Professional Debut
"Hoo…."
I press a hand to my throbbing forehead.
As the tension drains away and my overworked brain finally claims its rest, my mind goes completely blank.
My first game as a professional, under the name of Ryu Seoa.
Every single move would be preserved in the record, and one small mistake would be enough to set every tongue in the Go world wagging.
Whether it had been a satisfying game, I honestly couldn't say. All I knew was that at every moment I had given my utmost, squeezing out move after move whether they turned out to be good moves or bad ones.
At the very least, I had nothing to be ashamed of.
"Well played. Would you be up for a review?"
A match she hadn't wanted in the first place, and a bitter defeat on top of it — and yet she showed nothing of it on her face. That professional poise, indifferent alike to victory and loss. Watching her, I let the giddy flutter of my first win settle back down.
"Of course! Thank you, you played wonderfully!"
Together we cleared the stones from the board and walked the game back from the very first move. I laid out my strategy, my thinking, everything I had in my head, and 7-dan Ju Haryul did the same. She was a rival, yes — but also a companion, a fellow mountaineer climbing together toward the summit of Go, a peak with no visible end. At times the climb was lonely and desolate, but by sharing information and conversation like this, we gained momentum to rise higher than either of us could have managed alone.
7-dan Ju Haryul picked through the finest details, questioning every exchange, and only ended the review once every doubt had been resolved and she had fully grasped her own errors and missteps.
"Mm. I learned a great deal. Honestly… I went in with the rather arrogant thought of seeing just how good you really are… how embarrassing."
7-dan Ju Haryul bowed her head deeply as she spoke.
"N-no, not at all! Anyone would think that!"
"In any case, congratulations on your first win as a professional! You'll be claiming an official tournament victory in no time! As for me… aah, I suppose I'll have to give up all electronics for a week or so… going analog, like the old days… how nice. Hooooo…."
7-dan Ju Haryul heaved a long sigh. She was clearly dreading the malicious comments that would flood the internet. I could understand that perfectly.
I still remembered, with painful clarity, what happened when you searched my name during my losing streak — how I became an object of mockery and ridicule.
But that was a burden any professional had to bear, in any sport. And if you couldn't bear it, you simply collapsed the way Shin Changmo had.
"I'll be going now… regardless of who won, it was truly a pleasure…."
With her words stretching out in that languid drawl, she rose from her seat and took her leave.
The review had eaten up a fair amount of time. After exchanging brief greetings with the hardworking recorders and staff, I too left the arena.
"You did it, Seoa!"
My mother and grandfather, who had been waiting all this while, greeted me outside. Mother wrapped me in a hug, pressed a light kiss to my cheek, and nestled a bouquet of flowers into my arms.
With the certificate confirming my professional status and the bouquet both, my hands were completely full. It was heavy….
"Ngh…."
"Here, give it here, Seoa. Grandpa'll carry it."
"Th-thank you!"
Even though I'd supposedly been exercising for a week, my strength was hopeless. I would simply have to keep at it, steadily and diligently, until I could pass for a functional human being.
"They said she'd made it all the way to the title match, and I still didn't think our Seoa would lose… She really does take after me, doesn't she? Must be wildly creative — she wins even with shaky fundamentals, after all."
"Daughter, our Seoa's strength is her fundamentals, her fundamentals! Her foundation is so rock-solid that even with that frail little body of hers she can focus for hours on end, and every now and then she throws out a creative move on top of it!"
"But she never learned Go systematically, did she?"
"She must have studied like mad all on her own! Fought tooth and nail, absolutely relentlessly!"
And so ignited, over some trivial spark, the great debate between Grandfather and Mother.
"Mother, Grandfather… I'm so sorry, but I'm tired and I'd like to rest a little…."
I forced a weary look and steered the conversation elsewhere.
"Ah, of course, you're right. Come along then, dear, let's get going."
"Sorry, Seoa! I was exhausted just sitting there doing nothing, and you must be even more worn out than I am!"
These precious people who fussed over me far more than I deserved. If for no other reason than never to disappoint them, I would have to keep working hard.
Father's hospital bills. The family's living expenses. For now, producing results had to come before my own development. I needed to forget today's victory and simply keep moving forward.
Leaning on my mother's arm, I steeled my resolve once more.
The first day of the new school term.
The moment I reached the school's front gate, a gigantic banner hung proudly across the entrance.
CONGRATULATIONS — Ryu Seoa of Class 3, Grade 4, turns Professional Go Player! — The Faculty and Student Body
I'd wondered whether something like this might happen — had harbored a vague unease about it, at least — but faced with the reality, it made me dizzy. Clutching my aching head, I passed through the school gate.
My second life as a student. A different era, a different gender — it all felt novel enough. But that was where the novelty ended.
