because Hayato had paid 2000 Life Points earlier to Activate **Red Reboot**, his Platform had risen. To be in a suitable viewing area, the audience seats had also risen a section, positioning them between Kaiba and his two companions and Hayato. During the sudden tremor just now, Mokuba wasn't seated properly and fell from his seat, almost falling out of the audience seats.
"P-President!" Iso said, his voice slightly stuttering. "The pilot replied, saying that just now the airship's auto-navigation system made an automatic adjustment to the flight direction, deviating from the preset route."
"However, no one performed any actions on the airship, neither for shutting down the Duel System nor for correcting the auto-navigation system's course!"
Kaiba's expression changed. "Are you trying to say that the auto-navigation system arbitrarily tampered with the preset travel route?"
"Th-that's what it means." Iso adjusted the communicator by his ear, listened to the pilot's report through the earpiece, and continued, "Furthermore, the cockpit crew has already tried, but the modified flight route is locked and cannot be changed again. They speculate that a super powerful hacker likely invaded the airship's network."
"Damn it!"
This time, the voice wasn't Kaiba's, but Hayato's, who was still suspended in mid-air. "Hacking KaibaCorp's firewall is one thing, but to even interfere with the progress of a sacred duel is unforgivable!" With a perfect opening hand for his Present-Underworld Deck, he was just one card away from the Winning Move. At this moment, Hayato felt one with Kiryu, truly experiencing the frustration of a sure victory slipping away due to ridiculous Pulling the Plug.
Joey Wheeler shivered, looking at the anger on Hayato's face. "This is the first time Hayato has made such a terrifying expression. It's like a meat fanatic who fasted for a week, about to put a T-bone steak, cut and placed before him, into his mouth to enjoy, only for someone to take away the plate and cutlery along with it." Whether it was an illusion or not, Joey Wheeler's face seemed to become much more expressive as he said this.
"This Grouping Match before the semifinals is hereby suspended."
Kaiba, whose dueling addiction was slightly eased but not fully satisfied, announced loudly to those present, his already cold and arrogant face gloomy. Since arriving on the airship, the Duel Disk's virtual projection system had been taken over by the airship's large projection device. With the Duel System's power off, this Grouping Match could no longer continue.
Because the power was off, Hayato even had to jump from the Platform to the audience seats and slide down to the ground with everyone else using the audience seats' repair ropes.
"All participants, please return to your respective lounges for the time being. The Grouping Match will be reopened later," Iso said, adjusting the sunglasses on his nose. Although he had also been startled by the sudden incident, he forced himself to remain calm out of professional composure.
"Iso, take me to the Control Room," Kaiba said with a sour face. He then, leading the way with Iso, headed towards the Control Room, and Mokuba quickly followed.
"Should we follow them?" Joey Wheeler suggested, watching Kaiba leave. "Not knowing anything feels terrible. If we go, maybe we can help out a bit."
Hayato looked at the startled Tristan , Téa, Serenity Wheeler, and the others, and said, "Tristan , Duke Devlin, I'll leave the task of taking the ladies back to their rooms to you two."
"Oh, don't worry, leave Serenity Wheeler's protection to me!" X2
Duke Devlin and Tristan said in unison.
Joey Wheeler "gently" replied, "It's precisely because you'd act like this that I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my sister in your care!"
The group split into two. Yugi Mutou, Hayato, and Joey Wheeler followed Kaiba towards the Control Room, while Tristan , Duke Devlin, Téa, Serenity Wheeler, and Ishizu Ishtar returned to the lounge together. Although Ishizu Ishtar initially wanted to go to the Control Room with Hayato and the other two, considering that few of the ladies had self-defense capabilities—meaning duel capabilities—Hayato asked Ishizu Ishtar to stay and protect them.
Rushing to the Control Room, Hayato and the others saw a black spot appear on the horizon on the large screen in front of the Control Room, rapidly growing larger.
The airship's modified course seemed to be pointing directly at that black spot?
