Well, Bagas had already said so, so there was nothing else that the three players there could do besides trusting him to handle this matter. Still, there was no way this didn't bother them all. Even though no one talked about it anymore, the worry on their face could still be seen pretty obviously.

Their reaction was understandable, though. After all, Sheva and the ladies still thought that they were normal civilians, and while it was quite normal to scold and debate against trolls on the Internet, they had never been a target like this before. The fact that Bagas told them not to go and see it made their imagination wander wildly. Hell, Sheva even thought the worst here, thinking someone had probably doxed his address, terrorizing his mother, or something crazy like that.

In reality, though, the situation wasn't that bad. While yes, there were trolls spreading shit about them embezzling the sponsor's money or embarrassing the country, the number was so low compared to those who supported them. It was just a minor voice, not worthy of mentioning. Hell, if it were any other famous people, they would just laugh it off and forget about it the next morning.

Well, unfortunately, Sheva and the others still didn't realize that they were famous chess players in the country already, still thinking that they were just like any normal human being who tried to make a living from this sport. That was probably the reason why they were so panicked right now, not having any experience handling this kind of situation before.

In the end, they all went back to their room with a heavy thought inside their mind, curious to see what the trolls said about them, yet too afraid to be hurt if what the trolls said was too outrageous. Fortunately, today was an exhausting day, so the moment they were on their respective bed, it didn't take long for them to enter the dreamland.

The only one who didn't fall asleep immediately was Bagas, as the fat boy opened his laptop and started operating it, wanting to solve the problem as quickly as possible. He blocked all the troll accounts on his YouTube channel, setting up new rules to keep everything civil under the broadcast room, and also went through several channels to learn how the others are handling this situation.

Not only that, but the boy also didn't forget to call the organizer, inquiring about the shady pairing that they received. Yeah, even though the players didn't really take this as a big problem, Bagas still felt like they should ask about this, and as the 'unofficial' manager of the three Indonesian players here, the task immediately fell into his hands.

Fortunately, even though it was night already, it seemed that the organizer—or at least their customer service—was still awake. It only took 30 minutes for Bagas to wait before the answer arrived at his email. There, the organizer explained the reasoning behind the pairing and why there was no shady business behind it.

Basically, the organizer said that the only coincidence here was the second round, where Medina was unlucky enough to get paired against Yu Yangyi. As for Sheva and Anna, their pairing could be explained clearly. After all, the normal operation in this kind of an open tournament was to get the top-seeded player to play against the lowest-rated one who got the same point as him. Coincidentally enough, it was Anna and Sheva who suffered this misfortune in the last two rounds, which, indeed, made it look very suspicious for all the Indonesian players there.

Still, after such a long-winded explanation, Bagas understood that it was a pure misfortune for their part, not because of any shady operation behind the scenes. The morning after that, he told the others about the news, and even though it was still pretty hard to dissect, the three players there could accept the explanation as it was still better than nothing.

"Well, at least, we don't have to think for the whole day about whether this is a conspiracy or not." Sheva sighed in relief. "I don't think I can keep my sanity intact if that thought still haunts me, especially since my next opponent is fucking Yu Yangyi."

Honestly, though, they really didn't need to worry about conspiracy or getting targeted like how they initially imagined yesterday. After all, they came from a country that didn't have any strong or prominent chess players, so they were really not worth being conspired against like that. Hell, even without a subtle conspiracy like this, they could still suffer a defeat from a far lower-rated opponent, so it was completely unnecessary for the organizer to do that.

"Don't worry too much about it. Just go all out, I have already dealt with the trolls on the Internet." Bagas said, patting his chest proudly.

"Really? That fast?!" Sheva widened his eyes in surprise. He knew that his best friend was proficient in doing something like this, but he didn't know that it was this good. In his mind, dealing with trolls should be pretty hard, needing some sort of divine hacking skill that he only saw in the sci-fi movie outside.

In this regard, though, Sheva was just like an old man who was amazed at how his son fixed the television when, in reality, the only thing that the son did was just restarting the router. The knowledge gap between him and Bagas was too big in anything related to technology; something so small as blocking a few trolls on the internet was enough to amaze the boy.

"Well, enough about me!" Bagas coughed a little, feeling embarrassed at the admiration he received from his best friend. "The game is at 10 A.M., right? Should we go to the venue?" He checked his watch just to find out that they were fifteen minutes away from the start of the game.

Sheva also nodded solemnly when he heard that, knowing that it was time to go to the battlefield. Even though Bagas had already emphasized several times that he didn't need to worry about the troll's attack on the Internet, the thought still weighed on Sheva's mind. The boy knew that if he lost the game, the situation would only get worse, so even if, on paper, he shouldn't have any pressure playing against Yu Yangyi, Sheva had already set a target for this game.

'Losing is not an option here! I have to show some dignity, proving to everyone that even though we come from a weak country, that doesn't mean we ourselves are weak! I have to get something out of this game!'

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