The Second Bathroom
The second bathroom.
Lu Quanyi 9-dan had accomplished nothing.
He had only managed to relieve himself, wash his hands, and shake off the water with a flick.
The partition?
He hadn't entered it.
No, the correct expression would be that he hadn't been able to enter.
Because I was standing behind him, and the supervisor, the progress officer, was glaring at him.
And in the worst case scenario.
'……I was planning to check it myself.'
I had even thought about entering there again when he came out.
After leaving the bathroom, we walked down the hotel corridor at regular intervals.
An awkward silence.
Thinly spreading footsteps.
We returned to the studio almost without any time gap.
Our respective seats.
Lu Quanyi 9-dan slowly sat down in the chair.
I sat opposite him.
"……."
A silence settled, as if the breath was held.
The board unchanged.
The stones unchanged.
The situation unchanged.
But for Lu Quanyi 9-dan, it couldn't have been so.
The last move I played.
The light tremor in Lu Quanyi 9-dan's eyes as he counted that move.
He had instinctively realized it.
That the outcome could be decided with the next move.
'What will he respond with?'
Lu Quanyi 9-dan chose to think.
He used the longest time since the start of today's game.
And finally.
Chorak.
He picked up one stone and responded.
A counter.
'Caught.'
Ttak.
I played a tenuki.
No options for white.
Capture.
By capturing one black stone, the white shape solidified.
But I didn't care.
With this exchange, the three-line black four stones that had penetrated the upper right opened a path to live.
By forcing the next move on white, I created a ko shape and successfully forced a ko.
That meant.
'Player.'
Without hesitation, I picked up the Go stone.
And withdrew my hand from the upper right.
Ttak.
The five-line dayilja on the upper side.
A place to supplement the weakness of the black stones on the upper right corner while aligning with the left side's influence to create a large territory.
'……Two eyes, or perhaps even three.'
At this point, it wouldn't be far from an 80% lead according to AI standards.
I could feel Lu Quanyi 9-dan's expression harden as he maintained his poker face.
The one who had been hesitating played the next move.
Ttak.
Shaking momentum.
Trembling fingertips.
The speed of placing the stone.
A very fine delay that hadn't existed before.
I saw hesitation in that.
'He's shaking.'
The move attacking my thick wall on the left side.
While trying to secure territory.
But that's all.
'There's no sharpness.'
The wall is a wall, the shape itself isn't thin.
A structure not fatal to the life and death.
I responded appropriately, cutting off white's influence without overdoing it on the line.
Ttak.
Lu Quanyi 9-dan also calmly responded.
A long stretching move.
The anxiety to chase territory was embedded in the stone.
Calmly accepted.
A jump.
Not deeply invading, but decisively a move that forces white to retreat.
I lifted my chin and looked at him.
'……You don't have to go now?'
With this one move, I was asking.
The situation had already tilted, right?
If you're going to resign, this is the last chance, what will you do?
At that moment.
Lu Quanyi 9-dan's lips slightly curled inward.
A faint twitch.
But he didn't get up from the chair.
At that instant, I felt it.
The rhythm broke.
The composure collapsed.
The previous flow, his mechanical and dry Go, had a crack.
Once again, Lu Quanyi 9-dan picked up a stone.
Hesitation.
Dilly-dallying.
No strength in the fingertips.
Ttak.
The one move he barely placed.
It was merely a move from a desperate attempt to suppress the shaking mind.
'It's a chance to solidify.'
I didn't hesitate.
On the line that never overdid it, I gradually attempted the endgame.
One-line non-hane.
Two-line cut.
Capture.
Without giving any room for reversal with precise moves.
In the end, the moves Lu Quanyi 9-dan could play were limited.
Desperate moves.
More desperate moves.
Desperate moves that tried to force.
They continued to collapse to the point where even counting couldn't hold.
'If I just defend, I win.'
But I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to drive this momentum, to surely break Lu Quanyi 9-dan's will.
Push him to the brink.
Cripple his ability to move.
Cut off his breath as if suffocating.
A stomp that made even the worst struggle in vain.
Chorak.
Lu Quanyi 9-dan's forehead wrinkled as he held the stone.
He couldn't play the next move.
His strength left his hand, and he put the stone back into the Go bowl.
Then, he quietly placed the stones under the lid.
Resignation.
After final confirmation by the supervisor, I declared my victory.
'I won.'
My fists on my knees tightened.
I had done it.
I brought the first game of the world championship to my hand.
A thrill ran through my entire body.
More than anything, the fact that it was a prepared and planned victory was more thrilling.
Lu Quanyi 9-dan quietly stood up from his seat.
Still expressionless.
But I clearly saw it.
The slightly twisted lips.
The appearance of suppressing emotions while holding back the fact that the game hadn't gone his way as he wished.
Whoosh.
As he turned to head out of the studio.
I opened my mouth.
In Chinese.
Low but clear and firm.
"I will chase you to the end." (I will continue to chase until the end.)
With that, Lu Quanyi turned to look at me.
A split-second.
Intense emotions flashed in his eyes as he looked at me.
But he restrained his expression with astonishing control, adjusted his emotions, and turned away.
It was when I quietly stored the back view of his receding figure.
