Chapter 23:

"Please sit down right away, and do not take anything out, only use the pen provided. As soon as the timer starts, you may begin."

Ace sat down on his usual seat next to the window and filled out the few lines where he was supposed to write his name, class… He leafed throughout the various papers and chose to begin with maths, they would have the whole day to finish tests for maths, all sciences, literature, history, geography and any foreign languages they had selected. Ace had selected both Spanish and French, easy for him considering he already knew how to speak, write and read them fluently. He only chose two as picking up any more would cut into his game time, which for him was a big no-no.

He began the paper, it was all extremely basic for him and he had finished the paper in 15 minutes, it only took him another 5 to finish answering the bonus senior-level question that had been set out for them as well. He placed the paper on the corner of his desk and picked up the next one. All in all, the tests had taken him less than three hours to complete, mostly because in the essay based subjects he had shown off as much knowledge as he could, he knew it would give him extra points. Once he finished checking all his answers, he picked up his bag and the tests, put them on the desk, and walked out of the room.

He had some idea of what would happen, but he had not imagined the true scale of it. The teacher was amazed, theoretically, students should struggle to finish half of those tests for the whole day, in Rank 1 homeroom, they were expected to finish them all but only get about 70% of it correct. However, Ace seemed to have finished the whole thing in about three hours, and she was willing to bet that he had gotten more than 70%. Depending on his score, she would have to inform the board on this, and various senior students should also be informed depending on his results…

Ace was watching a Rainbow 6 stream in the library when he received a notification on his Noxia that he had to go to Hallway 1, Room 273 after school. He internally shrugged at this, curious as to how many rooms the school truly had. He assumed this had to do with his tests, so he was not too worried about it, he went back to watching the game.

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"So, I assume you know why you are here?"Miss Judge asked him, she sat at a large round table with 7 other people. Ace was standing at the head of the table, but with the high chairs and imposing shoulder guards they had, the people seemed twice as big as he did, intended of course. However, Ace was not worried, he had had 1 to 1 debates with his grandmother and all these people put together did not have half the power or imposing demeanour she had. Ace relaxed, an easy grin on his face that he knew would put all of them off.

"Of course, you are wondering if my grandmother granted me access to the test papers beforehand. I assure you, she did not, it was the first time I saw them, I assure you, it was all my knowledge, and if you have any doubts about the extent of it, ask Leilah.", Ace said while gesturing to the centre-right of the table, where a beautiful, smiling young woman was sitting. While all the others had a serious face on, Leilah was just smiling, excited for what was to come.

"How dare you! You must address her with the correct honorifics, or I assure you, I will pummel you to the floor!" This came from a tan-skinned young man, he had dark hair and eyes and had a brawny look to him.

Ace laughed lightly at the challenge, and painting a predatory smile on his face, he said: "I dare you."

The boy looked perplexed at this, he had not been expecting Ace to challenge him. He was about to respond when another boy interrupted, "Enough. We should be happy with this outcome. If Ace truly did not cheat and these were his actual scores, I think we should be moving on to the next part of the discussion." The boy that spoke was brown-haired, tall, and was sporting glasses that made his green eyes stand out. Ace believed he was most likely higher Ranked than the boy that first challenged him, Ace should be careful with this one, not only could he be highly Ranked, he also seemed to have some actual social skills.

"So, I assume you would like me to join some type of club or team that will compete against others?" There was no reason for so many seniors to be here anyway, if they wanted to congratulate him, they would have done so in front of the whole school once all the results were out.

The boy with the glasses smiled at this, "Correct assumption, we are all part of the Competition Club, in charge of all competitions in which the school participates in, we are also in charge of putting together all teams that will compete."

"And you are their Handler I presume?"Ace gestured lightly at another woman that was sat opposite Leilah, she was most likely a subordinate of the members of the board that was put in place to ensure the Competition Club Committee did not make any grave mistakes.

At this, the woman merely nodded and smiled but did not speak. The boy continued speaking, "So, we would like to extend our invitation to join the team for the Inter-Academy Knowledge Tournament. We would like you to compete in both the Global and Freshman parts of the tournament. We believe that you have the potential to rank well."

"And the other reason is?"Ace asked, the Freshman he understood but the Global he did not, however, he was quickly getting the picture of the true nature of this meeting.

"What do you mean?" The boy asked with a quizzical smile on his face, Ace also noticed that all the rest of the people in the table except for Leilah and their Handler frowned, instead they had even larger smiles on their faces.

"Well, obviously, the freshman portion I understand but the Global I do not. I know for a fact that only limited places are available for each Academy, therefore, the only reason why you would choose to put me there is because you believe that I am that good, which you obviously do not. Or that you want me to get experience participating now so that I may do so seriously from next year.", the boy looked at him slightly wide-eyed, but some of the kids with less control were staring at him wide-mouthed, the boy coughed lightly, and they quickly realised their mistakes and reset their facades.

The boy stared at him with wonder in his eyes and began to speak, "Yes, you are right, with the members of our team, we are still confident in gaining the top spots for the Global portion regardless, therefore, we are able to give you a chance to groom you from a very early position, much earlier than other people your age. We believe that you will do good next year, and after then, you should be able to get the top spot in any category you participate in, therefore, if our predictions are correct, it will be a very worthwhile bet."

"So what are you offering? I mean, from my position, all I can see is a lot of work with no rewards.", at this, the same boy as before slammed his hands on the desk, "How dare you! This is a great honour, do you know that others would kill to be in your place?"The boy seemed infuriated which made Ace smile, he would play with him for a bit and make them lose even more face, they were a collective after all, which would allow him to drive up the rewards even more.

"I am sure they would, and yet, the person here is me.", the boy with glasses seemed to notice what was going on and attempted to appease the other one, but he cringed visibly when the other slammed his hands on the desk again. Seemingly infuriated with Ace's spiel and his mocking grin. "You will! Treat us with respect!"

"Why should I, you are clearly the ones that want me, unless you make it worth my time, I am leaving."

The boy was about to smash the desk for the fourth time, but this time, Glasses, as Ace had decided to now call him, stopped him in time. "Well, what about doing it for the pride of your school?", a weak attempt at negotiating. With the previous spectacle, they would now be forced to give him something, this was just said to try to gain some time while he thought about what he could give Ace, pretty basic stuff if Ace said so himself.

"I am sure that is why you do things, but I don't care, what are you offering?"

"We can offer you 10 points as a baseline, and more depending on how you rank."

"Multiply that by five and you got a deal."

"By two."

"By seven"

"What? By three, and that is our final offer"

"Ok then, bye I wish you a nice day."

"Wait, wait! Ok, we will give you 70 points and more depending on your rank."

"Too late, ten times the first offer or no deal."

"Ok, ok! But you must attend the preparatory classes."

"I agree with the deal but know I will probably not attend most of those, I do things for my grandmother after all.", that was total bull, but Glasses did not know it, and he would not dare to check.

"Ok deal", he extended his hand and said," I am Thomas."

Ace took the hand and spoke, "Ace".