Internet Addiction Treatment Center

After finishing breakfast, Chen Guiliang followed his uncle downstairs.

As the motorcycle drove near a school, Feng Tao pointed at the building ahead and said, "The studio is in there."

The old building had no elevator, so they had to climb five floors.

Standing outside a door, Feng Tao instructed, "Be polite when you meet people, especially Brother Gang and Brother Yang. You can't call them 'Brother' like I do, after all, there's a generation gap. You can call them President Tao and President Yang."

"Got it," Chen Guiliang replied obediently.

In Feng Tao's eyes, Chen Guiliang was just a half-grown kid.

He thought talking about business was pure nonsense, just a young person's boastful talk.

He agreed to bring Chen Guiliang to the game studio simply to let his nephew gain some experience and play games to pass the weekend.

Feng Tao continued to instruct, "After you go in, don't touch things randomly. If you want to play games, ask Brother Yang first, and he'll find a chance to free up a computer for you."

Chen Guiliang looked like an honest child. "I'll remember."

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Only then did Feng Tao knock on the door.

A teenager with a messy bird's nest hairstyle rubbed his sleepy eyes and opened the door. "Who are you looking for?"

"I'm a friend of your boss," Feng Tao said.

The teenager said nothing more, yawning as he let them in.

Good heavens!

Chen Guiliang almost got smoked out as soon as he entered the door.

The room was filled with smoke like a fairyland. Besides the very strong smell of smoke, there was also the smell of instant noodles, foot odor, sweat, and mildew!

Computers were lined up along the walls, and young people sat in front of each one.

Some were slumped over, already asleep.

They were playing the most popular online games of the time, mechanically farming gold and leveling up day after day.

Any hobby that becomes work will be a boring and tedious thing.

The same goes for games.

They weren't as excited as the players in internet cafes; they looked more negative and listless than each other.

Feng Tao said, "Most of them are minors addicted to online games. They heard they could play games for free here and even get paid every month, so they excitedly came to sign up to farm gold. It's a two-shift, twelve-hour workday, during which they can eat and go to the bathroom. If they're tired and want to sleep, that's fine, but there's a minimum daily task, and if they don't complete it, their wages will be deducted."

"It really is an internet addiction treatment center," Chen Guiliang remarked with emotion.

Feng Tao chuckled, "The one who lasted the shortest only stayed for two days and then disappeared, not even coming back for his wages. Earlier this year, a high school senior here cured his internet addiction and obediently went back to school to study. Although he only got into a junior college, his parents still sent a banner. Look at the wall over there."

Chen Guiliang turned and looked up, seeing a few lines of text embroidered on the banner: Saving lost youth, kindness remembered forever - Presented by Parent Hu Guogang.

What a load of bull!

"Welcome, President Feng, for your inspection." A young man walked out from the inner room, wearing flip-flops and greeting them with a playful smile.

Feng Tao smiled and said, "President Yang, making a fortune, huh?"

The young man said, "Making a hammer of a fortune, I'm dealing with rotten stuff all day."

Feng Tao introduced, "This is Yang Yuhui, my high school classmate. He partnered with President Tao to open the studio."

Chen Guiliang understood.

The big boss behind the scenes, Tao Chenggang, teamed up with his high school classmate Feng Tao to open a computer store. Then he teamed up with his high school classmate Yang Yuhui to run a game studio for brick-moving.

"This is my nephew, Chen Guiliang, a top student from County No. 2 Middle School, the kind who can easily get into key schools."

"Hello, President Yang."

"Hello, hello, come inside and sit. It smells strong out here."

Inside was a small room, Yang Yuhui's office. Besides a computer, there was also a cot.

"Smoke?" Yang Yuhui offered a Hongtashan cigarette.

"Thank you," Chen Guiliang took it and tucked it behind his ear.

Yang Yuhui tossed another cigarette to Feng Tao, lit one for himself, and complained, "I don't even want to do this anymore, these young brats are so hard to manage. Parents come to cause trouble every now and then, and they almost smashed my computer two days ago."

"Money is hard to earn, and shit is hard to eat, just bear with it," Feng Tao advised.

Yang Yuhui complained for a while longer, showing that he and Feng Tao had a deep friendship.

Chen Guiliang sat silently beside them.

Not long after, it became lively outside as another group of teenagers came to change shifts.

Yang Yuhui said to Chen Guiliang, "You wait here. I need to check their performance from last night and then take them downstairs for breakfast."

Chen Guiliang stood up to see them off. "Please, President Yang."

Feng Tao also left; he had to go to the store to do business.

Chen Guiliang was bored and carefully observed the office.

Soon, he twisted the faucet, filled a kettle with tap water, and went to water the dying cactus on the windowsill.

He waited until almost ten in the morning, but the boss, Tao Chenggang, still hadn't arrived.

Chen Guiliang endured the disgusting smell of the studio and ran outside to watch the internet-addicted teenagers farm gold and move bricks.

After watching for a while, Chen Guiliang asked, "Doesn't Legend of Mir have an offline leveling bot? They're still relying on manual power leveling."

"You wish."

Yang Yuhui puffed hard on a Hongtashan cigarette, using poison to combat the secondhand smoke. "Legend of Mir has only been online for a little over a hundred days. Many bots haven't been developed yet, and Shanda is also cracking down hard on bots. Some time ago, a bot that could pick up items from a distance appeared, but it was completely banned within two days."

Chen Guiliang walked to a corner and stopped in front of a computer. "Is this Fantasy Westward Journey?"

"President Tao pulled some strings through a friend and got two spots for the first internal test," Yang Yuhui said. "It's been in internal testing for 9 days now. Although there are still many bugs, this game is likely to become popular. Whichever game is popular, we'll move into that one."

