Eve of the Public Beta

Chen Hao knew Old Ban was capable, but he didn't realize how capable.

Last time, at his doorstep, he only saw the aftermath, not the actual fight.

Good lord, the thugs on the street were like crushing little chicks, one after another, all instantly killed.

He was too damn invincible.

Pang Ban didn't know what Chen Hao was thinking. He pressed down on a few spots on Chen Hao's body.

"It's fine, just superficial wounds. A bit of medicated oil and you'll be good in a couple of days."

Chen Hao swallowed, then pointed to the person who had slid down the wall earlier. "Is he okay?"

"I held back. A minor fracture in his chest, he'll be bedridden for a few days!"

Pang Ban helped Chen Hao up, slinging an arm around his shoulders, and started walking him out.

As they reached the internet cafe entrance, they saw the driver uncle rushing over from not too far away.

Pang Ban explained that he'd waited at the entrance for a while, and it was the uncle who told him Chen Hao had been taken here, which is how he found him.

The uncle hurried over, looking worried. "Let's go quickly. I just saw two kids run out of here, whispering about calling for backup."

With Pang Ban here, who would dare cause trouble? With this pillar of strength, Chen Hao wasn't flustered at all, hobbling along.

The uncle continued, "I've already called the police. When the JC arrives, they'll sort these guys out!"

Chen Hao's expression changed when he heard that. He quickly urged everyone to get moving.

The uncle looked puzzled. "You're not afraid of thugs but you're afraid of the JC? What's the logic? Besides, I saw with my own eyes that those guys at the entrance made the first move, then they dragged you away. Even if you fought back, this would be self-defense."

"Uncle, you don't understand. Times have changed. Now, if you fight back, no matter how disadvantaged you are, even if they attacked first, as long as you fight back and don't kill anyone, heaven and earth will call it mutual combat! Let's drive, let's drive!"

As the car started and pulled away, Chen Hao closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Uncle, let's call it a day here. You don't need to return the money. The JC might call later for a follow-up, just say you saw an act of bravery, called the police, and don't know anything else."

The uncle was quick to catch on. "Isn't that just how it is?"

"Thanks, Uncle. Just drop us off on XX Road and pull over."

Back home, Chen Hao, with several herbal plasters stuck to his back and waist, was applying medicated oil, wincing in pain.

Pang Ban was talking about the recent situation at his family's internet cafe.

A few days ago, the new computers Old Brother bought for the family arrived, were installed, and were officially operational.

Even with the addition of the new computers, the internet cafe was still packed, every seat taken.

Business was much better than before. Additionally, Old Ban had introduced a reliable person to take over as the network administrator, which is why he was free now.

After listening, Chen Hao took out his wallet and counted the money inside.

"Here's five thousand, take it!"

Pang Ban shook his head. "I don't need it. You need it more!"

Chen Hao stubbornly placed the money in Pang Ban's hand, smiling. "What are you thinking? Use a thousand to buy a phone first, so we can keep in touch. The rest is for tomorrow's promotion. You can negotiate the price, but it's capped at 100 per internet cafe."

Pang Ban didn't refuse this time and accepted the money.

"Since you've chosen to come out and work with me, I won't treat you unfairly. Right now, we have nothing. We'll suffer together, and later, what I have, you will have too." Chen Hao looked at Pang Ban seriously, painting a grand vision, confident that this vision would soon become a reality.

He turned on the monitor and refreshed the webpage. In less than a day, the number of private server reservations had surpassed a thousand. This thousand included the results of Chen Hao's promotion in Ice City and Xu Pengkun's promotion in Beijing.

Chen Hao made a phone call. "Hello, Big Bird, how's it going on your end?"

"Good, two more days. We'll continue tomorrow. Also, be careful, don't walk alone. Find some classmates to go with you. If you can negotiate, do it; if not, just leave. Today, on my end..."

Chen Hao roughly recounted the incident with the thugs today, warning Xu Pengkun to be cautious.

"Mm, is the money enough? Not enough? Use your personal stash to cover it for now. I'm almost out of funds here, I'll pay you back with interest later!"

"Alright, contact me anytime if there's a problem!"

He hung up. After briefing Pang Ban on the tasks for tomorrow, he continued with ground promotion, replenishing flyers distributed to partnered internet cafes, and expanding to new ones.

He wasn't worried about Old Ban's safety. With Old Ban's skills, Chen Hao was more concerned about those thugs, hoping they had learned their lesson.

The next day, Pang Ban went out to carry out the plan.

Chen Hao held down the fort.

Searching with the keyword "Legend of Mir," he found his private server alliance website ranked in the middle of the third page.

Based on the habits of internet users, click-through rates dropped significantly after the second page.

But it was better than nothing.

Following the inspiration he'd recorded last night, Chen Hao's fingers danced across the keyboard. He directly added three statues in the safe zone of the earth city: one Warrior, one Mage, and one Taoist, all clad in top-tier equipment and wielding the most dazzling weapons.

The goal was to show the new players what their ultimate aspiration should be. A little poke to the butt, to open their eyes.

Want it? It's simple, just pay up!

Chen Hao's current enjoyment was refreshing the page and watching the rapidly increasing reservation numbers, feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

2048

3284

4396

6180

To be on the safe side, Chen Hao continued to optimize the server performance.

He first conducted a stress test, distributing a total of five hundred bots randomly across various maps within the game to run around and cast skills.

He observed the various parameters, finding the thresholds to be within controllable limits.

Then, he continuously increased the number of players. When eight hundred people were online simultaneously, the thresholds were nearing their upper limit.

Character movement and actions gradually began to lag, reaching a point where it was barely playable.

When the number of bots increased to one thousand, characters would essentially take two seconds to move one step, becoming extremely laggy.

Chen Hao didn't dare to add any more, fearing he'd crash the server, burn it out, and bring about a situation where he'd have no one to cry to!

When performance issues arise, there's only one simplest and most effective solution: add caching!

He added some client-side caching. All unnecessary interaction requests to the server would now be handled by reading local cache. This optimized the data volume and frequency of communication interactions, thereby reducing the server's load.

Several hours later, after the caching and code-level optimizations were complete, Chen Hao, as an extra precaution, added a server overload protection mechanism: queuing!

He conducted another stress test. This server could now handle two thousand concurrent players for stable operation!

Exceeding two thousand players would result in the same lag as before.

To ensure a good player experience within the game, Chen Hao made the queuing condition slightly more lenient. He set it so that queuing would begin when the total number of players in the game exceeded six hundred.

This meant the maximum concurrent online players per server would be capped at six hundred.

With all this done, it was already evening when Pang Ban returned.

"All delivered? Went smoothly?"

Pang Ban nodded.

"Didn't run into any punks or anything?"

Pang Ban shook his head.

"Damn it, those cowards only pick on the weak!"

What Pang Ban didn't mention was that he didn't just finish distributing the flyers. He also took the opportunity to stick promotional flyers on passing bus stops and at the entrances of residential communities.

That's just the kind of person he is. If something requires 100% effort, he not only completes it without cutting corners but also finds ways to achieve 120%.

Before going to sleep, Chen Hao took one last look at the reservation numbers.

The number of pre-registrations for Greedy Blue Moon Legend had officially surpassed ten thousand!