[Metro Newsflash]
[The island nation’s Mt.
Fuji has grown increasingly active; experts suspect an eruption is imminent…]
[This year’s Air Force pilot recruitment is about to begin…]
[Mr.
Liu Dawei and his team have filed over 450 patents to date, with invention patents accounting for more than 99%…]
In a narrow alley somewhere in the Magic City.
A few elderly gents sat in a circle beneath a ginkgo tree.
They listened to the news while pointing and commenting on a chess match unfolding in the crowd…
“Tsk, tsk.
Little Jing’s chess just keeps getting better—he’s even driven Old Wang into a corner!”
“Isn’t that the truth!
Old Wang’s the best player in our compound.
He even played in pro events years back…”
“Goes to show, youth still has the edge.
We’re old now~”
“Not bad at all.
Jing Yuan, you really are gifted,” said the white-haired old gentleman across from the youth, pushing up his glasses, genuine approval in his eyes.
“At this rate you’ll soon catch up to me in my younger days!”
Jing Yuan smiled easily, raking back his messy hair.
“It’s all thanks to Old Wang and the gentlemen here.”
One simple line and he’d praised every elder present.
Their looks toward him grew even more satisfied.
Eyes returned to the board.
After a move, Old Wang surveyed the field and muttered, “As I see it, we should call this one a draw.”
The onlookers nodded in agreement.
With so few pieces left, both sides were bled dry.
Neither could put the other in check.
A draw was the neatest outcome.
No one expected Jing Yuan to lift his hand and—decisively—push his “General” one step forward.
“General five, advance one?”
Old Wang’s brows jumped.
He could hardly believe it.
The crowd, too, stared in surprise.
As everyone knows:
In Chinese chess, “General Five Advances One” is also called “the sovereign leads the charge.”
Play it at the start and it’s taken as spotting your opponent a move—or outright provocation.
But this was an endgame.
With the other side offering a draw, this move could only mean one thing:
Refusal.
“Good.
Good!
Good!”
After a beat, Old Wang clapped in praise.
“Didn’t think I’d still meet a young man with fire in his belly these days!”
They say a person’s chess reveals their character.
Better to fight to the last pawn—even send the “General” to the front—than settle for a draw.
He’d thought the kid was just a gentle, studious type.
He hadn’t expected that grit in his bones.
Because of that, he didn’t hold back his approval.
As Old Wang spoke, the bystanders chimed in.
“Right, not many young folks like Little Jing anymore.”
“What can you do?
Kids today live for entertainment—chasing idols, grinding games, playing while they can.
Hit the tiniest setback and they just… flop.”
“Don’t get me started.
My daughter’s in her thirties and still going ‘gege-gege-gege’ all day.
She’s given me high blood pressure more than once!”
“My useless boy’s no better.
A grown man with cartoon posters wall-to-wall and a display case for those little figurines—what do they call them… ‘statues’?
Hmph.
Can’t even bring home a partner…”
Listening to them, Jing Yuan’s lips curved.
He thought back to the day he crossed over and couldn’t help a sigh…
Yes.
Just like the protagonists in so many transmigration novels, he didn’t belong to this world.
He’d crossed from Blue Star.
Before the jump, Jing Yuan had been at home grinding the Simulated Universe…
He’d finally hit the Galactic Jackpot and was ready to go hard!
He smashed the first barrel and—his vision went black.
When he opened his eyes again, he was already in this parallel world.
Compared to the Blue Star he left, this one was almost identical.
If anything differed, it was the country names here and there.
Also, this world had no “Mi-you-you.”
No Honkai, no Genshin, no Star Rail, no Zenless…
As a die-hard of those games, he struggled at first.
Until his system awoke—
“I recall Little Jing doesn’t have a girlfriend yet?”
“Want to try meeting my daughter?”
Hearing himself mentioned, Jing Yuan pulled his thoughts back and waved both hands.
“Please don’t.
I’ve signed up for pilot recruitment.
Medical’s next week, and if all goes well I’ll be leaving the city soon.
I’d hate to waste your daughter’s time…”
What a joke.
The old man had just said it himself:
his daughter was already in her thirties—and obsessed with “ge-ge” idols.
Absolutely not!
“Pilot recruitment?”
Old Wang blinked.
He forgot all about the board.
Pointing at Jing Yuan’s shoulder-length white hair, he made a face.
“Kid, with your hair dyed white like that, the service will take you?”
“This isn’t dye.”
Jing Yuan gave a wry smile.
He was worried about it too…
The system he’d awakened after crossing over was called the “Strongest Role-Play System.”
Play a designated role, and you gain that role’s power.
The more convincingly you act—speech, bearing, behavior—the stronger the power you obtain.
And the designated template wasn’t anyone else—it was the Arbiter-General, Jing Yuan!
This full head of white was courtesy of the system…
As Jing Yuan saw it, to portray the General well, joining the military was a must.
But Dragon Nation’s armed forces here in this parallel world… were just as strict in their selection.
All the more so for Air Force pilots!
Show up with a mane of white hair like this, and they’d toss him out as a clown the moment he walked in.
But cutting it short would hurt the role-play effect…
“Forget it.
Worst case, I’ll cut it before the medical.”
He made up his mind.
Appearance mattered, but inner alignment with the role mattered more.
Some trade-offs were fine.
He could always grow it back later.
“Good lad!” Old Wang’s eyes widened, impressed anew.
“I like you more and more!”
“Ah, but once you go, no one will keep an old man like me company at the board~”
Before Jing Yuan could answer, the others objected at once.
“Now, now, Old Wang.
That’s not fair.
Little Jing serving the country is a great thing—we should support him!”
“Exactly.
What’s chess compared to serving?”
“Heh, I see what this is—you just think our games aren’t as sharp as Little Jing’s!”
With the crowd chiding him, Old Wang lost the mood to continue…
As expected,
Jing Yuan took the game.
“Bah, you all scrambled my thoughts!
Otherwise I wouldn’t have lost.”
“Spectators don’t speak—ever heard of that?”
He grumbled as he stood, palmed the blame off on the crowd, then patted Jing Yuan’s shoulder.
“All right, we old folks won’t hold you up.
Go on home and get ready!”
Jing Yuan nodded with a smile.
“Mm.
When I’m discharged, I’ll come back and play with you all again.”
“Deal!”
Old Wang laughed heartily.
[Ding]
[Congratulations, Host—Board-Game Task complete.
Role-Play Progress +1%.]
[Current Progress: 13%.]