Chapter 19: The Tournament is Finally Over!

’Oh, God… I am so tired…’ Sheva slumped immediately after stopping the clock and offering his resignation. The game really took a toll on him, and it was only after everything was over that everything finally sank in. He even had a hard time opening his eyes, feeling overwhelmed after working his brain for 120 percent. ’Still… She beats my ass, huh?’ He muttered bitterly.

When he finally opened his eyes, Sheva was greeted by Anna, who was offering a handshake again here. However, this time, she smiled prettily at him, making his heart skip a beat. It wasn’t like she was trying to be pretty here, just her natural smile. However, this was the first time that Sheva saw her smiling today, and honestly, if not because of how exhausted he was, Sheva would blush immediately like an inexperienced virgin that he was.

“Good game.” She praised him, still smiling. “You almost got me there, and if not for your bishop blunder, I am sure that you will be able to defeat me.”

For that, Sheva laughed bitterly, knowing that this was just empty praise from the winner. Hell, if he couldn’t see how genuine she was, Sheva would think that she was trying to mock him right now.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter now.” Sheva smiled wanly. “In the end, I lost the game. Nothing can change that.” He got up from his seat quickly, not even batting his eyes at her. Oh, he knew that it was rude, but his mind was a mess right now. He wanted to scream, venting out his emotion as loudly as possible.

“FUCK!” He cursed out loud after making an excuse to go to the restroom. “Even with the system in my head, I couldn’t even beat her, and to think that I will be able to win something and make some money from this sport?! What a fucking joke!” He cursed once again.

Honestly, his reaction was a bit excessive here. However, this was Sheva’s first loss in chess, and this game was something that he took seriously for the first time after a while. Yeah, even though this wasn’t the first time he faced defeat, at that time, he would always make a lot of excuses. When he got the second rank in school, he would say that the first rank joined a good education center for extra study, when he was beaten in sports, he would say that it wasn’t his best attribute, or something like that. However, for chess… For this stupid game… Hell, he even had a fucking system inside his head, yet he was still beaten by a fucking girl!

’Oh, God… I need to be better here…’ He washed his face, staring at the mirror to see his horrendous appearance there. ’It is just a fucking game… There are still a lot of chances to take revenge in the future… For now, I need to focus back on the tournament, ensuring that I will get the second place… Master Irfan said that he would send the top two abroad, right? I need to get the second ticket here, and I still have a chance…’

After a while, he finally went back to the hall. Everyone wanted to greet him or say something to comfort him, yet Sheva still had a gloomy expression on his face, forcing everyone to back down and go back to their original seat. He could see Claudia was glaring ferociously at him while Anna’s expression turned back into her default icy one, entering her unapproachable state. For a moment, Sheva felt guilty and wanted to apologize for his rudeness before.

’No, I didn’t do anything wrong here.’ He shook his head quickly. ’This is a different situation compared to when I beat Claudia before. Even Master Irfan himself doesn’t reprimand me.’

Indeed, those two were completely different matters. Here, even after getting beaten by Anna, Sheva was still willing to accept the handshake calmly and not say anything rude here. He just didn’t want to be on the same table as the one who beat him for too long. Compared to Claudia who threw a tantrum and was not even willing to shake his hand, what he did was far from an offensive act.

In the end, though, he didn’t say anything, and all the other players also avoided him like plague. Sheva was a newcomer here, so they didn’t know how to handle him being in a bad mood after the defeat. Only Bagas dared to approach him, saying something trivial to calm his mind even for a moment. However, Sheva’s mind was completely on the rest of the tournament, as he was determined to be in second place today.

’Four more rounds, huh? Let’s see if there are any other good players besides her…’

Ten minutes later, the tournament finally continued, and Sheva’s next opponent was a veteran who had been with the club for more than four years. He was the longest-serving member of the club. However, it was clear that his chess skills weren’t that great. Sheva didn’t even use half of his time to beat him, forcing a checkmate with both his bishop and queen, creating avalanches to snipe the king from a thousand miles.

Then, in the next round, his opponent was a young man who seemed to have greeted him earlier. He forgot the name, but the fact that he was paired with this young man was enough to tell Sheva that the man had a pretty good tournament today. After all, with five wins and one loss, only those who had similar points could face him, so the man should be one of them.

When the game started, Sheva frowned immediately at the man’s opening choice. It seemed that the man wanted to replicate what Anna did earlier by pulling another English opening, trying to drag Sheva into a dark, unknown territory. However, the man was far from being a strong player, so Sheva didn’t even sweat to beat him.

With two more rounds to go, Sheva took a glance at the current table of the tournament. As expected, Anna was still on top, getting six and a half points out of seven. Sheva was taken aback when he saw the girl take a draw here, wanting to see which player managed to do so. However, when he saw that the draw result was from her playing against her little sister, Sheva scoffed a little at that.

’Well, would you see that? They have no shame to share points like this…’

Sheva shook his head, trying to pay attention back to the table again. Right now, he was in the second spot, half a point behind Anna and half a point ahead of Claudia. Even though it was just half a point, Sheva didn’t believe that anyone could break Anna’s record here. So, he turned his attention more to not losing so that Claudia wouldn’t grab his spot when the game entered the critical stage.

Fortunately, his next two opponents were pretty easy here, a polite old man whose ability should be mediocre, yet having good resources to be on the upper-half of the tournament, and an old lady with hijab covering her head who somehow managed to drag the game down to more than fifty moves before Sheva managed to find a breakthrough and win his last two games.

In the end, he took a deep breath, smiling at the sight of the table being put on the big screen on the front.

Anna Marisa—8.5 points.

Adrian Sheva—8 points.

Claudia Marisa—7.5 points.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep