"System, How to unlock the Internet?"
『 You can unlock Internet by increasing your clearance level to E-Grade 』
"Then, How do I increase my Clearance level?"
『 Here I thought you were supposed to be a genius! Why are you asking such an obvious question? 』
"Hey! You can also react like this huh... How should that be obvious!? Can you please answer my question?"
『 You obviously have to use money to increase your clearance 』
After System said that, there was silence for a few minutes. It seemed Aron was dumbfounded despite all the passive skills he possessed.
"So you are telling me to give you money?"
『 You have to. That is the only way for now, you can do business with the me, or rather use my services to highest extent possible 』
[ Author's Note: ( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º) ]
"How much money is required to increse my clearance level to E-Grade?"
『 Not much. Just $10,000 』
"Did you just add the 'Not Much.' to mock me? I am just an orphan in this timeline who got into this university through Scholarship! I can't go to the orphanage to ask for $10,000! I don't have any spare money right now unlike my previous life! And all that was hard-earned money! How can I get so much money??"
『 I will provide you the 'path'. You only have to follow that path to earn money. 』
As the system told that, Aron somehow got chills running down his spine. He knew something bad was coming.
『 F-Rank Quest: Win a Hackathon --- Generated 』
『 Explanation: Win the upcoming hackathon conducted by your university. The reward money of $10000 can be earned. When earned, this will be 'taken' by the System 』
『 Reward: E-Grade Clearance and Internet Tab 』
『 Penalty: None 』
『 Do you accept this quest? 』
『 Yes 』 『 No 』
Aron cursed. "F*** this!"
As for why he was cursing was a long story. In his 'previous' life, he was not participating in these kind of events even though he knew how beneficial these events could be for his future.
It was because he was busy learning Data Science, Data Analytics, R-Programming Language, Python and MatLab seriously in his sophomore, junior and senior years. He couldn't participate in any Hackathons until the one he did in his senior year.
But the whole thing was done in Android so it used XML and Kotlin mainly. His teammates didn't agree on plugging in the python code he wrote during the event so he was truly embarrassed when it was revealed he had no contribution to the project. He had become from being a well known weeb of the class to a well known weeb of the University. But he suppressed this in the darkest part of his memory and tried to move on with his rest of his classes until he graduated.
[ Author's note: If any weebs reading this novel, please don't take offence :) ]
And voila! He got a job at CIA as a Data Scientist. In just five years he had become Director of Data Analytics and Cryptography department. He had also picked up cryptography seriously while he was working in CIA.
Although his time as the director was not long because of a 'certain' event, the fact remains that he did succeed in getting a great job and smearing his past with sh*t.
But events like Hackathons did remain a nightmare for him.
"Is there no other way?"
The screen changed to:
『 There are but this is the most efficient way. 』
『 Do you accept this quest? 』
『 Yes 』 『 No 』
Aron frowned but he clicked on the『 Yes 』button. He came back to the past so he had to change himself for the better. 'Yes! I am now the Protagonist! I have to save the world!!!' was his inner monologue.
『 F-Rank Quest: Win a Hackathon --- Initiated 』
He looked at the time on his watch and found out that it was still 10:15 in the morning. He went out to meet any teacher in the CompSci Department for more information for this event.
When he reached the staff room, he found the cubicle of his proctor. He entered the cubicle to see a middle-aged man doing some paperwork. The middle-aged man was around 35-40 years old, 5' 10" tall with lanky stature and a french beard. He looked quite handsome and was looking seriously at a booklet which was seemingly an exam answer booklet.
As Aron entered the cubicle, he smiled and politely greeted: "Good morning, Mr. Williams"
As the middle-aged man, Mr. Ryan Williams looked at Aron, he smiled back and kept the booklet aside and greeted Aron back.
"Good Morning, Mr. Clark. Is there anything you need from me?"
"Yes, Mr. Williams. I would like to learn more about the upcoming hackathon which was announced yesterday."
"Oh! That's surprising that you would be interested in this event, Mr. Clark. There is a pamphlet that has all the details about the upcoming hackathon. I will give it to you, Please wait a moment."
He opened a drawer and rummaged through it to take out a pamphlet out of it. He looked at it for a few seconds before handing it over to Aron.
"Mr. Clark, this is the information you are looking for. Please do submit your team details before the deadline. I hope your team would do well."
"Thank you, Mr. Williams. I will take my leave."
"You're welcome, Mr. Clark."
Aron left the cubicle and left Mr. Williams alone in it.
Mr. Williams sat back on his seat. He felt an invisible pressure while talking to Aron. He always had this ability to gauge people's aura while interacting with them. It similar to when he was talking to the Principal. But the feeling he got from Aron was different. The feeling he got from the Principal was like he was interacting with an authoritative fox.
But the feeling he got from this young man was like he was interacting with a mighty Dragon. It was so full of forbearance and calmness that he got scared. After thinking about it for a few minutes, he smiled bitterly and muttered.
"That was a first, huh..."