Taming Master

‘What kind of battle will it be this time?’

Immediately after gathering in the open space for the purpose of entering the battlefield for the Wednesday battle.

Ian’s first thoughts were.

‘Can’t be more than the Mirror Battlefield… no, maybe they will be going to come out with a fresh content?’

The ‘dimensional mirror’ battlefield was fresh enough to admire, even for Ian.

Having experienced such content, it was inevitable to be expecting something more from the battle.

And a roaring voice entered the head of Ian.

“Kay, have you all gathered?”

A man, standing on the platform of the open space with a very heavy bass voice.

Ian thought that he might be a higher level NPC, than any NPC of the village that he had come across in the Warrior’s village.

‘Parker was a Platoon head, is this one the captain?’

It wasn’t comparable to Cameres who was on the Hero’s Path, but the armor that he wore, was very very flashy.

And while Ian was in such thoughts.

“I am the Celestial Dragon General, Hansen. Among all of you, I will select the ones to join the battlefield.”

Listening to Hansen, everyone turned puzzled.

Surely they were all under the impression that they would be entering the battlefield, but none of them expected the ‘select’ part.

Even before they could even try to calm themselves, Hansen continued,

“Here, you and you. And you. This side.”

While the users were in a frenzy, Hansen was selecting the warriors very quickly.

And Ian too was called, moving to the back of the platoon.

“Hmm, yeah. Till this friend, it is 24, right?”

At the response to Hansen, lieutenant Parker responded with a stiff look.

“Yes, General.”

Hansen looked around and nodded his head.

“Nice, you move to the blue gate. The rest of you go to the white gate behind there.”

Not just Ian, everyone couldn’t understand what was happening.

Something seemed to be going on, but no one was able to find an explanation for the situation.

The NPCs were too unfriendly.

‘I think that there are around 50 people in the square… why did he just choose 24?’

Ian was thinking hard to guess.

And it was the same for Hoonie who was beside him.

“Hyung, what is even happening here?”

“Well…”

“This, getting picked is a nice thing right?”

“I think the same. All of the selected users are of a higher rank than a combat soldier.”

“Hyung, you’re a recruit but you have been chosen, why?”

“Hmm? Which is why we need to see.”

Ian who was talking with Hoonie once again fell into thoughts.

Sixteen users were selected by the General of Celestial Dragons, except for Ian, every one of them were Combat soldiers.

In addition, a few combat soldiers weren’t picked up too, so he wasn’t able to understand the standards.

But there were no more things to deduce and no longer did he have the time to think.

“There, friend. What are you doing? Move quickly.”

Lieutenant Parker shouted, and Ian had no choice but to move quickly.

“Ah, yup. Going.”

Ian was one of the 24, whom Hansen had chosen.

Which was why he moved towards the blue gate.

And the moment Ian stepped on the blue gate.

Wheeing-!

With huge resonance, a new system message had emerged in front of Ian’s eyes.

[Welcome to the battlefield of ‘God’s Piece Board’.]

* * *

The busy Korean university campus at 9 o’clock in the evening and most of the students had withdrawn.

However, there was just one crowded place and the large classroom of the virtual reality.

The largest classroom in the virtual reality department, which could accommodate more than two hundred people.

However, the classroom was entirely full.

And the number of 200 students in there, were all the students of the virtual reality department.

And among them, Semi and Young-hoon were seated.

“Huuh, looking forward to it. Semi, you? Did well in the event?”

“Obviously.”

“What was the answer?”

“Maybe the same answer as everyone in this room?”

“hu hu, that was a natural one, right?”

Unlike the usual lecture time, the two people were seated in the front row for some reason.

The expressions too weren’t the same as the lifeless depressing expression waiting for the lecture to attend.

Rather, were full of excitement.

And was the same of all the other students.

Then, why were so many students gathered in the classroom?

The reason for that could be seen on the screen which lighted up the whole room.

– Kay, the documents have just arrived from the LB.

– Oh, Hines, let’s open it up. I’m curious as to what kind of content the Kailan’s planning team have come up with this time.

– Haha, I feel the same way, Lucia. So, shall we look at the rules of the new battlefield together?

– Quickly do it. There isn’t much time before the game starts.

It was the first thing that came up on the classroom screen was the game broadcast YTBC.

And the students in the virtual reality were all gathered in the huge room to watch the Brave Canyon’s battle.

– Oh ho, the name of the battlefield is ‘God’s Piece Board’.

– ‘God’s Piece Board’… what could that be?

– Well? The first thing that enters my mind listening to it, nothing other than a chessboard.

– Ho oh, yeah. Is this really related to chess?

– I’ll know once we open it up.

The crowd of 200 people and the noise-filled classroom suddenly became silent as if everyone had died.

