Beijing, on the campus of the University of Finance and Economics.
Xu Pengkun maintained the same three-point routine as always.
No longer addicted to games, he followed the study plan he had set for himself with unwavering determination.
However, two classmates' conversation on the way out of class today caught his attention.
"Hey, have you heard? Legend is free now~"
"No idea. I just charged my account last night."
"Not the official one. There's a new Legend that you can play without spending money, and you level up insanely fast!"
"Seriously?"
"I'll be your grandson if I'm lying. Come on, I'll take you to the internet café and show you."
The two walked away chatting.
Could it be the Legend private server Haozi mentioned?
Recalling what Haozi had said on the train, Xu Pengkun decided to investigate. He packed up, slung on his backpack, and left.
There was only one internet café at the school. Those two had most likely been talking about this one.
When he arrived, nearly half the people were playing Legend. Xu Pengkun did not get on a computer. Instead, he wandered through the aisles, stopping from time to time to observe.
He discovered that the Legend some of them were playing was indeed a little different. The monsters' experience values were several times higher than usual—absurdly high.
The equipment on those players was ridiculously good. Judgment and Dragon Pattern were everywhere, while Blazing Fire and divine beasts were as common as dogs.
Xu Pengkun started up a computer and noticed that beneath Legend on the desktop was an identical dragon-shaped icon. Underneath it were the words: Blue Legend.
With the mindset of a researcher, he double-clicked the icon and launched the game.
He registered an account at random, created a warrior, and killed a chicken.
Good grief, he leveled up directly. Then his experience bar overflowed immediately. However, because of the level mechanics, no matter how much experience a monster gave, it could only raise him by one level.
Xu Pengkun controlled the warrior, swinging his blade and slaughtering chickens, deer, and cats in Novice Village.
Following the optimal leveling route, the warrior had already reached level 20 after an hour.
One had to know that his Taoist back then had taken more than ten hours to reach level 20.
This private server's experience gain was actually ten times that of the official game.
The drop rate was also extremely high. Just a few monsters yielded a massive haul.
The tiny time investment delivered a tremendous shock to Xu Pengkun!
Even with the powerful self-control he prided himself on, he found himself unable to stop under the constant stimulation of dopamine. This showed just how fatal the private server's appeal was to ordinary players.
Taking the opportunity to pay and log off, Xu Pengkun probed the internet café attendant for information.
It turned out that the café owner had ordered this private server installed a few days ago. It currently offered tenfold experience and fivefold drop rates, all preconfigured.
It could only be played at their internet café. Ever since the private server had been installed, the café had been packed almost every day!
On the way back, Xu Pengkun thought it over and changed his mind about returning to the dormitory. Instead, he rode his bicycle out of the school.
Three hours later, Xu Pengkun returned to the school. He pulled out his phone and called Chen Hao.
"Hello, Haozi. That Legend private server you mentioned has appeared at the internet café near our school."
"So far, it seems to have only two features: tenfold experience and fivefold drop rates. This private server can only be played on this café's local network. It hasn't been put online."
"You don't need to tell me. I just checked all the internet cafés around the school, and it isn't at any of them. It probably hasn't spread widely yet."
"What the hell? You've already started working on it? Sure. Let me know if you need help."
"Damn, I was just being polite, and there really is work? You're not shy about asking!"
"...Mm. All right, got it. Send it over when the time comes!"
"Go play with yourself. I'm hanging up!"
After putting down his phone, Chen Hao shook his head. Changing only the two most basic things—the drop rate and experience value—was unbelievably low-end.
Don't rush. Let the bullets fly a little longer.
Looking at the Legend optimization plan he had spent two days compiling, he saw that it combined the very best of the later-generation Legend private servers while also borrowing several monetization models from other games!
A knife to the butt—this would open your eyes and show you what a true Legend was!
I refuse to believe that standing on the skulls of giants, I still can't fight my way to a lifetime of glory! A thousand waves surged in Chen Hao's chest.
Half an hour later, Chen Hao's heart had calmed completely. He adjusted the code with the utmost caution, as if walking on thin ice.
This triggered an instinctive reaction in him, making him unconsciously recall the precious—and disastrous—experience of taking over a piece of trash software soon after he had joined a company and carrying out secondary development on it, despite it having passed through who knew how many hands.
The same lack of comments, the same mountain of spaghetti code, the same unfamiliar programming language.
This is the standard of Korean programming?
It left him
in pain and delight!
Chen Hao did not retreat. Instead, he was eager to try. He would show them what elegant iteration was!
First, he categorized the source files, using the code logic and rough naming conventions to verify them by category, then he would break through them one by one.
Everything was difficult at the beginning.
With the help of reference books and his previous programming foundation, he gradually got the hang of it and worked faster and faster.
Chen Hao had no cleanliness obsession in daily life, but he was extremely particular in the world of code. He wrote comments before code and would not allow even a single formatting error.
He had no intention of open-sourcing it, but even so, while reading the previous code, Chen Hao still painstakingly completed all the missing comments.
When he got tired, he climbed onto the desk and slept. When he woke up, he continued writing code. When he was hungry, he dealt with it with instant noodles and cola.
To be fair, he still ate the first few meals of instant noodles with relish. After two days, they tasted like wax, serving only to fill his stomach.
Several days later, Chen Hao had two dark circles under his eyes, but his expression remained excited. In the end, he had not let his craftsmanship slip.
The monster, equipment, skill, map, and other modules had all been optimized!
Looking at the date on his phone, Chen Hao realized that a full week had passed since he began his seclusion. He had thought only two or three days had gone by.
Unable to wait, he created a Taoist in the game, switched out to modify several parameters, and set the character to level 35. After rubbing his hands together, he controlled the Taoist, teleported directly to a new map, and strolled around with five divine beasts following behind him.
Various overlords gathered in the center of the map, wandering in every direction. Chen Hao walked over. He did not even need to do anything; the five divine beasts charged out as one. Each monster fell in a single blow, and no boss could withstand a second hit. Equipment exploded all over the ground, leaving Chen Hao nowhere to step. It was filled with the top-tier equipment the official game could only dream of.
Tsk, tsk~
Even this pervert thought it was perverted after playing it.
But he could not unleash everything at the start. He had to cast a long line to catch a big fish, squeezing things out little by little like toothpaste.
It was just like playing single-player games in high school. A normal game's lifespan was usually twenty to forty hours, but once a cheat appeared, he would make a few quick edits.
The protagonist became invincible and cleared the game in a few hours. It was utterly tasteless!
A wife was inferior to a concubine, a concubine was inferior to a secret lover, and a secret lover was inferior to someone he could not have. More positions, more unfamiliar restrictions—the thrill lay in the excitement!
Based on this,
Chen Hao stroked his chin and thought. The entire numerical system still needed to be optimized so that it could be configured. It had to be changed.
Some of the equipment models were too conservative. They had to be changed.
A teleporter needed to be added here. It had to be changed.
As he continued experimenting and drawing on his past gaming experience, Chen Hao dug out each place that needed modification, one after another.
For a while, Chen Hao once again immersed himself in the world of Legend, digging and digging and digging.
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