Absolute Choice 9 Read online

  Additional rules are the rules of additional rolls, sending a piece back to the hangar, jumping to the next space of its own color upon landing on a space of its own color, shortcut paths, and stacking of pieces.

  The additional rules were not that complex and were easily understandable. Aeroplane Chess was one of the many board games that had rather simple to understand rules.

  And to most people, the largest factor that depended on victory in Aeroplane Chess was luck. One's luck at dice rolling determined the outcome. The better one rolled the dice, the more '6' appearing to result in additional rolls allowed one to move more spaces.

  Furthermore, if one had bad luck, with the airplane pieces almost reaching the center base, but one just fails to roll the required number. It would result in one unable to successfully reach center base. The advantage of being ahead might eventually evaporate into nothingness.

  Hence, to most people, Aeroplane Chess is easy to learn and understand. Also a board game that was more related to luck was considered to be more leisurely than strategy board game. They were most suitable for children.

  However, when the Infernal Queen heard all the rules, she fell into silence for a moment before she could not help but look up and say, "Darling, the choice of board game is truly complex. It is indeed a test of intelligence and strategy. However, I need to warn you that my intelligence is something even I'm afraid of. Darling, are you sure you want to choose a board game that consists only of intelligence and strategy?"

  Shi Xiaobai said with a laugh, "Sorry, This King also frequently wonders about the existence of such a clever existence like This King. So, competing in intelligence and strategy is also the greatest advantage and forte of This King. No matter how smart you are, you won't be smarter than This King."

  The Infernal Queen said with a covered smile, "Since Darling is so confident, then why don’t we play Aeroplane Chess?"

  Shi Xiaobai said with a nod, "Come on. This King wants you to taste the feeling of despair of what it means to never 'fly to the finishing point'!"

  ...

  ...

  Aeroplane Chess in the eyes of an ordinary person is an entertaining game that is mostly about luck and a tiny bit of strategy. But to Shi Xiaobai, it was a game that was a grueling test of intelligence and strategy. In the Infernal Queen's point of view, it was a game that completely tested intelligence and strategy.

  Why would it be like that?

  Was Shi Xiaobai fooling the Infernal Queen while the Infernal Queen was just playing along with him in sarcasm?

  Of course not!

  It's because to the two of them, Aeroplane Chess is truly a game that is much more complicated than other board games. It could even be considered the most complicated board game of all!

  You might find it ridiculous. Aeroplane Chess is clearly a board game that depends on one's luck at rolling the die to determine victory. Furthermore, there were only four pieces that could be controlled! So how could it have anything to do with complexity?

  You might think that Shi Xiaobai and the Infernal Queen were joking.

  But in fact, you ignored the most important point. The greatest difference Shi Xiaobai and Infernal Queen had from ordinary people was—they did not need luck when rolling a die!

  Yes, with their strength and ability to stably control their strength, they could roll the required number at any time they wanted!

  Rolling dice was a procedure that could be directly skipped. All they needed was to consider what number they should roll during their turn!

  And after completely abandoning the concept of luck, how complicated is Aeroplane Chess? Let me analyze it in detail for you.

  Firstly, in Aeroplane Chess, there is an award mechanism. When you roll '6', you are awarded the option to roll the die a second time or not. But in order to prevent players from throwing an infinite numbers of '6', the rules had a catch that if '6' was rolled three consecutive times, one would be punished. All the airplane pieces of the player, including the pieces that had reached the center base would be sent back to the hangar and play passes to the next player.

  Therefore, when the player can arbitrarily control the rolling of points, they can easily throw from 1 to 18, with a total of 18 valid choices.

  And in Aeroplane Chess, there were same-colored jumping of pieces (if a plane piece lands on a space of its own color, it immediately jumps to the next space of its own color), as well as shortcut squares (when a plane piece lands on one of the shortcut squares of its own color, it may take a shortcut, traversing a quarter of the board. It would complete a move as high as 16 moves). These two jumping rules made the player have way more than 16 possible moves.

