The Secret in Steps

Before retiring, the old soldier Pierre’s greatest pleasure was taking daily walks by the sea. He had an old-fashioned step counter that recorded his daily walking mileage. He used to be a radio operator on a nuclear submarine, but now, he just wanted to live a quiet life, like the calm sea he saw every morning when he opened his window.

After retirement, besides walking, Pierre also became fond of bragging with his old buddies in cafes. Their topics always revolved around those “thrilling” years of service. Pierre always smiled silently, feeling that those so-called thrills now seemed to have a layer of boring gray. Until one day, a young reporter came running to him with a newspaper, asking, "Sir, were you once stationed on the 'Triomphant'?"

Pierre felt a slight displeasure, he didn't like being disturbed, especially being reminded of the past he didn’t want to recall. "So what?" he said curtly.

The reporter excitedly pointed to the headline on the newspaper: "Your step data leaked the nuclear submarine's route!"

Pierre was stunned, the coffee in his hand almost spilled. He looked at the dense data on the newspaper, which was indeed his daily step count records, but he didn't understand how these steps could be related to the nuclear submarine's route? He thought it was simply a fantasy.

The truth was soon revealed. It turned out that Pierre’s old-fashioned step counter was not an ordinary step counter. It was specially customized by the military and had a new type of microchip implanted inside. This chip, while recording steps, would also simultaneously record the wearer's GPS coordinates and regularly upload the data to the military's server.

What was even more surprising was that the positioning accuracy of this chip was extremely high, accurate to within a few centimeters. And when the "Triomphant" nuclear submarine was on a mission, in order to prevent being detected by enemy radar, it would adopt a special navigation mode. This mode, coincidentally, could be reverse-engineered using Pierre's step data.

After learning the truth, Pierre didn't feel panicked, but rather found it a bit funny. He felt like a puppet being played with by the times, his daily walks had actually become the culprit for leaking state secrets.

"This is just too absurd!" Pierre couldn't help but laugh, attracting curious glances from the people around him.

However, things did not end there. The military did not hold Pierre responsible. Instead, they sent someone to "invite" him back to the military base. Pierre thought he was going to be put on trial, but unexpectedly, the military awarded him a special medal and bestowed upon him the title of "Honorary Retired Veteran." The reason was that his "unintentional action" exposed a major flaw in the military's security system, making an "indelible contribution" to national security.

Pierre didn't understand this logic, he thought the world was simply too ridiculous. He took the medal and went back to the seaside, continuing his daily walks. He was still using that step counter, recording his steps.

One day, Pierre accidentally discovered that the numbers on his step counter were undergoing strange changes, the originally clear numbers became blurred, as if interfered with by something. He looked carefully and noticed that the step counter was not displaying steps, but a series of latitude and longitude coordinates.

Pierre suddenly realized that this step counter was not just recording his steps and location. It was recording a bigger secret.

He followed the coordinates and found an abandoned warehouse, which was filled with old electronic equipment, among which there was a disassembled step counter, exactly like his. He picked up the step counter and found a line of small print engraved on the back: "You are just data, the world is the game."

Pierre fell into deep thought. He took the step counter and slowly walked out of the warehouse. The sea breeze blew against his face, and he noticed that today's sea seemed more magnificent than usual.