Online games had already started appearing in 2001, and some of them have grown popular after they launched.
The hottest online game at the time was "The Stone Age", but at the end of the year, a new game would be launched that would change the future of gaming. Chen Tianqiao, with only a third-rate game developing company, created a pinnacle of online games in China in only a few short years. After a few years, Chen Tianqiao would become the richest man in China, worth billions of yen. And what was the game that made his fortune?
Yes! It's "Legend"!
Li Mu was an avid player and a fan of the game in his past life. Not long after he entered university, his classmates introduced the game to him. He was immediately hooked to it. After school, he would often play the game with his friends, ditching his studies. He played until he graduated from college in 2005, but later gave up when plug-ins started to overrun the game.
Thinking back on it, the game "Legends" had a lot of loopholes, as bugs could be used to swipe money and items, and plug-ins could be written, which made it easy to profit off of the game.
However, at this moment, "Legend" wasn't released yet. If he remembered correctly, a beta version was released in September and ran for two months. "Legend" was only released sometime between November and December.
Li Mu recalled that "Legend" had a spike in popularity near the end of the year, and the first plug-in of "Legend" appeared in November.
The first plug-in only affected a small feature in the game. Simply put, it allowed players to have a wider range of view when playing the game. It was only one of the weakest plug-ins of the game, but its popularity peaked in a short time. More than 90% of the people who installed the plug-in approved of it, and many players used it to become mighty in the game.
If he wants to make money from "Legends", he would have to wait patiently for a few months, but there were opportunities for profit to be made in "Stone Age" now.
In games like "Legends" and "Miracles", "Stone Age" was also a game that was overrun with plug-ins. In his last life, Li Mu had seen some reports about it. A plug-in studio, called "Abe Plug-in", were the ones mainly responsible for making most of the plug-ins for the game. In that aspect, they helped to create an industry worth ten million yuan in a few years.
But no matter how powerful the "Abe Plug-ins" people were, they were just contemporary programmers without the vision and technology of the future. They could only pinpoint the needs of the players at that time, but they made a lot of money in a short amount of time.
After Chen Wan mentioned games, Li Mu immediately was able to figure out a way to have a high chance of quickly making money. It was also due to his excitement that he grabbed Chen Wan's hands.
When Li Mu grabbed Chen Wan's hand, her heart became very flustered. Although she was three years older than Li Mu, she rarely had any experience with the opposite sex. From the beginning of her life until now, she only ever had female acquaintances.
Li Mu was really grateful for Chen Wan's timely reminder. The word "game" was like a slap to the head, which woke him up from his daze.
He had been a person involved with the internet for over ten years, and he has always believed in one thing: there will always be a few things that can stimulate the virtual consumption of male netizens. One are erotic things and the other one are games. This has always been an eternal truth!
When Li Da saw Li Mu using such a poor method to take advantage of other girls, he could not help but to cough twice, but he also felt dull as his son was still too young.
Li Mu hastily withdrew his hand, and in an attempt to cover his embarrassment, he said with sloppy eyes, "Sister Wan just mentioned games. It seems like Sister Wan knows a lot about young people!"
Chen Wan's red face immediately became black.
"What do I know about young people? I am a young person!"
The sullen Chen Wan's chest was undulating for a moment, and a glance at Li Mu sent sparks flying in her heart.
"There's potential!"
Chen Wan also said at the time, "I like to play some games myself. I play a little bit of CS and Red Police."
"Oh, a stand-alone game," Li Mu nodded and continued, "Have you played online games?"
Chen Wan shook her head.
"My classmates are playing Stone Age, they said it's really popular, but I haven't tried it yet.
Li Mu laughed.
"The game is only popular because it doesn't have a competitor yet. When it does get one, Stone Age's popularity will go downhill."
Stone Age and Legend aren't games that are comparable to each other.
However, as Stone Age had been operating for half a year and commercial plug-ins were starting to pop up, Li Mu is confident that, with his own strength, he can make make money through the game.
After that, he was going to wait until the end of September to develop commercial plug-ins, and seize the opportunity in Legend as it starts to get commercialized.
With a direction of his future finalized in his heart, Li Mu was able to relax, as he had a long chat with Chen Wan, asking about her current situation.
Chen Wan is a junior in journalism at Fudan University in Shanghai. She is going to become a senior after summer vacation ends, and her family has business in Haizhou.
Li Mu then wondered if Chen Wan was single or not.
"Sister Wan is so beautiful. You must be the school flower, and you must be a pair with the most handsome guy on campus, right?"
"I'm not a school flower and I don't have a boyfriend!"
Li Mu blinked and smiled, with a bit of a sloppy look on his face. Chen Wan realized that Li Mu was asking her relationship status and shouted in her heart, "This kid is simply a thief."
Li Mu was stunned.
No wonder that Chen Wan would become the host of the provincial television station. She was originally majoring in journalism. As for her family's financial situation, despite her not going into details, he guessed that he family business was not small. By the time her father was sentenced to illegal fundraising in 2015, the amount that her father raised might have reached several billion yuan.
But because Li Mu only has ten yuan in his pocket and no real strength to change Chen Wan's fate, he still has enough time to work on it from a long-term perspective.
After eating, Chen Wan insisted on using a taxi to take Li Mu and his family home, but Li Mu refused.
He didn't want to bother Chen Wan any further, so he excused himself because seating even three people in one taxi was somewhat crowded.
The starting price of a taxi in Haizhou was only three yuan. The car that's used is either the hatchback Xiali or the Changan Alto. The car is both small and pitiful. If three people sat in the back, they would all suffer.
Chen Wan had no choice but to ask for Li Mu'c landline's number before she left. She said that she would call him later to talk to him. Li Mu gave his number quickly. In fact, he planned to ask for Chen Wan's number in case he couldn't contact her when she went away.
Li Mu finished relaying his landline and asked for Chen Wan's number. Chen Wan took out a small notepad and a pen, and jotted a series of numbers down.
"This is my sister's phone number. Give her a call if you need any help. She should be in Haizhou for the next couple of days."
"Okay." Li Mu memorized the phone numbers and carefully put the paper in his pocket.
On the way home, Li Mu and his mother were sitting in the back seat. She held Li Mu's hand and said with lingering fear.
"Xiao Mu, when I received the phone call today, I was so scared I almost had a heart attack. Fortunately, you ended up alright..."
"Yes."
His dad was sitting in the co-pilot seat and said, "You're lucky this time, but you must be careful when you go outside."
Li Mu nodded slowly, his heart full of emotions.