58: Chapter 58 No more chess pieces

"Hey! Are you stupid?" A childish and annoying shout brought Xiao Niao back to his senses. Looking closely, he saw a dirty face poking right in front of him—it was that background character kid.

No, that's not right. He had to treat NPCs as Immortal Masters.

Recalling the advice from expert players, Xiao Niao treated the Xie Xiaotian before him as a neighbor's brat and squeezed out a smile typical of an older brother: "Little brat, what's wrong?"

"Hahaha, that smile is so ugly," Xie Xiaotian scoffed while gripping the wooden bucket handle. After laughing for a while, he straightened his back and said, "You're still slacking off. We've already collected enough stones, let's go back!"

Xiao Niao looked into the bucket and saw it was indeed full of sand and stones.

Xie Xiaotian was carrying the heavy wooden bucket with both hands, his feet forced wide apart, walking forward awkwardly step by step. Meanwhile, two other NPCs hurried past carrying their own buckets, with no intention of helping at all.

Even the fellow villagers who were NPCs didn't like him; he really seemed to be an annoying brat.

Xiao Niao thought for a moment, then hurried a few steps to catch up with Xie Xiaotian and said, "Little brat, call me 'brother' and I'll carry it for you."

But Xie Xiaotian dodged to the side, his dirty face full of vigilance.

"I don't want your help."

He was a brat with backbone. Xiao Niao smiled and followed alongside Xie Xiaotian.

After crossing the riverbank, there was a stretch of uphill dirt road.

Xie Xiaotian was already struggling just to carry the bucket; walking up this slope was even harder. The bucket in his hands swayed, and sand and stones spilled over the rim.

Xiao Niao shook his head as he watched. He grabbed the handle and snatched the bucket away, intending to show off in front of the kid. However, as soon as the bucket was in his hands, its heavy weight exceeded his expectations, and half his body was pulled downward.

Xie Xiaotian was stunned. He reached out one hand to hold the end of the handle and said with a complex expression, "Thank you, Brother Xiao Niao."

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Xiao Niao turned his face away and remained silent.

The two of them, one on the left and one on the right, worked together to carry the full bucket of sand and stones to the open space in the village.

Xie Xiaotian collected a string of copper coins at the bulletin board. After counting them, he made a big decision, untied a small stack, and handed it over. "You helped me carry it back, so you deserve a share of the pay."

Xiao Niao saw him gritting his teeth, clearly reluctant, so he smiled slightly and pushed it away, saying, "I don't want the money. Call me 'brother' again."

Xie Xiaotian was stunned upon hearing this. After realizing what was happening, he called out clearly, "Brother, Brother Xiao Niao!" After shouting, as if afraid Xiao Niao would go back on his word, he clutched the copper coins and hopped away.

The old village chief, standing by the bulletin board, saw this scene and stroked his beard with a smile.

'It is just as Tang Yao said; the NPCs in this game are remarkably close to Immortal Masters.' Watching Xie Xiaotian's retreating figure, Xiao Niao smiled and shook his head. He was going back to the village to find the old village chief anyway, so helping Xie Xiaotian was just a simple task, and he didn't care about such a small amount of copper coins.

Back at the riverbank, he had already roughly figured out how to make money.

Although he only had 1000 copper coins on him, compared to Tang Yao's generous spending of 10 taels of silver to post quests, he was undoubtedly a pauper.

However, sometimes, you don't need money to make money.

Compared to money, it was more important to gain the old village chief's favor.

Xiao Niao had long realized that he was shy by nature and not good at communicating with others. Bumping into walls in society, he had only realized the principle of exchanging benefits. Just like when he met Tang Yao, he had used completing tasks and delivering the wooden bucket as a way to exchange for information. Others might not think much of this method, but for Xiao Niao, this was the most acceptable way of interpersonal interaction in his heart.

However, when facing NPCs, no matter how similar their behavioral patterns were to Immortal Masters, Xiao Niao viewed them as strings of data in his heart, and he had a natural affinity for data.

Because of this, he didn't have much psychological burden when dealing with NPCs.

Xiao Niao walked up to the old village chief. This time, he didn't dare to test him again and asked respectfully, "Old village chief, is there anything you need me to do?" This should be the standard way to ask for a quest. He figured that by completing more quests, he could grind up his favorability.

Unexpectedly, the old village chief rolled his eyes at him and calmly spat out two words: "None." Then he looked into the distance, appearing as if strangers should keep their distance.

Xiao Niao was choked up for a moment. Can you please not hold such a grudge?

He thought hard, and his gaze fell on the stone table nearby.

Fine lines were carved on the stone table, crisscrossing and weaving together; it seemed to be a chessboard.

Xiao Niao's heart stirred. He walked to the stone table, touched the carved lines, and muttered to himself, "Such a nice stone table, I don't know who ruined it like this. I'll find a stone to grind it smooth."

The old village chief glanced over upon hearing this. Seeing Xiao Niao rolling up his sleeves and looking around, he finally couldn't help but say, "Don't mess around, that's my chessboard."

Xiao Niao pretended to be surprised: "Oh, so it's a chessboard? Why are there no pieces?"

The old village chief said helplessly, "Most of them were taken by those little brats. How could I dare to leave them out?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Niao suddenly realized that this was the prerequisite plot to trigger a quest. As long as he took the initiative to offer to find the pieces, it would be equivalent to accepting the quest.

Moreover, judging by the freedom of this game, it wasn't impossible for him to find stones and grind out two jars of pieces himself. Although it would be much more troublesome, the quest reward would surely be more generous.

However, there seemed to be a simpler and more effective way.

Xiao Niao calculated in his mind and said to the old village chief, "I didn't expect you to be a chess lover as well."

As soon as these words were spoken, the old village chief became interested.

He walked over slowly, looked him up and down, and was clearly a bit skeptical, "Dreamer, could it be that you also know how to play chess?"

Xiao Niao smiled and said, "I know a thing or two. If the old village chief is willing to take the time to instruct me, that would be even better."

Although the old village chief still didn't quite believe him, he happened to be bored, so he simply took out two chess jars and handed one to Xiao Niao. He still asked uncertainly, "You know the rules of Go, right? Don't pretend to know if you don't just to get close to me."

Xiao Niao looked down and saw that the jar contained black pieces. He sat on the stone stool, picked up a piece, and said, "Since the old village chief is allowing me to go first, I will boldly make my move."

Seeing this, the old village chief smiled. Since he knew the rule that black moves first, it meant he wasn't a complete layman. He adjusted his clothes, sat opposite him, and said, "Good, let's begin."

Xiao Niao placed a piece to claim the top right corner.

The old village chief nodded slightly and placed a white piece in the bottom right corner.

The black piece was placed again.

After six moves like this, Xiao Niao smiled inwardly.

Although he hadn't studied Go, when he used to play with artificial intelligence, he often used AI to run Go simulations. Through exposure, he had naturally memorized some of the AI's brilliant and tricky moves. Among average Go enthusiasts, he could probably say he won more than he lost.

The only thing he worried about was if the old village chief happened to be an AI with extremely strong computing power; then, no matter how high his chess skills were, he wouldn't be able to win.

However, after a few moves, Xiao Niao felt at ease because the old village chief's chess skills were not that great.

He deliberately didn't play any tricky moves, which resulted in him being slightly at a disadvantage after twenty moves from the overall perspective, and by the thirtieth move, he seemed to have a slight upper hand, creating an intense and evenly matched situation.

The old village chief was engrossed in the game, thinking intently for a long time. His face lit up with sudden realization, and he reached for the jar to take a piece, but grabbed nothing.

No pieces left!