The Advanced Computing Club room was not what Leo expected. It wasn't a sterile lab, but a space that seemed to hum with a different kind of energy. Exposed brick walls were lined with whiteboards covered in dense, elegant equations and sprawling system architectures. Racks of servers hummed softly in one corner, their blinking LEDs a silent symphony. Large monitors displayed real-time data visualizations of everything from network traffic to algorithmic stock market simulations. The air smelled of ozone, fresh coffee, and… ambition.
At the center of it all, like the queen at her chessboard, sat Evelyn Sterling.
She was at a large, curved desk, three monitors arrayed before her, her silver-blonde hair stark against the dark material of her high-backed chair. She didn't look up as Leo entered, her fingers flying across a mechanical keyboard with a rapid, staccato rhythm.
[Evelyn 'Eve' Sterling - Emotional State: Hyper-Focused / Analytical Overdrive]
[Goodwill:Neutral+ (30/100)]
[Current Plot Node:'Formal Evaluation' - Active]
[Hint:Eve is running a simulation of your proposed 'Silent Consensus' solution. Her initial impression is positive but skeptical. She expects flaws. Your conduct during this evaluation will set the tone for your membership.]
Leo waited, not wanting to interrupt. After a full minute, the rapid typing ceased. Eve leaned back slightly, still not turning, and spoke to the room. "Chen. You're three minutes early. Submit your written solution to the terminal by the door. Then stand there and don't touch anything."
Her voice was cool, precise, devoid of any warmth. Leo followed instructions, placing his carefully written and annotated solution into a scanner next to the door. A soft beep confirmed receipt.
Eve's screens flickered. His document appeared on her rightmost monitor. She began to read, scrolling slowly.
The silence stretched, thick and heavy. Leo could feel the weight of her intellect in the room, a tangible pressure. This was her domain, and he was being assessed on a molecular level.
After what felt like an eternity, she spoke again, her eyes still glued to the screen. "The core premise is non-standard. You abandon detection. Why?"
"It's a losing battle," Leo answered, keeping his voice level. "If the lie is perfect internally, no diagnostic run on the node itself can reveal it. The problem states detection is impossible. So, you design around the pathology. You make the system's correct function independent of identifying the pathological agents."
"Redundancy through probabilistic committee overlap," Eve murmured, more to herself than to him. She highlighted a section of his algorithm. "The convergence proof is… elegant. Unconventional, but the logic chain holds." She turned her chair, finally facing him. Her blue eyes were sharp, analytical lenses. "Who helped you?"
The question was a trap, designed to see if he'd claim sole credit for a collaborative insight. Aly's spark had been crucial, but the architecture was his.
"I discussed the concept of 'perfect hypocrites' with a classmate," he said honestly. "It helped shift my perspective from detection to pattern analysis. The solution architecture is mine."
Eve's expression didn't change, but a flicker of something—respect for the honesty, perhaps—passed through her eyes. "Acknowledging influence without diminishing ownership. Acceptable." She turned back to the screens. "Your solution to problem two meets the club standard. Congratulations. You are now a probationary member of the Advanced Computing Club."
A system notification flashed.
[Special Challenge: 'The Trial by Logic' - COMPLETE.]
[Reward:Advanced Computing Club Membership (Probationary) Granted.]
[Eve Sterling Goodwill:+20 (50/100)]
[Resonance Points Gained:+100 (Completion Bonus)]
[New Club Perk Unlocked:Access to high-end computing resources, specialized lectures, and project collaboration boards.]
[New Plotline Unlocked:'Climbing the ACC Ranks']
"Probation lasts one month," Eve continued, swiveling back. "You will attend all mandatory meetings, complete assigned grunt work—code review, data cleaning, documentation for ongoing projects. In return, you have access to our resources and the right to propose your own projects, subject to my approval." She stood up, and Leo was reminded she was tall, almost his height, and carried herself with an imperious grace. "Your first assignment: the campus network traffic anomaly."
She gestured to a visualization on the center screen—a map of the campus Wi-Fi network, with several nodes flashing an unhealthy red. "For the past week, there have been intermittent, localized latency spikes and packet loss in three buildings: the Library, the Arts Center, and the Gym. Physical infrastructure checks show no faults. IT is baffled. I suspect a software-level issue, possibly a misconfigured Quality of Service protocol or a benign but resource-hogging process. Your task: find the root cause and propose a fix. Use our monitoring tools. Report findings by Friday."
It was a real, messy, open-ended problem—a perfect probationary task. "Understood," Leo said.
"Good. You may use terminal three." She pointed to a workstation in the corner. "Do not interfere with the other members' work. Do not ask me obvious questions. Read the documentation first."
With that, she returned to her own work, dismissing him.
Leo settled at terminal three, logging in with his new credentials. The system was powerful, the tools professional-grade. He pulled up the network monitoring suite and dove into the data.
