Chapter 23: Sarcasm!

Fukuda Tsukasa knew that this tournament still had quite a high profile.

Ordinary people usually find it very difficult to compete alongside professional players.

So there were also quite a few ordinary people who came to participate in the tournament for this reason.

For these people, winning was definitely impossible.

However, these ignorant people participating in the tournament actually made the final prize money of this new tournament larger.

In general shogi tournaments, although it is said that shogi players can receive a match fee as long as they participate in the tournament.

But this match fee is divided according to the player's registration.

The more powerful the player, the more substantial the match fee they can receive even if they lose.

But for low-ranked players, regardless of winning or losing, the match fee is very meager.

Many players, even if they keep working hard at shogi, their income never goes up.

And in this tournament, the more consecutive wins you have, the more prize money you get.

Most players were here for the prize money they could get for each game they won.

Planning to win a few games and get some prize money.

If they were lucky, they might be able to take away more than 100,000 yen in prize money before encountering a professional player! ===== CHAPTER 47 =====

And that's not even mentioning professional players and title holders.

They were all here for higher prize money or to increase their fame.

Even training association players like them, who were somewhat famous, feared they wouldn't be able to last a few rounds before being crushed.

Let alone ordinary people like Xia Xia Xia Mujun.

But well, no matter what, there were people giving away money.

Why not be happy about that?

He even wished there were more fools like this, so that there would be a higher probability of winning more prize money in this tournament!

He was even looking forward to meeting this Xia Xia Xia Mujun; he was purely a money baby!

Fukuda Tsukasa urged with a smile:

"I say, Horikawa-san, the rules don't say ordinary people can't participate, can you hurry up and let him register?"

"And there are people lining up behind, if you dawdle, the people behind will start cursing!"

Horikawa Kaori had no right to stop an ordinary person from participating in the tournament.

But in the end, she couldn't help but hint:

"If you are sure about participating, Xia Xia Xia Mujun, please pay the 20,000 yen registration fee here."

For an ordinary student, 20,000 yen was really a lot!

An ordinary high school student's living expenses for a week were actually only two or three thousand yen.

She hoped that a student like Xia Xia Xia Mujun wouldn't waste money on such things.

Because the difficulty of this tournament was really high, very high!

All players had no exceptions and needed to fight step by step from zero to the end.

Basically, you would be eliminated immediately if you lost one game in the beginning, no exceptions!

Only from the round of sixteen would a best-of-three format be used.

So even a training association player like Fukuda Tsukasa had a certain probability of encountering a professional player, or even the strongest title holders in the shogi world, in the first round!

Xia Xia Xia Mujun didn't say much and took 20,000 yen directly from his flat wallet and handed it to Horikawa Kaori.

Horikawa Kaori sighed inwardly, but had no choice but to accept it.

"I have indeed received the registration fee and application form. Tournament information will be sent to your text message or email later, please pay attention and arrive at the tournament venue in time..."

Xia Xia Xia Mujun thanked her:

"Thank you."

After speaking, he left.

Fukuda Tsukasa knew this Horikawa Kaori and had played a few games with her at the Shogi Association before.

They could be considered old acquaintances.

He walked up and said sarcastically to Horikawa Kaori at the counter:

"That Xia Xia Xia Mujun I just saw is a dragon among men!"

"He will definitely win the top prize in this tournament!"

"If there are more people like this coming to register, remember not to say so much, just let them register successfully."

"Don't affect others from winning the big prize, you know?"

Horikawa Kaori knew this Fukuda Tsukasa and hated him very much, immediately putting on a cold face, not at all as enthusiastic as when chatting with Xia Xia Xia Mujun.

"Please fill in your information here, and pay the 20,000 yen registration fee after writing."

Fukuda Tsukasa saw that this person didn't care about him, but didn't get angry, just smiled.

He took the information and started filling it out.

After paying the registration fee, he looked in the direction Xia Xia Xia Mujun had left, praying in his heart that he would be lucky enough to meet this fool.

That way he could secure a win!

The coffee shop's start time was five o'clock.

Xia Xia Xia Mujun checked the time on his phone and found it was already 4:58, almost late.

He ran quickly, returned to the shop, and promptly took out his work card and placed it on the time clock.

Beep—

The time clock showed exactly 4:59, a perfect card swipe!

Xia Xia Xia Mujun let out a long breath, feeling lucky that he had returned in time.

At this moment.

Fujiwara Aoi, who had just walked out, had her gaze land on Xia Xia Xia Mujun.

The summer uniform of the private Moonlight Academy was a shirt, tie, and trousers.

Just such simple clothing, worn on Xia Xia Xia Mujun, could also wear out a different feeling.

It could be said that among the students Fujiwara Aoi had seen today, Xia Xia Xia Mujun was the best-dressed one.

Even the freshman representative Yamaguchi Hirota, whom she had seen today, didn't look as good as Xia Xia Xia Mujun.

"Yare yare, Xia Xia Xia Mujun, you didn't even arrive late!"

Xia Xia Xia Mujun turned his head at the sound.

What came into view was the energetic Fujiwara Aoi.

She had already changed into her work uniform and was standing with her hands on her hips, looking at him with a smile.

Xia Xia Xia Mujun smiled luckily, "Fortunately, the train I came back on wasn't delayed, otherwise I would have been late. By the way, I heard from my classmates that someone came to the class to find me at noon, was that you?"

Fujiwara Aoi blushed slightly and nodded: "Yes..."

"Coming specifically to find me, was there something the matter?" Xia Xia Xia Mujun asked.

Fujiwara Aoi couldn't help but twirl her hair with her fingers, very shyly.

She thought those classmates had also mentioned her bringing a bento, so she explained along the way:

"Actually, it's just... I had something to find you for, and I thought there was plenty of time during lunch break, so I thought I'd go find you to have lunch together and chat about something..."

Xia Xia Xia Mujun suddenly realized:

"Is that so, but what was it you wanted to chat with me about?"

Fujiwara Aoi’s gaze flickered, and she coughed:

"It's about the shift scheduling..."

"Look, isn't it April today, and we've started school, and the shift scheduling hasn't been handled yet."

"So the manager asked me to ask you clearly when you can work and when you can't..."

Xia Xia Xia Mujun nodded:

"I see, where is the manager, I'll tell him now."

Fujiwara Aoi’s gaze flickered, and she stammered:

"The manager is off today."

"Only us employees are here."

"Mine hasn't been written yet either... how about when we're about to close the shop, we go to the computer together to write down the time we want to work on the shift schedule?"

Xia Xia Xia Mujun agreed: "Mm, let's do it together tonight."

"Mm-hmm," Fujiwara Aoi responded happily.

Soon.

Approaching ten o'clock.

It was almost time to get off work.

After the employees in the shop finished cleaning, they basically all left.

The only employees left in the large coffee shop were Xia Xia Xia Mujun and Fujiwara Aoi. ===== CHAPTER 48 =====