After receiving so many opening-card rewards from the system in the last couple of months, Sheva could say that he was confident playing against all kinds of first moves that his opponent would make. It didn't matter whether it was 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4, or even the strangest opening like 1.f4 or 1.Nf3, the boy was confident he could counter everything, not perfectly, but decent enough to survive the middle game.

This was the same for the 1.d4 that Claudia pulled this time. Just in the first move, Sheva had already calculated so many opening lines he could think of, with some that he was familiar with popping into his head. He had a lot in his repertoire, from the Benko Gambit, the Budapest Gambit, Benoni, or even his proudest weapon, the Dutch Defense. However, this time, since the boy wanted to test Anna's ability, he went for the common opening, putting his knight to the F6 square.

This was probably the most common first move used by the black piece when facing the 1.d4 opening. This allowed the black player to fianchetto his dark bishop to the G7 square and put his king into safety with a castle move quickly, which often led to a stable and steady game. With this, Sheva could at least see almost all the aspects of Anna's game, from the attack, defense, strategy, tactics, and so on.

Of course, the boy had already had a glimpse of it from the information he received from the system. However, looking at it directly would give him a better idea of her level, which he would be able to help her get better in the future.

'Oh, how cruel the irony…' Sheva suddenly muttered wryly, finding this situation to be funny. 'It is just one or two weeks ago that she was still better than me, how could I suddenly act this high and mighty just in that short period of time? System, you really poison my mind here…'

[Host, you cannot blame the system for it. This is just the truest nature of the host, cocky toward everyone that is below your level.]

Sheva had to hold back the urge to choke, not expecting the system to strike back like that. 'Oi, that is slander, you know?!'

[What? The host wants to report me? To who? The administrator?]

This time, Sheva felt the corner of his mouth twitching, not expecting the system to be sarcastic to retort to him. It seemed that the update it received was a little bit too much, and the system started to be the annoying type that would always bother the host in every move. Fortunately, it still didn't step into the dark realm where it would give the host an impossible or inappropriate mission just for shit and giggle. Imagining that…

'No, there is no way I can survive with you being like that!' Sheva shuddered on the spot. 'System, promise me that you wouldn't change into that kind of bastard, okay?'

Unaware of Sheva's inner conversation with the system—Fortunately, or Anna would be livid if she knew about that—the girl furrowed her brows deeply, thinking hard about the current situation on the board. Even though the game had already crossed the tenth move, though, inwardly, Anna still wondered about Sheva's opening choice.

'He does the 1.d4, Nf3 opening? This is not in line with his aggressive style, right?' She asked herself with a frown on her face. 'Is it because he wants to show me how much he improves already… Or is it because he underestimates me?'

The game itself went into a strange direction. In the end, Anna pulled the Nimzo-Indian defense, wanting to play aggressively against Sheva. What made it weird, though, was the fact that Sheva let everything happen under his nose while also waiting passively on the back. Hell, just in the 13th move, the game had already been going in the direction that Anna wanted.

All of her pieces were out already and had developed into a strategic square; her pawns were planted deeply on Sheva's defensive line, she had already exchanged queens, and they even castled on the opposite side, making it a race of who would be able to reach the opponent's king first.

Everything was exactly like what Anna had imagined in the beginning, except for one fact. Wanting to play aggressively in return for Sheva's unusual opening choice, she forgot that aggressiveness was definitely Sheva's playing style, and if necessary, he could strike back and bite when it would hurt her the most.

She was so lucky, though, that Sheva wanted to test her the most in this game. That way, the boy didn't give his most decisive strike, wanting to drag the game and win it all in the endgame phase.

However, that didn't mean the game itself lacked action. No, unbeknownst to them, the evaluation bar moved up and down quite often. Although it was not a big swing that would affect the entire result in one go, the change in the evaluation bar still showed how dynamic the game was.

In the end, though, the game finally entered the most critical phase, with Sheva having one rook, one knight, and one pawn, against Anna with one rook and two connected passed pawns. Even though Anna was down two points material here, the evaluation bar seemed to be stuck at 0, showing that the game itself was equal. There was even a chance at one time for her to force a draw by three-fold repetition.

However, her desire to win took over, and she decided to refuse the draw offer. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of her downfall, as unbeknownst to Anna, Sheva's eyes lit up instantly at her sudden blunder, and he knew that this was his time to land the decisive blow.

'Yeah, sorry, Anna, I don't think that I could drag this game on any longer.' He glanced sideways, giving the girl an apologetic smile. 'Don't worry, though. After this, I will help you leap into a new height. However, before that could happen, please, die for me first, okay?'

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