87 Chapter 87:

Ace got dressed and then got on his skateboard, making his way down to Strike, the clothes brand headquarters and shop.

There were already a few people there when he got there, so he put his hood up, then he went straight upstairs to the office. They had to work on a new drop today, and Ace already had a few good ideas on his iPad. When he got there, there were already four people surrounding a screen. They were thinking about what the theme should be for the new drop, once they figured out the theme, the ideas would come flooding in. They greeted him when they saw him, and got him a chair so he could sit with all of them.

Within a few hours, they managed to get a lot of the work done, and Ace was free to go. The others would now work on more specific designs, but the main bit was completed. They still had quite a bit of time before they had to release it, but if they could finish earlier, Ace would be able to promote it on his stream, like doing a giveaway or such thing.

Ace went back home, today should be a calm day. He did not have to stream, and he planned on just studying, and working on the puzzle in between, as a sort of break. The Knowledge Tournament would begin exactly one month after the holidays were done. This means that most were studying hard, attempting to get a heads-up on the competition. Ace was doing anything but.

For the day, he spent studying and working through the puzzle, a quite relaxed set of activities, with only days left until the New Year.

Speaking of the New Year, Ace got an official invitation from the Student President of the Rank 1 Homeroom, inviting him to attend a New Year party with his year group. Ace was honestly close to outright refusing, when Amy called him.

"Hey Amy, what's up?"

"Nothing, but look, about the party, I know you don't want to go, but I made a promise and -", Ace interrupted her, "No need to say more, I'll be there, casual?", he asked, as if nothing had happened.

"Yep, and thank you, I owe you one."

'Well, looks like this might be more interesting than I thought.'

It seemed that some people interested in meeting Ace would most likely come to meet him at the party, and they had contacted Amy, to ensure that he would attend. Ace figured something like this would happen, considering that it was the perfect way for them to get a headstart on their competition, and tried to rope him into their fold.

The protection period had ended, it had done so as soon as the holidays began, and the sharks would soon come out to play.

Now, the question was, would these people be smart and not try to threaten him, or would they wrongly believe themselves to be superior to him, and try to blackmail or outright beat him to join them? He hoped they did, that would be perfect. No one too good would come at him at the party anyways. The truly strong and powerful groups usually waited until school started, they would only send out invitations then, which meant that most of the better-ranking students would wait until then, to see if they got any invitations. The others would try and join as fast as they could, since it would give them a greater amount of benefits.

These alliances could pretty much be anything, from a place where people shared homework and exam tips, to a group for people with shared interests. Some held more power than others, and joining meant that various alumni that were past members of the group, would help you in the future, a sense of alliance and familiarity binding them.

It was unlucky that his grandmother had never joined an alliance, or well, she had, but it had been disbanded in their senior year, and she had been without for that year. As the future would tell you, it had not been too much of a problem, but for most, not belonging to one, would usually cap their future potential and station by more than a little bit.

Regardless, having a past member of your family in that group, would usually increase your standing and the benefits you could receive, meaning that it usually was a great boon.

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"Alfred, I need you to work on getting all the information you can about the top alliances within the Gold Institute, also, find out about past members and alumni in powerful positions."

"Yes sir."

Ace would also have to speak with his grandmother about this, but she would most likely not give him any advice, and just let him make a decision on his own. Truthfully, he could have his pick, he was rank 1, a ranking member of the Fight Club, advisor to the Rank 1 President, and had pretty much aced every single test he had done. He would also be participating in some of the most prestigious competitions of the year. An alliance would be crazy not to invite him.

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Ace went through the report of the factions that had already made deals with the Tower, Matis would, of course, have a large auction place, and various other luxury commodities had also been bartered for. It was beginning to look more and more like the perfect luxury resort, and by luxury, that did not mean a 5-star hotel, with a selection of pillows. No, there, you could choose even the odour of your room, and the type of bath/shower you wished for. Everything could be modified, as long as you had a price. And honestly, the resort activities were looking better and better. From a winter sports park, to a water park, everything was on offer, at all times of day, at all moments of the year. The upkeep would be enormous, but if it worked out, the profits would be even bigger.

It would, of course, require a large capital to begin, one which would actually cause a noticeable dip on their fortune, but within a year, the profits should begin to outweigh the costs, and that was when they lowballed it.

They were going to cause a revolution in holiday resorts, and everyone that mattered knew it. No one could wait to go, and with the first few spots being put to auction in a few months, everyone was tightening their belts, getting ready for the bidding war that would most likely occur. It was a great way to get on good terms with his grandmother, and so they would give it their all.

Ace expected a few of the smarter ones to begin to form links with him, not as some had done previously with threats, but this time with things that would be of equal value to a good relationship with what would be one of the most powerful men in the planet.

His grandmother was young, but it was not unheard of for people to retire young to enjoy their hard-earned work, so it could very well be that Ace would be gaining control over the whole estate sooner than anyone could expect.

It was with these and countless more thoughts that Ace went to bed, finally falling into slumber, after many minutes of reflection.

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"Ok, chat, I get it, you want me to play it, fine, let's do it.", Ace finally caved into the popular demand.

His chat wanted him to play a reflex game, it consisted of clicking dots on the screen faster than they could disappear, if they did before he clicked them, they would disappear. It was a simple game, but after someone had donated some money and asked people to check the game out, everyone was constantly badgering Ace to play it.

On paper, it was easy, just clicking the dots. But it was more than that, it was a test created to test the reflexes of a person, and there were various mods, modes and settings you could tweak and choose from.

As he opened the game, a simple screen greeted him, asking him to input a username and a tag. He did so, with the name Ace and the tag being #1001 [A/N: There is, of course, an easter egg, think you can get it?]

He went through a tutorial, where they told him he simply had to click the black dots that appeared on a white screen. The dots were all of the same sizes, and it was the one thing that could not be changed.

As Ace finished the tutorial, Ace went into a Frenzy game, the way it worked was that it would begin slowly, and the dots would soon begin to appear and disappear faster and faster, the moment you missed one, the game was done. The points worked on how many dots you clicked, each dot clicked was one point.

A countdown began on the screen, and Ace breathed out, relaxing, and unfocusing his eyes from a particular point on the screen. His eyes were now focused on the screen as a whole, which should allow him to react faster. As the dot appeared, Ace moved insanely fast and clicked it, without losing focus, or any emotion on his face.

[Sh*t, he's going Ultra Instinct now], one user typed in, and others spammed the clapping hands, as the dots got faster and faster, and Ace got into the groove. It was by about the 200th dot, where Ace thought of how much better it would be to play this with music. Unluckily, that minimal lapse in concentration was all it took. Ace missed the click by a fraction of a second, but he missed it. The game was over, Ace was disappointed, he had lost concentration, and lost do to it, but his chat was crazy.

[BEST BEST BEST]

[WORLD CHAMP]

[WE BELIEVE]

[CHAMP CHAMP CHAMP]

Messages such as these were displayed over and over. Ace had actually managed to get 193 dots. The people that had tried this game, had not gone above 130. Displayed on the leaderboard for the Frenzy game mode, at number one spot, it now displayed: Ace #1001, with 192 points.

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Ace called it a day at the usual time, his wrist was actually tired from only playing a few rounds of the dot game, and his eyes were tired from the focus as well.

'I guess some games use up energy faster than others. Still, it was fun, and chat loved it, so I will most likely play it again.', Ace went over various thoughts as he sat on the couch, and ordered a pizza, he was too tired for anything else. As a family-sized pizza and a box of wings came, Ace salivated, thinking over the scrumptious dinner he was about to eat.