novelraw Chapter 179: Nine Pieces
Chapter 179: Nine Pieces
The 100th Layer.
The Thousand Illusions and Myriad Forms Endgame.
As Su Yuan's consciousness descended, a gigantic chessboard sprawled before his eyes.
The board was not flat but three-dimensional, densely populated with black and white pieces.
Judging by the state of the game, however, the black pieces held an absolute advantage, driving the white pieces to the brink of defeat on nearly every level.
This was the trial of the 100th Layer in the Myriad Layers Maze.
Imperial Citizen Players would take on the role of the white pieces and play against the black.
What did it take to clear this layer?
One had to break through the black pieces' siege and secure a victory on the board.
However.In a three-dimensional chess game, the unexpected variables generated by a single piece were practically infinite.
Given the overwhelming advantage held by the black pieces, for white to win? It was too difficult.
"The Thousand Illusions and Myriad Forms Endgame."
Su Yuan looked at himself and found that he was situated at one end of the board, ready to play against the black pieces.
'The true nature of this layer's trial is a test of a Military Strategist's cognitive processing speed and their grasp of the grand scheme,' Su Yuan thought to himself as he looked down at the massive board.
He had already gleaned a wealth of information about the Thousand Illusions and Myriad Forms Endgame from the gray mirror, making him acutely aware of this layer's true objective.
The previous ninety-nine layers of the maze had essentially tested a Military Strategist from various angles, and this layer was fundamentally no different.
Playing this game required one to look ten, a hundred, or even a thousand steps ahead. It placed heavy emphasis on a Military Strategist's foresight and tactical planning; relying on Wisdom alone was not enough to win.
'The simplest method to clear this layer is to gradually claw back the lost advantage of the white pieces. This is the approach used by the vast majority of Imperial Citizens who have successfully passed this layer,'
Su Yuan pondered. 'However, this method is incredibly time-consuming. The white pieces are at too great a disadvantage. To break free of that, seize the upper hand, and eventually win the game? A single reset cycle might not even be enough time.'
'But as for me...'
Su Yuan's gaze remained calm, and his mood was entirely relaxed.
Through the gray mirror, he knew the easiest way to clear this layer and crack the Thousand Illusions and Myriad Forms Endgame. There was no need to slowly grind back an advantage, nor was there any need to repeatedly agonize over the gains and losses of every single move...
'Nine moves.'
Su Yuan stared at the board, the simplest answer provided by the gray mirror surfacing in his mind.
With just nine moves, he would reverse the white pieces' disadvantage and shatter the Thousand Illusions and Myriad Forms Endgame.
"Let us begin."
Without any hesitation, Su Yuan chose to start.
Hum! On the opposite side of Su Yuan's position, another figure materialized.
This figure was an old man with an archaic face. He was completely expressionless, his gaze like cold machinery as he stared at Su Yuan from afar.
"Please."
The archaic-faced old man spoke, his tone utterly devoid of emotion.
Su Yuan did not pay it much mind.
This archaic-faced old man was an artificial intelligence generated by this layer of the maze.
He was an AI, not an intelligent lifeform, and certainly not an informational lifeform, thus he possessed no emotions whatsoever.
His sole purpose for existence was to command the black pieces and defeat the Imperial Citizen Players wielding the white.
In the original Thousand Illusions and Myriad Forms Endgame, the black pieces already held an absolute advantage. Even if the white pieces were allowed to make dozens or hundreds of consecutive moves, it would be difficult to salvage their losing position—let alone when fighting against an AI like the old man.
Compared to a normal lifeform, an artificial intelligence basically never made mistakes. Under the premise of an absolute advantage, an Imperial Citizen Player trying to win was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
"Play!"
Su Yuan looked down at the massive board. With a mere thought, a white piece descended toward a specific coordinate.
Clack!
The white piece settled into place.
The first move.
The archaic-faced old man did not hesitate in the slightest, immediately choosing to play a black piece in response.
As the AI of this layer, the archaic-faced old man had played against countless challengers.
With every match he played, he recorded the sequence and position of each move, thereby forming a systematized counter-strategy.
In a way, as time passed and more Military Strategists challenged the 100th Layer, the difficulty of the layer only increased, because the old man would absorb experience and lessons from those past games.
"Play!"
Su Yuan's gaze deepened as he placed another piece.
Clack!
The second move.
The archaic-faced old man remained entirely unhesitant, continuing to drop a black piece.
