The sun rose sluggishly over Manila, painting the sky in streaks of gray and orange. The city's chaos was slowly stirring awake, the first chorus of revving jeepneys and the high-pitched buzz of tricycles filling the humid air. Inside his cramped room, however, Rafael hadn't slept a wink. His eyes were bloodshot, but his hands trembled with a restless excitement that pulsed through his veins.
The Codex interface hovered faintly before him, lines of flowing code reshaping themselves like living circuits. His old smartphone—reborn through the Codex—sat on his desk, its screen a silent testament to a night of impossible tests. He'd run every application he could find, every data simulation. The battery never dropped below 100%. The phone, a relic just yesterday, now ran with zero lag. It was proof. The Codex was real.
But the excitement quickly soured into a cold knot of anxiety. Rafael knew this secret could not be exposed. If others saw what he held, they would tear it out of his hands. He needed to test, to verify, to plan.
"Codex, what are my options?" he whispered, his voice hoarse.
The system's cold voice answered immediately:
"Host has insufficient resources for large-scale optimization. Recommended course: Low-tier experiments for data accumulation and financial acquisition."
"Money first, huh?" Rafael muttered, a grimace on his face. "Figures. Knowledge doesn't pay the bills unless you package it."
He opened the Codex panel. A new function had appeared after last night's experiment.
Data Pool: 0.02% (Primitive level)
Recommendation: Feed Codex with more objects to expand knowledge database.
Rafael glanced around his shabby room—an old electric fan that rattled more than it cooled, a second-hand laptop with a faulty battery, cheap, yellowing appliances. He remembered the last time he tried to fix a neighbor's fan; the effort had earned him a scolding from the old lady, who claimed he made it worse. With the Codex, that wouldn't happen again. One by one, he placed the items before the glowing cube. The fan, the laptop, a lone incandescent bulb. Each item was scanned, its flaws laid bare in a flood of data.
Electric Fan: Inefficient motor, heat leakage. Optimization possible.
Laptop: Battery degradation, poor cooling, outdated architecture. Optimization possible.
Light Bulb: Incandescent, energy inefficient. Replacement model efficiency 300%.
Each scan filled the Data Pool, and holographic blueprints unfolded in his mind—new circuits, redesigned batteries, lightweight materials. It was like watching the future being carved out of his present.
But then reality crashed down again. "These designs… even if they're real, how do I build them? I don't have a factory. I don't even have money to buy the raw parts!"
"Host requires capital. Suggestion: Begin with small-scale applications capable of rapid financial return. Category: Information Technology."
Rafael blinked. "IT?"
The Codex displayed a simulation: an algorithmic trading bot, optimized beyond conventional AI. In his mind's eye, streams of numbers flowed—forex, crypto, stocks. Patterns emerged instantly, invisible to human traders but laid bare by the Codex.
"…If this works, I can start small. Build funds quietly. No one will even know."
He spent the next two hours coding furiously, his fingers a blur, guided by the Codex's silent suggestions. He typed in ways he didn't even fully understand, his mind a conduit for the system's brilliance. By the end, a sleek, efficient trading bot was born. It wasn't flashy or a miracle. It was simply perfect. Back-tested simulations showed a consistent 8-10% daily return, a number that would make any professional trader weep.
Rafael leaned back in his chair, heart pounding. "This… this could pay off my sister's tuition. The debts. Everything." He could feel it now—the first crack in the wall of poverty that had caged him all his life.
But just as that thought settled in, a loud knock rattled his door. "Rafa!" a familiar voice boomed. "Hoy, may utang ka pa sa tindahan ni Aling Rosa! Sabi niya, kung hindi ka magbabayad ngayon, wala nang utang!" (Hey, you still owe money to Aling Rosa's store! She said if you don't pay today, no more credit!)
Rafael closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. The old life was still at his door, demanding payment. But now, for the first time, he had a weapon. He opened his eyes, and the Codex shimmered faintly, whispering in his mind:
"First step taken. Continue feeding data. Continue optimizing. Wealth is within reach."
Rafael's lips curled into the faintest of smiles.
"Alright," he muttered to the empty room, "let's make history."