On the route map in front of the pilot, in the other direction from that unknown black spot, was a specially marked waypoint named "Devil's Island". That was the airship's original final destination for this voyage. Originally, Kaiba wanted to hold the Duel City finals and semifinals there, but now that the airship's route had been changed, who knows when they would arrive.
Kaiba, feeling quite frustrated about this, stood behind the nervous, sweating pilot and said sternly, "Still can't change it? Hmph!"
"S-sorry, President!" The pilot said, performing complex actions on the Control System, his fingers flying across it, but the airship's route still pointed directly at the mysterious black spot. "Changing to manual piloting failed too..."
"Something's not right, Older Brother." On the other side, Mokuba connected his laptop to the Control System. Lines of code flashed across his eyes. "The time difference in taking control of the airship's various control systems wasn't even a second. The firewall I personally compiled didn't do anything. Is this really something a human can do?"
Kaiba also had a solemn expression. Both brothers were true geniuses, but their talents leaned towards different fields based on their preferences. Compared to Kaiba, who excelled in research and strategic command, Mokuba's talent was mainly in the field of information technology and network expertise, where even Kaiba couldn't compare to Mokuba. Normally, the firewall Mokuba compiled couldn't be breached by any number of ordinary hackers, yet it couldn't even delay the invasion of this mysterious hacker for a single second?
"Not only that, President, I sent a distress signal towards Devil's Island," the pilot said, wiping away the sweat dripping down his face. "Devil's Island refused our signal access."
"It's not just the airship's control system; our communication has also been hijacked. Our current situation is just like an Isolated Manor in a mystery novel, cut off from all outside communication!"
"Clap, clap, clap."
In the Control Room, a round of applause suddenly rang out. The large screen that had been projecting the view from the front of the airship flickered with chaotic lines, and a person who was slightly unfamiliar yet somewhat recognizable appeared on the screen, smiling dismissively and applauding.
It was a young boy who looked no older than ten. Although his hair was vibrant green, unlike Kaiba's brown hair color, astonishingly, the boy's face was exactly like Kaiba's, as if carved from the same mold!?
"He looks exactly like Older Brother when he was little?!" Mokuba's eyes widened as he looked at Kaiba. "C-could it be—" "Older Brother, do you actually have a child?"
"Idiot, I'm only nineteen this year!" Even though it was his own younger brother, Kaiba chose to retort mercilessly for slandering his reputation like this. His eyes were fixed on the person on the screen. "You're the one who took control of the airship and wants to kill us, huh!"
Looking at the little boy on the screen who had a face identical to his own, Kaiba found it jarring no matter how he looked at it, especially since the guy's hair was green. Is that really a hair color a normal person would have?
Clearly, Kaiba still hadn't gotten used to the strange hairstyles and hair colors in this world.
"No, Seto, I wouldn't bear to kill you just like that. How boring would that be?" The boy had a mysterious smile on his face. "I just wanted to play an interesting game with you. But considering you're a maverick and likely wouldn't accept my invitation, I specifically took control of the entire airship."
"But the airship's firewall is really strong. I almost couldn't break through it." Saying this, the boy raised his finger and made a "fingertip universe" gesture. "So first, according to proper etiquette, I should introduce myself, right?"
"My name is Noah, Noah Kaiba. I am a being who surpasses everything about you. Seto, you are merely my substitute."
"Kaiba, Noah." Kaiba repeated the name, his expression darkened, his tone filled with anger. "Spouting nonsense, how dare you play such a joke on me!"
"I'm not joking, Kaiba, I'll prove it to you right away." Noah's face was still full of smiles. "But before that, let me invite you, Seto, and all the duelists to my side."
As Noah's voice temporarily fell silent, the screen returned to the view from the front of the airship. Only then did everyone see that during the call, the airship had closed the distance significantly with the black spot on the horizon, and the true form of the black spot was finally revealed.
It was clearly a massive military fortress that had just emerged from beneath the water. It was fully equipped with a runway, anti-aircraft guns, radar and sonar, missile launch bays, and more, truly a mobile war fortress!