Stealing Skills in Plain Sight

Together, they hauled the hulking machine into the already cramped living room and wiped it down inside and out with rags.

It was a sit-down cabinet, with the CRT screen set into its wooden frame tilted slightly upward-a very common design that let players sit while playing.

"Holy crap..." Lin Lixin circled it, muttering, "Are you sure this thing still works?"

They had gone through two whole basins of water just cleaning the thing!

Two basins!

"Uh..." Sam plugged it in, but nothing happened. His features scrunched together.

"That can't be right. The guy charged me eight hundred dollars! This thing should still work."

Sam's tone shifted from his earlier firm confidence to hesitation, most of the excitement draining from his words.

That was eight hundred dollars. He had only gritted his teeth and emptied his wallet to buy it because he figured, "With Jesse's legendary game, I'm bound to make my money back."

If this thing didn't work, he really would be a total sucker.

At that thought, Sam slapped the screen in frustration, trying to revive the machine through this traditional yet effective method.

But no matter what brutal torture he inflicted on the arcade cabinet, it showed no sign of life.

This thing really was a piece of junk!

"We're screwed, Jesse." Sam's face fell into a sour scowl. "I think that old guy ripped me off."

Lin Lixin was speechless. Didn't this doofus know to power it on and test it before handing over the money?

An eight-hundred-dollar machine, and he had hauled it home without batting an eye.

"Don't you know how to fix electronics? You were the one who fixed my Atari 2600."

Lin Lixin suddenly remembered that Sam always had a soldering iron set on his desk, mixed in with all those miscellaneous electronics. It often made him worry that the whole mess might one day become the source of a goddamn fire.

"SHIT, I forgot! I can do that, can't I?"

Sam's eyes widened, as though he had only just remembered he had that trick up his sleeve. He rushed excitedly into his room and came back carrying a clattering armful of odds and ends.

Lin Lixin sat beside him, watching in amazement as he removed the screws from the rear panel one by one. He couldn't help marveling at the boundless ingenuity of people in this era.

After all, this was 1984. Even his Commodore 64, billed as a home computer, had no "graphical operating system" in the modern sense.

The moment he booted it up, he was faced with a BASIC command line, like the screens hackers faced in science fiction movies.

In this era, becoming a computer user was difficult without a few skills of your own.

Sam was just such a typical "geek," a jack of all trades and master of none.

He stuck half his body inside the cabinet, leaving only his big ass sticking out.

After some tinkering, he emerged covered in dust and grime, finally regaining a little of his smile.

"False alarm. Just a few loose connections. I should have it fixed in no time."

He put down the meter and crawled back inside with the plugged-in soldering iron.

Lin Lixin crouched beside him curiously, craning his neck to peer inside.

Almost the instant Sam applied solder to a pin, an electronic synthesized voice abruptly sounded in Lin Lixin's ears.

[Ding!]

[For observing hardware repair, hardware experience +1]

[For observing hardware repair, hardware experience +1]

"What the fuck?"

Lin Lixin froze for a moment, then cried out in surprise.

I can get skills this way too!

He had thought he would have to wait until Tetris was officially finished to receive another system reward. He hadn't expected the system, silent for several days, to suddenly pop up again now.

Lin Lixin's sudden shout startled Sam. His whole body jerked inside the cramped cabinet, and his head slammed hard against the monitor above him.

"F**k... what the hell are you suddenly screaming about?"

He crawled out from underneath, clutching his head. After carefully setting the soldering iron that had nearly burned him into its holder, he looked at Lin Lixin in annoyance.

"Hey, don't stop! Keep going!"

The experience notifications in Lin Lixin's ears abruptly stopped. How could he stand for that? He immediately grew anxious.

The progress bar labeled [New skill acquisition (hardware knowledge)] was just about full, yet Sam had stopped.

"What's wrong with you..."

Sam was utterly baffled, but instead of continuing, he tried reconnecting the power and flipping the switch.

He had already resoldered the loose components in those few moments.

But whether because of that bump just now or something else, although the speaker and power supply now gave off a crackling electrical buzz, the monitor showed no response.

"See? Now there's even more to fix!"

He was complaining about Lin Lixin's inexplicable yell, only to find that Lin Lixin looked excited.

"That's a good thing! Hurry up and fix it. I'm counting on you."

Sam angrily waved the multimeter in his hand, then reluctantly crawled back inside.

This time, Lin Lixin finally got his wish.

[Ding!]

[Skill acquired]:

[The Mystery of 101]: [Basic hardware knowledge acquired, hardware technology learning ability ↑]

A new body of knowledge poured into Lin Lixin's mind.

A few minutes later, Sam crawled out of the cabinet dejectedly and scratched his head.

"No good. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the monitor, so why isn't there a picture?"

Those last few tricks had exhausted all the experience he had.

"How about... I take a look?"

Lin Lixin licked his lips, pulled Sam aside, and crawled in himself.

Rather than focusing entirely on the blank monitor, he turned his attention to the motherboard.

"Let me see. This should be where the problem is."

He repeatedly pressed down on several removable chips, rubbing away the oxidation on their gold contacts that had caused the poor connections. Then, without checking anything else, he crawled straight back out.

"Try powering it on."

Sam gave him a few dubious looks. Since when did Lin Lixin know hardware too? Wasn't software his specialty?

But when he plugged the arcade machine back in and turned it on, his expression froze.

An image made up of blue lines and yellow dots appeared on the screen. Although it was somewhat dim because of the aging CRT, the machine had truly and successfully come to life.

He stared blankly at Lin Lixin beside him.

He had spent half the night struggling with that problem without solving it. How had this guy crawled in and fixed it in less than a minute?

"You... you know this stuff too?"

"A little, a little." Lin Lixin chuckled. "I picked up a few tricks watching you fix it just now. I figured this might work, and it actually did."

Sam learned one lesson: never try to measure yourself against this guy, Lin Lixin.

There was no fucking logic to it.