Chapter 111:

The fourth day was slightly more interesting. When Ace got to the assembly, he was slightly earlier than usual, he wanted to observe some of the future people he may go up against. Once the final person came in, and the doors closed, Ace finished his headcount: there were 107 people here. Quite a cutback from the vast number of participants in the first round.

'Wel, I guess that this is where it gets real.', Ace thought, 'I wonder, are they going to change anything?'

"Good morning to all, it seems that we have quite a fewer number of people this time. Luckily for some of you, and unluckily for some others, the numbers should reduce drastically once again. This time, the challenge will be quite different, you will have one puzzle to solve, and you will only have three hours for it. If you solve it, you will go to the next round, if you do not, don't despair, you will have another opportunity to make it even further.", people perked up at this, wondering how it would all work out. Meanwhile, Ace was calculating and considering the different things they could do to put this in place, preparing for what could happen.

The man spoke for some more time, and then everyone went to their rooms, some fully sprinting, worried about the reduction in time. When Ace got there, he observed the box, to his surprise, the lock was different - or better described, non-existent. The box was a metal contraption that seemed to be fully sealed. On top of the box, there was a screen, where the message [DO NOT OPEN UNTIL TIMER BEGINS] was displayed. Ace left it, and then set up his work station. His tablet and stylus, some energy drinks in a mini-fridge, and a clear desk. Things were getting real now, and he was unsure if whatever they asked him to solve would prove a challenge.

The box let out an alarm once one minute was left until the timer began, and so Ace got ready. Once the box unlocked, he opened it calmly, only to stare at another screen: [Choose difficulty]. There were four levels, from 1 - 4, the higher the number the higher the difficulty. Of course, he chose four.

'It is not a question for me, but this is interesting, they would not do something meaningless, everyone would know that, however, are the benefits worth the risk?', this and a thousand thoughts ran through Ace's head, but they were all exterminated from his mind once the puzzle was displayed.

'Holy sh*t', Ace thought, 'I expected hard, but not this.'

The question he had been given was a real brain wrecker. From what the prompt read, it seemed to mix various types of puzzles, so Ace would truly have to work hard.

He took a deep breath, and got to solving.

The puzzle took him slightly less than 40 minutes to solve. This was insane considering what his brain was capable of. As he finished, Ace wondered as to whether someone would complete Level 4 as well.

'Some of the best solvers may have chosen puzzle 4, and then gotten absolutely smashed by the difficulty, it now makes sense. All the levels and everything. The way it will probably work is that they will do face-offs, so that some of the people that did not solve the Level 4 or 3, can still make it past the round, and bring it back up.

Ace opened another bottle of Powerade, and got on his laptop, he had used his brain enough for a day, now, he just wanted to kill some scrubs.

***

"Good morning to you all, I hope you are having a wonderful day. As I said yesterday, today was going to be a special day. Yesterday, you were asked to solve some puzzles, and depending on the difficulty and time you took, as well as how much of it you were able to solve it, from getting nothing to coming up with the correct solution, you have been ranked. The way it will work is this, you will match up with another, and both of you will be given the same puzzle, the person that solves it the fastest will win and go through to the next round. On the screen above me will be the rankings.", he signalled behind him, and instinctively, everyone looked up, curious as to who would be the top Rankers.

As expected, Ace was the Rank 1, and he had to match up against the Rank 107. He was asked to go to a separate room, where he met up with his opponent, Ace wished him luck, but instantly regretted it, seeing his haughty and uptight face.

'D*amm, this guy definitely has whole trunk up his *ss.', Ace thought with a smile, 'Should I burn it out of him? And his ego with it?'

***

"Ok, the puzzle is in the folder next to you, you cannot talk or communicate, you may begin now.", the attendant said.

Ace opened it calmly, ignoring the frenzy his opponent was going through ripping through the envelope the prompt was in.

'Ok, this is just embarrassing.', the puzzle was a Sudoku, it wasn't an easy one - Ace would grant them that, but it sure as hell was not hard, hell, it was barely intermediate.

He figured out the complete solution after a few seconds, his brain running countless simulations, and then simply filled out the missing squares in neat calligraphy.

"I am done.", Ace said, and stood up, walking out of the room, only to view the despair of the other boy, who was praying he had gotten something wrong.

As he walked out of the room, barely minutes after having first gone in, he saw a younger man speaking with the older man that usually gave the speeches in the morning. As they saw him come out, they looked at each other and smiled, before walking towards him.

