Chapter 51:

"So, how did it feel? Playing with all these famous streamers?"

"Well, at the start, I was pretty nervous, I mean, I was by far the least known out of all of us, but they were super nice. They helped me acclimate, and I would be lying if I said they had not helped me with my channel. All in all, it has been an amazing experience, and I thank you and them for it.", Ace was now being interviewed by one of the representatives from the organisation that had set up the match, she seemed to be a kind woman, relatively kind, maybe mid to late 20s if the voice was any indication.

"We can only thank you, I mean, you made our ratings go way up", she said this with a laugh, "What was that anyway? You pulled off some insane plays, and from what I have seen on your stream and highlights, it seems to be a daily occurrence for you, how are you so good?"

Ace laughed, "Would you believe me if I told you that I have no idea? I just play to have fun, and if something works out, then it does."

She laughed and continued on with another question, the idea of the interview was not to push the interviewee, but more so that people would know more about them, this meant that boundaries existed, and she would not go over them.

"So, are you planning on releasing your age or doing a face reveal?", she asked, truly curious this time

Ace smiled, he had seen this coming from a mile away, "Have you seen my Twitter? All you have to do is get some likes the question."

Ace felt her smile, "Ok then, I suppose that this will give some clarification, it was nice talking with you, have a wonderful day.", then she said goodbye and left the call

'If only you knew I had school tomorrow…

Ace thought it would have been a good idea to attend, but truthfully, with the monkey circus it had become, it was grating on his nerves.

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"So, what is your answer?"

"I will do it, give me more info, and I will take the points once the message is delivered"

Zach grinned, he would get a lot of merits for this, regardless of what it had cost, "Ok, I have the first message to deliver, inform her that we want a meeting, she has all control over it, location, date etc, We just want a meeting."

"Ok I will get it done, I will send you the answer as soon as I get it.", Ace would speak with his grandmother as soon as he got out of the room, she would answer and have a decision ready within minutes, but they would wait some time to give a response, build up some nervousness, which would allow Ace and his Grandmother to broker for a better deal. Plus, they would most likely have to take any deal since the future of their enterprise was in their grandmother's hands. As of now, it could be said that Samantha was one of the most powerful people on the planet, not in the top 20, but easily within the top 3. She would have most of the criminal organisation in the palm of her hand, and no one could do anything about it, it would spell disaster if they did.

After all, would the best way to curry favour with her be to get rid of an offending party for her? All her bases were covered, and no one could do anything about it.

Ace went to class, as always he sat back to watch some downloaded gameplay, but this time, the teacher came up to him. Everyone was quiet, wondering if he would try to do anything.

"Ace", he looked up, "I have some puzzles for you that I would like you to solve, I think they will be interesting."

Ace quirked his eyebrow at this but nodded, the teacher handed him some sheets of paper and Ace went to solve them. They consisted of various puzzles, some were equations, others were shapes and others were mathematical word problems. Most of them Ace could solve, but a few of them Ace had to truly try in order to finish. All in all, Ace solved every single one, and while the class was doing some exercises and no one was speaking to the teacher, Ace went to his desk and handed the sheets with the solutions.

The teacher frowned his eyebrows, but he started leafing through them, as he saw the solutions, he widened his eyes, and after looking at the last one, he said: "Come see me during your lunch break."

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Most people were doing their work, but a few people were not, one of them was Sophie, she was looking at the interaction between Ace and the teacher and got curious, she would ask Ace about it. She thought about him, she and Amy had discussed this, he seemed impervious to any attempts of charm, almost as if he were a stone wall. However, he was not stupid - far from it, he knew what they were trying to do, so that could be one of the things that stopped him from being affected.

They had wondered about him, he seemed ridiculously smart, and he was not only smart, but he was also extremely knowledgeable, he would not get away with his attitude in class if he wasn't. He had most likely aced every single test they had gotten until now, and probably without an issue. Even she and Amy had been struggling to get above 90%. The tests had been getting harder and harder, and she had to spend more and more time studying.

She wanted to find out more about him, well, they both did. She would host something this weekend, hopefully, he would come, and she could even invite her brother, he would probably be able to figure him out.

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"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"What do you know about the Master of Puzzles prize?"

"Uhh, a prize awarded to the person that can solve the hardest puzzle within a specific amount of time?"

"Well, they have just informed some teachers around the world that they will be hosting a Puzzle Master Junior and -"

"You would like me to participate?"

"Yes"

"No"

"You will be given full permission around the school, and a more than adequate amount of points."

"I'm in"

"It will be hosted in Vienna, don't ask me why, it will simply be there. It will be hosted during a period of a whole week."

"When?"

"It will be hosted in about 5 months, so you still have time to prepare - "

"Hell no. If I am doing this I am not going to attend any classes or things like it then I am not participating. If you want, give me some puzzles to solve every week, and I will give them to you at the end of the week, if I have any questions, I will come to ask for help.", the last bit was mostly for the teacher, he was confident in solving anything they threw at him, so this way he would still have some free time. He could do the puzzles in his class, and he would not even care. The only reason he was doing this was to go to Vienna anyways, he could visit the city, it would be fun. He was fluent in German so he would not have any problems.

Looking at it, the coming months, he was swamped, the convention, the Knowledge Tournament, the Puzzle Tournament, and the relations between his grandmother and the criminal organisations, all the while, trying to play games and going to the gym once in a while to fight some guys. Last time he had gone, he had kicked the ass of two guys one after the other, and they were not the best the gym had to offer, but they were not far from it either. As he got used to being in combat situations and his body improved, soon, he would not have a match in the gym, after that, he would have to look for new opponents, maybe even go to a tournament or something.