Chapter 182:

They all sat down, and while the four adults - Ace's sister included launched themselves into an active conversation, it was only after thirty eternal seconds of staring at each other, that the children began to talk.

He nodded and smiled at them, "We have not been introduced properly, my name is Ace, and she", he pointed at Samantha with a light grin, "is my grandma."

The other two smiled, and a slightly nervous teenager smiled at him, "Pleased to meet you", she said courteously, "I am Daphne, and this is Don, not much point in introducing ourselves further I guess, you have certainly researched us, and well...It would be hard not to know you.", Ace chuckled lightly, "I guess, but I do have to say this, you are both extremely talented, each in their own fields, in fact, I was wondering if it would be ok for me to tag you in any future posts I have wearing your clothes?", he asked Daphne, of which she nodded, her eyes brightening visibly.

"And as for you,���, Ace said, his tone noticeably impressed, "Your work is simply exceptional, some of your hypotheses I have some queries about, but for the most part, it is all brilliant stuff."

He nodded in turn, thanking him, "I do appreciate that, I do have to say, that we have made some recent advancements, and so certain hypotheses and papers will most likely be outdated. No problem though - our new findings are in the process of being verified by a council of experts as we speak, and should be out by the end of summer."

"I certainly look forward to reading about it.", and then, noticing that Daphne was getting slightly irritated at their two-way conversation, he switched the subject, "So, do you guys like travelling?"

Daphne perked up - as Ace knew she would, he had researched them both thoroughly, and knew they both loved to travel, and luckily, their respective interests - fashion and scientific research, had allowed them to do so in excess, so Ace expected no shortage of stories and experiences they could all bond over.

***

"Well, they were certainly honest", Ace said, as he walked back home with his grandmother and sister, they were walking back to the hotel, discussing the lunch they had just had. "Yes,", his sister nodded, "Your friends both seemed genuine, even if slightly idealistic…"

Samantha shook her head, "I see why you would think that, but they are able to separate their dreams from reality, otherwise, I assure you they would not have made it this far in the business world.", she explained to them.

"Fair enough I guess."

***

"Anything new?", Ace asked Alfred, "No sir, It has all remained peaceful for now, everything seems to just be silent. However, I do have to say this, while I am unable to keep an exact track of the forums, due to the restrictions put in place, I can say this, the number of inputs it has received in the past few hours has been outstanding, much more than usual, even in peak times."

"Thank you, Alfred."

"Of course sir."

'This can only mean one thing, something happened, and plus, this may have just given me more solid proof towards my reasoning, she would not stop checking her phone during lunch, the picture being drawn gets clearer and clearer.'

Ace sat down in front of his monitor and logged on to the forum, and instantly, he was bombarded with mentions from a multitude of users.

Since he was first allowed on the platform, he had been involved in a wide array of discussions, and had made friends with a huge amount of users. He read through the mentions, most of which linked him to a video, he clicked on it, and as he watched it, he sighed.

'Well, at the end of the day, the people in here are all young, but still, for this to happen… It will have repercussions, I am sure my grandmother was already notified, but it should not affect her too much, hopefully.'

The video was a s*x tape, yep, even the most genius of youngsters f*cked up once in a while, and it had been leaked, the problem was not that, however, it was not the first time one had leaked, and would certainly not be it either. The problem with this one were the people involved, it depicted a boy and a girl, and the irony of it all amused Ace. They each belonged to 'warring' families, which had deep feuds with each other. They both originated from Belgium, but one from the French half, while the other had deep roots on the flemish lands. A video like this would cause particular strife within the families, and especially Europe, due to the power the two families had over Belgium, Brussels, and therefore the European Union.

It could potentially escalate to a serious matter, but in fact, Ace hoped they would use the opportunity to bury the hatchet, and even join the two families in marriage, now, that would make them a serious superpower, even some of the bigger companies would have to respect them.

For now, Ace just sat on the issue, giving the calm and rational take people had come to know him for, and just waited to see how things would play it. This could very easily escalate to a conflict, people saw that, and for certain individuals, it was in their best interests to cause unrest, in hopes of a disagreement occurring, so that they could profit off the chaos, as they had become used to doing. This meant that there were a group of people that were doing their darndest to escalate the issue.

In fact, Ace would bet that they had gotten multiple proxies to do it for them. For example, Ace had received an offer within minutes of this happening, of someone who was willing to owe him a favour if he joined in the 'cyber-rioting' that was occurring.

Ace, of course, denied the offer, but also made clear he had no intentions of leaking the user's attempts to bribe people to do their bidding.

In this way, regardless of what happened, Ace would come out ahead, and what was - at least for him, more important: he would not forfeit his integrity. This meant that not only would he be comfortable with his actions, but the users that at some point or another found out about the request - as Ace was sure some would, would also take his reputation and opinions at a higher value, meaning his word would now hold more power, some obviously indispensable in a forum. Becoming a more respected user was pretty much the goal of everyone within that platform, save for a few outliers.

***

Ace spent the coming hours just relaxing while playing games, but also keeping a watchful eye over the forums, expecting the various disagreements and comments that were now ever-present. It seemed that it had been blown out of proportion, once someone had unveiled an old clip, of the girl declaring her eternal love for her boyfriend, someone who was supposedly still in a relationship with her.

'This is just the internet, maybe the people here have a few more neurons than the average person, but at the end of the day, they were all teenagers and young adults that just wanted to watch the world burn with front row seats, and if they could be the ones to fuel the destruction - then even better.'