Chapter 1556: The Underground Go Club's Trump Card
"Th-this is nothing. I can sometimes make a few brilliant moves too. I've even beaten professional players before."
Ochi Kosuke adjusted his glasses, ignoring the sweat on his forehead as he stared at the board and forced himself to sound calm.
Go was a craft heavily dependent on one's condition. Fluctuations in form had a huge impact on how much of one's skill one could display. It could be said that every first-group insei already had the foundation of a professional player. Under the daily pressure of such intense training, those loafing pros who started slacking off after turning professional were absolutely no match for them.
"Perhaps. But even if he was overperforming, this level of strength is enough to warrant our attention. Don't forget, he has only been at the Go Academy for a month. We watched his earlier games too."
Iguchi was ultimately older and lacked Ochi Kosuke's innocent optimism. His tone was extremely grave.
"What a despair-inducing talent. Why do they all have to enter the world of Go?"
Mashiba Mitsuru, whose personality was not especially likable, wore a gloomy expression as well.
Mashiba's Go strength ranked near the top among the insei, but he was clearly far below someone like Iguchi, who held an overlord-like position. He was about on par with Watanabe at present. Yet in the next professional Go exam he took alongside Touya Akira in the original story, he relied on luck and his form to get ahead of Iguchi and become a professional player.
He had also become Gokou 9-dan's disciple.
"Who knows? I heard from my teacher that some major capital has recently entered the Go world. They may be planning to promote and hype up Go for profit. Supposedly, the prize money