Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 559 A blow to the head

On the other end of the phone, Lei Jun quickly replied with a hint of confusion, "President Cheng, I don't quite understand what you're saying. This online game modifier has nothing to do with Jinshan. We only make legitimate software. Youxia is a legacy product for single-player games."

Cheng Yi was not surprised by Lei Jun's answer. He knew Lei Jun too well. This business genius had both the prudence of a technologist and the shrewdness of a businessman.

Just like when Lei Jun was attacked in Europe, Cheng Yi mobilized his resources to find the culprit.

It was eventually discovered that Lei Jun himself was the one who attacked him.

He attacked Microsoft when it was at its lowest point, then reignited the controversy, putting Microsoft in the spotlight.

The results were very encouraging. After that attack, Lei Jun gained a certain fan base in Europe. Relying on this popularity, he also opened up the low-end office software market in Europe and even attracted several investment institutions to invest in him.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "President Lei, we're not strangers anymore, so let's be frank. Although the 3721 online game modifier is disguised as an online game modifier, its core codebase, especially the mechanism for intercepting network protocol packets and simulating packet sending, is more than 85% similar to the underlying architecture of Kingsoft Game Ranger V6.0 beta version. Moreover..."

Cheng Yi paused deliberately, and Lei Jun's barely perceptible breathing could be heard from the other end of the phone.

"Furthermore," Cheng Yi continued, "we've also carefully traced this software. Although you hid it very well, it's not difficult for Momo Group to track down the final address of a software application. Should I send some evidence to your email address in Europe?"

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, with only a faint crackling sound from the electrical current.

After a good ten seconds, Lei Jun finally let out a helpless chuckle: "Fine, I admit defeat."

Upon hearing Lei Jun's words, Cheng Yi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He has absolutely no evidence.

His evidence is just a guess.

After Lei Jun finished speaking, he waited anxiously for Cheng Yi to say next.

He was really afraid that Cheng Yi would suddenly say: You don't want your colleagues to know either, do you?
Cheng Yi said, "Give me this software, and I'll find you a scapegoat so that we can both distance ourselves from this software."

"Huh?" Lei Jun wondered if he had misheard.

Is President Cheng really that good?

Cheng Yi said, "Actually, there have been people investigating the 3721 online game modifier until now. I'll handle this software. A new game just came out, and I'll arrange for a company to use this software."

"Of course, you can also record our phone call, then you'll have something on me," Cheng Yi said with a smile.

"No, no, the source code is on my private encrypted server. I'll send the address and key to your email later. But Mr. Cheng, please be very careful when using this, lest you get yourself into trouble."

"Don't worry," Cheng Yi said with a smile. "By the way, keep an eye on things in Europe too. It won't be long before Microsoft really makes its move."

"Understood." Lei Jun's voice returned to its previous calmness, but with an added hint of unspoken understanding.

Soon, an encrypted compressed file was sent to Cheng Yi's email address.

Cheng Yi called Lin Qingyin over and assigned her the task of modifying the software.

“Target: Audition Online.” Cheng Yi pointed to the Audition Online Women’s Day event promotion page on the computer and said, “We will use the underlying framework of the mod to develop a targeted plug-in module. It will have only one function: bypass the store’s purchase restrictions and server verification, simulate server commands locally, and purchase all items in the store without limit.”

Lin Qingyin looked at the source code of the 3721 modifier and said, "The core mechanism is fine. Their approach to packet simulation and memory modification is ingenious, but we need to redesign the injection points for Audition's payment verification and item uniqueness verification. I'll try to crack their item generation protocol and anti-cheat detection mechanism first."

"Yes, you can do it." Cheng Yi gave Lin Qingyin a positive affirmation.

This 3721 online game modifier is already considered a masterpiece of Chinese online gaming.

Sumireyama began developing the basics of this mod in the 90s, and then Lei Jun mobilized the entire technical team to optimize it.

It can be said that this is absolutely the sharpest knife aimed at online games.

Vulnerabilities and backdoors in Microsoft system settings have also bred and fueled the proliferation of cheat software.

