In early July, as temperatures soared, the sound of cicadas filled the air, buzzing relentlessly.
The annual Go Promotion Tournant had finally co to an end after intense battles.
At the sa ti, the second sester of Yu Shao’s first year of high school was also drawing to a close.
Sumr vacation was just around the corner.
"When you return from break, you’ll all be second-year students. Make sure to rest well over the next two months, but also stay safe. No matter how hot it gets, don’t go swimming in the river."
Standing at the podium, Li Kang gave his final words of advice. "Alright, have a great sumr break!"
"Woohoo!"
Even before Li Kang had left the classroom, the students erupted in cheers, their faces brimming with excitent.
This ti, Li Kang didn’t bother stopping them.
After all, the sester had ended, the academic pressure was gone, and it was only natural for the students to let loose a little.
The mont he stepped out, the classroom grew even more chaotic.
So students even mimicked scenes from movies, dramatically tearing up their textbooks in a display of youthful rebellion.
"Dude, are you crazy? We’re in first year, not third! We’re not changing classes next year—our horoom teacher is still Li Kang! And that was our sumr howork!"
"S**! Tape! Soone lend so tape, quick!"
The student who had shredded his book panicked, scrambling to gather the torn pieces while frantically looking for tape.
"Old Yu, did you check the results of this year’s Go Promotion Tournant?"
As Yu Shao packed his bag, Zhou De leaned in and asked.
"No, why?"
Yu Shao casually stuffed his sumr howork into his bag as he replied.
"That guy from the Go League—the one who talked to you—he beca a professional player!"
Zhou De looked amazed. "And get this—he didn’t lose a single ga! From the preliminaries to the finals, he won every single match. The internet is going crazy about him!"
"So he qualified as a pro, huh…"
Yu Shao wasn’t surprised by this outco.
From what he had seen of Zheng Qin’s skill, qualifying for professional status wasn’t an issue at all.
After all, in their second ga, Yu Shao had underestimated him and almost let him even the score. In the end, he had to play ruthlessly to secure the win.
"Wait, you didn’t know about this?"
Zhou De looked at him in disbelief. "Every year, newly promoted pro players cause a stir—kind of like top scorers in the national college entrance exam."
"And he qualified with a flawless record. That’s like getting a perfect score on the exam! I looked it up—our region hasn’t had a perfect promotion record in five years!"
The student sitting in front of them turned around and chid in.
"You guys are talking about Zheng Qin? Yeah, I saw it too! My feed has been flooded with short clips about him. He’s even trending!"
"No way."
Yu Shao found it hard to believe.
He knew that Go wasn’t exactly a mainstream sport in this world. However, because it had spread internationally much earlier, its global influence was substantial.
Still, for soone to trend just for qualifying as a pro—even with a flawless record—that was completely beyond his expectations.
In his past life, a Go player wouldn’t hit the trending list unless they won a world championship.
And the gap between winning a world title and simply qualifying as a pro was… well, astronomical—like the difference between a rookie martial artist and a legendary grandmaster!
"Why would I lie?"
The student in front pulled out his phone, opened Weibo’s trending list, and handed it to Yu Shao.
"Look, number thirty-two."
"Damn! You brought your phone and didn’t hand it in!" Zhou De imdiately latched onto the real issue, pointing an accusatory finger at him.
The student remained unfazed. "So what? School’s over now."
Yu Shao glanced at the phone. Sure enough, the 32nd trending topic was—
"A New 1-Dan Pro with a Perfect Record!"
He was just about to look away when his eyes caught sothing even more surprising—
Ranked 7th on the trending list was another Go-related topic.
And it even had the red "HOT" label, aning its popularity was skyrocketing and would likely climb even higher—
"Zhuang Weisheng Advances to the Tengen Title Match!"
"Zhuang Weisheng…"
Yu Shao had seen this na many tis before.
He had studied nurous gas played by Zhuang Weisheng and was quite familiar with his style.
"See? I wasn’t lying!"
The student took his phone back and raised an eyebrow at Yu Shao. "Feeling the pressure now? Becoming a pro isn’t that easy."
Back at the High School Go League, Yu Shao and his team had defeated South China Third High, which had two forr dojo trainees, to win the championship.
Because of that, so students at his school believed he had a shot at going pro.
But just as many doubted it.
After all, beating forr dojo trainees wasn’t exactly a world-shaking achievent.
Regardless of which side they stood on, however, they all shared a common sentint—
"Please, for the love of God, don’t actually beco a pro!"
No one wanted to see a classmate turn into the legendary "child from soone else’s family"—a peer who made them look worse by comparison.
