The work of the Go master

"Am I... am I really that lowly...?" Bai Meng muttered indignantly, feeling like she had been turned into a chibi-style character.

"This is the best result I could simulate from the perspective of realism unique to science students. You, a humanities student, could never understand this kind of thinking."

"Humph."

Arriving at the foot of Ke Zhiguang's building, they climbed the steps, but upon reaching the designated floor, they both stopped.

"Shuicheng? What are you doing here?" The two of them asked in surprise.

Shuicheng was surprised to see the two familiar faces when he stood at the door of Ke Zhiguang's house.

“I called Xiaoguang several times this morning, but he didn’t answer. I was a little worried about his situation, so I came to check on him,” Shuicheng replied naturally.

Bai Meng whispered to the vice president, "What should we do? An unexpected situation has arisen."

"As expected of Shuicheng, she always manages to get involved at unexpected moments, and her reasons are quite valid. In some ways, she's even more troublesome than Qingdaolu."

Not long after the doorbell rang, Ke Zhiguang opened the door.

"Why did you come at noon?" he asked.

"Of course we're here to have fun! It's Golden Week and everywhere outside is crowded. It's much more comfortable to go to a classmate's house with a game console," said the vice president.

This is different from Ke Zhiguang's understanding. If he remembers correctly, these days, Japanese people go abroad for their holidays. If nothing unexpected happens, this group of people will have already taken over Hawaii.

“But I’m planning to go out today, do you want to come along?” Ke Zhiguang said.

“Okay, where to? If you’re going to the mall, I can help you win lots of plush toys,” Bai Meng said, making a claw machine gesture.

this.....

Sometimes Ke Zhiguang also wonders, if others can also get items, and he gets killed by someone else, will that person get a special skill in Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game)?

"I want to go to the chess academy."

The vice president frowned and covered his face: "Ha, I knew you were going to a place like this again. Are you on a pilgrimage?"

"We'll also take a look at houses and the like," Ke Zhiguang said.

"Looking at houses?"

"I plan to move out and live as close as possible to Saito 9-dan's teaching location, as well as the Go Institute and the school."

Do you know how high the rent is in Chiyoda Ward right now?

“I have coupons… oops, I have a source of information that says there’s an apartment there that’s being rented out at an extremely low price. Saito Kyudan told me about it.”

The other three exchanged glances but had no objections.

Saito is a charlatan, and Ke Zhiguang has recently shown some charlatan tendencies as well. When two charlatans join forces, it creates a sense of normalcy, like two negatives making a positive.

"There's one more thing I need to tell you, which is that I might drop out of school."

After a delay, the three girls finally reacted.

"Hey! What did you say?!"

Chapter Ten: Night Has Fallen

It was 6:30 p.m., and night had fallen.

Ke Zhiguang looked up at the sky, where the eerie sunset lingered on the horizon, resembling the style of a cult comic artist.

Perhaps it was just a feeling, but whenever something was about to happen, Ke Zhiguang would inadvertently look up at the sky and find that the sky looked rather unsettling.

And it always happens close to night.

When demons and monsters are unleashed.

In the local dialect, it's called "Hyakki Yagyō" (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons).

In the afternoon, after obtaining the addresses of all the nearby fishponds... oops, all the chess halls from the shop manager, Ke Zhiguang began his hunting expedition.

Use the Insight skill to find out the list of items on each person, and specifically target those who carry special items such as coupons.

To avoid being recognized, he dressed up carefully, wearing a hood and mask, just like when Qingdaolu went out last time.

But I didn't expect to be exposed as soon as I entered the first Go club.

"You must be Ke Zhiguang, the Yunjing Hero in the high school team competition." The shop assistant recognized him immediately.

"Wait? You recognize me even though it's me?"

“We are professionally trained, of course we can recognize someone as well-known as you.”

Then the shop assistant whispered to Ke Zhiguang: "I see people like you who try to disguise themselves and play dumb to get ahead of others every day."

this....

Ke Zhiguang suddenly felt like he was using a fake account to snipe fish, but instead of sniping any fish, he got caught by the net manager himself.

Shedding his disguise, he entered the chess hall openly. Although other people's eyes lingered on Ke Zhiguang, they didn't pay him much attention.

After all, it was the era of print media, and information wasn't as readily available. Winning a team championship wouldn't make you known worldwide. Besides, team championships weren't that valuable.

