I Have Too Many Money-Making Talents - Chapter 18

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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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Talent That Pays Too Well · Episode 18
“……Mumyeong is losing?”
In that instant, her expression froze.
Mumyeong.
A viewer who had faced her in an even match, displayed unpredictable reading of moves, and claimed victory.
An amateur, yet possessing skill that transcended amateurism.
She’d estimated he was either a research student likely to pass the professional qualification exam, or a professional player concealing his identity.
In this match too, she had predicted Mumyeong’s victory effortlessly.
And yet.
Mumyeong was losing now.
‘Who is this opponent?’
The username: Woalong-ja.
A Chinese amateur, 7-dan.
Win rate over seventy percent.
Nothing remarkable in itself.
Given the lack of a professional marker, he wasn’t a professional player either.
But the sequence of his stones was anything but ordinary.
‘Does he even know how to play moves like that?’
The opening had been unremarkable.
An extremely practical, stable style focused on pure gains.
But the moment he gained territory advantage, he began provoking confrontation deliberately.
Mumyeong maintained equilibrium and answered with his own fire, but.
The overall flow of the game was tilting steadily toward black.
His moves were sharp yet heavy.
His tempo control was exquisite.
Once he seized the initiative, he never granted a single opening.
‘It’s strange. Even if he plays well, he plays too well. There’s no gap to exploit……wait, could it be?’
A strange light flickered in Jang Yuna’s eyes.
A sensation that was alien and yet discordant.
Stone placement that was not merely natural but unnaturally, flawlessly logical.
The source of that dissonance seemed about to come into focus.
Director Heo: Jang, look at the chat!
Jang Yuna, snapping back to awareness, checked the chat window.
Over two thousand viewers were in an uproar.
-Something feels off about this?
-Sniff sniff this smells like AI
-Smells like AI doesn’t it? ㅋㅋ
-Is this cheating?
-That move just now was also Blue Spot
-Yuna what are you doing? Run Hwasin analysis.
Spurred on by the viewers, Jang Yuna opened her laptop.
Then she launched “Hwasin,” an AI analysis tool offered as a paid service on Samgukji Go.
Hwasin is a tool that, when you input a specific sequence of moves, visualizes the optimal moves as judged by AI—the so-called Blue Spot.
Depending on the version, the number of Blue Spots increases, and real-time win rates are even displayed.
-This bastard’s cunning
-Obviously AI but he’s mixed it in so skillfully
-It’s definitely AI, I’m certain
-Did this asshole lose all his conscience?
-How is Samgukji not catching this?
-This is infuriating
The chat erupted with rage.
And for good reason—Woalong-ja had exploited artificial intelligence with cunning sophistication.
The best moves: Blue Spot.
The good moves: Green Spot.
He had woven these two categories together with subtle mastery.
Cheating that cleverly disguised artificial intelligence methods as human play.
And yet.
There was a faction in the chat that disagreed.
-He is not artificial intelligence.
-Chinese people are honorable
—Don’t let the smaller nation resent the greater.
—Woalong-ja’s go is exquisite.
Jang Yuna, two-dan professional, read the Chinese translator’s chat and felt her insides boil.
‘Ugh, infuriating. These people are taking the cheater’s side?’
Part of her wanted to just lash out right then.
At those defending the AI-cheating user.
But Jang Yuna, two-dan, couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud.
With Chinese viewers flooding in lately, she had to prevent viewer attrition from splitting the community.
“All right, everyone. Let’s stay calm for now. We’ll keep watching to see if it’s actually cheating or not…… uh, uh?”
Click.
The moment she was trying to salvage the situation.
The momentum shifted.
—It’s Blue Spot!
—Mumyeong’s playing Blue Spot moves too
—He found this move under time pressure?
—Cheating countered with cheating?
—Doesn’t seem like it
—And Jang Yuna’s taking Chinese coins in all this?
Blitz play.
Time was tight, territory advantage was slipping away.
Yet Mumyeong did not crumble.
No—rather.
He began laying stones with perfect precision, as if he knew the answer sheet, moves the AI itself would recommend.
‘How is this… possible?’
Jang Yuna, two-dan, couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Creative moves that departed from joseki.
Stones with free form yet perfect efficiency.
The go he was playing now was utterly different from what he’d shown her.
Gulp.
She swallowed hard.
‘Black is hesitating.’
The point count wasn’t far apart.
To solidify victory, Woalong-ja had to play Blue Spot stones as well.
But he couldn’t.
Because it might be flagged as an illegal program.
So he had no choice but to mix Blue Spot and Green Spot ambiguously.
Click.
Mumyeong’s counterattack was merciless.
One careless move.
And the entire board position could tip.
Woalong-ja had lost the luxury of playing Green Spot stones long ago.
‘This game isn’t decided yet.’
Light kindled in Jang Yuna’s eyes.
She gathered herself, smiled lightly, and slipped back into her role as streamer.
“You see how Black is starting to waver right now? More precisely, it feels like he can’t find the perfect move.”
Jang Yuna subtly turned the criticism toward Woalong-ja.
It was the best comment she could make—maintaining neutrality, avoiding provocation of the Chinese viewers.
“Mumyeong just poked at him. Another Blue Spot! If he can clear this…….”
She paused.
Even the breath beyond the camera held still.
Click.
White’s move broke the silence.
Jang Yuna cried out, electrified.
“White has a reversal coming! I can see it now!”
The air above the board had shifted.

