61 Chapter 61:

Ace made the rounds, getting all the rewards that were freely offered, he met and greeted people as he walked around, in one day, he had probably taken more pictures than the rest of his life.

He did not mind it, this would only happen in events such as this one, a very specific community where he was well known. His goal was to become known for various things, but for now, a steady increase was best. He had posted regular updates on his various social media accounts, each was garnering more attention than the next. His video of him jumping had also gotten a lot of attention after a few semi-famous people that were at the party had retweeted it. It had just happened a few hours ago, but he already had messages from people calling him reckless and stupid, and others wondering whether he wanted to do this for a video. He ignored the first, and answered the second, saying that for know, it was not in his cards, but it would always be considered. The response seemed to make people happy, or so he thought until he saw Mary.

He had just gotten to the point where they were going to meet up before going to dinner with the squad when he spotted a fuming Mary. "How...Stupid! Can you be? Why would you risk your life in such a stupid manner?", she seemed pretty angry, and Ace understood why.

"Hey! Calm down, nothing happened, and I don't plan on doing that-"

"For now! Look, you do you, but think about the fact that if something did happen, it would not just be you that would feel bad."

Ace sighed, there was no reasoning with her when she got into a mood, "Ok, you are right, my bad, I won't do it again." [A/N: Ha!]

She seemed satisfied with that, and after a few minutes of silence, the rest of the team came, Jo and Jack were dancing around, and Alex had a stupid smile on his face.

As they got together, they looked at Mary, then to each other, grinned, and Jo and Jack shouted excitedly, "Dammm Ace! That jump was wild!", Jo said, Alex smiling wildly, ready for the bang, and Ace wincing already, "Yeah! You better teach us how to do that man, it was super cool.", Jack hit the nail in the coffin and smirked. Then, shit hit the fan.

Mary looked at them, Ace had no idea how she did it, but she seemed to look at both of them in the eyes at the same time, she did not seem angry, the keyword being 'seemed'. Her face was like stone, still, and yet, Ace spotted the grinding of the teeth and the trembling of the jaw that indicated true rage.

"Uh Oh", that was Jo, always the more perceptive of the duo, and in that moment, he realised he f*cked up.

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

They went to dinner in relative silence, Mary, Alex and Ace were having a conversation, but Jo and Jack were quiet, their ears red with the verbal lashing they had received. Yet it was the mere shadow of the restaurant that seemed to bring them up to their usual humorous attitude.

"Hehe, I wonder what table we will get.", and then, the both together, "Dibs on sitting next to Ace!"

Alex laughed, Ace grinned and Mary stayed quiet, she had spent all of her strength berating them before.

"So Ace, you said this place was good? I hope it is because I am starving.", Alex said, and as if to accentuate the fact, his stomach grumbled, and like two little kids, the 'Duo of Dumbasses' (one of the choice words Mary had used during her verbal beating earlier) began imitating the noise. It was beginning to truly get on Mary's nerves when they got to the restaurant.

A brawny waitress took them to the table, and a smiling man, a giant in stature came to their table, and with a strong accent said: "Good evening comrades, would you like water, or you go straight to vodka?"

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

As Ace got home and entered the showed, he smiled, it had been a fun night, by the end of it, Jo and Jack had become drinking buddies with Boris, the giant that had first asked what drinks they would be having. The four of them had a party to go to, but Alex cashed out, saying that he was tired. Jo and Jack were absolutely hammered, but they took a taxi and went anyway, Mary walked there.

Ace went to sleep, looking forward to the events of the next day.

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

Ace went downstairs to have breakfast, his hair still slightly damp from the shower he had taken after his run. He was looking forward to the breakfast and the day as a whole, the new update would be fully revealed, they had some information, especially on the operators, but Ace wanted to know what other changes would be happening. The pro circuit was going full steam ahead, and while Ace would not participate, he was looking forward to playing games with the best of the best.

He got on his tablet and first checked his email, his grandmother had answered. She was happy with the deal, and assured him not to worry, telling him that she would contact the Russians when she believed it to be pertinent, Ace shot an email back informing her that he understood.

Then, he went to the drawing board, he was hoping to finish his planning today, and do a few quick sketches on paper when he could. At first, he had wanted to do it graphically, since the ease of access could not be beaten, but Ace realised that his grandmother would appreciate a paper drawing more, so he had ordered all the needed utensils. He had a room for painting and drawing in his penthouse since his grandmother used to paint for fun. It had been vacated for some time, however, so Ace informed the required personnel to set it up for when he came back.

