Legend Private Servers Aren't Out Yet?

Shanghai saw its first internet cafe in May 1996.

The steep hourly fee of forty yuan did not stop people from exploring this new thing. At the time, the national average monthly wage was only around five hundred yuan.

Over the following years, internet cafes sprang up across the country like mushrooms after rain, and the industry rapidly grew.

Even this remote little county town caught the wave in 2000, opening three internet cafes in succession: Sun God Internet Cafe, New Century Internet Cafe, and Pentium Internet Cafe. They formed a three-way standoff throughout the county seat.

As the last of the three to open, Chen Hao's family's Pentium Internet Cafe was the largest and best equipped, so business was relatively better than at the other two.

When Chen Hao emerged from the alley, he found that the fight was already nearing its end.

There were six people in total. One side had five, but judging from the scene, it was more accurately a one-versus-five: one person standing, five lying down.

Damn, QQ!

A young man in his twenties stood there, over six feet tall and broad-shouldered. His narrow phoenix eyes were especially memorable. He was not wearing a down jacket, only a sweater, and the contours of his muscles showed clearly beneath it. Despite the freezing weather, white vapor rose from his body after the intense exertion.

"Old Ban, finished yet? I bought you breakfast." Used to this sort of thing, Chen Hao raised the buns and soy milk he had picked up on the way.

Seeing Chen Hao, the young man who stood out from the crowd smiled at him. "Go upstairs first. I'll wrap things up."

"Mm, I'll go keep an eye on things. Come up when you're done."

The young man nodded to show that he understood.

People in the Northeast were known for their tough temperament, and it was common for arguments to turn into fights at the drop of a hat. The most famous line was, "What are you looking at?"

Chen Hao was used to it. Something like this happened at the cafe every month or two.

Fortunately, Old Ban was around to handle it.

Old Ban's name was Pang Ban, a very wuxia-sounding name. His parents had both died, and he had grown up with a blind master, learning Baji and Pigua for more than ten years. After growing up, he had served in the army for several years. No one knew what he had done, but he had only been released from prison last year.

At the beginning of the century, no one thought highly of former labor camp inmates. After running into walls everywhere, he had eventually become an internet cafe attendant at Chen Hao's family's place.

Chen Hao's father had told him all this. According to him, they had interviewed several people for the attendant job and had not been satisfied with any of them. Then Pang Ban had come along. His father thought the kid looked honest, was only a few years older than himself, and seemed pitiful—especially since he had been a soldier.

Later, Chen Hao learned that it was because everyone else wanted six hundred yuan a month, while Old Ban only wanted four hundred, with meals and lodging included.

Afterward, they discovered that this young man hired for four hundred yuan learned quickly, treated the internet cafe like home, never went anywhere else, and could do the work of two people. He was incredibly reliable.

He even took on security work. Whenever a fight broke out, no matter how many people the other side had, he would not waste words. He would just drag them downstairs and settle it, leaving no trouble behind.

Feeling guilty, Chen Hao's father raised Old Ban's salary to eight hundred yuan a month in the third month. That was no small amount back then.

Both parents dead? A retired soldier king working as an internet cafe attendant? Old Ban was practically protagonist material.

Hiss!

Chen Hao sucked in a cold breath.

Reassessing Old Brother's potential with the eyes of someone who had lived through it all, Chen Hao was already planning the personnel structure of his little team.

"Hao Ge, number 23 is logging off."

A teenage boy came over to settle his bill after finishing his game, interrupting Chen Hao's thoughts.

Looking through the thick ledger, Chen Hao found the login time for number 23. Oh, an overnight customer. He turned to look at the clock on the wall. It was 8:37.

"You went thirty-seven minutes over. I'll count it as half an hour. One more yuan is enough."

He took the yuan the boy handed over and crossed out the entry with his pen.

He took out the key, opened the cash box, and put the money inside.

Looking at the various fourth-edition banknotes inside—the entirely date-red one-yuan bills and the dark-green two-yuan bills that would never appear again—Chen Hao felt a little sentimental. More than ten years later, he would have thrown away even his wallet, carrying nothing but a phone.

"Go home and get some rest early. Your health matters most. Everything else is empty!" Chen Hao casually advised.

The kid who had logged off looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Hao Ge, you pull all-nighters more often than I do. How can those words come out of your mouth?"

"Uh..." Chen Hao rubbed his nose.

With the heating running, the room was over twenty degrees Celsius. After staying inside for a while, Chen Hao felt unbearably hot. He took off his down jacket and set it aside, then picked up the pen and ledger and made a round of the room, tallying the gaming warriors still fighting on after last night's all-nighter.