Cheng Yi quickly got through to Chen Zhi and said, "I have an online game auxiliary tool to sell. You can register an internet company to be in charge. Find a local person to be the legal representative and shareholder, preferably from Myanmar or Cambodia."

“No problem.” Chen Zhi smiled and said, “I have a ready-made internet company in Myanmar called Golden Triangle Digital. You told me last time that Audition Online is quite keyboard-intensive, so I started stockpiling keyboards.”

The name startled Cheng Yi.

Good guy...

Cheng Yi responded, "Okay, then let Golden Triangle Digital become the official sales channel for this auxiliary tool. Remember, don't let this company and Prince Group have any connection with Momo Group. After Director Lin finishes making this tool, he will package it into a user-friendly client with a rough interface. Then you can have your people sell it publicly through major game forums and pirate software websites, priced at $5 per set! PayPal and MoPay remittances are supported."

"Okay." Chen Zhi asked curiously, "President Cheng, why charge? Wouldn't it reach a wider audience if we published it for free?"

"Paying fees covers a wider range of people. Only by giving the team a profit will they rack their brains to figure out how to promote it. If it's released for free, the spread is too slow."

"Okay, then I'll instruct them to make preparations now." Chen Zhi said, "I'll tell them to get ready now."

"Yes, have them emphasize that this is an auxiliary tool for Audition Online, which can bypass official restrictions and is used to let them experience the Audition Online outfits. As for how the players use it, that's their business," Cheng Yi said.

"Okay." The Primordial Era now brings Chen Zhi nearly 100 million in income every month, and Chen Zhi obeys Cheng Yi's orders one hundred percent.

In the past few days, Lin Qingyin's technical team has also demonstrated terrifying efficiency, and the Audition Online tool was finally launched just three days before Women's Day.

Based on the 3721 online game modifier's simulated packet generation, Lin Qingyin and her team, combined with a deep understanding of the logic behind the generation and verification of items in the Audition Online store, finally created a customized online game modifier called Audition Treasure Box.

It precisely located the key data structure in the game's memory that manages the player's item list and verification status. It used the Ghost Protocol to simulate the server sending a command packet indicating successful item acquisition, deceiving the local client and allowing the player character to possess the item, while cleverly bypassing the server's real-time uniqueness verification.

Dark Lance's stealth technology disguises its network activity as normal game traffic, preventing Microsoft's anti-cheat team from detecting this cheating method immediately.

Chen Zhi acted quickly. As soon as he received the Audition Box client from Cheng Yi, he immediately put Golden Triangle Digital into action.

The homepage of Golden Triangle Digital's rudimentary official website features a huge advertisement for Audition Online.

The advertising slogan is also very direct:
[The ultimate unlocker for the Audition Online store: own the entire fashion collection for just $5!]

[No recharge required! Ignore limited quantities! Unlock all shop items with one click! Customize your character freely!]

Overnight, advertisements flooded major online communities across Southeast Asia, East Asia, and even China. The prices were outrageously low, the feature offered a straightforward and easy way to unlock all items, and a seemingly legitimate sales channel.

The Dance Box spread like wildfire.

At first, only a handful of people were willing to try it, but as Golden Triangle Digital's promoters created hype on various forums, the number of buyers surged rapidly.

Countless players who crave prestige in the virtual world but are unwilling or unable to pay exorbitant fees, especially young people who want to wear limited-edition outfits for Women's Day, have begun frantically buying and downloading the app.

At $5 a set, nearly 17 sets have been sold.

This alone brought Golden Triangle Digital over $170 million in cash flow.

With the funds in hand, the employees of Golden Triangle Digital worked even harder to promote their products, and many even went so far as to sell directly through the Audition Online game.

With the grand opening of the Women's Day event, more and more players are purchasing the Audition Treasure Box.

A complete women's outfit for Girls' Day costs 520 yuan, but you can buy a Dance Box for only 40 yuan. And this 40 yuan can unlock all the outfits, which is even more fun than playing on a private server.

