Study System: I'm a 38-Year-Old Student

Chapter 379 254: The Ultimate Social Death Moment

The best-of-seven match usually takes quite a while.

Shen Qiushan, who advanced with a clean 4-0 sweep, also became the first player to make it into the top four.

The other three groups of players were still fighting fiercely.

According to the schedule, today's matches are just to determine the final four.

The championship match, on the other hand, is tomorrow.

So, technically, Shen Qiushan, who's already made it to the top four, could leave now.

But the organizers weren't about to let Shen Qiushan go just like that. To maximize his screen time, they specifically arranged a "player interview" segment.

And just to make this interview less awkward, they didn't just stop Shen Qiushan, but also called out Guo Xingwang.

"You guys are just running an amateur event, there's really no need to have a livestream. I mean, who's even watching?"

Guo Xingwang, who'd just been knocked out at the top four, was in a sour mood and casually roasted the staff from the organizers.

The event's official streamer, called "Xiaoke," glanced at Guo Xingwang and replied with a grin, "Teacher Guo, the Qingyang Cup might be an amateur event, but the attention it's getting is actually pretty high."

"For example, just now for your game with Teacher Shen, the livestream peaked at over 40,000 viewers!"

Xiaoke was a pro host brought in by the organizers, and she really knew how to stir up the atmosphere.

Guo Xingwang said the match wasn't popular, but she didn't bother arguing—she just pulled out the numbers to smack him in the face.

Hearing this, Guo Xingwang was completely stupefied and stared in disbelief. "Wait, how many people did you say were watching the stream?"

"Over 40,000!"

"I know Teacher Guo used to win the national xiangqi championship, and the attention back then must've been even higher than today."

"But even so, 40,000 viewers on the stream isn't exactly a small number…"

Xiaoke said with a smiling face.

Pffft!!

After getting that confirmed, Guo Xingwang nearly coughed up blood—he was a former pro, a national champ, for crying out loud.

Dropping down to play in the Qingyang Cup, an amateur tournament, had already forced him to swallow his pride. His whole plan was to grab the championship and walk away with that sweet 500,000 yuan prize.

That would've been amazing!

And compared to the 500,000, stuff like saving face was honestly not that important.

But, alas, things never go according to plan. Guo Xingwang never dreamed he wouldn't even make it into the final four.

That sucks enough already, but now Xiaoke's telling him there were over 40,000 people who witnessed him getting swept 4-0 and bounced out of the tournament.

It's like the sky just fell!

We're talking about a guy who's been a national champ!

And now, in front of 40,000 people, he lost this horribly!

How is he supposed to show his face in public after this?

By this time, seeing Guo Xingwang's expression, the comment section in the livestream had already blown up.

"Hahaha, my stomach hurts from laughing!"

"We just witnessed a massive social death in real time!"

"Old Guo probably never dreamed 40,000 people would be watching him play chess!"

"Bet even back when Old Guo won the nationals, only a handful of people knew—today, there are more people watching him lose than there were cheering for his win."

"Let's just keep the stream going, since things are already like this. Let's give everybody a good laugh…"

He dazed out for quite a while.

Finally, Guo Xingwang snapped out of it. He smoothed his hair a bit and cleared his throat, then started talking again: "The Qingyang Cup is the biggest amateur xiangqi tournament in the country. Hidden dragons and crouching tigers among the competitors—there are retired pros like me, and also elites from all walks of life."

"To make the top eight, no matter who wins or loses, really, nobody's a loser!"

He was starting to save face for himself.

As a former pro and former national champ, being swept 4-0 by an amateur? It was way too embarrassing.

So the only option was to hype up his opponent, so at least his defeat looked less humiliating.

"Our Qingyang Cup is meant to give chess lovers across the nation a stage to spar and connect."

"As the saying goes, friendship first, competition second."

"Just like Teacher Guo said, there are no losers here!"

"Teacher Guo, we hope you'll come back and play again at the Qingyang Cup next year!"

Honestly, Xiaoke didn't want to keep chatting with Guo Xingwang, so she sent him off with just a couple of polite lines.

Right after, she swung her camera over to Shen Qiushan.

"Teacher Shen, it's such a surprise to see you joining this tournament. If we'd known earlier, we would've prepared a proper welcoming ceremony!"

"No need for that, I'm just an ordinary competitor."

Shen Qiushan waved it off with a grin.

"Teacher Shen, you're being way too humble."

"Anyway, it's an honor for us to have you at the Qingyang Cup."

"And congrats on making the top four!"

At that, Xiaoke even did the traditional cup-hands salute to congratulate him.

"Top four is just the start. My goal is the championship!"

Shen Qiushan did not hold back in showing off his ambition.

Listening to the two of them chat, Guo Xingwang—who still hadn't left—stood there completely baffled.

Teacher Shen?

Which Teacher Shen? Who's got that kind of status?

Like mentioned before, Guo Xingwang hadn't recognized Shen Qiushan at all. He barely paid attention to pop culture and had only vaguely heard the name.

After all, for the past half year or so, Shen Qiushan kept popping up in the news.

And now, seeing Xiaoke show Shen Qiushan so much respect, Guo Xingwang naturally got curious. He quietly pulled out his phone and Googled Shen Qiushan's name.

Bam—tons of news stories popped up instantly, and he finally matched the man in front of him with the infamous bestselling author he'd heard of before.

But what Guo Xingwang couldn't wrap his head around: Shen Qiushan is just a writer, so how the heck is he so good at chess?

He even managed to take down a former national champ like himself!

After chatting with Xiaoke for a bit, she finally let him go.

Though, it wasn't that the producers had some sudden pang of conscience; it's just that the winners of some other brackets had been decided too.

As the event's streamer, Xiaoke had to go off to chat with them for a bit as well.

The next day.

The championship showdown kicked off.

The four finalists drew lots to decide who'd face whom.

The winners moved on to the finals to fight for the championship.

The losers could only compete for third place.

With his cheat system, Shen Qiushan easily beat his opponent in the semifinals.

As for the championship match, Shen Qiushan also cruised to a 4-0 win.

He took the title at the 12th Qingyang Cup National Amateur Xiangqi Tournament!

Ding!

Congratulations, host! You have defeated 928 people in the tournament.

You have gained 928,000 Scholar Index points!

The system notification chimed as expected.

Shen Qiushan snapped his fingers in excitement. Just as he'd guessed—if he could win a major event,

he'd be able to harvest a huge haul of Scholar Index points!

With that confirmed,

Shen Qiushan no longer had to worry about running out of Scholar Index points.

The even cooler part: he could finally consider unlocking some "High Tier Attributes!"

100,000 Scholar Index per point!

But the high tier attributes are seriously OP—Martial Arts, Medicine, and Metaphysics.

Any one of these three high tier attributes would be super tempting to Shen Qiushan.