Chapter 59: Divine Move (4)
“Hmmm.”
“What should we do.”
The Immortals, having returned to the Heavenly Realm, sat in the pavilion with grave expressions, lost in thought.
Charging recklessly to Mago Goddess and arguing that the Dabang was rely a stop on the way to the Heavenly Realm had been a grand success.
‘Now that you say it, it makes sense. Hoho.’
And so they had received an anticlimactically easy permission.
The problem was that the disciple they had painstakingly sought out had kicked them out. In just one day.
“Where do you think the blunder was?”
“In the review of the seventh match, you explained too verbosely.”
“If we're talking about that, what about you? Going on about philosophy and whatnot, talking in riddles!”
“What did you say?”
“Stop it. What good does it do to argue amongst ourselves?”
“Ahem!”
It was clearly a blunder.
If they were to offer to take soone in as a disciple, it was only proper for the person to weep and bow respectfully to their master.
But the situation had unfolded in a completely unexpected direction.
Far from respect, they were t with an unfeeling eviction, the likes of which they had never heard before.
“To think soone with such enlightened eyes would talk about money...”
“He must know that even a single word of our teaching is worth a thousand gold.”
Baduk was said to be another universe, holding the principles of all things on the board.
Perhaps that was why? Rulers who once sought to dominate the world or sages who aid to enlighten the masses had all co looking for them through Baduk.
They offered gold and jewels, with hundreds of attendants in tow, begging to beco disciples.
For a year—no, even for just a single move—they knelt and pleaded. Yet the Immortals never took anyone as a disciple, nor did they even give a small teaching.
Because those who glimpsed the world through Baduk half-heartedly almost always ended up trying to place stones on the board.
With their petty knowledge and wisdom, they acted as though they were gods, carelessly judging black and white.
But Jinseong was on a completely different level from such shallow people.
He declined to play even when they offered directly, using humility as an excuse.
And when they did manage to seat him in front of the board after much coaxing?
He unleashed a chaotic slaughter under the guise of a Baduk ga.
They were the ones who, srized by that ungraspable playing style, had proposed discipleship.
And the reply they received was:
‘I’m not very interested in Baduk. If you co by, I can serve you coffee, but I must decline becoming a disciple.’
Truly preposterous.
Even the Emperor of the Great Ga had never received such a golden opportunity.
He should have wept and bowed, and yet his brazen attitude was incomprehensible.
For Jinseong, who even raised the Divine Tree as an adopted daughter, they were nothing more than a few old n he had exchanged greetings with in passing—a notion so unthinkable that the four Immortals couldn’t begin to comprehend the situation.
“Haha, it's a jangseng.”
Jangseng (長生).
A form where white and black repeatedly make the sa move to live—it was an extrely rare state that might appear once in a thousand years.
And it suited the current situation all too well.
Jinseong was likewise a once-in-millennia disciple worthy of their recognition, yet he was not a disciple.
However, the form of jangseng was disadvantageous for the Immortals.
Since the standoff continued without making him a disciple, Jinseong had effectively achieved his goal already.
“You should’ve given him sothing to start with. How can you try to make soone your disciple and not understand the Dabang owner?”
“What did you say?”
Just then, Yongman, passing near the pavilion, chipped in on their eting.
“Mago Goddess gave him a ring made from Divine Stone. I didn’t give him anything myself, but I left behind the Dragon Pearl. That guy’s weak to affection—if you give him sothing, he’ll feel bad and end up agreeing to most things.”
“Oh ho.”
“Oh ho my foot! If it ends up like that, how is it different from paying a price and buying it!”
Taking on the first disciple in thousands of years in exchange for paynt was unacceptable.
“We’ve shown our sincerity. If we wait, surely he’ll co to understand our intent.”
“That’s probably true. He’s a wise disciple, after all.”
Just as the four Immortals were about to align on this view, Yongman drove in the final wedge.
