## Chapter 319: Speculation in the Virtual World
Although theoretically, Hayato's appearance after entering the Virtual World was merely a false image composed of data, and all the items and decorations on his body were just unusable texture models.
This was evident from the fact that no matter how Hayato pressed the buttons on the Duel Disk in his hand, he couldn't play the BGM stored inside it or Kaiba's lines that Mokuba had secretly recorded for him.
He had just been thinking about using Kaiba's classic line, "You're a third-rate Duelist with a fourth-rate Deck," to mock the late Chikuzen Ohoka during their Duel.
"Hey, Kobayashi Hayato." Marik's voice rang out from the Millennium Ring that Hayato was holding. Perhaps it was because some time had passed since the Dark Game, or perhaps Hayato had absorbed some of Marik's energy when he used the Millennium Ring's power to release Chikuzen Ohoka's soul. In any case, the kid seemed to be in decent spirits now.
The five pendants of the Millennium Ring, which possessed the ability of direction guidance, floated up and pointed in one direction. Hayato followed the guidance of the Millennium Ring, walking along a riverbank that cut through the jungle, and said impatiently, "If you have something useless to say, just spit it out."
"What I want to say is, how long do you plan to keep me locked up?" Marik's tone was quite annoyed. "You might be able to fool my silly sister, and you might be able to fool the Pharaoh and his vessel, but you can't fool me, who's stuck inside the Millennium Ring. You could actually release me from the Millennium Ring anytime, couldn't you? After all, my other self only used me as the stake for the Dark Game."
From Hayato's words, Regular Marik finally understood the reality that "he had a dark personality born from pain, and that dark personality had sold him out." Along with this, Marik also finally understood the true cause of his father's death back then.
Although Ishizu Ishtar and Rishid had tried hard to keep this secret from Marik and prevent him from knowing, Hayato felt that since Dark Marik had already seized control of the body, it no longer mattered whether the truth was concealed from Regular Marik.
"How about it, want to release me? My sister has always been like that, saying cruel things but being more sensitive inside than anyone else." Marik in the Millennium Ring instigated. Separated from his body and sealed within the Millennium Ring, Marik's tone seemed much more normal than his past self.
Hayato gave the incessantly noisy Marik a cold laugh. "Then give me a reason to release you? It's true, legally speaking, you're a complete mentally ill person, and even if you killed someone, it wouldn't be considered a crime. But I know very well that you're not a good person either."
Although Dark Marik was more malicious than Regular Marik, Dark Marik was still Marik himself. His dark thoughts didn't appear out of nowhere; neither of the two personalities was a good person. Even with the factor of being misled by Shadi, the "Millennium Director," it was an undeniable fact that Marik established the International Criminal Organization Ghouls and committed many crimes.
"Don't be so cold, brother-in-law."
Hayato stumbled, almost falling. After regaining his balance, he vigorously shook the Millennium Ring in his hand. "Who's your brother-in-law?!"
"Heh, you think just because you keep calling me 'Three-Year-Old,' I'm actually a three or four-year-old child? The gaze my sister gives you is clearly off, even a pig-headed person who's completely oblivious to feelings could tell. Not to mention she even gave you her ace card, Exchange of the Spirit."
As he spoke, Marik became quite certain of his deduction. "I am Marik Ishtar, the blood brother of Ishizu Ishtar. Besides me, my sister has no other relatives, and in all these years, I've never seen her have any close friends."
"Nobody understands my sister's thoughts better than I do!"
Hayato didn't know how to refute Marik's words and stiffly changed the subject. "Alright, alright, that's enough. I have serious business to attend to, I don't have time to chat idly with you."
Following the direction indicated by the Millennium Ring, Hayato continued forward.
Hayato spoke with such seriousness that it piqued Marik's curiosity. "Even when facing a God, you didn't have such a serious expression. So, what exactly are you looking for, brother-in-law?"
Hearing Marik ask, Hayato was glad his attention was diverted and started talking to Marik in the Millennium Ring. Of course, to an outsider, it would just look like Hayato was talking to himself like someone with delusions.
"Compared to others, you, as a holder, or rather, one of the former holders of a Millennium Item, should be clearer about the existence of Card Spirits within Duel Monsters cards, right?"
