Chapter 109. The Realm of Talent (6)
A Go stone fell from the sky out of nowhere. It was gigantic, nearly two meters across striking the stage.
Screams rang out from the distance where people had failed to dodge in time.
“Heads!” one person screamed.
“Aaaah!” another woman shrieked.
Perhaps due to being cramped together watching the stage, they hadn’t run. Instead, they collided with one another and became trapped, unable to flee.
“M-my leg! Aaaaah!” someone wailed.
“Help! Somebody help me, please!” another cried out.
A woman cried, clutching a crushed leg to her chest. At that sight, Sol-Ah was about to bolt forward.
Swoooosh—
Just then, another Go stone blotted out the sky.
“What the?!”
“This is insane! What is going on?”
Voices full of bewilderment and terror rose from all directions.
Thud!
“What on earth is happening?!” Ji-Eun asked, glancing around in a panic.
No one really knew what had happened, but one thing was clear.
“A grand match it said...” Eun-Ho replied.
[Subject Wei’s Grand Match has been activated!]
It had to be the ability of the child on the stage. On a closer look, even the thick index and middle fingers were smooth and unwrinkled, like those of a young kid.
Could this be a power to bring a Go board into the real world? Eun-Ho thought.
Moreover, the stones could also be enlarged more than a hundredfold. Eun-Ho had never seen such an ability before.
“Shit! How can someone call this a talent show?!” Swear-Master shouted.
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to say!”
“Hey! Where’s the MC? Why isn’t she stopping this?!” Swear-Master exploded toward the hovering air.
Perhaps in response, the once-composed hostess finally chimed in.
[Hmm—]
The hostess murmured. Was she finally going to intervene? People craned their necks to look at the floating hostess. However, instead of stopping the chaos, she only sounded delighted.
[What a unique performance!]
[Are we about to see a blood-soaked war?]
“What the hell is that bitch saying right now?!”
The hostess merely tossed her high ponytail and continued, unfazed.
[It seems like the CN district is intending to wipe out survivors from other districts!]
[Hmm... Well, that’ll definitely secure first place!]
[Isn’t that what they call killing two birds with one stone?]
The child’s move, coupled with the hostess’ nonchalant reaction, sent a chill crawling down their spine.
[Oh, isn’t that against the rules, you ask?]
[Not at all!]
[Because we said anything goes as long as it’s on stage!]
[In one hour, a channel for the talent show will open! Each district will perform together. The theme is completely free! As long as it’s on stage, anything goes!]
Naturally, no one had expected it’d include the option to kill everyone else.
[The theme is completely free, after all!]
[They prepared a truly special stage!]
***
Bang!
A gunshot rang so loud it felt like his ears would go deaf. When Eun-Ho turned his head, he saw Ji-Eun holding an old-fashioned rifle. It was longer than a pistol, but shorter than a rifle. Besides, her focus was terrifyingly absolute.
For a moment, he thought even Ji-Eun wouldn’t be able to shatter a stone that big with bullets. Then, Ji-Eun fired a string of golden rounds into the center of the Go stone, stabbing point after point, as if drawing a vertical line with dots.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang—!
Into the gap she had made, she drove a floating dagger like a plunging stake.
Thud! Crack!
Then, the enormous black stone split cleanly in two.
“Uaaaaah!” Jae-Hyuk howled between strikes as he kept hammering the black stones with his mace.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Psss!
Dozens of studs embedded in the mace burrowed into the black stones. The stones couldn’t hold, fissures raced across them and they shattered. The force was blunt yet undeniably effective.
“How much longer do we have to do this for?!”
“My god, my whole body aches!
Sol-Ah volunteered. “I’ll try to heal!”
Wei was placing stones faster than they could be removed. Even when pieces shattered, new stones descended without pause.
“Don’t just stop there! Get out!”
“No! I can’t! We’re trapped!”
Screams from those who had attempted to flee gave a clear impression that until this match was over, no one could leave this area.
[04:20]
Still, there were about four minutes remaining.
We could probably hold out if we had to, but we can’t just run forever, Eun-Ho thought.
People would grow tired, and above all, they didn't know the limits of Wei's ability. If Wei removed their line of defense and did something unpredictable, what would they do then?
“In that case, we have to strike the host,” Eun-Ho said.
“Huh?”
“Hyungnim! D-do you mean Wei?” Jae-Hyuk asked, looking from Eun-Ho to the stage, his face going pale.
There, said genius Go player was surrounded so tightly by bodyguards that he was almost invincible.
“But there are so many guards... It’s too dangerous!” Ji-Eun shouted, her face white.
