Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Chapter 58 A Divine Move (3)

"Here's your coffee. I'm not sure if it'll suit your tastes."

"Ah, this is the very tea Old Woman Mago was drinking. Thank you."

-Sip.

The immortals' eyes widened briefly after taking a sip of coffee, and then their cups began reaching their lips more and more frequently.

Their cups were emptied and refilled twice in succession.

Meanwhile, I learned how the unprecedented situation of immortals descending from the Celestial Realm had come about.

"So, strictly speaking, you're saying you haven't actually descended into the mortal world?"

"That's right. The Divine Tree is the bridge connecting the Celestial Realm and the mortal world, so wherever the Divine Tree's energy extends is not part of the mortal world."

Sophistry.

By that logic, my coffeehouse had suddenly become a rest stop in front of a tollgate.

"Ahem! Old Woman Mago said the same thing, so we're merely following her words."

"What? Why are you looking at me? I'm telling you, Goddess Mago really said that."

Sensing my doubtful gaze seeking further explanation, Yongman answered curtly.

No, actually, Yongman wasn't particularly trustworthy either.

His grand excuse about coming to check whether the passage to the Celestial Realm was functioning properly had fallen by the wayside, and he was completely absorbed in playing the mobile games he'd missed for several days.

Still, it didn't seem as though they had dared to invoke Goddess Mago's name falsely to descend into the mortal world.

"By the way, doesn't this teahouse have a Go board?"

"A Go board?"

Surely they weren't planning to play Go even after coming all the way here?

Or had they deliberately come all this way just to play Go?

Neither possibility was welcome.

'Heh heh. Didn't I tell you? When it comes to Go, even the heavenly gods can't do anything about those fellows.'

The eyes of the Elder Nine-Tailed Fox, sitting at a distance with his chin resting on his hand as though this had nothing to do with him, seemed to be saying exactly that.

First, I needed to get the situation under control. There wasn't a single ally in this coffeehouse right now.

"I don't have a Go board, but you can play Go with this instead."

For the time being, I installed an online Go game on my laptop and showed it to them.

"Isn't this a pane of glass?"

"Oh! The Go board drawn inside it is remarkably intricate. It must be the work of a highly renowned painter."

At that moment, I felt my mind going blank.

These immortals were people from thousands of years ago.

Before teaching them how to play Go on a laptop, I would have to teach them how to use a laptop.

"Now, this is called clicking... Never mind. Just tell me where you'd like to place your stones, and I'll do it for you."

These were immortals who had descended from the Celestial Realm to play Go.

Rather than getting them seated at a Go board immediately, I wasn't confident I could explain the concepts of input and output, which they might not even understand.

Right. Let's try having them learn naturally while watching a single game.

After all, people tend to discover and learn things they enjoy without anyone having to teach them.

Just as I'd searched for games on a DOS screen as a child, pressing Enter on lists of English words whose meanings I didn't even understand.

"So you're saying there's another person inside this screen who can play Go."

Seeing is believing.

I immediately pressed the Ready button.

[The match has begun.]

"Just tell me where you want to play, and I'll place the stones."

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

Didn't this situation seem oddly familiar? Like that comic, Ghost Go King.

As I remembered it, Ghost Go King was a story about the ghost of a Go master possessing the protagonist and playing games for him, allowing him to win one match after another. Even thinking about it now, the protagonist's desire to reap rewards without doing any work was quite shameless.

But that fellow had only one ghost.

Behind me stood no fewer than four genuine gods of Go who had spent thousands of years doing nothing but playing the game.

I was confident I wouldn't lose to anyone.

Of course, in reality, I was nothing more than a living mouse.

However, the immortals who were supposed to tell me where to place the stones widened their eyes and asked me a question instead.

"Hm? Isn't this your game?"

"Well, yes, but if I place the stones wherever you four tell me to, wouldn't that be the same as you playing yourselves?"

"When three people hold stones over one Go board, one of them will have his tongue cut out and be thrown into the Echoing Cavern. Are you asking us to interfere in your game?"

"No, that's not what I meant... I'll just play this game myself..."

Unfortunately, I'd have to abandon my Ghost Go King ambitions.

It seemed best to show them one game quickly and then escape.

__________

And morning came.

-Chirp, chirp.

Sparrows announcing the morning flew through the sky from which the immortals had departed on Yongman's back.

We had played fifteen games in a row until dawn, conducting an in-depth review after every single one.

-Jingle.

While I was briefly resting my overworked brain, the Elder Nine-Tailed Fox arrived.

"Don't tell me you stayed up all night? What dreadful old men. Heh heh."

"Don't even mention it. If I hadn't chased them out, we might have spent all of today playing Go too. By the way, Elder, when did you run away?"

"Run away? I merely withdrew so I wouldn't disturb you while you were concentrating on Go."

"Yes, thank you very much."

"Heh heh. Still, I had no idea you were so knowledgeable about Go."

"I'm not. Yesterday was practically the first time I'd played Go in thirty years."

"Hm? Then why on earth did those old men descend into the mortal world?"

"I have no idea either. Maybe they just wanted to play Go with someone different for a change."

"That cannot be. Anyone with even the slightest lingering attachment to the mortal world cannot so much as approach the threshold of the Celestial Realm."

"Yongman seemed to have plenty of lingering attachments."

"Ah, that's because you forced that fellow into the heavens!"

"Still, they're immortals, so I'm sure they didn't come down with any improper intentions. Anyway, I need to get some sleep now."

"Make me a cup of coffee before you go to bed."

"I'll make it after I've had some sleep. If any customers come, please tell them that and serve them some water."

"Why, you rascal! Now you're trying to make me serve as your servant too? Just make me a cup quickly before going to sleep!"

I'd reached my limit. I couldn't possibly keep going like this.

