Chapter 62:

Ace walked into the indoor gymnasium, they had been asked to get changed and come here, apparently, they were about to be offered an 'amazing' opportunity. Two gymnasts were going to come in today, and they were going to supposedly be selecting freshmen to join the gymnastics team. Ace had no idea how they had gotten two gold medalist Olympic gymnasts, but he was not complaining. He had no plans to join the team of course, but he thought it would be interesting to find out what training exercises they used, Ace would poach them and use them to train his body even further.

This was the reason why their whole year group was now waiting in the gymnasium, however, the atmosphere was amusing. Some enthusiasts were doing various feats, hoping that they would walk in and be amazed at their talent or abilities. Ace could not care less. If the teachers had not recommended him already then they were stupid, they had seen his fitness index, and had, on various occasions, seen his feats of agility or elasticity. Of course, that was not all a gymnast needed, but unlike most of the people here, they would not have to train him for about two weeks before he could do the splits.

As they came in, Ace observed their figures, they both had thin, lean physiques, and the girl was extremely flat, Ace had no idea whether it was the clothes or her body, but it was the truth. The man had corded muscle, but much like the woman, he was also extremely thin. They asked everyone to line up facing them. The students did so quickly and silently, and then they stood there for a few minutes, after the duo had examined them, they began walking up to people and tapping them on the shoulder. Ace noticed the way they walked, and was entranced by it. He had seen many different gaits, in the gym, some lumbered around, and others slithered like snakes - usually a sign of more seedy behaviour. But these two were amazing, they were fully coordinated, all their muscles moved in one motion, the control Ace had was a joke in comparison to theirs.

Not soon after, as they made their way down the line, they tapped Ace's shoulder, and after a few more minutes of tapping, the man spoke: "Those of you who have not been tapped, please leave."

A few groans and complaints sounded out, but no one tried to do so too loudly, they knew that giving these two visitors a bad impression of the school would be bad for anyone.

As the unlucky (or lucky, depending on your viewpoint on exercise) filed out, the man spoke again: "If any of you do not wish to participate, please leave now."

A few people left, but they did so quickly and with no issues. "Good, let us begin.", he then walked up closer to them, "If you were tapped on the right, come with me, if you were tapped on the left, go with her."

Ace noticed that they did not share names, it was interesting, and there was definitely a story behind it, but that was ok. Ace understood secrets.

He walked to the woman, and noticed that only a few people had actually come this way, no one stayed in the middle, but most were actually on the right with the man, only 6 people were actually with Ace.

Ace was not sure why, but Amy and Sophie had been chosen, but had been part of the group to walk out. Then, thinking about it, it made sense, today was the perfect day to go to class, they would be pretty empty, so you would have a reduced class size and a higher chance of being able to have the teacher focus on you. These two did not seem to be kidding around, so joining their club most likely meant forgoing their studies, and focusing on gymnastics, you could be great, but that was only the few people that actually had practised the sport since young. Most of the people here were either hunting for points or just did not want to go to class. Ace was hoping to steal their training secrets.

The group with the man crowded around him, and after a few seconds, walked to another area.

They then turned towards the girl, she looked at each of them in the eye and gave them a number, from 1 to 6, from left to right, Ace was 1.

"This number has nothing to do with rankings, it is a way for me to call you, I am 0.", the voice that sounded out was melodious, and yet, her accent had a light quality that told Ace she was Russian, her accent almost non-existent, however. Ace wondered how she would feel if she knew he had dealt with the Bratva. She probably did as well, in Russia, everyone important had to deal with the Bratva. The Russian mob had some many ex-police and ex-KGB executives. It was pretty much a secret service, albeit one that dealt very differently to most government security organisations.

"You have all done gymnastics, yes?", at this, most nodded, but Ace put his hand up, she nodded at him, "No. I have not done gymnastics."

She frowned her brows lightly and stared at him, "You do not get the muscles you have if you do not do some type of coordination exercise.", Ace just shook his head, he had no plans to tell anyone he fought, even if they already knew, "I just do pushups at night.", he grinned at her, and she sighed.

"Ok,", she looked at the others, "Begin with warm-up routines on the bars. We will focus on bar work today. I have to teach 1 the basics." She then looked at Ace, "Follow me", he did as requested.

They stopped at a set of bars, and Ace got really happy, part of his workout every morning was street calisthenics, this meant he was more than a bit used to swinging around in bars. This could be completely different, but at least he had a feel for swinging around, and would not be scared.

