No matter how many times he double-checked it, the name on the records was clearly written.
Jo Euishin.
Cheon Dongha knows that Cheon Sungheon is a fan of Jo Euishin, and he wouldn’t do something terrible like playing a prank on his completely paralyzed half-brother for laughs.
He’s sure that these records are real.
‘Euishin hyung is playing chess again!’
Perhaps his excitement and joy induced brain activity and released energy waves, the machines that Cheon Sungheon was connected to made a small beep sound.
Seeing that Cheon Dongha had a huge smile after checking the monitor, he could guess that it means that his condition was good.
A feeling of joy washed over Cheon Sungheon at first, but the questions eventually came one by one.
‘Why did Euishin hyung start playing chess again? Does it have something to do with enemies?’
Cheon Sungheon recalled what he knows of the PMH game and tried to guess Jo Euishin’s intentions.
He realized that this world is really quite dangerous, but he thought that perhaps it wasn’t so bad.
Considering Jo Euishin’s situation, a terminally ill man who was preparing his own funeral, he seems to be overcoming his past trauma while faced with unknown threats.
Cheon Sungheon was just happy that his idol sat in front of a chessboard again.
‘…But why is the record of this match so short? A scholar’s mate? Maybe he was playing against a beginner.’
Cheon Sungheon’s wide-open eyes examined the match record of only four moves and felt quite disappointed.
Although the record had Jo Euishin’s name, it wasn’t as majestic as his chess matches in the previous world.
He used the scholar’s mate against one of PMH’s playable characters Ma Jinseung, but something was strange about it knowing PMH fanatic Jo Euishin’s personality.
Cheon Sungheon thought that he would at least go easy on a playable character who’s a beginner at chess, but he brutally defeated him in four moves.
‘…Maybe there’s a reason why he did that?’
His question deepened when he looked at the time record beside the notations.
The game took too long for it to just end in four moves.
Cheon Sungheon’s face is unable to reflect his feelings, so he blinked instead.
That’s when Cheon Dongha floated a few more holograms as if he read his mind.
“There’s more. There were two games in a day because of some problem with the schedule. I’ll show you the broadcast video released by Stalemate. Oh, Stalemate is the name of our school’s chess club.”
Stalemate?
The thing that Stalemateless hates the most?
Cheon Sungheon wondered why the school’s chess club was named like that.
He wasn’t pleased about it, but anyway, the club provided a stage where Jo Euishin overcame his trauma.
In the video, Jo Euishin was against a Year Two Class Zero female student.
The name on her nametag was Yeon Garam.
‘His hands are slow. It’s not like hyung. It looks like he hasn’t completely gotten over his trauma yet.
It wasn’t a position that required much thinking, but Jo Euishin was motionless as if he ran out of battery.
Suddenly, Jo Euishin raised his head.
His gaze fell on the camera for one moment.
He looked somewhere else, and the camera followed his gaze.
The screen showed students in the box seats cheering on Jo Euishin.
‘It looks like a lot of kids idolize hyung in this world too. The freshmen Class Zero in the game didn’t have a lot of kids going to school, but it looks like there are a lot of them here. …Oh?’
Cheon Sungheon recognized the kids cheering on Jo Euishin as the game’s playable characters and NPCs.
Except for Kim Yuri and Hani, those other kids didn’t attend school in the game.
‘That short guy, is that Maeng Hyodon? I’m sure he attended school in the second year. The slightly taller kid, Saeum of April joined in the third year. Euishin hyung did something to make them join early. And the other one left is…’
Cheon Sungheon looked at the bright-eyed male student smiling meaningfully.
‘What is the Mythical Tiger doing over there?’
Mythical Yellow Tiger, an NPC.
He was only mentioned as the chairman of Eungwang High, but in the second year, he was revealed to be of royal lineage.
However, at some point, he just stopped appearing in the game.
It wasn’t strange to think that he suddenly disappeared as he was originally a volatile character, but his disappearance always lingered in PMH users’ minds, especially in Cheon Sungheon’s.
PMH has a lot of characters, and the narrative structures surrounding them were complicated.
As a result, there were some details that weren’t deeply delved into, and the Yellow Tiger’s exit was one of them.
‘I wonder why I’m so concerned about him. Is it because I like the Tiger Clan characters?’
Among the characters in PMH, Cheon Sungheon liked the Tigers.
He liked them to the point where he unknowingly shut off his phone from anger when Red Tiger died during the Christmas scenario.
Cheon Sungheon also liked White Tiger, the main character among the playable characters, and the Yellow Tiger, an NPC whose whereabouts were unknown for most of the game.
‘Maybe it isn’t a big deal that Yellow Tiger is in the same class as Euishin hyung?’
That night when he saw Jo Euishin’s chess match, Cheon Sungheon had a dream.
As always, he dreamt of the blindfolded person.
That someone looked at Cheon Sungheon with great pity.
But there was one thing different.
‘I can see him more clearly ever since I came to this world. I dream more frequently too.’
Cheon Sungheon always had the same dream, but it wasn’t every night that he dreams.
But in this world, he keeps seeing that dream almost every day.
