The Chess Game

The quiet mountain forest was filled with the chirping of birds and the fragrance of flowers, and the cool temperature by the mountain stream felt exceptionally comfortable.

A group of people were busy here, frolicking as they pitched tents and set up camp.

This was a camping trip organized privately by colleagues from a Software Company. Naturally, they were all Young People, as older folks lacked the physical stamina required for hiking while carrying tents and other gear.

Everyone had originally hoped for the company to organize a camping trip, but the company only ever arranged group tours—the kind with tour guides and big buses. So this year, many colleagues simply decided not to follow the company's lead, instead letting a few colleagues with outdoor experience take the lead in organizing it themselves, which led to this hiking and camping trip.

Ji Yuan had only been with this Software Company for two years, his hair still thick and black, so he naturally fell into the category of Young People. Thus, after setting up his tent, he was currently playing a mobile game online with another colleague.

"Hey, hey, hey Ji Yuan, Ji Yuan, give me your ultimate, give it to me! Ah, I Died!"

"What's the point of giving you my ultimate? You dropped in two seconds after I cast it on you; I would have been better off keeping it to escape myself. Now look, you just gave them a double kill in the bottom lane..."

"My bad, my bad... next round you play the marksman, I'll support you!"

"Don't, don't... I'll find a random player to support me..."

Don't let the fact that they were seemingly deep in the mountains fool you; a base station was still visible on a distant peak, and the two played their phones with gusto, the network speed showing very little lag.

Naturally, there were still places in China with terrible or even non-existent signals, but most people had long since grown accustomed to having a signal wherever they went. This was the confidence brought by well-developed infrastructure, making people forget about the existence of signals without even realizing it.

They had pitched their tents on a relatively flat hill, with a clear stream running alongside—an excellent spot for outdoor camping.

There were over a dozen people in total, and a large crowd was currently outside taking photos, while a few others were adjusting their tents. It seemed the only ones currently idle were Wang Gang, Ji Yuan, and Li Jun.

Wang Gang was preparing to build an Earthen Stove for the barbecue using stones. He looked around the campsite and saw that only Ji Yuan and Li Jun had any free time.

"Ji Yuan, Da Jun, stop playing games and go find some firewood. We need to start a fire soon, otherwise, we'll be eating cold canned food for lunch!"

From a slightly further distance, a colleague shouted toward the two people sitting at the entrance of their tent.

"Got it!"

"Alright."

Li Jun and Ji Yuan both replied, then looked at each other. Since they had already been roasted like dogs by their teammates, they simply quit the game.

The two Stood up and walked toward the nearby woods, entering the area under the denser tree shade.

There was no shortage of firewood in the mountain forest, with fallen branches everywhere. Li Jun dragged a large tree branch around, swinging it back and forth from time to time while shouting "Ho-ha-hey," looking like a fool in Ji Yuan's eyes.

To avoid being infected by his behavior and fearing he might be accidentally struck by Li Jun's "Mad Demon" Staff Technique, Ji Yuan hurried to keep his distance from the guy.

Like most modern Young People, Ji Yuan's Grandparent's Generation had a bunch of siblings, and in his father's generation, Ji Yuan's Old Dad was an only child, though Ji Yuan did have a few Aunts. However, by Ji Yuan's generation, he had become an only child.

Perhaps because there were fewer children and grandchildren to cherish, the simple and crude naming patterns of the old Ji family—like "Jin Hua, Yin Hua, Guo Xing, Cui Fen"—suddenly became poetic by the time they reached the grandchildren. The grandfather even consulted his Great Uncle-in-law, who had been a feng shui master for decades, to think it over. In the end, they chose the single character "Yuan" (Fate), and the whole family was very satisfied.

"Ah, the air in the mountains is just great! When traveling, one should come to places with beautiful mountains and clear waters."

Ji Yuan sighed. He wasn't in a hurry to pick up firewood, choosing instead to wander through the forest first, thinking it would be less effort to carry it back on his return trip.

After wandering for only a minute or so, Ji Yuan suddenly discovered several incredibly Thick and Strong Big Trees ahead. Visually, they were many times larger than the surrounding trees.

"Da Jun, Da Jun, Come to see this! There are some super thick trees here, Da Jun!"

Ji Yuan shouted toward the other side, but finding that the guy was still playing with his staff, he decided not to Pay Attention To him for the moment, planning to go over and take a look himself before bringing everyone over later.

Upon reaching close range, Ji Yuan had a more intuitive sense of these trees.

Just the outermost one had many exposed roots, twisting and turning on the ground, some of which were estimated to be as thick as Ji Yuan's thigh.

Wow... how can there be such old trees here?

Ox Head Mountain wasn't exactly a famous tourist destination, but there were still plenty of people who came to the mountains for outings and barbecues. Shouldn't such thick trees have been posted online by someone?

However, Ji Yuan just thought about it casually before turning to the other side, which had been blocked from his view by the outer trees.

"Eh!"

A sound of confusion escaped his lips.

On that side, besides seeing the other equally thick and ancient trees, he actually saw a chessboard in the middle of them—or to be precise, a tree stump with a chessboard set up on top.

