NOVEL NEXT Chapter 61: He's in (an interview)
Tristan pressed on his hacking skill and experimentally put 400 points in it.
[Ding!]
[Hacking skill increased from 1 to 401.]
Immediately, information flooded his mind.
Various methods of hacking computers and online accounts, as well as methods of protection from them. Of course, to know that, Tristan had to understand a lot about programming as well.
The flood of pure knowledge made Tristan's head spin for a moment.
After that, he just sat in front of his laptop for a moment, staring at the wallpaper.
Before advancing the skill, he wanted to try hacking into someone's email.
But now Tristan knew just how hard it was, and how naïve he was before to think that hacking happened like in movies!
It was much more complex than mashing a keyboard and saying "I'm in".
Major email websites had multiple layers of protection from hackers. It was a matter of prestige for them to not be hacked, just as important as it was for the Pentagon.
Whenever something like that happened, it was an exception, and it certainly took more time than an evening.
However, Tristan didn't fully despair.
He still had plenty of knowledge.
The most important part of that knowledge sounded like that: "In a computer system, the weakest link for a hacker is usually the user."
Most of the time, when someone was hacked, it was because they clicked on a wrong link.
Tristan learned about methods to exploit the user to bypass even advanced protection systems like Google's.
For example, he learned about methods of creating a "trojan". Trojans, called after the Trojan Horse, were a type of computer virus that sneakily hid in the target computer and pretended to be a normal program. Then it could do just about anything there, starting from stealing data and passwords of the owner.
They could still be noticed by antiviruses, but… this was an acceptable risk.
Tristan nodded to himself.
'I will make a good trojan now. Delivering it to the target computer will be harder, but if this is a computer of someone I know, I can just send the trojan's installation file masked as something innocent.'
That type of thing was a more powerful weapon than the guns Tristan stashed in his closet, in a sense.
However, Tristan still needed more expertise.
[Ding!]
[Hacking skill increased from 401 to 1401.]
This was an entirely new level! A level Tristan didn't think necessary to reach with his skills before.
His head spun so much that he had to lean on the table to stay upright.
Then his eyes flared with the passion of creation.
He knew what he wanted, and how to do it. The combination was as intoxicating as inspiration for a song, although it was an inspiration for a computer virus.
After grabbing himself a can of cold cola from the fridge, Tristan began programming like a man possessed.
He only made breaks to order food delivery and spent the rest of the day and a major part of the next night coding his trojan. Experience the journey with m_vl_em_p_yr
[Ding!]
[Hacking skill increased by 1. Reward: your PP increased by 10.]
[Ding!]
[Hacking skill increased by 1. Reward: your PP increased by 10.]
[Ding!]
[Hacking skill increased by 1. Reward: your PP increased by 10.]
[Ding!]
[Hacking skill increased by 1. Reward: your PP increased by 10.]
Eventually, it was done.
Tristan called the trojan "Beholder".
It was a simple, subtle program that pretended to be a system application. However, whenever the user typed something, it recorded the text, then sent it all to a small hidden server, which Tristan arranged.
This included all passwords and sensitive letters the target sent. Or even didn't send, but typed and then deleted.
That kind of software, Tristan found while working, could sell for a good sum on the dark web.
He didn't do it. Instead, he masked the Beholder as a music file with his Dragonfly song and posted it on a random forum as a test.
Then he could only wait.
***
Next day.
For that interview, instead of one of his fake leather jackets, Tristan actually put on a suit. A dark blue-gray suit which looked almost black, with a white shirt and without a tie, which showed off some of Tristan's muscles.
Driving in his new car, Tristan didn't worry at all that the suit would wrinkle or get dusty while he was riding a moped.
When Tristan walked in that suit with the aura of confidence he practiced so much in, he didn't look like an office worker. Instead, he actually looked dangerous, like a mafioso!
And he was smiling to himself, because he found about something amusing and exciting that was about to happen today, and was already anticipating it.
Like that, Tristan entered the Golden Talent Group building.
Even in the lobby, he attracted the eyes of people with his appearance and charisma. Sadly, none of these people saw Tristan's performance yet—it was not released on TV yet—but they still were wondering what kind of talented person he was.
Tristan looked like a man who could be a model, or an actor, if he wanted to.
The receptionist asked his name and then directed Tristan to an office for the interview.
The same talent agent that gave Tristan a business card greeted Tristan. However, now this middle-aged man looked at Tristan with an entirely different attitude.
He was hiding nervousness from the moment he greeted Tristan politely.
Tristan tensed, but acted like nothing happened, continuing with normal pleasantries.
"So, I'd like to talk about the terms your agency suggested for my contract. You had mentioned a 10% cut of my future earnings—does that include legal fees?"
Instead of replying to Tristan's question, the agent shook his head.
"I deeply apologize, Mr. Gemello… But after considering things again, our agency decided we can't offer you a contract. I'm sure that you will easily be taken in by many other agencies after the success of your debut song at the Californian Young Star contest."
Tristan was taken aback—but only for a moment.
Then he smirked.
"Is this your decision, or your boss's? Or the boss of your boss's? I want to talk to him. I want to talk with Mr. Garstean!"