“Got a lot of ti on your hands, huh? The Dabang owner won’t even live a hundred years.”
“……”
The expressions of the four Immortals froze simultaneously.
A hundred years was but a fleeting mont for them.
The oldest Baduk-playing Immortals, ironically, were now caught in a modern-style countdown.
“I must go sowhere for a mont.”
“M- too, I have sothing to bring.”
Watching the Immortals hurriedly disappear in a flurry, Yongman gave a cryptic smile.
anwhile, at the sa ti, Han Sewoon Kuksu was heading sowhere with a grudging and unreasonable stride, the opposite of the Immortals.
The dragging scuff of his shoes across the floor echoed through the corridor—‘shh, shh’.
“Ugh, I’m dying.”
His furrowed brow and the way he pressed his forehead made him look every bit the office worker suffering from a hangover.
His exhausting march finally stopped at the far end of the corridor, in front of an old steel door.
[Han Sewoon Kuksu, Park Gidong 9-dan's Children's Baduk Class]
The sticker on the door was made of such cheap material that while the color hadn’t faded, the edges were already all cracked and grotesquely warped.
-Clack.
Just as he reached for the doorknob to turn it, the door swung open roughly, as if automatic.
The man who opened it was a balding, short middle-aged man.
“Whoa, you scared .”
“Late again? You’re really sothing, huh.”
It was Park Gidong Sabom, who had once told Han Sewoon Kuksu over the phone to check out the Baduk community.
“How’d you know I was coming?”
“Your shoe-dragging noise can be heard from the first floor. And what ti do you call this? You might as well run the class remotely, huh?”
“Can I do that?”
“Of course not! Get in already! And if you’re late again tomorrow, that’s on you. I’m sick of explaining to the parents that you’re late because of forfeited tournants.”
“Alright, alright.”
Annoyed by the nagging, Han Sewoon Kuksu playfully jabbed Park Gidong Sabom’s runway-like bald head with his fist.
“Hey! I told you not to do that! I just applied so dicine! You’re dead!”
At the word ‘dicine’, Han Sewoon Kuksu quickly rubbed his palm against the wall a few tis and dashed into the classroom labeled Beginner Class.
“Hiiiii.”
“Hello, Sabom-nim.”
Inside the classroom sat elentary students with lifeless eyes, much like his own.
So were so engrossed in their phone gas that they didn’t even notice his arrival.
They were students forced into the Baduk academy by the pressure of their parents, even on weekends.
Out of pity, he didn’t even feel like telling them to turn off their gas.
“Alright, today let’s try so life and death problems.”
-Tap. Tap. Tap tap.
“Each of you, draw a way for black to escape and live on your notebooks.”
This was Han Sewoon Kuksu’s standard lesson, placing magnets on the board in sequence.
And as always, he tilted back his chair and prepared to doze off until the kids finished solving the problems.
But once his eyes were closed, the hangover made it difficult to fall asleep.
‘Should I check Baduk Gallery? Maybe there’s a new ga record?’
-When are you coming to Dangsari? I’m about to lose my mindlose my mindlose my mindlose my mind
-Hasn’t logged in for three days.
-That guy in the sixth match against Dangsari is definitely AI lol (I have proof) [3]
-Found the strategy to counter Dangsari. Just match up when he’s offline. [1]
-Look at Baduk Gallery, once dead and dry, now booming with activity. [14]
‘Looks like I haven’t logged in since that day.’
He had entered Baduk Gallery to see if the user nad Dangsari had posted a new ga record, but it wasn’t much different from three days ago.
The scattered criticisms aid at him were also unchanged.
Title: Isn’t it honestly satisfying that Han Sewoon got wrecked by Jaypha AI? lolol
Post:
『Look at the gem-like remarks he made while defending his Kuksu title.
What? I don’t get why everyone thinks so long just to place one stone?
So many pros don’t know their next move?
