「Ōki, you've taken an elementary school student as an apprentice? I'm jealous, you genius.」 (Kuzuryū)
「You won the Ryūō title, and a massive sum of 50 million yen will enter your pocket. Which one of us is the genius, I wonder?」 (Ōki)
Some time had passed since Tinay agreed to continue receiving lessons from Ōki, and Kuzuryū visited Ōki's home. No, to be precise, he was helping Ōki move to a new apartment.
Ōki was not obliged to leave home early, so he postponed his plan to live alone until after he graduated from middle school. He had been planning to move after accumulating a sufficient amount of money. And after nearly a year since graduating from middle school, Ōki finally moved to live near the Shogi Hall in the Kansai region.
The well-intentioned Kuzuryū was obligated to work for free for a person who was a scoundrel in every sense of the word.
While moving the computer equipment, Kuzuryū noticed something.
「Daiki, Die, HARU, KuZu, OOO... Are these accounts for Shogi apps?」 (Kuzuryū)
There were many sequences of characters, alongside a set of numbers, pasted on a sticky note on the computer. Upon seeing them, Kuzuryū immediately realized they were memos for Shogi app usernames and passwords.
Kuzuryū also owned multiple accounts, but he was stunned by the sheer number of Ōki's accounts. The reason was that the count of these accounts exceeded one hundred. Kuzuryū was terrified by the sight of the multiple sticky notes hanging on the computer.
Then, he noticed a particular detail.
「These accounts... no, all of them. Aren't they the accounts that were banned for software cheating [soft Shogi]?
... No way? No, that's impossible...?」 (Kuzuryū)
All the accounts were familiar to him. The names of those accounts were the same ones that had been banned for software cheating [soft Shogi] in the app where this issue was widespread. At that time, Kuzuryū played against them repeatedly and lost to them many times.
And when he won against them occasionally, he would shout: "Go to hell, you software addict!"
「This one too, and this one too... Can I check the match times?」 (Kuzuryū)
As he quickly took out his phone, trying to search for the match times of each of those accounts, Ōki arrived carrying a large cardboard box. Kuzuryū was stunned when he hurried to help him unpack the box and saw what was inside.
「Are these all smartphones?」 (Kuzuryū)
「Yes. I have been collecting older model smartphones slowly since my childhood.
Most of them are almost non-functional junk now, but there are still some phones that can be used.」 (Ōki)
The box was filled with an enormous number of smartphones, exceeding fifty phones. Some of them were very old models. Kuzuryū felt nostalgic, and at the same time, a certain idea dawned on him.
Was Ōki using these fifty phones for multi-play [playing multiple games simultaneously] online?
"Multi-play" is an effective way to raise one's Shogi skill level, but it prevents concentration on a single position, and if the player tries to focus on all matches, their mental capacity will fail. However, given the massive number of accounts he had just seen, this idea instantly came to him, and considering Ōki's strength, he would be convinced if told that this was the source of his power.
Just as Kuzuryū was about to speak with Ōki, he saw Ōki say, 「Damn it,」 and then quickly tear up the papers on which the accounts were written. At that point, Kuzuryū stopped short of mentioning the numerous accounts and smartphones.
「Ōki, you usually study Shogi using software, right? Won't you show me what you have?」 (Kuzuryū)
「... Eh? No, wait, don't look at the desktop!」 (Ōki)
Kuzuryū seized the opportunity while Ōki's hand was busy holding the trash and turned on the computer screen to look at the desktop. There, he found icons for many games lined up. There were various types of games, from famous games Kuzuryū knew to games played by very few people.
「... You are more of a gamer than I imagined.」 (Kuzuryū)
「... Well, I'm a serious gamer [hard-gamer]. Recently, I've done almost nothing but play.」 (Ōki)
Ōki questioned why the game was running, then proceeded to launch a famous battle royale shooting game. Kuzuryū was stunned by the computer's specifications, which instantly transitioned to the game screen, and his astonishment only grew with Ōki's subsequent movements.
Ōki hammered the keyboard at frantic speed and continued to kill enemies. He moved his arms and hands with speed that the eye couldn't keep up with, and with precision and steadiness, he continued to eliminate the enemies appearing in his field of view one after another. In the blink of an eye, Ōki won first place among a hundred players.
Kuzuryū looked at the scene in amazement, while Ōki's internal brain temperature rose.
(Look! Kuzuryū is shocked. He thought I was an illogical person who starts playing a "PUBG" game and wins in the middle of a moving process.) (Ōki)
(The Master is illogical already, so there is no problem. By the way, the last enemy in that match appeared on the screen at 4 minutes and 17 seconds.) (Ai)
(Why are you detecting that now? You should have detected that during the game!) (Ōki)
「Ōki, how much time have you spent on this game?」 (Kuzuryū)
「Eh? I've played this game for about 200 hours? My win rate for "Donkatsu" [first place] is currently about 20%.」 (Ōki)
「20%... Is that the normal rate for skilled players?」 (Kuzuryū)
The topic Kuzuryū finally spoke about was games. Ōki spoke proudly, but Kuzuryū, who had no knowledge of games, could not judge how impressive what he said was. However, he knew from Ōki's tone that he was skilled at it.
「Kuzuryū, I want to ask you, do you remember the match of the Student Champion against President Gekkō seven years ago? I think you were the recorder for it.」 (Ōki)
「Eh? I have never met the Student Champion, and I don't recall being the match recorder for a game of President Gekkō's?」 (Kuzuryū)
... The Student Champion is Tinay's father. This indicates that the original story has collapsed from the start. When Ōki heard that Kuzuryū had not met Tinay's father, his brain ran at maximum speed.
(Oh my god, what am I going to do? I was feeling this way somehow, so will I become the Master?) (Ōki)
(This is neither my fault nor the Master's fault, I think. ... But online play has certainly affected the world. A sort of "butterfly effect" must have shifted the order of match recorders. After all, "playing with 50 interfaces" online is more impactful on the Shogi world than merely the flap of a butterfly's wing.) (Ai)
(Damn you. Don't analyze the situation calmly. No wonder Tinay's Shogi lacks substance.) (Ōki)
The situation escalated into a verbal dispute, and Kuzuryū looked at the now-silent Ōki, beginning to worry about whether he had said something strange. The task of moving Ōki's belongings did not end easily.