Who Is the Official Server

An item only fetches a good price at its peak. — Stanisław Lem

This is why Chen Hao, in a frenzy like a hen laying an egg and then having it snatched away, rushed to release version 2.0.

Chen Hao planned to split the Greedy Blue Moon private server into two modules for transfer.

Package One contained the compiled code for the version 2.0 Greedy Blue Moon Legend of Mir private server. This would be sold individually to each interested user for fifty thousand per copy. He spent more than half a day writing a user-friendly tutorial guide for this!

Package Two included the currently operational "Legend of Mir Private Server Alliance + Greedy Blue Moon Legend" two-in-one package. This would be sold through an open bid auction, starting at ten million, with the highest bidder winning.

Unlike Package One, which was non-modifiable, Package Two also included the Greedy Blue Moon Legend source code, allowing for iterative updates. This was the truly valuable part.

This sort of thing couldn't be done openly; it had to be handled discreetly. Chen Hao chose to conduct transactions online, making security and trust the biggest issues.

Therefore, users interested in Package One would need to pay a two-thousand-yuan deposit in advance! Package Two required a one-million-yuan prepayment!

He decided to launch sales on May 20th, with Package One available at 10 AM and Package Two at 2 PM. Chen Hao would set up a transaction website for the occasion.

With these general procedures finalized, The following days, The other three members of the small group continued to operate and maintain Greedy Blue Moon Legend.

Meanwhile, Chen Hao was working hard to sell Greedy Blue Moon Legend for a good price.

He sifted through emails from those who had previously sought business cooperation or expressed interest in acquiring Greedy Blue Moon Legend, selecting suitable users and replying with details about the sale content and methods.

First, he set up a website for transactions, with different pages for Package One and Package Two.

Users purchasing Package One could only see the game content of Greedy Blue Moon Legend, along with game data, overall profit figures, and projected analysis.

Users of Package Two, in addition to the above, could also view the specific online player counts for each server of Greedy Blue Moon Legend, various data metrics, and the status of the private server alliance. He also included a few screenshots of account earnings after privacy redaction.

Checking his accounts, when he saw that someone had deposited the deposit or prepayment, he informed the other party of the corresponding website address via email.

With this kind of deal, it was a matter of trust.

To prevent any scammers from trying to take advantage, Chen Hao specifically wrote a simple game authorization system. He modified the Greedy Blue Moon Legend source code slightly. Even if a scammer obtained an authorization code and refused to pay the remaining balance, any computer running Greedy Blue Moon Legend connected to the internet could send a request to the server, locking it down and deleting some code files, rendering it inoperable.

Unless they played on a local area network the whole time, calling someone who paid twenty thousand yuan for a single-player game a "tough guy" would be an understatement.

During this period, an incident occurred. One day, Chen Hao suddenly received an email from Shanda, containing a righteous-sounding lawyer's letter.

"We have discovered that your Greedy Blue Moon Legend is suspected of infringing on our intellectual property rights. We demand that you immediately cease all infringing activities. Otherwise, we reserve the right to take all reasonable and legal measures, including reporting and legal action, to protect our rights."

A quick glance at the sender revealed it was Shanda Network Technology Co., Ltd.

Chen Hao deleted the email immediately, deeming it a waste of time to read further.

All lawyer's letters and rumors were just paper tigers. Moreover, copyright awareness in China had not yet awakened. With all sorts of wild growth, who would care about this?

Besides, Shanda was merely an agent. They should go find the developer for a statement.

Chen Hao shook his head, unconcerned. "Shanda? What are they?"

In reality, the lawyer's letter did have some effect. While Chen Hao wasn't afraid, other private server operators were.

Several users who had paid deposits regretted their decision and wanted refunds.

Chen Hao shrugged, unbothered. "What endeavor is without risk?" He directly refunded the money. He wasn't going to cheat people out of such a small amount.

Time flew by as Chen Hao wrote code, made phone calls, and counted money.

There was still one day left until May 20th.

As of now, excluding the dozen or so people who requested refunds, the number of users who prepaid the deposit for Package One far exceeded Chen Hao's initial expectation of a dozen, reaching 43 people.