[30th Ciel Bank Cup World Masters Finals Game 1 Victory]
[You are continuing an unprecedented legendary achievement in history.]
[You won the first game of the world championship finals with amateur qualification.]
[You defeated the realm of a deity suspected of cheating with amateur qualification.]
[Highly evaluated the action of utilizing the tournament rules.]
[Rewards are added to the achievement.]
'……Wait, it's beyond expectations?'
I took a short breath.
I suppressed the rising corners of my mouth.
It was only the first game, after all.
Yet the system's sentences and expressions were clearly different.
Especially.
'the realm of a deity suspected of cheating.'
A word that hadn't existed before.
Cheating.
For a moment, many thoughts crossed my mind.
But there wasn't enough time to organize the thoughts.
Because the progress officer approached and spoke to me.
"Player Kim In-ha, please move to the photo wall for an interview."
I nodded and stood up from my seat.
I left the studio and turned the corner of the corridor.
Lights.
Flashes.
The shutter sounds bursting from all sides.
More journalists than in the morning were staring at me beyond the barricade.
As I stood at the photo wall, the MC opened her mouth.
"Player Kim In-ha, congratulations on your victory in the finals game 1."
"Thank you."
"You've taken a precious 1-win today. It was a victory no one expected. How do you feel?"
I turned my head to look at the MC.
"Disappointing? You didn't expect it?"
"……Huh?"
The MC gave an awkward smile at my question.
"I had thought from the beginning that I would win, and I will think the same for tomorrow."
Laughter bursting from various places.
The next microphone was handed to Reporter Koo.
"Today, when Lu Quanyi 9-dan vacated his seat, Player Kim In-ha also accompanied him. Was that intentional?"
The journalists' gazes all pinned on me.
A short silence.
The shutter sound, the laptop typing sound, all stopped at the same time.
I lifted my head, paused for a moment, and slowly nodded.
"Yes, it was intentional."
A short and firm answer.
A small but clear exclamation leaked out among the Korean journalists.
In comparison, the Chinese journalists maintained a cold silence.
Displeasure and discomfort were clearly visible in their expressions.
"Could you tell us the reason for that?"
I lifted my head.
I looked directly at each journalist one by one and continued.
"Isn't that the reason you think?"
For a moment, a tense breath leaked from among the journalists.
It wasn't direct.
But it was a sufficient answer to give a heavy resonance.
"Then, will you accompany in the same way tomorrow?"
The following question.
No need to think.
"Yes. I intend to do so."
I answered calmly and firmly.
A quiet tension spread.
Especially, a murmur was about to erupt around the Chinese journalists.
The ill will toward me was so clear that it was visible in their eyes.
The MC, who had been watching the mood, quickly intervened.
"Player Kim In-ha, as an amateur, you have one game left to win the world championship. It is an unprecedented event in the Go world. Do you think you can win?"
"……Do you mean it's possible?"
The journalists held their breath.
I smiled shortly and slowly.
"It's because it's possible that I've come this far."
***
As soon as I got to the room, the first thing I did was check the smartphone.
Missed calls.
Message notifications.
More than dozens piled up.
Congratulations on the victory, cheers for fighting well, and encouragement toward the final victory.
As I scrolled through with my fingers, a call came in.
Team Leader Jeong Soo-yeon.
"Yes, this is Kim In-ha."
- Congratulations, In-ha. I didn't think it would happen, but it showed in the result.
"It's still too early to be happy."
- You didn't let your guard down either. It's constantly making me expect more.
I laughed shortly.
Win-win.
The fact that we were both doing our best in our respective positions felt oddly good.
The call wasn't long.
It was because she was considerate enough to let me rest after the game ended.
I took out a bottle of water from the fridge and drank it.
"Haa."
I exhaled, leaned back on the room's sofa.
Seoul city slowly as the sunset settled.
Through the glass window, the world was quietly tilting.
At that moment.
The system window hanging on one side of the view.
I looked back at the phrases I had missed earlier due to lack of time.
[You defeated the realm of a deity suspected of cheating with amateur qualification.]
[Highly evaluated the action of utilizing the tournament rules.]
[Rewards are added to the achievement.]
"These three sentences……."
Concise, but the meaning contained is never light.
'the realm of a deity suspected of cheating.'
It's just suspicion and circumstantial evidence, but the system had defined him that way.
And.
'Action utilizing the tournament rules.'
It explicitly stated that the action to preemptively block Lu Quanyi 9-dan's possibility of cheating was highly evaluated.
I leaned back deeply in the chair.
Reward.
Added.
I slowly asked the question while chewing on the two words.
"This is a hypothetical…… What if I had defeated the realm of a deity suspected of cheating with pure skill?"
I closed my eyes as is.
'It wasn't a victory that blocked cheating.'
'The system would have recorded it as a perfect victory that overcame cheating.'
Beyond simple achievement, a result that transcended the legendary.
A much higher evaluation, and much more rewards would have been given.
"Ah, I shouldn't do this……."
This first game.
It was clearly a meaningful victory.
But it wasn't a complete victory.
I fiddled with the armrest with my fingertips and quietly smiled.
"Why does greed keep coming up?"
The word that rose.
Perfect victory.
I was madly craving that.
I wanted it desperately.