Chapter 176: New Contest

California, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). 

"Zzzzz..." 

Mike lay sprawled across his bed, fast asleep and utterly oblivious to the world around him. 

Meanwhile, Allen had taken advantage of Frank's rare absence to sneak and play Civilization on his NovaXeno. Technically, though, he was only testing the mod that the three of them had developed. 

After spending some time getting familiar with it, they had more or less figured things out. But the more they explored the development system GAMENOVA had given them, the more amazed they became. It was surprisingly intuitive, and almost too easy to use. 

For example, if they wanted to add a new unit, all they needed to do was create a new file following the provided template format, fill in the corresponding content, and the game would automatically recognize it after compilation. 

This unleashed the creative impulses buried deep within them, setting their imaginations ablaze. 

The mod in front of him, titled "Orcs & Humans" was a test version they had created. 3

Allen dragged the "Orc Grunt", the special unit of the "Orc" civilization, and walked a couple of steps toward the area covered by the fog of war. He then ordered the capital to begin producing Workers. 

"It actually works. Man, this is awesome." 

Seeing that everything was running smoothly, Allen was overjoyed. He hurried back to his own PC and began typing furiously, occasionally grabbing a pen and scribbling notes or sketching ideas into his notebook. 

He glanced over at Mike, who had played a major role in developing the mod. After staying up all night working on it, Mike was completely exhausted, looking as though his soul had already left his body. 

Unlike Allen and Frank, who were both pure Computer Science majors, Mike was the only one of the three with a background in Electrical Engineering. Naturally, this meant he had to take on many of the technical tasks that the other two couldn't handle. 

As for Allen, while his programming skills weren't quite on par with Frank's, he had taken charge of much of the game's core content and design. 

The idea for the Orcs vs. Humans setting right before them had originally come from him. Even the original name, "Blizzard," had been adopted as the trio's name and later entered into the author field. 

"Hmm, next up is modifying the resource types." 

Allen flipped through his notebook until he found the section on resource design. 

"Gold is definitely necessary, but we can add another resource: Wood." 

He planned to simplify the game's originally complicated resource system down to just two resources: Wood and Gold. 

Civilization's resource system was certainly interesting, but it was also extremely complicated. In Allen's view, a simpler management system would help speed up the pace of the game, allowing players to devote more of their attention to other aspects, such as combat. 

This was also an idea Mike had proposed. Unlike Frank, who preferred a more farming-oriented style of play, Mike was a genuine warmonger. 

More often than not, while the enemy civilization was still focused on developing its cities and economy, Mike's units would already be sweeping across the map toward its territory. 

Whether playing Civilization or Fire Emblem, Mike had always loved using troop formations to gain tactical advantages and overwhelm his opponents. That had given Allen considerable inspiration and led him to wonder whether he could design a Mod centered around this very concept. 

"Units and buildings can be simplified a little, too." 

Bang! 

Allen was still crossing things out and rewriting notes when the dormitory door suddenly flew open. Frank stormed into the room, still clutching the latest issue of Electronic Games in his hand. 

The deafening bang startled Mike awake. He jolted upright in bed, looking completely disoriented. 

"What? What happened? Did the Soviets attack?" 6

When he realized it was only Frank, Mike rolled his eyes, flopped back onto the bed, and prepared to go back to sleep. 

"Stop sleeping! Get up! Something fucking huge happened!" 

Frank grabbed the magazine and smacked Mike hard on the ass several times. 1

"??" 

Only then did Mike reluctantly drag himself out of bed. 

"Allen, you too! Come take a look!" 

Frank waved them both over. Once they had gathered around, he finally opened the magazine. 

..... 

[First Civilization Mod Development Awards] 

[No restrictions on theme. Participants must upload their content to the GAMENOVA Information Center via the method described below] 

[Creation Requirements]: .... 

[First Prize]: $100,000 1

[Second Prize]: $50,000 

[Third Prize]: $25,000 

[Upload Method]: [Dial into the Information Center and select Upload while the ROM is inserted] 

..... 

A grand prize worth one hundred thousand dollars. 

"You've got to be kidding me!" 

The instant Mike saw the bolded $100,000, he was wide awake. 1

With that kind of money, even after paying off all three of their student loans, they'd still have a substantial amount left over. 9

Who wouldn't be tempted? 

No wonder Frank was so excited. Even Allen and Mike could feel their breathing quicken at the sight of that number. 

"Fuck! I'm not sleeping anymore! Allen, how far along are we? I'll take over the development. You keep designing on the content!" 

There was no way Mike could fall asleep now. That $100,000 was practically a carrot dangling right in front of them, and at this rate, they were probably going to dream about it. 

"No, I'll handle the development. Mike, find us a larger ROM. If we're going to do this, we're going to make it the best!" 

Frank flexed his fingers. When it came to programming, he was confident he could hold his own against either of them. And Mike's Electrical Engineering knowledge was an invaluable asset to the team. 

..... 

Meanwhile, at Micron. 

The engineers stared blankly at their new boss, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere just moments earlier, and for a brief moment, the room fell silent as none of them knew what to say. 

Just a few months earlier, Micron had been on the verge of bankruptcy. Its technology, production capacity, and costs had all fallen far behind those of its competitors. Yet after only a short period of adjustment, it had been completely revitalized. 

Its DRAM production lines had been fully restarted. It had reached a technology-exchange agreement with Samsung Electronics and even taken over several additional production lines from Texas Instruments. 

And then there was the terrifying SDRAM. Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory, with its clock-synchronized architecture, offered dramatically greater efficiency than traditional DRAM. 

Although its total capacity hadn't seen any major breakthrough, the increase in speed alone was enough to let developers pull off all sorts of tricks. 

It could be said that without high-speed memory, NovaXeno simply would not have been able to achieve such ridiculous performance. 

But it was not perfect either, at least in commercial terms, this was a production line that did nothing but lose money. 

Aside from NovaXeno motherboards equipped with specially designed northbridge chips, there wasn't a single device on the market compatible with Micron's SDRAM. 

In the past, a situation like this would probably have prompted the board of directors to shut the project down and move on. But things were different now, as Ethan was the one making the call. 

"Allow me to introduce her to everyone. From now on, she will serve as Micron's CEO." 

Ethan reached out and pushed Vivian in front of everyone, then quietly said to her, "So, what do you think? This should count as solving the VRAM problem, right?" 

Memory chips could be used for far more than simply manufacturing memory modules. 

A flicker of surprise crossed Vivian's face. She had already begun to suspect something was going on when Ethan announced that he had completely acquired Micron. Now, it suddenly made sense why he had always been so unbothered whenever she brought up the VRAM problem. 

Buying an entire memory wafer fabrication plant just to solve that one problem... 

Yep, that was Ethan. It was completely insane, but somehow, exactly the kind of solution he'd come up with. 

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Guys, don't forget to leave your comments and reviews, also more extra chapters if we reach 1000 stones. 1

And if you want some extra chapters, be sure to check out my Patron page, it's 30 chapters ahead of webnovel and the chapters are also long so you can check it out. 

p at reon . com / NovaScribe 

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