Chapter 126: A Game Of Chess
[A/N: For best experience, you can try setting it up if you have a chess board]
Thinker opened his eyes to the white walls of the simulation room.
Not a blinding white.
A clean one.
The walls, the floor, the ceiling—all of it bled together into a single seamless surface. There was no visible light source, only a brightness that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.
In front of him, a chessboard hovered at waist height, seemingly carved from clear glass. It was a simulation, but the board seemed rather realistic.
While he was staring at the system notification, a system notification flickered to life in front of him..
[Hint: To find Alpha (\alpha), you must deliver the final blow. But beware: the weapon you choose to strike the King will dictate the shield your ally in Room B must use.]
’So we’re looking for some sort of coordinates?’ Thinker thought upon seeing the systems notification, he took a deep breath observing the board closely.
Nine pieces remained on the board. The white queen stood on block h5, the rook on block f1, the knight on g5 and king on g1.
On the other side, the black king hung on the block h8, the rook on f8, and pawns on boxes, f7, g7 and h7 respectively.
With a single glance, Thinker could make out his role.
The black pieces stood facing him.
’What a way to start the game.’ with the black pieces facing him, Thinker instantly assumed he’d be playing as the black pieces and from first glance, the black pieces seemed to be cornered...
’... but not quite’ Thinker couldn’t help the smug grin that climbed up his face as he saw this.
Truthfully, if it were someone else that was in that situation
It would’ve been much more difficult, but with his ability. Thinker was certainly he’d make the right choice.
He crouched slightly, studying the board intensely, without urgency. He wasn’t in a haste like they expected him to be.
’To gain advantage.. I’ll have to find a way to stop their attack first.’ Thinker thought leaning closer to the board, ’If I move my Rook I can take down the pawn at f7 and offer my rook up to the Knight on g5 and that’ll free up my king, then I can advance and attack’
Thinker’s eyes flashed behind his bot like mask, streams of code flashed across his visor as he activated his ability.
{Precognition}
His hands already moved towards the rook but quickly paused in its spot, ’The obvious move was the rook.
Which meant it was probably wrong. If I did that I would be left without any protectors. And the checkmate will come brutally. Instead... His gaze shifted to one of his pawns’
He didn’t move immediately this time, he couldn’t help but imagine what would’ve happened if he played the wrong piece.
’He’ll be waiting for my moves’ He thought of Nile.
Somewhere in this simulation, sealed in his room covered in almost complete darkness. The only light spilled in from what seemed like a light bulb above.
Nile was staring down at the board in front of him.
He received his own notification as soon as the game begun.
[Hint: To find Beta (\beta), you must survive the onslaught. The path to safety is narrow. If your ally in Room A chose a Light weapon, you must retreat to the shadows. If they choose a Dark weapon, you must step into the light.]
’We’re looking for a coordinate, and it seems I’ll have to wait for Thinker to make a move before I can make a move of mine?’ Nile thought, staring at his board.
It was an exact mirror of Thinkers board, with the white pieces facing him.
If Thinker guessed wrong the board didn’t just punish him.
It punished all three of them, resetting the clock, tightening the walls, feeding them back into the loop for another round none of them wanted.
’If he changes the tides, then I’ll have to pick the right block or things we’ll be trapped, and if I pick the right one, Oxord will take over’
He thought about Oxord too, somewhere in a room with no pieces at all, waiting as he stared at the empty board.
[Hint: The Void is the sum of its parts. Coordinate Gamma (\gamma) is the intersection where the paths of your allies cross. Trace their footsteps. Find the geometric midpoint between Alpha (\alpha) and Beta (\beta).]
Oxord seemed much more laid back than the other two, as he stared at his board.
’Whatever Thinker chose and whatever Nile survived, it would eventually collapse into a coordinate that I’ll have to bring together’ Oxord thought, with a calm expression on his face.
All three of them were in their own rooms, but they could all feel the same pressure. Sweat dropped down their faces as they looked at the board.
’No pressure,’ Thinker thought dryly.