“Let me—” she began, then hesitated, frowning as she chose her words warily.
She probably wanted to say something like “I’ll just shoot him,” but Eun-Ho knew how hard the idea of shooting a ten-year-old was for Ji-Eun.
“No. If you do that, they might focus every attack on you. It’s too dangerous,” Eun-Ho said calmly.
“Then what...”
“I’ll go,” Eun-Ho said without drama.
Ji-Eun’s already pale face went even whiter, her voice trembling. “I-it’s dangerous for you too, Eun-Ho. It’ll take a long time to get to the stage, and if anything hits you on the way—”
The distance to the stage was almost five hundred meters. It wasn’t an impossible distance, but cutting through the crowd wouldn’t be easy. On top of that, the place had become chaos from people dodging the ceaselessly falling Go stones.
“It would be dangerous if I went there myself,” Eun-Ho said.
“Huh? How could you not go directly?”
There was a way, because he had a devastating guided weapon.
[Restored Brahmastra]
- A legendary arrow said to have been wielded by an ancient god.
- Pursues and strikes its designated target without fail.
- Once worn down by bombardment and the passage of time, it was carefully restored by a genius researcher.
- Originally, the weapon chose its own master, but modified to forcibly bind to an owner in the restoration process.
“Summon,” Eun-Ho said.
Then, a ribbon of smoke curled over his palm. The strange vapor turned in on itself as if finding its place, then stretched into a long shaft with a pointed tip. The artifact alone made everyone recoil in shock. Was it right to reveal this now? Wei had just laid bare his power for all to see, which was a proof of how seriously he intended to win this talent show.
However, there was a warning.
[Would you like to activate the Restored Brahmastra?]
[Note, due to repeated short-term use, the durability may be reduced.]
The durability may be reduced? Eun-Ho thought.
The weapon chased its target and struck as if guided by divinity. Its overwhelming power apparently came with restrictions. Eun-Ho made a note to find out what “short-term repeated use” meant later.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Aaaah!”
“P-please, help! Aaah!”
He could not afford even the briefest hesitation. The screams and cries of pain ringing out pressed harder on him than his conscience ever could.
“Stop! Fold! You won, please, stop!” someone begged.
In that instant, a thought flashed through Eun-Ho’s mind.
Go player. A grand match. The rows of stones laid like a black wall. If this was really Go... There might be a way to win without using the arrow, Eun-Ho thought.
He wondered, desperately, whether there was a way to win without using his ability. Then, he ran straight ahead—not toward the stage, but one of the black stones.
“Eun-Ho?! Where are you going?!”
As he climbed onto one of the black stones, the hostess made an exclamation.
[ROK district representative Lee Eun-Ho! What is he thinking?!]
“Hey, Young Man! Why are you getting up there?!” the security guard shouted.
“Mister! What are you doing?! Get down right now!”
[Oh goodness! Does he mean to throw himself in front of danger?!]
No way, miss, Eun-Ho thought.
Climbing up onto a two-meter-plus Go stone wasn’t as hard as it sounded. Unlike the small stones people usually saw, the surface was flat, so balancing on top of it was easy. Maybe it helped that they were Chinese-style stones.
Then, when he finally stood on top of the black boulder as if reaching a mountain summit, the finger that had just set down a black stone froze in midair.
“Hyuuuungniiiim!” Jae-Hyuk cried out.
The index and middle fingers, losing their rhythm, twitched as if they’d lost their line of play.
[Huh? Subject Wei! He stopped!]
Even the fingers betrayed hesitation. Eun-Ho could tell that Wei was cautiously thinking of his next move. His fingers couldn’t flick Eun-Ho nor retrieve the one he just placed. Instead, his hand retreated with no gain.
Just as I thought...
“What? He’s just leaving?”
“Wait. Maybe he didn’t see Eun-Ho.”
All eyes turned toward the stage. The crowd murmured, full of fear and confusion.
“Summon,” Eun-Ho said.
Instead of a guided missile, he held out a torch.
[Would you like to activate the Capital Beacon Torch?]
[Choose between Beacon Fire and Beacon Smoke.]
He inhaled sharply. The next moment, the crowd’s noise fell away. Of course, it wasn’t because they had closed their mouths in unison. The torch’s authority—which was a quiet, smoke-like hush that quelled noise—filled the air.
“This is Go!” Eun-Ho shouted.
[Empowered by the Beacon, your voice projects with unnatural clarity.]
“What?!”
“That kid has been lining up the Go stones! There must be invisible lines!” Eun-Ho shouted again.