Meanwhile, through Chen Hao's continuous screening and repeated communication, 5 candidates for Package Two were finalized to participate in the bidding.

These included a temporary alliance formed by several small-time Legend private server owners, a real estate company boss, two wealthy second-generation heirs, and the guy who had previously sold Chen Hao his private server.

All of these parties had paid their prepayments and sent screenshots of bank transfers for ten million yuan, proving their bidding capability!

Chen Hao specifically verified the screenshots sent by the parties; they were original images, not photoshopped.

He then added the two types of users to two separate QQ groups, setting them to read-only mode.

Everything was ready.

During this period, Chen Tianqiao, along with several subordinates, traveled to South Korea to negotiate the issue of rampant private servers, urging the Korean side's technical team to address it.

Wemade executives played dumb, acting like rogues. "You're paying the agency fees anyway. What benefit do I get from handling this for you? What can you do about it?" they seemed to imply with their shameless expressions.

Chen Tianqiao's veins bulged, and his temples throbbed.

Ultimately, getting nowhere, Chen Tianqiao directly presented the latest version of Greedy Blue Moon to Wemade.

The executives and technical staff turned green. They discovered that half of their newly developed version overlapped with this new private server version.

But Greedy Blue Moon had released it first. Now, it was like mud falling into one's pants – it was definitely shit, whether it looked like it or not.

"Ah, shit." "Aigoo." The sounds of distress were endless.

Seeing the Koreans in distress and groaning, Chen Tianqiao found his anger somewhat appeased.

"Damn it, if you don't show some proper respect, I'll let private servers spread in Korea too. Come on, let's hurt each other~"

Finally, the other party sincerely stated that they were indeed powerless regarding private servers.

In the end, Chen Tianqiao's trip was not entirely in vain; he brought back a consolation prize: the latest version of Legend of Mir.

Within a few days, the official Shanda announced:

"Hot-blooded Legend of Mir" Version 1.50 "Tiger Guard Legend" is grandly released.

Legend of Mir players were highly enthusiastic, but some Greedy Blue Moon players took one look and immediately erupted.

"Oh, Greedy Blue Moon is called Black Moon Gate, so you call yours White Day Gate? Greedy Blue Moon has the Blue Day Demon, so you have the Crimson Moon Demon, right?"

Even the new weapons couldn't be called completely similar, only identical.

Changing the name doesn't mean it's not plagiarism?

Shanda, have you no shame!

From then on, players who played Greedy Blue Moon private servers looked at those who played the so-called official, orthodox Legend of Mir with an expression that seemed to say, "You call that Legend of Mir?"

They walked with a powerful stride, their backs straight, unconsciously feeling superior, as if it was their responsibility to uphold the true Legend of Mir!

This made those who played the legitimate Legend of Mir furious, but they had nowhere to turn.

"Trash Shanda, playing a game and still being looked down upon."

A few days later.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Enter!"

Zhou Xiao walked into the chairman's office holding a laptop.

"Chairman, Greedy Blue Moon Legend is being sold externally."

"What?" Chen Tianqiao's head shot up. He walked around his desk and sat on the sofa opposite, gesturing. "Sit down and tell me more."

Zhou Xiao turned the laptop screen towards him and explained while his boss looked at the content, "I just received an email from the Legend of Mir Private Server Alliance. Look at Package Two, they plan to transfer the private server alliance and the Greedy Blue Moon Legend source code externally!"

Chen Tianqiao finished reading the email and leaned back into the large sofa, lost in thought.

Zhou Xiao seized the opportunity to advise, "This is a great chance. We'll pretend to buy it, and during the handover, we'll team up with the police to catch them all! Make an example of them!" He then made a cutting motion with his hand.

Chen Tianqiao smiled playfully and shook his head. "Catch them all? No, no, no. After all, these people have made outstanding contributions to Legend of Mir. How can we treat our dear friends like this~"

"Then what is the chairman's intention?"

"Buy it under your personal name. Say you're a rich second-generation who loves playing games, and the company will provide the funds!"

Zhou Xiao's mind raced, recalling the rumors from a while ago about the boss's unpleasant parting with Legend of Mir's parent company in Korea.

He realized, the boss was planning to...

Keep the enemy to strengthen himself?