[68], Playmaker swarmed his field to co-link "Security Dragon" with "Gouki The Solid Ogre" to activate the former's effect.

He summoned another "Booster", using it to make a second Link Summon of "Coolant Hydradrive".

Yusaku stated Duelists were also treated as tools, and walked away. She revealed herself to be "Ghost Gal", who accompanied by Akira who proceeded to entrap and torture Playmaker believing him to be responsible for Skye's condition, despite Playmaker and Ai's claims of innocence and that they were looking for an anti-virus, Varis appeared and claimed that he would challenge Playmaker for Ai. [69], Playmaker mentioned to Ai that Specter may have been the person Earth was based upon.

Using the latter's effect, Playmaker quickly summoned "Cyberse Magician". When first informed about a hacker named "Playmaker" who was defeating Hanoi members, Varis initially suspected Playmaker was an agent from SOL Technologies but rejected the idea because SOL would act more publicly and dismissed Playmaker.

Despite having 8000 ATK, Bohman removed a counter from "Perfectron Hydradrive Dragon" to reduce the damage he'd take to zero, and have his monster protected from destruction. Playmaker was visibly troubled by Blue Maiden's defeat at the hands of Bohman. "The Arrival Cyberse" went to destroy "Firewall Dragon Darkfluid", whose counter was removed to negate that effect. He also reminded Playmaker had friends to protect. Kolter showed that Yusaku's enemies fled through the restricted area, and showed a location under LINK VRAINS, and an unknown program Yusaku identified to be an Ignis program.

Instead, he came to motivate him but Playmaker didn't give a straight answer. The Knight took the first turn and swiftly Summoned "Cracking Dragon". Nevertheless, Yusaku managed to track her down with Ai's help, and followed her to the Duel Club, where Naoki caught up to him. Varis showed it, indeed, was "Mirror Force", but "Spin-Headed Behemoth" shifted all of Playmaker's monsters to Attack Position. Yusaku and Ai saw the person casted some glitter, causing Makoto to fall asleep and fall off the cliff, but was saved by George Gore. Playmaker knew that was kind of a monster that could attack him directly if he had a monster with the matching Attribute, and suspected Bohman played the same deck. Later, Yusaku found a digital card of "Borreload Dragon", and underneath, an image of Varis.

Skye asked for some coffee and a hot dog, though she expressed her doubt that Yusaku would get more customers that day. Playmaker thought that Varis had inflicted more damage this way, else the ATK of "Plumbum Trident" would've been halved. Playmaker proceeded by banishing the FIRE "Proxy F Magician" to send "Gussari @Ignister" to the GY.

[72], He simply stated if Varis started hostilities, the situation would simply escalate. Yusaku also seems very protective of Theodore following the incident with Shepherd, going on solo missions if he believes it may be a trap. Faust declared he would obtain Ignis on his next turn, but Playmaker hoped there was still a way to turn things around. Yusaku pointed out Kolter won't get many customers at that place, but Kolter assured him the famous coast was named Stardust Road, known for the luminous plankton that rarely gather at night, and thought the person living near the coast may have seen that.

Ai apologized to Playmaker for his fault that they have been pushed into a corner. Playmaker agreed Kolter's promises then clenched his fist, and screamed, as he braced himself for his next move. [84], The Gore Link Summoned "Dinowrestler Terra Parkourio", and summoned "Dinowrestler Systegosaur", whose effect allowed him to set the stage "World Dino Wrestling". In fact, Kolter's Link Monster caused the ATK gain of "Decode Talker" to be reversed, making it so that it lost 1000 ATK.

Furthermore, "Decode Talker" lost 500 ATK, and as Playmaker was to take that much damage, he tributed "Codebreaker Zero Day" to negate that effect and destroy "Codebreaker Virus Swordsman". Ai admitted he could not predict what his copies would do, but he reminded that they would act similar to him.

Ai realized that Varis' dragon was the counter for his Link Spell, for Varis was the most worried one about it, and Ai failed to anticipate that. Despite Ai's skepticism, Kolter swore to help in finding Soulburner. Thus, Playmaker tried to prevent both sides from attacking for three turns. This also means that Yusaku has the best Duel record among all the main protagonists, as his only losses took place prior to the beginning of the series when he was a young child.