Integrating into the World

As spring arrived in Los Angeles, the eye-catching sights on the beaches gradually returned, with more women in hot bikinis appearing.

Along with them came men who recklessly exuded hormones—actually pumped full of steroids—flaunting their bronzed skin and chiseled muscles.

The revival of spring also seemed to hint to Henry that his acting career was gradually improving.

From the moment he first registered with the Actors Guild, it took two weeks before he finally landed his first job.

One shot, no lines, likely less than three seconds in the final cut. Even that single shot kept Henry on set for a whole day, earning him a day's pay.

The wage was ten dollars an hour, the union-mandated minimum. Eight hours a day, no overtime, local shoot. So that day's income was eighty dollars.

Lunch was provided by the crew. Since it was a small production, there was no open buffet, but everyone got a burger and fries meal, paired with Otaku happy water or coffee.

Though the shot was just a simple one, filming took over ten minutes. Including prep and transition time, Henry spent a good half hour busy with the crew.

The rest of the time wasn't spent idly either. Because it was a small crew, the producer would have idle Background Actors help with odd jobs.

Like moving props, lights, or lending a hand when the camera needed repositioning. Aside from the key personnel handling things themselves, those Background Actors were pulled in as grunt labor.

Don't think that in Europe or America job scopes are strictly defined—actors just act and leave everything else alone to avoid liability.

In truth, whether in the East or West, knowing how to handle people and situations affects how others perceive you. And that determines whether you get another chance.

Don't assume that being in America, in this advanced society, means you can stop grinding. Those climbing the casting couch—that's a form of grinding too.

As for whether he'd ever see his first on-screen appearance, Henry had no expectations. The crew looked like it was set up to fool investors, with those in charge being extremely half-hearted.

It was only because actors had contracts and the union backing them that they weren't left unpaid. But the clueless investors hoping for a box office smash would likely end up crying in the bathroom.

Having that first Track record on set was like crossing an invisible threshold. Henry's subsequent jobs picked up. On average, he managed to get a day on set each week, wasting a day every time.

If he were like others who'd staked everything on making it in Hollywood, he'd have to find side gigs to survive.

Henry had no such worries. On days without set work, he'd occasionally visit the Los Angeles Public Library or Caltech's library to update his knowledge.

He also shuttled between Blockbuster and home. Besides classic old movies, his viewing categories now included cult B-movies.

Occasionally, he'd contribute a one-person box office at the cinema, enjoying the different feel of the big screen.

But most of his time was spent on that i486 computer from Stark Industries.

This time, Henry wasn't content to be just an ordinary computer user, surfing and chatting on Caltech's electronic bulletin board via Modem.

Nor was he just a coding guru, only using programming languages. Instead, he started from machine language, designing a more reasonable and efficient programming language for himself.

Drawing from Linux's development path, he wrote the kernel, shell, compiler, and libraries, designing an operating system that could squeeze every bit of performance out of the 80486 CPU hardware.

Then, in an era when most hackers were still obsessed with writing computer viruses to destroy others' systems, Henry began scanning IP ranges, planting worms on responding IPs, opening backdoors, and sneaking into others' systems.

To better hide his tracks, he delved into communication protocols, using different encryption methods to breach and issue control commands. This allowed him to slip in and out of others' systems without a trace.

To achieve this, besides exploiting existing system vulnerabilities as the first step of intrusion, the next was to build his own ecosystem, isolating it from the original system to stay hidden.

Then came deleting any traces in the Log file, completely concealing himself. In other words, this wasn't a worm-opening-backdoor approach—it was a parasite.

Intercepting packets indiscriminately wasn't something a mere i486 computer could do; otherwise, Project Prism would have been launched early by some Kryptonian.

It could be said that the Kryptonian, who aimed to lie low in reality, completely let loose online. Every deed he committed, no matter the era, could be considered a crime.

The only justification he could give himself was that Henry told himself he hadn't caused anyone financial loss or altered bank numbers.

It was just to satisfy his personal curiosity, so he peeked at some undisclosed information. And he left a few backdoors in the systems of major institutions as a precaution.

However, anyone who's used a Modem knows how finicky that thing is.

Prolonged use, overheating, or telecom providers tampering with it could all reduce transmission efficiency. Using it during thunderstorms was even worse—a single surge could fry it.

For Henry, a heavy user, buying a new Modem every week was too stupid. So he started studying electrical engineering, optimizing the hardware he had on hand.

As the world's industrial powerhouse, electronic components were plentiful. Otherwise, people like Jobs couldn't have started Apple from a garage with a few friends.

Replacing or modifying resistors and capacitors was minor work. Swapping in better chips or modules was just that.

With a Kryptonian's Heat Vision and micro-manipulation abilities, these tasks were a breeze. Henry even started pondering the possibility of handcrafting chips.

The x86 architecture 80486 CPU had a process between 1 micron and 0.6 microns—impossible to handcraft. But with some tools... maybe it wasn't entirely out of reach.

Since mass production and commercialization weren't the goal, Henry could even use crude methods to make a custom chip, outperforming current commercial products.

It was at this point that Henry truly realized why his super brain was called "super."

Beyond optimizing existing knowledge, it pushed into uncharted territory, and everything came naturally—when he wanted a result, the process just appeared before his eyes.

If he had the Arc Reactor specs on hand, miniaturizing it and handcrafting the Mark I tin can would be easy, he thought.

But none of that compared to the gradually increasing Hollywood work.

Though all were Background Actor roles, Henry never thought about pursuing Supporting Actor or lead roles. But a young white guy unafraid to look ugly, take falls, and trash his image gradually built a reputation among small productions.

New book signed, Request for follow-up reads, collections, recommendations, thanks~~