Chapter 998: Creating Characters
"In the next five minutes, both team leaders will distribute the 'characters' to the commanders beside them. The game will officially begin in five minutes."
The Earth Dragon paused, then added, "This time, the losing team will be completely annihilated. Please be prepared. If you think of any new questions during the distribution process, feel free to ask me."
After hearing this, Qi Xia and his team began whispering among themselves. The game didn't sound difficult, but they felt uneasy about how to actually execute it.
Steal the radicals from the opponent to form new characters... Whoever forms twenty-eight first wins.
Such simple rules, yet this was clearly not a simple game.
Seeing that Qi Xia hadn't spoken for a while, Chen Junnan quickly turned around and asked, "Hey guys, who here knows how to play chess?"
After a moment, Han Yimo raised his hand. Just as Chen Junnan was about to praise him, Han Yimo said with an awkward expression, "I don't know how."
"I don't know either..." Zheng Yingxiong said.
"Me neither..." Tiantian said.
"I..." Zhang Chenze said.
"Alright, alright, well done, just great. A dream team, right?" Chen Junnan nodded with a confident look on his face, then turned to Qi Xia. "Old Qi, how about we just forfeit directly?"
"Stop messing around," Qi Xia said. "It's not that bad."
"Not that bad?!" Chen Junnan exclaimed. "Only the three of us know how to play chess. How are we supposed to handle this team game?"
At this point, Qiao Jiajin scratched his head somewhat sheepishly. "Jun Nan... I... I don't know how to play either."
"...?" Chen Junnan blinked. "You know the rules for gambling, but you don't know 'chess'?"
"I know the rules for gambling because I used to watch over gambling dens for people," Qiao Jiajin replied. "There's no 'chess' in gambling dens."
"Great, that's just perfect, isn't it?" Chen Junnan said with a look of utter despair. "Old Qi, go talk it over with the Earth Dragon. See if he can change it to Chinese checkers for us. There's no way we can play this."
"It's okay. The rules related to 'chess' probably won't be too many," Qi Xia said. "Although everyone is carrying a 'character,' that doesn't mean you're playing the role of a chess piece. Since the rules don't restrict 'movement,' theoretically you don't need to follow traditional chess rules like 'the Horse moves in an L-shape, the Elephant moves diagonally.' You just need to remember a few important rules."
"Then how do we do it...?" Chen Junnan asked.
"First, pay attention to this... Our 'characters' are different from the opponent's," Qi Xia said.
"Different...?" Chen Junnan was stunned. "What do you mean, is the other side playing animal chess?"
Zheng Yingxiong sighed helplessly and looked at him coldly. "Chen Junnan, can you talk a little less?"
"What 'Chen Junnan'?" Chen Junnan immediately grabbed Zheng Yingxiong's head again upon hearing this. "Call me 'Brother'!"
Qi Xia shook his head, walked to the wall, picked up a metal chain, and began carving a few characters into the wall.
「Soldier」(Bing), 「Cannon」(Pao), 「Chariot」(Che), 「Horse」(Ma), 「Elephant」(Xiang), 「Advisor」(Shi), 「General」(Shuai).
"These are our characters," Qi Xia said.
"Aren't all chess pieces like this?" Chen Junnan asked. "Both sides are the same."
"They're not the same." Qi Xia finished speaking and carved another set of characters into the wall.
「Pawn」(Zu), 「Cannon」(Pao), 「Chariot」(Che), 「Horse」(Ma), 「Minister」(Xiang), 「Guard」(Shi), 「Marshal」(Jiang).
"These are the opponent's characters."
Everyone compared them and immediately noticed the difference.
"Regarding 'chess,' you probably only need to remember this one rule," Qi Xia said. "That is, our 'characters' on both sides are different. Just now, when the Earth Dragon asked us to demonstrate, he said to use 'Soldier (Bing) and Pawn (Zu)' for the experiment. This shows we are 'Soldier (Bing)' and they are 'Pawn (Zu).'"
Zhang Chenze nodded upon hearing this. "That means the focus of demand is different for both sides."
"Correct," Qi Xia nodded. "When we were choosing left or right at the beginning, the Earth Dragon said that no matter which side you choose, the difficulty of the game doesn't change much; only the tactics differ. Thinking about it now, the meaning is clear. It's because the 'characters' we need are different."
Chen Junnan thought for a moment, then Qiao Jiajin pointed at the character「Che」and asked, "Jun Nan, what character is this? 'Che' (Chariot)?"
"You bet it is, you big dummy." After Chen Junnan said this, he suddenly realized something, then put his arm around Qiao Jiajin's shoulder and said to him, "My bad, I forgot you use traditional characters. Come here, let me introduce them to you."
He informed Qiao Jiajin of the common simplified characters, especially extremely simplified ones like「Che」(Chariot) and「Ma」(Horse).
"Next, pay attention to this..." Qi Xia said. "No matter what character I assign to you, you must keep it a secret."
"Keep it a secret?"
"Yes. I suspect Tianchu Qiu will think of the same idea." Qi Xia pointed to the characters on the wall and continued, "Some characters are 'popular,' and some are 'unpopular.' If we want to piece together more characters, we can only think of ways to steal certain radicals from the opponent. These characters are 'popular' in the eyes of both sides."
"Hiss..." Chen Junnan nodded. "I see... Little Master seems to understand a bit now. You mean these 'characters' can actually be taken apart and used. My 'single person radical' can be paired with your 'three drops of water'..."
"You only understand now?" Zheng Yingxiong said.
"Shut up."
Qi Xia didn't bother with Chen Junnan. He took a step forward, pointed to the「Xiang」character on the wall, and said, "Our「Xiang」character can be split into「Mu」(wood) and「Mu」(eye), both of which can serve as radicals. Theoretically, it can form more characters. So our team's「Xiang」is more dangerous. But conversely..."
Qi Xia pointed to the opponent's「Xiang」(Minister) character.
"Their「Xiang」character can't form many things, so it won't be our primary target. However, the opponent's「Shi」(Guard) contains a 'single person radical,' so we need to capture it as soon as possible."
"I see..." Tiantian and Zhang Chenze both nodded at the same time.
"Secondly, our「Pao」(Cannon) should also have other combinations," Qi Xia said. "These two 'characters' are relatively dangerous, while the rest are safer. So the way to survive here is to not reveal your own 'character' while doing everything possible to trick out the opponent's 'character.'"
Zhang Chenze nodded. "This means「Ma」(Horse) and「Che」(Chariot) are the safest since both sides have them. They don't need to be captured immediately."
"Exactly," Qi Xia gave Lawyer Zhang a look of approval. "So our vanguard will be「Ma」(Horse) and「Che」(Chariot). Even if these two have their 'characters' taken, it won't have a huge impact. But all characters with a left-right structure need to be extremely careful."
After everyone agreed, Qi Xia continued, "Later, no matter who gets a 'character' or loses a 'character,' remember to return to me immediately."
After saying this, he looked at Zheng Yingxiong and asked, "Zheng Yingxiong, how many of these 'characters' do you recognize?"
"I recognize more than half," Zheng Yingxiong said.
"Good." Qi Xia nodded, then said to Tiantian, "In the next minute, teach Zheng Yingxiong all the pronunciations of these 'characters.' I have a task to assign to him."