Chapter 4: Bros Before Hoes

Chapter 4 - 4: Bros Before HoesThirty minutes after finishing the rice, Richard and Jack stood on the balcony. Jack stretched lazily, cracking his neck.

"Hey dude, can I use your phone? Need to call someone," Richard asked.

"Yeah, here," Jack said, tossing him his Sangsung phone.

Richard dialed his mother's number, waiting as the ringing echoed through the speaker.

"Hello?" came Anita's voice from the other end.

"Ma, it's me, Richard."

"Oh, Chard, what is it?"

"I'm heading out with Jack for a while, but don't worry, I already cooked the rice."

"Alright, go ahead. I was about to close up shop anyway. Just make sure to lock the doors."

"Will do, Ma. Bye."

Richard ended the call and handed the phone back to Jack.



"Let's go," he said, locking the front door behind him.

As they hopped onto Jack's motorcycle, Richard hesitated for a moment. Should he tell Jack about the system? He shook his head. Not now. He'd think I'm crazy. It was best to keep it a secret—for now.

With a loud rev, the bike roared to life, and they sped off.

They arrived at a three-story building with large glass windows on the first floor displaying an internet café. Inside, the air conditioning blasted against them as they walked in. The room was packed with people playing Dota, the sound of mouse clicks and keyboard slams filling the space.

"FUCK YOU!" one player stood up, flipping off his screen after securing a double kill. His teammates cheered and booed, hyping up the match.

Richard shook his head. Classic.


At the front desk, a young woman sat wearing headphones, barely acknowledging them as Jack walked past, heading to a private backroom. Richard leaned on the counter, smirking.

"Number 4 PC, open time. Put it on my tab," he teased.

The woman ripped off her headphones, glaring at him.

"FUCK YOU, Richard! Your credit's already at 500 pesos, and you STILL haven't paid!"

Richard just laughed, waving her off as he followed Jack inside.

Inside the private room, two high-end PCs sat opposite each other, both equipped with dual monitors and glowing RGB-lit system units. One screen displayed the interface of Unity 3.0, filled with low-poly assets of weapons and characters in development.

Jack spun his chair around and looked at Richard.

"Chard, I've been thinking—what if, instead of a Counter-Strike-style game, we go for something bigger? Like Battlefield 2, but on a massive scale. One server, one warzone."

Richard raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't that make the server laggy as hell?"

Jack leaned back, smirking. "Not if we use server sharding instead of separate servers. We'll split different areas of the map into shards, reducing the load while keeping the world persistent. Been studying servers for a while now."

Richard mulled it over, then grinned. "Why not take it even further and simulate World War II instead?"

Jack blinked, intrigued.

"Think about it—players can build trenches, fortifications, and defenses in first person. We're making it low-poly anyway, so it won't be too heavy on low-end PCs."

Jack let out a laugh. "Damn, that's a good one. I was thinking about modern warfare, but WWII is just nostalgic."

"Have you already bought the modern warfare package?" Richard asked.

Jack waved his hand dismissively. "Not a problem. The same guy I got the assets from also has a World War II package. He even has entire WWII battle maps. I can just refund the modern one and buy the new assets."

Richard tapped his chin. "Can you also get tanks from him?"

"Nah, dude," Jack shook his head. "We'll design the tanks and planes ourselves. It's low-poly anyway, so it won't be hard."

Richard's eyes lit up with an idea. "Can we add modular damage to vehicles?"

Jack tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, if a tank gets hit in the rear, it disables the engine. If the shot penetrates and hits the ammo stowage, it'll explode."

Jack nodded, thinking. "I like that. It's not too complicated to implement. We'll add three ammo types, too. Also, for logistics, instead of making things too realistic, we'll base everything on resource points rather than tracking individual bullets.

"Engineers will be able to build tanks, planes, and factories using those points, which are generated from captured zones. This way, there's a real incentive to fight hard."

Richard chuckled. "Man, this is sounding way better than I expected."

But then, his expression turned a little guilty.

"Jack... I have something to tell you."

Jack, still typing away, didn't look up. "Dude, don't tell me you're about to confess your love or some shit."

"Shut up, idiot," Richard groaned. "It's about Marawi. My mom said we're moving back in a few weeks, maybe even days."

Jack suddenly grinned. "That's even better!"

Richard blinked. "What do you mean?"

Jack leaned back, crossing his arms. "Did you forget? My dad's Muslim. My grandpa gave me a house in Marawi a while back. I was actually planning to ask you to move in with me so we could keep working on the game."

Richard shook his head, a relieved smile forming on his face.

"Well... I guess that's not gonna be a problem after all."

Richard thought about it for a moment. Jack was the perfect spoiled rich kid. He still remembered that one time Jack got completely wasted and spilled his life story—how his parents couldn't have another child due to his mother's pregnancy complications.

Still curious, Richard asked, "So why move anyway? If you don't mind me asking."

Jack shrugged. "Of course, I don't mind, dude. You're like the brother I never had. Even though you're two years older, I still treat you like my big bro."



