"? Going viral?" Sheva blinked repeatedly, seeming confused by Bagas’s statent. "What do you an by that?" He straightened his back, turning around to face his best friend.
"It ans exactly what I say, you are going viral on the Internet." Bagas sighed helplessly. For his brilliant brain, Sheva sure was quite slow when it ca to the Internet. "A lot of dia have been reporting about your ga, you know? And it is not like a half-assed report but a serious one with a legit analysis on it."
"Really?" If before, Sheva didn’t think too much about it, the last tidbit of news caught his full attention now. "Is it because of Magnus’s praise for ?" He wondered out loud.
"So, you already knew about that, huh?" Bagas felt the corner of his mouth twitching. "Well, yeah, one of the reasons for your viral is because of his comnt. I an, anyone who got praised by the GOAT sure will have a sudden exposure, right?"
Sheva nodded in agreent, taking a bite of a flavorful chicken skewer in his hand. "I heard it from Dmitrij Kollar earlier, but I haven’t seen it by myself. What did he say, anyway?" He asked curiously.
Instead of answering directly, Bagas just scrolled through his phone lazily before throwing it at Sheva. "Here, just watch it yourself." He also spoke with a mouth full of food, feeling famished after waiting for five hours for Sheva’s ga to end earlier.
Sheva caught the phone flawlessly as if this were a common thing to happen between them, and he watched the clip imdiately. It was just a short one, only half a minute, talking about Sheva and his ga. However, Magnus Carlsen, famous for being blunt, really praised Sheva, enough to make the boy flustered.
"Co on, it is okay to express your happiness." Bagas coughed, nudging his hips playfully.
"What are you talking about?" Sheva rolled his eyes exasperatedly. However, he replayed the video again, listening to it for at least three or four more tis attentively. A wide grin also ford on his face, telling Bagas how ecstatic the boy was with this video.
’Yeah, and you said what am I talking about?’ Bagas rolled his eyes in the sa exact manner as how Sheva did a few seconds ago.
"Anyway, you said that this is one of the reasons, right?" Sheva suddenly rembered the way Bagas worded the sentence earlier. "What is the other?" He asked. His eyes were still on the screen, though, so Bagas doubted whether his best friend could focus on the conversation or not, so he just answered shortly.
"GothamChess made a video about you."
A pin-drop silence fell as Sheva snapped his head instantly at Bagas. This ti, the stare was a mix of shock and disbelief, as the boy knew that GothamChess was the biggest chess channel in the world. The exposure coming from that channel was crazy, but GothamChess himself had only reviewed gas from the big nas most of the ti. While yes, sotis, he would go for the normal gas, not the highest-level ones, it was still quite a rare thing, so to get into that channel when he himself was an untitled player was crazy.
"You are lucky, you know?" Bagas couldn’t help but sigh. "A lot of players fought to be on his channel, and here you are, getting into it twice without even asking or paying anything. I swear, your luck is off the chart."
"Twice?" Sheva frowned, not knowing what Bagas said.
"The Jakarta International Chess Festival, your ga against Arfan with 130 moves? Rember that?" Bagas said with his lips twitching madly, not knowing how his best friend had forgotten about that.
"Ah! That ti!" Sheva slapped his forehead loudly. "Of course, I didn’t forget! How could I?! Haha!" He laughed awkwardly. "Anyway, let see the video!" Sheva turned his attention back to the phone, ignoring Bagas, who was deadpanned at his poor attempt to change the topic.
The video itself was well made, with the sa quality level that Sheva knew enough about GothamChess. It talked about Sheva’s ga against Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, the twists and turns of it, before he finally won the ga. The grin on his face couldn’t get any wider, even starting to hurt his facial muscles when he heard GothamChess glazing over him.
"Two seconds after the handshake was made. Just TWO SECONDS! And then he passed out." GothamChess said in his usual exaggerated way. "This is incredible stuff, borderline a miracle if I have to say! It seems that the God of Chess is still siding with Sheva, knowing that he is so close to winning it all. Just... Imagine if Christiansen had been able to hold on for fifteen more seconds, and everything would be different right now."
Sheva also shuddered at that thought, knowing that he was so close to throwing away his win on that day. The painful mory of getting tortured by the system was still fresh in his mind, and if he could, he didn’t want to suffer from the sa thing again in the future.
Overall, Sheva was satisfied with the video, as GothamChess really glazed him a lot. The comnt was also a lot, with so of his fans from Indonesia trying to introduce him on that channel. It wasn’t exaggerating to say that being on GothamChess’s channel was the dream of a lot of players, so it would be a lie to say that Sheva was unhappy because of this.
If there was one thing that he wanted to complain about, though, it should be the clickbait title of the video.
A GA TO DIE FOR!!!
’Please, I am not dying, okay?’ Sheva muttered, with the corner of his lips twitching slightly. ’I know that clickbait title is necessary, but don’t kill for that, please?’
While Sheva was still scrolling through the comnt section, Bagas was also busy next to him. The fat boy had his hands moving fast on the keyboard, operating his laptop so flawlessly to make a today’s recap for YouTube. This was sothing that he had done from the beginning of the tournant, making the boy beco the last one to sleep almost every day.
A mont later, though, the phone suddenly buzzed loudly, stopping them both from their activity. The two best friends stared at each other for a mont before they jolted as if lightning struck them directly, realizing what was going on here.
"Tomorrow’s pairing is out!"
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