'I hope they don't want anything that takes too long.', Ace thought, 'I want to go out with my friends today, they were taking me to the skatepark, it seemed like a lot of fun.'

"Congratulations Ace, you come out fast - even if we expected nothing less from you.", the older man said with a kind smile. The younger man nodded too, but kept a serious expression on his face.

"Thank you. But I assume that is not all…", Ace said, and the younger man nodded at this, while the older man widened his smile, "Quick on the uptake as well, that's good."

"We simply wanted to meet you, however, we do have a proposition, something you may find to be at least interesting. Do not worry about it now, concentrate on doing your best, but we will send some information once the tournament is done. Good luck."

"Thank you.", Ace said, and then kept on walking, excited to get to his room and grab his skateboard.

Once he got there, he also sent a message in the group chat, letting them know he was ready, and they sent him the GPS location of the park, Ace skated there, and got to the site in about 10 minutes.

It was an old warehouse, but when he entered, he was surprised. While the outside looked old and run down, the inside looked sick, just as good as the skatepark he usually went to in America. It was, however, different.

There were, of course, various obstacles, ramps, jumps… But there were also bars for calisthenics, and Ace also spotted various places to jump from.

"Wow, you guys are stacked.", Ace said to the group that approached them. It was only them in the park, since it was a school or workday for most, and it was about 10:30 in the morning.

"I know, it's really cool. A bunch of people, us included, have been working on it for a few years, some of the guys that come are working in various professions like electricians, and we even have an architect. We have all worked together for the benefit of everyone. It's free to come here, and a super cool hangout spot.", Milo said, one of the boys Ace had met.

"How high are the jumps?", Ace asked, and at seeing his smile, one of the girls shook his arm excitedly, "We don't know, and that is the fun of it, there are four different ones, and only the two guys that set them up know how high they actually are, the mystery is part of the experience."

"That's cool, so, anyone jump them?", Ace saw that there was a foam pool, so you would have a safe landing - if the vertigo did not kill you at least.

"Yep.", the same girl nodded, "Wanna try?"

"Of course, I'll warm up first, but I definitely want to do this."

***

Ace skated and did parkour tricks for a few hours. He could keep up with his newfound friends, which they seemed surprised about. Then, after a few hours, he clapped his hands, and said, "Ok, I'll jump now."

The girl walked up to him and told him what to do, he nodded.

There was a ladder that was quite easy to climb, which he did, he walked past the first and second one, and stopped for a second at the third one, but then decided to jump because why not. If he broke his neck, he would at least have done so in a cool way.

Ace stepped up to the fourth platform, the others that were looking cheered, and one of them was recording him. His name was Luca and he loved photography, which was good since the group always had cool stuff to film. He had the whole set, a drone, a GoPro, which Ace was now wearing, and a camera. He had asked Ace for permission, and promised to make a super cool montage out of it. Ace agreed, if it was truly good, he would also shout him out, and display his username. Luca had done it for the fun of it, but if Ace could help, he would.

'Well, this is cool.', Ace thought. He was taller than he had ever been. He knew the way he had to land for it to be safe, but really wanted to at least do a flip before that.

He breathed out, and after being signalled that it was all ready, he jumped.

As the breath hit his face, he decided to go for a triple cork. He could honestly hit anything from that height, but the difficulty would be to then land as intended. He did.

Ace had thought he would have been disoriented, but he had not been, he was fully aware, and fully in control, a miracle of his body he supposed.

As he landed and got out of the foam pit, the others cheered, and Ace smiled, whooping along as well. His adrenaline was going crazy, and he did a double front flip as soon as he hit the floor. He was grinning like a madman, but so was everyone else.

***

'Ok, that is actually sick.', Ace thought, he was looking at the footage Luca had sent him, it was morning the next day, and it seemed like he had stayed up the whole day. It was not a long montage, since it was only about the jump, but every second of it was pure, undaunted quality.

He uploaded it to his I-Gram, giving props to Luca, and also dropping his handle both in the description and the video itself.

Ace had already added all the friends he had made in the trip as Friends on his social media, so there was no confusion as to who was the real one, especially since Ace had given him permission to upload the video as well.

He did not have a lot, only two or three, including Ace's, but all of it was quality, each one showcased a member of the group, and from what he found out, he planned on making one about each person. Showcasing their skills and talents, Ace thought it was a super cool idea, and gave him props for it in a private message. He did not respond, probably knocked out from the all-nighter he had pulled after a day of skating and running around.