Imperial Capital.
Fu Guoqiang was a born-and-bred Beijinger.
At the beginning of the founding of the nation, his grandfather had been transferred from the Northeast to the Imperial Capital, where he served as a key technician at a state-owned enterprise.
His parents had also been workers at state-owned enterprises.
Later, his older brother and sister took over their parents' jobs.
But when Fu Guoqiang returned to the city after being an Educated Youth, he could only remain unemployed. He had even submitted and published "Scar" literature.
When he was young, he had gone to Pengcheng and Yangcheng to make his fortune, flipping cassette tapes, jeans, and the like. Then he got into pirated books, working with legitimate printing houses to secretly print all sorts of miscellaneous novels.
Later, he went legit and started a proper business, opening a department store in the capital. Because of its good location and considerable size, it had been acquired by Hualian four years earlier and converted into a supermarket.
He had also become a minor shareholder in Hualian Supermarket Company. At first, he could still manage his original store, but after reforms to the management structure, he was pushed out. He could only sit back and collect dividends, unable to participate much in company affairs.
Two years earlier, the company had gone public...
His life suddenly lost its purpose. Fu Guoqiang had no idea what to do all day and could only drink and brag with friends every few days.
Until he came across Legend, and he fell right into it.
But a few months earlier, Fu Guoqiang had stopped playing.
Game Cheats were everywhere in the game, the version was never updated, and there was even some so-called "player migration plan."
Some of his in-game friends had moved to Legend of Mir, some remained in Legend, some had gone to play Legend 3, and others had simply quit online games altogether.
Fu Guoqiang had tried all kinds of newly launched games.
But every time he played for half a month, he found them boring and missed the days when he had first played Legend more than ever.
What he truly missed was the brotherhood, and his own gaming years.
On Tuesday, with nothing to do, Fu Guoqiang logged onto the 17173 forum to shoot the breeze and curse Shanda alongside the other users as usual.
He also looked around for new games to play.
You could buy and sell equipment and Game Cheats there too. Gamers could hardly avoid 17173.
"Huh, what's this?"
Fu Guoqiang saw a hot post: "The Voice of a Legend Refugee: The Internet Is So Vast, Where Is My Home?"
That title alone struck straight at Fu Guoqiang's heart.
"I am an orphan of the online world, a refugee whose home was destroyed by Shanda..."
"At the end of 2001, knowing absolutely nothing about online games, I stumbled cluelessly into a world called Legend. I got a new name and picked up a wooden sword to charge at chickens. I had fought rake cats too, and been chased all over the ground by half-orcs..."
"Even after reaching level 10, I was still foolishly using an ebony sword to hack monsters, unaware that I could learn Fireball Spell. I saw a little mage cast flames and chased after him for half a day, but he would not teach me. Then I met my first brother in the game. He took me to buy skill books, taught me how to form a party, and we roamed the Marfa Continent together..."
"When I was level 26, I met my in-game girlfriend. She was a female Taoist. Our meeting happened in a romantic yet clichéd damsel-in-distress story..."
"I had many friends, and even today, I still remembered their names. They were Xiao Qingfeng, One Sword Comes West, Black Cat Sheriff 123, Haha Xi Haha... We spent whole nights mining and chatting in the mine, went on lively boar-burning runs, and wandered through Zuma's maze like hopelessly lost fools..."
"The first time I said goodbye to a friend was because of server lag. Back then, the lag was so bad you could barely function... When Xiao Qingfeng left, he said many sentimental things and gave me his full set of equipment... He said the people here were great, but the game was terrible. He could not stand it any longer, and hoped that when we met again in the martial world, we would still be brothers. I had his QQ and still contacted him now and then, but we felt more and more like strangers..."
"That was life. Where there was a gathering, there was a parting. During that equipment duplication incident, two more friends left. One Sword Comes West and Black Cat Sheriff 123 had exploited a bug to duplicate equipment. They had not made much, yet all their accounts were banned... Were they greedy? It seemed they were, yet perhaps they were not..."
"I still remembered the wedding event. My girlfriend greatly envied that newlywed couple in the game. So we agreed to meet in real life, and I specifically bought a ring and took the train to find her. She cried and said she would marry me after graduation. Yet even vows as solid as mountains could shatter one day. She did not marry me. She merely said sorry, then vanished from my world forever..."
"I still remembered that she wanted to watch the stars in Viper Valley. There did not seem to be any stars there, and we could not lift our heads to gaze at the night sky... Maybe we missed more than just the stars. Maybe we also missed the words that never escaped our lips: don't go..."
"On the day she said goodbye, I drank myself into a stupor and dreamed that she was being chased by a White Wild Boar, calling out to me, 'Honey, save me!' I wanted to save her, but I could not control my body or raise my magic staff... From then on, I often dreamed. Every dream had a girl being chased by all kinds of monsters, calling for me to save her like a hero saving a beauty..."
"She left in the end, and I spent less and less time gaming. But every weekend, I would enter the game and chat with my brothers and sisters. The maps were updated again, and everyone took me to the new maps to fight monsters. There were more and more Game Cheats, and I was having trouble adapting..."
"Not long ago, Xi Xi Ha Xi Xi, who had remained in the game, called to say that he too was leaving Legend. He could not stand those Game Cheats or the maps never being updated. He was sick of it. He had walked through every corner of every map, while Shanda kept postponing version updates again and again..."
"He said that the last time he logged off, he circled the Safe Zone again and again. It was like saying goodbye to his youth, yet also like attending his own funeral. He said the way he wandered in circles reminded him of being unable to find the exit from the Stone Tomb Array, utterly lost as if trapped by ghosts..."
