[pulsing music playing]
♪ ♪
[footsteps thudding]
[creature growling]
- [snarling] - [sobbing]
[father] Just keep your eyes closed.
[mother] It's going to be all right.
[Yi Xing] I was orphaned by a living city.
Ever changing, always in motion.
A city controlled by a great machine.
The Tiangong.
The city is supposed to care for
and protect us...
...but something is wrong.
The mechanical mind that rules the city is failing.
A mad god, for whom everything is just a game,
fortified within the Palace of the Tiangong.
How do you take revenge on a god?
[mad beggar shudders] No.
No, no, no, no, no, boy. Not in there. Never.
You...
You, you're not going in there, are you?
I am.
Then... then you're crazy!
You'll end up just like the rest of us. [shuddering]
We'll save a place for you!
[beggar laughing]
[tense music playing]
♪ ♪
You're here to challenge the Tiangong.
Yes.
You're young.
I'm the best Weiqi player in Chang'an.
And arrogant as well.
Wonderful.
Come in, come in.
We have a game to play.
[somber music playing]
[rumbling]
From this place, The Tiangong observes and controls every aspect of the city;
everything that has been, everything that will be.
"You may face the Tiangong in any game of your choosing."
[Yi Xing] I know the rules.
[Tiangong] Then you know I have to tell them to you.
[rhythmic thudding]
"You'll have only one chance.
As the all-knowing Tiangong is responsible
for the movements of our great city,
and his moments in the river of time are precious."
"If you defeat the Tiangong, you will take its power,
its glory, and its burden.
The fate of this city."
But you won't win.
Every last person who's faced the Tiangong has come away
stark raving mad.
- [mad man clamoring] - I know that.
But I also know you're losing control.
This city is crumbling.
As the Tiangong’s always known it would.
When I say that I know everything, I mean every thing.
All of history, every cause
and every effect:
One domino knocks down the next.
Even a human could understand this.
But here is the world the Tiangong sees.
Every fact, every moment.
One thing leads to the next, and to the next,
and to what comes undeniably after that.
For the Tiangong, there's no difference
between remembering the past and imagining the future.
I know your every move,
long before you make it.
Okay, let's play.
If you're so superior to humans, why would you want to look like us?
It's for you.
But I'm afraid I have no face that's not a disguise.
How would you like me to appear? You could play against yourself.
Or any of the Weiqi masters you studied with and long ago surpassed.
Or yourself as a child.
Your whole life is here.
Everything you ever were,
everything you'll ever be.
I know where you begin and where you end.
Pick a hand.
You'll choose black.
And I play white.
Place the first stone.
[intriguing music playing]
Why do you even bother playing games?
If you know how everything turns out.
I only know what will happen because it will happen.
So you control everything.
I control nothing.
But you move the city.
As the Moon moves the tides.
Cause and effect, that is all.
You're going to tell me why you're here.
Don't use that face.
As you wish.
[Yi Xing] You killed my parents.
You have not been paying attention.
Look.
I know how this ends.
- [creature growling nearby] - Stop.
[creature snarling]
I said, stop!
There was an earthquake. A demonic incursion.
The demons had to be returned to the underworld.
Play your stone.
You could have done anything.
You didn't have to kill my parents.
If the tide rolled in and drowned your parents,
would you seek revenge against the Moon?
[Yi Xing] Yes.
[Tiangong] You'd rather make the Moon an enemy
than admit that cause precedes effect.
You still don't believe me.
Here. This mirror reflects one second into the future.
[echoing] Nothing happens by chance.
I could set the mirror two minutes into the future.
Or an hour.
Do you want to see how this ends?
And then drive yourself crazy trying to avoid the inevitable?
This is the point where people start to go insane.
When you face absolute proof that you have no control.
Your brain will try to convince itself that it's making choices.
That you have free will.
That you're not just one more cog necessarily spinning
in a complex but utterly predictable machine.
You only think that way...
[echoing] You only think that way because you are a machine.
And you're not?
Some machines are made of metal,
some machines are made of flesh.
The city of Chang'an is made of both.
[eerie music playing]
Wait. What?
[people screaming]
Is that real?
How could you not know?
We are playing for control of the movements of Chang'an.
That means we are playing with Chang'an.
What we do here has consequences.
[Yi Xing] Stop. Stop it.
[tense music playing]
There are people out there.
And this is the other point at which people lose their minds.
To be stuck in a destiny you can't control,
but still responsible for the lives of thousands.
[echoes] You can't be perfect.
You can't know everything.
And you're failing. You're falling apart.
You're falling apart.
This city has been falling apart more and more my entire life.
Nothing lasts forever.
My end, like yours, is built into my design.
Of course, if it's too much for you,
- why not just stay in the past? - [distant laughter]
I have it all here.
Because they're dead.
[Tiangong] No.
They're only in the past.
- They're gone. - So certain,
when you can't even bear to look at it.
You ruined my life.
You make me an enemy so you can hate me.
Because once you start hating, you can stop thinking.
[somber music playing]
So show me.
Show me how they died.
[Tiangong] The earthquake tore the city open,
releasing demons from the underworld.
[dramatic music playing]
[growling]
[people screaming]
[low roar]
Citizens like your parents
tried to fight them off,
- but there were too many. - [crying softly]
[Yi Xing's father] Just keep your eyes closed.
[Yi Xing's mother] It's going to be all right.
[somber music playing]
[demon roaring]
[Tiangong] The Tiangong gave up a piece of the city that day
to preserve the whole.
My parents saved me.
They chose to sacrifice themselves.
It had to happen.
Because they made it happen.
How can you still believe that?
[dramatic music playing]
Because I'm making the same choice.
The board represents Chang'an,
with us at its heart.
[soaring music playing]
What are you doing?
You would say,
exactly what I'm here to do.
Stop. Stop this.
You would sacrifice yourself?
I can't win, but I can choose how this ends.
Despite everything I've shown you,
you still somehow believe you're making a choice?
Play your stone.
[Tiangong] Then...
...I concede.
[contemplative music playing]
This was a... fun game.
♪ ♪
[choral music playing]
[mad beggar] What did you do?
- I won. - No.
Not possible.
Impossible...
Inevitable...
[mad beggar] But... what happens now?
Exactly.
[contemplative music playing]
[low rumble]
[uplifting music playing]
♪ ♪
You're here to challenge the Tiangong.
[Yi Xing] Yes.
- [soft clattering] - [contemplative music playing]
♪ ♪