"Little sister," Ren Yifei called to a girl he had previously warned, "what are the characters on my ship?"
"h, h8." The girl gripped the sides of the boat tightly with both hands and answered instinctively.
His boat had an H8 badge, while the shark circling him had an H7 badge on its fin—they matched perfectly. Ren Yifei's eyes shone like stars, while the silent, golden shark below had a rather ominous premonition.
The shark's premonition came true. That despicable player slammed down another oar and then pointed out, "This fish is 'Jun'."
[Points will be deducted for each error pointed out.]
Ren Yifei shrugged, seemingly unconcerned about the failure, and went straight to the second identification: "'After'."
h7 and h8 are numbers connected vertically. There are three situations in which h7 can eat h8: King, Queen, and General.
He only needs to be wrong twice to confirm his guess.
This time, it was his phone that vibrated. Before Ren Yifei could even check his phone, he saw the shark leap up and turn into a giant, colorful bubble in mid-air, which then burst with a pop.
"Sister, do you see if the characters on my boat have changed?"
"No." The girl's eyes widened, her face still showing some confusion, not understanding what had happened.
It seems that identifying him won't allow him to replace the character of Shark, Ren Yifei thought to himself.
After a period of silence of more than twenty minutes, he finally began to move. The small boat, like a leaf, cut through the surface of the lake under the moonlight.
As he passed the girl, he whispered quickly, "Thank you, little sister, so here's a hint: chess." Without waiting for her reaction, he charged towards the sharks.
The moon's reflection, the lake's surface, the small boat, and the shark all left his world of consciousness, leaving it dark and silent.
Light spots appeared before Ren Yifei's eyes, trailing golden lines that formed a grid-like chessboard in front of him.
Vertical labels are 12345678, and horizontal labels are abcdefgh.
That's right, a chessboard.
He judged it to be chess, rather than a food chain game with other rules, because of the first person to fall into the water.
When the first player fell into the water, there were fifteen sharks in the water, but only one swam over quickly, while the other sharks remained indifferent.
Actually, there was another shark, b2, present at the time, which seemed to be preparing to swim over as well, but d4 beat it to it, so it went to find another player. Later, for some unknown reason, this shark returned to the battlefield.
Therefore, he concluded that there is a character-based restraint relationship between the shark and the player. Furthermore, this restraint is unrelated to the size of the numbers or letters.
He immediately thought of board games, and after eliminating all the suspects, the only one left was chess.
The golden chessboard flipped over and shrunk to its standard size in his palm.
In the world of consciousness, Ren Yifei stood on the water, holding a transparent golden checkerboard in his fingertips.
The shark is the white piece, and the player is the black piece. White moves first.
All the pictures he had hastily jotted down earlier floated out and circled around him.
"The first player to fall into the water, b5." A blurry white three-dimensional shadow appeared at b5's location.
"Follow player B5 to take him down, as do D4 and B2." A blurry, three-dimensional black shadow immediately appeared at the positions of D4 and B2.
And so, with fifteen players and fifteen sharks, except for three that were too far away to see clearly, all the other players' characters appeared in their corresponding positions on the chessboard.
This is the initial arrangement.
However, after a fierce battle, eight players died and the sharks changed positions for eight players.
Eight blurry shadows appeared at the location of the deceased player, leaving dotted lines indicating their movement. These dotted lines indicated which pieces were the blurry black shadows.
Ren Yifei opened his eyes and withdrew from the world of consciousness. Before him were still the moon, the lake, the small boat, and the shark. However, golden lines connected the lake surface, forming a chessboard that only he could see.
The first shark he targeted was B5. This shark was originally D4, then it ate B5 and became B5.
In chess, only one piece can move in an L-shape.
"Horse!" A paddle slammed down, and another shark turned into a bubble and flew away.
Not far from the b5 shark was the b2 shark, which was stunned and hadn't quite reacted yet.
This shark had recently attempted to attack player b5, but it couldn't outmaneuver player d4. Those that can jump over three squares in a straight line are either 'Army' or 'Rear'.
Given that the character '后' had already been dealt with, Ren Yifei guessed that this one was '军'.
Seeing Ren Yifei charging towards them with unstoppable killing intent, the b2 shark jumped in fright. Without hesitation, it turned and ran.
Would Ren Yifei let the shark in his mouth escape? Absolutely not!
Players witnessed the following scene, which evoked mixed feelings: a player was chasing a shark, and wherever the player ran, the sharks scattered and could not be coaxed back.
"I didn't expect that the key to scoring would be physical strength." Ren Yifei was panting heavily as he rowed. He was at a disadvantage in the water and simply couldn't keep up with the speed.
He was somewhat unwilling to just watch the points he had earned slip away.
He checked the time again; there was still half an hour left, and there were at least a dozen sharks in the water, each worth three cents.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Ren Yifei threw down his oar and jumped into the water, swimming at great speed toward a shark near a small boat.
The other players didn't notice his amazing jump; they were all pondering the words Ren Yifei had just shouted out. Those were clearly... chess pieces!
"How come I didn't remember?!" Those who knew chess had grasped at that last straw; they finally understood the meaning of these symbols.
