Zeroth Directive

Archive II

Wang's fame as the greatest weiqi master in Yan is known to many on Rhodes Island even before his arrival, and quite a few of them can hardly resist the urge to have a game of weiqi with him. Fortunately, though he usually looks unapproachable, he rarely turns down an invitation to play weiqi. Even if he has been lost in thought just seconds before, all you need to do is knock on the door and ask if he'd like to have a game. By the time you step inside, the board is already set up. Many operators have challenged him, but few have sniffed even a single victory—hardly surprising, considering Yu's skill in cooking and Dusk's skill in painting. Closure once tried to challenge Wang by connecting all of Rhodes Island's support robots in parallel (Friston-3 declined to participate out of dignity, but spectated the match with great interest). When faced with the choice of tapping ZOOT's reserve computing power and just pulling the circuit breaker, she wisely chose the latter. Outside of Closure, there is someone else equally obsessed with challenging Wang, and that someone is none other than Zuo Le. Although he was no longer required to keep a close eye on the proxies, Zuo Le felt obliged to play a round with Wang. A few months later, when Grain Buds asked him about the result, he scratched his head abashedly, saying he was not yet ready. It turns out that he only knew the basics of of weiqi, and had never had the time to truly study it. Compared with Wang who had pursued the art of strategy for nearly a thousand years, he was naturally outmatched. Finally, Nian arranged for a game between Zuo Le and Wang handicapped at nine stones in Zuo Le's favor. Unsurprisingly, Zuo Le lost handily, but there were more twists and turns than expected. Wang started out playing aggressively, but he began to tone it down once he realized that Zuo Le had no answer, nor was he attempting to duel as equals—he was simply there to learn from the superior player. Wang ended up giving Zuo Le a small spot in the corner, so that the final score would not look too bad. Wang became less guarded against operators from Yan after this game of weiqi. To Wang, playing weiqi with someone is like being in a fight to the death, or living together with the opponent for years. He can tell all your secrets, as well as what you're thinking. Perhaps he saw in the Candleholder's moves that Yan's current stance toward us is genuine, and was thus convinced to let down his guard. Good news, I say. —Ling

Archive III

[Classified Log] I never thought the problem would be solved in such a manner... or at least delayed from a pressing threat to one we will not have to worry about again for another millennium or so. 'Wa Stone', 'Bu Fan', the Jingyu Prime Vein... the first Originium gave Yan the power to vassalize the gods and contain the Feranmuts, and the capital to catch up during the Crystal Age. These gifts should have blown up in Yan's face just as what happened in Ursus, but that was nullified by a Feranmut with inextricable ties to the nation. With the first Originium gone, the Jingyu Prime Vein's Originium growth rate has entered an irreversible decline, but overall, it remains far more stable than the Kolossal Prime Vein, giving Yan's industry plenty of time to transition, and helping Yan avoid the same chaos that engulfed Ursus. A stable Yan is good for the stability of Higashi, Rim Billiton, Kazdel, and Ursus as well. This does not even take into account the turmoil that was successfully avoided, the calamity that the first Orignium should have caused... He really did achieve the greater good, and bought valuable time for the land. As natives of Terra, the paracausal nature of Feranmuts is inherently incompatible with how Originium stores information. The Feranmut will eventually succumb to the Originium, but until then, there is no safer box than the interior of a Feranmut for storing Orginium and cutting it off from its controller. This does not come without a price, of course. Kroos's report, official Yanese communications, and Ju's statement all indicate that it took all of Ya's lifeforce to plant the first Originium into the bestial Sui. In addition, whatever consciousness it is that is now in control of the bestial Sui will suffer from extreme, unbearable, endless pain. Wang as he is on Rhodes Island is currently no more than a weiqi stone. I'm not saying he's incomplete—after all, these are Feranmuts we are talking about, and the Wang we see is certainly Wang in his entirety. What I'm saying is that, as he plays weiqi with you, he is also being constantly tormented deep beneath Baizao, which explains the abnormal crystal density readings from his checkup: at times, it was the weiqi stone you saw; at others, it was the Feranmut, slowly but surely crystallizing from the wound.

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