Richard Newport

Richard Newport is an important character in the lore of the Neonverse.

## Overview

Richard Lei Newport commonly known by his Vigilante persona 'Decrypt0' is the Founder and Leader of the Neon Light and its operations. He is a vigilant grey-hat hacker who protects the poor and the needy from cruelty and corruption.

## Biography

### Early Life (2008-)

On September 29, 2008, Richard Newport was born in Hong Kong, Central, Queen Elizabeth Hospital. His father was named Li Newport (李紐波), and his mother was named Lily Shuang (莉莉·雙).

Richard grew up to be a mediocre boy, with no awards, no friends, no hobbies, and nothing. He was just a boy with a simple story. The only accomplishable thing he did was volunteer for charity work and give his pocket money to the homeless. It probably couldn’t help them in the long run, but it gave them a meal for the day. He empathized with the poor and could relate to them due to him and his parents making ends meet. His parents' hard work inspired him and he began to put their hard work to good use. His parents were usually busy working day after day, but his parents gave him some time for Richard.

### Childhood Life(2018-)

At age 10, Richard's parents gave him a Lenovo Thinkpad for his birthday. He got very interested in computer programming after watching the news of a notorious hacking faction group.

Richard grew up learning C++ and he even learned how to read C++ code fluently by the age of 14. As soon as he was given someone else's code, he would be able to find errors, bugs, vulnerabilities, etc. As he got into secondary school, the number of cliques, clubs, and such increased. Richard Newport was always considered the poor kid of the school, and this led to Richard getting picked on a lot. But to be honest, he was fine with it; he had a friend who would back him up and stand up for him anytime Richard got picked on, He owes his biggest thanks to his best friend Jessica Huang. She's a pretty strong-headed girl, and unfortunately, she always seems to be punished wrongfully every time she defends Richard. She's Richard's best friend, and she will usually try to help her when she's in need.

Richard got into Linux to improve programming efficiency; his first distro was Ubuntu Linux due to its simplicity and user-friendly GUI. He also learned commands to learn how to use Linux more efficiently. He started learning about network security to implement his programming skills into something very flawed at the time.

### Test of skills(2024)

By age 16, Richard had learned how to read and capture packets to make sure nothing went by his local network. He even developed a network proxy using C++. Richard had a knack for manipulating systems or machines to work as unintended and wanted to try his skills on his school's local network. He planned to try and log in to the database using a teacher account hidden on the school website's directory. Although the website was in HTTPS there was a vulnerability to the encryption. The encryption can be easily eavesdropped and even if the encryption appears to be rambled pieces of it can still be decrypted such as passwords or usernames.

Months pass by and he finally finished his decryption key. He wanted to develop a tool to help him eavesdrop on network communication. This tool is now known as the RogueTAP. During lunchtime, while everyone was eating he set up his RogueTAP at the school's cafeteria and right under everyone's noses, the information flooded in. Everyone's devices in the cafeteria were connected to his RogueTAP. Sooner or later the teacher logged into the website with their account while being connected and a bright flashing text appeared on his screen.

With the teacher's access key, he now has access to the teacher management database system which not to mention also holds the student merit/demerit score. Knowing this Richard decided to tamper with the management database system and finally pay back his friend who had been saving him from getting picked on since Primary School. He then erased all the demerits from Jessica Huang's student records.

After graduating from secondary school in 2026, Richard moved to Shirotetsu, Japan, for his college education. He majored in network security and plans on getting a master's degree. And Jessica Huang enlisted in the Chinese Military but unfortunately, these two would not see each other for a long time. They both wished each other good luck on their journey.

### Turns of events(2032-)

After spending six years living in Shirotetsu, Japan. Decrypt0 earned his Master's degree and started working at a technology corporation called Blink Technologies Incorporated as a Network Security Specialist.