Chapter 48:

"Hello Ace, I hope you are doing well", Elizabeth was sitting in a comfortable chair, staring at him, in a clear try to demoralise him, however, in this occasion, the key word was 'try'. Ace smiled lightly and sat down, he was already getting a bad feeling from this.

"I will make this easy, you know who we are, and you know the power we hold. If you do not cater to our demands, we will ensure to destroy your budding career - congratulations for 100 thousand followers on your streaming channel actually.", she smiled in a predatory manner.

Ace kept his poker face, but inside, he was laughing maniacally, they were trying to blackmail him. Did they really think it would work on him?

Ace motioned with his hand and said: "Go on."

Elizabeth had a glint in her eye, she thought she had caught the prey, "Well, you must ensure that we get multiple meetings with your grandmother, and of course, you must tell her that we are taking care of you in school. And while you are at it, you might as well give me your points, it is not like you will need them anyways."

'Seriously?', Ace thought, 'They genuinely must believe in their media power if they are so confident that I will cave to their demands and will not take retaliation. Oh well, unluckily for them, I don't care.'

Ace stood up and left the room, not even looking back once.

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Elizabeth was now in his bad books, and he would need to get revenge. One thing was attempting a threat, but another was an outright try to blackmail him. As he got out of the room, he shot a quick message to his grandmother and went to class.

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As he got home, he went on his laptop, he was unsure if it was Epsilon themselves that wanted to blackmail him, in fact, he doubted it, Elizabeth most likely did not understand how valuable this really was. That was ok though, Ace was going to take his revenge.

He went into some of the more 'dubious' web boards and forums, using various accounts to ensure that people knew he was looking for information on Elizabeth. This was simply a decoy, most people with a more advanced skill set would probably detect the separate accounts in one device.

After this, he picked up his laptop and simply threw it in the garbage chute, where it would be burnt. He entered his computer room, and sat down. This was another room he had set up, his gaming room was set up for comfort and streaming, but this one was made for pure 'information gathering'.

He went through the login process, fingerprint, retina and voice inputs needed, and then inputting a 65 character password, it was actually a famous haiku he liked, but the high complexity made it harder to crack. After all the processes were done, he went into one of the most relevant information boards and brought up any information on Epsilon and the higher-ups, there was not much, but enough to see that Elizabeth was only mentioned in passing as a relatively talented recruit with some potential, they would not care too much.

He then went on the most insipid of forums and began spreading information, he leaked a voice file (faked obviously), of Elizabeth threatening to commit treason. He combined this with various fake messages and another file, and his job was done.

Ace had been working on this for the entire afternoon. His goal was to destroy her future in the organisation, even as a negotiator. While most of it would be discerned as fake, Ace knew that the lack of proof to prove otherwise would cause some problems. Epsilon would attempt to cover it somewhat, but Ace had already contacted some friends, and they were already spreading misinformation in their own networks. This would create a bubble, where the most important people would know it was fake, but enough 'regulars' hackers would think of it as real, and would try to find information on her.

This would cause an influx of attempts to breach her security, Ace did not think it would happen, but if it did, they would contact him through the requests for information he had already posted.

It was a basic plan, but Ace made sure to abuse the curiosity and the paranoia of the hackers as a way to destroy her reputation. By tomorrow, the fake information would be everywhere, and Epsilon would not be able to do anything about it.

They had a large control over the media, but when it came to the dark web, it would be harder for them to control as no one used the same means of protection, this meant that they needed dedicated attacks every time to censor the spread of information. And unluckily for Elizabeth, Epsilon did not care about her enough to dedicate such a task - or at least that was what Ace was hoping for.

If it did not work, Ace would resort to a more direct attack, he would hack into her personal files and leak every single thing, it would be a massacre.

No matter which plan he went with, it was most likely that Epsilon would cut ties with her, she most likely did not know much, and it would be a lot cheaper to do so, both in reputation and finance.

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The next day, Elizabeth did not come to school, and in the darkest of hallways, people discussed how someone had gotten rid of the junior Rank 1 Homeroom President.

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"So, was it you?"

"Yes"

"Well done, it was carried out perfectly, the people that matter know who it was, but more importantly, why it was. They will take you seriously right now, she was not their best, but she was high up enough that getting rid of her should have taken a lot more."

"I understand"

"However, do not let your guard down. Are security measures in place?"

"Yes do not worry, hidden in plain sight. For anyone that checks, all I did yesterday was access google to do some homework and then play games."

"Good, well done"

"Thank you, Samantha"

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"Yes! Let's go Ace!", the voice resounded out in his headset, Ace was training with his team, preparing for the 5v5 that would happen in only a few days.

Ace had just won them a round, and with that, another game. They were now all the highest rank in the game and were improving their skills. They all wanted the opportunity if bragging rights. According to their respective chats, they had this game in the bag, but Ace was not so sure, the other team would have good communication as well, and they had all been playing FPS games for a long time, so their aims would not be subpar. This meant that Ace would have to play better than he had ever played before if he wanted to win.

They were not doing this for money, it was all for a charity, but the popularity that would come with a win would be astounding. As of now, he was one of the least known streamers out of the ten, so any popularity he gained would be more than welcome.

He was deeply looking forward to this, he had decided that after the tournament, once the hype had calmed down a bit, he would release a picture of his face along with his age. It would cause a big outcry, but Ace was expecting a large boom in popularity from specific demographics he had not had any mention with.

He did not really want to, but he assumed that modelling offers would come, but to the difference of most, he would not start with less known brands. As soon as they realised who his family was, most famous luxury brands would ask him to do shoots. The opportunity to get closer to his grandmother would be nice, and the fact that Ace could actually pass off for a model in the eyes of the public would only make it better. Ace knew he would receive some backlash for this, but as soon as people began seeing that any money he made would go directly to charities, he would hopefully get in their good books.

He had no plans to make his own money, it was more important for him to grow in popularity and since PR was important, he would be happy giving away large amounts of money. It is not like he needed it anyways.