The auditorium remained silent.
The checkers board sat between Lin Xia and Bai Shuying.
Twenty-four pieces had started the match.
Now only seventeen remained.
But nobody in the audience was thinking about the number of pieces anymore.
They were thinking about what had just happened.
A tiny red light had appeared beneath Bai Shuying's sleeve.
It lasted less than a second.
Then disappeared.
Lin Xia had seen it.
Yue Ning had seen it.
Mei Chen had seen it.
Nobody else had.
Not even the system announcement screen had reacted.
Bai Shuying looked at Lin Xia.
Lin Xia looked back.
Neither said anything.
The timer continued counting down.
17:42
Bai Shuying finally moved.
She picked up one of her black pieces and moved it diagonally forward.
Click.
A completely legal move.
Nothing strange.
Nothing suspicious.
Lin Xia studied the board.
Then she looked at Bai Shuying's hand.
Nothing.
She made her move.
Click.
Bai Shuying responded.
Click.
Lin Xia responded.
Click.
The match continued.
But now...
Lin Xia wasn't only playing checkers.
She was investigating.
THE FIRST TEST
Lin Xia deliberately made a move that looked careless.
She exposed one of her pieces.
It was a piece Bai Shuying could capture.
The audience noticed immediately.
Whispers spread.
"Why did she do that?"
"That's an obvious mistake."
"She's giving it away."
Mei Chen didn't say anything.
She understood.
Lin Xia was testing something.
Bai Shuying looked at the exposed piece.
Then at Lin Xia.
Her fingers moved toward one of her pieces.
Stopped.
Moved away.
She chose another piece instead.
The audience murmured.
Lin Xia's eyes narrowed.
Interesting.
She had expected Bai Shuying to take the bait.
Bai Shuying hadn't.
Yue Ning whispered,
"She knows."
Mei Chen nodded.
"She knows Lin Xia is testing her."
THE SECOND TEST
Lin Xia tried something different.
She moved two pieces into a position where Bai Shuying appeared to have only one good response.
A forced-looking move.
The kind of position that made spectators think the answer was obvious.
Bai Shuying stared at it.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Then she moved a piece that nobody expected.
Not toward Lin Xia.
Away from her.
A few students laughed.
"That move does nothing."
"Why would she waste a turn?"
But Yue Ning leaned closer.
Her eyes widened.
"No."
Mei Chen looked at her.
"What?"
"Look at the back row."
Bai Shuying's strange move had created a protected diagonal.
If Lin Xia continued with the obvious attack, Bai Shuying would eventually force a sequence that would send one of her pieces straight toward promotion.
It wasn't an immediate threat.
It was a threat that would exist four moves later.
Lin Xia smiled.
"Good."
Bai Shuying heard her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
THE CHEATING
The match continued.
Neither player rushed.
The board slowly became more complicated.
Pieces were exchanged.
Positions changed.
The audience became increasingly invested.
Some students stood.
Others began whispering predictions.
A few started placing bets through their wrist devices.
Then it happened again.
A tiny red glow.
This time...
Lin Xia saw exactly where it came from.
Bai Shuying's left sleeve.
A small device.
Almost completely hidden.
Lin Xia didn't look at it for long.
Instead, she looked at Bai Shuying's fingers.
The device had given her information.
Not about the future.
Not about what move Lin Xia would make.
It appeared to be analyzing the board.
Calculating possible sequences.
Giving Bai Shuying probabilities.
So that was the trick.
Bai Shuying wasn't moving pieces illegally.
She wasn't altering the board.
She wasn't touching her opponent's pieces.
She was using an external calculation device.
Technically...
the game itself wasn't being changed.
But it was still cheating.
Lin Xia's eyes returned to the board.
She could expose her now.
One word.
One accusation.
The system would investigate.
If Bai Shuying was caught...
her punishment would be severe.
But Lin Xia didn't speak.
WHY?
Yue Ning leaned toward her.
"You know what she's doing."
It wasn't a question.
Lin Xia nodded.
"I know."
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
Lin Xia looked at Bai Shuying.
"Because I don't know why."
Mei Chen frowned.
"Why she cheats?"
"Yes."
Lin Xia watched Bai Shuying carefully.
"She's Rank Three."
"She has already won enough games to become one of the strongest players here."
"She doesn't need to cheat against me."
Yue Ning understood.
"So the device isn't about winning."
Lin Xia nodded.
"It's about something else."