Ji Yuan subconsciously took a few steps forward, arriving at the stump where the chessboard sat.

He looked left and right; there were no warning signs for tourists, and naturally, no one was playing chess.

On the board, black and white pieces were crisscrossed. The Black Pieces were like an army, and the White Pieces were like a dragon; it was a typical Chinese Go game, and a game in progress at that.

This made Ji Yuan quite curious. Was Ox Head Mountain intentionally developing this as a scenic spot?

But the chessboard and its surroundings were already covered in fallen leaves and dead branches, with bird droppings and rotten fruit scattered intermittently. Whether it was a real game or just a decorative setup, it was clearly something from a long time ago.

Then, his gaze swept to something peculiar behind the game: an object covered in rust beside an old tree. Because of the excessive corrosion, it was visibly swollen and deformed.

Ji Yuan walked a few steps closer to take a careful look, and after a moment of thought, he felt it looked like an exaggeratedly rusted axe.

Wait! Could this be the legendary Rotten Axe Chess Game!?

The thought amused Ji Yuan himself; the setup really did look the part, and at the same time, it piqued his interest.

He returned to the side of the chessboard to examine it carefully. Looking at the full board of black and white pieces, Ji Yuan, who didn't know much about Go, suddenly felt that the big dragon of White Pieces looked more and more awkward. It could have been very coherent, yet it was missing a connection, and there was a sense of threat from being surrounded by the seemingly chaotic Black Pieces.

The key was that for some reason, the feeling of the white dragon missing a corner made Ji Yuan's obsessive-compulsive tendencies flare up. He glanced at the two wooden chess boxes by the board a few times, and then, as if possessed, he reached out and picked up a white piece.

The piece had significant weight in his hand, feeling like he was holding an iron piece, yet the texture felt like ceramic. Ji Yuan weighed it, looked left and right with a guilty conscience like a thief, and reached out to place the white piece in the very center of the board—what is known in Go terminology as "Tengen."

"There, that feels much better!"

Ji Yuan clapped his hands and pulled his phone from his pocket, intending to take a few photos and record some videos before calling everyone over to take a look.

However, no matter how many times he pressed the unlock button, the unlock prompt refused to appear.

"What the hell! What's going on? Is it actually out of power!?"

The phone was indeed out of power, and when Ji Yuan long-pressed the power button, the phone vibrated once as if to start up, only to shut down automatically; pressing it again didn't even trigger the startup screen.

He had just finished using the phone when it had at least eighty percent battery, yet now, without him even noticing, it had shut down on its own.

Ji Yuan turned his head to look outside, but he didn't see the army of people practicing with staffs from before.

Forget it, I'll go get the power bank.

With this thought, Ji Yuan walked toward the direction of the campsite, but after only a few steps, he realized the sky had grown somewhat dim.

After walking for a few minutes, Ji Yuan was stunned; he saw the trickling stream and the flat hills, but where was the campsite?

Not to mention that not a single person from the company was there, even the tents were completely gone. What the hell was going on?

This wasn't April Fool's Day, and setting up tents and a campsite was such hard work that only a fool would tear it all down immediately just for a prank.

Ji Yuan looked around and saw two people wearing some kind of uniform resting by the stream a little further away, so he quickened his pace to approach them and ask.

"Hey guys, excuse me, have you seen where the people camping up ahead went? We had only just finished setting up our camp!"

The two men's bodies visibly shuddered, startled by the voice that had appeared so suddenly.

They turned their heads and looked at Ji Yuan in surprise; although they had been resting, they had been keeping an eye on their surroundings, and this person seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Hearing Ji Yuan's question, one of them answered instinctively.

"Camping? Just now? No one has been camping on Ox Head Mountain for the past two days; everyone is busy looking for the missing person."

"Huh?"

This answer left Ji Yuan even more bewildered.

"Someone went missing in the mountains?"

Before the company group came, they had checked everything, and there were no issues here; even the weather had been perfect.

"Yeah, he's been missing for half a month. A young man named Ji Yuan, who came out camping with his company colleagues. By the way, who did you come into the mountains with? Where are your companions? Don't you know about the search and rescue for the missing person?"

As the search and rescue team member spoke, he carefully scrutinized the person in front of him, feeling that his physical features looked somewhat familiar, while Ji Yuan, standing to the side, was frozen solid upon hearing those words.

Missing? Me?? Half a month???

Ji Yuan's first reaction was that it was absurd, and his second was the feeling that something was deeply wrong.

Before the shocked Ji Yuan could manage to say anything else, a wave of intense dizziness washed over him.

Everything went black before his eyes; Ji Yuan felt as if he had instantly lost all his strength, a powerful sense of weakness and vertigo assaulting him, and then, his legs gave way and his body collapsed.

In the process, Ji Yuan's body withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his lips became incredibly chapped as if they were rapidly weathering away.

"Sir? Sir, what's wrong? Watch out!"

"Hold him, hold him!"

"This is bad! Call for reinforcements!"

The last sounds Ji Yuan heard in this life were the exclamations of the two search and rescue team members, sounding as if they were coming from beyond the sky.