Sheva could feel the corner of his mouth twitching madly at that. After all, who in the chess community didn’t know about Magnus Fucking Carlsen? This should be considered as a terrible joke, right?
It seed that Magnus himself also agreed with him, as the man just said with a completely helpless tone, "You and your tasteless humor, Chris..."
"Hey, what do you an by tasteless?" Johan-Sebastian Christiansen defended himself quickly. "Don’t you also think that his dumbfounded expression is so funny? I bet you also think the sa, right?"
The other two players just stared at them, bickering helplessly. Yeah, out of anyone else, it could be seen that Johan-Sebastian Christiansen was the closest one to Magnus in the team. While the others are still reserved, probably not quite used to hanging out with the best player in the world, Christiansen just chid in nicely, dragging Magnus into this mortal world.
"Anyway, I have also watched your last two gas. You did a great job." Magnus praised Sheva genuinely. Unlike the others, he, who had been travelling all across the world, had a clearer English. Even though he still had a thick accent, it was way easier for Sheva to understand him.
The words were awkward, yet Sheva could hear the genuine tone in his voice. This was the charm of those people whose first language was not English. They might sound funny, but every word always conveyed their true emotion in fear that the person they talked to couldn’t understand their accent. Sotis, they would even sound rude, but most of the ti, that was their genuine feeling. It seed that Magnus was also the sa.
Of course, Sheva didn’t really care about that. He just froze stupidly on the spot, nodding at everything that Magnus said. Bagas, a fucking traitor that he was, decided to step back and record everything on his phone, probably wanting to let this footage out to the internet and use it to generate more traffic for his YouTube channel.
Fortunately, it seed that Magnus also saw his dumbstruck state, so he didn’t stay longer here. After chatting for a while, the man finally dragged his friends to leave, but not before conveying one last ssage.
"You are good. I think you will climb faster than anyone expects. So, don’t stay on the bottom for too long. I will wait for you on top."
Then, he walked away without saying anything else, giving the ’I am the last boss and you better level up quickly before I get bored’ vibe.
This was not the first ti Magnus had done so. Before, the man also said the sa to Alireza, an Iranian prodigy who changed into the French federation. He might also make a similar remark to Duda, Abdusattorov, and so other young prodigies, but everyone whom he had praised all turned into elite players. So, this was basically Magnus’s acknowledgent of Sheva’s talent, and the boy couldn’t help but feel flattered here.
"Hey, wipe away that drool on your mouth. That is disgusting." Bagas suddenly reminded him. Sheva was startled, wiping away his mouth imdiately. However, when he found nothing there, he knew he had been tricked, so the boy turned around imdiately, just to find out his best friend smiling smugly at him. "So, that’s how you look when chasing a star, huh? Interesting..."
"You bastard! Instead of helping , you want to record my self-humiliating mont?" He cursed, trying to reach Bagas’s phone imdiately.
"Hey, hey, no need to be this aggressive!" Bagas tried to dodge. "Your mother and Anna haven’t seen this yet! Be patient!"
"You fucking piece of—!"
They kept bickering for a while before so players finally found Sheva’s whereabouts, and the boy was forced to be in another round of socializing event. He could only give Bagas a stinky glare, which was returned by a gloating chuckle from afar.
This ti, though, the ones who ca were pretty different. If before, those who approached him all wanted to get in touch with the newest celebrity, this ti, most of them were top players who ca just to praise or even encourage him.
"I have already watched so of your gas, and I can see that your calculation skill is ticulous. It will be soon before you are fighting against us at the top level. Just keep it up." Said Fabiano Caruana.
"You are probably going to be Southeast Asia’s new superstar, so be careful and don’t get involved in any shady things, okay?" Wesley So also gave his advice, probably based on his own experience.
"You know what? I like you! You remind of my youth, bold and reckless without caring about anything else! Maybe you will be able to achieve what I cannot get in my lifeti in the future!" Levon Aronian, the legendary Arnian GM who was representing the USA nowadays, said with a boisterous laugh.
So also chatted a little bit with him, from Anish Giri from the Netherlands, Vidit Gujrathi from India, to MVL from France. He was definitely one of the hottest commodities in the room, probably only third to the Uzbekistan team, who got the gold dal in this Olympiad, and India’s second team, the local hero in this tournant. Everyone had their eyes set on them, as most people basically predicted that this was the birth of the new batch of superstars.
Honestly, Sheva was quite overwheld right now. He knew that he had beco famous after this tournant, but how famous was he? The boy had never thought that it would be this big, to the point that a lot of top players in the world would recognize his talent. The boy didn’t know, though, that once he went back ho, the celebration party prepared for him would be way crazier than he could ever imagine.
At this ti, his focus was completely in this venue, as he, just like any other player here, was waiting for the closing ceremony to begin. The sun had already set at this point, and the moon hung brightly outside. However, that didn’t dampen everyone’s enthusiasm, especially for those who were going to be standing on the podium.
In the end, after a while, they all heard the announcent coming from the speaker.
"Ladies and Gentlen. Please, sit according to the seat that has been arranged for you. The closing ceremony is about to begin."
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