Chapter 274

Just as Natsume Chikage was planning to leave the Tokyo Shogi Hall.

He discovered that Furukawa Masahiro, Furukawa Saio, and Horikawa Kaori were already waiting at the entrance.

Furukawa Masahiro stepped forward and congratulated him:

"Natsume-kun, congratulations on your victory in the match."

Furukawa Saio said excitedly:

"Big brother is so amazing, you won another game!"

Meanwhile, Horikawa Kaori was incredibly shocked.

Even now, she still found it hard to believe that Natsume Chikage, who had only played a dozen or so games, had actually defeated Fukuda Tsukasa, whom she had always found very troublesome.

Horikawa Kaori really couldn't help but ask:

"Natsume-kun, that thing you said before about only having played a dozen or so games—were you pulling my leg?"

"Otherwise, how could you possibly have won against Fukuda Tsukasa so easily?"

"That guy is a 5th-grade player in the Encouragement Society and has participated in so many matches!"

The Furukawa grandfather and granddaughter also looked at Natsume Chikage with great curiosity.

Natsume Chikage's expression was a bit strange.

When he said it like that before, he didn't think there was anything to it.

Because he was indeed telling the truth.

But looking at it now, he had ultimately been too inconsiderate and lacked an understanding of the average number of shogi games played by people in the Shogi Association.

Being able to defeat a professional player after playing only a dozen or so games—ordinary people would certainly find that very strange.

No matter how you look at it, it's unreasonable!

Natsume Chikage thought for a moment and felt it was necessary to change his story.

Then… multiply it by ten?

That seems a bit low.

Twenty times?

No, better to play it safe and just multiply it by fifty?

Forget it, just give a round number; around a thousand games might be better.

After Natsume Chikage coughed twice, he bluffed:

"Definitely more than that… I was just talking nonsense at the time."

Upon hearing this, Horikawa Kaori let out a long sigh of relief and teased him with a smile:

"I knew it—Natsume-kun is really mean-spirited, actually bluffing me, a staff member!"

The Furukawa grandfather and granddaughter also suddenly realized.

They knew it; it was impossible for Natsume-kun to have only played a dozen or so games.

Because if that were the case, it would be too absurd.

Furukawa Masahiro couldn't help but be curious.

"So, Natsume-kun, how many games have you actually played?"

Natsume Chikage bluffed:

"Hmm… around a thousand games, I suppose."

The three who heard this were instantly stunned.

Horikawa Kaori was dumbfounded:

"Huh?"

"So you've only played a total of around a thousand games?"

"That's way too few!"

Furukawa Saio put her hands on her hips and muttered:

"I play more than a thousand games in a year!"

Furukawa Masahiro stroked his chin and said in a deep voice:

"Natsume-kun, if you have this level of skill after playing only a thousand games, you are quite talented!"

He wasn't bluffing.

Ask yourself, who among those aiming for shogi isn't studying crazily from a young age?

You could say that every day they are either looking at game records, reviewing games, or on their way to play against someone.

Ten or so games a day is very reasonable.

Ten days is almost a hundred.

To be fair, Natsume Chikage has only played a thousand or so games; it's probably just the normal training volume of an average player playing three games a day, which is exactly a thousand games a year.

So, based on Natsume-kun's situation, he really is a pure talent monster.

One year is worth who knows how many years for others!

You have to know that Natsume-kun now has professional-level strength.

Thinking about it this way, it's even more terrifying!

It can be said that just becoming a professional shogi player already traps most ordinary players for a lifetime.

And Natsume-kun only needs to work hard for one year to surpass others' entire lives.

In other words, Natsume-kun's talent is probably no weaker than his and most professionals'…

However, talent also needs to be honed.

Laziness is a waste of talent.

As it stands now, Natsume-kun's situation when facing professional players is still very precarious.

Professional players also have talented people, and their training time is much longer than Natsume-kun's.

If Natsume faces them, the situation is indeed worrying.

But if he lets himself be guided a bit before the match, it's not impossible to increase his winning percentage slightly…

Natsume Chikage was completely bewildered.

Huh?

He had specifically reported a number dozens of times lower.

He even mentioned a thousand games, and it's still low?

But now that he's said it, he can't take it back…

It can only be this way…

But how many games does a normal sixteen-year-old player average anyway?

Better to ask Yasui Ryouto and Araki Yuai when having dinner with them tonight.

Horikawa Kaori hadn't expected Natsume Chikage to be so talented.

He won against Fukuda Tsukasa after playing only a thousand games.

You have to know that Fukuda Tsukasa's strength is stronger than hers.

Calculating it this way, Natsume-kun really is much stronger than her.

If so, it seems she really has been underestimating Natsume-kun all along and worrying for nothing.

However, this time the A-division has filtered out the weak ones again.

It's likely that the opponents Natsume-kun faces next will only be stronger than Fukuda Tsukasa.

He had such a hard time fighting this time.

In the next round, he'll probably be eliminated by those experts.

But he's already very impressive.