Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 406 I'm not pretending anymore, I'm laying my cards on the table.

Wang Kang inwardly groaned, but dared not refute.

Indeed, he was in charge of the market in Handong Province. Before it was handed over to him, the Time and Space Internet Cafe in Handong Province was always packed.

On the other hand, if he made a decision without consulting his superiors, it wouldn't just be a scolding; he might be fired.

Wang Kang said with a forced smile, "Mr. Mi, can we operate it for free for a period of time?"

"Free operation?" Mi Jing frowned. "Has it come to this?"

Wang Kang said, "Our first priority now is to bring users back and change their gaming habits. Once they get used to games like Miracle, they will naturally come to us."

"How long do you want it to be free?" Mi Jing asked.

Wang Kang thought for a moment and said, "One month."

Mi Jing hesitated for a few seconds and said, "Go and do it. We must increase the attendance rate. Now is the most critical period for us to attract investment."

“Okay,” Wang Kang said. “As long as we offer it for free, we can definitely turn things around.”

"Yes, do a good job. If you can stick to it for a month, you'll be a great contributor to our group," Mi Jing said with a smile.

"I'm confident," Wang Kang said with a smile. "Don't worry, Mr. Mi."

Seeing how much Mi Jing trusted him, Wang Kang felt he had chosen the right person to follow.

It's free for one month.

Any boss would probably need to think about it for a while. Now is the time to make a decisive decision, because hesitation will only lead to more trouble. Even a one-day delay could cause irreversible damage.

Wang Kang hung up the phone and said to his assistant, "First, send a notice in our internet cafe management QQ group, then call each one individually and tell all the internet cafes to offer free service for a month as part of our grand opening promotion!"

"Okay," the assistant replied quickly.

In just one day, the news that Shikuang Internet Cafe was free spread throughout Handong Province.

For gamers, nostalgia is one thing, brotherhood is another, but if you have a free computer to play on, what does nostalgia even mean? And what's brotherhood anyway?

The day after Shikuang Internet Cafe announced it was offering free services, a large number of users began to return, and the previously empty internet cafe became crowded again.

The sudden free access to Shikuang Internet Cafe has made things more difficult for Momo Internet Cafe.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Zhang Lingyu summoned the senior executives of Momo Internet Cafe to discuss tactics.

These executives, though young, are all graduates of prestigious universities and have considerable insights into business operations.

Everyone started discussing countermeasures, each offering their own opinion.

“I suggest that we also make it free at the same time. This is the most effective way. Anyway, we have third-party partners like Honghuang Zhanji and Xinlang to support us. Even if it's free, we can still guarantee that we won't lose money.”

"I agree."

"I agree too." Everyone present nodded.

Just as Zhang Lingyu was about to make a decision, the meeting room door opened.

Cheng Yi walked in.

"Boss Cheng."

"President Cheng." Upon seeing Cheng Yi, everyone quickly stood up to greet him.

They would not stand up when they saw the chairman, but Cheng Yi was the only exception.

It wasn't out of respect or anything; the main reason was that they had heard that Vice President Cheng Yi was particularly petty. The CEO of Momo TV Shopping was targeted by Cheng Yi simply because he didn't greet him in the lobby, and he was scolded by Cheng Yi for almost half a month, and even scolded by the people of the whole country.

It's better to offend a gentleman than a petty person.

“Master.” Zhang Lingyu smiled at Cheng Yi, but there was a clear hint of fatigue in her eyes.

Following Cheng Yi in were five young foreigners, three men and two women, all dressed in trendy clothes, which seemed out of place with the outfits of the other people present.

Cheng Yi looked at the somewhat thin Zhang Lingyu and felt that the burden of Momo Internet Cafe was indeed too heavy. Even if Zhang Lingyu worked 24 hours a day, she would probably have a hard time keeping up.

Cheng Yi nodded to everyone and said with a smile, "Please sit down, everyone. You don't need to be so polite in the future."

Ha ha……

Everyone sneered inwardly. Jiang Yuxi had been quite ruthless before, and the bloody lesson from that time was still fresh in their minds.

Cheng Yi asked, "Are you thinking of a solution?"

