Grid Tower, Chapter Ninety-One: The Game in Evergreen City

Evergreen City was gradually descending into chaos. Wu Hui no longer even dared to wear his glasses when he went out, for fear of running into some high-tier player and being recognized, then dragged off and beaten.

After finishing his purchases on the black market, he also prepared himself to welcome the next round of the game. If he played this one well, he might even rise directly to the fourth tier. At this pace, by next year’s joint competition, reaching the sixth or even seventh tier should be no problem.

But the current Wu Hui was clearly not the protagonist of this world.

At this moment in Evergreen City, there was one eleventh-tier player and one twelfth-tier player, and even more numerous were the high-tier and mid-tier players, gathering in masses.

And in places no one noticed, the thirteenth-tier player of the Tribunal, the Lord Judge himself, had also quietly arrived in the city.

In this world, many clever people had joined the Chessboard Organization, but among them there were only two thirteenth-tier players. One was him, the other was the Chief Chess Player.

The two often played chess together, but in truth the Lord Judge rather wanted to arrest this fellow. Or simply eliminate him.

Because that man’s personality, how should one put it, was just a magnified version of Du Ziming. He certainly made no shortage of trouble in ordinary times.

Back then, the relationship between the Lord Judge and this Chief Chess Player was somewhat like that of Wu Hui and Du Ziming. The two often cooperated, often opposed one another, and in the end parted ways because of their personalities. One established the Tribunal—upright and aboveboard, backed by the Human Alliance government—seeking to shape order within the player world.

The other buried his threads all over the globe, placing his pieces everywhere. No one knew which crucial place concealed one of his chessmen.

One white, one black.

The Lord Judge and the Chief Chess Player often played chess together, any kind of chess at all, but most often they played Go. With their AI-level computational ability, only Go retained enough complexity to let them compete to their hearts’ content in a contest of intellect.

As for something like Nightmare Chess, to them it was merely entertainment. Just a bit of fun.

Within the Chessboard Organization, each person used some kind of chess piece to represent their identity; naturally, the two of them both used Go. The Lord Judge was white, the Chief was black.

“Spreading the news that the joint competition will be held in Evergreen City across the world—what exactly are you trying to do?” the Lord Judge muttered as he walked through the already somewhat chaotic city.

The Chief had chess pieces in many places around the world, controlled either through extraordinary power, bribery, or some subtle means of manipulation.

Many people did not even know they were pieces, yet they would still do their utmost to complete the tasks the Chief laid out for them.

Over the years, the Lord Judge had been investigating who exactly belonged to the Chief. Finding them all was unrealistic, but the more he found, the better.

At present, the high-tier players entering Evergreen City—especially some of the teams among them—were all worth noting.

Nine Colors.

The Library.

The Gothic Band.

All of these were possible.

Mm, the Hundred Flowers Pavilion was not very likely.

The Starlight Circus... as a team of mid-tier players, its priority could be lowered a bit.

As for Palmer’s Finger Team, it was quite possible too, and there might also be such possibilities within the Butterfly Organization. That would need further observation.

And then see whether there were any within our own Tribunal.

As for the outcome of the joint competition, the Lord Judge did not care in the slightest. The rewards for victory were indeed not bad, but for the Tribunal, that was merely icing on the cake. Its position could not be shaken anyway; winning or losing one or two times meant nothing.

What he cared about was what sort of arrangement the Chief had made.

That fellow seemed to be playing all the time, yet every scheme he laid carried a terrifying grand objective.

The Lord Judge needed to find a way to break the board.

Just as in the rules of Go, black moves first, and white must lag one step behind.

Meanwhile, in the nominal headquarters of the Chessboard Organization and the residence of the Chief Chess Player, the man being watched from every angle by the Lord Judge wore an expression of obvious delight.

“What conspiracy could I have? I only want to make that place more fun,” the Chief said at the table, playing chess against his own summoned creature. Both sides were under his control, so in the end it was just one person playing against himself. Yet it still looked like a duel.

That was ritual.

The Chief hummed softly, amusing himself with himself.

In the black market, Wu Hui, who was shopping, saw a group of men carrying firearms and dressed like a mercenary unit walk in.

From their appearance and the emblems on their uniforms, it was clear they came from Palmer Corporation, a great organization on par with the Tribunal and the Butterfly Organization. Naturally, they would not be absent at a time like this.

Palmer Corporation’s combat teams were known as “Hands.”

A standard Hand team had five members: thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger. They corresponded respectively to defense and strength (thumb), long-range sniping (index finger), spellcasting and area damage (middle finger), and support healing (little finger).

The three strongest Hand teams were known as Iron Fist, Claw, and Magic Hand. All were composed of high-tier players, led by super-tier players.

This team appeared to be made up entirely of mid-tier players and was not particularly remarkable. They strolled through the player market with complete calm, utterly unconcerned by the curious looks of others.

Of course, the main reason they drew attention was that all of them were white; in a region like the Capital District, where yellow-skinned people formed the majority, they naturally stood out.

“The market supported by the Butterfly Organization doesn’t seem all that impressive either. There’s nothing suitable,” the middle finger said brazenly, as though he had never considered that this was someone else’s territory.

“This is a small place after all, and the good stuff must have been absorbed internally,” said the thumb, the team’s captain.

The index finger observed the surroundings calmly. “Mostly low-tier players, with a few mid-tier ones. I haven’t seen anyone above the seventh tier.”

Evergreen was not really a small place. There were nine high-tier players here—three ninth-tier and six eighth-tier. Globally, the average number of players at this level was not even nine hundred, and this city accounted for one percent of them.

It was just that compared with Palmer Corporation’s headquarters, where there were even several super-tier players, this really was a small place.

In a corner, a man and woman dressed in black and white silently observed.

“No chance here. Forget it,” the man in black said to the woman in white.

The woman in white replied, “All right. We’ll watch for another opportunity.”

Clearly, they were hostile to this team.

There were truly many people coming to Evergreen City; all of them were participants in the future league. There were high-tier players as well as mid-tier players.

Wu Hui did not want to reach too far beyond himself, so he did not gather related information. Instead, he focused on improving himself.

Soon, the next round of the game was about to begin.

He sat at home, with everything he needed already prepared. Wu Tong sat beside him as before, resting her long legs on Wu Hui and holding a beer bottle, drinking as she bestowed blessings upon him.

Before the start of every game, she would bless Wu Hui. The effect was to increase his luck.

Luck was very useful, though often its usefulness could not be clearly seen.

The time came, and Wu Hui entered the game.

All around the raft was a vast ocean.