Back home, Sophia immediately turned on the computer. The third stage was already underway. She wanted to get enough points to get into the next stage, so she had to win enough games before the end of this round.
There were one hundred contestants left, soon half would be eliminated, and the final fifty would enter the fourth round of the competition.
The addition of the M Army had turned the heat up on the competition much earlier than planned.
Two members of the M Army didn't show up, so thirty-seven M Army members participated in the competition. That was to say, if they all got through, there would only be thirteen spots left for other players.
Other players barely had a chance!
A lot of people logged on to watch the tournament this round, especially to see Sophia's matches. There were thousands of people watching each game. Sophia didn't pay attention to her blog, so she didn't know where those people came from.
She didn't care about those things. It was a contest; all she needed to do was play chess. No chat was allowed in the competition window, which allowed her to focus on playing without interruption. She met several members of the M Army, and each was difficult. She had started late. In order to get enough points to make it to the fourth round, she had to keep playing until midnight when the time window for that round came to an end.
"Checkmate! Okay! KAP wins again! This is her fifth match. She now has enough points to enter the next round! Unfortunately, this time, KAP did not meet M378. The previous match between these two players was very exciting and it ended with a draw. No winner, no loser. I really want to see them play again."
In the chat room online, someone explained what was happening.
Lots of messages appeared on the screen.
"That's it? I don't get it, but it seems awesome!"
"I fell in love with KAP. It feels like a person facing up to thousands of troops. It's so exciting!"
"It makes me want to learn chess. I will try to learn later."
"So good…"
"Love, KAP!"
"If KAP wins the final, I'll send ten yachts to the host!"
Sophia went to bed after playing chess. She had to get up early for school the next day. She did not check her blog regularly. She only ever logged in the blog to enter the game. She didn't notice that her fans had exceeded six figures in two days.
The next day, when Sophia came to school, she found a bar of chocolate on her table. She turned her head and looked at Mariah, "Did you put this here?" None of the other Sister Alliance girls were there.
Mariah shook her head, "No., it wasn't me."
She was confused. Suddenly, she thought of another possibility.
"Can it be…" She looked at Louie.
Louie lowered his head and dared not look at her. "Yes..." He whispered, "It was me. Thank you for yesterday! "
"You're welcome," Sophia said dully.
Why did it feel like things were getting weird?
The first class was math, and the teacher assigned homework at the end of the class.
After class, the students began to do their homework. The students of class seventeen were very good at getting their math homework done.
Time was tight. They had to finish their work at recess and hand it over to the group leader. Otherwise, after the second class, the math class rep would "kindly" come to them to ask for their homework.
Sophia was doing it, too. Math was easy for her, and so she finished it in five minutes.
Louie came up to her. He blushed slightly, "I don't know how to do this math problem. Can you… tell me how to do it?"
Like a math class representative, Sophia felt that it was one of her jobs to help students solve their problems.
"Which one?"
"The second one!"
Sophia explained the method of solving this problem to him. He was a little embarrassed, "I…, I still don't get it."
Sophia had no choice but to explain it in detail to him. Then Louie understood it. He thanked her and continued to do his homework.
After school at noon, the students either went home or went to the canteen to get lunch. Only Sophia did not move in either direction.
Her mother was busy with her new job, so she had to eat at the canteen. But Colin High School's canteen was badly designed: there were not enough windows offering food for the number of students who ate there. A large queue quickly formed, which was very tedious.
So Sophia didn't go to the canteen immediately. She wanted to wait until the rush had died down; it would save her some waiting time.
She stayed in her seat and took out a magazine to read. It was the latest science and technology issue, which she had borrowed from the library, the kind she used to read in her previous life.
While she was reading, Kevin came and sat next to her, looking at her as if he had something to say.
Sophia asked, without raising her head, "What's the matter? Has someone bullied you again?"
"No. I... I heard people say," Kevin hesitated for a moment," you have taken someone else as your brother too?"
Sophia looked up and knew that he was talking about Louie. She smiled and said, "No, I just saw someone bullying him and helped stop it. After all, he is in our class. Why do you ask?"
Kevin looked relieved and smiled, "Nothing. Sister, I'm going to the canteen for dinner. Aren't you coming?"
"You go first. I hate queuing. I'll go when there are fewer people."
"But if you go late, none of the good food will be left! How about I queue up to buy lunch for you? You just sit here and wait for me, okay?"
Sophia smiled, "That's all right. I'm not picky. You go first!"