"So, what exercise do you do?", she asked again, Ace answered, "I fight.", then, he shrugged.

There was a reason why he had not said so in front of everyone, saying he fought, would make them aware that he trained, and that his ability could potentially be much higher than they expected. The walls had ears here, and telling anyone anything about you, regardless of how inconsequential it could seem, could very well play badly for you. It was a healthy dose of paranoia he had been taking every morning at Samantha's request. She insisted it would keep him alive, and Ace had no reason to disagree.

This woman, however, was not an issue, she had dealings with the mob, and with the state of things as of now with the Russian mob, they would send her a warning if necessary, all Ace had to do was ask. He was surprised that no one in the school had come to speak to him yet, but it would probably happen soon, these events (the gymnasts coming in), the cause of the blunder on their part.

She nodded, understanding, "Ok, this is how we hold the bars.", she then demonstrated how to do so by hopping up to it and grabbing it easily. It was a simple hold, but she insisted that it was important to hold the angle of the wrist perfectly so as to not break or sprain it. Ace nodded, that was normal in callisthenics, and while he always trained with straps, he could handle a practice without them. She asked him to hop up, which he did easily to her surprise, and then held the bar in a practice motion. She stared at him quizzingly, and he smiled.

Then, she showed him how to properly begin a swing and he reciprocated the motion perfectly. His body control and experience allowed him to adapt to a new style easily. This style focused more on keeping a perfect posture than the more effective swinging method of people that practised urban sports such as parkour or street workout. There, the main focus was getting momentum, as much as you could, but here, it was all about keeping a perfect posture while doing so.

She seemed surprised that he caught on with only one try, but ignored it and kept going. In two hours, Ace had learnt the basics, to bar handling and how to land perfectly on the bar and on the floor if he fell. 0 was an amazing teacher, she took his abnormal pace in stride, and taught him regardless of it. He took the chance to learn from an expert and put all his effort into it, and the results showed. He was of course nowhere near skilled enough to compare to the others, but he probably had a sturdier foundation, and that was with two hours of teaching.

*************************

The day progressed nicely, Ace was able to learn a few useful tricks, and at the end, when she showed them her training routine, Ace ensured to memorise all of it so that he could practise on his own. Then, he thanked 0 for her teaching and walked out to the amazement of the others. They were all waiting for a chance to speak with her, and he just directly left once the school day was done.

Ace was excited to get home, the update would happen tomorrow, and he was looking forward to theorycrafting on stream, and interacting with his chat after his week-long vacation.

****************************

"Well chat, I suppose you guys know all about what I did during the holidays, it was pretty crazy, but a lot of fun as well. Ace used a face-cam now, he had bought one the day he released the picture, and had set it up not long ago. Now, the chat could see him, and his boom in viewers represented his new-found fame. He could now say that he was pretty well known, he had 5 thousand consistent viewers, and doubled that number when he played music. Once the pro-circuit started, he would become more popular since he would be able to showcase the extent of his skills with the best of the best.

He had also started looking for other games to play, he had asked his chat for advice, and had already received a few recommendations, but he still had to look over them to ensure they would be fun to play.

Now, however, he was enjoying the solo queue in ranked. In his high Elo, everyone used a mike, so it made it easy to coordinate, and since everyone was relatively skilled, it was good fun. Ace did not lose a single game, but it was fun nonetheless. He could try various things, and his teammates would not vote to kick him out of anything. He attempted various off-angles, and on defence, came up with a perfect route to take in order to spawn peek when using Jager or Doc. The guns with the ACOG were extremely powerful on defence, and this route assured him at least two kills as long as they spawned in at the required locations.

His chat abused him for using such dirty strats, but he just laughed at them and did it again. It had become a fun dynamic, and he felt himself have a lot of fun. A different moment was when he gave song requests, various fan accounts tweeted a few minutes before he began, so people had a chance to tune in. He took requests for everything, every genre and style, some he did better, and some he did worse, but all in all, it was fun and his skill grew immensely. His ear had gotten to the point where if he said he had true perfect pitch, no one would dare deny him. He could recognise the tempo, sounds and instruments easily, something that came in useful when he had to play something he did not know or recognize.

Of course, most people asked for repeats, so he played those once in a while, but mostly stuck for individual and original requests. It was also fun for him to discover new songs he loved, and some he absolutely abhorred. Ace now knew that his following had grown. His fanbase was now solid enough that thousands of people would tune in to every stream, and he expected more to do so during weekends. There was a good atmosphere as a whole, and he had nothing to complain about, life was good.