05 - Popularity
"Hey, what are you guys doing?" a boy asked as he opened the bedroom door slightly.
Neo realized they'd left the door half open and this passerby apparently saw that they were doing something fun. As they were all first-year students and almost all of them had few friends, it was natural for someone to walk around to try and fit in.
Fatty noticed this too and shouted with glee at this boy who entered. "Hey look, my friend Neo here made this game just now for us to play! It's awesome right?"
"Woah! Did you do this just now? Are you one of the genius freshman students?!" the boy asked curiously as he saw Neo and Fatty playing.
"Nah, this is something simple. I learned how to do this today," Neo replied calmly. "Want to play? Fatty is still learning how to play; he'd better play another beginner player."
"Can I?! Yes, thank you! I'm tired of playing cards with the other boys; it's always the same game. By the way, my name is George, I'm a first year student too," the boy named George said happily as he took Neo's seat. Fatty started explaining to George how to play Pong while Neo just watched from the side with a smile, pleased to see someone else enjoying the gaming world.
They played like that for over an hour, before curfew struck and George had to go back to his dorm, but before he left, George asked, "Can I come back to play tomorrow? I'm addicted to this. It's way cooler than any other game I've ever tried."
"It's Neo's game, you have to ask him," Fatty responded with a little embarrassment.
"It's alright, you can come," Neo responded without caring.
It made George smile even more, like a small child who had just discovered the best toy in the world.
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After George left, Neo asked Fatty something. "Do you know anything about encryption?"
Hearing this, Fatty got a little thoughtful and tried to remember something, until he answered, "Hmm, yes, I've heard about it. My uncle told me that magicians usually use this on Cards so that other people can't read the Card codes and copy their spells. But he said encryption is very personal and tends to be passed down from master to disciple, and since I was just going to start learning magic, I wouldn't need to learn that kind of thing anytime soon."
Hearing this, Neo became more relaxed. Since cryptography existed in this world, it meant that it was possible to encrypt his own coding.
He was a game developer, not a charitable buddha who would do everything for free. As he wanted to make games for other people, he would also like to earn money from it so that he could make even better games. So while Fatty was trying to play Pong alone using one hand on each side of the card, Neo sat alone to think of a way to encrypt a card.
But as much as he was a genius, Neo couldn't manually encrypt something, until he had the idea of making an Encryption Card. Picking up a blank Card, Neo was reminded of encryption software he had once studied out of curiosity in his old world. The way the encryption program worked was much more complex than the way a normal program worked. One had to create a program that would read a key, and based on that key it would form an encryption in a single language, and only with that key could someone decrypt it.
So far this had been the most complicated program Neo had had to develop. During the process, he even used some wrong lines and had to use another blank Card to start all over again, as unfortunately the Card wasn't like a computer where you could erase what you wrote for the spell. If someone wrote something once on a Card, there was no longer any way to erase it.
Neo was a genius, but he had no photographic memory. He only vaguely remembered the structure of the encryption software he read several years ago. He managed to use what he remembered, but everything else he had to develop himself, and after 3 wasted Cards, finally the spell was done.
Unfortunately, this took Neo all night to complete, as a mage had to use mana to write to a Card, meaning with each failure of Neo's, he had to wait patiently for at least an hour to recover the mana spent on it in order to start over.
The basic idea of the encryption he made was that the user must type the spell into a blank space on the floating screen that the encryption spell projected, and after that the card would transform the spell into an encrypted language, but which still maintained the same purpose.
After that, one just had to copy the encrypted result onto a blank card manually and presto, the spell would work as if it were not encrypted. But if someone wanted to read it, it would be impossible without the original key and encryption software, and if someone tried to copy the encrypted code, that wouldn't work either, as some parts were written on top of others, like a 3d drawing, which prevented the person from reading the underside of the code.
