Chapter 998: Creating Characters

Next, give both commanders five minutes to assign 'zi' to their nearby generals. After five minutes, the game will officially begin.

Di Long paused for a moment and continued, "The team that fails this time will be completely eliminated, so please prepare yourselves. If you think of any new questions during the assignment, you can ask me."

After hearing this, the Qi Xia group began whispering among themselves, feeling that the game sounded simple but were still unsure about how to play it.

The objective was to seize the radicals or components from the opponent's 'zi' to form new words... whoever forms twenty-eight first wins.

Such straightforward rules, yet it was clearly not a simple game.

Seeing that Qi Xia hadn't spoken for a while, Chen Jun Nan quickly turned and asked, "Hey, guys, who knows how to play Xiangqi?"

In no time, Han Yi Mo raised his hand, but as Chen Jun Nan was about to praise him, he saw Han Yi Mo's embarrassed expression as he said,

"I don't."

"I don't either..." Zheng Ying Xiong said.

"Me neither..." Tian Tian said.

"Me..." Zhang Chen Ze said.

"Good, great, just fantastic— the dream team, right?" Chen Jun Nan said with a confident nod, then turned to Qi Xia, "Old Qi, how about we just forfeit?"

"Don't mess around," Qi Xia said, "It's not that bad."

"Not that bad?!" Chen Jun Nan said, "Only the three of us know Xiangqi— how are we supposed to handle this team game?"

Qiao Jia Jin looked a bit sheepish and scratched his head, "Jun Nan, bro... I don't know it either."

"...?" Chen Jun Nan blinked, "You know the rules of gambling, but not 'Xiangqi'?"

"I know because I used to watch over gambling dens," Qiao Jia Jin replied, "But there was no 'Xiangqi' in those places."

"Well, isn't that just perfect?" Chen Jun Nan said with a look of utter despair, "Old Qi, talk to Di Long and see if we can switch to something like checkers. This is impossible."

"It's fine; the rules involving 'Xiangqi' probably aren't too complicated," Qi Xia said, "Although everyone has a 'zi', it doesn't mean you're playing as pieces, because the rules don't restrict 'movement'. So, theoretically, you don't have to follow traditional rules like 'ma walks in an L-shape' or 'xiang walks on the diagonals'— just remember the key ones."

"Then how do we do it...?" Chen Jun Nan asked.

"First, remember that our 'zi' and the opponent's are different," Qi Xia said.

"Different...?" Chen Jun Nan paused, "What do you mean? Are they playing some kind of animal chess over there?"

Zheng Ying Xiong sighed in exasperation and said coldly, "Chen Jun Nan, can you just say less?"

"What's with 'Chen Jun Nan'?" Chen Jun Nan shot back, grabbing Zheng Ying Xiong's head, "Call me bro!"

Qi Xia shook his head and walked to the wall, picking up a metal chain to carve several characters into it.

"Bing," "pao," "che," "ma," "xiang," "shi," "shuai."

"These are ours," Qi Xia said.

"Isn't that just like Xiangqi?" Chen Jun Nan said, "Both sides are the same, right?"

"No," Qi Xia said, then carved a few more characters on the wall.

"Zu," "pao," "che," "ma," "xiang," "shi," "jiang."

"These are the opponent's."

Everyone compared them and noticed the differences right away.

"About 'Xiangqi', you only need to remember one rule," Qi Xia said, "Our 'zi' and theirs are different. After all, when Di Long had us demonstrate earlier, he said to use 'bing zu' as an example, which means we're 'bing' and they're 'zu'."

Zhang Chen Ze nodded upon hearing this, "So, that means the focus for each side is different too."

"Exactly," Qi Xia nodded, "When we chose the left or right side at the beginning, Di Long said it doesn't change the difficulty, just the tactics. That makes it clear— it's because the 'zi' we need are different."

Chen Jun Nan thought for a moment, and then Qiao Jia Jin pointed to the "che" character and asked,

"Jun Nan, bro, is this 'che'?"

"Of course it is, you big fool," Chen Jun Nan said, but then he caught himself and put his arm around Qiao Jia Jin's shoulder, "My bad, I forgot you're using traditional characters. Come on, let me explain."

He went over the common simplified characters with Qiao Jia Jin, especially ones like "che" and "ma" that are highly simplified.

"Next, remember this..." Qi Xia said, "No matter what 'zi' I assign to you, keep it secret."

"Secret?"

"Yes, I bet Chu Tian Qiu will think of the same thing," Qi Xia said, pointing to the characters on the wall, "Some 'zi' are 'hot' and others are 'cold'. If we want to form more words, we'll have to seize certain radicals from the opponent, and those will be 'hot' for both sides."

"Hiss..." Chen Jun Nan nodded, "I get it... so these 'zi' can be broken down and combined, like my 'single stroke' with your 'three drops of water'..."

"Are you just figuring that out now?" Zheng Ying Xiong said.

"Shut up."

Qi Xia ignored Chen Jun Nan and stepped forward, pointing to the "xiang" on the wall, "Our 'xiang' can be split into 'mu' and 'mu', which can become radicals, so theoretically, it can form more words. That's why our team's 'xiang' is more vulnerable, but on the flip side..."

Qi Xia pointed to the opponent's "xiang."

"Their 'xiang' doesn't form many things, so it won't be our top target. Instead, we need to grab their 'shi' quickly because it has the 'single stroke'."

"I see..." Tian Tian and Zhang Chen Ze both nodded.

"Also, our 'pao' probably has other combinations," Qi Xia said, "These two 'zi' are relatively dangerous, while the others are safer. So, the key to surviving here is not to reveal your 'zi' and to try every trick to find out the opponent's."

Zhang Chen Ze nodded, "In that case, 'ma' and 'che' are the safest because both sides have them, so they won't rush to seize them."

"Right," Qi Xia said, giving Zhang Chen Ze an approving look, "So, our vanguard will be 'ma' and 'che'. Even if those two lose their 'zi', it won't hurt us much, but any 'zi' with left-right structures needs extra caution."

Once everyone agreed, Qi Xia added, "Later, whoever gets a 'zi' or loses one, come back to me right away."

After that, he looked at Zheng Ying Xiong and asked, "Zheng Ying Xiong, how many of these 'zi' do you recognize?"

"About half," Zheng Ying Xiong said.

"Good," Qi Xia nodded, then said to Tian Tian, "Spend the next minute teaching Zheng Ying Xiong the pronunciations of all these 'zi'. I have a task for him."