In the theater hall, the screen had split further, five boxes shrinking into fifteen as each nation’s rooms rendered separately for the audience.
"They’ve been sitting there for almost a full minute," Julie said into the mic, her voice pitched for drama. "No movement. Not from America, not from China, not from Brazil. What are our brilliant minds thinking about in there?"
[Don_Radjin: Bro just PLAY the chess]
[Will_1631: this is way more tense than I expected honestly]
[Demiurge666: china’s already sweating look at Ni Cheng’s face]
The camera cut to China’s section. Ni Cheng sat with both hands flat on the table on either side of his board, knuckles pale. Sweat had gathered along his hairline despite the room’s climate being, by design, perfectly neutral.
His position was worse than Thinker’s.
He had two viable mating sequences, and they resolved to opposite phases. Pick wrong and it wasn’t just a reset, it was a reset with Xi Lun already halfway through a dangerous gambit in the black room, one that only worked if the phase lined up on the very first try.
"Human Calculator my ass," Ni Cheng muttered under his breath, forgetting, for a moment, that the room fed audio straight to over fifty million viewers. "There’s no calculating this. It’s a coin flip dressed up as a math problem."
His frustration was palpable.
’It seems simple, but something is missing’ he thought gritting his teeth.
Beside him, unseen, Bai Sun sat cross-legged in the void room. An empty board floated in front of him, waiting for two coordinates.
The feed cut again.
Brazil’s white room showed Newton hunched forward, tapping the edge of the board with one finger with a nervous tic.
His mate was even messier than Ni Cheng’s, three separate lines all converging on the enemy king from different pieces, no clean answer standing out from the noise.
"He’s got too many options," Dana said back in the box seats, arms folded, her sharp eyes tracking every twitch on the split screen. "Too many options is worse than too few. He’ll second-guess himself."
"You sound like you’ve done this before," Selena said, not looking away from the screen.
"I sat in a black room once. During testing. I didn’t even understand a thing on the board." Dana said with a chuckle.
Nicholas said nothing, but his eyes had narrowed slightly, noticing the calmness on Thinkers face as he leaned back.
’He doesn’t seem like he’s stuck anymore. He’s already decided.’ Nicholas caught onto the laid back look on Thinkers expression.
He was right.
Back in the white room, Thinker’s pulled back, his fingers hanging over the pawn.
He pulled it back.
’I’ve checked all the pieces with Precognition. This should be the piece....’ he thought with certainty, but still deliberating.
After all, it didn’t seem like the puzzle could be so easy.
’I wonder how Nile would deal with it on his end’ A knowing smile crossed Thinkers face as he thought of him.
He knew Nile quite well.
Nile never panicked. That wasn’t the kind of man he was. He took his time, thought everything through, and then moved. Give him speed and he’d waste it. Give him time, and he’d solve anything.
’I’m sure he’ll be fine.’
After much deliberation, Thinker’s hand moved to the pawn.
He already thought it through, precognition confirmed his thoughts.
’If I move the pawn from g7 to g6, it physically blocks the white queen’s vulnerable h7 square, and stops an immediate checkmate. It will also force the white queen to retreat and give me more space to move.’
He exhaled slowly, the first breath he’d allowed himself since the simulation began.
’Alright. Pawn it is.’
The countdown wasn’t visible, but every player in the tournament had been told about it during preparation.
Each country only had three attempts after which, they would instantly be eliminated from the game. So if his speculation was incorrect, then they would be left with only two options.
Thinker’s fingers closed around the pawn.
Across the split screen, Ni Cheng’s hand finally closed around a rook. Newton’s closed around a pawn, of all things, a choice that made half the analysts in the commentary booth sit up straight.
Most viewers had already stopped watching the other countries.
America was taking the lead, Australia following right behind them and China had the reputation.
The other countries at this point were basically left out of the picture as everyone had the attention on these three.
Everyone’s attention was fixed on those three.
And they all had one question on their minds.
Who would win?
Everyone watched with eagerness as all the players in the white room moved their pieces almost at the same time.
"Here we go," Julie whispered.