A few hours later, the first round of the tournament was over, and all four Indonesians who were here also gathered in a small Asian restaurant close to their hotel. It seemed that Sheva and Bagas wanted to make this a tradition; a meeting at an Asian restaurant after the day was over in a foreign country. This time, they went for a Vietnamese restaurant, and although strangely enough, the owner was a Greek couple, the food was at least Asian enough, pretty suitable for their taste.

"Let's cheer for our perfect day!" Sheva raised a glass of drink.

"Cheers!" The three other people followed his action enthusiastically.

Of course, it wasn't something alcoholic. They all went for a fruit juice that was sold by the convenience store in front of this restaurant. After all, not only were Sheva, Bagas, and Anna still underage, but they also all grew up in Indonesia, a country with the largest muslim population in the world. Even though alcoholic beverage wasn't fully banned in the country, the mere thought of them was frowned upon, so none of them dared to be closer to that at all.

"Anyway, how is the streaming?" Sheva couldn't help but ask his best friend. "It should be good, right?"

"The best." Bagas gave a thumbs-up, clearly feeling satisfied with today's result. "We even crossed 3000 viewers today, probably the most besides when Sarah was with me. If I am not wrong, the statistic will increase more when you play against a more difficult opponent, as everyone is enthusiastic to see your improvement. Even our audiences could see that your opponents today are just small fries, so most of them only watched halfway through the game to show support."

Sheva nodded in understanding. It was normal that the total viewers were lower than when Sarah was there. After all, Sarah was a beauty who had already gained so many fans from her game streaming, so her mere presence could attract those single dogs, which was enough to boost the viewership of the streaming.

Still, Sheva was satisfied with the result today. 3000 viewers were definitely a lot. A small streaming account probably could only generate around 500 to 1000 viewers in each stream, and the newest ones could even be lower than that. This meant the account had already stepped up into a bigger game here, and getting more viewers would be easier in the future.

The calculation was simple here. The more viewers meant more exposure, and that meant more people or wealthy groups would see this. If that happened, the probability of having more sponsorship would be bigger, and even though BNI had already given Sheva a blank check, who would refuse more money, especially if it didn't come illegally?

"I really don't understand how you young folks can be so engaged in a fake world like that…" Medina couldn't help but sigh helplessly. "You make me look like I am from an older generation who doesn't know how to adapt to technology…"

Sheva could only smile awkwardly when he heard that. Even though Medina was just eight years older than him, the woman seemed to struggle with the social media era right now. Even though she had an Instagram and Facebook account, Medina barely used them, so she couldn't really relate why Sheva and Bagas were so engrossed with what she called as 'A fake world'.

Not that Sheva blamed her, of course, as he himself didn't really use his social media that much. Hell, if not for Bagas's insistence, he would've never bothered with one either. Even though the boy could understand the necessity of it, he still found it to be too troublesome to maintain a good public image on the Internet.

"Anyway, our next pairing should be out already, right?" Anna suddenly asked, realizing that Medina looked like she was out of place here. The girl wanted to include her in the conversation, so she changed the topic back to the chess world again. "Should we check the website first?" She suggested.

"Good idea." Sheva nodded.

Right after that, the four of them took out their respective phone, starting to access the tournament's website. As the interface of the website appeared on his screen, though, Sheva paused for a moment, reading the hottest news of the tournament with a frown on his face.

Getting the Second Win of the Tournament, The Young Prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju Leads the GMT Section with 2.5 Points!

'He wins again, huh?' Sheva couldn't help but sigh, lamenting the incredible rise of Gukesh. 'Also, it has only been two months since the Reykjavik Open, but his rating has already touched 2680? He should be a perennial super GM, right? Damn, he sure flies fast here…'

It would be a lie if Sheva said that he wasn't intimidated by Gukesh's astronomical rise. After all, just a few months ago, he could still face the boy directly, and yet, right now, Sheva felt like Gukesh was an unapproachable player by someone of his caliber. Trying to chase a prodigy was always a scary thing, as it could dampen his spirit after knowing the massive gap between them.

However, this only motivated Sheva more, as he was determined to get better soon. The first thing to do for him to achieve that, though, was to get a good result in this tournament.

'Now, I wonder who is going to be my opponent…'

As Sheva entered the page, he also saw the current standing of the tournament, with a bunch of high-rated players having won in this first round. Sheva just ignored this section, knowing that this was still a first round, and everything could happen in the later stages of the tournament. He went straight to the pairing section for round two, and the boy found his name pretty quickly among that list.

Adrian Sheva (2309) – (2610) Niclas Huschenbeth

'Um? A 2600-rated GM this early?!' Sheva was taken aback by the result of this pairing. However, after the surprise feeling dissipated, it was replaced by a sudden rush of enthusiasm, as a small smirk suddenly formed on his face. 'My purpose here is to play against the other top players in the world, right? Damn, I have never expected that the chance would come this soon! Oh, man, this is going to be fun!'

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.