In his vast ocean of match records, both Su Yuan's first and second moves had appeared before. Therefore, the old man did not need to think at all; he could simply pull the optimal solution directly from his existing systematized counter-strategies.
"Play!"
Su Yuan continued his play.
A white piece plummeted, landing right in the middle of a cluster of black pieces.
The third move.
And the moment this piece landed...
The archaic-faced old man opposite him fell into a brief hesitation.
The positions and sequence of Su Yuan's first two moves had optimal solutions recorded in past matches to counter them.
But this third move?
It was not that no one had ever played in the position of Su Yuan's third move before. Rather, under the specific premise of his first and second moves, playing this exact position in this exact sequence was a genuine first.
It had to be known that the Thousand Illusions and Myriad Forms Endgame was not only as massive as the sky itself, but also three-dimensional, capable of holding tens of millions of pieces.
Even though the board was already filled with nearly ten million black and white pieces forming the endgame, the remaining empty spaces could still accommodate over twenty million more.
Clack!
Pausing for only a tenth of a breath.
The archaic-faced old man played a black piece.
Although Su Yuan's third move was outside the scope of his recorded match history.
At present, the third move showed no sign of reversing the situation. In fact, dropping a white piece amidst a swarm of black pieces looked completely meaningless—a wasted turn.
Under these circumstances, the old man did not hesitate to launch an offensive against the white pieces, intending to turn his absolute advantage into a definitive victory in the shortest time possible.
Clack!
Su Yuan played his fourth piece.
It was similarly surrounded by a cluster of black pieces.
The archaic-faced old man stared at it for a full breath. He instantly simulated millions of possibilities in his mind but failed to discover any significant variations this move could bring.
Consequently, he continued to play his black pieces.
After four moves, the black pieces, which already held absolute dominance, formed a massive dragon stretching across the board. They only needed a few more moves to completely slaughter all the white pieces and secure victory.
Clack!
Su Yuan's expression remained entirely unchanged.
He calmly dropped his fifth piece. If the first four moves had seemed completely meaningless, as if he were simply messing around...
Then this fifth move faintly connected the previous four together, and even linked up all the white pieces across the entire board.
The white pieces, which had been driven into a hopeless dead end, suddenly showed a trend of reversal.
This shift was naturally detected by the archaic-faced old man immediately.
Ever since the third piece, not a single one of Su Yuan's moves had appeared in past games. Unable to deduce an optimal solution from past data, the AI could only rely on its own processing speed and the massive advantage of the black pieces to forcefully push forward.
However, after Su Yuan played his fifth piece, the archaic-faced old man realized something was wrong.
Clack!
After several breaths of calculation, running through billions of simulations in his mind, the old man finally played his fifth piece as well.
With this fifth move, the old man did not try to stop Su Yuan's white pieces from forming a dragon. Instead, he launched a full-scale assault, aiming to eradicate all the white pieces as quickly as possible.
This was crushing the opponent with sheer momentum. The old man's confidence in doing so stemmed from the absolute advantage inherent to the black pieces.
If he had no advantage and both sides were starting on equal footing, the old man would definitely be considering how to block Su Yuan right now, not how to attack.
Clack!
Su Yuan played his sixth piece.
The white piece instantly appeared at a specific spot on the board.
Clatter.
The appearance of the sixth white piece was like an anchoring pillar, directly snapping the great dragon formed by the black pieces. It rendered the old man's previous five moves completely meaningless.
In other words, it was as if the archaic-faced old man had never played those five black pieces at all.
This dramatic shift on the board naturally fell into the old man's eyes.
Compared to his previous reaction times.
This time, the archaic-faced old man hesitated for dozens of breaths.
Finally, he slowly placed his sixth black piece.
Although his previous five black pieces had been rendered practically useless, the absolute advantage of the black pieces still remained on the board. As long as he played steadily, there was still hope.
According to the old man's AI calculations, Su Yuan's six moves had already demonstrated an almost terrifying deductive capability. For the AI to win now? The odds were slim.
His only hope was to drag it out.
Drag it out until the current reset cycle of the Myriad Layers Maze ended.
At that point, as long as Su Yuan had not won, it would be equivalent to him losing.
Because once a reset cycle concluded, all Imperial Citizen Players would be kicked out.
When Su Yuan re-entered this layer, the match would start over from the beginning.