That person’s face and expression also became clearer.
Cheon Sungheon decided that the person must have something to do with this world.
‘The man in my dreams is blindfolded. In this world, blindfolded people are…’
Gods, or rather, superior beings.
It is said that their power is demonstrated through their eyes, and when humans look at them head-on, those with weak mental power quickly lose their minds.
Therefore, it was an unwritten rule in this world that superior beings blindfold themselves when interfering with the human world.
“Are you a superior being?”
The blindfolded man nodded.
That was the first reaction that the man gave ever since the day he left the orphanage.
“Why do you appear in my dreams? Does it have something to do with my sins?”
The superior being didn’t respond.
Cheon Sungheon changed his question.
“Does me being paralyzed have something to do with those sins?”
The superior being’s lips repeatedly opened and close slightly.
As if he were hesitating.
‘Is it too vague of a question to answer?’
Cheon Sungheon continued asking questions to the superior being whenever he had the chance, but he never got an answer again.
While time passed without him getting another useful clue, Jo Euishin won the final round of the tournament against a playable character who tried to push their game to a stalemate.
Cheon Sungheon was still paralyzed, and he could only dream of playing a game against Jo Euishin.
Still, Cheon Sungheon wasn’t impatient.
‘If there’s no chance of that dream coming true, the unknown being wouldn’t have sent me here. I’m sure there’s a way.’
Cheon Sungheon knew of the developments in this world through Cheon Dongha, and he knew that Jo Euishin played an active role in all of the happenings.
He also thought about how he could help if he could move.
Although he couldn’t move, his mind was busy learning and adapting to this world.
‘My half-brother here is a reliable person, and he’s doing his best to wake my body up. I’m sure I’ll be able to move someday. In the meantime, I have to train my mind.’
After several transfers, Cheon Sungheon was moved to the research institute where Cheon Dongha worked.
The atmosphere of the institute was quite different from the hospital.
It smelled like coffee instead of the smell of disinfectants that he got used to.
“…I told them not to bring drinks to your room… Who the hell was it?”
Cheon Dongha sighed as he looked at the paper cup that another researcher left behind.
The paper cup contained mixed coffee that has gone cold.
‘I wish he’d just leave it there.’
It reminded him of the time he drank coffee with Jo Euishin at the gosiwon.
The instant coffee felt warmer and more delicious than the tea he drinks with the other children of chaebol families.
He blinked twice toward Cheon Dongha.
Cheon Dongha had his back to Cheon Sungheon, but he immediately noticed it because he always looked over him with his intuition skill when he’s at the research center.
“No? You don’t want to? Hmmm…”
Cheon Dongha looked at the paper cup he was holding.
“You like coffee?”
Cheon Sungheon blinked once.
He actually likes tea.
He enjoyed the taste of it and cherished the time he spent drinking tea.
But instant coffee had something different.
“Okay. It’s possible for you to drink coffee with your condition right now, but I can have the room smell like coffee at least. Oh, I’ll drink it often too.”
Ever since then, Cheon Dongha made it a point to drink instant coffee, perhaps because he’s happy to know about his half-brother’s preference.
Cheon Sungheon couldn’t drink the coffee himself, but he enjoyed the scent.
“I met with Euishin and played chess today. We exchanged contacts a while ago.”
One day, Cheon Dongha talked about a chess match that he had with Jo Euishin.
He showed the record to Cheon Sungheon and explained it.
“I think his hands turn very cold when playing chess for a long time. He won two of four games, but he wanted to keep going. I just made an excuse not to play further.”
An excuse?
What excuse could it be?
“I told him that my dongsaeng is a fan of his. I told him you’d be angry if he knew that he tried to push himself to play more even though his body can’t take it.”
Cheon Dongha’s words to Jo Euishin about him felt subtle, but it didn’t matter to Cheon Sungheon since he was used as an excuse to not have his hyung overdo himself.
Jo Euishin wouldn’t even imagine that he’s in this world anyway.
“When I told him about you, he said it would be nice if you studied at Eungwang High.”
Cheon Dongha stopped talking for a while before carefully asking something.
“Do you want to meet Euishin? I’ll bring him here.”
Cheon Sungheon had an inner conflict.
But it didn’t last long.
According to his cold judgment, meeting Jo Euishin now would only make him a burden.
‘I want to be able to help and ask for his forgiveness. I won’t be able to do any of those at this state.’
He blinked twice.
Cheon Dongha respected Cheon Sungheon’s decision.
‘…Alright. If you change your mind, you can blink three times. Or maybe you can tell me using morse code.”
Cheon Sungheon was sure that the day he would blink to call Jo Euishin to his side would never come.
He’s determined to only meet Jo Euishin once he can move again.
However…
Somehow one day, Jo Euishin came to visit him.
Looking at Jo Euishin stare at his rigid face, he could guess what his hyung was thinking.
‘He’s unsure if I’m the Cheon Sungheon that he knows.’
Although he decided that he wouldn’t meet his hyung in this state, Cheon Sungheon couldn’t stand his hyung doubting his identity.
And so he blinked for a while.
To spell out Stalemateless.
