Five cents a comment, no upper limit

Guo Shuai thought Chen Fan was treating the whole thing like a joke.

But Chen Fan showed Guo Shuai through his actions that he knew nothing about the internet.

Once the paid task was posted, members of more than twenty groups erupted into discussion.

Back then, people had no concept of paid internet shills.

Nor did they have any particular impression of them.

The only thing that stuck with everyone was Chen Fan's final sentence.

Five cents a comment, no upper limit.

Who had so much money they needed to burn it?

The group chats buzzed with heated discussion, everyone asking which idiot had been kicked in the head by a donkey.

"Five cents for one comment. That's fifty cents for ten, five yuan for a hundred..."

"And posting a comment probably takes less than ten seconds. I could post dozens in a minute."

"If I had nothing to do and spent the day posting two thousand comments, wouldn't that be an easy hundred yuan?"

The group members launched into a heated discussion.

"I think it's fake. Nobody fall for it."

"Why not give it a try and find out?"

"If each of us posts a few hundred comments, with over a hundred people in our group, couldn't we clear several thousand yuan in a day?"

"Anyway, I don't really believe it."

"Huh? Why's nobody talking anymore?"

"Damn, those bastards! They've sneaked off to post comments."

"Holy shit, that's sneaky! They were just shouting at everyone not to get scammed, and now they've run off to scoop up the money themselves..."

Similar conversations played out in every QQ Group.

As someone involved, Guo Shuai witnessed it all firsthand.

"If they really post the comments, are you actually going to pay them?"

Chen Fan nodded.

"Of course. They do the work, we pay them. That's perfectly fair."

Guo Shuai didn't understand. "But... they're scattered all over the country. How are you going to get the money to them?"

"You can't send transfers one by one, can you? That'd be a huge hassle. The amounts wouldn't even cover the transfer fees."

Chen Fan smiled, seemingly having worked it all out already.

"There's no need to make it that complicated. We'll just give the money to the front-desk staff at these internet cafés."

"They brought in most of the people anyway, so they more or less know each other."

"And they're all group admins. It'll be easier for them to communicate than for us."

Guo Shuai still didn't get it.

"Even if you give all the money to those front-desk attendants and café staff, they can't mail it to every single person."

Chen Fan rolled his eyes.

"Come on, man, use your head. Can't you look at it another way?"

"Tell them the amounts are too small to transfer, so we'll pay them directly in game credits, prepaid game cards, or other in-game currency..."

Guo Shuai's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Right! That solves the payment problem perfectly."

But soon, Guo Shuai thought of another problem.

"How do we tally everyone's posts? What if someone cheats?"

Chen Fan explained patiently, "Have them send screenshots of their comments showing their IP addresses. Only comments with screenshots showing their own IP will count. Anything else will be treated as fake..."

"Besides, there are too many people for us to manage. You can make these group admins our second-tier agents, while you stay behind the scenes as the boss and direct things."

"Later, once it's been running for a while, you can also pick some people you trust and make them agents."

"As long as you get the management system in order, all you'll have to do is send the money to the second-tier agents. They'll handle the rest."

Chen Fan also told Guo Shuai that if this method worked, they could keep this army of paid posters around.

They could select a few trustworthy admins and make them their employees.

The employees wouldn't need to work regular hours; they would be paid by the task.

Whenever a task came up, they would only need to tell the second-tier agents and send over the money. They wouldn't have to worry about anything else.

Once the system had been refined and matured, they would effectively have a force of hired muscle hidden on the internet.

Whenever they wanted to attack someone, one order from the boss would bring second-tier agents charging in with countless paid posters...

Everything Chen Fan described left Guo Shuai stunned.

He stared at Chen Fan in astonishment, as though meeting his friend for the first time.

"What are you looking at?"

Guo Shuai reached out and pinched Chen Fan's face.

"Damn, we had the same teachers. How come you know so much?"

"Are some people really just born geniuses?"

Chen Fan shook his head, speechless.

"It's not that I'm smart. You're just too stupid."

"Damn! Did you have to be that blunt?"

Chen Fan looked at Guo Shuai with a smile.

"I won't have much time or energy to manage this side of things going forward. I'm planning to put you in charge of these people."

Guo Shuai's eyes widened.

"You... want me to manage them?"

Chen Fan nodded.

"Of course. Provided you're willing."

"I am. Of course I am."

Guo Shuai nodded excitedly.

To be honest, he still didn't fully grasp the role of the paid posting army Chen Fan had described.

The only thought in his head now was that, with a bunch of people like this, he could create a guild in his game and battle other guilds.

All he would have to do was wave his hand, and countless brothers would charge in, one after another...

Just thinking about it felt awesome.

Seeing the goofy grin on his face as he sat there, Chen Fan knew Guo Shuai's thoughts had wandered off somewhere.

He shook his head and left him to it.

Chen Fan trusted Guo Shuai.

Even if the guy was pretty unreliable at times.

Still, Chen Fan believed Guo Shuai could handle something as simple as settling accounts and delivering payments to each internet café, properly and in full.

As for this army of paid posters, whether it lasted would depend on Guo Shuai.

If he lost interest in the future, then it could simply fall apart.

That wasn't where Chen Fan's own ambitions lay anyway.

On the first day after the task was posted, there weren't all that many comments on the Easy Domain Network.

After all, quite a few people were still waiting to see what would happen.

But at eight that evening, someone posted a screenshot in a group.

"Holy shit, they actually pay!"

"And they even pay in game credits!"

"This is awesome."

"So if I spend an hour or two every day posting comments, wouldn't I earn back what I spent on internet access these past few days?"

"Tomorrow, I'm gonna keep posting till the end of time..."

Those who had doubted the offer and hadn't posted anything cried out in dismay at the sight, as though they had missed out on a hundred million yuan.

Some who hadn't been interested before also began asking the group admins exactly how to post comments and collect payment...

And one offhand suggestion from Chen Fan ended up firing up most of the group members.

Compared with earning a little pocket money, there was another appeal.

Quite a few people seemed to prefer being paid in prepaid game cards or game credits.

After all, most young people went online to play games.

Prepaid game cards and game credits were simply too tempting for them.

All they had to do was type up a few comments, and they could get a game credit card for free.

Why wouldn't they?

It was just too good a deal.

The next day.

A flood of comments began appearing on the Easy Domain Network's forums.