Atomic timetable

Entering the small hut, Okisato was greeted with the familiar interior of the secret puzzle cafe. 

A large man at the counter glared as Okisato approached him. "I heard of you. You get the standard congratulations for finding this place, but I assure you, your wittle ass is getting handed to you."

"So how much to challenge all the SPCMs outright?"

"Hoh? You want to pay extra? In that case, I'll present you with our astronomical, and-" 

"To start, I just need to beat you in kung-fu chess, the chess boxing esque one."

"The man scowled. No, policy changed thanks to our last unruly guest."

"Ah, so you are the one Peter downed in a hit. Qiang Bai, yes?"

Bai gritted his teeth in fury. "I'll raise the prices just for you." 

"In that case, I'll have the WWCF foot the bill. You see, I've just been appointed as an official and am required to do a little secret puzzle cafe check."

"You what!?" Bai cried, his entire demeanor changing instantly. 

"You get the picture. Now summon the rest of your fellow Chinese SPCMs."

Bai bowed and retreated to the back room before emerging a few minutes later with 6 other people. One was an effeminate man with slit eyes and a long black ponytail clad in a kung-fu outfit, while the other 5 were women. Thanks to Peter, Okisato could identify each of them just by looking at them. 

"Lei Jia!"

"Yes!" a woman in a white China dress and kung-fu shoes affirmed as she fanned herself.

"Huang Fen!"

The effeminate young man smiled and bowed. 

"Chen Bao!"

A young woman with a dark blue mohawk, painted face, and sewn-shut mouth let out a muffled grunt. 

"Lu Hui!" 

"The proudest Jew of Keifeng in the flesh," a bespectacled red-haired woman sporting a queue style along with gold-soled red heels and a red china dress adorned with gold hexagrams, proudly huffed as she flicked her hair. 

"Xun Tao!"

"Yup, I'm here chillin' like our world champ," a sporty girl with short black hair filled with highlights, smiled. 

"Xiu Mei-mo!"

A girl with long curly pink hair clad in nothing but shorts, flip-flops, and a tank top, smiled seductively as she rubbed the buzzed left side of her head. 

"Looks like that's everyone. Now, state your policy on challenging SPCMs to variants," Okisato ordered. 

"Yes! Though we all have set challenges for kung-fu- STANDARD chess, policy states you may pay extra to challenge us to chess variants. That would include things like crazyhouse, chess960, 4-way chess, and so on. Dive chess and chess boxing are not permitted," Bai stated. 

"Good. And your regular challenges?"

"Er, most of us... We're adjusting to the ultimatum the WWCF decreed regarding our version of kung-fu chess. Therefore, Fen, Jia, Hui, and myself don't have concrete challenges that don't incorporate physical kung-fu... per se." 

"I see. Then according to my notes, Bao offers a bullet 960 challenge, Tao offers classical 960, and Xiu, standard classical with the challenger playing as Black."

"Guilty as charged! So "Mr. WWCF official", who ya gonna challenge first?" Xiu snickered. 

The others all gazed oddly at Xiu before the realization hit them. "YOU TRICKED US!" 

"You're the one that fell for it, fatso. Now, think I'll start off by challenging Hui to some atomic chess," Okisato smirked as he pulled up his points menu. 

Atomic chess was an infamous chess variant where capturing pieces resulted in all adjacent pieces being destroyed along with the piece being captured and the piece being captured. Even a player's own pieces could be destroyed by them if they were adjacent to the piece being captured. As such, the main goal was to destroy the king. Due to the capturing rule, kings were forbidden from doing the capturing themselves. However, they were allowed to be adjacent to each other. Not to mention, if a player could win the game on their next move, they could ignore a check on their king and simply kill their opponent's king. The only other notable rule was that pawns were immune from being caught up in the explosions, even if they were adjacent to the piece being captured.

Hui clicked her tongue and began tying her hair up in a pigtail, making her look much balder than before. 

"Wow, you're more bald than I thought," Okisato whistled as a chessboard rose from the counter. 

"I am NOT bald! And never do I ever want to be bald again! It's queue and nothing else!"