  And according to the calculations, from sending the airplane pieces out of the hanger, with all three dice rolls used on the same airplane piece can at best move it by 42 spaces!

  That also meant that in one round, there were 42 possible outcomes available to the player for each airplane piece!

  And the player has a total of 4 airplane pieces!

  Furthermore, the player can choose to not throw 6 to prevent the triggering of the reward. Each round, the player can choose to move once, twice or thrice, a total of three choices.

  Then, how many variations can a player have in his own round?

  The answer was on the order of the product of 42, 4, and 3—504 combinations!

  In addition to the possibility of stacking pieces (when a plane lands on another plane in its own fleet, the player may "stack" the pieces and move them as one piece until they reach the center) or attacking (when a player lands on an opponent's piece, the opponent returns that piece to its hangar). These two change the possible variations of the control of the pieces.

  A player was facing way more than 504 combinations during his single round. It was even more than a thousand!

  What did this mean?

  It means that during one's turn, one has a thousand possible moves to make. Furthermore, after your round, you have to consider what the changes the other party's thousand possible moves would do to the situation.

  And this was just one round of the game. We all know that really talented chess players would typically calculate three to four rounds, or even up to ten rounds. And in Aeroplane Chess, if one wanted to consider ten rounds ahead, how many combinations would be needed?

  1000 to the 20th power!

  It could be considered so complex that it turns crazy!

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  Chapter405 It's impossible for This King to make a mistake

  If this simple and straightforward number is unable to let you have an intuitive sense of the complexity of Aeroplane Chess, let us compare it to some other board games that people might be more familiar with. After all, there is no damage when there is no comparison.

  For example, let's talk about Go which is considered an extremely complicated board game.

  Go's board is formed out of 19 by 19 squares, with a total of 361 intersections. That means that each round, a player is facing a 361 variables. But most people know that the intersections can be occupied by pieces, so when the pieces are placed, the number of available moves depend on the number of remaining pieces and the number of intersection points.

  Therefore, in Go, a player will be facing 361 variations in the first round, but in the second round, it will reduce to 360. Of course, Go has the situation of capturing pieces by surrounding an area. However, it only increases the number of variations, but will never exceed 361!

  That is to say, even the extremely complicated Go only has 361 variations. It's completely incomparable to Aeroplane Chess's thousand variations!

  And let's consider another well-known board game—Chinese chess.

  The complexity in Chinese chess that is slightly superior to Go is that every round, a player has control over 16 pieces. And in each round, only one piece can be moved.

  However, the complexity in Chinese chess tha
t is inferior to Go is that the number of variations of Chinese chess is too few. The General, Advisor and Elephant piece are limited to one side of the board, so there is no need to talk about them. The number of variations they have is also extremely tiny. And Soldier pieces can only move one space in a straight line in the beginning. Its number of variations is just pathetic.

  The Horse piece can cross the river that is in the middle of the board, but the movement is too restrictive. It can only move diagonally, and is limited to 8 movements. However, there is a possibility of being blocked, so there are cases when it is unable to move.

  Chariot and Cannon pieces are the most mobile pieces in Chinese chess. They could move orthogonally. The Cannon piece can even jump over intervening pieces to capture other pieces. However, the amount of movement the Chariot and Cannon pieces is severely restricted. It's because the board of Chinese chess is only a 9 by 10 grid. Removing the dangerous positions in a game, the number of variations the Chariot and Cannon pieces can cause would be extremely limited.

  Therefore, although Chinese chess controls many pieces, each piece has too few variations. Therefore, the amount of variations each round can create will never exceed Go, much less be comparable to Aeroplane Chess!

  It is the same rationale with Chess.

  Therefore, the conclusion is already obvious. In the event where players can freely control the roll of the dice, the complexity of Aeroplane Chess far exceeds that of Go, Chinese chess and chess!