He turned to face Richard, his expression more serious than usual.

"My dad set me up with an arranged marriage—some congressman's daughter or something."

Richard blinked. "Wait, what?"

Jack scoffed. "Yeah. I rejected it immediately. Told my dad I didn't even wanna get married. If anything, if the girl was into game development, then maybe I'd consider it. But hey..."

Jack smirked, then raised his hand. "Bros before hoes."

Richard shook his head, laughing, and dapped him up. "You silly ass."

Jack pulled out his phone and held it up. "Here, take a look."

On the screen was a photo of a petite, short-haired girl.

Richard frowned. "Dude... she looks younger than you. She's not even eighteen, is she?"

"Exactly!" Jack said, waving the phone. "That's even more reason to refuse!"

Richard chuckled. "So what did you do?"

Jack smirked. "I reported my dad to my grandpa."

Richard burst out laughing. "No way."

"Yep. My grandpa let my dad marry the woman he actually loved instead of following tradition. So when he heard what my dad was trying to do to me, he went ballistic." Jack leaned back in his chair, looking smug.

"And in return?" Richard asked.

"My dad got pissed and cut my allowance." Jack sighed. "Then he said I had to move to Marawi to live with my grandpa."

"You mad about that?" Richard asked.

Jack shook his head. "Not really. It's just lonely here. My parents are too busy with their businesses, and I feel like I'm just wasting time. But in Marawi? Maybe I'll get some fresh air... and with you around, it'll be even better."

Jack then turned to Richard and grinned. "You said you have a house there, right?"

Richard scratched his head. "Well... not exactly. We're still building it."

Jack snapped his fingers. "Perfect. You and your mom can stay with us for a while."

Richard raised an eyebrow. "You sure? What about your grandpa?"

Jack waved a hand dismissively. "Pffft. He won't mind. If anything, he'll be happy to have some company. It's just me and him in that big-ass house, anyway. Might as well make it fun."

Richard sat in the chair opposite Jack and opened Unity on his screen. The familiar interface loaded up, the low-poly assets staring back at him.

"So... when are we moving?" he asked.

Jack, his fingers flying over the keyboard like a machine gun, barely looked up.

"That's up to you, bro. We could leave right now if you want."

Richard raised an eyebrow. "What about your clothes?" He gestured at the expensive PCs in the room. "And all this?"

Jack waved him off. "Meh... my grandpa said he'd just buy me new stuff." He grinned. "**I told him about our little project, and he said he'd buy me anything I want. So I figured—why not build our own server room in the basement? If the setup is too complicated, I can just hire people to do the technical work for us."

Richard paused for a second, letting it sink in. Jack's grandpa controlled most of the fishing routes for decades. Saying they were freaking rich was an understatement.

Jack suddenly spun his chair around, smirking. "Oh, and by the way..." He stretched his arms behind his head. "I'll even build us new PCs—with the latest GTX 690."

But then, he froze mid-sentence, his smirk fading. His eyes locked onto Richard's hands—his fingers were moving so fast, the keyboard looked like it was about to break.

"Dude... what the hell?" Jack stared.

Richard, still typing furiously, barely glanced at him. "Just working on some game logic. Figured we should get started before we move."

"No, no, no, no—what?! How?! How the hell did you suddenly type so fast?!" Jack blurted out, eyes wide.

Richard felt a trickle of sweat forming. He couldn't exactly say, "Oh, I got a system upgrade that turned me into a keyboard god."

So, he improvised.

"W-Well... I don't really know," Richard shrugged, forcing a casual tone. "Maybe it was the shrooms?"

Jack squinted at him, unimpressed. "Dude. I swear you were typing like 3000 words per minute. I thought for a second you were going insane! And look at that code—how many lines is that?!"

Jack scrolled through the script on Richard's screen, his jaw dropping.

"There's not even a single error—what the fuck?!"

Richard realized Jack wasn't buying his excuse. He needed something more... believable.



He sighed, pretending to think. "Okay, fine. You wanna know the truth?"

Jack crossed his arms. "Obviously."

Richard leaned forward, lowering his voice. "While I was on shrooms, I saw this... place. Like a massive library. Some kind of ancient archive. There was this old guy—called himself The Keeper. He told me I could access any knowledge I wanted. So, I figured, since I love game development, I asked for that."

He paused for effect.

"He handed me a book. And the moment I opened it—boom—the knowledge just flowed into my head. It was like I could suddenly understand everything."

Jack stared at him.

Then he sighed, shaking his head. "Nahh, dude. You're just high." He spun his chair back around, already tapping at his keyboard again. "Anyway, back to what we were doing."

Richard chuckled. "Guess he bought that excuse... for now."

Then, he clapped his hands. "Hey, Jack, let's grab dinner at my place. We need to remind my mom about us moving."

Jack groaned. "Oh, right! I totally forgot." He quickly set an alarm for 7 PM.

"We can't leave your mom alone for too long, man." Jack said, stretching. "It's lonely over there."

Richard smiled. "Yeah.