Haha lolol
Then he gets crushed by Jaypha and now won’t even enter tournants because of what he said.
Hope we never see him in competitions again.』
┗ Yeah: Isn’t that ancient Han Sewoon?
┗ GoGalleryUser1: Give it a bit, he’ll probably show up playing ten-buck Baduk matches at Tapgol Park.
┗ Yeah: lolol Damn, even though he’s a Kuksu, the criticism’s brutal.
┗ GoGalleryUser2: He’s not wrong though. If he skips the Kuksu Tournant this year too, he’s officially a washed-up has-been.
“Phew.”
It was content he could have ignored by not clicking.
But seeing his na clearly written out, Han Sewoon Kuksu couldn’t just let it go and ended up reading the comnts with a deep sigh.
Had there not been kids sitting in front of him, he might have let out so colorful curses.
“Teacher.”
“I’m not ‘teacher,’ I’m Sabom-nim.”
“Sabom-nim, are you sick?”
“No, I’m fine. Am I sick?”
Hangovers were pain, too. And the brand of defeat spreading on the internet also felt burned into his pupils, hard to erase for a long ti.
-Cling.
“Hm? Where’s the Dabang owner?”
“She said she’d be working late today!”
The Dabang owner he had hoped to see was nowhere in sight, and instead, the raccoon dog Divine Beast who had greeted them last ti appeared.
“Sani! I told you not to go out because soone might co!”
“They’re not people! They’re Immortals!”
“Hello. Please have a seat over here.”
“Oh ho, I see. As expected, the father is upright, so the daughter is very well-mannered too.”
Ria’s polite welco stood in stark contrast to the raccoon dog yokai’s sowhat rude words about them not being human.
They had already heard from Yongman that Ria was the child of the Divine Tree. Even if they hadn’t, her aura made it clear.
But benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom weren’t automatically acquired just because one was an extraordinary being. It was obvious who had taught her those virtues.
“Hehe. Oh right, I was told to bring this out if the Immortal grandpas ca.”
“This is…”
What Ria took out from beneath the counter was a Baduk board and stones.
Contrary to the cold words of offering only coffee if they ca by, this was sothing she had set aside just for them.
The Immortals were so pleased that their smiles nearly stretched to their ears.
“Are we playing Baduk?”
Sani, rising on her hind legs just enough to peek over the table, asked.
“You know how to play Baduk?”
“I’m the best at Baduk in the Dabang! Even Jinseong couldn’t beat !”
“What?”
Better than their blossoming disciple? An unexpected rival was right before their eyes.
And the Immortals quickly acknowledged it.
She was a Divine Beast who had lived thousands of years like them. And not just any yokai, but a raccoon dog yokai.
‘Well, being a raccoon dog yokai, she must be crafty.’
“Very well, let’s see then.”
“But I kept losing the stones, so Jinseong said I couldn’t play anymore.”
“I’ll make sure not to lose any stones.”
“Then it’s fine!”
Sani climbed onto the sofa opposite the Immortals and took a seat.
“You go first.”
-Tap.
Before the words had even finished, Sani placed a black stone at the center of the lower side.
‘Bold move. There’s no way to win if white controls both corners.’
But if what the raccoon dog yokai said was true, then their opponent was soone who had beaten Jinseong.
Jinseong had also used unconventional tactics, so the Immortal didn’t let his guard down.
And soon the turn ca back to Sani.
“Alright, here it goes!”
“Hm? Goes where?”
-Smack.
Sani struck the black stone she had placed earlier, sending a white stone flying off the board. It hit the forehead of the Immortal sitting across from her.
“I won again! Even the Heavenly Realm Immortals are nothing special!”
“You… you… impudent rascal!”
-Clatter.
The Baduk board flipped, and stones scattered in all directions.
“Why get angry just because you lost!”
“What did you just say!”
Not understanding what was happening, Sani had to flee the Dabang.
Reviews
All reviews (0)