“Yes, Shikuang Internet Cafe announced a month of free service, and we are discussing how to deal with it,” Zhang Lingyu said immediately. “After they announced the free service, they attracted a lot of internet cafe users, and now our internet cafe’s average occupancy rate is only about 65%.”

"What are you planning to do?" Cheng Yi asked again.

Zhang Lingyu said, "We all agreed to go free too. Anyway, we won't lose money if we announce that it's free, but Time and Space Internet Cafe can't afford to lose money."

“This method is indeed good.” Cheng Yi nodded slowly and smiled, “However, I don’t think their initial intention in offering it for free was because of this.”

"Not because of this?" Everyone looked at Cheng Yi.

Looking at this group of elites who had just graduated from university, Cheng Yi said, "Before I explain the reasons, I'd like to give you a suggestion: each of you must spend at least 20 hours a week in internet cafes to gain a deep understanding of the preferences of internet cafe users."

Cheng Yi's suggestion carried an unquestionable air.

As the group's second vice president, second only to Huang Wenrong who controlled the finances, he still had the right to inquire about Momo Internet Cafe, a second-tier company.

Cheng Yi continued, "The gaming environment is different now. This year, three very popular games have been released: Magic Baby, Fantasy Ranger, and MU Online. The playability and fun of these three games even surpass those of Legend of Mir. However, players have a characteristic: they are relatively conservative. Once they are used to a game, they are not willing to make changes unless the game company hurts them too much."

"This is our advantage, but it is also our disadvantage. We are essentially using one game to compete against multiple games from different fields. They are implementing a free-to-play model, which is likely an attempt to change the habits of internet cafe users and get them to switch from playing Legend of Mir to playing MU Online. Once they are immersed in the world of MU Online and the world of Magic Baby, they will gradually forget about Legend of Mir. Even if they start charging, players will continue to stay in their internet cafes."

Cheng Yi's words caused the expressions of everyone present to change slightly.

They hadn't thought that far ahead.

After all, not many of them enjoy playing online games.

“From now on, we’ll assess them once a month, testing their knowledge of those online games. It’s wartime now; how can they succeed without handling a gun?” Cheng Yi glanced back at Zhang Lingyu and said, “They’re all geniuses at learning; they excel at assessments. In less than three months, they’ll be online game elites.” This time, it wasn’t a suggestion, but an order.

“Okay.” Zhang Lingyu nodded quickly.

The crowd looked at Cheng Yi with a hint of anger, but when they met his gaze, their anger instantly turned into fawning smiles.

Cheng Yi's expression gradually turned serious, and he said, "This time I have brought you the best solution."

"Let me introduce you. These five are members of Dark Lance, one of the top hacker teams in the United States."

Upon hearing Cheng Yi mention the words "top-tier," Grann, who understood some Chinese, blushed.

Top-tier? Top-tier my ass!

They will never forget that battle years ago; it truly shattered their pride.

“Actually, besides strategy, there is another way to compete in business, and that is brute force.” Cheng Yi smiled and said, “This is Grann, a brute force genius, this is Lilith, a Trojan horse programming expert, and the other three are also hacking experts who are proficient in various hacking techniques. My method is very simple: crack the membership system of Time and Space Internet Cafe and infect the computers of Time and Space Internet Cafe with Trojan horses.”

"I have only one request: anything logged into the computers at the Time and Space Internet Cafe, we must steal it and then destroy it all!" Cheng Yi said, enunciating each word clearly.

"This...this is illegal, isn't it?" a senior executive at Momo Internet Cafe said in a trembling voice.

"Illegal?" Cheng Yi chuckled, then slammed his hand on the table and said, "In Handong Province, we are the law!"

They've gotten carried away, they've gotten carried away, Master has gotten carried away.

Standing to the side, Zhang Lingyu never expected Cheng Yi to say such outrageous things. A few days ago, Cheng Yi had even held a small meeting to warn them not to get carried away.

But not long after that, he himself got carried away.

“From today onwards, this hacker team will be under your command,” Cheng Yi said slowly. “You must show Shikuang Internet Cafe with your actions that Momo Group is no longer the Momo Group of a year ago. We are now a real industrial group that pays 21 billion yuan in taxes annually! This battle is not for ourselves, but for the entire Handong Province! For Jingzhou City! For Shinan District! For more than 50,000 jobs!”

