147 Chapter 147:

Ace was in and out of the door within half an hour, a quick shower and a change of clothes, then, he grabbed his board and his backpack, and walked out the front entrance of the hotel.

'Should I go to the arcade? It's better than a casino, I can gamble money without being 18, even if age would not really cause a problem if they know who I am…', Ace thought, before making the decision to go farm some tickets.

He went into the arcade, saying hello to the guards he recognised from his past times coming there. 'Ok, so the best way to get a large number of tickets is to just play the rhythm game. Play in the hardest mode, and last as long as possible.', then, he got an idea, 'Well, shit, I can just stream.'

He had the bright idea, and left the arcade quickly, skating to an electronics store nearby. In the meantime, he checked for good cameras on the internet. It was a good idea, and he could stream himself skateboarding or just vlogging. It would be an interesting way for people to know more about him, and his lifestyle - not that he wanted to show it, but it would probably help his growth quite a bit.

He entered the shop, and quickly bought his selected camera, before going back to the arcade, and sat down on the lounge area. He took out his laptop from his backpack, and set up the camera, so that the feed would be directly sent to his phone, where it would be uploaded.

Once everything was set up, he went up to the reception, and after speaking for a short while, the manager came. They knew who he was, so the moment he had told them he had a question, they had instantly called for the manager.

"Good morning sir, I was just wondering if I was able to record myself inside the arcade?", Ace asked.

The man frowned slightly, and then thought over it for a few seconds, "Of course, sir, there would be no problem, although I do ask that you do not record past the casino section of the arcade, for security purposes. I shall notify the guards, and they will ensure your camera and gear are not stolen, while you are playing."

"Thank you very much, I will remember this favour.", the man let out a bright smile at this, "No need, no need, I am here to please."

***

"Surprise surprise guys.", Ace said, as a large number of people began to trickle in, "Before we begin, do know that since I am outside, I will not be able to read any messages, so there is no need to sub or donate to charity, if you wish for your message to be read.", Ace said, clarifying the situation so there would not be any bad blood.

Then, he explained what it was he would be doing, and then asked his chat to choose a game to begin with. He had created a poll with his laptop before, which had a list of games, and every time he chose one, it would reset.

"Ok, so, Street Fighter it is. There should be one around here…", Ace said as he walked, "Ahh, there you go. Ok, let's set this up, and we will go.", He set it up, and adjusted it for a few seconds until he could see on his phone that it was all good.

Then, he loaded into a new online game, and chose Ryu, "OK, chat, let's just go with the basics for now. To be fair, I have played this before, so do not be too surprised if I do win.", Ace said, as he was loaded into a match.

"Now chat, let's begin.", he said, as the countdown went to 0.

Ace ended up feeling bad for the person to the other side of the console. Ace had just won 10 tickets, in a best of three, by winning two rounds one after the other without taking any damage.

"Hehe chat, we win those, ok, the new straw poll should be up, so make sure to choose the game you want me to play!", he said excitedly, happy this spur-of-the-moment idea was working so well.

"Rhythm game? Ok, let's just pick the first one I see. Ok! This one it is.", Ace said, as he walked to the closer machine.

The machine had a large screen, and buttons, but also had sensors on the floor, so he had to use his feet along with his hands. It required a large amount of individual coordination, especially on the harder songs.

"Ok, I have never really played this, so let us start with the tutorial song, and then we will figure out which I chose.", Ace said, as he set everything up, and selected the tutorial.

It ran him through the mechanics, it was quite easy - on paper only though, there were taps, but there were also holds, where he had to keep the button or sensor pressed.

"Ok, let's start with a medium difficulty song?", Ace said, as he selected a song with medium difficulty.

Ace was unable to see the chat, but if he had, all he would have been able to read would be messages of: [RIP]. People had seen or played this before, and knew exactly how hard a 'medium' song was.

As the beat started, Ace began to glide and tap the buttons softly, he looked to be within his own world, and his chat was in awe. He said he was a new player, but here he was, getting perfect timing on every single hit or hold.

He went through the song, ending up with a 100% hit rate, and a beaming smile on his face. "D*mm, that was a lot harder than I expected.", he said, even if he was not even sweating.

[FRAUD FRAUD FRAUD]

Messages such as this one were frequent, and while Ace was unable to read the chat, he could somewhat guess what people were thinking, "Ok, I liked this one, let's play again, but this time, you guys chose a song. In the chat, write a number from 1 to 100, and the number with the most votes will be the song I do.", Ace said, and after a minute or so, an alert came up on his phone, "Ok, number 63 it is.", he pressed the buttons quickly to select the song, and stopped once he reached the song, "Wow, this one is even harder.", and that was true, the other song had a rating of 4, while this one was rated 5. "Ok, let's begin, you can see I am not doing anything, dodgy guys."

The song began, but this one was noticeably faster, and Ace had to press a lot more buttons this time. 'This one is noticeably harder, I wonder how hard the hardest song is? I should try it whenever I am not streaming.', Ace thought, as he glided like a phantom all over the sensors, his hands moving like pistons, except for whatever reason, and regardless of their speed, he hit the buttons lightly, and never made noticeable noises with his feet. He did not stomp the sensors or smash the buttons, which was surprising, since once the song went so fast, it got extremely hard to control your strength.

He played the song in its complete duration, to his chat's surprise, and got a perfect score again.

All the viewers were bewildered, even the ones who had not seen anyone play this game before, had made research once they had seen the outpour of messages. And even if you had not, they had seen the tutorial, so knew the premise of the game, and were able to see the speed at which each button and sensor was pressed. They could barely register the information on the screen, before another had to be pressed. It was also impossible to blame the camera quality, since it was recording at the best quality possible, and the lighting was also quite good, since the lights in the arcade were concentrated on each machine.

All this made for a spectacular show, and Ace was in the arcade for hours, only quitting the stream and leaving once it was time for lunch.