Unless players have so much money they don't know what to do with it, no one is willing to spend ten times the price to buy a piece of clothing.

At the T3 headquarters, Hans Müller stared at the backend data with a grim expression, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

Just two days ago, their servers detected a massive number of abnormal logins and brief protocol interactions. These logins were very short, involving only simple operations before logging off. Most importantly, an enormous number of players suddenly appeared in their game, all dressed in various fashionable outfits and swaggering around. These players all shared one characteristic: they didn't spend any in-game currency.

There were no purchase records, and the mall's revenue did not surge abnormally. These items seemed to have appeared out of thin air in their accounts, which indicates that the uniqueness record of the items on their server side was bypassed or deceived in some way.

The Women's Day event has begun, but this event, which Muller had high hopes for, has not made much of a splash. The curve representing the ownership rate of limited-edition items has skyrocketed like a rocket after the event started, far exceeding the theoretical maximum value they calculated based on the event rules and the number of players.

However, the curve of player recharges appears pale and weak.

On the day of the event, they earned a total of less than $47.

Converted to Chinese Yuan, that's about 300 million.

At this point, forums, game world channels, and major game communities were already flooded with messages from players.

Before selling, Golden Triangle Digital set up two special channels.

One is a referral channel. You can get a $1 cashback for referring a friend to make a purchase, which will be automatically converted into other currencies according to the user's location.

One is an incentive channel, which can be summarized in one sentence: if you want to use this outfit permanently, then tell more people. The more people use it, the less likely the game company will dare to punish you, since the law cannot punish the masses.

These players aren't stupid; they know very well that using abnormal means to obtain clothing will eventually be punished, so they have also begun to spare no effort in helping to promote it.

Did you use Audition Box today?

This phrase became a popular internet meme after Women's Day.

[Thanks to Golden Triangle Digital!]

Limited editions are a joke, haha, everyone's got limited editions now.

Goodbye to the official store! Buying clothes on May 520th? Do you really think we're easy targets?

[This game is garbage! Full of bugs! What happened to the limited edition? They're everywhere now.]

[Report! This must be reported! We paid money for the limited edition and got humiliated! Is T3 going to do anything about this?]

[The official website of Golden Triangle Digital is XXXXX, where you can purchase the Audition Box gadget! Payment can be made via Alipay!]

The outcry from paying players and the boasting from cheaters shattered the carefully planned Women's Day event and limited-time economic model of Audition Online.

Hans Müller trembled with rage as he looked at the chaotic data in the backend and the frenzied scene on the forum.

His millions of dollars invested in promotion and his meticulously planned Women's Day activities all came to naught.

What made him even more furious was that that damned Golden Triangle Digital was openly selling these unlockers, making their core paid item, worth 520 yuan, worthless for just 5 US dollars.

"Investigate! Investigate thoroughly!" Mueller roared. "This company must pay the price."

This sudden appearance of the Golden Triangle Digital was like a blow to their head.

“President, if we want Golden Triangle Digital to pay the price, we can ask Stallone to play another First Blood.” Muller’s assistant, Jamie Gobert, sighed. “Our priority right now should be to resolve the current troubles as soon as possible. This mod has destroyed our foundation.”

Muller finally calmed down.

Although his assistant was just an assistant, he was a talented investor that Polaris Capital was actively cultivating.

He was made Gobert's assistant simply because Gobert was senior enough to mentor him for a period of time.

Muller said in a deep voice, "What do you think should be done?"

Gobert said, "We should screen out all accounts that have a large number of limited-edition items in a short period of time, especially those from unknown sources! And all those accounts that frequently log in briefly, ban them all permanently, and issue the strictest announcement to warn all players who use illegal third-party tools."

"We are currently in closed beta testing, and the game is still in a period of rapid growth, so there is no need to worry about player attrition."

Muller hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it this way."

Muller nodded, and a brutal purge began.

Based on abnormal item possession patterns and login behavior characteristics, the T3 technical team launched a large-scale account banning operation.

Overnight, more than 150,000 accounts were permanently banned.

T3 Company is absolutely insane.

(End of this chapter)