Liang Wen did not remember how long he ran.
The tunnel behind him shook continuously.
Stone cracked.
Dust poured from the ceiling.
Each tremor felt stronger than the last.
Beside him, Mei Lian struggled to keep pace.
Her breathing had become ragged.
The black veins spreading through her injured arm had climbed higher.
Stone infection.
The mountain was slowly turning her into one of its pieces.
Neither of them spoke.
Fear had stripped away the need for words.
Behind them, something enormous moved.
Not through the tunnel.
Through the mountain itself.
Every movement sent shockwaves through the earth.
The First Player was waking.
And Mount Heiwu was no longer large enough to contain it.
The passage eventually widened into a cavern.
Wen stumbled to a halt.
A forest stretched before them.
An underground forest.
Black trees rose from pale soil.
Their branches twisted together like skeletal fingers.
White leaves drifted silently from above.
At first they looked beautiful.
Then Wen caught one.
The leaf felt soft.
Like skin.
Human skin.
He immediately dropped it.
The entire forest was silent.
No insects.
No birds.
Nothing alive.
Yet he constantly felt watched.
Thousands of unseen eyes followed their movements.
Mei Lian suddenly grabbed his arm.
"Wen."
Her voice trembled.
He followed her gaze.
Faces.
Human faces.
Embedded within the trunks of the trees.
Hundreds of them.
Men.
Women.
Children.
Their eyes were open.
Their mouths moved silently.
As though trying to warn them.
Or beg.
The deeper they traveled into the forest, the more faces appeared.
Eventually the trees outnumbered ordinary trunks.
The forest was not made from wood.
It was made from people.
A distant bell rang.
The sound echoed endlessly.
One strike.
Then another.
Then another.
Every face in the forest opened its mouth simultaneously.
A scream erupted.
Thousands of voices.
Thousands of souls.
The sound nearly drove Wen to his knees.
Then silence returned.
Instantly.
Completely.
The faces closed their mouths.
The forest became still once more.
Only one voice remained.
A whisper.
Barely audible.
"Run."
The word came from everywhere.
Every tree.
Every face.
Every direction.
Run.
The warning repeated again.
Run.
Then the ground exploded.
A tree burst apart beside them.
Blood and splinters rained through the air.
A massive creature emerged from beneath the soil.
Wen's heart nearly stopped.
It had once been human.
At least partially.
Its body resembled dozens of people fused together.
Arms protruded from impossible angles.
Faces covered its flesh.
Each face screamed independently.
Black Go stones covered its skin like scales.
The monster rose higher.
And higher.
And higher.
Until it towered above the forest.
One of the faces suddenly spoke.
"The pieces escaped."
Another answered.
"Bring them back."
A third began laughing.
The sound made Wen's skin crawl.
The creature took a step forward.
Entire trees shattered beneath its weight.
Mei Lian pulled Wen's sleeve.
"We can't fight that."
They ran.
The monster followed.
The forest erupted into chaos.
Trees collapsed.
Faces screamed.
The earth split open beneath enormous footsteps.
Wen's lungs burned.
Every breath felt like swallowing knives.
Yet the creature continued gaining ground.
It never seemed tired.
Never seemed to slow.
Because it wasn't hunting.
It was retrieving.
The realization terrified him.
To the monster, they weren't prey.
They were property.
The forest abruptly ended.
A cliff appeared before them.
Wen nearly ran straight off the edge.
He stopped just in time.
His stomach lurched.
An endless abyss stretched below.
Darkness swallowed everything.
No bottom visible.
No end.
Only blackness.
The monster emerged from the trees behind them.
Slowly.
Confidently.
It knew they had nowhere left to go.
The many faces covering its body smiled.
A child spoke first.
"Come back."
Then an old woman.
"The game isn't finished."
Then a young man.
"We miss you."
The creature extended one enormous hand.
Thousands of fingers reached toward them.
Mei Lian squeezed Wen's hand.
He felt her trembling.
For the first time since entering Mount Heiwu, genuine despair appeared in her eyes.
There was nowhere left to run.
Nowhere left to hide.
Then the wooden box opened.
Neither of them touched it.
Yet it opened anyway.
Golden light spilled outward.
Warm.
Gentle.
Human.
The light seemed completely out of place inside Mount Heiwu.
The monster recoiled instantly.
Every face upon its body began screaming.
The golden glow intensified.
Something rested inside the box.
A single white Go stone.
Perfectly smooth.
Perfectly pure.
Wen stared.
The stone felt familiar.
Impossible though that was.
The moment his fingers touched it, a memory surfaced.
Not his memory.
Someone else's.
A woman laughing.
Children playing beside a river.
Families sharing meals.
Ordinary life.
Ordinary happiness.
Humanity.
The monster screamed louder.
Its body began cracking.
The white stone pulsed once.
The entire forest shook.
The faces embedded in the trees suddenly opened their eyes wider.
Hope appeared within them.
For the first time.
Hope.
A voice emerged from the stone.
Ancient.
Kind.
"The final white piece."
The monster lunged.
Wen instinctively raised the stone.
Light exploded outward.
The forest vanished.
The cliff vanished.
The monster vanished.
Everything disappeared.
Wen found himself standing upon an endless Go board.
Again.
The dream landscape.
The place beyond reality.
The thirteen thrones stood before him.
Most remained empty.
One was occupied.
The creature from the temple.
The being with Go boards for eyes.
It watched him silently.
Far beyond the thrones sat the impossible figure.
The First Player.
Larger than mountains.
Older than time.
Sleeping.
For now.
The white stone glowed in Wen's hand.
The seated throne figure smiled.
"So."
Its voice carried across eternity.
"The old fool gave it to you."
Wen tightened his grip.
"What is this?"
The figure's smile widened.
"The last chance."
The answer only deepened his confusion.
The throne figure leaned forward.
For the first time, seriousness entered its expression.
"When the First Player wakes completely, the game ends."
Wen stared.
"Ends?"
The figure nodded.
"Reality is only a board."
The words echoed endlessly.
"He intends to reset it."
Silence followed.
The scale of the revelation was impossible to comprehend.
The throne figure looked almost sympathetic.
Almost.
"You wanted survival."
Its eyes narrowed.
"Now you must decide whether humanity deserves it."
The board beneath Wen's feet trembled.
The sleeping giant shifted.
The entire dream realm shook.
The throne figure stood.
Concern crossed its face.
Something had changed.
Something unexpected.
The giant was waking faster than anticipated.
The figure looked toward the white stone.
Then toward Wen.
"You are running out of time."
The dream shattered.
Reality returned violently.
Wen collapsed onto cold ground.
The forest surrounded him once more.
The monster was gone.
The cliff remained.
Mei Lian knelt beside him.
Relief flooded her face.
"You came back."
Wen sat upright.
The white stone remained in his hand.
Real.
Everything had been real.
The ground suddenly trembled.
A distant roar echoed throughout Mount Heiwu.
Not from the monster.
Not from the city.
Not from beneath the mountain.
From the mountain itself.
The sound resembled an awakening god.
Every face within the forest began screaming.
Every tree bent toward the same direction.
The center of Mount Heiwu.
The source of the roar.
The First Player had opened its eyes.
And for the first time in countless ages, the game had entered its final stage.