* * *
‘It’s slipping away.’
The position was not good.
The opponent’s moves were precise.
I could barely keep up with her pace.
Until moments ago, I’d been making occasional weak moves, throwing away tempo.
But for the last ten moves, that weakness had vanished entirely.
‘……Could it really be this difficult to narrow the gap between two territories?’
It was overwhelming.
My current reading moves and the time remaining were woefully insufficient to close this divide.
‘I’m disappointed, but I have no regrets.’
My current skill, my instincts, my concentration…….
I’d poured it all into this game.
Though a reversal had become impossible.
The best moves I’d shown in that final pursuit weren’t shameful to reflect on.
A shift in thinking.
A single move with resolve, following a different trajectory than anything I’d played before.
It was a new sensation, reached as though breaking through a shell.
Separate from the match result itself.
I felt something changing within me.
—Ding!
A system notification chimed.
The system window spread across my screen.
[A possibility for new Talent growth has been detected.]
‘……What?’
My eyes widened.
I’d never seen a message like this before.
‘Talent can evolve?’
I’d never considered it.
I’d only ever viewed Talent grades as a measure of value.
But.
A wasn’t the ceiling.
There was something higher to reach.
It felt as though everything I thought I knew about the system was crumbling.
‘This isn’t where it ends.’
My heart began to race.
The extreme moves I’d made at the cliff’s edge just moments before.
The sensation of direction itself opening up.
Every single one of those moments felt like foreshadowing for this sentence.
The regret of that first defeat had long since vanished from my mind.
‘What’s gotten into me.’
Intoxicated by the words “Talent evolution,” I’d completely forgotten I was still in the middle of a match.
I reached for the mouse.
There was no blitz time remaining.
This was the moment to gracefully resign and declare defeat.
“Wh—— what?”
Warning windows cascaded across the monitor.
[An illegal program has been detected in use.]
[This match is now suspended.]
[The match result has been invalidated.]
[We apologize for any inconvenience.]
“……Invalidated?”
I stood blank, stunned.
The board that had been in fierce contention was now completely cleared.
Even my record remained unchanged.
38 wins, 0 losses.
As if the match had never existed from the start.
The sanctions against users of illegal programs——that rumored threat——had just been executed.
“Wait, wait—— the number of spectators…… why is it so high?”
Amid my confusion, the participant count in the match room caught my attention.
217 people.
Usually, it was at most one or two drifting in and out.
While I’d been absorbed in concentration.
Many people had been watching my game.
And even now, as countless chat messages continued pouring upward in an endless stream.
A single line.
A username that couldn’t possibly escape notice entered my field of vision.
JangYuna : Hello, Mumyeong. Do you have a moment to chat?
A baduk streamer.
Jang Yuna, 2-dan.
Mumyeong : Yes, I do.
JangYuna : I’ll reach out in a bit. Please accept a one-on-one conversation. Please?
After pressing her earnest request, Jang Yuna left the chat room.
The viewers who had flooded in following her began trickling away one by one.
“I have no idea what just happened.”
Too much had transpired in such a short span of time.
My thoughts weren’t even properly sorted.
To clear my head, I went to the kitchen, drank a glass of cold water, and came back.
Then.
[You have received a one-on-one conversation request from JangYuna.]
I clicked the accept button.
A one-on-one chat window appeared on the monitor.
JangYuna : Hello, Mumyeong! I finally got through to you. I sent you several messages…….
“Messages?”
Was there such a function?
But what was the reason for contacting me?
JangYuna : Actually, I sent you those messages to propose a revenge match. But when you didn’t respond, I went into the game hall and ended up…….
Jang Yuna trailed off before adding more to the chat.
JangYuna : I livestreamed your match in real time. I apologize for broadcasting without asking permission first.
Ah, so that’s what happened.
I nodded in understanding.
Mumyeong : It’s fine. It was a public match anyway.
JangYuna : Thank you for understanding!
Perhaps because I’d seen her in person.
Each time I typed a message, the actual image of Jang Yuna kept overlaying itself in my mind.
JangYuna : Um, Mumyeong. Would it be okay to upload today’s match to YouTube?
Mumyeong : The voided match?
I couldn’t make sense of it and asked for clarification.
JangYuna : Well, that’s only natural since there was AI cheating involved. If anything, you’re the amazing one for performing that well against artificial intelligence!
Mumyeong : Wait…… AI? Artificial intelligence?
JangYuna : You didn’t know?
Mumyeong : No, not at all.
JangYuna : Have you ever played against artificial intelligence?
Mumyeong : No.
The message “JangYuna is typing” appeared on screen, stretching unusually long.
JangYuna : That person was playing moves that the AI recommended directly. If you alternate between the best moves—the Blue Spot—and decent moves—the Green Spot—it looks like a human is playing.
‘Ah.’
The source of that uncanny feeling that had nagged at me throughout the entire match against Woalong-ja.
That puzzle piece finally clicked into place.
Why psychological pressure had no effect.
It wasn’t a being of emotion—it was a crystallization of pure logic and reason. Artificial intelligence.
I’d heard it said before.
That human baduk had collapsed.
That players learned from AI, prioritizing numbers over intuition and precision over feeling.
‘……I thought it was nonsense.’
But facing it directly was different.
The wall of AI was far higher and far thicker than I had imagined.
And so it was.
[A new possibility for Talent growth has been discovered.]
The moment I felt that wall.
Now, confronted with an unreachable extreme.
The Talent responded.
Mumyeong : Yuna.
JangYuna : Yes?
In the end, I couldn’t help but ask.
Mumyeong: How do I play against an AI?

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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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