Chen Guiliang suddenly remembered that "China's First Father" first made his name with this game, Fantasy Westward Journey.

An idol!

That China's First Father publicly solicited young beauties to have children for him, with a clear price tag for how much he would reward for each child. His small life goal was to have fifty children.

As of the day Chen Guiliang was reborn, China's First Father had already posted photos of 13 children on Weibo and claimed to have more than ten others he hadn't posted.

Even the feminists couldn't beat him.

Yang Yuhui usually ate and slept at the studio, facing a group of internet-addicted teenagers all day. He probably hadn't communicated with a normal person in a long time.

So he talked a lot, actively introducing various games to Chen Guiliang.

"This is Legend 3, agented by Yangcheng Guangtong," Yang Yuhui cursed. "Yangcheng Guangtong is an idiot. They agented the game from Korea and insisted on modifying it themselves. It has more bugs than Fantasy Westward Journey. A few days ago, they suddenly canceled the monthly card, and half the players have already left. The price of gold coins and equipment plummeted, catching me off guard. I still have some left that I haven't sold!"

Chen Guiliang laughed, "Sell them at a cabbage price. If you drag it out any longer, no one will buy them at all."

Yang Yuhui blew out a smoke ring. "Wait a bit longer. The people have withdrawn, but the accounts and equipment are still there. After Yangcheng Guangtong's virtual card goes online, maybe we can recover some losses."

One could only say that Yangcheng Guangtong was a magical company.

Every month, they would have some bizarre operation that drove players away. It was a masterclass in courting death!

"Yi ya!"

The broken door outside was pushed open, and Tao Chenggang arrived with his girlfriend.

His girlfriend was very young, probably still a student. A small lock of her hair was dyed rainbow colors. As soon as she entered, she covered her nose and backed out. "Honey, it smells so bad in there. I'm not going in."

"Then go back to the car and wait." Tao Chenggang's tone was a little unhappy.

This game studio was also one of his passions.

He had excitedly brought his girlfriend to inspect his territory, but she disliked how dilapidated his territory was.

"Brother Gang, you son of a gun, you're finally here!" Yang Yuhui grinned and went to greet him.

Tao Chenggang took out a box of Zhonghua cigarettes and tossed it to him as a reward from a distance.

Yang Yuhui casually put the cigarettes in his pocket and introduced, "This is Feng Tao's nephew. He's been waiting for you for a long time."

Chen Guiliang stepped forward and shook hands. "Hello, President Tao. Sorry to bother you."

While shaking hands, Tao Chenggang quickly sized up Chen Guiliang.

His first impression was that of a poor student. Everything on him added up to at most a hundred yuan.

The sleeves of his low-quality jacket were worn and fuzzy from washing, and there was a hole behind the elbow.

The seam on the side of his pants had split and been sewn back together by himself, crooked and twisted like a wriggling centipede.

His shoes weren't as worn out, but they were just some miscellaneous brand worth thirty or fifty yuan.

However, his expression was calm, and his demeanor was composed.

There were dozens of internet-addicted teenagers in the studio, and they were all dressed better than Chen Guiliang. But in terms of temperament, Chen Guiliang seemed to be standing in the clouds, while the internet-addicted teenagers were buried in the dirt.

Tao Chenggang took out another box of Zhonghua cigarettes and put it in Chen Guiliang's hand, saying, "Your uncle is my friend. By that logic, you're also my junior. This pack of cigarettes is a meeting gift."

Was he treating him like someone trying to freeload?

Chen Guiliang smiled. "Then I should also give President Tao a meeting gift."

"What are you going to give me?" Tao Chenggang asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "A fortune."

"Hahaha!"

Tao Chenggang burst into laughter instantly. These words reminded him of the storytelling he listened to as a child, and he didn't take them too seriously. "Let's go inside the office to talk. The smell out here is indeed quite strong."

Yang Yuhui followed them in, lay down directly on the cot, and said sprawled out, "Brother Gang, you've got a new girlfriend again? Is this one still in school?"

"The school beauty of Tourism Vocational High School." Tao Chenggang boasted proudly.

Yang Yuhui immediately gritted his teeth. "I'm going to report you for harming underage girls!"

Tao Chenggang said, "She's an adult. It's not illegal."

Yang Yuhui finally got to the point after beating around the bush for a while. "Have your girlfriend introduce me to a female classmate. I don't want one who isn't pretty!"

"No problem. I'll take you to the vocational high school on Monday and you can pick whoever you want," Tao Chenggang said with a smile.

"That's more like it." Yang Yuhui closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Chen Guiliang had been quietly observing.

The way these two interacted left him with a very good impression of Tao Chenggang.

Despite being rich, he wasn't arrogant.

And after becoming wealthy, he still brought his old friends along to get rich together.

Tao Chenggang spun his computer chair around to face Chen Guiliang and asked, teasing him like a child, "Young man, what kind of wealth are you bringing me?"

Chen Guiliang didn't mention anything about making private servers. He just pulled out the A4 paper detailing the development of a pay-to-win game. "President Tao can take a look first."

Tao Chenggang casually took it.

Just a poor student, no matter how steady and experienced, what useful things could he possibly come up with?

If it weren't for Feng Tao's sake, Tao Chenggang wouldn't have bothered to meet Chen Guiliang.

Tao Chenggang tossed Chen Guiliang a Huazi cigarette, lit one for himself and put it in his mouth, then buried his head in the papers.

Free-to-play game concept and its operating model?

At first, Tao Chenggang was just glancing through it. Before long, he fell into deep thought.

As he read, he stubbed out the half-smoked Huazi, flipped back from the second page to the first, and reread it.

Seeing his expression, Chen Guiliang was immediately surprised:

I'm just trying things out; my real intention is to make private servers. You're not actually going to bet your fortune and develop a pay-to-win game yourself, are you?