Failing on their own was one thing.
Watching soone else succeed was far more unbearable.
Yu Shao chuckled but didn’t argue. He simply said,
"I’m still just taking my ranking exams. I don’t even have an amateur dan yet. Let’s see if I can make it to 5-dan first. Who knows, I might not even get that far."
"Exactly!"
Zhou De nodded in agreent and turned to the other student.
"Old Yu might have so skills, but going pro is way too hard. But since he’s my bro, I believe in him. Wanna make a bet?"
"Huh?"
The student blinked. "What kind of bet?"
With the air of a martyr, Zhou De declared, "Let’s bet on whether Old Yu will go pro! I’ll put in 100 yuan—just think of it as a donation. That money represents my support and good wishes for my bro!"
Yu Shao shot him a speechless look, shook his head, and said,
"Alright, I’m heading out. See you next sester."
Without waiting for a reply, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and left the classroom.
Later, at ho, Yu Shao stepped into his bedroom, set down his bag, and let out a slow breath.
He fell into deep thought.
For the next year, until the next Go Promotion Tournant, he would have to climb through the ranking and amateur dan exams again.
The difficulty wasn’t an issue.
But the process… was going to be a hassle.
This year, he couldn't afford to idle away his ti.
Since he had decided to sharpen his offensive skills and eliminate his weaknesses in this life, he needed to play more gas—a lot more.
"Online Go, then?"
"I'll train as a purely attack-oriented player, using online gas to gradually adapt to this playstyle!"
With that thought in mind, Yu Shao walked over to his computer, powered it on, and began searching for Go platforms.
It didn’t take long for him to find the top options.
In China, the most popular Go platform was Handtalk Chronicles.
But globally, the most widely used platform was Nineteen—nad after the nineteen lines that form the Go board.
In other words, Handtalk Chronicles was the dostic server, while Nineteen was the international server.
That said, just like in online gaming, many Chinese players still played on the international platform.
After a mont’s thought, Yu Shao made his decision.
He clicked his mouse, downloaded the Nineteen client, and quickly registered an account.
Soon, he reached the userna creation screen.
Since Nineteen was an international platform, usernas couldn’t contain Chinese characters.
Yu Shao had no idea what na to use, so he simply typed in a random string of letters—
shdiide.
"Alright, this will do."
He didn’t particularly care about his ID. He clicked the confirmation button, and since the na wasn’t taken, registration was successful.
Without hesitation, he clicked again to start matchmaking.
A few monts later, he found an opponent.
Yu Shao glanced at the other player’s ID and couldn’t help but chuckle—
His opponent’s na was also a random jumble of letters: ssssshjg.
And just like him, they had zero gas played, aning they had likely just downloaded the platform as well.
"Oh? You can do a turn order guess?"
Yu Shao raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Most online Go platforms randomly assign black and white stones after matchmaking, with no guessing process.
But here, although he had initially been assigned Black, the system allowed him to click either one or two black stones to guess whether the total number of stones picked would be odd or even.
Yu Shao moved his mouse and clicked two black stones, choosing even.
A mont later, the results appeared.
His opponent had also clicked two white stones—also even.
That ant Yu Shao would play Black this ga.
Without hesitation, he moved his mouse and placed his first move in the upper-right corner—
Column 16, Row 4—Star Point.
Click.
As soon as he made his move, a realistic stone placent sound effect played, crisp and satisfying.
His opponent quickly responded with a white stone.
Column 4, Row 16—Star Point.
The ga opened with a Star-Small Point against a Double Star Point formation.
Both players placed their stones swiftly, and within monts, they had already played ten moves.
"Not bad. This isn’t a beginner."
Yu Shao nodded to himself.
He had expected to run into players like Zhou De—complete beginners—but from the opening moves alone, his opponent clearly had so Go experience.
However, it was still too early to judge their skill level.
After thinking for a mont, Yu Shao clicked his mouse again and placed his next move.
Click.
Column 16, Row 9—Flying Press.
This move caught his opponent off guard.
For the first ti, instead of responding imdiately, they hesitated—thinking for a long ti before finally making their move.
Column 12, Row 4—Flying Press!
"Oh? They countered with a Flying Press too?"
Yu Shao was slightly surprised.
White had ignored his probing move and instead bit back aggressively, applying a Flying Press on the upper-right Black stones.
It was a direct clash of strength.
But Yu Shao didn’t dwell on it.
He simply adjusted his grip on the mouse and placed another move.
Soon, the crisp sounds of stone placent filled the room, echoing one after another.
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