This bug is amazing!

Chapter 299 Playing Chess
"."

Ying was stunned by the question.

His expression showed a mix of emotions, but he stubbornly refrained from answering Ji Yi.

"It seems my guess was pretty close, with only slight differences in the details."

As he spoke, Ji Yi took out the last panacea that Miss Cat had given him.

"This is a panacea that can cure all injuries and diseases, and even bring the dead back to life."

As she spoke, Ji Yi pointed to her temples.

"So at first I was thinking that as long as I took this medicine, maybe all the things that were implanted in my body could be completely eliminated."

Upon hearing this, Ying's head swayed almost imperceptibly from side to side.

Ji Yi noticed this detail and continued speaking:
"But if the things left behind by the evil god were really that easy to deal with, I would like to make an assumption now."

He held up three fingers:

"My three souls, Jin Yi and Hei Yi, should essentially be one."

"So in a sense, I might be considered schizophrenic, or have multiple personalities? Never mind, let's not get into the academic terminology."

Ji Yi slowly brought the three together:
"Unlike mental illness, the two guys inside me are most likely not pathological. Even if I treat them as an illness, there is only one outcome: a three-in-one combination."

"The split souls have merged into one, and I will no longer be who I am now, but will become a fusion of three wills. This inevitably raises new problems. Hmm, let's get back to Hei Yi."

“His condition is clearly abnormal. It is a negative emotion that has been separated for some reason. Once he is completely brought back to me, I will have to bear this abnormality. To put it simply, it is like pouring a bowl of dirty water into a bowl of clean water. I naturally cannot remain unaffected.”

After all, a panacea is a healing drug, not a transformative one.

It is normal for people to have negative emotions. On the contrary, it is abnormal to lose emotions such as fear and anger. Ji Yi cannot completely eliminate Hei Yi, so he can only accept and endure it.

As for the final outcome, nobody knows.

"so."

Ji Yi gave a concluding speech.

"For me, maintaining the status quo is probably the best option. Otherwise, if I were to truly confront the darkness within myself, I'm afraid I wouldn't be as clear-headed as I am now, right?"

Upon hearing this, Xie Jiayi gave Ji Yi a deep look, her brows furrowing with worry.

Ying's expression changed from mixed feelings at the beginning to astonishment, and after Ji Yi finished speaking, her expression became extremely solemn.

After a while, he slowly spoke:
"Now I understand why the evil god chose you, kid."

Ji Yi nodded slightly, revealing an expression that said, "You flatter me."

"So now, Lord Shadow, are you willing to clear up some of my doubts?"

"Hmph! You've already guessed pretty much everything, why are you still asking!"

He snorted coldly and pointed again at the chessboard at his feet:

"Let's play chess first. Damn it, it's been so long since anyone played with me, my hands are itching to play. There are some things you don't need to guess, I was planning to tell you anyway, but first you have to play a few games with me."

Ji Yi smiled sheepishly: "I was too hasty. Well then, I'll play a few rounds with you."

Ying: "Why does your tone of voice sound a bit strange?"

Ji Yi walked back to his "throne" with his hands behind his back:
"You must be mistaken. Okay, can we talk about the rules now?"

At this moment, both sides have pieces standing on the 16 squares in the 2 rows. Apart from the king or queen occupied by the player, the rest of the pieces are enlarged versions of ordinary chess pieces, each only about 1.5 meters tall. They are arranged on the 9-square-meter chessboard, which looks somewhat sparse.

"By the way, before we begin, could you please ask again, are the rules still the same as last time, with rewards regardless of winning or losing?"

"Hmph, what a load of rubbish. If you lose, get out of here and don't even think about going to the next level."

Wow, that's really strict.

Ji Yi vaguely remembered that Lao Ying was easy to coax?
"Alright, now I'll explain the rules. Just by looking at the board, you two should know that the piece movement rules are the same as in international chess, there's nothing to go into detail about."

Ji Yi nodded:
"If the rules of action remain the same, then the difference lies in the rules of capturing pieces, right?"

“Clever, but I’m not surprised anymore.”

Ying casually said, then waved his arm, and a phantom projection appeared above each of the black pieces in his camp.

"Similar to the rules of a game of chess, each piece is in a hidden state before it collides with another piece, and their true form is these [Chess Spirits]."

Ji Yi stroked his chin, listening while glancing at the phantom image above the opponent's chess piece.