THE MOVE
Bai Shuying suddenly attacked.
Her piece jumped.
Click.
One of Lin Xia's pieces disappeared.
Then another jump.
Click.
Another piece disappeared.
A third jump.
Lin Xia stopped the sequence.
She had seen the trap.
Bai Shuying had created a chain.
If Lin Xia moved the wrong piece, she would lose three more.
Lin Xia carefully examined the board.
Then...
she did something unexpected.
She moved the exact piece Bai Shuying had been trying to force her to protect.
The audience gasped.
Bai Shuying's expression changed.
For the first time...
she looked genuinely surprised.
Lin Xia had not taken the bait.
She had understood the entire sequence.
Bai Shuying quietly asked,
"How?"
Lin Xia smiled.
"You showed me."
Bai Shuying's eyes narrowed.
"I didn't."
"You did."
Lin Xia tapped the board.
"Your strategy isn't the problem."
She pointed at Bai Shuying's sleeve.
"The thing helping you is."
Silence.
Bai Shuying's face became completely still.
The audience couldn't hear the exchange.
But Yue Ning and Mei Chen could.
Lin Xia lowered her voice.
"Don't worry."
"I won't tell them."
Bai Shuying stared at her.
"Why?"
Lin Xia answered simply.
"Because I want to know what you're really afraid of."
THE CONFESSION
Bai Shuying looked down.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then—
"I was twelve."
Lin Xia waited.
"My first game."
Her voice was barely audible.
"I lost."
Her fingers tightened.
"They gave my opponent permission to choose my punishment."
Lin Xia's expression hardened.
"What happened?"
Bai Shuying looked at the board.
"I survived."
That was all she said.
But the way she said it made Lin Xia understand that the sentence contained far more than it should.
"After that," Bai Shuying continued, "I learned."
"How to read people."
"How to control games."
"How to manipulate opponents."
"And eventually..."
She touched the hidden device beneath her sleeve.
"...how to cheat without being caught."
Lin Xia stared at her.
"You've been using it ever since?"
"Not always."
"When?"
"When I can't afford to lose."
The timer continued.
09:26
THE PROBLEM
Lin Xia looked at the board.
Bai Shuying had fewer pieces now.
But her position was still dangerous.
"You know the system will eventually discover it."
Bai Shuying nodded.
"Probably."
"Then why keep using it?"
"Because the system doesn't care about cheating."
She looked directly at Lin Xia.
"It cares about being able to prove it."
Lin Xia understood.
The system had created a loophole.
Cheating was allowed.
Only being caught mattered.
So Bai Shuying had learned to live inside that loophole.
And that made her terrifying.
THE COUNTER
Lin Xia looked at the board again.
Then she smiled.
"You've made one mistake."
Bai Shuying frowned.
"What?"
"You've been using the device to calculate my moves."
Lin Xia moved a piece.
Click.
Bai Shuying immediately looked down.
Lin Xia moved another.
Click.
Then another.
Click.
Three moves.
None of them appeared connected.
But together...
they changed the entire geometry of the board.
Bai Shuying's device began flashing beneath her sleeve.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Her eyes widened.
The device couldn't find a reliable prediction.
Lin Xia leaned back.
"You've been calculating what I'm likely to do."
She smiled.
"So I'll stop being likely."
Bai Shuying stared at her.
For the first time in years...
the device in her sleeve couldn't give her an answer.
THE FINAL POSITION
The board had become chaotic.
Not random.
Not careless.
Chaotic by design.
Lin Xia had deliberately created multiple viable routes.
Every move could lead to several different positions.
Every position created another possibility.
There was no single obvious continuation.
The device flashed again.
Then—
BLACK SCREEN.
Bai Shuying's hidden calculator had shut itself down.
Her eyes slowly lifted.
Lin Xia smiled.
"Now..."
She placed her hand beside the board.
"...we play normally."
Bai Shuying looked at the dead device.
Then at Lin Xia.
A strange expression crossed her face.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Something almost like relief.
She removed the device from her sleeve.
Placed it on the table beside her.
And pushed it away.
The entire auditorium gasped.
They thought she had surrendered.
She hadn't.
Bai Shuying looked at Lin Xia.
"Then let's see how good you really are."
The timer showed:
06:11
The remaining pieces were scattered across the board.
Neither player had a clear advantage anymore.
And for the first time since the match began...
there was no secret device.
No calculation.
No hidden advantage.
Just two players.
One board.
And six minutes left.