The problem was fascinating. The latency spikes were brief but severe, and they seemed to… move. They'd appear in the Library for 10 minutes, vanish, then pop up in the Arts Center an hour later. It was almost like a ghost in the machine.
[Personal Challenge: 'The Campus Ghost']
[Objective:Identify the root cause of the network anomaly.]
[Reward:Eve's Substantial Respect, Full Club Membership, RP.]
[Hint:The pattern is non-random. Look for a correlation outside the network data itself.]
He spent the next two hours buried in logs, traffic flows, and system metrics. The cause wasn't in the routing tables or the firewall settings. He expanded his search, cross-referencing the spike timestamps with campus event schedules, weather data, even power grid logs. Nothing.
Frustrated, he leaned back. Think like a network, not just a technician. In his past life, he'd understood systems as living things with rhythms and resonances. What was the rhythm here? The spikes moved between three locations. Library. Arts Center. Gym. What did they have in common? They were all large public spaces with high, intermittent foot traffic. But the spikes didn't correlate perfectly with peak usage hours.
He pulled up a campus map. The three buildings formed a rough triangle. The anomaly was hopping.
An idea, wild and improbable, struck him. He opened a new tab and searched for "Pacific Tech campus IoT devices." The list was long: smart lighting, HVAC sensors, digital signage, vending machine inventory monitors… and a new pilot program: "Campus Guardian" autonomous security drones.
Bingo.
He dug deeper. The Guardian drones were small, wheeled robots that patrolled indoor corridors at night, equipped with cameras and environmental sensors. They connected to the Wi-Fi for navigation updates and data upload. The pilot program had just expanded last week to include the Library, Arts Center, and Gym during their late-night closed hours.
He pulled the drone deployment logs. The timing was perfect. Each latency spike coincided precisely with a drone initiating a large, high-priority data sync—likely video footage—while on the move between Wi-Fi access points. The drone's connection handoff protocol was apparently poorly optimized, creating a localized flood of management packets that temporarily choked the access point.
It wasn't a ghost. It was a clumsy robot.
He documented his findings meticulously: evidence logs, correlation charts, a clear causal chain. He even drafted a simple fix: tweak the drone's sync protocol to be less aggressive, or schedule syncs for when the drone was stationary at a charging dock.
He was finalizing his report when the clubroom door swung open with a cheerful bang.
"Leo! There you are! I brought sustenance!"
Aly stood in the doorway, holding two large boba teas and a paper bag smelling distinctly of garlic fries. She was dressed in bright overalls over a graphic tee, a stark contrast to the room's severe tech aesthetic. Her eyes swept the room with open curiosity, landing on Eve, who had looked up from her work with a frown that could freeze lava.
[ALERT: Unplanned Multi-Party Interaction - 'First Whiff of Roses']
[Participants:Leo (You), Alyssa Dawson (Goodwill: 75), Evelyn Sterling (Goodwill: 50)]
[Dynamic:Chaotic/Playful Energy vs. Ordered/Controlled Environment]
[Potential Outcomes:Comedy, Tension, or a surprising new connection.]
"Alyssa Dawson," Eve said, her voice dripping with frost. "This is a secured club room. Not a food court."
"Relax, Eve. I come bearing gifts for our newest code wizard." Aly breezed in, completely unfazed by the glacial atmosphere. She plopped a boba tea on Leo's desk. "Wintermelon, right? You seemed like a wintermelon guy." She offered the other drink to Eve with an impish grin. "And for Her Highness, something bitter and strong. Black coffee tea, no sugar, no pearls. Just like your personality."
Eve stared at the proffered drink as if it were a dead rodent. "I do not consume beverages of unknown origin during work hours."
"Suit yourself. More for me later." Aly shrugged, placing the drink on the edge of Eve's desk anyway. She then pulled up a rolling chair next to Leo, peering at his screen. "Ooh, network ghosts? Find the culprit yet?"
Leo, caught between amusement and mild panic, quickly summarized his findings about the security drones.
Aly listened, munching on a fry. "So, the campus is getting lag because of Roombas with cameras? That's hilarious. And kind of stupid."
"It's an optimization flaw in the handoff protocol," Eve interjected coldly, though she was now glancing at the coffee tea. "Hardly 'hilarious.' It represents a waste of institutional resources and a failure in testing."
"See? Hilarious," Aly whispered loudly to Leo, winking.
Eve's eye twitched. She stood and walked over to Leo's terminal, her presence looming. She scanned his report on the screen, her sharp eyes missing nothing. For several long moments, she was silent.
Then, she nodded once, a sharp, economical motion. "The analysis is correct. The conclusion is logical. The proposed solution is practical and low-cost." She looked at Leo, and for the first time, there was a glimmer of something approaching… approval. "You solved in four hours what IT has been scratching their heads over for a week. Well done, Chen. Your probation is waived. You are a full member."
[Personal Challenge: 'The Campus Ghost' - COMPLETE.]
