erOS

I took another swig of Mountain Dew, savouring the sugar rush as I frantically corrected and typed in new lines of code into my computer. Green lines rolled past my eyes and my fingers flew across the keyboard. It was late- 2 am. Or was that early? I honestly didn't care. What I did care about, however, was the $100 I was getting offered to finish this guy's coding project by 8 am. I just had at worst half an hour to go before those $100 were mine.

Suddenly, a job notification pinged. I frowned, curious. My services were only available to those in this time zone, after I lost $150 because I forgot Seattle was in a different timezone to where I lived. This meant someone was asking me to save their project... at 2 am.

They were . And people paid good money. I clicked off my current project and checked out the job.

I clicked on the job description. It was from a user named TheEtherealSpectator:

Lil pet project of mine. Pretty big, so don't even bother trying to edit/go through the full thing. Just need u to edit this bit. I'll give u $1500 if u finish it in the next 24 hrs and 50 bucks less per day u take. Additionally, if u finish it within 15 days you'll be the only person in the world w/ access to this program.

It was pretty cryptic, to say the least. I had rarely ever had to edit personal projects. Most of the codes I went through were school projects or the occasional office assignment. Most of the 'personal projects' I did were from this one person who kept asking me to make him video game mods to make the females nude. Also, I didn't quite understand the final sentence. Only person in the world with access to this program.

But all my doubts vanished when I saw the price tag. $1500!! That was insane! The most amount of money I'd ever gotten was $200! And I knew it wasn't a scam. I had installed a sneaky feature in my website to check the bank balances of the user, and it did not let a user promise more than 75% of their bank account. I had a pay first policy, where if I didn't get the money first, they wouldn't get their project.

I clicked off the current project I was working on- I could return to it later. The thought of $1500 made my mouth water. The kind of stuff that money could buy! Although me and my Mom weren't 'poor', we sure as hell weren't rich, probably lower middle class. We had a big house, because my Mom got it from my Dad when he ran off but it was by no means an expensive house. The need for money was partly why I set this business up.

Without hesitation, I clicked on the link he sent. My screen smoothly loaded the page. It was all ball, but then in red lettering, the word erOS flashed onto the screen. Below it read 'Erotic Rulings Operation Systems'. I sighed reading that. Phew, it was probably just some in-depth porn game this dude developed.

I clicked into the section of code he wanted me to fix. It wasn't too hard- I zoomed through it in an hour. I began to feel something was off... why was he paying me $1500 for a $75 job? After I finished, I clicked off the section to see what really the game was about.

And whoa. It was A LOT. There was probably more code in this than every single Assassin's Creed Game... _combined. _After nursing my overloaded PC and connecting my backup one so I could process all the data without something exploding, I briefly scrolled through, hoping to understand what the hell was going on.

Aaaaand I didn't. It was an insane amount of complex jargon. I didn't know more than half the stuff in here, and I had done MIT coding Finals projects. This was CRAZY.

Frowning, I double checked if any viruses or malware had been installed. Nada. And I probably had the most secure system after the Mossad's. Now confused, I went back to my website and opened a private chat with The EtherealSpectator.

_TheCodeSmith: _Yo. So I was looking through your project and damn

_TheCodeSmith: _There's a shifton of stuff. Like the amount of code in that overloaded TWO PCs. And I don't understand a word of it. Mind telling me what's going on?

Not expecting a reply, I was about ready to go back to my old project when, surprise surprise, I received a reply.

_TheEtherealSpectator: _haha lmao I told u not to look

_TheCodeSmith: _I couldn't resist a peek

_TheEtherealSpectator: _lmao don't worry it's nothing crazy. you'll find out if you complete it in 15 days, tho it looks like you've already completed it

_TheCodeSmith: _Why r u willing to pay so much for this

_TheEtherealSpectator: _Shud I b paying less?

Jasper smacked his forehead.

_TheCodeSmith: _monotono but like its still a lot

_TheEtherealSpectator: _lmao I'm quite passionate about erOS. I think u will become when u receive it

_TheCodeSmith: _u mean you'll allow me to keep refining it after I give it to u

_TheEtherealSpectator: _sure. there's a lot to be changed

Jasper frowned. What did he mean? Every instinct told Jasper to shut the chat off, and block this mysterious buyer. This offer was too, too good to be true. $1500 for such light work? But Jasper knew he'd get the easy money. And a strong part of him was sorely tempted to understand this incredibly piece of code.

_TheCodeSmith: _k, editing done. deposit the cash and you'll get ur project.

Despite Jasper knowing the money would come, when he received a notification saying $1500 was transferred to his bank account, his eyes widened in joy. He sent the finished application back to TheEtherealSpectator.

_TheEtherealSpectator: _thx. drop me a note if u have questions. have fun with erOS

Jasper responded his thanks for the money, before clicking on the application that was downloading in his laptop. To his dismay, the amount of code was a lot, and it would only be downloaded by the afternoon, when he was back from school. Dismayed and burning with curiosity, Jasper went to bed, wondering what awaited with him in the game.