Chapter 124:

They all made their way to the massive office, but before they entered, the secretary asked for their names, and then, directed them to a bigger hall, where a large number of students were present as well.

There were tables dotted around, and people sat there.

"You can sit wherever, there are no specific seats, so just be comfortable.", the secretary told them, and they obeyed.

Observing slightly wary of others, they walked as a group to one of the empty tables, where they were quickly attended and asked as to their choices for drinks and food. None of them ordered anything.

'Hopefully this won't take too long.', Ace thought, 'They probably wanted to do this as some sort of reward or something, which is why they did it now. Had they done it at another time, everyone, or almost everyone here, would have had to catch up in their spare time, which would of course be quite counterproductive. Therefore it makes sense to do it now, since all we do is pretty much catch up, open new textbooks, and teachers talk about the syllabus, nothing too important, considering that these are things everyone here knows to the t, and can be done at another time.'

As they waited, they talked quietly over various topics, from sport to studying, and it was only after 15 minutes, when everyone began to become quiet, and the Headmaster went up to the stage.

He then, began to talk, it was a pretty good speech - or at least Ace thought so, he covered the main points quickly, and addressed the elephant in the room only a few words after the initial greeting to all.

"I guess you are all wondering as to why you are here,", the Headmaster said, pausing and taking a look around the room, seemingly focusing for hours on each individual, locking eyes, letting them know what a good job they had done. "I wanted you all here, so that we may learn from one another, this past trimester, has been one of the most successful ones in the history of the school, not many come even close. We have won prizes, awards, califications... You name it, we have won it. And it is all thanks to you: you are the people that make it possible, and while you may not realise it, we know it. We know it all, and keep our notes on each individual, so that when the tome comes, we can assess how much good you have done for the school. So that when the moment comes where you need something, we can just look to your past, and pay back what we, as a school, owe you.", after this, people clapped, even though he was not finished. He let them died down, and only then continued, spouting some more words on how proud he was and so on. The important thing had been said however, this was a respite, a supposed reward for their work the past trimester, which meant that everyone here was someone that had to do with the success.

'OK, so everyone here is worth something, but I wonder, who is worth more?'

The speech finished some time later, and then the headmaster informed them that they would have to stay until 10, but then they were free to leave to wherever they wanted.

This made Ace happy, he had been feeling like trying out a new strategy game for a stream, and if he could get a head start, and begin streaming and playing earlier, then it would only bring positives.

A lot of people that lived in different time zones always asked him to begin streams earlier or later, so that he would make it easier for them to watch. He did vary the times as much as he could, and if he was able to begin streaming even earlier, then a lot of people would be happy.

They walked around the room, and even the Headmaster did the rounds, greeting and thanking students, seemingly at random, but from what Ace saw, he made beelines for specific students. He made a note of everything in the event mentally, in order to brief everyone at the Abyss Group. They all stayed low-key, remaining on the down-low, which meant that no one else had gotten in to the event.

That was fine, and it was one of the reasons as to why they had asked Ace to become a member of it. He had no plans on remaining in the shadows, which served their purpose beautifully, since he could keep them up to date easier on things that would take important resources to find out later.

He could of course interact with students for various things, and they would be more prone to talk to him rather than a complete 'no-one'.

At some point in the morning, the Headmaster also came and spoke to them. He went from person to person in the group, and thanked them all personally for their hard work and effort.

'Well that's nice, he actually seemed to remember what everyone did, unless he is being told through some earpiece, which is a totally fair tactic in my books. You cannot really expect the man to run a school and remember small details about every student.', Ace was stuck thinking random thoughts, but still noticed when an older student, a junior came up to him.

"Good morning, congratulations.", he said.

'Ahhh, here we go.', Ace thought. "Hey Luke what's up?", Ace said speaking in a calm tone.

The boy, Luke, was clearly taken aback by the fact Ace knew his name. "Uhh, yeah, look man, I just wanted to speak to you about the puzzle tournament. I know that you did great and all, but some of the people in the club..."

"I know, don't worry, I get what you are trying to say. But you should also know that its not exactly up to me. My family wants me to tame all opportunities, and the school wants the easy option. However, don't despair, if any of you beats me in a puzzle challenge, the spot will we up for grabs again. I have already spoken with the necessary parties, and we all agree. Honestly, it was only you guys left, and I was going to speak with the club today."

If the name had surprised him, this was a total bamboozle. He physically recoiled, and was so taken away that he just left after thanking him. Ace smiled, 'So naive, actually thinking you would be able to beat me.'