LINK VRAINS LINK VRAINS ( " Rinku Vureinzu " ) , standing for " Link Virtual Reality Artificial Intelligence Network System " , is the Cyberspace that Virtual Reality Duels take place in the " Yu - Gi - Oh ! VRAINS " anime . It is described as " a cyberspace constructed with the latest technology " . Duelists use D - Board s to Duel and are used to ride the Data Storm . Some Duels conducted here are done so under the Speed Duel rules instead of the Master Rules . The Data Storm disappeared five years prior to the beginning of the story , and reappeared under unknown circumstances when Playmaker challenged a Knight of Hanoi to a Duel . When a Duelist is in LINK VRAINS , their physical body is enshrouded in a blue sphere . Inside LINK VRAINS , a mysterious hacker group that hacks via Dueling has appeared : The Knights of Hanoi . Their goal is to destroy the " AI World " known as Cyberse that exists somewhere in the depths of the Network . Duel Interface . The Duel interface possess a high - tech appearance . Cards are generally hidden and only become visible when the player is making a move , and cards that are dropped will disappear and reappear as necessary . If a card with multiple effects is activated , a selection appears and rotates upon the options available until the user declares their chosen effect . Avatars . While in LINK VRAINS , Duelists can take avatar forms . While in these avatars , they can also use pseudonyms . Because of this , the Duelist ' s real identities usually are unknown . Avatar forms can also give the Duelists special abilities such as forming energy whips . The use of avatars is optional , as some Duelists like Go Onizuka opt to forgo them . Avatars can also be non - humanoid , such as with the case of Frog , Pigeon , and Eagle . It is also possible to have duplicate avatars , as seen when multiple individuals copied " Playmaker ' s " appearance to impersonate him , and when Emma Bessho assumed " Blue Angel ' s " appearance to lure " Playmaker " into LINK VRAINS . On the other hand , some avatars do not seem to be available for public use , as Go Onizuka had to seek help from SOL Technology to get the Knight of Hanoi avatar in order to lure Playmaker out . Events . LINK VRAINS was filled with a wind which Duelists used to Duel and ride D - Board ' s in Speed Duels . However it disappeared along with peoples memories of it . Inside the wind was said to contain another world called Cyberse . At some point following the disappearance of Cyberse , the data material which was taken and placed into the network had been reduced . This resulted in a reduction in the network ' s efficiency by more than 30 % . LINK VRAINS became a place where the top Duelists and Charisma Duelist s went . Master Duels took the place of Speed Duels due to the absence of Data Storms . At one point during Duels which involved GO and Blue Angel , the Knights of Hanoi attacked with " Cracking Dragon " . They begun to attack users which resulted in accounts being deleted . Playmaker appeared and saved Blue Angel from an attack . Ai , who was taken as a hostage by Playmaker , unlocked data material from Cyberse to bring back the wind and Speed Duels . Playmaker then commenced a Duel against the Knight . After defeating the Knight of Hanoi , Playmaker became famous and widely regarded LINK VRAINS ' hero . Multiple reporters such as Frog and Pigeon attempted to find him to get a scoop , but they only found several " Playmaker " impersonators . At the same time SOL and Hanoi became determined to capture Playmaker in order to recover Ai . The Data Storm Ai started remained behind , but Speed Duels were not allowed so anyone attempting them had their accounts suspended . At one point , Yusaku was able to see and sense Revolver within the network while not logged in . Wanting to take on Playmaker for taking his spotlight , GO entered the network disguised as a Knight of Hanoi only for Playmaker to see through the disguise . As himself , Go Dueled Playmaker but suffered defeat . Blue Angel was seen within LINK VRAINS and was turning down Duels from other challengers . She landed on a building and challenged Playmaker to a Duel in front of the public . Shortly after , Specter , pretending to be a fan , said to Blue Angel that he wished for her to beat Playmaker and sent the " Dark Angel " card into her before disappearing . Blue Angel ' s memory seemed to have been erased afterwards . Thanks to Ai , Playmaker entered into the network to Duel a Knight , however it was Blue Angel . Playmaker accused Ai of tricking him , however he said there was a faint sign of Hanoi in her deck due to the presence of " Dark Angel " . The two begun their Duel . Blue Angel was quickly able to reduce Playmaker ' s LP thanks to her Trickstar deck , however as the Duel continued after she drew " Dark Angel " , Hanoi ' s influence tried to take over , only for Blue Angel to resist several times . Upon being forced into a pinch , Blue Angel looked at her hand and finally fell victim to " Dark Angel " . Her personality changed and begun screaming with pain and tears in her eyes . Playmaker quickly won the Duel to stop Blue Angel taking mental damage , knocking her into a coma as a result . After Blue Angel was infected by the Hanoi virus , the network became more busy . Blue Angel also suffered criticism over social media . At some point , Ghostgirl turned LINK VRAINS into a trap for Playmaker . Ghost Girl later entered LINK