I Have Too Many Money-Making Talents - Chapter 20

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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 Much Money-Making Talent — Episode 020
A mess.
If someone were watching and analyzing this game of Go right now, they might have said just that.
And that was exactly what I’d intended.
Moves that broke from formula.
A sequence so tangled that even Game Replay would be difficult to follow.
Yet every single move had been arranged to funnel toward one direction.
The result: my opponent’s game wavered.
With the foundation crumbling, he became vulnerable to even the smallest external pressure.
Sudden time crunch.
The clock bearing down.
That proved decisive.
Impatience and anxiety rose to the surface, and in the end, he couldn’t perform adequate Move Reading.
An incomplete position.
An uncertain situation.
Chased by time, he fell back on instinct—a string of moves made on feel alone.
And that cascade of choices became a succession of bad moves.
Clack.
I broke the silence and placed my stone.
At that single move, the expression of Tae Yul, sitting across the board, contorted slowly.
“……I lost.”
Tears welled up in the eyes of the boy whose voice had wavered like a sob.
With his lips pressed tight and his head bowed low, he sniffled and began clearing away the Go Stones.
‘He’s crying.’
Whoosh.
Tae Yul swept the stones away quickly, then placed black stones on the board again.
Then white. Then black again.
A Game Replay.
“This move was the bad one. I should have just played steadily here…….”
His voice carried a nasal whine.
Even after wiping his tears away with the back of his hand, he continued moving stones.
“Same here, and this capture too—all bad moves.”
Bad moves.
From the context, it sounded like Go world slang for a blunder.
“Hey, can I ask you one thing?”
“Go ahead.”
“……You deliberately made the position complicated to throw me off, didn’t you?”
I nodded quietly.
“Yeah.”
“You really do play well.”
Tae Yul’s jaw tightened.
He understood, but frustration still flickered across his face.
“Well played.”
“I learned something.”
With the stones all cleared, Tae Yul pushed back his chair and stood.
His eyes held less disappointment at the loss than the reflection of someone chewing over defeat itself.
‘This is what research students aspiring to become professional players look like.’
Eyes that saw further than mine, despite losing.
His hunger to compete felt like one of those essential qualities.
“Hey.”
A drawling voice.
Approaching Tae Yul was another boy his age—the same one he’d been playing smartphone games with earlier.
“What’s up?”
“You, uh…….”
“You lost?”
“Yeah.”
Tae Yul smiled faintly.
His expression was slightly more relieved than before.
‘Tae Ho?’
I checked the name tag of the boy his age; his name was similar to Tae Yul’s. Same surname too.
Ah, brothers.
“Did you mess up again?”
“No. That gentleman played well.”
“Yeah? Then you should lose.”
The words fell out flat and careless.
As he said it, he glanced sideways at me.
There was unmistakable wariness in that gaze.
‘I thought he was just an ordinary kid…….’
Something had shifted.
His expression. His eyes.
He was measuring me, appraising me.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah, brother. Goodbye, sir.”
Tae Yul bowed politely to me.
His older brother Tae Ho gave a small nod.
I waved, and the two of them exchanged a few murmured words before turning to leave.
“That gentleman—when you meet him again, I’ll get revenge for you.”
“Yeah, brother!”
……Save that kind of talk for when you’re far away, you two.
In any case.
My first victory in the Group Preliminary Round against a research student.
A decent start.

* * *
At the same time.
A café near Seoul Forest, the sort favored by young couples.
Yeon Hui sat by the window, scrolling through her Smartphone, murmuring to herself.
“Ugh, I’m running out of photos.”
Her finger paused as she flipped through her photo album.
By now she should have uploaded another couple of weekend date pictures as proof.
She’d already used up all the photos she’d taken in Namwon.
“I should’ve pushed my senior harder to take more shots!”
The effect of those “fake boyfriend photos” she’d posted on social media had been unmistakable.
Concept shots that made anyone who saw them suspect he was her actual boyfriend!
Whether Ha had noticed or not, his personal messages to her had visibly tapered off.
Even the way he treated her at the bank now felt more businesslike, noticeably colder than before.
‘I can’t let my guard down yet.’
If the photos dried up or if it seemed like her relationship with her boyfriend was hitting rough patches, he’d be back.
She never knew when he’d try again.
The man was relentlessly persistent.
“Huh? Did I take this one too?”
Yeon Hui’s finger stopped as she flipped through her photos.
It was a solo shot of Inha.
Mid-match, his head bowed quietly.
His eyes deep in Move Reading.
A concentration so profound it seemed to swallow the noise around him.
The atmosphere she hadn’t noticed when she’d seen him in person that day was preserved perfectly in the photograph.
“Not exactly handsome…….”
She murmured softly to herself, then flipped to the next photo.
Though not ugly either.
A face that kept drawing her eye.
And gradually, an expression she found herself studying more and more.
Yeon Hui flipped through a few more without thinking, then caught herself and shook her head.
‘What am I doing right now?’
She pulled herself together and opened the camera app.
Click.
She took a pretty photo of two cups of coffee and a slice of cake on the table.
A photo staged to look like she was on a date with someone.
‘This will get me through this week.’
It was just as she drew a short breath and saved the photo.
Buzz.
Her smartphone vibrated softly.
A message from the old job-hunting study group chat.
[Gyeong Hui: OMG! Double K Bank just posted an additional hiring notice yesterday!]
[Hyun Seung: Really?]
[Gyeong Hui: Yeah. And they’re recruiting local talent too!]
[Hyun Seung: Does everyone have time? I want to do an interview prep study session.]
Yeon Hui stared blankly at the screen.
Since getting the job, she’d barely participated in the group chat.
One misplaced word and she might make someone uncomfortable.
But today was different.
She found herself drawn in.
“I should tell him about this.”
The first person who came to mind the moment she heard the hiring news.
Inha.
Yeon Hui quietly opened her bag and pulled out her laptop.
She opened the “Study” folder tucked in the corner of her desktop.
Inside lay materials she’d organized long ago and a collection of mock interview questions, all exactly as she’d left them.
‘Should I give him this?’
There was no real reason to.
But she wanted to look after him.
Someone whose happiness grew from simply being helpful.
Someone she couldn’t stop thinking about, couldn’t stop caring for.
“If he gets the job, I’ll treat him to a nice meal to celebrate.”
Yeon Hui took a sip of coffee and began organizing the files.
If she was going to give them, she wanted to do it right.

