Chapter 87: Intermission (II)
Honestly, if there was anyone he should be worried about, Sheva would definitely point his finger at himself. After all, he was the one who ’guided’ Anna so that she could wake up from her nightmare yesterday, to the point that he almost made her cry. Now, facing the chilling smile from the girl, all he wanted to do was run straight away, avoiding her as quickly as possible. He smiled wryly at the sight of Claudia’s gloating look before finally rising from his chair.
"W—Well, if you say so, then I wouldn’t w—worry about you." He stuttered a bit. "Anyway, I have to go first. Just enjoy your sibling time, okay?" He scampered away immediately, not even waiting for the girls to stop him. The boy could also hear Claudia’s furious giggle, yet he thickened his skin and ignored that straightaway.
’Damn, she sure can be scary if she wants to be.’ He wiped the imaginary sweat on his forehead. ’Now... Where should I go?’
There were still one and a half hours before the sixth round of the tournament began, and Sheva was wandering around the venue aimlessly without having anything to do. There were not a lot of people there since it was lunch time, yet he could still see a few of them either getting ready for the next round or just chatting with their acquaintances. Honestly, Sheva felt like a lost child here, trying to search for his parents in the middle of the crowd.
Then, when his eyes swept through one corner of the room, the boy saw his friends, Bagas and Sarah, chatting with both Irfan and Master Irene. At first, he wanted to go straightaway and greet them. However, even though they were acquaintances, Sheva realized that it would be rude for him to barge into the conversation like that. Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious about their conversation, especially since Irfan was talking animatedly there.
Fortunately, Sarah noticed his presence a moment later, and after whispering something to Bagas, they both said something to Master Irene and Irfan immediately before walking away from the conversation. Right after that, those two went straight to Sheva, greeting the boy with a slight relief on their face.
"Shev, don’t you know that you have just saved our asses?" The fat boy asked with a grin.
"You are lucky that Sarah sees me coming, or you will be stuck with him for the next hour." Sheva snorted. Yeah, even though they all respected Irfan, those three, just like any other teenagers, liked to talk about someone behind their back, and in Irfan’s case, they all agreed that the man had already reached the middle-aged phase where he would treat any youngster like a child who needed to hear his heroic story in the past. "So, what is he talking about this time?" He asked.
To his surprise, though, both Bagas and Sarah looked at him immediately. "Coincidentally enough, it is related to you, Shev."
"Me?!" Sheva blinked his eyes repeatedly, getting taken aback at the nod of confirmation from them both. "Why would Master Irfan want to talk about me?"
"Why? Of course, it is because you have an amazing tournament right now!" Bagas threw his hand exasperatedly. "I mean, come on! Don’t you see how ridiculous it is for a player, let alone a low-rated one like you, to sweep the first five rounds cleanly! Hell, you even brought down the top-seeded Ummi Fisabilillah! Coupled with the fact that you also got a ridiculously good result in the last tournament, you shouldn’t be surprised at the sudden attention to you!"
"... Well, if you say it like that, it sure as hell looks like my achievement is so impressive..."
Both Bagas and Sarah had their mouth twitch when they heard that outrageous sentence coming out of Sheva’s mouth. The boy himself felt like his achievement wasn’t that impressive. Hell, up until now, he still felt that all of his opponents were small fries who couldn’t bring the best out of him, with one particular player, Claudia, becoming close enough to push him to the edge during the tournament in Hanoi. Besides that, he hadn’t met any worthy opponent that could make him burst with joy after winning the game, and honestly, he was hopeful that Arfan would be the first one to do so.
Everyone would beat him immediately if they could hear his arrogant thought, so it was fortunate that he kept quiet about it.
"Still, Master Irfan didn’t really talk about you alone." Sarah finally spoke again, turning the conversation back to the original topic. While chatting, they also went outside to the nearest food stall since she and her boyfriend hadn’t eaten anything yet for lunch. "He is more concerned about you since your next opponent is a far better genius than you." She said as a matter of fact.
Sheva narrowed his eyes quickly, wanting more explanation here. "Even Master Irfan is worried about me? Is he really that good?" Even though he saw a glimpse of what Arfan could do in the last round, that wasn’t enough for him to grasp the boy’s true strength. Still, he didn’t believe that he would be much worse than Arfan. After all, even though he had never said it out loud, for a man with the system inside his head, the boy also had his own pride, and there was no way he would be able to stay calm when anyone thought there was a genius better than him.
"Hey, that is what Master Irfan said, not us!" Bagas shrugged, enjoying his food. "Master Irene also agreed with him, telling us that Arfan is the biggest prospect to become another GM in this country. He has been learning under Master Priasmoro’s care, and she, Master Irene, I mean, felt like his improvement in the last couple of months has been astonishingly crazy. So, you better get ready to be beaten, okay?" He smiled teasingly at the last part.
"Getting ready to be beaten, huh?" Sheva smiled widely. "Hell, if anything, I am getting more excited to flip the table here."