VRAINS as Blue Angel in disguise and called out to Playmaker . Playmaker followed despite knowing it was a trap . Upon entering , he knew that the " Blue Angel " he was following was a fake and was then trapped . The trap dragged him down into a church - like room where the real Blue Angel lay . Ghost Girl then revealed herself to Playmaker . Still trapped , Akira appeared and demanded that Playmaker tell him what happened to his sister . Playmaker tried to tell him the truth but Akira didn ' t accept the answer . He then manifested an object around his wrist and this was used to tighten the restrains on Playmaker . Shortly after , Revolver appeared and told Akira the truth that Hanoi had infected Aoi with a virus and only a Hanoi program could remove it . Revolver demonstrated his power of being able to control the Data Storms and said he could destroy LINK VRAINS if he wanted to , but he didn ' t care about doing so . He demanded that Playmaker Duel him , much to the annoyance of Akira . He also stated that if that Playmaker beat him , he would give the program to Akira . Akira agreed and freed Playmaker . As Playmaker left to Duel Revolver , Akira asked if he could trust him . He also said what he did to him was horrible and presumed Playmaker hated him . Playmaker responded by saying he didn ' t , and that he only hated Hanoi . Revolver and Playmaker exchanged blows in a Speed Duel but it resulted in a DRAW . Revolver and Playmaker then entered into a Data Storm and begun a Master Duel . Revolver pushed Playmaker into a pinch thanks to his " Fire Prison " which was sent from by his father , Dr . Kogami inside the network . Playmaker was able to eventually defeat Revolver . After his defeat , Ai went to " eat " the program from Revolver and this resulted in Revovler ' s arm being deleted . Ai then went back in for more but Revolver was lifted away by a beam . Revolver vowed to Duel Playmaker again . When back in the Knights base , Revolver met with Kogami and gained a new arm while talking . Kogami wondered if Revolver lost his way when Playmaker bought up the incident from ten years ago and told Revolver not to worry about it , but if they couldn ' t capture Ai , he would need to use his final plan . Frog and Pigeon meet up with Ghost Girl to obtain footage and a interview with her on a data file . Frog transferred his and Pigeon ' s future bonuses to pay for it , much to the shock of Pigeon . The two then begun to create a show to broadcast within a editing room made for them by the higher - ups within the network . The files were deleted by Yusaku when removing anything to do with his Playmaker identity online . Ghost Girl and Playmaker met inside the network to Duel . Pior to this , Ghost Girl had sent a Duel offer to Playmaker with the stakes saying that if Playmaker won , Ghost Girl would give him the " backdoor " to SOL Technologies Data Bank and that if Ghost Girl won , she would obtain Ai . Playmaker beat Ghost Girl and obtained the file to allow him into SOL ' s data bank . Later inside VRAINS , Hanoi appeared and started putting Duelists into a coma . Go ' s friend Makoto was made a victim by Dr . Genome which made Go enter LINK VRAINS and confront the Knights while disguised as Playmaker . Inside , Revolver stated that a thousand people have joined Hanoi but only for their own self gain and their hatred for VRAINS and not for the Cyberse cause that Revolver and the other higher - ups fight for . Baira and Faust appeared and spoke about Kogami ' s plan . " Playmaker " battled some Knights without the need for Dueling by knocking them off their D - Boards . Genome appeared and knew Go was hiding under the disguise which made Go reveal himself . Go beat Genome eventually and gained the Removal Program needed to wake up Makoto . He , Playmaker and Blue Angel all met but Blue Angel quickly departed . Go and Playmaker then teamed up officially to take down some more Knights . A young boy was inspired by the two and entered LINK VRAINS but only to find the experience was more intense then he had expected . He was chased by a Knight but Playmaker intercepted the Knight to Duel him . The boy embarrassingly was forced to log out . Kitamura unleashed his army of AI Duelists onto an incoming wave of Knights . The AI Duelists took down several Knights but Baira and Faust turned up to turn the tide . They quickly dispatched the army . Blue Angel took on Baira after she threatened LINK VRAINS . Baira was able to counter Blue Angel ' s deck but eventually Blue Angel won the Duel . As Baira was about to lose , she was reminded of her past thanks to Blue Angel . This prompted her to release the Another cure and wake up all the Duelists who had fallen into comas . Naoki Shima made his debut in LINK VRAINS as Lonely Brave after being frustrated by the lack of commitment to help from his Duel Club . Inside , he was impressed by LINK VRAINS but was quickly challenged to a Duel by a Knight of Hanoi . Lonely Brave was able to win the Duel and changed his name to Brave Max . Faust then kidnapped Naoki in real life to get Playmaker to Duel him inside the network . Faust and Playmaker Dueled with Faust saying that the Ignis couldn ' t be trusted . Regardless Playmaker defeated Faust , freeing Naoki in real life . This now left all three high - ranking members of Hanoi in a coma inside the Knights base . This event left Yusaku wondering about Ai and his motives . The official news was that the Knights had