Ace stayed in the Fight Club's Coliseum the whole day. He fought over and over, only taking breaks to observe other fights. His stamina was pretty impressive, but what was even more impressive was the fact that a few of his would-be teammates were able to keep up with it.
Sure, they were older, and had probably been training their whole lives, but they did not have the advantage of an enhanced body he did, if they had... Ace did not even want to consider the possibilities, they would be unbeatable within the whole circuit. Ace's stamina, however, made the others pleased, they now knew that they would not have to force him to do any cardio or anything, as long as he was able to maintain it for the tournament, he would be more than golden. Chances were, no one his age would be able to match it.
Once they ended, and it was time to leave, Ace took a shower, and changed into the spare tracksuit every student had. He picked up his bag, and went downstairs, intent on leaving and getting home as soon as possible.
A running Noelle, however, stopped him.
"Hey! Ace! Where are you going?", she asked, panting from the short sprint down the stairs, her rosy cheeks decorating her ample smile.
"Home...", Ace said, staring at her quizzically. "I am pretty tired."
She frowned lightly, displeased with his answer, "Come on! We always go out for drinks after a workout, there is a super-duper milkshake place, they make great smoothies, and they are also healthy!", her excitement was infectious, and Ace smiled.
"I would be all for it, but I do have to go home today, I have some things to do. Maybe next time? Plus, you will be able to show the place to both me and Igor at the same time.", he attempted to convince her with a promise of the future, and she seemed all for it.
"Ok!", she grinned, "But you have to come next time! No more excuses!", she stared at him.
"Of course, don't even worry about it."***
"How was your day at school?", his grandmother said once he got home. Ace had invited her for dinner, which was the reason as to why he had to leave, that, and the fact that he wanted to play a few matches before she came.
It was usually not easy to see her, she was simply too busy know, but it seemed that she was almost keen to meet today, which was weird, yet comforting in a way.
Ace took a forkful to his mouth. Every time Samantha came, he would be the one to cook. She, of course, had no idea, which was great, since it meant that Ace had to ensure to nail his dishes every time. That meant, he usually did them at least ten times before it was something he dared to show his grandmother.
The key was to use weird flavours, Ace was, of course, no match for the chefs that worked in the penthouse, but by using weird and exotic dishes, as long as they were good, his grandmother would not have anything to reference to, which would mean that as long as she liked it, she would not complain.
Today, he had made a sort of Thai Crab Curry, it was hard to nail the spices at first, but once he got a hand of it, it was extremely tasty. It was something different, and most importantly, his grandmother had never tried it before.
"Hmm, this is really good, what is it called? The flavours are just right on point.", Samantha said, "My compliments to the chef."
Ace grinned, and the maids around the room were doing their hardest to keep their composture. They, of course, knew who had really cooked, and found it extremely funny every time Ace managed to slip by a dish undetected.
"So, how was your team, you think you will make it far?", his grandmother suddenly said, and Ace froze, then sighed.
"Yeah, they are good, they'll probably win, even if I have no idea of the standard for the tournament, they are all absolutely insane. I assume it was you that put me there?", Ace asked, curious about the situation, but slowly getting the picture.
"Nope, they were the ones to choose you, what I did, however, was present your name to the tournament, you actually had to sign a few waivers and stuff, but I took care of it.", she said.
'That makes sense, they all seem awfully fine about the whole no protection situation, and the pretty much everything goes rules.'
"Why, did you want me gone? Is there anything you are doing?", Ace asked, and his grandmother laughed.
"Always sharp, always sharp... I have a few meetings that week, and I also wanted to host a little party, I planned to host it in the penthouse, and considering the fact that you would not want to be here while that was happening, I decided to book you a two-week holiday, you will fight for some of it, but that will, of course, be part of the fun.", she seemed awfully pleased at her plan, almost scarily so, considering she had just told him, that she was sending him away to a different city, where he would be fighting for glory with the most skilled fighters in the country.
Anyone else would think that was insane, but Ace could not wait until he could leave.
***
"Well chat, I guess this is just not my game.", Ace said, as the small catchy tune played, and the podium was displayed, along with the top three players, Ace being the second.
The game he was playing was one that was extremely fun. It mixed RNG [A/N: A luck mechanic within a game], with absolutely insane multiplayer lobbies full of people. For whatever reason, Ace had the worst of lucks, and even with almost twenty games, Ace had not won a single one. This was hilarious, considering he had come top five in all of them. It had become a meme in a chat who was used to seeing the streamer succeed easily at everything. Some even believed this was a plot by Ace to make himself more relatable, in a hilarious kind of way. This just made the situation even more depressing.
"Ok, I have had enough, I am going to stop this, before I break my first keyboard.", Ace laughed reading his chat, and moved on to the next section of his stream, where he played song requests for a while. A more chill portion of the stream, where audiences usually switched somewhat, and people that liked music streams would tune in, while people that watched gaming would just stop watching, or keep it in the background.
Regardless, it was the time were Ace could interact the most with his chat, and would have it displayed on his main monitor in front of him, which would make it more comfortable and easier for him to catch all messages, especially with his enhanced eyesight and memory.
Most of his hardcore fans quite loved it, since Ace would answer questions, and would interact with the viewers much more, since what reading while playing allowed was limited, even to Ace.