"How is this even possible?"
I turned the tablet once more to make sure I had the right device.
I swallowed. "Magic and programming are..."
Shaking my head firmly, I corrected myself. "Magic is programming. Or programming is magic. Either way..."
A broad grin spread across my face. "This is incredible."
If magic was the same as programming, then there were countless possibilities I could explore.
Hacking into others’ magic, or stepping into the domain of a knight and preventing them from using aura.
The possibilities were endless.
To start, I could use the weakest spells and debug them, then...
Before I realized it, I had fallen onto the bed, still grinning.
I was already close to the peak of modern-day technology.
’Is this a challenge from the gods?’
I licked my lips. "Don’t mind if I do."
I sat upright sharply, slapping my cheeks before grabbing the tablet again.
This time I studied the magic circle closely.
"If I had to guess, then this most likely runs through both functions and persistent function, with the tablet acting as a constant with a boolean."
In short, the tablet was most likely given a set of instructions to execute using the first runes on the magic circle as the function.
Then, the tablet, being a constant that doesn’t change physically, operates that task, while the boolean serves as an on-and-off switch.
The persistent function, on the other hand, acted as a thread to ensure the loop never stops until the condition of destruction was met.
I exhaled heavily, beads of sweat forming at my temples, as I stared at my hand.
"Just this much, and I’m drained."
I clicked my tongue. "All that training of not sleeping for days in front of a screen, wasted."
Still, the concept of the tablet was rather simple.
Resting a hand against my chin, my thoughts raced at full speed.
’What if I try this on my body?’ Follow current novels on Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
It made sense if I applied it to myself. After all, in magic worlds, the body and core were forms of magic or qi.
That meant I could forcibly awaken this body even without a rift.
"Maybe even improve myself physically."
It was definitely plausible.
However, I would need mana for that.
If magic were codes, then mana was most likely the tool used to input those codes.
Meaning, without mana, I was still useless.
I shut my eyes. "Should I...?"
It wasn’t exactly ideal considering the character Allen Vanderbilt had in the novel.
I closed the tablet’s back cover. "I must become a friend for food today."
Even if he ignored his friend, I wasn’t planning to do the same.
I would ask her for a mana stone or something similar.
If she gave it to me, I, Allen Park, would repay the favor.
And for that, I needed to head out.
I quickly rose from the bed and put on the clean clothes I had tossed aside.
Once I was dressed, I unlocked the tablet, which didn’t even have a password, and searched for the name:
In the novel, she was portrayed as an airhead with sky-blue, almost white hair and golden eyes.
Throughout the story, she was considered beautiful, even as the MC drove a blade into her neck.
The moment I opened the "Chat" app, the very first of three saved names appeared:
My gaze lingered on it a bit too long. "This has to be the weirdest way of saving your best friend’s name."
That was like saving your wife’s number as Wife.
I’d slap my husband if I were that woman.
"At least save it as just Quincy."
I sighed, then tapped on the messages.
It was mostly her complaining about him not talking to her, or asking about his well-being.
Honestly, it was too one-sided to be called a conversation.
My fingers moved quickly as I typed a short message:
Almost instantly, as if waiting for my text, the number replied.
[Childhood Friend: Yeah, come to that café downtown]
I stared at the message. "I don’t know where that is."
[You: Where exactly?]
Beneath the keyboard, the name displayed with the word typing beside it.
I sat on the bed, waiting for a full five minutes before a notification arrived.
[Childhood Friend: To the left]
I clenched my jaw, resisting the urge to punch the screen. "It took her five minutes to type three words?"
I sighed, replied with "okay," and left the apartment.
As soon as I stepped out, I was greeted by an open corridor, each end leading to stairs that reached the ground.
The air still carried the scent of rain even though it had stopped.
Puddles on the ground splashed as people walked by, and vehicles roared from a distance.
I slipped the apartment key into my pocket and went down the left staircase, ignoring the gazes from the two other apartments I passed.
It seemed I had been mistaken.
In this world, Allen wasn’t considered average. He was considered ugly.
’Relax, Allen. You can always hack your face too.’
Nothing was impossible now.
But first, I needed some mana stones.