  This was why Shi Xiaobai and the Infernal Queen would call Aeroplane Chess as a game that is a 'grueling test of intelligence and strategy'!

  ...

  ...

  In any board game, there was a tactical difference between the first and second mover. It was the same with Aeroplane Chess. Under the insistence of the Infernal Queen, Shi Xiaobai eventually became the first mover.

  This looked like the Infernal Queen was voluntarily giving Shi Xiaobai the advantage, but in fact, it was a strategy the Infernal Queen chose.

  Shi Xiaobai very quickly understood the meaning behind the Infernal Queen's words of 'my intelligence is something even I'm afraid of'.

  The Infernal Queen was truly very intelligent. Her every step could be said to be perfectly calculated. It never gave Shi Xiaobai a chance to take any advantage of her.

  Shi Xiaobai chose to first move two airplane pieces and made one of the pieces complete a same-color jump.

  However, the Infernal Queen chose to move three airplane pieces. At the third time she rolled the die, she threw a '5'. She had allowed them to take off, but she did not do so the three consecutive times. She did not let any piece join the battlefield.

  Immediately following that, Shi Xiaobai's nightmare descended on him.

  He and the Infernal Queen were diagonally across each other. He played with red while the Infernal Queen played green. Only when Shi Xiaobai's pieces passed the green hangar would the Infernal Queen let her pieces leave the safe zone and strike at Shi Xiaobai's pieces, forcing Shi Xiaobai's pieces that crossed the line to return to the hangar.

  Expulsion of the other party's airplane pieces was a very common and simple strategy, but when it reached the rigorous extent to which the Infernal Queen could perform, it became a terrifying act.

  As the first player, Shi Xiaobai's first choice was of course to attack, but not a single one of his pieces could reach the final line. Every time it passed the green hangar, it would be sent back by the Infernal Queen's strike!

  This was not a simple matter. As long as the Infernal Queen made a little miscalculation, it would allow Shi Xiaobai's pieces to leap to the final point. But what was terrifying was that the Infernal Queen did not make even the tiniest of missteps!

  No matter what actions Shi Xiaobai's airplane pieces took, be it taking a detour before the green hangar or to use a shortcut to traverse a great distance, or stack pieces, the Infernal Queen would see through it and set up a trap to resolve the situation. She was always able to send Shi Xiaobai's pieces back to the hangar!

  The Infernal Queen had used four pieces to seal off all possible routes that Shi Xiaobai could use to reach the end point!

  "I heard Darling wanted to let me experience the 'despair of what it means to never fly to the finishing point'?"

  The Infernal Queen gave a sweet smile that exuded her astonishing beauty. In her smile was an unassailable confidence.

  Shi Xiaobai fell silent for a moment, and said softly, "Is this the reason why you insisted on being after me?"

  The Infernal Queen nodded and said with blinking eyes, "I don't seem to be experiencing the 'despair of what it means to never fly to the finishing point'."

  Shi Xiaobai chuckled and said, "Very good and very forceful. It has to be said that you have made This King turn slightly interested. Your defense is very perfect, but it only confines you to defense. By constantly defending without attacking, there is similarly no way for your piece to reach the end point."

  The Infernal Queen said with a covered smile, "Darling, what you said makes a lot of sense. But I must say, I am constantly defending, but isn't Darling constantly invading? By constantly invading without any defense, Darling would eventually make a mistake. When the time comes, I will not be showing any mercy."

  Shi Xiaobai grinned and said, "Mistakes? Such a word does not exist."

  The two looked into each others eyes and stopped their 'taunting'. They cast their gazes back on the board and began to think even more seriously.

  And the game situation was as Shi Xiaobai said. He was constantly attacking, but he had to always consider about the possibility of the Infernal Queen's counterattack. He seemed like he was haphazardly attacking, but in fact, he was sealing the chances of the Infernal Queen going from a defensive to offensive stance.

