Chess' worldwide importance

In the dining hall, both Japanese teams gathered for an early dinner. Many teams were still playing, so it would likely be another few hours before pairings for round 3 went up. However, news of the scandal with Italy, had spread like wildfire, and as a result, Laura found herself surrounded by a crowd of people as she sat down to eat.

Press was forbidden from the dining hall for the time being, though most members were still at the playing hall as many big teams were still playing. Rather, the crowd primarily consisted of players. Despite not all being of the same sex or nationality, all appeared to be angry at Laura, or perhaps team Italy as a whole, and most if not all either had their hair styled to cover one of their eyes, or wore an eyepatch.

"Thanks a lot. Now we're getting scrutinized more simply because of how we style our hair!" a girl with short brown and gold hair fumed.

"It's fair for them to check to make sure we aren't hiding anything. That being said, should we shouldn't be scrutinized for our style should we pass the check," a woman with shoulder-length red and brown hair scowled as she adjusted her glasses.

"Unnur's pissed! Unnur... Unnur was still given stink eye despite only a strand covering her eye!" a girl with long dark purple hair pouted.

A few turned to her with disappointed looks.

"Sorry girl, but your boy's team got caught cheating too, so it's understandable you'd be given a sus gaze," a girl with short black and brown hair sighed.

"But Unnur was singled out because of her hair!"

"She's right. Iceland only had one of their members suspended for comical over the board cheating. Your girl hid an electronic device in her hair and now all that cover an eye are under more scrutiny, thanks to her," a voice sneered.

Everyone turned to notice members of the Prussian team approaching. In matching with the theme of the crowd, all either had hair obscuring one or both their eyes or were wearing an eyepatch.

"What a shame, I would have loved to torment that girl, but it seems someone beat me to it!" a Prussian girl with short red hair sneered.

The girl was Sibylle Wizner, deemed by many to be one of Prussia's cruelest female officials, second only to Edeltraud Ulbricht.

"Übel can barely see through hair. Übel can't possibly hide device in it," Übel scowled.

"And I remove my eyepatch in the heat of battle, as that's the only place my power can run free," Diederich sneered as he stared down Laura. "You've caused us quite the inconvenience, all thanks to your little stunt."

"Yeah! I practically got subjected to a lice inspection! Couldn't you have settled things more subtly!?" Hubert fumed as he stormed in.

"Didn't you cheat before in the past?" Wendy glared.

"Only online when I was young. Never over the board."

"He's right, though! Vesna just got subjected to a brutal check!" a girl with short blue hair fumed.

Unlike the others, none of her eyes were covered with either hair or apparel, though the woman that entered along with her most certainly fit in with the theme of the day. An eyepatch adorned the scarred left side of her face, with countless other scars appearing to litter her body. The look in her one remaining eye also told the story that she had been subject to true horror and hell.

"Anastasia, it's fine. I have no issue showing all just what atrocities those monsters are capable of," the woman named Vesna stated as she removed both her eyepatch and wig to reveal her wounds to all.

The sight caused some in the crowd to grow uncomfortable and walk away with their heads held low. Others stared for a bit before shaking their heads and walking away. The Prussians stared with sadistic glee in their eyes before deciding to head off as well, presumably to harass some other team. And soon, the once large crowd had now thinned to less than 5 people.

"I'm sorry Vesna. You didn't need to do that for me," Laura sighed as Vesna put her wig and eyepatch back on.

"I have no issue, in fact I feel it's necessary to show all just what kinds of atrocities those Russians committed. Why their ban was lifted infuriates me. The WWCF president is a despicable man, forcing poor Ian to compete with those monsters."

Vesna Moroz was a Ukrainian grandmaster that had been subject to the horrors of war. This naturally led to her harboring extreme resentment towards Russians, more so thanks to Tsar Grigori's actions a little over a year ago.

Following Grigori's predecessor ordering Russian troops to invade Ukraine, Grigori had secretly beaten said person in a DESPER match, then bided his time until the right moment. There, he emerged from the shadows, proposing the matter of the war be settled in chess. And since a DESPER was involved, not only could the Ukrainian president not refuse, but upon losing to Grigori, was forced to not only cede land to Russia, but abolish Ukraine's entire military as well. The only solace was the fact that upon his victory, Grigori executed his predecessor before the Ukrainian president's eyes as an act of good will, though it could be argued it was done more as a mercy killing.

