Go: Is the portable old man the nine-time champion?

Chapter 223 You Can't Become the World's Number One
"Attention all media friends, you have 20 minutes of free time for taking photos. Please leave the venue in an orderly manner 15 minutes after the official start of the competition. Please also keep quiet during the photo session. Thank you very much!"

After the staff on stage read out the competition rules, they left the stage. There were still five minutes before the start of the competition, and the participants from the three competition teams had basically arrived at the venue.

Yi Zheng handed his phone to a staff member at the entrance and then went straight inside.

It has to be said that security checks at Go tournaments are generally not very thorough. In this day and age, it's a little better since there are no dogs around. Handing in a mobile phone can solve 90% of the problems and eliminate the possibility of seeking help from outside the venue.

However, in a world with artificial intelligence, some competitions organized by certain organizations are truly indescribable. They simply cannot do basic security checks properly, and when the leaders speak on stage, they hope that the contestants will be self-disciplined and not harm themselves.

You're kidding me! You let people put their phones in the competition venue the day before? I don't know how you guys check that.

To put it bluntly, something that could be done well at any other school, how come a national organization can't do it?

Is preventing cheating really that difficult? Try increasing the jamming power, conducting thorough security checks before the competition, inspecting the venue before the competition, and having staff accompany participants to the restrooms.

There are still people who don't know the solutions that even high school students know, but perhaps this generation of leaders really didn't go to high school.

So many exams already have pretty mature anti-cheating measures, why don't you just take one and apply it?
Even if you can't prevent 100% of the attacks, you can prevent 99% of them, at least allowing most players to play with peace of mind. To put it bluntly, it's about inaction.

After a bunch of players got screwed over, especially some world champions who were easily defeated by lower-ranked players in warm-up matches, everyone started to become suspicious of each other. This accumulated until a huge bombshell exploded, and then people said it was bad for players to be suspicious of each other. What were you doing before?
After Yi Zheng sat down, he saw Ethan, who had been waiting for a long time, and nodded slightly in acknowledgment.

When Ethan saw Yi Zheng sitting opposite him, the corner of his mouth suddenly twitched to the side. Old Ke couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "The Crooked-Mouthed Dragon King has appeared! He wants to twist his mouth! Tear his mouth apart!"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Yi Zheng tried his best to control his expression. What strange TV series has Old Ke been watching lately? And what is this "Crooked-Mouthed Dragon King" nonsense?

Ethan looked at Yi Zheng, whose expression remained unchanged, and said with a smile, "You've done quite well, even far exceeding your potential. My best expectation for you was around seven consecutive wins; otherwise, the first stage might have ended."

I thought I would never see you, but you still managed to climb up to me with your perseverance. That's quite impressive, in every way.

To some extent, if it weren't for me, you would have had a much better chance of reaching the top. It's a pity that you, including the Three Musketeers, are all talented and have good skills in other areas, but unfortunately, you were born in the same era as me, so you could only be like fireflies next to the bright moon.

This is the tragedy of being born in the same era as me, but it seems none of you are mentally prepared for this, still clinging to unrealistic fantasies. Like you sitting across from me, probably still harboring the unrealistic fantasy of defeating me.

"Your Chinese is good."

"what?"

Ethan was stunned when he heard Yi Zheng's answer. He had considered all the possibilities: Yi Zheng might refute him with a warm smile, or he might be confidently dismissive, or he might lose confidence after being hurt by his words.

But what's with the "your Chinese is pretty good" nonsense?

What strange thing are you focusing on?!

It wasn't that Yi Zheng's focus was unusual; it was that Mr. Ke felt it was still quite peculiar that a white person could speak fluent Chinese and play Go, even though he had seen it several times before.

"Could you let him say something like, 'I want foreigners to die'?"

"..."

Yi Zheng was speechless as he listened to what Old Ke was saying. The other person's Chinese was good, but what kind of nonsense was it to say that he wanted foreigners to die?

are you crazy? !
What respectable white person would say something like that? It's utterly ridiculous!

Ethan, after a wild association, could only sense that Yi Zheng was reminding him that Chinese was the common language of Go, and that Go originated in China: "Although Go originated in China, it's long overdue to change places in the world's number one ranking. Given the current changing world order, no matter how glorious your history, it will only be us who reach the top now." Yi Zheng then shook his head and said, "Anyone could become number one in the future, but you most likely won't. Even if you do, you'll be overthrown very quickly."

"joke."

Ethan completely disregarded Yi Zheng's outrageous argument; his strength gave him absolute confidence.

I am invincible among my peers. Those younger than me are completely suppressed by me, and those older than me are about to be worn out by me.

If it's not my era, whose era will it be?
I, Ethan, will be invincible!
Yi Zheng simply said quietly, "That night, five people challenged AlphaGo. As one of the top five ranked players in the world, you should have been there, but you were absent."

You know best whether you're okay or not; you're afraid of failure.

Your biggest failure is not daring to challenge the world's strongest chess player.

In the future, you will never be able to defeat AlphaGo, let alone become the world's number one.

Upon hearing this, Ethan immediately retorted, "There's nothing to be afraid of! It's not like I haven't lost before! What's there to be afraid of in failing?"

“I’m talking about doing something you know is impossible, like the others. They knew it might be difficult to defeat AlphaGo, but they still did it. But you didn’t.”

Ethan's face darkened upon hearing this: "I have no obligation to face an enemy I cannot defeat. You understand, right?"

How long did he study, and how long did I study? I'm still young, I have plenty of time! It's only a matter of time before I defeat him! Do you really think you can defeat AlphaGo in its current state?

Yi Zheng slowly shook his head: "There's no way to win. I don't understand. All I know is that facing such an opponent is incredibly exciting, it makes you want to swing your sword at him! Even knowing that I'll die after swinging that sword, I still will!"

Every world number one possesses this kind of aura, but you don't, therefore, you will never be number one in the world.

Upon hearing this, Ethan couldn't keep his voice down any longer and blurted out, "Shut up!"

Looking at Ethan who suddenly swore, Old Ke couldn't help but shake his head: "You made him so angry that he even used his mother tongue. Luckily, you can't talk during the competition, otherwise he would be so angry that you would have killed him and you would have won on the spot."

Yi Zheng just shook his head. He was just telling the truth. Ethan's talent was top-notch, but how could a chess player without ambition possibly reach the top?

Ethan's English remark drew the attention of many reporters, who turned to look at them, many of whom were unaware of what had happened.

The two people weren't very loud before, and there were all sorts of noises in the arena anyway, plus the others were chatting, so they didn't attract much attention.

But Ethan's voice was so loud that it immediately drew everyone's attention.

Although the specifics of what happened are unknown, everyone guessed that something unpleasant had occurred, and many reporters quietly noted it down.

Ethan seemed to realize he had lost his composure, took a deep breath to calm himself down, but still stared fiercely at Yi Zheng.

As the referee announced the start of the match, the two sides began to guess who would go first.

Before the fight, Ethan said his last words: "If you wanted to provoke me, you have succeeded, but you don't expect what the price of provoking me will be."

Mr. Ke: "The price is that you went from being a white person to a red person?"

P.S.: Please vote for me, dear readers!

(End of this chapter)