"You went bald?"

"Why are you interested in that? Yes, once I had the unfortunate pleasure of having my head and eyebrows shaved against my will. It was humiliating..."

"But if her queue's untouched, girl's got a king for bein' lathered up in hot cream n' shaved smooth n' silky," Xiu snickered. 

Hui shot her a glare, but maintained her composure as she approached the board. "'Atomic chess' you say? Very well. Though you seem to know of my identity, and are NOT a WWCF official, I do follow policy when it comes to etiquette. SPCM Lu Hui of Keifeng. And your name?"

"Okisato Tanabe." 

"I see. The first move is yours." 

"Don't mind if I do,"  Okisato smirked as he moved his pawn to e4.

Hui responded by moving her pawn to e6, which Okisato countered by moving his knight to f3.

"The surrounding pieces are also destroyed when a piece is captured, correct?" Hui asked as she moved her bishop to c5.

"That's right," Okisato nodded as he moved his pawn to d4.

Hui clicked her tongue and moved her bishop to e7, unknowingly making a fatal blunder. A sadistic grin instantly formed on Okisato's face as he slammed his knight down on e5.

"Why are you grinning like that? Do you need a reality check?" Hui glared as she moved her bishop to b4.

"Huh? I have no clue what you mean. Besides, you know you're about to lose, right?" Okisato snickered as he moved his pawn to c3.

Hui stared in confusion before going pale and remembering that she was playing atomic chess. She instantly captured the pawn at c3 with her bishop, destroying said bishop in the process. "Huh!? Why didn't anything else explode!?" she cried in shock.

"Guess you don't know all the rules. In atomic chess, pawns are immune from being caught up in the explosion. The only way to get rid of them is to capture them normally. Kings also can't capture anything, but they are allowed to be on squares next to each other."

"No fair! I didn't know all the rules!"

"That's on you, not me. Besides, you accepted the payment and agreed to the match, so give me my spoils. Checkmate, ba-ka!" Okisato snickered as he captured the pawn at d7 with his knight, destroying said knight, Hui's bishop, Hui's queen, and Hui's king.

Hui let out a heavy sigh, but forced a smile as she shook Okisato's hand. "I see I've been humbled. Very well. I hereby proclaim that you have beaten me fairly, and legally, and as such, you earn the right to rematch me, my badge for besting me, and 100 points. I'll come up with a proper challenge so that future challengers will be dissuaded from paying extra to challenge me to atomic chess. Hmm, perhaps rapid with the challenger as White. I do enjoy pushing myself."

"Sounds good. I'll rematch you when I get the chance."

"More like when you wanna help out your friends by exposing them to SPCMs they haven't met yet," Xiu snickered. 

Okisato narrowed his gaze, yet didn't let Xiu's provocations get to him. "Xiu Mei-mo, 2720, grandmaster. According to Peter, she's got a habit of getting under your skin, but there's backing to her arrogance; she's truly skilled. Should I take her on now, or save her for later? Well, maybe I should first relax my mind with some puzzles."

Yet before he could take action, the mural on the back wall slid open, revealing both a path leading further up the mountain as well as Xiao Lin herself. 

"So, Redfield's getting aggressive with me. I hear you duped all my SPCMs into granting you the right to challenge them," Xiao Lin sneered. 

"Word sure travels fast to you. But now that I'm here-" 

"Oh? You think you can take your time? What a fool," Xiao Lin chuckled as she pulled out her DESPER and jostled it in her hand. "I heard you fought my dear colleague just now, even sent him to the bottom of the sea."

Okisato's eyes widened as he came to a startling realization. "No, don't tell me-"

"But of course. I heard all this from Red Reaper himself, who is one of the few that does possess the ability to warp to any secret puzzle cafe in the world. Looks like you made a huge blunder in your calculations, Oni-tiger."  

The full game:

White: Okisato Tanabe (2600) Black: Lu Hui (1922)

1. e4 e6

2. Nf3 Bc5

3. d4 Be7

4. Ne5 Bb4+

5. c3 Bxc3

6. Nxd7#