Marik nodded, looking behind Hayato. Behind him, an impressively large number of Card Spirits resided on Hayato. "I haven't seen many on other people, but you definitely have a lot."
"After all, the existence of Card Spirits requires the consumption of a special kind of duel energy generated during Duels when the will of both players collide. The more powerful a Duelist is, the more likely it is for Card Spirits to exist around them. However, even if Card Spirits awaken, unless a Duelist has a certain aptitude, ordinary people simply cannot see their existence."
Marik nodded, then paused when he saw Rainbow Kuriboh perched on top of Hayato's head, and suddenly understood Hayato's meaning. "You mean, in this world, Card Spirits, whose very existence is almost like being in another dimension, have manifested?!"
"Since Card Spirits are as relaxed in this world as if they've returned to their hometown, can't I make a hypothesis?"
"It's an unquestionable fact that this world was artificially created, and it's also a fact that this world is connected to the Internet. But who's to say that this world can't also be built within the world of Card Spirits simultaneously?"
As Hayato spoke, he suddenly looked up into the air. "You're spying on me, aren't you, Noah Kaiba!"
In an unknown space, Noah, sitting on a floating chair like a king overlooking several screens, was leisurely watching the Duels of everyone who had entered the Virtual World. He considered himself a creator god-like existence within this Virtual World. Although Hayato and the others were quite powerful Duelists, he felt it was too beneath him to personally take action against them.
Therefore, aside from Kaiba, who was wandering around in a jungle searching for his whereabouts, Noah arranged The Big Five as opponents for the others. However...
Noah glanced at a gray screen beside him. It was a program he used for monitoring Chikuzen Ohoka's status, but after Hayato defeated Chikuzen Ohoka, this program completely failed.
And as Hayato defeated Chikuzen Ohoka, the other four of The Big Five also one after another met their respective defeats.
Crushed by Yugi Mutou using Dark Magician and endless Spell Cards, shattered by the combo attacks of the Harpie Lady, destroyed by Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and completely sealed by the Gravekeeper's monsters.
Although The Big Five had been boasting about making Yugi Mutou and the others pay and acting fearless, it didn't exceed Noah's expectations. They didn't even defeat a single Duelist; they were worse than trash.
"Hmph, I expected it. There's indeed a reason why these guys were eliminated by Seto. They're just trash that's useless except for being old, not even qualified to be pawns." Watching the "Four Big Five" being defeated by their respective opponents, Noah sneered. His demeanor was exactly the same as Kaiba's.
Feeling annoyed, Hayato, the first person to defeat one of The Big Five, attracted Noah's attention. He frowned and replayed Hayato's previous battle record against Chikuzen Ohoka, shocked by the power of the Cactus Fighter infinite combo Hayato used.
"Such a combo is too unfair. It must be banned." Sneering, Noah closed his eyes and began to modify the duel rules within the Virtual World, manually banning the usage of Cactus Fighter.
Although he couldn't defeat Hayato's combo, Noah, relying on his status as the game administrator, shamelessly directly banned Hayato's card. Also because of this, Noah perfectly missed Hayato and Marik's conversation.
Having just finished modifying the duel rules, Noah smugly moved his gaze back to Hayato, thinking about whether he should give the failed "Four Big Five" another opportunity to defeat Hayato. Just then, Hayato suddenly looked towards Noah's screen.
"What!" Noah was startled, shocked by Hayato suddenly looking towards the screen, and subconsciously leaned his head back against the chair. But immediately after, Noah realized that after he moved the camera, Hayato was still facing the original direction, and he realized he had been completely bluffed by Hayato.
"Just an ordinary person, yet he dares to bluff me, dares to deceive me, who is a God!?"
"Unforgivable! I must inflict divine punishment!"
With a thought, the Four Big Five, who were extremely fearful and afraid of Noah inflicting punishment after their failure, found that a new command from Noah had appeared in their minds—at all costs, completely block everyone else who was trying to gather outside a certain range.
Noah decided that before completely defeating Seto Kaiba, he would first get rid of Hayato, this guy whose mind was full of dangerous thoughts.
He himself would personally bestow divine punishment upon Kobayashi Hayato!
With a thought from Noah, he, like an omnipotent God, instantly disappeared from this unknown space.
But the second after Noah's trace disappeared, a new person sat down on the chair he was sitting on before and began flipping through Hayato's past duel records with great interest.