Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

The musty smell of cigarettes in the internet cafe seemed to have solidified.

The blond-haired network administrator was still clutching a rag, his eyes wide like saucers, watching strings of incomprehensible code cascade across the screen.

Bai Yuhang took a half step back, not even looking at Zhang Qingheng, but staring at the cursor on the screen, his voice flat: "What are you standing there for? Move up."

Zhang Qingheng's palms were sweaty, and the disc almost slipped from his hands. He glanced at Bai Yuhang and saw that Lao Liu had no intention of helping, so he could only bite the bullet and push the disc into the CD player. Then he explained to the blond-haired network administrator how to install it.

"This...this is the server-side software, I've already installed it for you. You'll have to install the client-side software yourself. Here's how to do it." Zhang Qingheng's voice trembled slightly, like a child just learning to speak. "First...first, do the tutorial."

Huang Mao stood to the side, wanting to interrupt but not daring to, and could only stare helplessly.

With a flash of the screen, the familiar blue-gray installation interface appeared, and the progress bar began to advance steadily.

Zhang Qingheng stared at the blue bar, his previously unfocused gaze slowly sharpening.

He watched that scene more than a dozen times in his dorm room during the semester, and every hint and every option was etched into his mind.

"Use this as the host, and remember to set the IP address to a fixed range; you can't change it." Zhang Qingheng's fingers landed on the keyboard, initially a little stiff, but after typing two lines of commands, that sense of control came back through his fingertips.

This book is first published on 111k.com, providing you with a reading experience without errors or disordered chapters.

He turned to look at the blond-haired man, and the fear in his tone had largely dissipated. "Hey, you there, go restart the machine that cracked the password earlier. You can restart it after the client is installed. Don't press the power button directly, remember to press the reset button."

Huang Mao was taken aback, subconsciously exclaimed "Hey!", turned around to restart the machine, and only realized after taking two steps: Am I the network administrator, or is he the network administrator?

Bai Yuhang leaned against the bar, lit a cigarette but didn't smoke it, just held it between his fingers, and subtly curled the corner of his mouth.

Just after noon, Bai Yuhang's pager started vibrating incessantly.

He called back one by one using the public phone in the internet cafe. Liu Jing, the fifth brother, almost cracked the receiver with his loud voice: "Sixth brother! I'm at the Speedy Internet Cafe, hiccup... Fatty Liu insisted on dragging me out for barbecue, saying we hit it off immediately and that we have to become sworn brothers. We've got both restaurants sorted out."

Less than two minutes after hanging up the phone, a message came from the boss, Jiao Liwei: "Everything's settled with Red Star. That old rascal Qian Jiangnan kept me talking about 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils' all morning, insisting that Xiao Feng had to die, it really annoyed me. The system is basically installed, saving his network administrator the trouble of finishing up. He's quite satisfied, and I'm already on my way back."

The fourth brother, Wan Lianghao, also had a smooth experience. Although Xiangfang was a bit far away, he was the only one in the dormitory who really understood hardware. He even helped the boss make a bunch of network cables and was immediately treated as an honored guest.

The eight locations, like eight nails, are firmly embedded in the map of Harbin.

At 3 p.m., Bai Yuhang brought Zhang Qingheng to the "Haitian Internet Cafe" in Daoli.

As soon as I entered, I heard a commotion erupt inside.

"Damn it! I got disconnected!"

"Network administrator! The computer crashed! I was only halfway through fighting Zuma!"

"Give me my money back! What a lousy internet cafe!"

Dozens of people were banging on tables and smashing keyboards. These days, people who play games like "Legend of Mir" and "Millennium" have explosive tempers; losing internet access is like a death sentence.

Bald Zhang Qi, sweating profusely, roared down the corridor, "What are you yelling about! Shut up, all of you! It'll be ready soon!"

Seeing Bai Yuhang enter, he rushed over as if he'd seen a savior, his bald head covered in sweat: "Brother Bai, you're finally here! Quick, take a look, what's wrong with my internet? Why did it all suddenly go down?"

Without wasting words, Bai Yuhang strode to the host, glanced at the network connection icon flashing wildly in the lower right corner of the screen, and reached under the table to touch the router, which was so hot it could fry an egg.

"It's not a system issue, someone's sabotaging it." Bai Yuhang's hands flew across the keyboard, pulling up the logs. "ARP network attack. Someone on this LAN has infected the network with malware and is trying to seize the gateway."

Upon hearing that someone was up to something, Zhang Qi's eyes immediately lit up: "Damn it, who?"

"Never mind who's in it, putting out the fire is the priority." Bai Yuhang turned around and shouted, "Seventh Brother, go unplug the main router downstairs, wring out a damp cloth and wipe the surface, or just take it outside to air out! Plug it back in in three minutes!"

Without saying a word, Zhang Qingheng quickly crawled under the table, unplugged the cable, grabbed the router, and went out the door.

