NOVEL NEXT Chapter 225: After the Game...
"Sheva, please, tell me…" Medina said with a solemn tone, making both Anna and Sheva put down whatever they were doing and start to pay attention to her. "What kind of cheat did you use in this tournament, and how could you get away with that?"
Sheva choked instantly when he heard that, for a second thinking that his system had been exposed by Medina. He even had the urge to turn his head away to hide his guilty expression, but when the boy heard the giggle coming out from Medina's side, he knew that it was just a casual joke thrown not out of malicious intent.
"Are you serious, Sister?" Sheva twitched his mouth annoyedly. "If anyone heard that, they would seriously accuse me of cheating, you know?"
"Eh, don't worry about it. No one knows what we are talking about right now." Medina just waved her hand, dismissing Sheva's concern nonchalantly. "Anyway, I just want to know, do you have any secrets here? How could you always perform better against the higher-rated opponents? And don't say something cheesy like you are more motivated against them or that you are talented, I don't believe in those bullshit excuses!" She said the last part threateningly.
Well, indeed, since they spoke in Indonesian, there was no way anyone around here could understand what they were talking about. Still, that didn't mean Sheva was comfortable enough to talk about this, especially since Medina started the conversation with the accusation of his cheating. Well… Even though the system inside his head was indeed a cheat, there was no way he would reveal his deepest secret so openly like that.
"Well, I myself am also curious about it." Anna suddenly leaned forward, looking at him with a curious smile. Honestly, if it were any other occasion, Sheva would be flustered by her little gesture. However, he was too busy covering his ass to care about anything else right now. "Sheva, you know that the more you panic, the more we believe that you are hiding something, right?" The girl narrowed her eyes dangerously.
Indeed, that was the case. Even Medina, who at first just started this conversation as a joke, couldn't help but feel suspicious right now. After all, if he did nothing wrong, why would Sheva get so flustered like this?
"Don't get me wrong," Sheva coughed, ready to act as his own lawyer and try to defend himself. "It just catches me off guard how you ladies could easily accuse me of cheating. If anything, it didn't fluster me, but your words only flatter me, because getting accused of cheating is probably the highest praise you can receive, right? That means I do everything right in the game, right? As for whether I cheated or not, well… The security system has never had any problem with me, so I don't really think too much about it." He explained with a nonchalant expression.
Yeah, before they entered the venue, all the chess players in the tournament would have to enter the gate to detect any hidden device that they brought, and not only that, some people from the security team would also do a quick search for something they thought suspicious in their bodies. Under such a tight security system, there was no way Sheva could cheat in the tournament, so even though the two women in the group were still suspicious, they didn't think too much about it.
"Man… I really want to pry your brain open just to see what you are thinking in the middle of the game…" Medina couldn't help but sigh. "I mean, two wins in a row against a 2600-rated grandmaster? And your rating is… What? 2309? Even the young Magnus Carlsen would never dare to dream that something like this would happen in his life."
Sheva could only smile wryly when he heard this, inwardly starting to panic about this situation. He didn't know how Magnus Carlsen did when the man was young, but if even the best player in the world couldn't achieve the same feat as he did in this tournament, this would only attract more attention to him.
He himself didn't mind the attention, as this had already been on his mind since Bagas explained a few months ago. However, Sheva was really afraid that people could reveal the system inside his head and the repercussions behind it. Hell, he even started thinking wildly, like how he would get experimented on just like in the Hollywood movies with scientists prying his brain open literally, and this scared the shit out of him.
[Don't worry, Host, the system could guarantee that nothing about its presence would be leaked except from the Host's mouth. Just keep your mouth shut and everything will be alright.]
Sheva was startled when the system suddenly said that inside his head. However, it was a big reassurance for him, and even though it sounded ridiculous, the boy was relieved that the system made it clear that there would be no leak even if someone suspected him.
"Anyway, the pairing for the fourth round should be out in the next five minutes, right?" Anna suddenly asked, changing the topic of the conversation. "Who do you think you will face?"
"Well, it would definitely be a lower-rated one for me." Medina crossed her arms while pouting slightly. "It is unfair that I have to face Yu Yangyi in the third round. Now, I really look bad among us three, only getting 1.5 points out of three games."
Sheva and Anna could only smile awkwardly as they listened to Medina's complaint. Fortunately, unlike yesterday, the woman was pretty communicative and less intimidating here, even able to joke about her own defeat earlier. At least, the two teenagers didn't have to be afraid of accidentally offending her right now.
"Oh, for me, it is also an obvious one," Sheva said.
"Really?" Both ladies turned their attentions to the boy, wanting to hear his opinion here. "So, you have already known your next opponent?"
"Not exactly, per se, but I could make an educational guess here," Sheva answered. "After the third round is over, only five players achieve a perfect record with three wins out of three rounds, and I am the lowest-rated player here. So, my next opponent is either going to be the highest-rated player with the perfect score, Puranik Abimanyu, or the highest-rated player with 2.5 points out of 3 games, and honestly, I am inclined to believe in the second scenario. So, if I am not wrong, my opponent would be Shant Sargsyan, the Armenian grandmaster with the ELO rating of 2661. I am confident that this would happen."