The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　It condenses the power of darkness into a long whip, which strikes the soul with a single blow, plunging people into a cycle of pain and ecstasy.

　It harbored a deep-seated desire to wield its whip with abandon. Unfortunately, it never had the chance.

　This always makes it feel very regretful. This time is no exception.

　With just a light lash of the whip, the duel ended just like that, leaving no sense of satisfaction whatsoever.

　With that thought in mind, LadyDevimon walked toward Dark in her high heels.

　The battle ended, and the black mist dissipated.

　Dark withdrew his dueling field, his gaze towards Dulles slightly apologetic. Dulles was indeed an extremely strong duelist; in a direct confrontation, he might not necessarily win easily.

　But it was precisely because he realized this that he chose to win through a surprise attack.

　The "Nightmare Space" of the "Dream Demon" can distort space and replace the location of itself and the target.

　In the current rules of magical duels, this is undoubtedly a surprising move that can break through the opponent's life points unexpectedly.

　Dulles believed he was relatively safe, surrounded by the "ghostly maze".

　Unexpectedly, something could bypass the ghost wall and directly change his position. He had no pre-existing plan to deal with this kind of move. So, although he immediately realized something was wrong after being switched, he didn't react in any way and was instantly killed by LadyDevimon's whip.

　As for his "Hundred Ghosts Picture" that he thought would scare away his opponents... it's nothing but a joke.

　Even if the opponent doesn't have the ability to easily see through the "Hundred Ghosts Picture" like Dark, this kind of magic card won't have a second effect once it's used.

　Unless his opponent doesn't have the habit of investigating his opponents' information.

　Or perhaps he can create magic cards with similar effects, but containing real monsters, triggering the "what is real is illusory, and what is illusory is real" buff, making it impossible for the opponent to distinguish between reality and illusion.

　Otherwise, once this magic card is used, it's basically useless. During the preliminary rounds, opponents won't have time to gather information about him. But once he advances from the preliminary rounds, things will be completely different in the semi-finals.

　Dulles always pinned his hopes on such falsehoods, making it difficult for him to go far.

　Dark commanded the Coffin of Death to open its lid and release the Gap Ghost.

　The "Iron Wall" of the "Grim Reaper's Coffin" can only last for sixty seconds, which is not enough to trap the "Gap Ghost" for long.

　If Dulles manages to get through these two rounds, his "Ghost Pot Doll" will be strengthened, and "Gap Ghost" will break free, instantly increasing the unpredictability of the duel.

　Therefore, Dark would never allow him to drag things out until then. This led to the subsequent "decapitation strike" tactic.

　"Tough luck! Tough luck!"

　Once Dulles recovered from his "pain," he immediately reverted to his usual boisterous self.

　He may not look mature at all, but his magical abilities are genuinely high.

　I wonder which mysterious crevice these archmages came from.

　When shaking hands after the match, Darko said, "Thanks, this point was very important to me. I will definitely carry this point with me and go on to qualify for the next round."

　"Hey! Why are you talking like I'm going to be eliminated in the auditions?" Dulles commented, expressing strong dissatisfaction.

　After releasing his grip, Dak patted him on the shoulder, smiled meaningfully, and then turned and left.

　He was just saying it offhand, of course; he just found Dulles quite amusing and decided to make a casual joke. But as he turned away, he couldn't help but sigh.

　This

　The preliminary rounds are getting harder and harder.

　Leaving Dulles, Dak continued deeper into the haunted house.

　It has to be said that the mechanisms in this haunted house were indeed terrifying. Although he wasn't scared, he couldn't help but think, "I'll never come back again."

　The contestants gathered in this giant haunted house, aside from those who came to test their courage, were mostly duelists who could effectively use this terrifying environment to enhance themselves.

　Moreover, many of these contestants possess extremely malicious tastes. Sometimes, they deliberately summon magical spirits, impersonating ghosts and monsters to scare the audience and the contestants.

　If a contestant is frightened, they will immediately challenge them to a duel.

　Because such contestants would definitely be very uncomfortable in a haunted house environment.

　But if the opponent remains unmoved by their intimidation, then they should carefully consider whether to launch a challenge or turn and run.

　After all, there are still quite a few players hovering around the qualifying line.

　Even those contestants who are currently ranked around 200 or 300, if they continue to work hard, have a chance to break into the top 128.

　Once they qualify, they'll be in the "world's top 100".

　Although the World Cup does not rank the qualifying teams, there are always off-field organizations eyeing this opportunity and creating player ability ratings.

　Once you achieve the honor of being among the "world's top 100", all sorts of things, both desirable and undesirable, will come rushing in.

　As long as you seize the opportunity, you can turn your life around.

　Many mages possess very strong self-confidence. In fact, mages who lack self-confidence will not go far.

　Therefore, some mages blame their lack of strength on factors such as insufficient resources.

　Then they will feel that as long as they obtain enough resources, they can become stronger.

　Being among the "world's top 100" is their bargaining chip for acquiring resources.

　Using this year's World Cup as a springboard, we can look forward to performing even better in next year's World Cup.

　There are actually many mages who share similar ideas.

　Dark didn't think much of it at first and inadvertently scared away two duelists.

　After discovering the problem, they immediately changed their approach. They then successfully attracted a player.

　—Easy win!

　After winning his second duel in the haunted house, Dark immediately realized that this was a rare treasure.

　There were quite a few contestants gathered in this giant haunted house.

　Moreover, the contestants who try to scare people are generally weak and very easy to deal with.

　Furthermore, it's pitch black here, so sound and light don't travel very far.

　If the "illumination spell" is dimmed a little, the opponent will basically not be able to see his face, and therefore will have no way to identify him.

　Information spreads very slowly here.

　It doesn't mean that everyone in the vicinity will fear or avoid it just because there was a duel.

　To attract attention from one's opponents, all it takes is a little bit of acting skill. Dac, having studied "An Actor Prepares," considers himself fairly adept at this…

　So he acted quickly.

　First, use the "Eye of Truth" to find your target.

　Then quickly approach, quickly intimidate, lure out the target, and engage in a duel. After winning the duel, immediately seek out the next opponent.

　The strategy is to win quickly and decisively, without any unnecessary delays. Surprisingly, the speed at which they accumulate points is quite fast!

　"No wonder Dulles was able to get 68th place; he's got a knack for finding ways to rack up points."

　"But I'm not bad either."

　While counting his rankings, Dak quickly racked up points.

　As the competition progresses, the difficulty of racking up points will only increase, making it harder to find a quick way to score points like in this haunted house.

　Therefore, before the two points arrive, he must accumulate as many points as possible in order to further improve his margin for error.

　One o'clock, one-thirty, two o'clock. "Quick, the duel, let's begin!"

　Before 2 o'clock arrived, Dark was caught by a contestant. He noticed that the contestant was talking a lot, so he suddenly looked up and urged him to hurry up.

　The player had just taken out his scorecard and hadn't even reacted when Dark held up his scorecard in front of him as well.

　Immediately afterwards, a wave of dueling swept in.

　The player was forced to accept it before realizing that Dark's ranking was a little high.

　"Needle grass (a type of plant)."

　The competition rules for the preliminary rounds are "open for all".

　As long as the duel arena is connected before the time limit, the result of this duel will be recorded in the competition.

　Just three minutes later, Darko happily earned another point.

　He glanced one last time at his distraught opponent, who was nearly kneeling down, and felt a pang of guilt.

　But that's how cruel the world of duels is.

　While the current dueling environment isn't too bad, he should get used to it as soon as possible. With that thought, he finally withdrew his apologetic gaze and turned to walk out of the haunted house.

　At this moment, his back view was somewhat... well, there was nothing there.

　Two o'clock has passed, and the players' scorecards are locked, meaning there will be no further changes to their scores.

　And the points leaderboard has finally been fixed.

　After nearly an hour and a half of being "hunted," Dark earned a total of fifteen points.

　This brought his total points to 165. And his ranking improved dramatically, from 62nd to... 52nd!

　Emmm...

　Indeed, they only moved up ten places and did not return to the top fifty.

　"It seems that the top 100 players share similar thoughts with me."

　"While others rest, I work hard; while others work hard, I work even harder."

　"But this also means that if I don't work hard to improve my score during this period, I'm afraid I'll be far behind when I wake up tomorrow morning."

　"So that hour and a half of hard work was not in vain, but was very crucial."

　As Dak walked outside the haunted house, he saw people still going in and couldn't help but smile helplessly.

　It's already 2 a.m., and there are still people coming to the haunted house to test their courage. How are they going to get up at 8 a.m. tomorrow?

　Oh, the audience doesn't need to get up early. That's good then.

　2:05 AM.

　Dak meets Sofia at the "Ghost Bar".

　But the latter was already asleep in the booth.

　There was also a half-empty bottle of wine-flavored grape juice on the table.

Chapter 1514 Darkdemon's Time Management Skills (5k)

　Dak walked to Sophia's side and nodded slightly to the waiter who had brought him there.

　The waiter smiled, winked at him, and then quietly slipped away.

　But she disappeared from Dark's sight for only half a second before suddenly returning, looking delighted.

　Dark immediately realized he had been recognized and felt helpless.

　The shops in Duel City are all very legitimate. Thanks to the city's extensive network of security cameras, security is relatively guaranteed.

　This ghost bar doesn't even sell alcohol, precisely to prevent people from getting drunk and causing trouble.

　But some people were so tired after playing all day that they finally found a place to sit down and fell asleep as soon as they lay down.

　There were several other spectators like Sofia in the bar. The bar staff, following instructions, didn't wake them immediately, but instead took care of them and prevented strangers from approaching.

　However, Sofia mentioned that she had a companion who would arrive after 2 PM, and she also included a photo.

　The waiter brought Dak here based on a photo, but didn't recognize him at first. It was only after a colleague pointed it out that he suddenly realized who he was.

　—She's clearly not a die-hard fan of Darko Dimon; she's more of a casual fan.

　However, being recognized by one person is equivalent to being recognized by the whole room.

　Dak turned his head slightly and indeed found many waiters peeking around.

　He simply sat down, picked up the menu, and ordered a late-night snack.

　Dinner was at 6:30 PM, and it's already 2 AM. I must be hungry.

　He had heard that not eating after dinner and going straight to sleep on an empty stomach could help with weight loss.

　But he doesn't need to lose weight at all, and he's still developing, so of course he can eat whatever he wants.