"Heyyyy!", the same girl that invited him came up to him once she spotted him,"I am so happy you came! So many people want to meet you! I told them you would come, but they did not believe me, wait until they see you!", she was hollering, attempting to hear herself over the music, even if Ace could hear her fine."Well, I guess I am the main object of observation today, not that I expected otherwise…", Ace thought, smiling at the girl, who"s name he hadn"t even bothered to - ah, Evie, she introduced herself, giving him way more info than what was needed, but considering that she was drunk, Ace was taking pretty much everything she said with a grain of salt, but still taking a mental note of it, you never know when you could need it.
"Ah, that"s cool, this party seems pretty sick, when did you get the time to do this?", Ace asked.
"Well, I did not do much!", she shouted, "You see...", and then, in a much lower voice, a whisper almost, "I am rich."
"Ah, that explains it I guess, probably paid for some party planners or something, and all she had to do was to present her credit card at the end of it."
"Well, thank you for inviting me, I am going to get a drink.", Ace said, not even waiting for her response before walking off, looking to see if he could at least meet someone decent within this f*ckfest.
***
"There is useless and boring, and then there is this.", Ace thought, as he took the lift up to his room. He was pretty annoyed about the whole thing, people he was somewhat looking forward to meeting were working on the puzzle they would have to present, and the rest that came to the party were either drunk, high, or both. There was nothing that spelt "humanity is doomed" better than one of these parties. If the some of the smartest of the young generation were doing this, what would the dumb half do?
***
"How was the party?", Edward asked, aware of the fact that he had gone there. "Well, if we a.n.a.lyse the fact that I came two hours after I left the room, you can a.s.sume that there was not much to do, or at least, it was not my scene."
Edward laughed, "Yeah, yeah, I have heard your scene, jumping of heights and doing crazy tricks, with either your body or a skateboard.", Ace raised an eyebrow, asking without saying, and Edward laughed again, "Students talk. Teachers listen. Plus, we have a loose tracking of what you do through social media, and the countless videos of you jumping or tricking are more than enough to prove my point."
Ace nodded, "Fair enough, I guess, there is not much I can say, considering the fact that it is completely true."
"So, what is your plan for tomorrow? I a.s.sume you set up your puzzle? I can"t help you with it, but I might be able to give you some information on how it will go down, since this final has actually happened before.", He cracked his knuckles, and turned the page of the book he was reading, acting as if he was currently partaking in strenuous exercise, which made Ace laugh.
"Nah, I"m cool, I think I will go read, and then I will go to bed, see you tomorrow."
"Have a good night"s rest, It might come in handy.", Edward said, grinning devilishly.
***
"Good morning! And welcome to the finals!", the man clapped and grinned, smiling as he looked at the crowd, turning his head in order to meet stares with every partic.i.p.ant. For some, it was nerve-wracking, for others, it was exciting, for Ace, it was just boring. "Come on, get on with it, I want to win this already."
"You will be randomly picked and matched up with another, then, you will trade puzzles, and the first one to solve them will be the winner, we will keep doing this until there is only one person remaining, who will be the winner!", he laughed out loud, and drew names from a bowl next to him, then, as the names of the pairs appeared in the rooms they would have to go to, people made their way to them.
Ace was against someone called Crawford, he walked into his part.i.tion of the room, and once he was ready, he pressed the b.u.t.ton. He waited a few more seconds until Crawford pressed his, and then a countdown began, once it got to 0, their respective puzzles were revealed.
Ace solved it within minutes. It was not even harder than the level 4 puzzle he had previously solved.
Once he got the solution and inputted it, it took a few seconds for a new alert to appear on his tablet [Round Ended, Winner: Ace]. Then, a new message appeared, informing him that since he was the first one to solve the puzzle, he would not have to move from his spot, and that someone would come to face him once everyone was ready to begin round 2.
Things proceeded in a similar manner for a few more rounds. Ace won all of them in minutes except for the last one, which took him about half an hour of hard work to crack. Of course, no one was able to get close to solving his puzzle, or so he a.s.sumed, from the frustrated faces and murderous glances he got from his opponents.
"Oh well, too bad if I was too harsh, I just want to win this.", Ace thought, "I wonder, will there be any more changes soon? Or is it going to keep on going in this manner for the whole tournament? I would like to at least know how many people are left, there was apparently an option to draw if too much time pa.s.sed… Has anyone reached that? There was no mention of how much time was the limit, and the third round did take a while to start…", all of these thoughts went through Ace"s mind. He a.s.sumed that there would at most be 3 rounds left, but it could also be a lot shorter, since there could have been no draws.
This sense of mystery and darkness created by the unknown and the haze behind the unclarity of the rules, was, of course, a construct, created by the organisers to place their minds under a greater amount of stress.
Ace heard the door open and then close, so he pressed the b.u.t.ton as soon as the option appeared. He waited, and after about a minute, where he a.s.sumed that his opponent was setting up and getting comfortable, the countdown began.
"Ok, let"s see what my dear friend has prepared for me…"
***
"Well, that"s another two done, this is getting boring, I hope that this is the last one.", whilst thinking this, Ace spotted a change in the screen in front of him: a new message appeared [Dear contestants, this is the final, and after this round, the winner will be decided. Please try your best, the time limit has been abolished, and the round will continue until one puzzle is solved. Before the round begins, you will have a chance to eat something and go to the toilet. In order to do so, please go through the door you will find behind you.]
Ace quickly read through it, but just clicked the b.u.t.ton, disregarding any bodily needs.
***
Zaynn read through the message, and was about to order some food, when he saw that his opponent had pressed the b.u.t.ton already. "Who the h.e.l.l?", he thought, and was about to press it out of instinct, when he stopped himself, "Ok, calm down, go to the toilet, wash your face, breathe, the ball is on your side of the field now, so you can relax and get ready to win this thing."
***
"Wow, it seems he did not take the bait, he might actually be smart after all.", Ace thought, looking forward to what was to come.