Early Adopters S01E02 — Money Maker

Continued from previous episode s01e01: Amir is an aloof but very smart student with uncommon hacking skills. During one of his classes, Amir decides to test his skills by breaching his school network when he stumbles upon something unexpected…

The portal contained hundreds of folders and files, but his attention was immediately caught by one folder named ‘test answers.’

“Did I just enter a forbidden dungeon?” he said to himself as he smirked.

“So much for security, huh?”, he whispered to himself once again. He flipped the laptop’s monitor half-closed and leaned back. He shut his eyes to rest for a while when he heard his classmates talking.

“Dang, exams are coming in a week. My dad’s keeping a close watch on me to make sure I’m studying.”

“My mom locked up my PS4 in her room. I can’t get it back!”

“I’m having a hard time with Math. I suck at Math!”

“My Geography could be worse than your Math. Why do we even have to study it when most of us will live in one country all our lives anyway? Geez.”

As soon as his classmates walked away, he opened his eyes.

“School really is like a walk in the park. A Jurassic park,” he laughed at his own joke.

Amir stretched his arms upward and yawned. He turned to a group of classmates to his right who were talking amongst themselves.

“Man, school is so stressful. We pay a lot of money here for books and uniforms only to make our lives miserable.”

“Why don’t we pay for the answers to the examinations as well so we can all get out of this prison?”

The boys laughed like the jokes they shared were impossible things. But to Amir’s ears, they sounded like the switch to his light bulb. He was struck with an idea.

“Well, I need some wiring and aluminum sheets for that thing,” Amir murmured. “Should I try to open up a small business? A capital-free one, that is. Amir-tastic Key Answers Shop doesn’t sound that bad.”

Amir raised his glasses as they were slipping down the bridge of his nose, and reached into his pocket to get his phone. He scrolled through a few names then began to type. The email addresses of his classmates he extracted from the school portal last week finally found a purpose. He sent out an email using his anonymous email address. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes again.

In less than a minute, all of his classmates’ phones started to ring and vibrate. The students suddenly stopped chatting and the room became filled with the beeping sound of notifications. Amir pretended to take out his phone and have a look , but he was only staring at a locked phone. He patiently waited for his classmates’ reaction.

“Woah!” Christa, one of Amir’s classmates who sat two seats away from him exclaimed in shock and covered her mouth with her hand immediately. She briskly walked towards her best friend, Kim, gesturing with her hand to keep her silence as she showed her phone to her. Kim’s eyes widened as she took the phone from Christa.

“Hey, did you get an email?” Bryan whispered to Amir while sitting on a chair in front of him.

“What email?” asked Amir, faking a surprised expression.

“Oh..uh, nothing. Just some promotional email but it’s probably some scam.” Bryan immediately stood up and walked towards his friend, Billy, who had just arrived. He immediately showed the message to Billy who snatched his phone and started to drag him out of the classroom.

“So easy to read through,” Amir whispered as he watched Bryan and Billy walk away in a hurry.

A few seconds later, Amir could feel his phone vibrate. The corner of his lips raised every time he glanced at his phone. He checked the sent items of his webmail and read the email he had sent out. He had just given out a very tempting offer.

“You can have all the test answers at a very affordable price.”

Suddenly the teacher came in the class and forced everyone to put away their phones and go back to their seats. Amir gave his phone one last glance, locked it and then waited for classes to end.

At home, Amir began to respond to his email inquiries. Meanwhile, he received a bunch of notifications on his phone regarding payment transactions ranging from $25 to $100. He verified payments and started sending out the test answers.

“No one told me owning a small business would be this easy. It won’t pay my tuition fee, but it will sure help me create my new gadget.”

That night, before falling asleep, Amir thought of all the money he would be making the following days and what he would be doing with it.

Previous: s01e01

Next: s01e03, s01e04, s01e05, s01e06, s01e07, s01e08, s01e09, s01e10

Brought to you by Slash.

Written and created by Marc Gamet and Mianne Cudal.

Story-telling Consultant: Robin Narciso.

Drawing by Faisal Arief.