I. The Silent Consultation
Alex knew he couldn't just give Maya the answer; she was a programmer and valued logic above all else. A magical piece of advice from the "popular guy" would make her suspicious. He had to be the catalyst.
—The problem is a trust issue between the server and the database, not code—Alex said, pointing to an area of the monitor. With Charisma (Level 12), every word sounded like undeniable truth. —Jess's file system is requesting too many authentication tokens at the same time. You need a light proxy to handle those authentication batches, giving the middleware a single point of control.
Maya took off her glasses, rubbing her eyes swollen from lack of sleep.
—I don't have time to build a proxy from scratch, Alex. I need something simple, a quick fix—Her voice was a whisper of desperation.
Alex activated Intelligence (Level 4), combined with the underlying knowledge the System had granted him upon acquiring Cunning.
—Don't build it. Reconfigure the API protocol to only send an initial checksum request and then store the session in temporary memory for ten minutes. If you use a non-standard network port for the checksum, the database won't get saturated with unnecessary handshake requests.
Maya blinked, her technical mind analyzing the concept. It was dirty, a temporary emergency solution, but it was executable and fast.
She turned to her keyboard and, without a word, began typing with renewed fury. Alex remained silent, watching the dance of her fingers across the keys. Over the next hour, he only offered minimal corrections on port syntax and message queue management.
II. The Bug Solved and the First Kiss
At 3:47 AM, a sharp beep echoed in the room, followed by a bright green message on Maya's main screen: "File Integration 2.0: Status OK. Acceptable Latency."
Maya leaned back in her chair, letting out a sigh that seemed to release three weeks of tension. She stared at the screen, unable to believe the monster had stopped roaring.
She turned to Alex. There was no longer hostility in her eyes, but a deep, sudden vulnerability. Her gaze settled on his smile, which for the first time did not seem practiced, but genuinely relieved.
—No one else at this school, not even the computer science teachers, would have known how to do that—she muttered. Then, her eyes narrowed in a gesture of personal calculation—. Who are you really, Alex?
Alex felt a knot in his stomach, a nervousness that had nothing to do with System statistics. —Just someone who isn't afraid of a little broken code. You did the hard work, Maya. I just gave you the flashlight.
Maya stood up abruptly. She was a girl of direct actions, just like her code. She approached Alex and grabbed the lapels of his sports jacket, gently pulling him toward her.
—You saved me. And I've been awake for 50 hours. Now...—she said quietly, with an intensity that made the air between them vibrate. Immediately afterward, she kissed him. It was a brief, awkward kiss, loaded with caffeine and technical relief, but it was real.
She pulled back quickly, her face slightly flushed, the first time Alex had seen her lose her composure.
—Whatever you need, in the code, on