It did not take long for James to quickly patch the security holes of the web servers. Three hours and a dinner later, James completely patched all the vulnerabilities. Although the servers are now less vulnerable, there was still bound to be attacked in the future.
"Mr Jerry would not be mad if I tweaked his server a little right?" James asked with a raised eyebrow. He recently wrote software meant to secure his AI project from potential attacks in the future, but looking at the current situation, he felt the need to install the software on the servers. He immediately copied the application and uploaded it directly to each of the network drives.
After James uploaded it, he stretched his arms and yawned widely. 'Damn, I've sat here for a long time. Time to go to rest, James thought as he left his study desk.
"Alright, now, all I need is to wait till tomorrow to inform Mr Jerry that I was finished", James said to himself as he closed the website tab and went to his bed and closed his eye for a minute.
James suddenly opened his eye climbed down from his bed and brought out one of the SSD he bought earlier. After examining the outer body for a while, he stood up grabbed his screwdriver's pack and opened the drive carefully.
When all the screws were opened successfully, he gently removed the casing and revealed the components of the device.
"Wow, this is even more complicated than I thought", James said as he felt a headache coming on. If he had thought of building a storage drive from scratch, it would have taken him more than thirty years, if not more to finish a single one.
After carefully inspecting its components, James headed to the internet to further understand each of the components well. "I'm only going to take not more than an hour studying this thing. I have a lot to do on Monday."
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
James had just closed his browser and put his desktop to hibernation. After climbing on his bed, he switch off the lights and proceeded to close his eyes to rest his body. Since he could not sleep, he would need to recover all his strength as a result of sitting for a long time.
Just as he was getting comfortable on his bed, his smartphone vibrated, indicating a new message. James opened his eyes and reached for his cellphone.
The message was from Andy. "Hi James, sorry for chatting with you late, that is if you are awake. I wanted to ask you if you are down to playing one game before you sleep. If you don't, I understand."
James was astonished. This guy was still awake at this time of the night? It is an hour past midnight, and he was still playing games. Don't he have school to go to?
James immediately texted him back. "Andy, are you not going to school?" After sending the message, James closed his eye and sighed. To be honest, it would be better to gain new knowledge or make money than to be playing such mindless games which would only dull the minds of the people playing it.
"Ha-ha. I slept three hours before this time, so in a way, I have bought three hours of awake time, which enables me to play the game very late without any consequences. So about this game, are you down with playing?"
As much as James wanted to decline, he couldn't disappoint Andy. "Alright, I'll play, but only one game. I did not sleep for three hours, so don't expect me to stay up as late as you" James texted back.
"Lol! Alright, see you on the inside" Andy concluded and his staus became offline. James closed the messaging app launched the Call of Duty game and connected his headphone. This would not take too much time right?
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
"Damn it, man, this guy is using a cheat system!" an opponent player cursed after he was killed by James more than ten times in a row. "No, he's not beastkiller@001. Just because I am good doesn't make me a cheater" Andy defended after he killed an opponent player.
"Tsk, I wasn't talking about you noobie, I was talking about your cheater friend," the opponent said angrily.
When the game time ran out, James' squad won the match, infuriating the opponents. They even began reporting James to the game admin. "Ha! You guys are busted, again! Bow to your new king", Andy boasted smugly. One of the opponents, which had the name of beastkiller@001 said "Bunch of idiots, just because you beat us in a friendly match doesn't allow you to be too cocky Unk¶Jaguar" mocked.
"Oh my god, you guys are sore losers, so you cannot admit that you lose, geez" Andy sneered. "Unk¶Cobra used a cheat system, it was very obvious, so stop talking nonsense," beastkiller@001 said, obviously vexed.
James was simply listening to their bantering until he could not take it anymore. "Alright please stop! Andy, are you going to keep insulting them or are we playing another game?"
"Ohh, look at the one true alpha gamer! Do you think you can fool us with all of your fancy moves? We already know you hacked this game, and I don't know how you bypassed the anti-cheat system, but by the time we reported you, you and your stupid novice crews are gonna be booted out of the game you don't deserve to play" he said.
James didn't intend to say anything, but now that he was insulting both he and Andy, he could not help but speak up. "If you think I'm using cheat, which I'm not, why not call any of the best players that you know, let me play solo against him. Maybe it would clear up, whatever you people are thinking" James said boredly.
The opponents then started to crackle. "Wow, look at how confident you are. I admire that, but let me just tell you right now right here. You wouldn't even last a second with my novice brother if you dropped the cheat system that you are using, let alone a pro player. Come on guys, let's leave these clowns and get outta here" he said and attempted to leave.
James sighed and stared at his screen. "Then let me use your account."