Leo’s face flushed.
“Sir, please just give me a chance. Even a coding test—”
“Let’s not waste time,” Mr. Salazar said as he tossed Leo’s resume into the trash bin under his desk.
“We don’t hire people without degrees. A diploma is a measure of discipline. If you couldn’t even finish college, how could you handle a job? You may leave.”
Leo stood up, his chest heavy.
He was used to rejection, but it still hurt to be made to feel worthless just because he lacked a piece of paper.
As Leo reached for the door—
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Red lights flashed throughout the office. Emergency alarms blared. Employees outside erupted into chaos.
The IT Director, Sir Greg, burst into the room, sweating and pale.
“Mr. Salazar! We have a problem! The main server has been hacked! We’re trying to block it, but it’s malware consuming data! Every second, client records are being erased! We’re about to lose millions!”
“What?!” Mr. Salazar shouted. “Then fix it! You have plenty of engineers!”
“We can’t! The virus is encrypted! Even the backup system is down!”
The CEO stormed in, furious.
“What’s going on?! Why are all the monitors black?! Fix this or you’re all fired!”
The office descended into panic.
The so-called “brilliant” engineers Mr. Salazar boasted about were frozen in front of their screens—panicking, clueless.
Leo, still standing by the door, glanced at the secretary’s monitor.
He saw the code running.
Black background.
Green text.
Scrolling rapidly.
Leo noticed a pattern.
“Sir,” Leo spoke calmly amid the chaos.
“I told you to leave!” Mr. Salazar barked. “Can’t you see what’s happening?!”
“Sir, that’s a recursive loop virus,” Leo said evenly.
“It didn’t come from outside. It originated from a corrupted file opened within the internal network. If you let this run ten more minutes, your database will be permanently wiped.”
The CEO froze.
He turned to Leo.
“Do you know how to fix it?”
“CEO Sir, don’t listen to him! He’s just a high school graduate!” Mr. Salazar protested.
“I don’t care if he’s from kindergarten!” the CEO shouted.
“If he can save my company, sit him down!”
Mr. Salazar had no choice.
Leo was seated at the main terminal.
And then—Leo changed.
The shy, simple applicant transformed into a beast on the keyboard.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
His fingers flew.
No mouse.
Pure command line.
He opened the source code, isolated the loop, and built a firewall simultaneously.
The engineers behind him whispered.
“Unbelievable, he’s fast.”
“What language is he using?”
“Why didn’t we think of that?”
Leo glanced at the clock.
Three minutes.
“Gotcha,” Leo murmured.
He slammed the ENTER key.
System Rebooting…
The red lights shut off.
The alarm stopped.
Screens returned to blue.
Database Restored.
Threat Eliminated.
FIVE. MINUTES. ONLY.
The entire office fell silent.
Everyone stared as Leo slowly stood up, wiping sweat from his forehead.
The CEO approached him.
“Who are you? What’s your name?”
“Leo, sir.”
“Leo, you just saved us 50 million pesos,” the CEO said in awe.
“What position do you hold here? Why don’t I know you?”
Leo looked at Mr. Salazar, now pale and trembling in the corner.
“I’m not an employee, sir,” Leo replied.
“I’m an applicant. But Mr. Salazar threw my resume into the trash earlier. He said I was useless because I’m only a high school graduate.”
The CEO slowly turned toward Mr. Salazar.
His gaze was deadly.
“Mr. Salazar,” the CEO said coldly.
“Pick up his resume from the trash.”
“S-sir?”
“PICK. IT. UP.”
Shaking, Mr. Salazar knelt and dug through the bin, handing the crumpled paper to the CEO.
The CEO read it.
“Skills: Advanced Python, Ethical Hacking, System Architecture…”
He faced Leo.
“Leo, you’re hired. Not as a Junior Developer.”
“Sir?” Leo gasped.
“You are now our new Senior System Security Officer,” the CEO declared.
“Double the salary of the original offer.”
“And Mr. Salazar?”
“Y-yes, sir?”
“Pack your things. In this company, we value skill—not just paper. You’re fired.”
Leo walked out of that building not as a rejected applicant…
…but as a legend.
He proved that true intelligence is not measured by gowns or diplomas,
but by what you can do when the world puts you to the test.