The internet cafe was not large, only around eighty square meters. Thirty computers stood in neat rows. To make more money, there was not even a computer at the counter by the entrance.

Legend had burst onto the scene in the latter half of 2001 and directly seized more than half the online gaming market. Its classic Warrior, Mage, Taoist classes and timeless themes of leveling, Treasure Hunting, and PK had crushed older online games like Red Moon, King of Kings, and Millennium the moment it appeared.

Shanda, which had secured the Legend license, instantly became an online gaming giant of the era and enjoyed boundless glory for a time.

This was the height of Legend's popularity. More than half the people in the internet cafe were playing Legend. Among the scattered few remaining, some were playing StarCraft, some were connected for Counter-Strike, and—oh?—one was playing The Deer and the Cauldron, the single-player version, not the OL kind.

Watching the young man anxiously press the directional keys, Chen Hao saw Little Shrimp crash around the black pond like a headless fly.

Unable to bear it any longer, Chen Hao said, "You can't get out of Black Dragon Pool by walking like that."

Then he bent down and rhythmically pressed the directional keys. In less than a minute, he led Little Shrimp out of Black Dragon Pool and found Ying Gu.

Without saying anything, he turned around and walked back out, returning to the starting point.

"Alright, you can play by yourself now."

"???" The young man looked utterly confused. Big Brother, you pulled off a flurry of godlike moves, then went right back out. Are you messing with me?

Chen Hao had made a little joke. Before the other man could get furious from embarrassment, he quickly scribbled down a string of directions.

Rip. He handed him a slip of paper.

"Once you enter Black Dragon Pool, don't take another step. Follow these directions, and you'll get in!"

Left 8 → Up 2 → Right 1 → Up 3 → Left 3 →.

Before leaving, Chen Hao added, "Remember to train Wild Baseball Fist to level ten!"

The young man asked doubtfully, "Wild Baseball Fist's damage is trash."

"The first nine levels are indeed like that!"

"What about level ten?"

"Invincible!" With that, Chen Hao flicked his sleeve and left, accompanied by the admiring gaze of the spirited young man behind him.

Training Wild Baseball Fist from the beginning to level ten would take at least nearly five hours without Ambidexterity. This also counted as indirectly increasing revenue for his family's business.

Seeing that Old Ban had returned, Chen Hao handed him the ledger to complete the handover. Noticing that Pang Ban's hands were a little red, he hurriedly asked, "Are you alright?"

Pang Ban lifted his hand and shook his head at Chen Hao, signaling that he was fine.

"I meant them."

"...Hospital."

"What happened just now?"

"They caused trouble and wanted to skip the bill."

They seemed to be a roaming gang. Otherwise, they would have heard of Pentium Internet Cafe's top dog. They had caused trouble without even checking the place out first. These guys were not professional at all.

Used to Old Ban's extreme brevity, Chen Hao rubbed his chin. "And then?"

"No aftermath." Pang Ban pulled a large wad of crumpled bills from his pocket. "Keyboard money." There was more than enough. He smoothed the bills out and put them into the cash drawer.

"Not many young men these days are willing to pay compensation for damaged things! I left breakfast over there. Eat something first and rest for a while. I'll keep watch."

Pang Ban nodded.

There were still a few empty machines in the morning, so Chen Hao picked one closest to the entrance and turned it on.

"Attendant, the computer stopped moving!"

Without even turning around, Chen Hao shouted, "Press ALT+F4. If that doesn't work, restart it. Don't press the big one—press the little button on the computer case."

After waiting for a while without hearing anything, it seemed the problem had been resolved.

After booting up, Chen Hao opened Baidu and searched for the information he wanted. He did not overlook any community or forum on major portals like Tianya and Mop.

Half an hour later, Chen Hao looked confused.

There was not even a single clue. He remembered it being 2002, though he could not remember the month.

Could Legend private servers not have appeared yet?

A text message interrupted his thoughts. He picked up his phone and opened it, and Chen Hao grinned.

"Want to know the secret of your phone number? Reply xxx to learn the answer! (Replying to this message is free.)"

Spam text. Even a dog wouldn't reply!

Not long after, his phone's message alert rang again.

Hey, it just wouldn't stop. Was it trying to fleece the same sheep?

He opened it. Oh, misunderstanding!

"Where are you?" The message was from Chen Hao's childhood best friend, Xu Pengkun—the model child from someone else's family, the self-disciplined kid.

"At the cafe. Big news, get here fast!"