Chapter 2: The First Line of Code

The 'Y' pulsed once on Brian's phone screen before fading. New text appeared, crisp and direct.

[Tutorial Mission: 'Hello, World!' Accepted.]

[Please direct your attention to your laptop device.]

[System will provide step-by-step instructions via this interface.]

Brian scrambled off the mattress, his heart doing a nervous drum solo. He flipped open the lid of his wheezing laptop. The boot-up process felt agonizingly slow, the whirring fan a pathetic counterpoint to the silent, efficient text on his phone. He propped the phone against the base of the laptop screen, his eyes darting between the two.

[Step 1: Open a basic text editor. Your device has 'Notepad' pre-installed. Locate and open it.]

Okay, that was easy enough. He clicked the start menu icon, typed "Notepad," and the simple program popped up. A blank white canvas. Usually, it was for jotting down grocery lists he couldn't afford or reminders of bills he couldn't pay. Now… it felt different.

[Step 2: The System will now provide a simple line of code in the Python programming language. Python is recommended for beginner accessibility.]

[Copy the following line exactly into Notepad:]

print("Hello, World!")

Brian squinted. print("Hello, World!"). It looked like gibberish, but the system seemed confident. His fingers, clumsy from years of gaming controllers rather than keyboards, stumbled over the keys. He typed slowly, double-checking each character against the phone screen. The quotation marks, the parentheses, the exclamation point – it had to be perfect. The laptop's keyboard felt stiff, a few keys sticking slightly.

[Step 3: Save the file. Name it hello.py. Ensure the file extension is .py, not .txt.]

Saving was familiar territory. He navigated the 'Save As' menu, carefully typing hello.py and selecting 'All Files' to ensure the correct extension. He saved it to his cluttered desktop.

[Step 4: Open the Command Prompt. Search for 'cmd' in your device's search bar.]

Another search, another click. A black window with a blinking cursor appeared. It looked vaguely intimidating, like something from a hacker movie.

[Step 5: Navigate to your Desktop directory using the cd Desktop command.]

[Step 6: Execute the file using the Python interpreter. Type python hello.py and press Enter.]

[Note: System detects Python is not installed. Providing temporary runtime environment via System Interface...]

A faint shimmer seemed to emanate from the phone, directed towards the laptop. Brian typed the commands as instructed, his breath held tight in his chest. cd Desktop. Enter. python hello.py. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, then pressed Enter.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, beneath the command he'd just typed, a new line appeared in the black window:

Hello, World!

Brian stared. He leaned closer, reading it again. It worked. He, Brian, the high school dropout who'd never coded anything, had made the computer display those two specific words. It was the simplest program imaginable, yet a grin split his face – the first genuine smile in weeks.

His phone screen updated instantly.

[Tutorial Mission: 'Hello, World!' Complete!]

[Calculating Rewards...]

[+1 Programming Skill Point allocated (Python - Novice Level 1).]

[System Store Access (Tier 0) Unlocked.]

A surge of something warm and unfamiliar flooded Brian's chest. It wasn't just the success; it was the potential. The system had guided him, step-by-step, turning his useless laptop into a tool.

[New Skill Acquired: Programming (Python - Novice 1/10)]

[System Store now available. Would you like to view it? Y/N]

He barely hesitated. Forget the peeling wallpaper and the overdue bills for a second. A store? What could a system like this possibly sell? His finger hovered over the 'Y', a world of possibilities suddenly blinking into existence on a cracked phone screen in a cheap, dim apartment.