Hours later, at the hotel
The clock struck ten-thirty at night when Mr. Whitaker, the investor with the trimmed mustache and the shiniest shoes Jimmy had ever seen, knocked on the door of room 704 at the Edison Hotel.
Judy was on the bed with a book, but Jimmy was already waiting for him, his backpack ready.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," Whitaker said, adjusting the lapel of his jacket.
"You're not interrupting," Jimmy replied, serious. "In fact, I was expecting you."
Judy looked up with some suspicion, but her son was already putting on his shoes without offering any explanations. Jimmy gave a brief wave, and both of them headed down to the lobby without saying anything more.
In the elevator, Whitaker broke the silence.
"Aren't you celebrating your first investment?"
"This isn't about celebrating, Mr. Whitaker. FireGuard is useful, yes, but it's just something I made during my time of innovation. What I want to show you now... could change how we interact with machines forever."
Whitaker nodded, half intrigued, half skeptical. He glanced at the large backpack on Jimmy's back and asked, "And you need an empty room for that?"
The truth was, this inventor was truly a mathematical genius. After looking into it a bit, Whitaker discovered he was now associated with someone who could likely bring great inventions to the world.
"No," Jimmy said as they exited through a side door of the hotel. "I just need a power outlet. And I need there to be no one screaming if we disappear for a minute."
Whitaker stopped dead in his tracks. "Excuse me?"
Jimmy smiled. "Trust me. The worst that can happen is you see something incredible."
Five minutes later, they were in a small maintenance room in the hotel's basement. Jimmy placed two metal helmets on an improvised workbench. The cables were connected to a console the size of a toolbox. It had a fluorescent green screen that flickered as if waiting for a magical command.
"What is this?"
Jimmy adjusted the helmet. "A door."
"To where?"
"The future."
The businessman let out a nasal laugh. "My God. You're completely crazy."
"Maybe. But you can verify it yourself."
Jimmy pressed a red button. A pulse ran through the helmets. The world faded away.
...
The Network – Beta Version
Whitaker opened his eyes and thought he was dreaming. They were standing in an entirely white space. There was no ground, no sky, no horizon. Just a pristine void that seemed to stretch beyond thought.
Beside him, Jimmy looked at him as if everything was perfectly normal.
"Are we… in some kind of simulation?"
"Yes. Welcome to the network. It doesn't have an official name yet. I call it Tron Protocol. It's a three-dimensional digital interface that connects data, users, and systems through visual representation. In simple terms: a game where the user enters and interacts with the system."
Whitaker looked at his hands. They were his, but something else... cleaner, digitized, as if they were vectorized versions of himself.
"Is this real?"
"As real as a shared dream. This is just the base layer. In this beta version, there's no design, no textures. But the commands work."
Jimmy snapped his fingers, and a structure of floating cubes appeared in front of them. They rotated, connected to each other as if forming part of an invisible puzzle. Whitaker took a step toward them, and one of the cubes reacted as if it had detected him.
"Can anyone else enter here?"
"Not yet. The access is limited to this console and my code. But in ten years... maybe less... people will live in here. They'll work, communicate, play. And the companies that get ahead of this will dominate that new world."
The investor didn't say anything for a few seconds. He just looked around, processing the vastness of this white space where anything could be possible.
"And you built this?"
"Yes, with the help of an experimental programming language I designed from multiple systems. The point is to create a navigable environment where ideas are visual, where work isn't limited by physical matter."
"But... wouldn't it be dangerous? Living in here?"
Jimmy looked at him seriously.
"Like all powerful things, it depends on who controls it. That's why I want to get it right from the start. It's not just a game, Mr. Whitaker. It's a new universe."
The investor walked in circles. "The other sharks have no idea about this."
"No. I haven't even mentioned it to them."
"Why to me, then?"
"Because you understood FireGuard. Not just as a tool, but as a strategic defense. This is bigger, but the principle is the same: the one who prepares first, wins."
Whitaker looked at him. He no longer saw a kid. He saw an architect. A creator.
"What do you need?"
"Funding, yes, but also access. People to help me scale, to test, to design. Also, a building designed by me near my house in Texas, where all my inventions will be born to prepare the world to enter the network."
"And what do I get in return?"
"The key to the new world. You'll be a moderator, given your age. I can convert you into code and practically grant you immortality in the network," Jimmy said, and for the first time, he smiled widely.