7. Chess Match with Time Limits: The Enraged Sakayanagi Arisu!
Neither of the two players was a dawdler, and soon they signed a contract witnessed by a teacher.
This contract involved as many as 1 million points, meaning the winner could take 500,000 points from the loser.
"I didn't expect that besides me, there would be someone else who thought of obtaining points from clubs on the first day."
Sakayanagi Arisu carefully sized up the man opposite her, her posture appearing casual, not worried at all about the outcome on the chessboard.
Compared to that inevitable result, the Class B student before her who had thought along the same lines interested her more.
"I even less expected that Sakayanagi-san, looking so cute and harmless, could seize nearly a million points from the chess club in such a short time."
Aragaki Shun recalled the point balance Sakayanagi had previously displayed, then glanced around at the dejected club members.
He could only say that this little fellow, who looked like she could be made to cry with one punch, was truly ruthless.
So-called "sucking the marrow from the bones" was nothing more than this.
She probably used the method of initially acting weak to lure them in.
When the chess club members reacted, they felt it was too embarrassing to be outplayed by a seemingly weak little girl, so they could only bite the bullet and send points repeatedly.
However, senior students and new students weren't in a competitive relationship.
Aragaki Shun felt that as long as it was consensual, playing around was fine.
Everyone relied on their own abilities; if they lost, they could only blame their own lack of skill.
Anyway, those willing to join the match after someone else lost must have reserved enough living expenses.
Like Sakayanagi, designing to drain the pockets of senior students was really unnecessary.
Wasn't this girl afraid someone would secretly take her cane?
Aragaki Shun sized up the girl's pretty face, who paid no attention to others, and then recalled the information about the Advanced Nurturing High School management he had obtained before enrollment.
It seemed the chairman of this school was also surnamed Sakayanagi, right?
So, was she indeed a girl who didn't understand the ways of the world?
"However, Sakayanagi-san, do you really not need to rest for a while to recover your... stamina? Before I came, you had already played several games with others, right?"
"No need." For some reason, Sakayanagi's voice seemed to have become somewhat cold.
"The chessboard is the domain of wisdom and thought. They, combined, couldn't put any pressure on me. I hope you won't be so disappointing as well!"
"In that case, let me see Sakayanagi-san's profound wisdom and unfathomable thoughts."
Aragaki Shun smiled.
Since the other party didn't accept this goodwill, he naturally didn't need to insist.
After signaling the girl to go first, Sakayanagi Arisu also unceremoniously began her offensive.
Aragaki Shun glanced at it; sure enough, it was a style that completely revealed its aggressiveness from the opening.
He unhurriedly picked up a chess piece, calculated in his mind, and placed it in the desired position.
Sakayanagi Arisu merely glanced at his move, as if without thinking, and immediately picked up a piece to make her next move.
In the following time, both sides went back and forth, both making their next move decisively after only a few seconds of simple thought.
In just three short minutes, Aragaki Shun had already completed his twentieth move.
He saw a dangerous smile suddenly appear on Sakayanagi Arisu's face.
Casually picking up a chess piece, she made a prediction to the young man, "Aragaki-kun doesn't seem any stronger than the seniors. I thought this game would be more interesting."
Aragaki Shun watched as the girl made this move, and the situation on the chessboard became obviously complicated.
It wasn't too surprising; he had fallen into a disadvantage now.
After all, she was an opponent who could single-handedly sweep the entire chess club.
For Aragaki Shun to use his chess skills, which he had only played with for a while before putting down, to challenge her, it was normal to fall directly into a disadvantage.
This world never lacked talented individuals in various fields; this was a truth he had understood in his previous life.
After being reborn into a new world, there were even more geniuses who achieved astonishing accomplishments at a young age.
A super best-selling author whose works had been animated twice and whose original light novel sales exceeded fourteen million copies was, in reality, a second-year junior high school girl in a kimono with a natural airheadedness.
How about that?
Those who truly loved chess had to spend a lot of time every day memorizing chess scores, studying endgames, and playing against others to gain experience.
Sakayanagi Arisu in front of him was clearly this kind of seasoned player.
Perhaps due to her physical limitations, she couldn't participate in those physically demanding entertainments like normal young people, so she could only immerse herself in the world of the chessboard at home, over and over again.
Such an opponent, who had talent, perseverance, and had accumulated rich experience, was undoubtedly very troublesome!
Unfortunately—
"Sakayanagi-san, you've actually never played against a real professional player, have you?"
"What do you mean?" Sakayanagi Arisu didn't understand, thinking Aragaki Shun was mocking her.
"Could it be that Aragaki-kun is the kind of man who can't accept defeat and only tries to gain an advantage verbally?"