* * *
The President’s Cup Group Preliminary Round was structured as four-person groups.
Two players would be eliminated from each.
The preliminaries would wrap up before lunch, and those who advanced would compete in the Round of 64 main tournament in the afternoon.
‘By comparison, five stones ahead. I’ve won.’
The final preliminary match.
Counting the komi, I was well over ten stones ahead.
Considering the two remaining intersections, there was virtually no chance the result would change.
“I concede.”
“Well fought.”
My opponent, deeming the count meaningless, finally threw down their stones.
A resignation.
‘Three wins, undefeated.’
With that, I cleanly advanced through the preliminary round.
“You played well.”
Just then, the match beside me ended too.
Seeing Tae Yul beaming with a grin, it looked like he’d advanced with two wins and one loss.
I gathered my Go Stones and stood.
“Inha.”
A weary voice.
The Branch Manager.
“Oh, Branch Manager. Have you finished your match?”
“Yeah. I’m out.”
He smiled calmly.
But something wistful flickered in his eyes.
“You won, though?”
“Yes. Three straight wins.”
“Good. At least you made it through. Let’s grab something to eat. I barely had breakfast, and I’m starving.”
The two of us left the tournament venue.
Across the street from the gymnasium, on the second floor of an old building, sat a galbi restaurant.
Today’s lunch was galbi soup.
“It’s a shame, though.”
“Sorry?”
“My instincts felt right. The first game wasn’t bad either. But I made a mistake in the second game, and that threw off the third one too.”
I simply listened without comment.
In moments like these, listening was better than adding words.
“I wanted to play the way you do, but it’s not easy at all. How did you improve so fast? You haven’t even been playing Go that long.”
I thought for a moment before speaking carefully.
“I think you improve by playing against stronger opponents.”
“Stronger opponents?”
“Yes, that way you learn what you lack, and you can see what needs to be filled. Playing like that, you gradually get better.”
It was honest advice.
I hoped it might help the Branch Manager at all.
“You really are a natural, aren’t you.”
“Sir?”
“I know I should learn from someone better than me, but it’s harder than it sounds.”
The Branch Manager gave a wry smile.
Just then, two bowls of galbi-tang arrived on a cart.
A rich, herbal aroma rose from the steaming broth.
“I’ve been complaining too long. Come on, let’s eat.”
I lifted a spoonful of broth with my utensil.
It tasted like the body warming and becoming whole again.
As the meal drew to a close, I broached the subject carefully.
“Sir, I was thinking… you don’t need to keep your room, do you? I didn’t mean to inconvenience you by staying another day.”
The Branch Manager had been eliminated in the Senior Division preliminaries.
There were no more matches for him from this afternoon onward.
Though he’d come for one night and two days, truthfully there was no reason for him to stay.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m staying because I want to.”
……
“Go is something where watching others play is itself a form of study.”
His words were delivered casually, yet the sincerity beneath them came through clearly.
“That’s why you’ll win. These days, just watching you win makes me happy.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
I lowered my head slightly.
It was an awkward moment, yet strangely warm in the chest.
“What are you saying? I’m doing this because I enjoy it.”
The Branch Manager laughed.
Somehow, he seemed like an adult.
His words were light, but what lay beneath was genuine consideration.
Yet that impression didn’t last long.
It was because of what the Branch Manager muttered as he spooned up some broth, quite casually.
“And honestly, there’s nothing waiting for me at home. The kids are all grown and just ask for money. My wife has so many meetings these days. Tch. The house feels more like solitary confinement.”
……
Perhaps this was the real reason he wasn’t going home.

* * *
I returned to the Gymnasium and stopped by the restroom.
After finishing, I was washing my hands when I heard it on the way out.
A voice on the phone echoing from the end of the corridor.
“Yeah. Main Tournament starts this afternoon. Round of 64.”
Early twenties, by the sound of it.
Confidence was woven through the voice, with a strange ease lingering at the end of each sentence.
“I need to win to rack up Induction Points this year. I still grind my teeth thinking about losing in the Induction Final Match last year.”
I stopped in my tracks.
It was the words that followed that made me pause.
“My opponent? I don’t know. I heard that amateur who won the Shudan Cup is pretty strong.”
……!
“But honestly, it’s not worth worrying about. Why would I lose to someone like that?”
There was a scoff in the tone.
Confidence in their own strength and contempt were layered together.
‘Sounds like they’re talking about me.’
I almost laughed.
Whoever this was, the fact that they were already naming their opponent in the hallway said everything about their caliber.
‘Well…… I’ll know once I see it.’
There was nothing more worth hearing.
In the end, Go wasn’t about words—it was about stones.
“Just watch out for Kim Tae Ho. The kid is…….”
Another name was mentioned from behind, but I didn’t listen.
It was a voice I’d already dismissed from my mind.
As I turned toward the match room, the Branch Manager approached from the far end of the corridor.
“You see the pairings?”
“No, not yet.”
The Branch Manager’s face had gone slightly rigid.
“Your opponent is last year’s President’s Cup champion. Park Jun Soo—currently ranked number one in the Amateur Ranking.”

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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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