“The code should be quite extensible overall. The idea is to first simplify the function and constant names with complex names, then convert the expression into prefix notation, and finally process the prefix expression directly.”

　　Charles Brooks nodded blankly, and when he heard Yvonne Harris say that he had even helped write in those few lines of functions from his scratch paper, he suddenly jumped up as if electrified, grabbing Yvonne Harris’s arm with a look of deep gratitude.

　　“B-big boss! Thank you so much! Can I copy a copy to study?”

　　Yvonne Harris frowned slightly.

　　“It’s not a problem, really…”

　　Before he could finish, the guy in front of him had already taken out a USB drive, plugged it into the computer, and started operating the computer skillfully.

　　Emmm…

　　Why does it feel like I just got freeloaded?

　　“My name is Charles Brooks! I’m a graduate student of Professor Li Guoping from the School of Software Engineering! Which advisor are you with? Let’s keep in touch in the future! Sigh, honestly, I really don’t get this programming stuff. My undergrad was in applied math, and I impulsively chose software engineering for grad school. Look at my hair—hasn’t even been a year, and it’s already thinning!”

　　Yvonne Harris gave a light cough.

　　“Reading the basic textbooks… is definitely useful. There’s a saying, isn’t there? The truth often lies in those simple and easy-to-understand things. Once you have a solid foundation, learning anything else becomes easy. Take this ‘Data Structures’ book and study it. When you’re done, remember to return it for me.”

　　Charles Brooks nodded enthusiastically.

　　“Yeah! By the way, expert, you still haven’t told me—which advisor are you with?”

　　“I… really am not some expert.”

　　“You’re too modest! I’ve been stuck on this project for a week, and you solved it in ten minutes!”

　　What the heck?

　　So I guessed right—this really was his homework.

　　But seriously, you didn’t even touch it, did you?

　　“I really am not,” looking at the still-persistent Charles Brooks, Yvonne Harris sighed and said honestly, “And to tell you the truth, I just finished the college entrance exam a little over two months ago. I’ve only been at this school for less than a week.”

　　The moment he heard this, Charles Brooks’s expression froze.

　　After a while, he managed to force a smile, coughed twice, and said,

　　“Boss, please don’t joke with me—”

　　“Really,” Yvonne Harris looked at him seriously and handed over his card, “This is my campus card.”

　　On the front of the card was the main gate of Jiangcheng University.

　　And on the back, it read—

　　[Software Engineering Class 1801: Yvonne Harris]

　　What the heck?

　　He’s really a freshman?!

　　Charles Brooks was completely stunned.

Chapter 008: Am I the Kind of Person Who Owes Money?

　　Muttering absentmindedly, Charles Brooks left the computer lab with his USB drive.

　　Watching his slowly receding figure, Yvonne Harris couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

　　Is this what it feels like to be a top student?

　　I love it, I love it…

　　However, although this feeling was quite intoxicating, Yvonne Harris was well aware that there were less than ten hours left before the Inspiration Gem’s effect wore off.

　　Not wasting time savoring this delightful feeling, Yvonne Harris skillfully opened a search engine and typed in the four numbers: 2048.

　　As he expected, this world didn’t have this game, not even any similar competitors.

　　To put it simply, the Earth of this parallel world was already quite different from the one in his previous life.

　　The material development of this world was clearly more prosperous, especially with Xia Country, the “competition era” champion and leader of the Human Union. Even the computers in the school’s computer lab used dedicated graphics cards and quad-core processors, and everything from chips to operating systems was domestically produced.

　　However, on the flip side, because the entire world’s international environment had been highly tense until the first year of the New Era, it wasn’t until after that that the entertainment industry began to sprout.

　　And emerging industries like video games only entered ordinary households after the New Era, along with the transformation of military production lines, the civilianization of the electronics industry, and the rise of smart devices like computers and mobile phones.

　　According to his dad, when he was just a couple of years old, game consoles were still rare, and most popular songs praised social stability, prosperity, and the unity and great victories of the Human Union. It wasn’t until he was ten that the global entertainment industry truly blossomed.

　　Because of this, video games in this era were still in a rather chaotic stage.

　　First, due to strict copyright laws, both the online and single-player game markets in Xia Country and worldwide developed relatively evenly, without mobile games dominating everything as in his previous life.

　　And as a major tool for cultural export in the new era, some high-quality niche games could even receive equal support from the authorities—just like music, anime, and movies—instead of being treated as scourges.

　　But perhaps because there hadn’t been enough time for things to settle, some creative gameplay and ideas had been overlooked by the times.

　　At least from the perspective of Yvonne Harris, a game designer and hardcore gamer, the most popular large-scale MMORPG today, “Oracle,” was pretty boring in both gameplay and story.

　　The graphics might be a highlight.