Network Attack

Players of Greedy Blue Moon were left shouting "holy crap" nonstop after seeing the detailed update announcement, reaching a climax right on the spot!

This private server updated even more frequently than the official server, with two version updates in just over a month.

It made the players of the official server so envious they could cry.

The hardcore fans in the Greedy Blue Moon fan groups spread the news everywhere, generating power through their love and promoting it voluntarily.

The wealthy and crafty players had booked overnight sessions at internet cafés as early as the evening of April 30. They would play until midnight, sleep if they were tired, play something else if they were not, and wait for the Greedy Blue Moon 2.0 servers to open.

Internet café owners across the country discovered that an unusually large number of people were staying overnight that night. The cafés were practically full.

When they saw that Greedy Blue Moon was updating, they finally understood. It was hardly surprising, after all. They had all witnessed how explosively popular Greedy Blue Moon had become over the past month!

Ten o'clock in the morning on May 1.

The players impatiently logged into the game to try it out. Those who had arrived at the internet cafés one or two hours early but found no available computers could only watch from behind, longing to play. It was not that they did not want to find another café; they had already checked several, and they were all exactly the same—completely packed. They regretted it bitterly. If only they had stayed overnight!

Watching the guys in front of them wander around the new map, with bursts of astonished cries coming from time to time, made them itch with impatience. They scratched their ears and cheeks in frustration.

Actually, the happiest people about the version update were the tycoons in the game. After more than a month of fighting and struggling, these wealthy players already had the best levels and equipment possible. Every day, when they logged in, they either fought guild-versus-guild battles or led a group of underlings on Treasure Hunting runs. The novelty was gradually wearing off.

But now, they had something to look forward to again. New skills, new equipment, and new bosses! Some tycoons who had entered the game later rubbed their fists in anticipation. This time, everyone was starting from the same line, and they could properly compete to see who would become the new top dog on the server!

These late-arriving big spenders were the challengers. And if there were challengers, naturally there had to be a reigning champion.

That champion was Wu You, the guild leader of the biggest Sabuk guild in District One. He and four friends he often played with had already geared up and were waiting on the second floor of a villa.

More than twenty others were on the first floor. They were all core guild players whom Wu You and the others had supported—not for any other reason than to have a good time playing!

Wu You and the others had discovered that being strong on their own was useless. When they encountered a much larger group, they could still easily be overwhelmed and killed.

Moreover, he had discovered several wealthy people on the server who were no weaker than him!

Following the principle that there was strength in numbers, Wu You and the others decided to recruit underlings after discussing it. The expenses would be shared among them.

Over the past month, they had gradually selected some promising underlings. Their travel expenses, food, and lodging were reimbursed, and they even received monthly salaries. Their only task was to follow the big brothers upstairs and attack wherever they were pointed!

In other words, Wu You and several rich second-generation heirs had raised a group of hired thugs inside Greedy Blue Moon.

The guild leader regularly handed out equipment and red packets. No one could resist such temptation, so the guild grew larger and larger. Of course, none of this was given away for free; a certain combat-power threshold was required.

Finally, at the end of April, Wu You's Invincible Realm guild reclaimed Sabuk City!

This month, Wu You and several of his friends had already spent more than a million on Greedy Blue Moon in total.

Ten o'clock arrived.

Everyone in the villa quickly logged into the game. The first thing the dozens of people did after entering was click the recharge button in the upper-right corner in perfect unison.

After collecting their cumulative-recharge rewards, they immediately formed teams and charged toward Black Moon Gate, advancing deeper inside in an attempt to be the first to drink the boss's soup.

May 1, the day Greedy Blue Moon 2.0 opened.

Chen Hao and Pang Ban had moved their desktop computers and laptops to the server room long ago, while Lin Lang and Xu Pengkun had already taken leave and were standing by!

It was still the fixed combination of three people and one phone.

Xu Pengkun no longer needed to continue promoting the game later on. Instead, he recruited a group of students and, together with Pang Ban, was responsible for managing and building the in-game support-player operation. Their task today was to compete with the big spenders, provoke them, and thereby start a battle.

