Contrary to what Priasmoro Novendra believed, no sound was made after he announced his resignation. No cheers for the boy, no gloats against him. The younger ones, Anna, Claudia, and Bagas, just came and patted Sheva's shoulder silently, as if this was just a common occurrence. The others, the veterans whom he knew better, just looked at him in pity.

This was the worst.

Priasmoro Novendra would be able to accept the defeat if someone pointed out, gloated, or even mocked him. However, this silent reaction really touched his nerve. And as a cherry on top, Sheva, the real winner here, just stayed quiet, setting up the board silently after such a chaotic game.

Looking at this, the man couldn't help but ask, "You have just won against a grandmaster, you know?! Why wouldn't you celebrate it?! I mean, shout! Scream! Do something!" In the end, it was he who was the most anxious here.

Hearing that, Sheva put down the chess piece in his hand, turning his head around and staring at the man's eyes directly. Then, he spoke with the calmness that infuriated the GM the most, "Well, I am glad that I won. But celebrating? Why would I celebrate winning against someone I know I am better at? For you, this might be an underdog story, but for me, everything is already under my control, and this is just proof that I can be better than a player whose rating is higher than mine."

Priasmoro Novendra choked instantly at the answer, while the others also stared at Sheva in disbelief. It was one thing to win, but to be arrogant even after the win… To treat Priasmoro Novendra as if he were just a mere amateur after winning the game against him… Well, it seemed that what Sheva did was indeed a little bit too much here.

"Hahaha…" Priasmoro Novendra suddenly let out a small laugh. His eyes were hollow. "So, I have never been on your radar from the first place, huh?" He muttered, on the verge of crashing out.

Indeed, the grandmaster noticed how Sheva answered the question earlier. There was no hint of mockery or insult there, and the clear eyes shining on the boy's face told the man that Sheva believed every single word he uttered from the deepest part of his heart. It was either a sign of delusional arrogance or the beginning of greatness, and honestly, after playing against Sheva for a while, Priasmoro Novendra believed that it should be the second one.

Yeah, even though they only played a blitz game, far from being fair to measure whether one player was better compared to the other or not, and the game itself was not so formal—what the hell was all that trash talk? They looked like they were playing in a street, for God's sake!—the man saw enough of Sheva's potential, and honestly, he wasn't confident that he would be able to beat the boy even in a normal situation.

The boy had everything needed to make him a great player: the calmness, the composure, the gut, the clear head under pressure, all the things that could never be learned with books. Not only that, this blitz game was initiated by Priasmoro Novendra himself after the man knew that Sheva had never played in a formal blitz game, thinking that he could exploit the boy's inexperience to humiliate him. Now, the fact that he still lost the game should basically be a good conclusion that the boy was indeed better than him.

It was a scary thought, especially considering what Irfan said about Sheva just starting to play chess three months ago. Given time, he would only become better, and with the unlimited opportunity given by BNI, Priasmoro Novendra was sure that Sheva could become the first elite chess player from Indonesia.

'Yeah, he deserves all the flowers he received…' The man muttered bitterly.

However, before he could say something else, Priasmoro Novendra felt someone tugging his shoulder. When he turned around, the man could see Aulia Medina Warda, the hijabi woman, had already stood behind him, and her flat expression was a big tell that she was not in a good mood.

"Urgh… Sister Medina… Is there something I could help with?" Novendra gulped nervously. Yeah, even though he was already a GM, the woman was still two years older than him, and he had a healthy amount of fear toward her.

"Move, Novendra." She answered pretty coolly while staring at Sheva with the eyes of a hunter that was about to devour its prey. "Let me have a showdown with the miracle boy." She said shortly. It was clear that Aulia Medina Warda was a woman with few words. However, it was enough to shock everyone in the room.

"You want to play against me?" Sheva pointed his finger at himself, still taken aback by the woman's sudden declaration.

"Yes." Medina nodded shortly, chasing away Novendra from his seat before taking over it. "Or… Do you think that you are also better than me?"

"…"

Sheva felt the corner of his mouth twitching, not being able to find a word to retort to that. He knew from the first moment those arrogant words slipped from his mouth that a lot of people—especially those whose rating was higher than his—would dislike him, and they would try to use his words to do something like this. The boy had already prepared for that, yet when it happened, he was still caught off guard.

In the end, he had no choice but to accept the challenge. Well, not that Sheva would reject it, as right now, what he wanted to do the most was to play against those higher-rated players than him. The boy would never refuse when his targets surrendered themselves to his hand like this.

Of course, that didn't mean he would underestimate the woman. No, if anything, he was more worried about this Medina. After all, unlike when he played against Novendra, whom he had already seen the playing style during the Jakarta International Festival two months ago, this time, he would play against someone he was unfamiliar with, and the woman herself was motivated to beat him. Sheva could see that clearly in her eyes. Underestimating her would be his downfall, and the boy wanted to avoid that pitfall from the beginning of the game.

"Oh, well…" Sheva took a deep breath, bracing himself for another game. "Then, let's have a good game, Sister."

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