However, after carefully investigating several chess halls, it was found that there were indeed no suitable targets.

Most people carry regular snacks and consumer goods, while a small number carry fake coupons such as "9.9% off coupon" or "9.5% off coupon," which are essentially no discount at all.

Those chess players who carried challenge tickets or event trigger tickets seemed to have all vanished into thin air.

This shouldn't be a problem of their strength being too low to carry high-value items.

Back in the day, defeating Hase Kamiya could drop a ton of loot.

You can even get important items like amulets and location cards by defeating a white-tailed fox.

Even beating someone with lower skill level can yield a custom-made suit coupon.

Clearly, whether or not good items are revealed has little to do with the players' skill level.

Perhaps it's related to the difference in skill level.

When one's chess skills are far superior to those of the opponent, one can only resort to the most ordinary and inexpensive consumer goods.

To get good loot, you have to challenge stronger opponents.

For no apparent reason, Ke Zhiguang thought of the Go Institute, the shark-infested place located in Gobancho, Chiyoda Ward.

The chess academy is mostly filled with students rather than professional players, making it a suitable place to practice and acquire equipment.

Sigh, thinking about it this way, I already have a lot of skill in chess, so it's really inappropriate for me to come to this kind of low-skill pool to whittle down other players.

Unfortunately, in this world, you can't gain experience by just defeating someone. The key is to hone your skills through real hard work. There's no way to become the Sword God of Shili Slope by simply hiding your way to becoming the Sword God of Shili Slope.

He is now standing at the door of the last address.

This is the largest Go hall within a few kilometers, almost like a large market, with many Go players coming and going. However, compared to the small workshops near my home, the quality of the players is worrying; some are noisy, and some are smoking.

This is Ke Zhiguang's final destination for today.

It is 8:30 pm now. The night is dark, with no stars or moon.

Upon entering the Go hall, a quick glance reveals the equipment displays for most people.

There's still nothing to gain.

The most valuable items were the pornographic magazines and strange videotapes.

Of course, the reason I say these things are valuable is not because these props are valuable, but because punishing these old perverts who engage in erotic activities is valuable and quite righteous.

But suddenly, Ke Zhiguang's gaze fell into the depths of the Go hall.

Over there, it seems like a one-to-many challenge is taking place.

A series of players play a simultaneous game, where one player moves from one board to another, playing multiple games at the same time.

That's right, Go is a sport that can be played in large groups, and it's a sport where you can loudly declare that you're going to beat ten people.

After careful consideration, Ke Zhiguang realized that this was indeed an extremely creative way to make money. If you bet 10,000 on each chessboard, you could have anything after one round.

No, I want to try this too!

During the brainstorming session, he also joined in, wanting to see what level of person could accept this one-to-many challenge.

"Excuse me, could you please let me pass?"

Squeezing towards the front of the crowd, he saw the player who was playing chess against many opponents.

He was a young man wearing a jacket and a hood, but because his bangs were always hanging down, it was difficult to see his true face.

And what he was wearing... was actually red.

It's actually a monster of the same strength as the Shireshima Deer.

Ke Zhiguang's eyes widened slightly.

What the hell did he see?

Not only was it displayed in red, but his item list also featured exclamation marks instead of greetings.

【！！！】 (red) This kind.

It looks terrifying and is very aggressive.

Based on online gaming experience, these creatures with exclamation marks are often the type that will actively attack the player, regardless of whether the player is itching to mess with them.

But soon, his color shifted again, suddenly turning orange.

Then it changed again and turned red once more.

Perhaps it's implying that his chess skills are somewhat inconsistent, or that his skill level is just stuck at the orange-red borderline, making him a beginner-level player.

This really piqued Ke Zhiguang's interest.

Not long ago, Kiyonuma Yuzawa, who had just broken through the professional threshold, has now created a new one. How can anyone not want to try and kick it?

The young man, wearing a hood, moved slowly across the chessboard, his slender fingers sweeping across each piece. Each piece he placed transformed into a warrior charging towards his opponent.

This power is so great that you can understand it without even looking at the color indicators.

You don't even need to see the special effects to understand the sheer pressure from the strong.

Ke Zhiguang's hands were getting increasingly itchy, and his joints were making a creaking sound.

Although I don't know what an exclamation mark actually means, it's always right to use it.