My mental age was a world apart from the children's, our interests overlapped not at all, and so I naturally drifted along the outside of everything. Not quite bullying, perhaps — but you could call me a loner. Beyond exchanging greetings, I had no friends at all. Truly a pitiable level of social skill.
I carefully opened the classroom door, slipped inside, and crept to my seat. It was still early; apart from a handful of children studying on their own, the room was nearly empty.
I took out the book I'd planned to read today and opened it. With my return to competitive Go, I had gone to considerable lengths to get my hands on books about artificial intelligence — this was still an era when the very word AI was unfamiliar in Korea.
Nothing had been published in Korean, so what I'd managed to obtain was a book in the original English. It was fortunate — if fortunate was the right word — that my father being Welsh meant I'd been studying English steadily since I was small.
In Korea, public interest in artificial intelligence only stirred after AlphaGo invaded the Go world in 2016. But Europe had been jolted awake a good eighteen years earlier — in 1997, when IBM's Deep Blue defeated the reigning chess champion in an official tournament. Papers and related books had poured out ever since, and corporations had spared no investment or research in their drive to make the technology practical.
While Korea — while the Go world — sat there blankly, they had kept sharpening their blades without pause. And then, staring defeat in the face, we had clung to empty optimism until we surrendered completely.
Of course, history would repeat itself. The moment machine intelligence surpassed the human mind was certain to arrive. And it wouldn't be confined to Go — lawyers, doctors, investors, executives, teachers, even simple service work. It was quicker to list what machines couldn't do than what they could.
What, then, were a machine's weaknesses? What was it missing? What was it that only humans possessed — that made something human? To answer that, I believed it was necessary to understand artificial intelligence, and its essence, down to the bone.
As I silently turned page after page, the chatter of the children around me swelled louder. And in proportion, the sharp, curious stares directed my way multiplied.
But not one of them came over to speak to me.
"…Hi."
A boy sat down beside me in a voice so small it was almost a whisper. My seatmate.
"Hello."
I greeted him warmly, but the shy boy kept his gaze turned away from me. He wasn't a timid child by nature — he was good at soccer, outgoing, with plenty of friends unlike me. Kim Jinsung, if I remembered his name correctly.
Yet Jinsung was unusually quiet in front of me specifically, and couldn't even meet my eyes. I figured it was my own fault, my clumsy handling of social situations, but… between both lives I'd lived somewhere around half a century, and failing to befriend the kid sitting next to me was still a rather melancholy state of affairs.
"…Congratulations."
With his back turned slightly toward me, he offered the words, embarrassment plain in his voice.
"Oh… thank you."
Given that we struggled to exchange more than two sentences a day, I bowed my head in mild surprise.
"…Are you not coming to school much anymore?"
he asked, his voice somewhat subdued.
"Hm?"
"Well, um… you're a pro now, right? I saw it on TV. Mom said it's basically like having a job."
"It'll get busy, but I'm still going to keep coming to school."
Once I'd committed to the path of a professional player, high school might unavoidably come down to certification exams, but I fully intended to at least graduate from elementary and middle school.
"…Oh. I see…."
Jinsung nodded, his voice somehow relieved. But there the conversation died. If only we could have traded even a few words like this normally, we might have grown close quickly.
I let out a small inward sigh and opened my book again.
"Is everyone here?"
At morning assembly, the teacher swept her eyes across the classroom, checking the empty desks.
"First period is math, so don't doze off. Seoa?"
"Yes!?"
"Our Seoa, come along with Teacher for a moment, won't you?"
The homeroom teacher called me out separately, and I followed silently behind her.
"There we go, sit anywhere you like."
In the teachers' office, she settled me into an empty chair and rummaged through the refrigerator.
"Here, drink up. I had no idea our sweet, well-behaved Seoa was hiding such an enormous secret."
She set out two chocolate drinks and smiled gently. Off to the side, I could plainly see the teachers in the neighboring desks sneaking glances my way. So the rumors really did travel faster than I'd imagined….
"The principal heard about you and asked us to help you in every way we can."
"I see…."
"If you have any upcoming engagements, don't hesitate to come to me. We'll accommodate you as much as possible!"
"Thank you!"
I'd been agonizing over how to even broach the subject, so having her offer first put my mind at ease.
"…So, about that."
"Yes?"
"Could you play a game of Go with the principal at lunchtime? Please! I'm asking you a favor!"
My homeroom teacher pressed her hands together apologetically as she asked. It wasn't an unreasonable request….
"Yes, that's fine."
"Whew. What a relief! Now hurry back — you're late for class."
"Yes, ma'am."
Judging by that enormous banner, the principal was clearly a Go fan. Hardly a difficult favor.
Thinking nothing more of it, I made my way back to the classroom.