"Leo, where do they hide it?"
She booted up the machine, bypassed the welcome setup to get to the desktop, and spent five minutes clicking through system settings until she found the holy grail: a string of letters and numbers, fifteen characters long. M7NRKD12XXXXXXXX . register warranty asus
Her roommate, Leo, sprawled on the couch, watching her with amusement. "You look like you're about to defuse a bomb." "Leo, where do they hide it
She had bought it from an authorized retailer, yes. But she had also made the mistake of clicking Express Registration through a pop-up during the initial Windows setup. She had already registered it. An hour ago. In her sleep-deprived excitement, she had completely forgotten. "You look like you're about to defuse a bomb
"I'm about to enter the labyrinth," she muttered.
"What?!" She slammed the table. Leo jumped.
She tried again. Same error. Her heart sank. Had she bought a stolen laptop? A returned unit? She was about to call ASUS support—a circle of hell she had no desire to enter—when she noticed a tiny, forgotten detail.