Chapter 158:

In the past few days of going through the forums, Ace had tried to make 'Character Profiles' for a few of the people he saw that were more active. He attempted to estimate their amount of dust, by going through the things they had liked and disliked. It was not a very accurate estimate, but that was not the main focus. He was trying to find them in real life.

He would look through their messages, responses, posts… He would note down important information, such as their position on certain topics, whilst also trying to figure out what it was that made them special. For the most part, it was not hard to find out what their strong suit was, since that would be the main focus of their replies. For example, user #315313, was someone known for his work on patterns and probability.

He published his papers and books under a different name, but with a bit of digging and a slight bit of hacking into the registries of the publisher, Ace was able to figure out his real name and where he lived.

He did this for the people that were very active, but his plan was to eventually do it for as many people as possible. He took screenshots, documented data, and had text files containing information. All of it was then memorised by Ace, and deleted. He only kept the screenshots of activity within the forum, just in case it was ever needed. Of course, it was kept within a highly cyphered folder, hidden amongst petabytes of data, almost impossible to find.

Due to his brain, he was able to memorise all the data, which meant that he did not have to write it down anywhere, making it even harder for him to get found out, since he did not leave any sort of trails or evidence, apart from a few pictures.

Now, however, he had seen a user active, this one was one of the more interesting ones. From what Ace had seen, the user dominated a few discussion groups, specifically those related to psychology, sociology, and behaviour in general. Ace had found the takes interesting, and if what he was reading was accurate, the user was most certainly talented.

During these past few years, Ace had studied more psychology and sociology than he had ever done before, mainly focusing on reading emotions from microexpressions - which he was able to do due to his abnormal perception. He furthered his knowledge on the human body, brain included, and how it acted under various stimuli. He studied the behaviour of groups - sociology, and ways to influence it. He had used the knowledge he had learnt in his endeavours.

He had had his first meeting not too long ago, and it had most certainly been interesting. They had not underestimated him - no one did anymore, but they had kept their guard slightly lower than they usually did, showing a weak spot, and Ace had pounced upon it, dominating the conversation - both verbal and non-verbal. It had resulted in a more than favourable deal for them, and now word had spread, no one would dare to keep their guard down with him ever again.

"Ok guys, let's go to the main hall, the assembly will soon start", Coach Nichols said, as they all made their way to it, walking at a brisk pace.

Everyone was pretty excited to just get it done, since they all wanted to finish the day early and relax, before the intensive classes began, well, all, except for Ace, he just wanted the day to end so this summer could begin.

***

"Good morning students, I will be brief, since I know you want to go home, and truthfully, you deserve it. This has been a wildly successful year - yet again, and I wish to congratulate every single one of you for your great academic achievements. I know that this year - like all years, was not easy, but you were able to affront it, with great results. I hope you have a great holiday, and hope to see you next year.", claps rung out through the stadium, as more and more teachers went, one after the other, giving out speeches, or telling funny stories.

The affair lasted for about an hour, before some food and drinks were given out. Now, this was the time for first and second years, and probably even third years, to build true connections. Ones that would help them in the future - not just in the school. Everyone looked forward to this, since it was an easy way to meet more people that could help you in the future.

Ace however, left straight away, he had no interest in staying there any longer, and just wanted to get on with it. Excited to get home, take a shower, eat something, and then just play games.

***

Ace laid down on the couch, a bowl of popcorn in his lap, and a can of coke next to him. 'That was a good stream, new viewership record, seems like people are finishing school all over the world.', he was now planning to relax and watch a movie, something he had not done in a while.

The rest of his summer nights, chances where he would just go to parties. He enjoyed them a lot more, now that he considered himself responsible enough to drink, he was also able to meet new people from different backgrounds. The parties that he was invited by the people at the skatepark were different to the parties he was invited by people from his school. And again, these were different to the ones he was invited by his friendly neighbourhood gang members, who respected him for not beating the absolute crap out of the newbies that jumped him once in a while.

It all came back to the first time it had happened, when Ace had been jumped by three guys, and had disarmed them from their knives, and dropped them all to the floor. However, instead of calling the police or beating them up until they could not see, he told them to call their boss. Ace met up with him, and they ended up with a tacit agreement, mostly due to the fact that he knew Ace could beat the crap out of him without any repercussions.

Since then, Ace was invited to their 'events' once in a while. One time, they even tried to rope him into a brawl without him knowing, luckily, he found out beforehand, so he told them he was unable to make it.

It was all in good fun however, Ace met people from all walks of life, and enjoyed his time with everyone - regardless of who they were.