I Have Too Many Money-Making Talents - Chapter 133

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Too Many Profitable Talents · Episode 133
On a plane bound for Prague.
It was my first time on a flight lasting over twelve hours.
Certainly far longer than any trip between Japan and China I’d made before.
Yet there was no discomfort.
Business Class.
A full-flat bed like you see in movies and dramas, where the seat reclines completely.
A level of service and comfort I’d never experienced in economy.
As Jung Soo-yeon had said, the pricier fare made all the difference in treatment.
“You have to spend when it counts. Your body is money, an asset. Don’t skimp on things like this, even from a maintenance standpoint. Understood?”
She was right.
Now that I was actually on the flight, I had no regrets.
Taking care of myself was, in the end, another form of investment.
After eating premium airline food, sleeping deeply, and waking refreshed, the destination was already drawing near.
Prague Václav Havel International Airport.
After clearing immigration and collecting my luggage, unfamiliar air and wind brushed against my skin.
And in that moment, the first thing that caught my eye was
“There you are, In-ha!”
Kang Seung-hu, the nation’s favorite younger sibling, waving a placard and grinning.
Behind him, a camera crew bustled about with their equipment.
“Good to see you, Seung-hu.”
I extended my hand first, and he grasped it warmly, breaking into a wide smile.
“That must have been tiring. I heard you came straight after finishing your match in China.”
“It wasn’t bad. If I’d lost, I’d probably be exhausted, but fortunately I won, so I’m doing fine. Now that I’m actually here, the excitement is even greater.”
“Thinking about chess?”
“No.”
“…Sorry?”
“I’m thinking about winning.”
I let out a short laugh.
A new game.
A new opponent.
A new challenge.
The moment my feet touched Czech soil, my heart began to race.
Even the unfamiliar air transformed into a thrilling sensation, and the trembling wouldn’t subside.
“Well then, shall we head to the hotel first to begin that journey?”
“Yes.”
We loaded the luggage into the vehicle and headed toward the city center.
As we moved into the downtown area, I couldn’t tear my eyes from the window.
Outside I could see weathered stone buildings, rounded spires, and narrow alleys lined with tiled roofs.
Charming vintage streetlamps and small cafés nestled along the walls.
Kang Seung-hu pointed out the window with his finger.
“That’s Charles Bridge.”
“Charles Bridge?”
“It’s the bridge that crosses the Vltava River. There’s an old belief that if you take photos with your lover there or attach a padlock, your love will last forever. You should definitely go there sometime with your girlfriend.”
‘Ah.’
In that moment, a face flashed through my mind.
Why had that face surfaced?
I didn’t quite understand myself.
I couldn’t say why her smile had come to me.
But like the fading resonance of an emotion I couldn’t quite explain, her lingering presence refused to fade easily.
“That’s the hotel.”
A dignified building encircled by stone walls—Hotel Barbora.
Its appearance felt as though I were stepping into the past.
After checking in and heading upstairs, I noticed the distinctive layout.
The rooms were arranged around a central lounge.
My room contained a bed, a small desk, a private bathroom, and a window overlooking the Prague streets.
As I was looking around the room, Kang Seung-hu spoke to me hesitantly.
“In-ha, this might sound a bit forward, but… would you like to drop the formality and be friends with me?”
“I’d like that.”
I agreed readily.
It wasn’t something I could turn down—a friend of the nation’s beloved younger brother.
“Why don’t you unpack and rest for now? Once we grab lunch, he mentioned there’s somewhere we need to be.”
“Got it.”
As he turned away with a smile, I opened my carry-on.
I pulled out the Portable Chess Board I’d tucked beneath my clothes and set the pieces on it.
After retrieving the remaining pieces from the interior pocket, I arranged them on the board.
I know what pretension looks like.
But I really wanted to try this once.
On European soil, where Chess was born.
Like a scene from that famous Netflix drama.
I moved the pieces slowly, muttering under my breath.
“…Checkmate.”
The moment the word left my lips, heat flooded my face.
I wanted to crawl under the blankets and disappear.
It took only a few seconds to realize that romance is one thing in fantasy, but quite another in reality—something you simply cannot do in the waking world.

* * *
After a light lunch at the hotel, we stepped outside.
A predetermined route.
A predetermined destination.
The local film crew followed that path in quiet movements.
Walking through streets old and weathered in that distinctly Eastern European way, I talked with Kang Seung-hu.
“Compared to other variety shoots, the crew size here is pretty lean. Normally you’d have over twenty people.”
“Really that many?”
“Yeah. This would count as a skeleton crew.”
Kang Seung-hu’s pace suddenly slowed as we drifted through conversation.
A subtle aroma of coffee.
Beyond the glass wall, a silver Chess Board gleamed as decoration.
When I lifted my eyes, an aged wooden sign came into view.
Cafe Šachový Salón.
Kang Seung-hu glanced at me with a smile.
“They say this is the heart of Prague Chess.”
I pushed open the old wooden door, and the musty scent of ancient Chess Boards wafted softly around us.
Black-and-white photographs of Czech Grandmasters hung framed on the walls, while below them, championship Game Records were displayed like fine art.
“Originally it was a literary salon where Czech intellectuals, writers, and musicians gathered to converse. In the nineteenth century it transformed into a Chess club.”
I couldn’t tear my gaze from the interior of the salon.
This was no mere café—it was a living space where the very history of Chess breathed.
Scattered throughout was that distinctly European sensibility: time preserved intact.
It was old, yes, but that age was its weight, its charm—something I’d never felt in Baduk.
Then, from deeper within, a small commotion stirred.
People had gathered around one table.
