The work of the Go master

After leaving the Go academy, Koji Mitsuaki and Yamaoka took a slightly longer route, stopping at an izakaya (Japanese pub) for some skewers before returning.

It's a rare treat to see such a charming, bourgeois snowfall in the city; we should definitely take a good look around.

As for the possibility of bad guys having a gathering in the distance, who cares? They won't be able to reach us anytime soon anyway.

"I'm back." Ke Zhiguang dragged his luggage back to Peach Blossom Studio.

"Ahhh! Ke Zhiguang is back! Run!" Upon seeing Ke Zhiguang, some fellow cultivators turned tail and fled.

"Huh? When did my infamy become so widespread?"

Yamaoka, rubbing his forehead, replied, "Haven't you always been this famous... By the way, you know this is your bad reputation!"

"That's true. I've been in Hokkaido for so long that I almost forgot."

"I've been wanting to ask you this for a while now. Did you really just travel around Hokkaido and not play much Go?" Yamaoka asked, puzzled. In his opinion, Koji Hikaru's return and his subsequent battles with so many people meant he was likely to lose.

"Well... actually, I've been practicing Go with Harujima, Kuma Sakura, and Takami, and my skills have been really hot." Koji Hikaru simply put all the names out there.

Yamaoka choked and almost lost his balance.

Wow, so you really were with them!

Ke Zhiguang added to himself, "Actually, I play mahjong more than chess. It's much more exciting to play than Go."

Yamaoka remained choked.

—So the Self-Touch Association really exists!

"Ahem, I'm going back to my room now." Yamaoka, wearing glasses, leaned against the wall as he walked, his face appearing extremely pale.

Huh?

Why does this person look so devastated?

Is this a sign of heartbreak?

Too lazy to dwell on the issue, Ke Zhiguang dragged his luggage back to his room.

The luggage was left directly at the chess academy and hadn't been put back yet.

Walking through the familiar corridors and staircases, you can also catch a glimpse of the peach trees in the courtyard.

Although this is a sacred tree full of mystical power, it also closed its petals and became bare in the face of the cold of winter.

A peach tree standing alone in the snow has a unique kind of beauty.

Back in his room, a warm glow enveloped him once more, like a hero with half a barrel of blood returning to the spring.

The water in the bathtub was already heated, and everything was as usual.

The room was also cleaned spotlessly, and you couldn't tell that it had been empty for half a month.

Speaking of which... could a maid who is the goddess of quantum mechanics and a snow maid from Hokkaido be paired up? Is this something to ship?

I put my suitcase aside, leaned back, and lay on the bed, where the familiar ceiling came into view.

After spending six months living together, the room has been transformed into a perfect personal space.

I successfully got rid of all the small items that I didn't usually need; I gave them away or threw them away, making the space quite tidy.

The cabinet used to display the trophies is also fully covered with many honors.

A calendar sits in front of the chessboard on the table. The current date is January 4th, and the Grand Tournament is not far away.

And on the wall in front of the table, the clippings of those title holders, pasted like an assassination list, could finally be put into action.

With this in mind, Ke Zhiguang got out of bed with a "Yosh!" and went to the chessboard, starting to randomly pick a few valuable game records to play.

But when the curtain on the chessboard was lifted, Ke Zhiguang was surprised to find that there was something there.

Useful chess notation

A thick stack of what looked like document folders lay on the chessboard.

[Event successfully triggered: Close conversation with Kiyonuma Yuzawa (√)!]

This... is something I got after talking to Zezi.

Sure enough, after talking to him, an item was delivered, but quantum mechanics refreshed it on the main chessboard at home, not the temporary chessboard.

Maybe this is what it means to give yourself a good vacation and deal with things when you get back.

With a mixture of curiosity and unease, Ke Zhiguang opened the file bag and found a stack of chess scores inside.

His nerves were being stimulated.

This reminded him of the treasure map quest in the first stage. Every time he obtained a chess manual, his chess strength would increase significantly. It was as if he was being cheated, forcibly maxing out his basic attributes.

Ke Zhiguang quickly browsed the chess score and began to move the pieces on the chessboard.