Dragon Soaring Through the Sky, Stitched Demon, Hundred-Eyed Demon King.
Why do all these characters in the game "Hikaru no Go" look so familiar?

Ying quickly answered the question:

"The black side [Chess Spirit] is selected from the NPCs or BOSSes that you have opposed in your dungeon experiences. Of course, these guys have no relation to the original body, but only have the same combat power or ability."

"Conversely, the white [Hikaru no Go] is selected from dungeon characters whose affinity level is at least Friendly. That makes sense, right?"

At this point, Ying chuckled:
"Logically speaking, the strength of the pieces on both sides shouldn't be too different, but if you're unlucky and don't have any strong allies in the dungeon, then I'm sorry."

Upon hearing this, Xie Jiayi glanced at Ji Yi beside her.

Ji Yi felt the gaze and looked at her in return.

Her expression seemed to say, "So you've been playing a very big game all along, haven't you?"

Ji Yi pursed her lips awkwardly, but secretly she was delighted that her old connections were finally coming in handy.

Looks like this is a lucky draw.

Unaware of this, Ying continued explaining the rules:

"The two players take turns moving according to the rules of chess, but when two pieces collide, the [Chess Spirit] will be revealed and a duel will take place."

"There are two conditions for winning: one is to kill the opponent's piece, and the other is to knock the opponent's piece out of the game."

Ying stomped her foot, indicating the 3x3 meter grid beneath her feet.

This area is more than enough to place chess pieces, but too small to be used as a fighting arena.

Take the Hundred-Eyed Demon King as an example; it's difficult for it to fit even a single square. I wonder if this is an advantage or a disadvantage when judging whether a move is out of bounds.

In short, from this perspective, the outcome of a chess duel is not purely determined by strength.

"After the [Hikaru no Go] is revealed, the rules for the pieces' movement will not change. They can continue to move according to their original roles, such as pawn, rook, knight, etc."

"The victory condition is simply to kill the opponent's king."

"Wait, then I have a question."

Ji Yi raised her hand: "You, 'King,' could it be that all my pieces combined can't beat you?"

Ying chuckled: "Then why should I play a game of chess with you? I can just declare myself the winner."

As he spoke, he plucked a hair from his head and threw it on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, the hair rapidly expanded and grew to a height of over two meters, and its appearance was indistinguishable from the shadow.

【Name: Shadow (An embodiment of a trace of power)】

Rating: SS

[Danger Level: Extremely Dangerous] [Description: Formed from a single hair of the Shadow, but its power is less than that of a single cell of the original body. It is likely that most of its power was extracted before it was removed from the body.]

Ji Yi: "."

Well, Ying really knows how to play the game.

With a leap, Ying floated into the vast starry sky, looking down at the chessboard below.

"Apart from the black king, and the white king and queen, both sides' spirits can be placed among any pieces as they wish, with no preparation time."

He was about to say "unlimited," but then something unpleasant seemed to trigger a bad memory, and he changed his words:

"You have one hour to prepare. The game rules are simple: one round to decide the winner. You better watch out, kid. If your king is killed, it means you have failed to clear the Magic Tower. At that point, no matter what questions you have, they will remain unanswered."

After saying that, he waved his hand again, and a stack of cards appeared in front of Ji Yi and Miss Cat respectively.

"These are the available Go characters listed by the system based on your experience. Don't worry, I won't peek."

'Really? But I'll peek.'

Ji Yi looked at a pawn on the opposite side.

【Name: Soldier 4】

Hikaru no Go: Hundred-Eyed Demon King

All of Black's chess pieces were now clearly visible to Ji Yi. There was no way around it; the Eye of Data was best at looking at data.

Doesn't that seem a bit unfair? It looks like we're bullying them.

Well, these are all rules that can be exploited. The game system hasn't said anything, so play with peace of mind.

Thinking about it, Ji Yi picked up the stack of character cards in front of her.

His first focus was naturally on the strongest pieces in the deck. After all, in this kind of game, only they could determine the outcome; the other pieces were just extras or tools used to confuse the enemy.

This is like a game of Animal Chess without the "rat" (a type of chess piece). The elephant is the strongest, and whoever has more elephants has a greater chance of winning.

After sorting out his thoughts, he carefully examined the card, and then his brows gradually furrowed.

Both sides' highest combat power is SS-level, that's correct.

But on their side, they only have Maeda Misaki as their ace.

The pieces on the board for Shadow include Shimizu Bamboo (SS), Stitched Ghost (SS-), and Shadow's clone (SS).