If it really was Go, there would be lines drawn across the board. That would explain why the black stones stood like a dark wall, neatly in rows. What mattered now was that if there were lines to place stones on, there would be space between the lines as well.
“Find the gaps between the stones and stand beside them!” Eun-Ho shouted.
“What did you say?!”
“It could work!”
People began to stir uneasily and the Go player’s hand moved faster too.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The sound of stones being placed was like the judge’s gavel confirming that Eun-Ho’s words were right.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
“If that fails, climb onto one of the already placed stones! Move! Now!”
He shouted with increasing certainty.
“Is this for real?”
“What if he just picks us up and throws us with it?!”
Many of them were skeptical, but some who knew him were quicker to judge.
“He just saw me and moved on. That shows that a stone can’t be moved once placed. It’s just like the real Go.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, I guess that’s true!”
“It’s not impossible!”
Those who knew Eun-Ho acted fast.
“Come over here! Through the gap!”
“P-please, help me go up!”
People crawled, hung on, and pulled each other through the openings. They hid between the stones or climbed atop the stones as if boarding Noah’s Ark itself. Then, Wei placed a single black stone on an empty patch of ground, followed by another one.
Thud! Thud!
“He... he stopped!”
The hand that had been placing stones hesitated, fingers curling back to their original position.
[What?! I can’t believe it!]
[Subject Lee Eun-Ho must have found a path to survival!]
[Is it really going to end just like this?]
Neither the hostess’ excited chatter nor the startled movements of Wei’s guards changed anything. However, Eun-Ho noticed something.
He’s not startled, but it’s more than that. He’s probably calculating the time remaining, the next moves, and the inevitable end of the grand match.
[CN Zone, what will you do now?]
Wei had probably realized that any further move would be meaningless. Eun-Ho had read, in the boy’s calm retreat, a deliberately measured resignation. He almost saw it as a declaration of “I’ll yield this round.”
A tense stillness lingered for several long seconds. Then, two black stones landed side by side on the bare ground.
Thud!
Immediately, a system message rang out.
[Go Player, Wei, has been defeated by resignation!]
[The grand match has ended.]
Resignation meant the choice to end the game without counting the territories. A quiet yet unmistakable surrender.
[Resign? Huh?!]
The hostess’ voice cracked in surprise. However, it wasn’t just because the game had ended suddenly, nor because Wei had forfeited.
[Wait. Wait! Hold on!]
[This is CN district’s stage! Not ROK’s stage!]
“What the hell is that lunatic doing now?!” Swear-Master muttered.
[My god! After watching the CN district's stage, you still want to sponsor the ROK district?!]
[Round of applause for Subject Lee Eun-Ho’s incredible judgment!]
“Shit! No, wait, I mean, cancel that, cancel that!”
“They are donating to us?! That’s insane!”
With that last reckless shout, the hostess announced an unexpected bonus.
[The ROK district receives an additional 1,000 Welfare Point sponsorship! That brings to a total of 58,000 Welfare Points!]
Eun-Ho had tried to avoid revealing his ability, using every bit of cunning to misdirect attention, yet somehow, it had paid off better than planned.
“It’s over, right?!”
“Yeah, it’s done!”
From on top of, beside, and below the black stones, cheers burst out all at once.
Clatter!
“Huh?”
A faint vibration trembled beneath his feet.
Clatter! Clatter! Clack! Clatter!
“Huh? W-wait!”
The Go stones carrying people began to shake violently, like ships caught in a storm.
Wait... No way! Eun-Ho thought.
When a Go match ended, the only place for the remaining stones to go was only one place.
“Jump down! Now!”
“W-what?!”
“Now!”
Eun-Ho leaped.
Thud!
He shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice cutting through the chaos, “Move! Jump!”
People followed his cry without understanding why. They tumbled down, pulled one another, caught hands, and landed hard on the ground.
Rumble—!
Then, the black stones erupted upward all at once. It was just like artillery shells firing, as if hundreds of geysers bursting skyward. The sight was reminiscent of time rewinding itself to reassemble shattered glass.
Thud! Thud! Clatter—
Those who hadn’t jumped in time were thrown, struck, or pinned under the rising stones, crying out in pain. Eun-Ho flinched and looked toward the stage where his eyes met the boy’s.
That expression...
It was empty. His expression was too emotionless and too unreadable for a child’s face. Then, within that blankness, a flicker or a strange glint passed like the end of a song.
[Time’s up!]
[The talent show has ended!]
The talent show had ended with the hostess’ final announcement.
[Drumroll!]
[You’re all curious, right?]
[Then, let’s announce the final winning district!]