left the network but according to Akira who spoke to Emma , each division of SOL Technologies needed more operators and programmers . He thought this mean the Knights weren ' t gone but in fact in hiding with their leader . Emma entered LINK VRAINS to find out more . Inside she used her various gadgets to locate a entrance to the LINK VRAINS " sewer " where unnecessary data went including " fireflies " which scanned the network . She was joined by Playmaker who followed her . Prior to this , Playmaker and Ai had sensed something via their Link Sense . Inside the " sewer " , the two came to a fork in the road . Ghost Girl checked her equipment and it showed that she should go right . Ghost Girl and Ai took part in a game where whoever drew the best looking card from her deck , would choose which path they went down . Ai drew " Fake Trap " and due to the fact of its appearance , Ai automatically lost . Emma chose to go right leaving Playmaker and Ai to go left . Playmaker said Ai was tricked and that the deck contained nothing but ugly cards . Playmaker felt his Link Sense again and a creature emerged from the sewers , chasing the two down . Ghost Girl reached the Reprocessing plant and her " fireflies " pointed her to a platform . Emma used the rope on her Duel Disk to swing to the platform and Revolver was waiting for her . Revolver blocked all exits and also stopped Ghost Girl from logging out . They begun a Speed Duel . Ghost Girl lost to Revolver and was sealed away to become part of the Tower of Hanoi . Revolver mocked Playmaker before departing . Afterwards Hanoi ' s plan begun as a giant tower emerged inside the network . LINK VRAINS was shut down by SOL upon the tower appearing . It emerged that the tower was connected to the underground erasing plant , which in return would allow Hanoi to erase the entire internet which would have catastrophic results around the world . They would also have only six hours to stop it as each hour , the tower would gain a ring and would be complete once all six are set . Inside users were turned into data along with LINK VRAINS beginning to be erased . Kitamura entered the network and discussed about joining Hanoi with Revolver as he feared since Hanoi took complete control of LINK VRAINS , he would no longer get a promotion . Revolver referred him to Duel Spectre to see if he was good enough to join . Spectre beat Kitamura and despite his pleas , Spectre turned Kitamura into data . Yusaku , Go and Aoi all logged into the network and the three united . Playmaker told them to leave as it was too dangerous but the two refused as they wished to stop the Tower of Hanoi . Blue Angel met Spectre and they begun a Master Duel as the Data Storms had vanished due to the tower . Spectre begun to mock Blue Angel as they Dueled despite Blue Angel trying to understand Spectre through their Duel . A young boy avatar dressed as Playmaker fooled Pigeon and Frog due to his likeness . The boy was saved by the real Playmaker from an attack and was told to log out as he told him to trust him . The boy agreed and wished Playmaker luck . Despite a brave battle , Blue Angel was defeated by Spectre and knocked out upon landing on the ground . As Playmaker made his way to the tower , Spectre and Playmaker met on a bridge and begun a Duel with Spectre announcing he was apart of the Hanoi Project , just as Playmaker had been . Elsewhere Akira entered the network to save Blue Angel upon finding her body unconscious in the real world . Akira was trapped by Kogami in a cage and was told if he touched the bars , he to would lose consciousness . The two spoke about Kogami ' s past and once Kogami left , Blue Angel was turned into data . The data emerged with Spectre as he used it to prove his threat to Playmaker . Hazards . Similar to Action Duel s , Dueling in LINK VRAINS can bring real dangers . Any physical harm a person suffers while in LINK VRAINS transfers to their real bodies . Being forcefully expelled from LINK VRAINS after taking too much physical damage can also cause psychological damage . Additionally , Duelists are usually shown to be physically exhausted when logging out of VRAINS and sometimes they fall asleep quickly after a Duel . When The Knights of Hanoi attacked LINK VRAINS , their " Cracking Dragon s " deleted the accounts of anyone engulfed in its flames . When Playmaker fell off his D - Board , Ai said that a fall from that height could ' ve killed his real body had he not been rescued by Blue Angel . Duelists usually fall of their D - Boards when they lose a Speed Duel . However Playmaker has shown to be able to transport himself back onto his D - Board if he has enough time to aim at the D - Board . It is currently unknown whether anyone else can do this as well . The Knights of Hanoi can hack into cards in order to take control of their users , as seen with " Dark Angel " . The affected card can then implant a virus into the victim , which makes them unable to log out , leaving their physical body in a comatose state . According to Emma Bessho , when people Log Out from LINK VRAINS they can ' t Log In again for some time . Security . LINK VRAINS is guarded by security bots . They can give orders and capture people in virtual nets if they disobey . They also have the power to ban accounts . Following Akira ' s demotion , Kitamura took charge of security . He created AI Duelists to take down hacker . and later sent them to battle an army of Hanoi soldiers .