# Chapter 188: Earthquake, Tsunami, Volcanic Eruption, and Game Players
Regrettably, Hayato's idea of "summoning all Monsters in advance and sweeping through" ultimately fell apart. The artillery fire of the VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon advanced no more than ten meters before the giant Robot's form began to gradually Disperse.
"You can only use Cards when you Enter Battle Phase, and Monsters disappear ten seconds after leaving Battle. This setting is a bit too stupid, like a Kamen Rider having to run up to a Monster with their bare body before transforming."
Hayato watched helplessly as the VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon he had painstakingly Summoned turned into nothingness, reverting back into five VWXYZ Series Cards. He returned them, along with the Armed Dragon LV3 in his hand, to his Deck.
He had actually wanted to Summon Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon just now to speed up their advance.
"If everyone could Summon Monsters anytime and anywhere, there wouldn't be any Players in this Online Game!" Keipei held a Card he had picked up from the Graveyard and placed it in Hayato's hand. "Hey, these are the Gains from defeating the Monster."
Taking the Card, it depicted several Gold Coins, and the Card name was "15". It seemed to be the Currency used in this game, with a quantity of fifteen.
"If there's Currency, it means there's some way to spend the Currency to get something in this game, right?" Joey Wheeler rubbed his Chin, thinking, but he quickly exposed the fact that he wasn't suited to be a strategist. "Given this world background, could we exchange them for Beautiful beast-ear maids?"
"Even if you could, what's the point? Haven't you noticed yet, Joey Wheeler?" As Hayato spoke, he made a motion of taking something from his chest. Then, to Joey Wheeler's astonished Expression, Hayato's hand actually passed directly through his clothes. "The clothes we're wearing are just Textures created by that Game Pod after scanning us sitting inside the pod."
"Meaning?" Joey Wheeler also tried it and found that the clothes on his body seemed non-existent. When he tried to grab them with his hand, he grabbed empty air, clipping right through.
"Meaning, you can forget about that 18X Content." As Hayato spoke, he suddenly stopped walking, his gaze fixed on the Forest. Following Hayato's gaze, Yugi also saw what he was looking at.
Hidden among the bushes, a small Spirit the size of a Finger was secretly observing Hayato and the others. It had four wings on its back and wore a small Spell robe. When it noticed Hayato and Yugi looking its way, it seemed startled, trembling all over before flying away into the distance.
"Fairies in games often symbolize Clues and Treasure, right?" Joey Wheeler's face broke into an excited smile, clearly already immersed in the game. "Yosh! Let's hurry and catch it!"
Joey Wheeler took the lead and ran ahead alone. The other three had no choice; they couldn't just let him chase by himself, so they followed suit and entered the Jungle together.
Thanks to being in the game and thus not feeling physical fatigue, Joey Wheeler jogged along the Fairy's flight path. After about five or six minutes of advancement, his vision suddenly cleared up. Emerging from the dense Jungle, he saw that the sky outside was surprisingly bright, completely different from the scenery inside the Jungle.
And Hayato, Yugi, and Keipei quickly caught up to the stopped Joey Wheeler.
"Was the Forest dark because it was wrapped in Mist? No, I remember seeing the starry sky," Yugi analyzed. "So, the area outside the Forest and inside the Forest are two different worlds? If that Fairy hadn't led us just now, we probably wouldn't have been able to get out, right?"
"Speaking of the Fairy." Joey Wheeler looked around. "I was clearly following it the whole time, but the moment I came out of the Forest, it disappeared."
"Maybe that Fairy was just an NPC responsible for guiding us," Keipei looked into the distance. "Look over there, there's a Town."
In the dense forest surrounded by mountains, there was a small-scale Town. Perhaps because they were in the game, even from a long distance away, Hayato could easily see the people moving around in the Town.
"First, there were Zombie Monsters that were easy to defeat, and after completing the Novice Quest, we've arrived at the Novice Village?" Hayato tried to Activate a Card, wanting to Summon a few Monsters for transportation, but because they weren't in a Battle state, although the Card was drawn, he couldn't successfully Summon it.
"This path looks quite long, let's keep moving," he said, putting the Card away helplessly. Hayato led the way, and incidentally asked Keipei, "Keipei, first tell me what Information you know about this game. For example, besides the Battle Phase, under what other circumstances can't we Summon Monsters, and how is the Battle Phase triggered?"
"Hmm, besides the Battle Phase, there don't seem to be many other restrictions, right? And you can activate the Battle state just by conflicting with any target. After all, this game is considered an accessory to Duel Monsters. If the people playing the game can't enjoy Duel Monsters, it won't have enough attraction."
Hayato nodded understandingly, not asking anything else, his gaze fixed on the distant Town, seemingly deep in thought.
After walking for a long time, the four finally arrived at this "Novice Village". The overall Architectural Style of this Town leaned towards the Egyptian style. The pedestrians on the street wore robes and headscarves, and the streets were filled with Merchants selling Egyptian-style Jewelry and Trinkets, as well as some Strange Food. Joey Wheeler even saw someone selling Snakes and Lizards.
Even more surprising was that although half of the Town was surrounded by dense Jungle, on the other side of the Town, the Forest seemed to be blocked by something, unable to spread forward. Instead, there was a dry and hot Desert, with hot wind carrying sand and gravel occasionally blowing in.
As they walked, Yugi noticed a piece of Merchandise being sold on the street that was a bit unusual. "Hayato, Joey Wheeler, come take a look at this."
"Huh, what is it?" Joey Wheeler walked away from a Merchant's stall run by someone who looked like a frog, refusing the Medicine he was promoting. Not only was he not injured at all, but he didn't even have a single cent on him, so he couldn't buy anything even if he wanted to.
The owner of the card stall looked like an Ox, with extremely thick hair. "Handsome guy, come on in and pick one out, take it if you like it?"
Walking up to the stall where Yugi was, Joey Wheeler's Eyes went wide. "Oh oh oh! These are, aren't these all Super Rare Cards!"
In front of him were rows of Ritual Monster Cards, from Demise, King of Armageddon, Ruin, Queen of Oblivion to The Legendary Flame Lord, Fusionist. They were all quite powerful, Rare Cards. Joey Wheeler even found Relinquished, which Pegasus had used. He wondered if KaibaCorp had paid Pegasus the Copyright Fee for secretly writing the data for this Card into the game.
However, the price marked below each Card was also quite "powerful". The most expensive one, Relinquished, was priced as high as 10,000 Gold Coin, and even the cheapest, Skull Knight, was priced at 2000 Gold Coin.
Among their group, the richest person, Hayato, only had 15 Gold Coin. These Cards were clearly just put out to make people covet them.
The owner mechanically repeated the same words: "Handsome guy, come on in and pick one out, take it if you like it?"
Hayato glanced around, drew several Cards from his Deck in advance and held them in his hand, walking forward with a smile on his face. "Oh my, how embarrassing."
Saying that, to the unexpected gazes of Yugi and the other two, Hayato grabbed the cloth pad under the Cards, bundled up all the Cards, and ran wildly towards the distance, shouting, "Nigerundayo~~!!"
Players, also known as the Fourth Great Calamity, dare to try anything as long as there are benefits, and there are even those who engage in suicidal behavior.
And that's why I've always felt that Spielberg's "Ready Player One" didn't quite understand Players from the beginning. Coupled with the entire film being full of Western movie references, it's more fitting to call it "A love letter to Western movie enthusiasts" rather than "A love letter to players".
(End of this chapter)