If I didn't get some sleep immediately, I might spend the entire day collapsed over a table, so I left the morning's business to the Elder.

Still, I'd given the immortals a stern warning before they returned, so they wouldn't come back again, would they?

___________

-Ring, ring, ring.

A phone rang inside a filthy room littered with liquor bottles.

A hand rose from the floor rather than the bed, picked up the phone, and lowered it again.

The man lying on the floor pressed the answer button and closed his eyes once more.

(National Champion Han, are you asleep?)

"No. Why?"

(Don't give me that. You sound exactly like someone who's passed out drunk. How are you supposed to teach the kids when you drink yourself unconscious until this hour and reek of alcohol? That's why you keep getting beaten by AlphaGo and ended up like this. Do you think the great Han Seun would've lost ten consecutive games if he'd been in his right mind during those matches?)

"If you called to pick a fight, I'm hanging up."

(No, no! Just listen! Something interesting has happened.)

"What is it? Why are you dragging it out again?"

(Some lunatic showed up on OnGame Go today and won fifteen games in a row!)

"Probably another AI developed somewhere in America or China."

(There you go, talking like an old man again. You wouldn't say that if you saw the game records. He's a complete maniac. I'll send you the records posted on the Go Gallery, so take a look.)

'Good grief, he's still such a romantic at his age.'

-Ding.

「Park Gidong, 9-dan: (Photo)」

Although he'd said he'd send it right away, the phone didn't chime until quite some time later. Worse, he'd sent the image in a text message, so all the writing was blurry.

"Who's calling whom an old man? Good grief, it'd be easier to do it myself."

The man called National Champion Han frowned deeply and went directly to the Go Gallery to browse the posts.

-Can someone who just played that guy leave a reply? What was it like? [2]

-15 straight wins in the AI simulator room is honestly legendary [14]

-Someone hurry up and challenge him next lol. We've got viewers waiting [6]

-You'd get flamed for using a four-drone rush like this... [4]

-The lunatic's latest game record is out [37]

...

'Looks like someone interesting has appeared for a change.'

It was a forum he rarely visited because of the openly abusive posts about him that appeared there whenever people got bored.

But when someone made this much of a fuss and insisted he take a look, he couldn't very well ignore it.

As he scrolled through the pages, one title in particular caught his eye.

Title: Upvote if you're Park Gidong 9-dan, who just used his real name as his gaming nickname and got absolutely destroyed lol

Body:

『What the hell gave him the confidence to enter using his own name lol

Shouldn't this bastard have to take his promotion exam again? lol』

┗ Anonymous: Don't be so harsh. He's still one of the best players in Korean Go.

┗ Original Poster: Found Park Gidong himself.

┗ Go Gallery User 1: lolololololololololololol

┗ Anonymous: That's not me. And I lost because the game lagged on move twenty. Stop making baseless assumptions.

┗ Go Gallery User 2: I'm telling you, Go needs demotions too.

'Looks like he got crushed and publicly humiliated himself.'

National Champion Han Seun chuckled, sent the link to Master Park Gidong, who had just texted him, and continued scrolling.

Then he found another post with overwhelmingly more recommendations and comments than the others.

Title: [Breaking] Serial killer has appeared on OnGame Go right now OMG

Body:

『Hey lolololol

Go to the expert room on OnGame and look up the guy using the nickname "Dangsan-ri"

Look at the state of his stone movements

(Photo)

He's won all 15 individual matches so far, and none even reached final territory counting because the groups got annihilated in the middle game lololol

He doesn't even defend his territory, just mindlessly attaches, cuts, and attacks like a maniac

Even livestreamers are saying, "Not even a pro could stop this"

No idea who he is, but he must be at least an insei or better OMG

But the really funny part is that his endgame is complete garbage, except the match ends before he ever gets there lol

Anyway, go to the expert room and watch ASAP

Seriously, watching this live is like watching Street Fighter』

┗ Anonymous: That bastard just destroyed me too. Got finished in five minutes -_-

┗ Go Gallery User 1: His style is seriously like Han Seun back in 2005

┗ Anonymous: But judging by how terrible his endgame is, he must be human

┗ GoNotGomoku: If he's not a pro, he's an insei, and if he's not an insei, he's AI

┗ Anonymous: He's not an insei. If an insei played like that, his instructor would smash his head in with a Go board

┗ Go Gallery User 2: Maybe he already got smashed and lost his mind, which is why he plays like that lololol

┗ Anonymous: I seriously pissed myself when I saw that upper-left corner attachment

┗ Anonymous: If his identity gets revealed, I'm quitting this gallery for real

┗ Anonymous: If his nickname is literally Dangsan-ri, couldn't someone just investigate the Go parlors there and identify him?

┗ Go Gallery User 3: If someone played like that at a Go parlor, he'd already be famous without us having to look for him.

...

"Holy shit... What on earth is this?"

Those were the first words of National Champion Han Seun, South Korea's leading Go player, who held the record for the most international tournament victories and had won the National Championship title thirteen times, upon seeing Jinseong's game records.

National Champion Han Seun called Master Park Gidong again.

(You saw it? I told you it was insane.)

"You've already asked around, right? Which master's student is he?"

(Don't know.)

"Stop joking. Is it Master Kwon? Or Master Hong?"

(I'm telling you, I really don't know. I called around too, but nobody knows. They all said they were asking everyone else as well. This guy just appeared out of nowhere.)

"That's a lie. This fellow definitely has a teacher behind him. You can clearly see his moves becoming subtly more refined with every game."

(That's what I'm asking! Who's training this kid? And why have they kept him hidden instead of entering him in tournaments?)

"Find out and get back to me."

(Wait, how am I supposed to...)

-Click.

It had been a long time since he'd encountered such entertaining game records, and any further conversation would only be a distraction.