"No! I just wanted to say, I'm going to get serious now!"
After Aragaki Shun said this, he turned to look at the crowd watching their match, instructing the chess club president to act as a neutral party and keep time.
"Although it should have been decided at the beginning, it's only been three minutes, so it's not too late to add it now. How about this match follows the international standard of a 6-hour system?"
As soon as these words fell, Sakayanagi Arisu's face suddenly twisted, and she stared deadly at the man in front of her.
But before she could say anything, someone from the group of lackeys fawning over her couldn't hold back.
"Hey, hey, what nonsense are you talking about? Why does a chess game need to last 6 hours? You're clearly..."
"Shut up!"
This angry shout came not from others, but from the very person he was defending.
The girl's furious gaze startled the Year 1 Class A student who had jumped out, leaving him stammering, "Aba, aba," not knowing what to do.
However, Sakayanagi Arisu ignored this fool who had jumped out without understanding anything.
She just gritted her teeth and glared at the detestable man opposite her, knowing full well his intentions were malicious, yet she could only walk into the trap.
"Sakayanagi-san, please don't look at me like that. Just as you said, the chessboard is the domain of wisdom and thought. I'm going to seriously calculate every step from now on. It's best to be professional and set a time limit. Otherwise, you wouldn't want this game to drag on until late at night, would you?"
Aragaki Shun's expression remained unchanged as he gave this irrefutable and legitimate reason.
If it were just for entertainment, then chess, of course, would be played with everyone making moves casually.
After a winner was decided, it would naturally end, and there would be no need to set time limits.
But if everyone started to get serious, then it would be necessary to stipulate that both sides must complete a certain number of moves within a time limit.
In early international chess tournaments, it was precisely because there were no time limits that a single game lasting more than ten hours was common.
There were even situations where everyone played until late at night without a winner being decided, and both sides were so tired they fell asleep slumped over the table.
Aragaki Shun and Sakayanagi Arisu had not agreed on a playing time before, so if this game were to drag on, it would be normal for it to continue until late at night.
He didn't care, but looking at this girl's body, supported by a cane, she might not be able to hold on.
"Then why use slow chess rules? I think playing rapid or blitz chess would also be good."
A cold gaze fixed on Aragaki Shun, as if wanting to cut him into a thousand pieces.
Undoubtedly, this was a sufficiently rational enemy.
To so unscrupulously expose her weakness, directly targeting the opponent's weak point, was simply, simply... too wonderful!
Never before had she been so annoyed.
I've decided, I must treat you as the best toy and play with you ruthlessly!
"It's been about two years since I last played chess. Although I remember all the rules, without enough time to calculate, I don't have a hundred percent confidence in beating you."
Aragaki Shun stated unreservedly.
Strength 8, Constitution 8, Agility 9, and finally Spirit 10.
Given that the average values for normal adults in this world were only 5, his values were undoubtedly luxurious.
But people could never be compared to each other.
When an adult man could only exert an average pulling force of 70.3 kg with an outstretched arm, someone else could create a world record of a 400 kg deadlift without equipment but with knee wraps, and without drug testing.
When a sub-healthy university student couldn't even fight a goose, someone else could single-handedly pull an airplane weighing 189 tons, lift 500 kg on their shoulders, and simultaneously carry 22 women.
If there could be such a disparity in strength, which wasn't even mankind's strong suit compared to other creatures, then the differences in intelligence, inspiration, and thought between people were even harder to estimate.
Normally, even if an ordinary person underwent professional training from childhood, reaching 10 in various attributes was already the limit.
But for those exceptionally talented individuals who seemed to be cheating, it was hard to say.
Anyway, Aragaki Shun felt that with a spirit value of 10, he definitely couldn't win against those top figures who had delved into various fields for half their lives just by analogy.
Sakayanagi Arisu wasn't at that level, but being able to single-handedly sweep Advanced Nurturing's entire chess club, her talent didn't seem low.
Unless Aragaki Shun spent a few weeks memorizing and studying several thousand chess scores, he wouldn't be confident in beating her in rapid or blitz chess.
After all, no matter how strong his memory and calculation/deduction abilities from his spirit attribute were, he still had to spend time memorizing first.
"In other words, you believe that as long as you have enough time to calculate, you are one hundred percent confident in beating me?"
Sakayanagi Arisu's face turned even uglier.
She had never met someone who underestimated her so much; it was almost enough to make her laugh out of anger.
"Good! Good! Good! Slow chess takes too long, rapid chess is too short. Let's compromise. How about we halve the time for each phase under the slow chess rules?"
Just give him an hour and a half!
She would show him just how ugly this futile struggle was in the face of an absolute difference in strength!
...