Taking advantage of the network outage, Bai Yuhang quickly wrote a short script on the server side, binding the gateway's MAC address, also known as the physical address.

"Give us power!"

Zhang Qingheng quickly plugged in the power cord.

drop--

The router's indicator lights lit up in rows.

The red lights on the host screen turned green one by one, and the game screen on the client machine, which had been frozen, started moving instantly. Some game accounts had already been kicked offline.

"It's working! It's connected!"

"Huh? It seems even faster than before?"

"It's not lagging anymore, it's not lagging anymore, let's log in and level up!"

The shouting and cursing in the internet cafe instantly turned into the sound of keyboard typing.

Zhang Qi wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked at the row of green lights, and let out a long sigh. He took out a stack of 100 yuan notes and a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes from his pocket, handed one to Bai Yuhang, and then handed another to Zhang Qingheng, who was still wiping dust.

"That's impressive technique." Zhang Qi gave Zhang Qingheng a thumbs up. "That move was quite swift. Young man, I was blind to your skill before, please don't take it to heart."

Zhang Qingheng looked at the Zhonghua cigarettes handed to him, awkwardly wiped the ash off his pants with both hands, and waved his hands clumsily: "Brother, I...I don't smoke, it's a waste."

But the smile on his face was brighter than the lights in the room.

At 5 PM, at the barbecue stalls near the side gate of the university.

When the seven brothers reunited, they were all covered in soot and reeked of smoke, but their eyes shone brightly.

"Just order the food, don't rush to eat skewers yet." Bai Yuhang handed the menu to Liu Jing. "Let Lao Wu order, we're going to the server room to check our results. You come after we've ordered..."

Seven people were crammed in front of a single computer in the school's computer lab.

Bai Yuhang logged into the backend and refreshed the page.

The numbers on the rudimentary counter on the screen were jumping wildly, as if they were going crazy.

10520...15800...12000...

With the arrival of the evening rush hour, the eight newly added internet cafes, along with the three that were already there, have more than a thousand machines operating simultaneously. Every time a machine is turned on, every time it is restarted, and every time a browser is opened, it contributes to this number.

31024!

It's over 30,000.

In an instant, only the buzzing of the computer case fans remained in the server room.

The third brother, Zhang Jian, gaped so wide his mouth could fit an egg: "This...this is something we did?"

Jiao Liwei pushed up his glasses and said incredulously, "Sixth Brother, it's done already? If this were money..."

"Don't be too happy yet," Bai Yuhang suddenly said, pouring cold water on the situation.

He pointed to the mouse spinning on the screen: "Can you see? The refresh rate has slowed down."

Everyone was taken aback.

"The American web hosting we rented is a piece of junk," Bai Yuhang said, his brows furrowed deeply. "The traffic right now is like a flood. If it keeps rising like this, our ship will capsize by tomorrow at the latest. Once the website crashes, those internet cafe owners will immediately turn on us."

The atmosphere froze instantly.

"We need to change servers, switch to dedicated domestic servers, and increase bandwidth." Bai Yuhang did the math. "It will cost at least four or five thousand yuan a year. We only have a little over a thousand yuan on hand, which isn't even a fraction of that."

Their earlier excitement vanished instantly, and the group exchanged bewildered glances. They might be able to scrape together a thousand yuan, but five thousand yuan was an astronomical sum for students in those days.

Bai Yuhang was pondering whether to ask Zhao Jianjun for an advance on his GG fee when several banknotes suddenly appeared on the table in front of him.

Then came stack after stack.

All of them are fifty or one hundred.

"This is from Fatty Liu. He said it's a technical guidance fee for two internet cafes, 1,200 yuan." Liu Jing slapped the money on the table.

"Eight hundred, given by Master Qian." Jiao Liwei also emptied his pockets.

"Zhang Qi, that bald guy, saw that you didn't accept it, but he insisted on giving it to me, saying it was hard-earned money, a thousand yuan," Zhang Qingheng said in a low voice, placing the money neatly on top.

Wan Lianghao and Zhang Jian also turned their pockets upside down.

Finally, adding the few fifty-yuan notes Bai Yuhang sent to everyone this morning, they were basically unspent, and a small mountain of money piled up on the desk.

"That's five thousand three hundred and twenty in total." Jiao Liwei finished counting and pushed the money in front of Bai Yuhang. "Is that enough to buy that server host?"

Bai Yuhang looked at the pile of money, then at the circle of brothers surrounding him.

In his past life, he led a team at a large company, and he would approve budgets of millions without batting an eye. But this five thousand yuan made his eyes burn.

"That's enough." Bai Yuhang took a deep breath, gathered the money, and handed 320 of it to Jiao Liwei. "Boss, take the brothers out to eat and empty the barbecue stall. I'll stay here to contact the server; the migration has to be finished tonight."

"Aren't you going?" Zhang Jian asked anxiously.

"I'll go as soon as I'm done." Bai Yuhang's hands were already on the keyboard. "This ship is stable; it won't capsize."