"Our methods may be dishonorable, but beneath them lies a pure and innocent heart!"

After Cheng Yi finished speaking, he looked around and said, "I hope that after this battle, our backyard in Handong Province will never be engulfed in flames again!"

Cheng Yi is now truly fearless.

The internet cafe market in Handong Province must not be allowed to become chaotic.

This was his intention, and also the intention of the higher-ups in Handong Province.

When Timespace Internet Cafe entered Handong Province with a chain license, it not only displeased Momo Group, but also many other people.

If one internet cafe comes offering free services today, and another one comes offering free services tomorrow, how will they keep their internet cafes open? How will their businesses survive? How will they pay their taxes?

This time, Momo Group must adopt the attitude of a host and stop hiding and sneaking around.

They want to tell all their peers across the country that if they want to take the lead in Handong Province, they should first assess whether their technical team is sufficient!
That's right, it's an open game.

Grann and his team were already highly skilled, and after spending more than half a year in seclusion at Momo Group, participating in no less than a hundred large and small network attack and defense battles, each of them was no weaker than Lin Qingyin six months ago when it came to individual strength.

In fact, Lin Qingyin was undoubtedly the best person to take action in this matter. However, with the results of the first computer competition about to be announced, Lin Qingyin went to Zhonghai City with the teachers from Handong University to attend the results announcement ceremony.

Computer competitions are similar to math olympiads. Calculating rankings is very complicated. If ten people solve the same problem, how do you choose one person to advance from among them?
It all comes down to whose program has the optimal solution.

This is why the results of Alibaba's math competitions in its previous life were only announced three or four months later.

However, Grann and his team are more than capable of dealing with the newly established Time-Space Internet Cafe.

Grann and his team already had a Trojan program for internet cafe systems. It was designed when they wanted to crack the Momo membership system, but they failed before they could even use it.

Using it on the Time and Space Internet Cafe membership system is absolutely perfect.

The Time and Space Internet Cafe membership system is a Windows system, and this system is already riddled with vulnerabilities.

To paraphrase an industry insider: Even if there were no vulnerabilities, Microsoft would create them.

Vulnerabilities are the biggest source of profit. If a system has no vulnerabilities, then the system doesn't need to be updated. If the system doesn't need to be updated, then where does the profit come from?
A system without vulnerabilities is like antivirus software without viruses—it's doomed.

When Grann and his team joined Momo Group, Cheng Yi specially arranged a computer room for them. The investment in the computer room was very large. All five of their computers were IBM eServer iSeries 825 mini-servers, with five network cables, all of which were 100M high-speed enterprise broadband.

In terms of hardware configuration, this is already world-class.

A good swordsman must have a good weapon.

With these good weapons, they can unleash their strongest combat power.

As night fell on December 20th, a young man walked into the No. 12 flagship store of Time and Space Internet Cafe. He found a computer, sat down, leisurely lit a cigarette, and then typed in a website address with lightning speed, opening a webpage.

Immediately afterwards, all the computers in the Shikuang Internet Cafe flagship store suddenly crashed with a blue screen. After restarting, all the computers were disconnected from the network.

"What's going on? Network administrator, we can't get online!" a large group of people shouted.

The network administrator, not being a professional, quickly dialed the technical maintenance number.

More than half an hour later, two technicians rushed into the internet cafe.

A technician checked the computer and asked in confusion, "That's strange, the network connection is fine, so why can't we access the internet?"

"Check if the computer is infected with a virus," said a slightly older, younger technician.

"It doesn't seem like a virus." After checking the host computer and confirming that there was nothing wrong with it, the technician took out his own laptop and connected it to the host computer's network cable.

He opened a program on his laptop and began testing the host computer.

"The other party has connected to the computer in the membership system backend and can force a crack." At this moment, in the hacker computer room of Momo Group, Grann's computer instantly received the information and laughed loudly: "Continue to increase the degree of network congestion and extend the time for forced cracking."

"Received." Peros, a team member skilled in forced cracking, immediately began to operate quickly.

Just over a minute later, Poos laughed and said, "Successfully cracked! Their membership system is rubbish."

"Disrupt the membership system's database, and remember to save it for them," Grann said with a wicked grin.

(End of this chapter)