It was because they started to talk about the battle on the screen.

Due to the silence in the room, both Semi and Young-hoon were whispering,

“What? Chess? How will that even work?”

“Yeah. I can’t even imagine it.”

And then came the conversation between Hines and Lucia.

– Kay, let’s look at the file sent by the LB for the viewers.

– Ah, this is so exciting. This isn’t even related to me, but why is my heart pounding like this?

– Huhu, isn’t that because you want the Korean rankers to be active?

And on the screen that Hines and Lucia were there, a new screen had appeared.

A huge peak that rose to one side of the Brave Canyon and a mysterious silverly clouds hanging around.

The screen which had been showing the mysterious landscape from afar, gradually enlarged, and Semi who looked at it, mumbled in a small whimpers.

“Oh, that really is a chessboard?”

Young-hoon too nodded and said,

“Ri, right? Seems like a chessboard… but is it a bit unusual?”

“No, look closely, it is a bit different from chess, it is a Shogi chessboard.”

“What is?”

“the boards are much denser.”

“That so?”

Huge rocks on top of peaks.

The top of the rocks was cut flat and smooth and with a familiar shape.

Like Semi and Young-hoon said that it was Shogi board’.

A mysterious sight that excited the viewers.

And subsequently, on the board, a silhouette began to appear, just like a ‘Shogi piece’.

Woong-!

At the same time, Hines explained,

“The name of the Brave Canyon’s battle is ‘God’s Piece Board’. And I will explain the rules of the board from now on.”

After gulping, Hines began to read the documents from LB which seemed very complicated.

It was something that would be very hard to understand by reading once or twice.

But one thing was definite, the content was going to be very interesting.

“Wah, this is awesome!”

Young-hoon unknowingly began to admire.

This was the brief summary of what Hines described.

1.24 of the best users will be selected by the Celestial camp and the Asmodian Camp.

(User selection criteria are ‘battle power’ and ‘class’ and the combat power is measured on the user’s stat and equipped equipment.)

(The unselected users can gain 100 contributions if the camp of theirs win.)

2. The selected users are moved to the battlefield from the blue gate and placed on the board according to the ‘God’s Choice’.

3. The position of the board determines the position of the user, and the range of movements depend on the position.

*Position

-High General: Located in the middle of the back row, it can move up to five spaces in turn.

If the High general dies, the battle is lost.

(An additional two spaces can be moved if an enemy is killed, and can battle another time.)

-Advisor/ Minister (General): located at the right and left of the High general, can move up to three spaces in turn.

When an enemy attacks, the stats are increased by 10 percent.

(When standing near the general, he can be supported.)

-Assault Captain: located on either side of the row, and can move up to 10 spaces in one turn.

Attacking an enemy increases the stats by 5%.

(If there are allies or enemies on the route, it can jump once.)

-Aide: located on both sides and can move up to five spaces per turn.

Only one of all heroes who can use the recovery skill and heal up to 2 allies per turn.

Each time an ally is healed, the target is healed for 30%.

(Only a ‘priest’ class user can be selected. And cannot attack an enemy first, but when it is attacked, it can fight back.)

-Soldier/ pawn: placed at the front of each faction, and can move upto two spaces in a turn.

4. The celestial camp and the Asmodian camp will move alternatively, and the order comes in the order given by the system.

5. When the pieces meet, the battle occurs, and a battlefield is created in the center of the board, and the battle between the two users begins.

The defeated user becomes a ‘dead piece’ and is summoned outside the battle.

And during the battle, the vitality cannot be recovered except for the help of ‘aide’ and even after the battle, the vitality doesn’t restore.

* * *

Ian who had heard everything from General Hansen, looked interested at the difficulty.

‘Wah, what kind of a board game is this?’

From Ian’s point of view, the battlefield of the ‘God’s Piece Board’ was a level of showing the power of the planning team.

Each turn was like a 1:1 tournament, but the rules and methods were long like a never-ending chess game.

Ian was able to roughly understand the situation and looked at the battlefield.

‘The titles are so diverse. I wish I could be a general or an assault captain…’

Ian wanted to be in the center of the battle to have some kill point, calmed his heart and waited for the battle.

If the position was taken properly, then the game could move in a superior manner.

‘Please, High General…!’

After a while, new system messages began to emerge infront of Ian.

[The positions of each camp users have been determined.]

The users of the Celestial camp were called one after the other with the system messages.

[… user, your job title has been set to ‘General’.]

[… user, your job title has been set to ‘Aide’.]

[… user, your job…]

And at the end of the message.

[‘Ian’ user, your job title has been set to ‘Soldier’.]

A line of messages had come to his sight and depressed the hell out of Ian.