"I returned to the game once more. Everything there was familiar yet strange. My old friends were gone, and my youth had gone with them..."
"I sent each of them QQ messages and called them. One Sword Comes West said he was playing a Legend Private Server. I downloaded it and played with him too, spending money to buy equipment. It was boring. Nothing but PK after PK..."
"My gaming world had been destroyed, vanishing along with all its former beauty. I was a homeless orphan of the online world, unable to find a spiritual home of my own. I did not know where I could belong, or where my destination truly was..."
"I met One Sword Comes West for drinks in real life. He said he wanted to make a Legend Private Server that did not sell equipment, so old friends who could no longer find a home could relive the past."
"But was that possible?"
"One Sword Comes West said he had some money, but did not know how to make games. I said I could help ask around."
"Brothers and sisters who once played Legend, are you all doing well now? In which corners of the Internet have you scattered? I want to meet you again. Perhaps Woma Temple still held the call for our reunion, and perhaps Peach Blossom Spring Gate concealed a paradise apart from the world..."
"For this goal, we had to work hard. If we made a private server that did not sell equipment, what advice or suggestions would you have? Maybe we really could make it and relive those passionate days of our youth."
"Like facing a boss with low health and no mana, who knew the outcome of things in this world without trying?"
Fu Guoqiang carefully read the two-thousand-character post from beginning to end.
The first thirty-odd replies were all Internet Trolls sent by Tao Chenggang. The later replies were from genuine users.
"Damn, this made me think of my in-game wife too. I'm going to leave her a QQ message and ask if she still wants to be my girlfriend."
"Shanda deserves to die! I'm a game refugee too, an online orphan!"
"OP, wake up. Tell your friend not to make a private server. A private server that does not sell equipment—would he just keep pouring money into it forever?"
"I don't know how to offer advice, but if the OP's private server gets made, I'll definitely join and show my support."
"Who still remembered staying up all night waiting for the Corpse King, spending days and nights just to get a copy of Summon Holy Beast?"
"I waited for Magic Shield to drop. Have you ever seen a level-35 mage without Magic Shield?"
"Haha, I learned Magic Shield at level 33."
"Damn, it was all tears when you brought it up. My skeleton baby stayed with me until level 39."
"..."
As more and more users joined in, the post gradually turned into a nostalgia thread.
A huge crowd of Legend refugees came to the thread to air their grievances and reminisce about the laughter and tears of those days. Guided by the Internet Trolls, they each told stories from the game and shared every little detail of when they had first started playing Legend.
Fu Guoqiang read every reply carefully.
Before he realized it, his eyes had grown moist.
He thought of his own past, his friends from the game, and those wild yet warm years.
After a long while, Fu Guoqiang finished reading the thread. He refreshed it again and again, hoping to see more replies.
"This thread was pinned by the moderators!"
Fu Guoqiang saw the newest reply and immediately switched over to check. Sure enough, the thread had been pinned.
Many domestic forums had gained pinned-post functions in 2002. But at this point, users still could not post hyperlinks or attachments in threads.
17173 had pinned Tao Chenggang's post naturally for the website's own interests.
In this era, whether a website was valuable depended entirely on its traffic.
A month earlier, 17173 had just been acquired by Sohu and had begun transitioning into a gaming portal.
They did not care whether you were trashing Shanda. As long as it increased traffic, they would naturally give hot posts special treatment.
Fu Guoqiang refreshed the forum again and soon saw another post: "Legend Refugee Private Server Development Log."
"I was just venting on the forum. I never expected so many brothers and sisters to eagerly reply. I copied the thread URL to my friend One Sword Comes West. He was deeply moved after reading the replies and said he would make the private server even if he had to sell everything he owned."
"Now, he has already contacted technical experts, and daily development progress will be broadcast live in text. But One Sword Comes West also said that his funds were limited. If the private server was to last, it had to charge fees."
"Does anyone have any good suggestions? If we neither charged for game time, sold equipment, nor sold features, how could a private server recoup its investment?"
Fu Guoqiang stared at the post for a long time, unable to think of a good solution.
He really wanted to help offer some ideas now.
This concerned youth, and it concerned dreams. Fu Guoqiang desperately wanted to take part.
He even hoped that One Sword Comes West could make money from the private server. Once it opened, he would definitely be willing to pay to support it.
The two posts were both reposted by "enthusiastic users" across major gaming forums, drawing more genuinely enthusiastic users into the discussion.
Two days later, the thing had even gone beyond the gaming circle. It was reposted to Tianya, Mop, SC, Xici Hutong, and BBS forums at major universities.
Of course, it was nowhere near as popular on other types of forums as it was on gaming forums.
People were only watching for fun.
But terms like "Legend refugee," "game refugee," and "online orphan" gradually became shared labels among certain groups of players. Legend veterans especially liked using them to mock themselves in jest.
Seeing the growing popularity, 17173 even gave it a special feature on its homepage to earn more traffic.
For free.
Tao Chenggang was somewhat dumbfounded. He called Chen Guiliang. "This has gotten a little too big."
"I didn't expect it either," Chen Guiliang said honestly.
In this era, entertainment was relatively scarce and there were few websites, so hot posts could easily go viral for no apparent reason.
Especially after pioneering the use of Internet Trolls!
Chen Guiliang said, "Rent two more servers. I'm afraid the private server might lag when the time comes."
Tao Chenggang worried, "We won't get targeted by Shanda, will we?"
Chen Guiliang: "..."
--
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