Someone was playing Chess, and everyone held their breath, watching intently.
“Let’s go have a look.”
I drifted naturally in that direction.
At the deepest corner of the salon.
A woman sat before a Chess Board.
Her brown hair was tied neatly back, and the way she bent forward, moving pieces with her fingertips, spoke of confidence and ease.
“Back Rank Checkmate.”
The elderly gentleman across from her fell silent for a moment, then conceded defeat and extended his hand.
Cheers, applause, and sighs erupted all at once.
I recognized her instantly.
‘Sara Rinova?’
America’s young Grandmaster, a rising star in the Chess world.
Cool-toned skin, sharp and striking features, beauty that captured the eye at first glance.
A visage impossible to forget.
And here she was, meeting me by what seemed like chance in this very place.
‘No—this can’t be coincidence.’
The production team’s arrangement.
While not melodramatic, it was the natural kind of meeting Korean variety shows are known for orchestrating.
As the old gentleman stood, Sara offered a polite greeting and reached for her water glass.
Then, quite suddenly, he noticed our presence.
A smile.
An unfamiliar yet welcoming smile turned toward me.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Sara Rinova.”
I nodded and extended my hand.
“Kim In-ha.”
My English wasn’t fluent, but basic communication posed no problem.
After exchanging handshakes with Kang Seung-hu, she gestured for me to take the seat across from her.
I settled myself opposite her, the Chess Board between us.
Sara’s hands began to move the pieces slowly across the board.
‘Is she proposing a game?’
Our unofficial online match on Chess.com had ended in a draw once before.
It was possible she wanted to gauge my strength before the formal tournament began.
But then.
‘……This isn’t the opening position.’
It wasn’t a game proposal.
The black and white pieces were already intermingled with each other.
A position that seemed to be lifted directly from a moment in an actual chess game.
‘Could it be a puzzle?’
After arranging all the pieces, Sara rose from her seat and moved toward an old board hanging on the wall.
There hung an old photograph and a Chess Puzzle on display.
She began explaining in English, and Kang Seung-hu immediately translated.
“A champion from Czech Republic and Grandmaster Lubomír Kválik—a chess hero who faced off against Soviet giants back in the sixties. This is a Chess Puzzle he left here at the salon. Grandmaster level difficulty.”
A Chess Puzzle.
In Baduk terms, it was closer to a Baduk Life-and-Death Problem.
But in Europe, chess had grown wildly popular among aristocrats and intellectuals, and puzzle columns appeared regularly in newspapers and magazines of that era.
It became not merely a training tool, but an artistic form of enjoyment.
This puzzle seemed to be an extension of that same tradition.
“The solution is only one — White to win.”
I nodded and leaned forward.
The piece positions defied intuition.
Normally, this would be the place to press hard with Queen or Rook.
But this puzzle was different.
‘The Knight.’
I picked up the Knight and moved it.
Sara responded immediately.
A Knight sacrifice.
In Baduk terms, it was like throwing oneself into the heart of an enormous territory—a desperate gambit.
Yet despite that sacrifice, it opened a new door.
As the position unfolded, Black’s King grew increasingly trapped, until at last it found no escape.
“Checkmate.”
As I set down the final piece, Black’s hope was extinguished.
“As expected…… you’re remarkable.”
Sara exhaled softly and smiled. Then she raised the smartwatch on her wrist to show me.
“You solved it 13 seconds faster than me.”
Kang Seung-hu quickly translated from beside me.
“You were 13 seconds faster than her.”
“…….”
But the words didn’t quite register.
Something nagged at me.
A lingering unease, like a splinter left beneath the skin.
Swish.
Without a word, I returned the pieces to their original positions.
“What’s wrong, In-ha?”
Everyone simply stared, bewildered.
I pushed the White Knight forward again as my first move.
Then, moving Black’s response, I placed a piece in an entirely different square.
Not a check. Not a capture. A move that seemed utterly meaningless on the surface.
A move that appeared to accomplish nothing.
Yet the significance of that single move born from my fingertips was the Quiet Move.
A move perceptible only from the perspective of Baduk.
Without immediate gain, yet a key point that shakes the equilibrium of the entire board state.
A move that lived only within a prolonged struggle.
“T-This is.”
Sara gasped in astonishment.
That single move had overturned the flow entirely.
The black king fled the pursuit, only to fall into a stalemate of its own making.
A miraculous draw.
“…… This puzzle did not have just one solution.”
My words traveled through the interpreter.
Sara’s eyes trembled faintly as she absorbed what she had witnessed.
“I had never seen that move before.”
She, who had always been certain of a single correct answer.
The shock that flickered across her gaze soon bloomed into admiration.
Then an unfamiliar voice cut through the space between the chessboards.
“To je neuvěřitelné.”
A man in his sixties, his gray hair swept back smoothly, moved toward us with deliberate steps, his crisp shirt covered by a pressed apron.
The owner of this long-standing chess club.
Between the deep lines etched by time, his eyes gleamed with wonder and intrigue.
The interpreter hired by the production crew translated the Slavic words in real time.
“Until now, only two people have ever found an alternative path through this puzzle.”
His low, firm voice resonated through the salon.
Every gaze in the room turned toward him.
“Ethan Franklin—the chess hero of America and a notorious eccentric.”
The name surfaced in my mind immediately.
A player once called the greatest of all time, a genius.
A man who left his mark on chess history through creative, aggressive play.
“And the current World Chess Champion, Lars Ellingsen.”
There was no way not to know.
A cold, flawless sovereign who had dominated the world for over a decade.
The owner paused for a moment, then fixed his gaze directly on me.
“And the last…… is you. The man from the East.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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