  As for the Infernal Queen, she was constantly looking for a mistake while defending. But under Shi Xiaobai's perfect calculations, she could only constantly defend.

  Their pieces constantly struck each other in a struggle. And after a hundred rounds, not a single piece reached the end point!

  "Darling, you are really very clever."

  The Infernal Queen, who failed to find any mistake for a hundred rounds, looked at Shi Xiaobai with glazed eyes. She spoke sultrily, "Your cleverness has made me wet."

  Shi Xiaobai did not understand the hidden meaning behind 'wet' as his mind was completely on the board game. He replied, "You aren't bad either. To be able to play a hundred rounds with This King in Aeroplane Chess without being defeated, you are the first."

  The Infernal Queen said with a coquettish smile, "To not make me find a mistake, Darling is the first as well. If both of us do not make any mistakes in this game, it can go on for all eternity."

  Shi Xiaobai said, "This King isn't sure if you will make a mistake or not, but it is impossible for This King to make a mistake."

  As Shi Xiaobai said, he rolled his die to finish the actions for his round. At that moment, the Infernal Queen's four pieces were on the board. Shi Xiaobai's first action of rolling a 6 had hit the Infernal Queen's closest piece. The second action he did was to roll another 6 and make one of the plane pieces in the hangar lift off.

  At that moment, Shi Xiaobai just needed to roll a '4' for his third time and he would be able to once again seal off the chances for the Infernal Queen to launch a counterattack.

  However, the dice did not stop at '4'. Instead, with a shake, it rolled a '6'!

  Shi Xiaobai's pupils contracted slightly. His hand that he had not retracted remained stiffly in place.

  The smiling Infernal Queen suddenly dazed as she looked up at Shi Xiaobai and said in surprise, "Darling, you made a mistake!?"

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  Chapter406 Truly realistic acting

  The corner of Shi Xiaobai's mouth suffused a wry smile as he said, "Hand slipped."

  The Infernal Queen was surprised as she looked Shi Xiaobai seriously in the ey
e and said, "Then it doesn't count. Try rolling it again?"

  Shi Xiaobai immediately shook his head and said firmly, "Of course not. Making a mistake while rolling the die is a mistake. A true gentleman never regrets a move he makes in chess. How can I freely roll it again? Furthermore, it's only a tiny mistake. It has little effect, so let's carry on."

  The Infernal Queen fell silent.

  Was it really a tiny mistake?

  By rolling a '6' a third time, it meant that Shi Xiaobai had consecutively rolled three '6's. According to the rules, three consecutive rolls of '6' would result in a punishment.

  All of Shi Xiaobai's airplane pieces were immediately sent back to the hangar, including the pieces that had reached the end point. Furthermore, it was a forced end to his turn, and immediately switched to the Infernal Queen's turn!

  This was none other than a huge, fatal mistake!

  The Infernal Queen gaped, but when she saw Shi Xiaobai's resolute attitude, she did not attempt to persuade him any further. She found it rather unfortunate that such an intense game would quickly come to an end.

  But out of respect for each other, the Infernal Queen did not go easy on her round. She had three pieces on the board, so the Infernal Queen made three moves, sending all three pieces away from Shi Xiaobai's kill zone!

  Shi Xiaobai was helpless regarding this. In the next round, he threw '6', '6', '5'. He made three airplane pieces take off, but he could no longer prevent the Infernal Queen's three pieces from reaching the endpoint!

  "It looks like I have quite the advantage."

  The Infernal Queen sighed. After hesitating for a moment, she finally decided not to go easy. In the next round, she sent all three pieces to the endpoint!

  And at the moment, the situation was that three of Shi Xiaobai's four pieces were still at take off over the hangar, but had yet to advance. As for the Infernal Queen, three of her pieces had reached the end point. As long as she sent the last piece to the end point, she would win!