Chapter 47:

After the tournament, Ace made sure to post all relevant clips, and then had some food, relaxing for the rest of the day.

The next day, he woke up refreshed and after going through his morning routine, he mentally prepared for his meeting with Zach. He had spoken to his grandmother, and she had let him do as he pleased, so he was planning on something that if it worked, would be absolutely crazy.

To begin with, he would agree to speak on their behalf to his grandmother, but every message would cost them 100 points. His goal was that by the end of this year, he would not have to worry about anyone taking Rank 1 away from him. If they had any other requests, the number of points would be discussed. Ace also wanted information on Zach's organisation, and was planning on pretty much blackmailing them for it.

If they did not give it, he would make sure to also work with the cartels, the Russians, and pretty much everyone else. For now, Ace did not fear for his life, they needed him and they needed their grandmother, the person that first got their operations on the island, would be way ahead of their competitors in the following years. This meant that Ace could play with them a little, but he had to be careful, they would not take too big of a slight. At most, he could throw around some insults, but he assumed Zach was pretty high up so he would see the benefits of partnering with Ace instantly.

As he was driven around the city to school, he thought of his following, he would probably do a face reveal soon, once this influx ended, he would post his first picture on I-Gram, he had slightly less than 70 thousand followers, but he expected it to grow, same with his 250k on U-Tube and his 150k followers on the streaming site, he had not streamed in a long time but he assumed that the numbers would be ridiculous now, he was expecting about 10 - 15k people to watch.

Ace wondered if he should post his age, if he posted a picture of him, they would assume he was about 17 years old, possibly even older. Would that be good, or would it be better to say he was 14? [A/N: Thoughts guys, I have no idea.]

As he arrived at school, he signed in at homeroom and went straight to Zach's office as requested, however, halfway to the office, someone stopped him. His mind ran through a list of names until he came up with it, he was Thaddeus, he was the big guy that followed the blonde Rank 1 president of the Juniors.

"Good morning Thaddeus, what can I do for you today?", Ace asked, most people would probably disrespect him, but this guy was big, his parents were both in the construction business, and Thad himself was more than a bit of a fighter, he was not the heir to the company, his older sister was, but he would most likely be made head of security. He looked dumb but he was more than a bit shrewd.

He seemed surprised Ace knew his name but then had a twinkle in his eyes, "My president would like to see you when possible, the earlier the better."

"Ok, tell her I will meet her at about 10, I have another meeting now.", he let out another piece of information, it would make the girl - Elizabeth, wonder as to who he was meeting and why.

Ace then smiled and walked on, reaching the entrance to the office and knocking, he was allowed in within seconds.

Zach was standing up now, basic manoeuvre, he shook hands with Ace and asked for him to sit down, Ace allowed it - 'let him try and intimidate me' Ace thought, smiling at his antics.

"I assume you have considered your offer?", Zach tried to intimidate him, hands on the desk, making himself look bigger than he was, Ace smirked internally, he was going to go in guns blazing.

"Hmm, I have, but I do wonder, what does Lucrum want to do in The Tower? Of course, now that you are involved in a bit of everything, when it gets to your level, who isn't, but my true question is this, what can you really offer me, and what can you offer my grandmother?", Ace relaxed in his chair, displaying his calmness and his lack of worry.

Zach, however, was clearly tense, he had not expected Ace to know about this, he was promised his grandmother had not interfered of course, and it was impossible for him to build connections so fast. His mind ran through ideas, but the truth was that he was cornered, he either conceded or he gave up on a deal, and the second one had a cost he was unwilling to pay, at the very least, his tongue and an eye.

"Oh yeah, before you say anything, I have a meeting with Epsilon later on in the day, so better make it convincing.", Epsilon was Elizabeth's Sponsor, so he assumed she was meeting him on their behalf.

Zach squinted his eyes at this and muttered: "She dares…"

Zach thought and came up with something, "Ok, I see, I believe I have a solution, I will now make a call and see how much information I can give you, once I know that, I will transfer some files to you, once you will have half an hour to read through them and memorise them, once the 30 minutes are over, those files will auto delete. I believe that we should continue our discussions after that."

Ace smiled, he had made Zach play his trump card, Ace would now get all the information he wanted, and he did not even have to agree to a deal with him. Once he knew what he was dealing with, he could even alter his plan somewhat if necessary.

As he was led to a separate room where he was offered food and drinks, Ace thought over what he knew about Epsilon. They were essentially the underworld information brokers, they managed and sold information on anyone, but their prices rose exponentially as the information got more valuable. Ace assumed that they wanted to set up an office in The Tower, but he wondered whether Samantha would allow it. It would be very profitable but giving them an office would make their information gathering attempts a lot stronger, so most organisations would not be too happy.

They most likely would want some sort of protection and a shop they could use as cover. The question was, what could they offer? Money was nothing once you got to certain levels, at that point, people did it for control and power. So their main card would be information.

Ace thought over this, he knew that his grandmother's information network did not have an equal, she had people everywhere. Was it good enough to rival Epsilon's? Ace assumed not, but it would still be able to get a few things on their operations in The Tower. Lots to think about…

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Zach sighed as he sent the files, he had been played and they now had pretty much nothing to offer Ace, of course, they could give him points, but at what point would he just refuse them? He thought over the conversation he had just had, they had told him to do all the possible things to get Ace on their side.

His failure was not good, but the gift Ace had given him made up for it, Lucrum had assumed Epsilon had made a move, but the fact that they had been first was good news, and it was that that had saved his hide. For now, he would just have to follow Ace's requests and his superior's orders.

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Ace read over the files and memorised them, he would have to think about them later, and while the hackers were off the grid, for now, he would send them this the next time they talked, they would want to know and it was this way in which Ace was going to pay them back. Plus, with this, they would want to 'research' even more on Lucrum.

For now, however, he would have to prepare for his meeting with Elizabeth.