The Ace

Ace stood at the back, aware of the various gazes that focused on him, and just focused on what the next puzzle would be, and on a cool new skate trick he wanted to try out.

"Good morning to you all, today, the day of truth will be displayed, this will decide your future in the tournament, and to determine whether you are good enough to make it to the finals.", he stopped, looking at each and every person that was in that hall. "Ok, as I am sure you will be used to, the updated rankings will be displayed, only those whose names appear on the screen will continue on to the next round, the rest of you may leave.", he motioned with his hand, and the screens lit up, and so did the eyes of about half of the room.

Ace memorised the Rankings displayed on the screen with a quick look, and then paid them no more heed. As expected, he got looks he just ignored, and even met the older man"s eyes for a split second. Having to replay the memory in his mind once more to ensure that he had not imagined the approving emotion he saw in them. He had not.

People walked out of the room, most had expected it, but there were a few that were surprised, and one that even complained for a while before being led out by a guard"s intense stare, and the elder man"s disapproving one. "I feel bad for the kid", Ace thought. "That is most likely not very easy to go through.

Once only those that had appeared on the screen had left, the man continued speaking, "Now that they have all left, I will explain what will happen now. You will be given a choice, there are 52 of you left, since some have to leave due to unforeseen circ.u.mstances. It will be an even number of people, which may be a ha.s.sle, but it will hopefully be ok. Your choice is this: you can choose the type of puzzle you get given, at the risk that someone will be able to choose how hard it will be. Now, there are some extra rules, you can only choose for one person, and you will have a puzzle that is equally hard, but you will not know what type it will be. However, if you challenge someone and still get the correct solution. It will be taken into account for future rounds. The way this will be done is simple, each of you will have a tablet delivered, and there you can post a request to select the type of puzzle you are given. Then, on the same page, someone will be able to see who you are, and choose a difficulty level for you, while also locking one for themselves. You may leave now, good luck.", he waited for a second, and started speaking again, "Also, you will only have a few hours to make a decision, after that, your puzzles will be delivered an hour later. In total, three hours starting from the moment the last person switches their tablet on.", with that, he turned around and left the same way he came in from.

Ace got to the room, and again, set up everything, going to the toilet as well just in case, then, exactly 7 minutes after he came into the room, he switched on the tablet that had been left on his bed.

It showed how many people were left, and a few minutes after Ace had logged in, the timer began, and people got ready to post if they wanted.

"This will be interesting. Will they risk it all to choose their favourite type of puzzle, and risk it all to choose the difficulty for someone else?", while thinking this, Ace submitted his request, he wanted the puzzle to be a number pattern puzzle, which meant it would only contain numbers and shapes. He expected someone to choose the hardest difficulty for him, but was not surprised when someone instlocked him into the easiest difficulty either. "Well, I guess they got there first."

It made sense to Ace, this way, someone could ensure that he got the lowest difficulty, it was probably a lower Ranking person that had done this, since they knew they would not have a chance of winning, they hoped that they would still be able to make it to the next round. It was either this or someone would choose the highest difficulty out of spite, essentially kamikaze their chances of getting any further, simply because if they did not get the prize, neither would the person that most people thought would (in this case, probably the Rank 1).

After that was done, Ace directly turned off the tablet, not interested in the others in the least. He read and worked until someone knocked on the door: "I have the puzzle."

***

Ace solved the puzzle in exactly three seconds, not too long, considering the average person would most likely struggle with it for a while. He inputted the answer and got the green light. Once that was done, it was about 1 in the afternoon, and sent a message on the group chat, asking if anyone wanted to meet for lunch. Three of the girls said yes the second he sent that, and after that, more and more people ended up agreeing, until it was only a few people that were unavailable but would come after they had had lunch.

They took him to an interesting place, the only thing you could eat there was a wide variety of cakes, and an even wider variety of coffees. To be fair, all of it was amazing, even if it was a curious choice for lunch. They were there for a while, just enjoying the fact that there were not many people in the place in and out of itself. They ate and after doing so, they brought Ace on a tour of the city.

It was not a normal tour however, they brought him all over the undercity, they ate questionable street food, and talked to dodgy vendors. It was an interesting experience, and it was only once it began to get dark, that they told Ace they should begin to go back.

"We are cool here, Luff"s older brother is well-known, but there are always some crazy people, so it"s always better to just not take the risk."

"That"s an interesting topic of discussion", Ace thought, "May have to ask about it later…"

***

"G.o.d I"m tired", Ace said out loud, groaning as he laid on his bed, having just taken a shower, and dressed in some extremely comfortable clothes.

He was about to drop onto the couch, planning on just ordering room service and chilling on the couch, when he heard a knock on the door. He sighed and went to open it.

He found a girl standing there, dressed in some jeans and a hoodie. She smiled, looking at him appreciatively, and said, "Hey! Sorry for knocking, but I just wanted to tell you, a bunch of us are hosting a party here, we received permission from the hotel, just dressed in some jeans and a shirt. It starts at 8, so hopefully, we are not kept behind too much by the puzzle.", she widened her smile as she saw him. Ace nodded and said, "Of course, I will be there."

Ace closed the door after some small talk, and then went back to his plan, all the while thinking about the party tomorrow. "I"m curious as to what will happen tomorrow, will they really be able to make it happen? Or will they be swamped with work?"

He watched a few movies before going to bed since it was still relatively late. He ordered pizzas and popcorn, along with cans of c.o.ke every five minutes. He gorged himself, uncaring of what could happen tomorrow, knowing that his stomach could handle it.

When he finally went to bed, he was deeply satisfied, happy with how the day had started, ended, and everything in between.