"In the third place of the open section, please welcome Leon Lucas Mendonca from India!"

It was pretty late in the evening, and Sheva found himself still sitting in the venue. This time, though, all the exhaustion was gone, and with a stomach full of food, the boy didn't even make a single complaint here. Hell, if anything, he was pretty excited, knowing that his name would've been called out later.

The venue was half empty at this point, as not a lot of players were willing to join the closing ceremony. Most of them—especially those who didn't really do well in this tournament—decided to go back home already, or maybe they were still here, yet they were too exhausted to come, wanting to sleep more than anything else. Sheva understood that feeling as well, since he himself also had that kind of thought before.

This was also what he did in the Reykjavik tournament. Since Sheva didn't win anything and had nothing else to do with the closing ceremony, he decided not to go there, wanting to wind down immediately after spending a week full of stress.

Still, it was a different story this time. The fact that Sheva managed to win second place in the tournament also excited him a lot here, especially since he himself had never expected something like this to happen. Even though he was gutted by the fact that he failed to win earlier, that feeling was gone already the moment he realized the amount of money that he would get here.

As for the honor of getting the second place… Oh, well, Sheva was currently in the stage where he didn't care for any of those. He had just found a way to get out of his poverty, so everything had to be measured with money. In his mind, honor couldn't get him food, so it was better to exchange it for anything else.

This was the phase where all the players who didn't come from a well-off family would have to experience. They would prioritize money over anything else because they had just found that they could make a living out of this game. Once their level was high enough to the point that money would've just come no matter what, though, that was when they would start to chase honor.

Well, that was the story of tomorrow, as right now, Sheva was waiting for his name to be called out.

"In the second place of the open section, please welcome Adrian Sheva from Indonesia!"

Sheva rose from his seat with his face flushed red, somehow getting excited for the second time in a day. The boy could see that, amidst the cheers and polite applause around him, a lot of people also stared at him intently, as if trying to put his face deep into their brains. It seemed that the wave he created was big enough to the point that almost everyone in this venue knew about him already.

"Congratulations, Young Man." The chief organizer of the tournament patted his shoulder firmly. "You did a very good job in this tournament. I am sure you will achieve more in the future, so at least, we can say it proudly that our tournament is the one that let everyone get to know your name, right?" The man chuckled a little, which Sheva only returned with a polite smile.

He shook hands with a few more important people on the stage, and of course, the boy also didn't forget to congratulate Leon Luca Mendonca, who got third place. Honestly, the race was so tight here, with him, Leon Luca, and Shant Sargsyan had the same 7 points. Unfortunately for Shant Sargsyan, his tie-break point was the lowest, so the Armenian GM had to be satisfied with not getting on the podium.

From the top of the stage, Sheva could see the entire venue clearly. Bagas, Anna, and Medina were sitting far in the back row, with the boy having a phone getting attached to a selfie stick in his hand. Even without looking at it, Sheva knew that his best friend should be recording this event live on his YouTube channel, so the boy didn't hesitate to wave even from the stage.

"In the first place of the open section, please welcome, Muradli Muhammad from Azerbaijan!"

As the MC announced the winner of the tournament, most of the people in the venue gave a standing ovation, appreciating the roller coaster section here. No one thought that a player with the rating of 2500 and 2300 would dominate the entire field, not when more than 15 players had the ELO rating of above 2600. The run that Muradli and Sheva made here would become a legend in the future, cementing their names into the biggest underdog story in chess history.

They went for a little bit more formality, with them having another group photo with the organizer and important people who came here. Of course, they also received a giant check with the amount of the prize written on it, and this was probably the most exciting part for Sheva. The smile on his face kept getting wider, making it hard to mask into a polite one.

After everything was over, he didn't go back to his original seat in the front row, yet decided to go straight to Bagas and the others.

"Good job, Brother!" Bagas grinned widely, offering a fist bump the moment he saw his best friend approaching him. "You make history here! Come on, chat! Say hello to our boy!" He signaled Sheva to wave at the camera.

"Hey, everyone. Thank you for your support here." Sheva smiled stiffly, still not getting used to appearing in front of the camera. Still, he really appreciated the support from the viewers on Bagas's broadcast, as the boy could see the chat room was filled with so many messages congratulating him on this achievement. Even though he didn't know them personally, it felt as if they were always behind him, accompanying his journey from the beginning up until this point.

After letting Bagas drag him into his shenanigans for a while, Sheva finally managed to escape from his best friend's clutch, just to find out the two ladies were staring amusedly at him. The boy coughed a little, fixing the imaginary mess on his collar to hide his embarrassment. Feeling like an awkward silence was about to fall here, he decided to prevent it with a single question.

"Now… What should we do?"

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