The work of the Go master

To be fair, local books are really expensive. Whether it's general literature or textbooks, they're practically designed to divide students into different social classes. Go textbooks are even more outrageous; one of them can easily drain an average student's monthly living expenses.

All of Ke Zhiguang's current teaching materials are copied and pasted.

It was precisely because books were too expensive that light novels, which broke down class barriers and were made accessible to the general public at low prices, emerged. The only drawback of a light novel is that it has too few illustrations and too much toilet paper.

"I've been learning chess for ten days already..." Ke Zhiguang sighed as he looked out the window at the scenery rushing by, his own face reflected in the windowpane.

It feels like I've been studying for a whole year.

......

......

That afternoon.

Harushima Kashima was no longer going to tolerate this and was preparing to unleash her trump card.

Today she switched to a Go magazine called "The Way of Go," which is a highly professional magazine that provides expert commentary on Go games and reviews classic matches.

The cover of this issue featuring Harushima Kazuo is of herself.

Surely this should be foolproof?

Although in many TV dramas the male lead suddenly says "the wind is too strong to hear" at the moment the female lead confesses her love, however—

You can go deaf, but you can't go blind, can you?

I don't think so!

The only difficulty was that this copy of "The Way of Chess" was an older issue, and she felt embarrassed to put it on the bookshelf.

So, what should we do?

Just as she was pondering a solution, the store manager's voice came from the side: "Harushima, about this magazine of yours..."

"No, it's nothing!" Harushima Kaoru blushed and hurriedly hid the magazine behind her back.

The store manager helplessly understood that Qingdaolu's plan yesterday had failed, so today he had to resort to an even more drastic tactic, directly displaying the issue featuring himself on the cover.

But she was clearly too embarrassed to do so.

So why don't you just tell him who you are? Why go through all this trouble?

But the next moment, Ke Zhiguang pushed open the door and entered: "Hello Qingdao, I've brought you milk again."

After returning from Yugenji Temple, he put the book away and grabbed a bottle of milk from the refrigerator.

"Ahem, I'm quite late today." Harujima Shika's tone became hurried, the magazine still clutched behind her back as if hiding a love letter.

She had already come up with the script. When Ke Zhiguang was focused on playing chess, she would quietly place the magazine at the front, then leave for a short while, actually observing his movements from the side.

After Ke Zhiguang noticed the magazines on the bookshelf and showed a surprised expression, she calmly walked out of the staff break room, casually touching her cheek and saying—

"It seems the store manager accidentally uploaded an old issue of the magazine."

The script is perfect!

Another voice came from outside the door: "Everyone, I...I'm back, I'm home!"

Everyone in the Go room turned their heads and discovered that the person standing outside the door was none other than Yoshida, whom they hadn't seen for many days.

He looked much thinner and more颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it conveys a sense of listlessness, apathy, and a sense of dejection). His leather jacket, which he always wore, had been replaced with a cheap coat. His sunglasses were gone, his hair hadn't been washed for days, and his eyes were filled with the joy of seeing the light of day again.

It's like Officer Xing, who had nowhere else to go but joined the Beggars' Sect, suddenly seeing Tongfu Inn again.

"Yoshida, we were wrong, we shouldn't have treated you like that!"

"Even though you've always been noisy and incompetent, we've really missed you these past few days while you were gone!"

"Come on, this time I'll give you a 6-point handicap. If you lose, you don't have to pay, but if I lose, I'll give you 10000!" [White-tailed Fox] was also moved to tears, his camaraderie welling up.

The scene suddenly turned into the final episode of a family drama, with a group of middle-aged and elderly people crying their eyes out.

Ke Zhiguang stared at Yoshida, confirming that the [Plague Rat] phenomenon on his body had disappeared.

He did indeed successfully exorcise the demon at Youxuan Temple this afternoon.

"It looks like Yoshida went to the black market to gamble on chess these past few days, and lost quite a bit. Luckily, he turned back in time," the shop manager said regretfully next to Ke Zhiguang.

Black Market, just from the name you know it's not a good place, it feels the same as Las Vegas.

As for the location, Ke Zhiguang already knew it; he was there on Monday.

He had long guessed that the underground street might be such a place. To put it simply, Yoshida's state at the time was "darkened." Ordinary people who had turned to the dark side would simply dabble in the areas that Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru were good at.

But why must it be chess, and not ordinary gambling?

Yoshida should be aware of his own skill level. Even if he had lost his mind, he shouldn't have chosen to gamble on Go. Or is it that the black market's business is so developed that it has corresponding packages for players with low skill levels?