But many more people are confused and don't know whether it's Chinese chess or international chess.
Chinese chess and international chess have many differences, but also many similarities.
Previously, it was believed that chess originated in India, but now more and more evidence is emerging, and another theory has emerged: chess originated in China.
However, the rules of the two games are not exactly the same, and those who do not understand chess will be at a great disadvantage in this game.
Those who don't understand chess are almost in despair. It's like being chased by a lion to the edge of a cliff, with a helicopter in front of them—the only way to survive—but they don't know how to fly it.
Those who know chess, after their initial euphoria, encountered a new problem: they didn't know what the symbols for their own ships were, so how could they identify the sharks surrounding them?
"Hey, buddy, tell me what my character is, and I'll tell you what your character is. We can exchange them, how about it?" Someone had already come up with a win-win solution.
The player on the other end nodded almost without hesitation.
So they exchanged characters they couldn't see and then dealt with the sharks surrounding them.
Others who knew nothing about chess were immediately inspired. They used their ability to see the opponent's characters as a bargaining chip to exchange for some chess knowledge and their own characters.
This is a very unfair deal, but when faced with life and death, fairness is irrelevant; only by surviving can one speak of fairness.
Ren Yifei had noticed, but he didn't interfere, nor did he look for the sharks near the players' boats. He only looked for sharks that had already successfully killed players and stray sharks, except for... the sharks near He Jun's boat.
Because He Jun couldn't row, he had been all alone in the center for a long time. He now knew the important clue of chess and also understood the rules of chess, but there was no one around him; the nearest person was five or six meters away.
On such a moonlit night, with the characters below the boat, barely visible even five or six meters away, He Jun was extremely anxious.
"Soldier." Ren Yifei appeared near the ship at some point, and was identified as the shark surrounding He Jun's ship.
He Jun's character is e8, and the shark character surrounding him is d7, which moves one space diagonally to capture the piece.
Judging from his tone, he wasn't very sure, because there are four pieces that can be captured by moving diagonally one space forward: the pawn, the elephant, the king, and the queen. He was basically gambling on probability.
"You!" He Jun was both surprised and frightened when he saw him.
Feeling the vibration of his phone in his pocket, Ren Yifei smiled slightly. He blew a few bubbles from his mouth, then dived down again and disappeared beside He Jun's small boat.
"To show how special you are, nurse, I'll stay here and make sure you… aren't 'bothered' by any sharks," he thought smugly.
The b2 shark circled in circles on the lake, still shaken and suspicious, feeling that the terrifying player might suddenly appear from somewhere.
However, there were no other players' boats nearby, so it seems the other party didn't come.
"Splash!" A warm human hand appeared on its skin, and the man who looked like a water ghost appeared in front of the shark.
"Hello, Jun."
b2 shark, suddenly died.
After that, Ren Yifei went on a killing spree, sending four sharks flying into the sky before reluctantly returning to his small boat, climbing up wet and panting.
Including the three previously identified, he single-handedly took down seven sharks. Of the remaining eight sharks, five were dealt with by other players, and three are still roaming.
He Jun was the only player present who hadn't yet identified the shark, but the three sharks weren't circling around him, and He Jun himself didn't even know his own character. It would be difficult for him to identify the shark at the last moment.
Ren Yifei pulled his soaked hair back and stared at He Jun, who was already panicking.
There were less than three minutes left in the game.
Game defeat is imminent.
Tick-tock, tick-tock. Ren Yifei looked down at his phone. Despite being submerged in water, the phone was perfectly intact, and the countdown timer on it had reached its final minute.
"Brother Xing! Save me!" Finally, He Jun couldn't bear the pressure any longer and called out a strange name.
"Is there another mole or accomplice of his here?"
Just as he was wondering what was going on, a ball of light suddenly emanated from both Ren Yifei and He Jun. As he was pondering this, a beam of light connected the two of them.
He Jun's eyes lit up instantly, and the way he looked at Ren Yifei changed.
A piece of relevant information flashed through his mind, and Ren Yifei's expression turned serious: "Change of the throne."
Ren Yifei's position is h8, and He Jun's position is e8. On the chessboard, they are the 'rook' and 'king' that have not been moved.
In the rules of chess, each player has one opportunity to castle. He Jun was originally on e8 and will move to g8 after the castle, while Ren Yifei was originally on h8 and will move to f8 after the castle.
Of course, the other party used this move not to switch places, but to remind He Jun of his identity and character.
"Everything is part of the food chain. Guess what kind of fish ate you, what kind of fish you are, and what kind of fish you ate? Guessing one correctly will allow you to pass the level, and each fish is worth three points." These are the rules.
The rules clearly stated that guessing their own identities also counted as passing the game. Therefore, the game practically handed the answer to He Jun.
"He Jun, 'Wang'."
He Jun's smile froze on his face, because this was not his voice; it was another voice that brought nightmares.
He had already thought of castling, because he had studied chess. However, someone was faster than him, and this person finished the sentence before he could even react to his stunned gaze: "Zhong Lan, 'Rook'."
"Even if the referee leaves the field today, you're still going to stay here," Ren Yifei said calmly.
Author's Note: Afei: Even if the Emperor himself comes, you'll still die.