How often have you walked past a group of thugs and clenched your fists in your trouser pockets, secretly hoping that one of them will steal the handbag of the grandma on the street corner and you can show your great moral courage. How often have you imagined to give someone a brave push to save him from the approaching truck and his happy life in the next world?
Instead, Ping stood there like an idiot, facial derangements similar to a suffocating goldfish. Three seconds, four, then the two of them were on the next wall in the room. While he held his head, an exemplar of a particularly meticulous glasses girl was already calling the police.
Another student agitatedly skulked around the two women to show soothing hand gestures that were completely ignored. It was like join-in activities in the middle of a circus stage.
Ping still wondered whether he should just go right through it or turn around and take the side entrance to reach the lobby from the outside. At least he wouldn't stand there and gape. Aren't these people who stop to observe traffic accidents and keep the rescue forces from their work the worst scum? However, both were not options that made him happy. Deep down, he would rather be the hero and not ran away, even if the two were ugly as hell and yelled at each other as if they had escaped who knows which prison.
>> User. The system sensors indicate an incident. New quest: Appease those who are quarrelling. <<
Well, his own sensors have been pointing to an incident for much longer - one of the kind that you have when you have diarrhoea and are beyond a toilet. Still, that was the very welcome last nudge he needed. Ping resolutely closed his still open mouth, clenched his fists and took the first step.
Just then another loud person came rushing in to pull the two squabblers very roughly apart and then talk very angrily to the old woman. While the man was giving a lecture, Ping took a step backwards and turned on his heel to walk to the side door. What a bummer.
>> Quest failed. << Someone said through the plug in his ear and he shook his head. If a mood can hit bottom, here we are. The tension eased a little and anger boiled up for even getting into such a stupid situation. He would definitely use the elevator on his way back.
"Why did I even take the stairs?" Ping mumbled defiantly.
In the background a system began to speak: >> Reverse engineering. The recovery of source code from machine code with a disassembler or a decompiler, as well as the reconstruction of communication protocols through observation with a sniffer and the subsequent creation of a model with the available source code... <<
Ping's thoughts had already drifted away into the past. He saw two elementary school students standing on a parking lot in front of the village's elementary school. In front of them was a middle school student who looked like a giant from the perspective of elementary school students. 'Listen, you squirt ..' he preached with angry face to one them while using his index finger like a mother scolding their children.
"Leave him alone!" the second elementary school student shouted and took a running jump to punch the giant in the stomach. An attack that remained completely, and even for an elementary school kid surprisingly, ineffective - as if you had thrown a pillow.
The giant closed his eyes, both palms up, as if he had found his way to enlightenment. "What's the matter with you guys...?!" he blurted out, staring at the little boxer who stared back fearlessly. The picture became blurry and what is being said could no longer be heard by Ping. The frowning giant withdraw for whatever reason, the fight is won. "You are so brave Atari!" exclaimed a sparkling elementary school student.
Back in reality, a wall of lockers rose up in front of him. Big lockers at the bottom and small ones at the top. On the side smiled a cheap plastic Buddha framed by an artificial potted plant, which should probably contribute to the stylish interior of the building.
>> .. that is why uploading a design specification shall be the most efficient method to trace back a hardware base model. <<
"Sorry?" A teacher would certainly have received the same answer after he dared to wake a sleeping student.
>> This system defined that... <<
"Ok, let's talk about this time capsule thing again."
Was does it take to make a more or less rationally thinking person believe in something like a system? He absent-mindedly opened the envelope with the key and walks to the number written on it.
There were lots of thoughts about his life and everything that was wrong in it buzzing in his head. Sounds like a premature mid-life crisis. Objectively, he had a bright future ahead of him. Healthy, an apartment funded by a scholarship, an excellent bachelor's degree and master's degree in prospect and still with a couple of social contacts left. There's was no difficult childhood, even if the divorce wasn't a good time. There was no hidden trauma to deal with, even if the roller coaster ride of his mood was not limited to USB stick incidents. Why was there this dissatisfaction?
>> As previously defined, the minimal requirements for such a device is an energy source and radio signal emitter such as a Wi-Fi device. A design with mechanical timer in combination with a corrosion-free and vacuum-protected packaging is suggested. An improvised insulating oil, may help to protect the battery lifetime. <<
Ping turned the key and the sound of a falling coin echoed from inside the box. The number 25 on the box also stoods for his sister's birthday, the second day of May. When he opened the box, the cleaned pot was in front of him. It was a small stainless steel saucepan with a long handle that he bought for his induction stove for little money in the supermarket.
>> The, here available, metropolitan network has revealed that sufficient physical computing platforms for rapid prototyping are for sale to implement the necessary technical functionality. With this systems general construction plans and reverse engineering capabilities contained in the current database, it is principally possible to design a device from electronic scrap. <<
There are these days when you get up and want to go to these flat earthers to protest against reptoids just to change something in your life. If you would receive an email that said, 'Join my secret society,' which in truth is surely a web novel-reading internet sect, you'd hit the OK button and if your buddy asks you to become a vigilante to beat up some dangerous criminals in a superhero costume because your destiny is to rescue to world - you would go and get your tights out of the closet. Today just became such a day.
"Alright."
...
>> Whatever is randomly alright, this system is very glad about it. <<
He closed the box without touching the saucepan and discreetly ignored the guy on his side who surely expected that he was addressed with the last sentence. These bloody in-ear headphones...
"Alright. Let's build it. Let's go and make this magic device reality. In the worst case it's just a bottle message." That was like a keyword which told the guy on his side, now with a knowing look on his face, to take his distance. At a second thought, maybe he should not have taken this path. Wasn't it already enough to be computer science student called Ping, without having the eighth grader syndrome? He may as well start reading web novels.
But the doubts did not matter any more, Ping was pumped up and his determined pose showed that his mood could change faster than a breast-sucking infants'.
>> This system provides a list of necessary items together with the closest location to acquire it. The list shall change according to the user's preferences and access to resources. <<
Ping swiftly went to the exit, to not completely ruin his reputation, before he started talking again.
"I think I have a couple of devices which could be used. How about an old notebook with a bit of an overheated graphics card or a router which I bricked with openwrt for a student project? I also still have the battery from my already sold scooter."
He went down the small staircase at the entrance of 'The Brick' and left the campus to stand in front of a three-lane main road. He turned left, away from the small copy shop and supermarket. There was no way he could walk to the next electrical shop as the road with it's rundown shops stretched for miles from east station right to the pedestrian zone in the city centre.
There were at least five beauty and manicure salons, two laundrettes and the combined amount of sports bars but whenever he passed these shops there was not a single customer inside. It was sure puzzling that they can earn enough to stay open.
>> These materials can strongly reduce the cost, but batteries filled with acid, lose their charge and should be installed within 15 months of manufacture. Hence, they shall not be recommend. <<
Then a lecture on batteries started and Ping walked past the parking area with the crooked fence.