Chapter 164:

They were at the warehouse pretty much up to 4 am, and the only reason they did not stay there for longer is that they wanted to get some good sleep. The cliff would only be available from 3 pm, but they had to make sure they were all well-rested, so that there would be a reduced risk of any problems occurring.

Ace woke up in someone else's bed, and noticed the silhouette and long, reddish-brown hair of the girl he had had some drinks with last night. As it all came back to him, he grinned to himself, 'Well, I guess that happened.'

He got dressed, and left a handwritten note, explaining he had something to do, it was a d*ckish as it got, but he also left his phone number, and a promise to go for drinks if they ever met at one of these parties at a later date.

***

He was close to his house, but passed through the warehouse first, and smiled as he saw the remnants of the party, people passed out on the various seating areas, and even a few people with drinks in hand, smoking what looked and smelled like weed.

'To each their own, I suppose, although to be fair, it is six in the morning.', Ace thought, as he went into the locker room, and grabbed all his stuff, making sure to lock it as he left, since there were still some bags there from people who had not picked them up yet.

The locker room, of course, was not available to everyone, only to the trustworthy crews, where they all knew each other, and had participated enough in this project to deserve some of these 'benefits'.

He then got a taxi all the way to his house, where he went through his workout, and took a shower, before checking his various email accounts, along with any mentions of any forums he was a part of. He responded where necessary, whilst reading the news on his second monitor. As his mastery of languages, and the necessity to be aware of everything had increased, he had gotten used to reading newspapers from all over the world. This allowed him to be prepared for any repercussions an event that occurred in a country could potentially have on a country.

Once he finished, he closed down all the windows, and opened whichever game he felt like playing, in this case, the classic old CSGO, he queued into a ranked game, and surprise surprise, his team was a squad of pro players, who were probably warming up before scrims.

He was playing with a four-stack, which luckily meant he could just use the voice chat, and so would they. They were playing at the highest Elo, which meant that the four-stack was also extremely good, so that was something.

As they loaded into the game, messages from the opponents began to come in, [Hey Ace, early morning?]

Ace had actually played with them before, and considering his notoriety, most players at a high level of any FPS knew about him. The truth was that with his skills and talent, he could join any team he wanted, all he would need would be to brush up on some of the more obscure mechanics (depending on the game), as well as an intensive course on some of the more commonly seen strategies used in the pro leagues, and he would be ready to go.

The truth was that his mechanical skill was way past good enough. And while there were always people that hated, claiming he only appeared to be that good because it was ranked, high-level players knew better for the most part.

He had played against a team of full pro-players, and outplayed them mechanically over and over. He still lost sometimes, but that had more to do with the fact that the rest of his team was lacking in comparison to the opponent's.

It had gotten to the point where it was not a coincidence, this phase was after the "Scripted" phase and the "Hacker" phase, now, people recognised his talent, and knew he was legit.

There was still a pocket of doubters, but Ace had been planning to prove them wrong for a while now. The past few months, he had been seriously considering going pro for a short while, just on a seasonal contract. This would mean he would only have to pay for a season, and would also help disprove any theories. Of course, what he could do was limited due to his age, but he could still compete in some of the tournaments for various games.

***

"Ok, so who is testing the waters?", Moe said, and then, everyone as one, looked at CJ.

"Ughhhh, come on!", he whined, "I did it last time we pulled a stunt like this one!", he motioned with his hands, attempting to get a point across by demonstrating his frustration.

"Ok, ok, I'll go then. I don't mind doing it, and plus, it's more fun when there is more risk involved.", Ace grinned at the others.

They were now at the cliff where they would jump from, and now, it was time to test the waters. This meant that the first jumper would have to check whether the water was deep enough. Of course, it was supposedly safe, but the keyword here was supposedly.

Then, before any complaints or discussions could be begun, Ace ran, and jumped.

It was a lengthy fall, and to Ace, it was the best feeling in the world. Freefall. He twisted and twirled his body, before diving perfectly feet first into the water.

Plunging in, was the second-best feeling in the world, it was hot, but the cold water that rushed up to embrace him, cooled him off instantly, and beckoned him into a sweet abyss. The spell was broken, however, once Ace knew he had to come up before they called an ambulance.

He had to come up when he could, since they would have to make sure he was ok.

As he resurfaced, he put both of his thumbs up for a few seconds, before diving back in, and swimming until he got to the 'shore'. He climbed up, and then jogged up the trail that led to the top of the cliff.

The best thing about this was the fact that it was only a short walk to get up there, so one could jump multiple times over a short period of time.

As he went up, he grinned at them, and watched as they jumped in intervals, before jumping himself again. This time, spending as much time underwater as he could, cradled by the deep, cold blanket.