These aren't any particularly remarkable game records; they're just records of games he played during his usual training matches.

However, what's amazing about these game records is that, in addition to reproducing the original game record, they also include a variation record with a lengthy 20-move range.

Each main game record has 20 branch game records, while the main game record itself only has three main game records.

This huge stack of chess scores actually only contained three games.

In each game, provide guidance on 20 moves.

Is that what you mean?

Chapter Twenty-Eight: It's getting late, go to sleep.

My own ordinary training game records.

Instructions for twenty moves.

With all these factors combined, Ke Zhiguang felt that the person who guided these twenty moves... was very likely the very embodiment of the god of quantum mechanics.

It has finally taken matters into its own hands?

Ke Zhiguang subconsciously glanced around to see if it would take the opportunity to come out and cause trouble.

This time it behaved itself and didn't move at all.

Ke Zhiguang pushed back the curtain and immediately began studying it.

The first game record is from two months ago. He played black and won the game.

Even though you win the game, it doesn't mean you don't need to review it. Sometimes, the winning side may make just as many mistakes as the losing side.

As a player with extremely high learning efficiency, Ke Zhiguang naturally reviewed this game as well, and his conclusion was... I am as good as ever, and there was nothing wrong with this game.

However, how well it perceived its own performance in this round remains unknown.

Following the instructions in this guide, Ke Zhiguang placed his first move on the board.

Black flames shot out, burning his fingers solidly.

Ke Zhiguang frowned.

That's really powerful.

When Ke Zhiguang glanced at the chess notation again and was about to set up the pieces, he froze—

It abandoned its pawn.

It was a flower that bloomed on the second or third route, with a very strong vitality. In Ke Zhiguang's tactics, unless absolutely necessary, it would not be discarded as a crippled pawn.

But it just gave up like that, and all it got in return was a tiny bit of extra thickness outside.

At least in Ke Zhiguang's eyes, this is called unequal exchange, which violates the ironclad law of alchemy, and should be thrown into the Gate of Truth to sacrifice his hands and feet... Bah, I digress.

Completely incomprehensible, the next move—

That's even more mysterious.

The mystery was so great that Ke Zhiguang repeatedly looked at the chess score to confirm that he hadn't made a mistake.

What appears on the chessboard is a string of pieces crawling wildly along the second line.

Any Go teacher will use this shape as a negative example to criticize when children first enter school, warning them not to climb around in this position in the future.

"Bad move" and "clumsy move" are the terms used to describe this series of moves.

Is this... really not the start of another episode of quantum mechanics's "playful" tendencies?

This is a trap! It's all a trap!

It's like happily giving you a bunch of pure love stories, and then secretly stuffing an NTR razor blade into them!

Skip to the next one—

It looks more serious now.

In a complex area of ​​chess pieces locked in a fierce battle, a black piece calmly connects itself.

Let's start studying this move.

For a full hour, Ke Zhiguang sat in front of the chessboard, studying the more than 60 moves. Except for some moves that seemed to be made in a moment of madness, he studied them all carefully.

Especially when the game enters close combat and the pieces begin to make contact.

Its performance was almost perfect.

It captured those unseen, ingenious moves and displayed them on the chessboard.

Night fell quietly, and the entire Peach Blossom Pavilion was serene. Melting snow droplets fell into the soil of the courtyard, transforming into perfect nutrients.

The snow was falling silently. In the distant harbor, the deck of the cruise ship was deserted, with only a half-empty bottle of red wine standing forlornly on the table.

A thin layer of snow had accumulated on the streets, and many people who came out for a stroll at night saw this scene, which is rarely seen in Tokyo on ordinary days.

At four o'clock, Ke Zhiguang roughly studied more than ten moves of chess, lay down on the chair to rest for a while, and rubbed his eyebrows with his fingers.

I'm starting to feel sleepy.

But this burning feeling of finding a treasure makes it hard for me to fall asleep.

The thrill and excitement I felt when I entered that door during my battle with Ghidorah that day came back to me.

Every move here is at a "gate" level of skill.

I think so, right?