An item can only fetch a good price when it's at its peak. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
That was why Chen Hao had frantically rushed out Version 2.0, killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Chen Hao planned to split the Greedy Blue Moon private server into two modules for transfer.
Package One included the compiled code for the Version 2.0 Greedy Blue Moon Legend private server. He would sell it separately to every interested buyer, pricing each copy at five hundred thousand yuan. For this purpose, he had even spent most of the day writing a foolproof tutorial!
Package Two included the currently operating Legend Private Server Alliance + Greedy Blue Moon Legend combination. It would be sold through open bidding, with a starting price of ten million yuan. The highest bidder would win.
Unlike Package One, which could not be modified, Package Two also included the Greedy Blue Moon Legend Source Code, allowing the buyer to iterate and update it. That was the truly valuable part.
This sort of thing could not be done openly. It had to happen in secret. Chen Hao chose to conduct the transaction online, making security and mutual trust the biggest problems.
Therefore, users interested in Package One had to pay a twenty-thousand-yuan deposit in advance! Package Two required a one-million-yuan advance payment!
The sale was set for May 20. Package One would go on sale at ten in the morning, and Package Two at two in the afternoon. Chen Hao would set up a transaction website for the occasion.
Once these general procedures had been settled,
the other three members of the small group continued operating and maintaining Greedy Blue Moon Legend.
Meanwhile, Chen Hao was working hard to sell Greedy Blue Moon Legend at a good price.
He went through the emails from people who had previously sought business partnerships or expressed interest in acquiring Greedy Blue Moon Legend, contacted and selected users who met the requirements, then replied to them by email with the sale contents and procedures.
First, he built a website for the transaction. Buyers of Packages One and Two saw different pages.
Users purchasing Package One could only see Greedy Blue Moon Legend's game content, game data, general revenue figures, and forecast analyses.
Package Two users could see all of that, as well as the specific online player counts for each Greedy Blue Moon Legend server, data across various dimensions, and the state of the private server alliance. He had also attached several screenshots of account revenue with private information redacted.
He checked the account, and whenever he saw that someone had deposited the required amount, he notified them of the corresponding website address by email.
This sort of thing depended entirely on trust.
To prevent scammers from slipping in among the genuine buyers,
Chen Hao had deliberately written a simple game authorization system. He made some modifications to the Greedy Blue Moon Legend source code. Even if a scammer obtained an authorization code and refused to pay the remaining balance, any computer running Greedy Blue Moon Legend would send a request to the server as long as it was connected to the internet. The server would then lock it and erase part of the code files, making the game unable to run normally.
Unless they played entirely on a local area network, spending twenty thousand yuan on a single-player game would certainly make them a ruthless fellow.
An episode occurred during this period as well. One day, Chen Hao suddenly received an email from Shanda. Inside was a sternly worded legal letter.
Our company recently discovered that your Greedy Blue Moon Legend is suspected of infringing upon our rights. We hereby blah blah blah request that you immediately cease the infringement. Otherwise, we reserve the right to protect our interests through reasonable and lawful means, including reporting the matter to the authorities and pursuing legal action.
He glanced at the signature: Shanda Network Technology Co., Ltd.
Chen Hao deleted the email outright. Looking at it for even a second longer would have been a waste of time.
All legal letters and rumor clarifications were paper tigers. Besides, copyright awareness had not yet awakened in China. Everything was growing wildly. Who would care about this sort of thing?
Besides, Shanda was only an agent. If they had a problem, they should go ask the developer for a statement.
Chen Hao shook his head, completely unconcerned. Shanda was nothing but a damn joke!
Actually, the legal letter did have some effect. Chen Hao was not afraid, but that did not mean the other private server operators were not wary.
Several users who had paid their deposits regretted it and wanted refunds.
Chen Hao shrugged. It did not matter. How could anyone do anything without taking on some risk? He refunded the money directly. He was not so shameless as to cheat them over such a small sum.
Time slipped away in a rush as Chen Hao wrote code, made phone calls, and counted money.
There was only one day left before May 20.
By this point, excluding the dozen or so people who had received refunds, the number of users who had prepaid their deposits for Package One had far exceeded Chen Hao's initial estimate of a dozen or so, reaching forty-three.
As for Package Two, after Chen Hao's repeated screening and back-and-forth discussions, five bidders had ultimately made the cut.