[Reward:Full ACC Membership Granted.]
[Eve Sterling Goodwill:+25 (75/100) - Significant jump due to demonstrated exceptional competence.]
[Resonance Points Gained:+150]
[New Perk:'Eve's Notice' - Your projects will now receive higher priority and more serious consideration.]
"Thanks," Leo said, feeling a genuine surge of accomplishment.
"Now," Eve said, turning her icy gaze to Aly, who was innocently blowing bubbles into her tea. "The social hour is concluded. Dawson, unless you are here to apply to the club—which would require passing the problem set, a feat I find statistically improbable—you will vacate the premises. We have work to do."
Aly stuck her tongue out at Eve's back as she returned to her desk, but she stood up. "Fine, fine. I know when I'm not wanted." She leaned close to Leo, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper that was still perfectly audible. "See? Told you she was scary. But you handled her. I'm impressed." She gave his shoulder a friendly squeeze. "Don't work too late, wizard. Remember, we have that AI project to start planning soon!"
With a final cheerful wave to the room at large (which only Eve and Leo occupied), she bounced out, leaving behind the scent of fries and a palpable shift in the room's energy.
The silence she left was different. Less heavy.
Eve took a sip from the black coffee tea Aly had left. She didn't grimace. In fact, she took another, longer sip. "It's… adequate," she admitted, almost grudgingly, to the room. Then she looked at Leo. "Your… associate. She is disruptive. But her choice of beverage is not entirely without merit."
It was the closest thing to a positive comment about another human being Leo had ever heard from Eve Sterling.
[Multi-Party Interaction 'First Whiff of Roses' - Concluded.]
[Outcome:Positive Comedy with Undercurrent of Rivalry.]
[Effects:]
· Aly: Enjoyed teasing Eve, reinforced her 'partner-in-crime' dynamic with Leo. Goodwill: +2 (77/100). Bond slightly strengthened through shared 'us vs. the ice queen' moment.
· Eve: Annoyed but secretly appreciative of the beverage. Intrigued by Leo's social circle. Goodwill unchanged from earlier gain, but a new hidden flag 'Awareness of Alyssa Dawson' has been set.
· Leo: Successfully navigated first minor '修羅場' (shuraba) without casualties. Earned respect in both spheres.
Eve finished her tea and disposed of the cup with precise efficiency. "Your next project proposal is due by end of next week. Think ambitiously. This club does not tolerate mediocrity." A pause. "And tell Dawson that if she must visit again, she is to bring more of that tea. The brand. Not… her commentary."
"Yes, ma'am," Leo said, hiding a smile.
He left the clubroom as the evening deepened. The Mindscape beckoned. Inside, the changes were clear. Eve's silver-blue orb now shone with a brighter, steadier light, its connection thread to him thicker, stronger. Aly's pink orb sparkled with playful energy. Mei's white orb glowed with serene constancy.
And on the far edge of his perception, the crimson-and-green orb labeled [Athletic Spirit] pulsed faintly, as if stirred by the day's events. The Gym had been one of the anomaly locations. Coincidence? The system offered no answer.
He had cemented his place in a world of high intellect and cold ambition. He had maintained his connection to a world of chaos and warmth. And he had a steady anchor in a world of gentle nostalgia and growing affection.
The threads were distinct, but they were all connected to him. The first subtle, comedic clash of worlds had occurred. It wouldn't be the last.
As he walked back to his dorm, his phone buzzed. A text from Mei: "Hope your club evaluation went well! Just finished a brutal Art History reading. Remembered the cookies we failed to bake. We should succeed this time. Your dorm kitchen, this weekend?"
A smile touched his lips. Then another buzz. Aly: "So, did the Ice Queen melt a little? Or at least not freeze you solid? P.S. We need to brainstorm AI project ideas. I'm thinking something involving prank-detection algorithms. :)"
And a third, from an unknown number: "Chen. The brand is 'Jade Tiger Oolong.' 12 oz. Bring it to the next meeting. –E.S."
He had officially entered the orbit of three compelling, powerful, and utterly different gravitational forces. The Nexus was collecting. The game was on.
[Chapter End]
[Status Update:]
[-ACC Membership: Secured (Full). Prestige increased on campus.]
[-Eve's Respect: Earned. Goodwill at 75/100 – a threshold of genuine professional regard.]
[-Aly's Partnership: Strengthened. Goodwill at 77/100 – entering 'close friend/confidant' territory.]
[-Mei's Invitation: Extended. A domestic, cozy bonding event planned.]
[-Resonance Points: 760 (and growing).]
[Next Chapter Preview:The weekend brings the baking date with Mei, where flour fights and heartfelt conversations lead to a moment of undeniable closeness. Meanwhile, Leo's rising profile attracts the attention of a charismatic but arrogant senior from the Business School, setting the stage for the first real '裝逼打臉' (face-slapping) scenario…]**