Pawn

Bang fell into a complete stop. It became harder and harder to take a step. Feelings of inadequacy and deficiency made him feel that continuing was worthless. He didn't even want to do this. He wanted his life to be easy and without any difficulty. Why do the main characters in novels always have it easy?

'Keep going'

His system encouraged him to continue. What was he to do? Keep on going with no destination ahead? It's easier said than done.

Back on Earth, he was a promising child. He was given praise throughout his childhood. He was a smart, active, and all-around pleasant kid. Everything was going well until somewhere along with the line things changed. He started to feel left behind. He started to struggle.

Everything was easy before. He didn't have to put too much effort into excelling in everything but the cruel reality reminded him of his place. What others felt as easy felt hard for him. What he excelled at was only mediocre in everyone's eyes.

All those pampering when he was a child didn't prepare him for the real world. He started to slack off in school. He didn't even put half of an effort into projects, quizzes, and exams. He always felt that if he put in real effort, he would be back at the top again and succeed. He didn't want to accept that he was just mediocre so he put up this wall of fallacy and lies that protected his glass heart. If he didn't try for real, then he wouldn't be disappointed when the result wasn't as expected.

That excuse became his whole foundation in his life. Procrastination was his greatest vice and his addiction. To remedy this, he read novels to escape his mediocre and boring life. He would feel elated when the character he read excelled in everything he did. He lived vicariously through them. This only further separated him from his reality.

Now he was actually in a situation like those characters in the novels. He had transmigrated with a system but it didn't work the way that he expected. It didn't give him any cheats, it didn't make his life easier but made it harder. He was even mediocre in this world. Why does his system only power up his crewmates?

When he was a kid, he had friends. He was a bright kid and that attracted a lot of attention. He was at the center of all attention and everyone wanted to talk to him. He was at the top. He remembered there was a time when there was a game his friends wanted to play. He bought that game and shared it with his friends so that he could play with them. He would be gracious with his friends and give them attention and whatever they needed.

As felt himself struggle, his bright shiny luster became dull. As friends came and went, new ones emerged replacing them. He was naive to think that those innocent childhood memories could be preserved by treating his new friends the same way. What he gave, his friends received but didn't reciprocate. At first, he didn't care because he was just doing that to make everybody happy but when he was the one struggling they weren't there.

This hurt him. It hurt his psyche. It changed his whole outlook on life. He didn't need friends. He didn't need anybody.

It's ironic how his system gave him powers that specifically gave him what he didn't want. He wanted power but his system didn't give it to him. He didn't want friends but the system powered up his crewmates.

Why should he even continue this journey when he wasn't doing this for himself?

'Keep going'

The system still urged him to keep going. He didn't move.

'Keep going'

Why? What's the point?

'Keep going'

The system just kept repeating the same lines to him. It wasn't like an annoying broken clock, but a dependable tone. Listening to the system made him feel like everything was going to be okay. Bang didn't know why but it gave him confidence. It gave him enough confidence to raise his foot and take the first step. Then he did.

As soon as he planted his feet, he felt like he instantaneously traveled to another room. It felt like the tunnel moved to him and warped him in a different space. When he looked around, he saw Gotang on his right standing on a podium. He looked at his front and saw the same podium that Gotang stood on. He then looked around the place and saw that he was above some kind of stage at the bottom.

This stage had been divided into an 8x8 board separated by lines. The squares were alternated in a black and white pattern. As soon as Bang saw this, he recognized it. It was a chessboard. What was a chessboard doing in here?

Confused about the whole situation, he turned to Gotang walked over to him. As his foot left the ground, he suddenly felt pain in his leg. It was suddenly covered in thorny vines that constrained him in one spot. When he tried to move towards Gotang or anyplace away from the podium, the vines would tighten and the thorns would pierce through his skin.

"Don't move. You can't get out of here."

Gotang finally spoke to him and gave a stern look at Bang. He had his hands firmly gripped in the podium as if he wanted to crush it with his own hands. Seeing his seriousness, Bang returned to his original position and the vines let go of his feet and disappeared back into the ground.

"What is this? How do we get out?"

Bang looked at Gotang for answers. He saw that Gotang wasn't surprised at the situation. Gotang rubbed in his chin in contemplation.

"This is the ancient game of Chatanga"

'Chatanga? Is that the name of chess in this world?'

"What do we have to do?"

Before Gotang could even answer, a loud banging sound suddenly came into their ears. Bang looked down to where the sound came from and he saw stone pieces lined up on opposite sides of the board. The more he looked at it the more it reminded him of chess. The difference in this was that the pieces had human-like features.

The pawns at the front were made of soldiers wearing full-body steel armor. They held a spear on their side and kept their eyes straight at the opponent with a deadpan eye which the opposing pawn reciprocated. The rooks were made of intricate castles on top of a hill with layered walls. The castle was protected with moats and palisades.

At the castle's side was a wooden pirate ship with two masts carrying the sails. Bang remembered this to be like one of those pirate ships in historical movies. This must have been the knight equivalent in this world.

The bishop equivalent here was a building with multiple spiked roofs and at the top center of it had a symbol of a circle. Bang recognized this to be a cathedral or church of some kind.

The queen equivalent here was strange since it was just a floating blob of a spherical object. This spherical object didn't have any solid boundaries and just had a gradient of white hue on it.

The only thing unchanging in the pieces were the kings. They looked the same as the ones he saw back on Earth.

The pawn on the opposite side suddenly came to life and moved two spaces to its front. If Bang wasn't wrong then this game is very similar to chess if not the same game.

"Soldier to D5"

Gotang suddenly shouted his commands into the podium. The soldier then walked to the front of the opposing side's soldier by walking like it had life. They were made of stone so Bang wondered how it moved.

The soldier at the other side responded by protecting the first soldier and positioning diagonally behind it. By now Bang was sure that this was the same game as the chess back at home. He wasn't bad at chess but he also wasn't great. Big surprise that the mediocre guy was mediocre at something.

Bang then paid attention to the board and tried to concentrate on the next moves that Gotang could do to have the advantage. He felt it was strange that Gotang wasn't commanding his soldiers so he looked at Gotang but he saw Gotang looking back at him.

"It's your turn."

'What?! Are we playing two vs. one?'

There may have been some differences with this game compared to chess so Bang just decided to go with the flow. He mimicked the moves of the opponent and just protected his soldier.

"E6"

The soldier once again moved with conviction to the place that Bang commanded. Do they have to win this game to get out? With the two of them working together, they have a big advantage.