And having experienced this match, recording Su Yuan's move positions and sequences, he would integrate and calculate them to form an optimal counter-strategy. If they played again, the old man was confident he would not fall into such a passive state.
This was the basic calculation of an artificial intelligence, clearly identifying the choice most advantageous to itself.
And that was to stall.
Precisely because of this.
With his sixth piece, the old man switched from offense to defense. He no longer attacked the white pieces but leaned heavily into guarding his territory, striving to maintain his advantage while seeking steady progress.
Su Yuan, however, did not care about the old man's shift in playstyle.
Everything the archaic-faced old man was demonstrating now was entirely within Su Yuan's expectations.
Clack!
The seventh piece dropped.
The position of the seventh white piece was extremely inconspicuous. Although there were no black pieces surrounding it, on its own, it possessed no redeeming qualities.
But when combined with the previous six white pieces, as well as the numerous white pieces already present on the board...
A fully completed dragon had formed, standing head-to-head with the black pieces' original dragon, faintly presenting a situation where neither side was superior.
Seeing this, the archaic-faced old man fell into hesitation once more.
With the fall of this piece, the absolute advantage formerly held by the black pieces was instantly reversed. The white pieces surged upward, actually reaching a level where they could match the black pieces as equals.
Simply put, after Su Yuan's seven moves.
The original Thousand Illusions and Myriad Forms Endgame had transformed into a brutal melee between black and white. Even if one side had a slight upper hand, it was merely an advantage, no longer absolute dominance.
Clack!
The archaic-faced old man remained silent for dozens of breaths before stiffly playing his seventh black piece.
As the AI of the 100th Layer, even without relying on optimal solutions formed from past matches, the old man's innate playing ability was incredibly terrifying.
After all, the game Myriad Layers Maze was released by the Canglan Cosmic Human Empire to foster civilian genius Military Strategists. They had definitely invested ample computing power and resources into the AI guarding the 100th Layer, ensuring no one could easily clear it.
Therefore, even after detecting an earth-shattering shift in the board's situation, the old man still analyzed his side's condition and made the choice most beneficial to himself.
The seventh black piece appeared on the board. While it could not shake the newly formed landscape, it significantly stabilized the black pieces' position. On the surface, this move effectively blocked the white pieces' continued offensive momentum.
Clack!
Su Yuan's face remained calm as he looked down at the massive board and played his eighth piece.
Rumble! The eighth white piece fell. Though it seemed incredibly peaceful on the surface, for the state of the board, it was as if a category twelve hurricane had just touched down.
The evenly matched black and white pieces abruptly shifted in power. Dozens of the black pieces' hidden lines were severed, whereas the white pieces linked together horizontally and vertically, suddenly turning around to encircle and annihilate the black.
The archaic-faced old man stared at the black and white pieces on the board, his eyes continuously unfolding endless calculations.
At this moment, the situation on the board had reversed entirely. The black pieces, which had originally held an absolute advantage, were actually suppressed by the white, forced to retreat again and again.
It was a pity. The white pieces' dragon was fully matured, while the black pieces' dragon had been intercepted and its hidden lines blocked. They had plummeted into an absolute disadvantage.
The old man paused for over two hundred breaths before finally, expressionlessly, playing his eighth black piece.
Even though the tide had turned, the archaic-faced old man was an artificial intelligence devoid of actual emotion. To him, winning or losing a match was just data; it did not affect him.
Su Yuan glanced at the eighth piece the old man had played.
While it could not salvage much of the situation, this eighth piece was indeed the absolute limit of what his opponent could achieve.
Clack!
Su Yuan looked at the board below and played his ninth piece.
The ninth white piece was like a single spark. The moment it landed, it ignited a roaring prairie fire that rapidly swept across the entire board.
In an instant, all the white pieces on the enormous board linked together, completely segregating all the black pieces.
The archaic-faced old man stared at the board. Through his AI calculations, he found that the black pieces no longer possessed any chance of survival. No matter where he played, they would be swallowed up by the white pieces one by one.
According to his pre-programmed protocols, when the black and white pieces reached such a state, the old man representing the black pieces was supposed to concede. Continuing the match was meaningless; any move led to defeat.
"I concede—"
The archaic-faced old man raised his head and spoke with a placid gaze.
However.
Just the instant the word 'concede' left the old man's lips...
An invisible surge of Consciousness Fluctuations descended.
And deep within the eyes of the originally expressionless old man, a hint of astonishment actually surfaced as he lowered his head to look at the massive board once more.