"Oh, sorry, Ke-kun, forget about my mutterings. I almost didn't notice you were next to me," the shop manager said with a smile, then realized he shouldn't have revealed those place names to the other person.

"Then I'll be leaving now." Ke Zhiguang turned to leave. His purpose in coming here this afternoon was actually to see if Yoshida would appear and whether the [Plague Rat] was still there. Now that he had achieved that goal.

"What? You're not playing chess today?" Harushima Shika's ponytail jumped, trying to salvage the situation.

"Well, there's something I need to take care of at home," Ke Zhiguang said.

He's currently focused on the newly acquired chess score and wants to study it at home.

After hearing the other party's answer, Harushima Shika was stunned.

Things that can be solved at home by oneself?

Ding—the oven is on time, steam is coming out.

"Okay, okay, go ahead, I'm sorry to bother you any longer." Harujima Shika turned around, hiding her burning face, and waved to Keiji Hikaru.

"Goodbye, I'll have to leave now." After leaving the milk behind, Ke Zhiguang quickly departed.

The shop manager was puzzled as to why Harushima Deer let him leave so easily. Just as she was about to ask her, she heard a loud thud!

Harushima Kashiwa pulled out his binoculars and slammed them hard on the counter.

Chapter Thirty-Two: On this day, I began to remember who I was.

An hour later.

Harujima Deer lay on the counter, using the books as cover, and secretly peeked at Ke Zhiguang through binoculars.

In the end, she was just seriously setting up the chess pieces at her desk, and the scene she hoped for didn't happen.

Harujima deer listlessly put away his binoculars.

Hmm... I feel like I've been lowering my standards a lot lately, from looking up from downstairs, to selling binoculars to spy, and now I can set up binoculars with a clear conscience.

But then again, what kind of chess set up does he actually have at home?

......

......

This is the third chess score that Ke Zhiguang obtained from the [Treasure Map].

Each game in the game record is of a higher quality than the previous one, and by a significant margin.

The first game record was a simple game of laying out the floor, starting the game at the exact moment, and pretending to play with great skill.

The second game record, which is the one tucked inside the book "Muramasa Demon Sword", is a level higher. Black has a three-star opening, a large moyo attack, and manages to survive by penetrating deep into the territory.

The third chess notation, which is the game we're setting up now.

The contrast between solid position and territory, the capture of key points in the shape, the escape and attack in the middle game, the frequent emergence of tesuji and brilliant moves, and the endgame stage is even more refined, showing the strength of both sides in closing out the game.

Although Ke Zhiguang previously denied that these chess records would be like peerless martial arts manuals, where proper practice would lead to great improvement, unless these things could be directly absorbed like experience books.

however.

Looking back now, these chess records seem to be something like experience books.

Each significant improvement in his chess skills was related to the chess scores from the [Treasure Map].

After playing the first game record several times, he defeated the vice president, who claimed to be an amateur first dan, the very next day.

After thoroughly understanding the second game record, he defeated the self-proclaimed amateur 3-dan player, "White-tailed Fox".

This is the third one. If this pattern continues, maybe in a few days I'll be able to give that self-proclaimed fifth-dan Aoba Bridge teacher a good beating.

That sounds really exciting!

This should have been an exciting event, but Ke Zhiguang's face was now tense as he stared intently at the entire chessboard.

Familiar with.

It seems familiar.

When setting up the chess pieces, it feels like an electric current is running through your fingertips. This is not an "illusion" created by special effects, but a real flash of inspiration.

The so-called study of chess games is to predict whether the next move in a game will match your own expectations.

Guided by this learning approach, he chose the black and white sides from the very beginning, placing himself in one of them.

The first game record is black, the second is also black, but the third is white.

Almost every move he made was exactly as he predicted, with an astonishingly high degree of accuracy.

Rather than saying he's making a prediction, it's more accurate to say he's reviewing the situation.

"So, I was the one who played all these moves." He leaned back in his chair and finally voiced the thought that had always been there.

Of course, it refers to myself in my past life.

He had this question in mind from the very first time he set up the board, but since his chess skills were only so-so at that time, he wasn't sure if his idea was correct.

But now, after studying the third chess score, he can finally confirm the answer.

Only by personally playing these games can one accurately predict the sequence of moves step by step through a near-recollection review.

Clearly, these three game records were not played at the same time; they should be games played at different stages of the player's skill level.

Now, those past chess games are helping him grow in the present.

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness washed over me.

In the blur, some familiar images flashed before my eyes.

In a Go room resembling a teahouse, I, no more than 7 years old, am playing Go with a group of elderly men, surrounded by exclamations of admiration for my talent.