135 Chapter 135:

Zach came out of the sauna, his body steaming, and wrapped himself in a soft towel. He walked to the next room, his feet pitter-pattering on the marble floor.

He looked up, and with his voice, accepted the call that was just coming in.

"Hello.", a deep voice came in from the speakers around the room. It seemed bass boosted, as if he was using a light voice changer, Zach knew that was his real voice however, it had not been amplified at all.

"Hey, how are things going on your end?", Zach asked. A split second later, as if the answer had been prepared before hand - which it was. "Good. You?", the gravelly voice asked, and as if played back, Zach answered speedily, "Fine. The chances of winning are not low."

"Fantastic.", the owner of the voice was devoid of any emotion, but Zach knew he was pleased. "Keep on."

"Of course, have a nice day...Dad."

***

"YESSS!", Ace shouted over his mike, provoking more than a few expressions of chagrin on some viewer's faces. "Oops, sorry for the shout. Anyways, we made it, with this, we should be able to fully clear the game, 100% completion.", Ace was currently playing a single player game, it was a platform game, which had a large amount of levels, it was mostly focused on timing - like many others were, and Ace was having a lot of fun with it.

At first, he had gotten frustrated more than a few times, and taunted repeatedly by his viewers. Nevertheless, this only made him more focused on improving, and so, he soon began to clear levels at a speedy rate.

With this however, he had been streaming for eight hours straight, and so he quit after a few song requests, keeping the dynamic of his streams intact.

This week was a 'rest week', granted to them by the school, so that they could recuperate to peak shape, for the tournament that would happen in a few days.

'This is the life.', Ace thought, 'Just chilling and playing video games.'

He headed downstairs, and asked one of the maids to make a bowl of fruit for him. As the seasons changed, the types of fruit he ate changed, which ensured Ace never got bored of it, and always had some class of tasty yet healthy goodness.

He ate the bowl in front of a book, reading a classic novel his grandmother considered a must-read. [A/N: I am curious, what do you think he is reading?]

He spent some time just reading and eating, relaxing. Then, after a while, he put the book down, and pondered on what he should do for dinner, truth be told, he kind of missed his friends, so while it was to late to invite them for today, he decided to send invitations for tomorrow. He would host a movie night, where they could marathon a choice of movies they could vote for in a poll he had appended to the message.

After doing this, he finished up his bowl, and then took it to the kitchen, where a made motioned for him to leave, and let her take care of it.

He played around with various instruments, all of the highest quality, improving his skill with some of the ones he had not played as much, and polishing what he already knew with his more played ones.

He was at it for a long time, much more than he had originally intended to spend. 'Oh well, I guess it's fine, it's all for improvement's sake anyway.', he rationalised his thoughts, before eating a quick dinner, and going to his bedroom, intent on having a restful sleep.

'How I wish all days could be as productive as this one.'

***

"Tssss", Ace let out a heavy breath, and he finished the last move of his last Kata. He had recently learnt them, and now went over them all every morning, which helped him not only relax and stretch after a long, intense workout, but also to perfect his control and technique. Technically, he should not have really been training, but his muscle fibres had recovered already, and so it would not impact him negatively, as long as he did not burn himself out, and kept his mentality at a high level.

'The mental game is the big game. My body is strong, and so is my mind, but I have to keep in sight the fact that I still have some human limitations, even if they have been stretched to their most extreme point, especially when it comes to my brain, and emotions as a whole.

***

After a long shower and a breakfast smoothie, a refreshed Ace went outside, skateboard in hand, intent on making the best out of a weekday, where most people - at this hour of the morning at least, should be either at work or at school.

As expected, the skatepark was mostly empty - apart from a few others, and Ace was able to go into the shop, greeting Steve, and getting some maintainance done on his board.

After about ten minutes of tune-up, the board was ready to go, and so was Ace.

He stepped out to the park, deciding to begin with a light warm-up, and doing a few runs in the bowl, gradually speeding up until he had reached optimal velocity, and was able to do some of the more challenging skills, which he had mostly learnt not too long ago.

He did all of them, but some were clearly more polished than others, and so he chose a few to work on for the day, and got to it.

By the time it was the hour to eat lunch, Ace had already waved goodbye to Steve and the one or two people that were there which he knew. Then, he went to a nearby Thai place, and ordered what they usually did, the special of the day.

It was a great way to try something knew everyday, since they did not really repeat dishes at lot, and it was not like they had gone there for a long time anyways. The food - as always, was amazing, and once he got back home, he was deeply satisfied, happy with what he had achieved today already.

He took a shower and got changed, and then went into the PC room, opening up the stream, and beginning the grind, yet

another day.