They were a temporary alliance formed by several small Legend private server owners, the owner of a real estate company, two rich second-generation heirs, and the fellow who had previously sold Chen Hao a private server.
All five had paid the advance payment and sent screenshots of transaction records showing ten million yuan in funds, proving that they had the strength to bid!
Chen Hao specifically verified the screenshots they had sent. They were all original images, not edited ones.
Then he pulled the two types of users into two separate QQ groups and set the groups so members could not speak.
Everything was ready.
During this period,
Chen Tianqiao took several subordinates on a business trip to South Korea to negotiate the rampant spread of private servers and have Wemade's technicians deal with them.
Wemade's executives only joked around and acted shamelessly. Their attitude was essentially: "You're paying the agency fees anyway. What benefit do I get from handling this for you? What are you going to do about it?"
Chen Tianqiao was so furious that the veins on his forehead bulged and his temples throbbed.
In the end, he did not keep arguing. Chen Tianqiao simply slapped the latest version of Greedy Blue Moon in front of Wemade.
The executives and technicians turned green when they discovered that half of the new version they had finished developing overlapped with this private server's new version.
But Greedy Blue Moon had released it first. Now the evidence was stuck in their pants—even if it was not shit, it looked exactly like shit.
"Assi!" "Aigoo!" Their cries rang out without end.
Seeing the Koreans clutch their heads and wail, Chen Tianqiao found that some of his anger had actually subsided.
Damn it, if you don't show the proper attitude, I'll make private servers spread throughout South Korea too. Come on, let's hurt each other!
In the end, the other side sincerely admitted that they truly could do nothing about the private servers.
At least Chen Tianqiao had not returned empty-handed. He brought back a consolation prize: the latest version of Legend of Mir.
A few days later, Shanda issued an official announcement:
"Hot-blooded Legend" Version 1.50, "Tiger Guard Legend," was released with great fanfare.
Legend players were ecstatic. Some Greedy Blue Moon players took one look and immediately started cursing.
"Oh, Greedy Blue Moon has Black Moon Gate, so you call yours White Sun Gate? Greedy Blue Moon has Blue Day Demon, so you call yours Crimson Moon Demon?"
Even the weapons in the new version could not be described as merely similar. They were exactly the same.
Did changing the name make it not plagiarism?
"Shanda, have you no shame at all!"
From then on, when players of the Greedy Blue Moon private server looked at those playing the so-called official Legend of Mir, their eyes seemed to say: You call what you're playing Legend of Mir?
They strutted around with their backs ramrod straight, unconsciously feeling a cut above the rest, as if they embodied the spirit of official Legend of Mir and bore the responsibility of their generation!
This made the players of proper Legend of Mir gnash their teeth in fury, yet they had nowhere to argue their case.
"Damn Shanda. You get looked down on just for playing a game."
Several days later.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Come in!"
Zhou Xiao entered the Chairman's Office carrying a laptop.
"Chairman, Greedy Blue Moon Legend has been put up for sale."
"What?" Chen Tianqiao abruptly raised his head, walked around the desk, and sat down on the sofa opposite him. He gestured toward the seat. "Sit down and explain."
Zhou Xiao turned the laptop screen toward him. While his boss read the contents, he explained from the side, "I just received an email from the Legend Private Server Alliance that surpassed us. In particular, look at Package Two. They plan to transfer the private server alliance and the Greedy Blue Moon Legend Source Code to outside buyers!"
After reading the email, Chen Tianqiao leaned back into the spacious sofa and fell into thought.
Seizing the opportunity, Zhou Xiao advised, "This is a good chance. We can pretend to buy it, then coordinate with the police during the handover and catch them all in one sweep! Make an example of them!" As he spoke, he even made a slashing gesture with his hand.
Chen Tianqiao wore an amused smile and shook his head. "Catch them all? No, no. However you look at it, these people have made outstanding contributions to Legend of Mir. How could we treat our close friends and relatives that way~"
"Then what do you mean, Chairman?"
"Buy it under your own name. Say you're a rich second-generation heir who loves playing games. The company will foot the bill!"
Zhou Xiao's mind raced as he thought of the rumor that his boss had parted on bad terms with Legend of Mir's parent company during his recent trip to South Korea.
He understood.
His boss intended to...
Raise a bandit to preserve his own importance?
Before you continue