There was no need to worry about losing. After all, the system stood behind them!

They could adjust the equipment however they wanted, but they naturally would not make the low-level mistake of introducing top-tier equipment right after the server opened or equipment that surpassed the current version.

Lin Lang monitored the server's various performance indicators.

Chen Hao observed the various data in the game. When necessary, he would also give things a little nudge with his golden finger!

Everyone in the small group had a clear division of labor, each handling their own duties!

Ten ten.

"Haozi, the server's overall performance load is at sixty percent and still rising!"

After hearing his buddy's report, Chen Hao looked at the number of concurrent online players, which had reached seventy thousand.

"Keep monitoring, buddy. Report every ten minutes. There are seventy thousand people online now. Our task today is to keep things stable and prevent lag!" He glanced at the speed at which money was entering the account. Compared with the revenue from when the server had opened a month ago, the current earnings were already worlds apart.

Ten twenty.

"Load: seventy-three percent."

Ten thirty.

"Load: eighty-six percent. Start throttling the traffic. Try not to let it exceed ninety percent. Otherwise, if this continues for too long, there's a risk the server will crash!" Lin Lang spoke somewhat urgently.

Chen Hao held a secondhand laptop, his fingers rapidly tapping across the keyboard. As the Enter key came down, he said, "Done. There are currently more than ninety thousand people online. The player limit is capped at ninety thousand. It should drop in a while."

Eleven o'clock.

After monitoring things for nearly half an hour, Lin Lang finally let out a sigh of relief. "The server load is stable at around eighty-two percent. It should be fine. That was scary just now. If it had lasted another half hour, the server probably wouldn't have held!"

He had only just relaxed when Lin Lang's phone suddenly rang in the server room.

After answering, Lin Lang's expression changed, but he quickly returned to normal. He hurried to the server and rapidly operated it with both hands, watching the various data indicators.

"That was the server alarm. The server came under a network attack, but the Firewall blocked it!"

Chen Hao stared at the laptop screen, operating it as well. He asked, "Do we know where it came from?"

"I'll check the IP's origin." Lin Lang examined the request data left behind by the Firewall.

Chen Hao used the game's illegal-request logs to trace the other party's IP backward through the network link and analyze it.

Two voices rang out at the same time, saying the exact same thing: "Magic City!"

Chen Hao understood immediately and said calmly, "It's fine. Just a clown making a fuss. Even if they broke through your gateway, router, and Firewall, I still have an illegal-request interception mechanism here. Permanently ban these thirteen IPs first."

A few minutes later.

"Okay! Done!" After finishing, Lin Lang walked over and handed Chen Hao a can of cola.

Chen Hao opened the cola and took a sip, feeling refreshed all over. The two of them walked behind Old Ban, who was also busy, and asked, "What's the situation now?"

Xu Pengkun answered rapidly over the phone. The battle was clearly intense as well. "We're at the entrance to the Blue Sun Demon King's cave. We're clashing with the tycoons from Invincible Realm now. We have the numbers, while they have the equipment. The odds are about even!"

"Nice work. Drag it out for another half hour, then ease off and let them take the boss in the end. A little later, I'll adjust one or two pieces of equipment for you two first."

Lin Lang rested a hand on Chen Hao's shoulder and watched the game with interest as well.

Now nearly thirty, Lin Lang had become increasingly indifferent to games as he grew older. Instead, he was more interested in things that required long-term effort but provided sustainable returns, such as reading, working out, and studying various technologies.

But the players of Greedy Blue Moon could not see the treacherous schemes unfolding behind the scenes. All they knew was that, after ten thirty, the long-vanished queues had reappeared in Greedy Blue Moon.

Even the lucky ones who managed to get a computer found that they still had more than a thousand people ahead of them in the queue. All they could do was stare blankly and sigh as they watched the people beside them play to satisfy their own cravings.

They lamented how there could possibly be so many people going online to play Legend these days.