Chapter 122:

After satisfying his curiosity, Ace skated back home, while thinking on all he had found out today. The group seemed to have a weird dynamic, and it was certainly interesting to see. Stella should have some serious background, considering the school she went to. Furthermore, she was not stupid either, as proven by her ranking on the Knowledge Tournament. Nevertheless, she seemed almost unaware of what could have happened. Furthermore, she had no guards with her, they would have most likely jumped in otherwise, and even if they did not, Ace would have spotted them.

'So there is certainly something going on, I should most likely not have gotten involved, but oh well. I have no need to get involved any further though, I had mostly severed my face with the hoodie, so it's not like they would have recognised me, and even if they did, it's not like they could have done anything. No one recorded that, that was for sure, and even if they had, Ran would have gotten rid of it. That is the next thing though,', Ace thought, 'Ran, who the hell is she? Her brother is most likely a criminal, or at least heavily involved with them. She did not even seem surprised at the fact that they had tried to start something with her. She would have most likely been beat up though, if I was not there. There were multiple people there, and it did not seem like anyone was planning on backing her up in the first place.'

Once he reached his house, he asked Alfred to check out Ran and her family, telling him where they were so he could nab an extract of a CCTV camera. It would take him until tomorrow morning to give him a detailed account, but that was ok. For now, Ace decided to take a shower and stream until he had to go to bed. Streaming was getting more and more fun, and his popularity and viewership had kept on growing. Getting to a point where even people that were not involved with videogames would recognise. Whether it be for his music or various modelling shoots.

Not long ago, he had received an invitation to attend a modelling showcase. He had first been invited as a model, but after kindly refusing, he had instead been invited to attend as a guest. Ace had expected them to not invite him at all after his refusal, but he was pleasantly surprised. Something that was definitely a point in favour of the people in charge. Because of it, he had decided to go, he had told his grandmother, and she had convinced him to let him choose clothes on his own. Ace wanted to hire a stylist, considering he had no idea about fashion. Samantha thought he would be able to wear anything well, and it was more important for him to be comfortable - as long as he looked good of course.

There was no theme, but Ace knew that most people would dress in eccentric ways in hopes of attracting attention for the media. He had no need to do so, the moment he had informed his stream that he would be attending, a serious buzz had been cast, people were surprised, but then understood it. It would make some sense for him to be interested in fashion, considering how fashionable the clothes he wore were in every picture.

They were mistaken, that was the job of a stylist, something Ace pointed out, but people were happier to believe what they felt would look better, so that was that. He had protected his bases, so he would not be outed for 'stealing' someone's credit or something like that, as well as having dropped the social media of the stylist - one of Samantha's friends, who had worked with him since he had first woken up.

She seemed to love the new attention Ace was getting, and was surprised yet pleased when Ace informed her of his decision to choose his own clothes. She did tell him, however, that she would be strict with judging what he wore, and would only allow him to wear it if it wasn't a complete dump.

That made Ace laugh, since she would probably not be happy with anything he chose himself, regardless, she would support his decision, and the warning was simply given to him in order to scare him.

***

Ace sat down, opening the file he had just been sent from the school, which gave him the results for his second trimester:

Name: Ace Goldsign

Rank: 1

Grades (Rank - Average Score): [English: 1 - 100]

[Math: 1 - 100]

[Biology: 1 - 100]

…

Meaningful Contributions*: Inter-Academy Knowledge Tournament - First

Global Puzzle Tournament - First

*Not everything you have accomplished will be on here, only the things which have had the most impact on the Institute, or you as an Individual.

Note: No Comments have been added, instead, the Headmaster would like to invite you to a formal meeting on the first day back. More information will be given to you in the morning of your first day of school.

Congratulations on your results

'I was looking to read the various comments from my teachers, but I guess I will have time to toot my own horn after the meeting. I assume it will just be a way to get the top people from each grade, and pump their egos a bit to ensure that they will not leave the Institute, or make sure that there are no other schools trying to poach him. Not that it has seemed to stop them, I have received wishes of a meeting every single day. Even the two guys I met after the event just wanted me to become a student. All the talk about a place for 'smart people' is just bs. Although props to them I guess, it did take a while for Alfred to find that out.', Ace thought, while munching on an apple, getting ready to Stream for a while, feeling like playing some games.

***

"We have a new record chat! We have a new record.", Ace said, while casting a gaze over his chat, seeing all the emotes that were currently being spammed. "SpaceJam, congrats man, you smashed the record out of the ballpark. If you are able to maintain that record until the end of the month, then you will get your rewards. I also recommend you to not get complacent, you never know when someone is going to steal your spot. We might even see a little comeback action from the previous podium members. Remember that if you have been moved out of your spot and you were part of the previous top three, you have two chances in order to take back your spot, or even do better.", he smiled, while the chat spammed words like 'HYPE' or various emotes, such as the trophy.

Then, Ace took a small pause to read out donations and subscriptions, it was the least he could do, even if all the money went straight to charities. People still liked to do it to show their support, or to prove to others that they were a true fan. It was something Ace found slightly stupid, and Ace let them now pretty much every stream but people still felt like doing so. At the end of the day, it was going towards a good cause, and they still received the rewards that normally subscribing to a channel would.