Neo knew it wasn't the most practical process, but actually it was the most efficient process he was able to come up with, as magic cards weren't like computers where you could Ctrl + C in one place and Ctrl + V in another.
To test the use of this, Neo transcribed the encrypted Pong code that the spell had generated and it worked perfectly. It took longer to write this than to write the original code, but as this was a guarantee that no one would be able to copy it, it was something that was worth it to Neo. He even thought that maybe in the future he could study spells written for him, which would make the job even easier, but for now he would have to be content with that.
While Fatty slept, Neo took the unencrypted card and switched to the encrypted one, as he knew this roommate of his would want to play it with someone else. To prevent anyone from copying this, Neo decided to keep the original card and leave the encrypted one as a gift to Fatty.
"This is for me?" Fatty asked incredulously as he held the Pong Card in his chubby hands.
"Yes, I made another one overnight, so you can keep it. Oh, and it's already encrypted, so you can also do whatever you want with it. If you want to borrow it, or even give it to someone else, it's all up to you," Neo responded matter-of-factly as he pulled on his clothes after showering.
"That… Thank you so much Neo, I'll never forget this," Fatty replied a little emotionally.
"Bah, it's just a game, don't worry. We're friends aren't we?" Neo responded by pretending not to care, but he was a little moved by the importance Fatty was giving to the gift he'd given him. It's good when others recognize your work.
Still a little sleepy from staying up late, Neo went with the excited Fatty to the cafeteria for breakfast before class, but he didn't imagine what would happen next.
"There, there's a fat kid over there! Is that Fatty you mentioned?" a slightly distant voice sounded.
"I don't see…oh yeah, it's him! Hey Neo, Fatty, come here, we'll buy you breakfast!" George shouted excitedly as he waved at them both.
Seeing this, Neo and Fatty were confused. They had only met George yesterday, but was he already buying them breakfast? And why were so many boys at that table looking at them so excitedly?
"Good morning, everyone." Neo said, maintaining a calm demeanor as he took a seat in one of the vacant seats, with a breakfast tray in front of him. Since George wanted to treat them to breakfast, Neo didn't intend to refuse.
"Hey Neo, my name is Mike. Is it true you made an amazing game using magic?" A tall, thin boy excitedly asked Neo with expectant looks.
'So that's why. The thirst of young people for entertainment is always the greatest.' Neo finally understood what was going on. Apparently these people didn't exactly come to meet him, but to try out the new game he had made. "Yes, if I'm not mistaken, Fatty has the game card now."
When Neo said this, all eyes on the table turned to Fatty. Fatty was a little shy receiving so much attention, but he was proud to be the owner of this amazing game his friend had made.
"Yes, the magic card is with me. How about we play it after I eat?" Fatty replied.
"Can we?! That is amazing! Yes, yes, eat well, don't be in a hurry. It's better to eat slowly so you don't choke," Mike responded warmly, excited to try out this game George had been talking about all night.
He was George's roommate, and after hearing his friend continue talking about this game so much, he wanted to try it for himself. And when they talked about it in the cafeteria, other boys got interested and they decided to pay for breakfast together for Neo and Fatty to try to get the opportunity to play this game. Knowing that their investment would pay off got all the kids excited.
While Neo and Fatty ate breakfast, the boys were playing Rock/Paper/Scissors to decide who would play first.
"I'm sorry I said I wanted to play today, but I didn't think other people would hear me talking to Mike. I hope it's not inconvenient," George commented as he sat down next to Neo.
"No problem. For something like that, the more people playing, the more fun it gets," Neo responded with a smile as he continued to eat breakfast. "Not to mention that being able to eat for free is also very good, hehe."
But while the young boys discussed who would play Fatty first, Neo just looked at them and saw dollar signs going up in each one's head, already imagining how much he could win with this game.
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Read the author notes down here he he ↓ ↓ ↓
Heey guys, this story already have a lot of chapters written, and I'll release it daily.
Add it to your library to keep reading it!