The unexpected end to the war halted Vesna's suicidal urges, replacing them instead with rage and resentment at how things played out. Now, she felt she couldn't die and see her family again until after she made the Russians pay. She had always been a chess player, but thanks to chess' growing importance in the world, she quickly became akin to a militia general. While Ukraine no longer had a military in the traditional sense, Vesna along with many of the nation's other top chess players essentially became it's new army.

Since the entire Russian military, save for Grigori himself, possessed DESPERs, and were still greedy for more land, it meant chess players truly were Ukraine's last line of defense. As such, Vesna took it upon herself to train everyone to the best of her abilities, to avoid losing anyone else. The war might have ended on paper, but in reality, it had simply changed from one of bombs and bullets to one of DESPERs and chess pieces with tensions now even higher than before.

Russia wasn't the only nation seeking to expand their territory. The German Empire of Prussia naturally fit into this category as well, though unlike with Russia, Red Reaper was often the one singlehandedly conquering nations, causing more to outright fear him than resent him, as unlike the others, he was an undead monster that could continuously use his DESPER and keep on going for as long as possible. Even though Prussia had one of the most powerful militaries in the world, most soldiers spent their time in training as Red Reaper himself often took out all the targets.

Though in terms of geopolitical shifts resulting from the DESPER, none could be more notable than what had taken place in the Middle east. Egypt had now become the Neo Kingdom of Egypt, and was now ruled by a trinity of female pharaohs, whom had taken over Egypt and reinvented it to be more akin to the ancient Egypt of old, but with a modern twist. They didn't expand too far outside of Egypt's preexisting borders in their conquest, though one of the three ruling pharaohs certainly wished to expand more. A nation that did seek to conquer all in it's vicinity though was the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Back from the dead, thanks to some mad scientists, Babylonia had revived and become a nation of conquest once more, though this time through the use of robots with DESPERs or DESPER-like devices as their cores. Now it controlled essentially all the territory the Neo-Babylonina Empire of 626 BC did and then some, thus leading to the nation officially naming itself, the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

The nation of Israel was one of the many nations it conquered, but unlike the other nations, Israel's surviving population managed to escape from Babylonian rule after they were all mysteriously warped away to a new nation created within the horn of Africa known as the New Kingdom of Simien. Located to the north of Ethiopia, the nation's birth was shrouded in mystery as both Israelis, now known as Simiens, and denizens of the world over had no idea how the nation came to be or what had happened in the 3 months since Babylonia conquered Israel. But it was evident that whatever led to the nation's creation and the Simiens being warped there to reside along with a near perfect replica of Israel's geographical features and major cities, involved a DESPER. 

Ethiopia's prime minister, Gudit Haile, was also suspected of playing a large role in all this. Not only was she a life long friend of Simien's queen, Orit Sharir, but she had also willingly ceded Ethiopia's Amhara and Tigray regions to the New Kingdom of Simien as a sign of good will.  While the true extent of her involvement in the New Kingdom of Simien's creation is unknown, both it and Ethiopia have enjoyed a prosperous relationship since the former's founding.

Speaking of mysterious, a new mysterious nation had popped up in the Balkans, known as the New Republic of Paeonia. No one knew anything about it, or what it had once been before, aside from the fact that's it's borders lied within the former territory that had once been Yugoslavia. It claimed to be a peaceful nation not seeking conquest, simply wishing to be the core of Esperanto for the whole world over.

It's Balkan neighbors, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, all of which headed by Desperados, thought otherwise, but since Paeonia's high councilwoman was also a Desperado, the nations were all at a stalemate as the Desperado code prevented them from subjecting each other to DESPER matches. Meaning things were still just as precarious as ever in the Balkans.

The last major noteworthy change in the world was Mongolia. Now led by a self-proclaimed necromancer known as Genghis Jad, an undead army of soldiers from Mongolia's past had seemingly arisen to build a new Mongol empire. Though like other conquest-thirsty nations, they sought to conquer the world through the use of chess rather than physical violence. Though physical violence after victory was still on the table.

Chess was now the main method of war thanks to the DESPERs, making chess prowess all the more essential throughout the world. Many nations continued on as normal though, but for those that had witnessed just how much the power of the DESPERs could be abused, chess players were now their de-facto military such as the case with Ukraine.

Okisato watched as slowly but surely, the angry crowd surrounding Laura began to disperse. Vesna's arrival seemed to diffuse the tension though as now most of the people harassing Laura decided to go elsewhere. And one group in particular, team Prussia, decided to shift their target of harassment from Laura to team Japan.

"So you're the one that drove my grandfather mad. What a joke, you look like an average mob character," Diederich sneered.