As he got to the lobby, he saw a large group of people excited to go. Most of them seemed hungover out of their minds, but there was a tinge of excitement in their eyes. Jo and Jack and bags under their eyes, and dishevelled hair. Ace had expected that so he gave them each a bottle, "Drink this, trust me.", they did not seem to understand him, so he motioned drinking and they nodded. They took a tentative sip, but at tasting it, they both downed their respective bottles.

"The hell is this stuff?", Jack asked, they both looked much better, and Ace just smiled, if they knew what was in that, they would probably not smile at him ever again. It did not taste too bad, but the contents were better not mentioned.

They walked at a quick pace, everyone in small individual groups, but the excitement was palpable, everyone was looking forward to today, and what it meant for the game they all loved.

They proceeded through the check-ups quickly and went to the central auditorium to sit down, most were on their phone instantly, eager to see if anything had been leaked. Of course, nothing had, but it did not stop them from trying to find out.

Then, the lights went off, and the screen lit up, a "Ooooh" sounded throughout the auditorium as the video started. It was a video showcasing the new map, which seemed like a yacht stuck in the ice. It showed every floor, and as the first sequence finished, the second started. It explained the attacking operator: Buck, his two different primaries, his secondary, as well as both of his gadgets. He seemed primed for destruction, with his assault rifle, the shotgun gadget and the frag grenades, a versatile machine Ace could not wait to try out.

Then, the defender was shown, she laid her bear traps, and used her various weapons. Ace did not think she was that good. He could think of good placements for the mats of course, but a careful and skilled opponent would most likely not fall for them. Her submachine gun seemed to have no recoil but low power, Ace had no problems controlling any recoil, so it was not that big of a deal. Her shotgun, however, held some promise, it could be used in conjunction with her ability to kill enemies that were bringing up those that were downed by the mats.

All in all, it made him and everyone else pretty hyped up, and as a man came on stage, everyone cheered and clapped.

"Good morning guys, I hope you enjoyed the video.", the cheers got louder, "You probably have a lot of questions, and you will get to ask them, but for now, I need to talk.", a mock groan resounded, that quickly turned into laughter, the man laughing along with the crowd, he was good.

"So, our pro circuit is starting in a few weeks, organisations have already built their teams, and are now frantically training to get ready for the first few matches, we will have a league for each continent, and the best teams will also qualify for a major that will happen in about a year give or take. We hope to ensure that there are games going throughout the whole year, in the hopes that it will allow teams ample time to train in the proper conditions. We hope this way it will not only be good for the players, but also for you, the viewers, to always be able to enjoy a game of Pro Rainbow Six Siege. During the year, at some points, new operators will come out, and big updates will come out. For that, we will host big events where various things will be taking part, such as pro tournaments and streamer games. We are very happy with how the community has grown, and we hope that it will continue to grow, making R6 a big player in the E-Sports scene.", people cheered and clapped, but people were getting impish, they wanted to go try out the operators and map as soon as they could.

"Now, I know what you all want to do, so if you so wish, you can raise your hands up if you have a question, and when all are done, you will be able to log into the various terminals and try out the new operators."

People began raising their hands, but Ace pretty much ignored them, he was looking forward to trying the operators out, and he would probably only come up with questions after he had done so.

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

Ace sat in front of one of the terminals that the developers had prepared for each streamer. He accepted the invite to join the party, and tested the mike, "Hey, does this work?"

"Yeah, it's fine", Alex's voice travelled into his ears, the five of them had formed a party and were going to play games, rotating the new operators so that everyone could try them, they could play for the whole day until they got tired, and that was what they planned to do, they would have a break to eat, but they planned to play for the whole day. The others did not have school to go to, and Ace was planning to fly overnight anyways, it's not like school required too much from him, and if he so wished, he could just sleep during P.E. anyways, so it was not a big deal.

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

Ace enjoyed the playing, it had been some time since he had played, and he liked getting back to the grind. He was not streaming it, since they were not allowed, but he posted to his socials saying that he was trying out the new operators, along with a picture of him in-game with Buck.

He thought that Buck was extremely strong, especially in maps with a lot of entry points, he could go in, and swap between shotgun and assault rifle or marksman rifle very quickly, he also had the frag grenades that of course came in very useful.

He memorised the new map within the first game, so when it was his turn, he found a few good spots for the mats as well. It was important to put them in places people did not expect them, and when they were trapped, if you waited, people would come to revive and you could get a nice double kill.

All in all, it was super fun, and when he finally got on the plane back home, he got excited at how the game would change with these new add-ons, while also thinking about the future events he would take part in with the school. He was very much looking forward to going to Vienna.