How to fight this?
Ji Yi glanced at the cat beside her.

Miss Cat's hand doesn't have any SS-rank characters, but it does have quite a few S-rank characters, including Xuanmiao.

After a moment's thought, Ji Yi began whispering to Miss Cat to discuss tactics.

An hour passed in the blink of an eye.

"You really did use up a full hour of combat readiness time, but what surprised me was that you didn't keep asking me questions this time."

Ying's voice carried a hint of sarcasm.

Ji Yi smiled:
"The rules have been explained clearly enough, so there's no need to ask too many questions. But the arrangement of the Hikaru no Go characters has really troubled me for a long time."

Shadow: "Why?"

Ji Yi sighed, "I don't even have a single SS-level unit. Even if I have perfect strategies and use superior marksmen and inferior horses every step of the way, I still don't have the ability to kill the king. Doesn't this game have to end in a draw?"

Upon hearing this, Ying was taken aback for a moment, then scratched her head:
"Well, that is a problem."

Even if a king or soldier of SS rank is incredibly powerful, as long as the rules of action remain unchanged, they will lose the ability to truly decide the outcome of a battle.

After all, to achieve the conditions required for "checkmate", it usually requires the encirclement and killing of several pieces.

In this situation, the disparity in combat strength can easily lead to a stalemate, although Shadow doesn't need to worry about this.

However, the game still needs to be fair. At least the situation of a draw should be considered, such as one side only having the strongest king left, while the other side has many pieces but cannot defeat the king.

The situation will then evolve into a situation where the king is chasing a bunch of pieces, and eventually it will inevitably turn into one king chasing another king in circles.

"It was my oversight. This game was just something I came up with on a whim, so it's bound to have some flaws."

Ying Wei apologized slightly, then added a new rule:
“I won’t take advantage of you either. Let’s add a new rule to the game – the winner is determined after 50 moves. After 50 moves, the side with more pieces wins.”

Ji Yi was a little embarrassed:
"Isn't this a bit inappropriate? Won't this rule be disadvantageous to you?"

Ying's eyes widened:
"Hey kid, don't act all innocent after getting the benefits. If there's a loophole in the rules, just change it, right?"

"Ok."

Ji Yi reluctantly agreed, "Then I shall respectfully comply. Shall we begin?"

Ying nodded: "Okay, let's begin."

As soon as he finished speaking, a black soldier took two steps forward.

Seeing this, Ji Yi hesitated for a moment, then had his other soldier take a step forward instead of clashing head-on with the enemy.

His understanding of chess is limited to the superficial rules of piece movement. To be honest, his skill and technique are far inferior to his level when playing Three Kingdoms Kill.

However, in this modified game, the rules of chess play a much smaller role. In fact, it is more like a blind gamble and a game of strategy, testing psychological tactics.

"Why are you playing so cautiously? Kid, just have fun!"

After saying that, he directly moved two black pieces to the path where Ji Yi was holding the army.

The two soldiers faced each other across a square, just two steps away from the start of their first battle.

Ji Yi's face immediately showed difficulty. After thinking for a moment, he released the horse on his side to defend.

As if reading Ji Yi's mind, Ying stopped advancing.

He chuckled, switched soldiers, and took two more steps forward.

Seeing this, Ji Yi's expression became even more serious, and he took even longer to think.

Seeing this, Ying began to comfort Ji Yi:
"Hehe, I think you've already figured it out. If your pieces are of poor quality, no matter how skillful you are in managing your pieces, it's hard to win. Don't worry, it's not your fault if you lose. This isn't a game of chess that can be solved by being smart or not; it's unfair from the start."

As he spoke, Ying spread his hands again:

"But there's nothing I can do. Who told you that during this game, the quality of your enemies was higher than the quality of your friends? Are you just too fond of offending people?"

Ying rubbed her chin:

"It's said that people with high IQs may have lower EQs. Are you a typical example of this? That can't be right, can it?"

Just as Ying was speaking, Ji Yi finally made a decision and took the soldier that had just been pushed forward a step further.

At this moment, the two soldiers, one in black and one in white, were facing each other.

"Heh, you little rascal. Do you think I'd fall for such an obvious trap? But I'll let you have it anyway."

Shadow immediately lifted his black soldier up.

Then, it collided with Ji Yi's white pawn on a square, and the pieces of both sides seemed to have undergone a chemical reaction, beginning to change shape.

(End of this chapter)