Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

Zhang Lei on the other end of the phone was clearly in a good mood; the sound of typing could be heard in the background.

"The tech department in Beijing just reported to me that your server traffic graph is showing a very strange 'electrocardiogram.' One second it's in the ICU, the next it's bouncing around." Zhang Lei paused, his tone inquisitive. "My technician bet you'd buy hardware DDoS protection, but you didn't spend a single penny. Bai Yuhang, are you setting up a 'stupidity tax' barrier for DDoS attacks?"

"Mr. Zhang, you flatter me. There's a way to live even when you're poor." Bai Yuhang leaned against the front desk, took out a cigarette and lit it. "Instead of spending money to block the road, let's set up a hurdle. The machine scripts definitely don't understand what a B41 is in CS, but these questions are precisely the secret codes for our users. That's called precision screening."

"That's interesting. Combining technology with experience and understanding of targeted users allows you to also do user screening and marketing at the same time." Zhang Lei chuckled twice. "This kind of low-cost, high-efficiency approach is the most valuable asset of a startup. Alright, I won't disturb your cleanup. Well done."

After hanging up the phone, Bai Yuhang returned to the private room. The tense atmosphere from before was gone, replaced by a deathly silence. Wan Lianghao was slumped over the keyboard, a row of keycap marks imprinted on his face; Zhang Jian was slumped back in his chair, his mouth slightly open, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth, his hand still tightly gripping the mouse.

That night truly drained everyone of their last bit of energy.

As dawn broke, Zhao Jianjun rushed into the private room as soon as the roller shutter door of the New Century Internet Cafe was half-opened.

"Sixth Brother! Wake up!" Zhao Jianjun, covered in sweat, shoved Bai Yuhang awake. "There's an uproar outside!"

Bai Yuhang rubbed his throbbing temples, his voice hoarse: "What do you mean?"

"Those internet cafe owners who took the train from Changchun and Shenyang overnight are causing a scene outside the door." Zhao Jianjun slapped his thigh in frustration. "They complain that we didn't serve them last night, saying we look down on them. Now they're yelling that they want to tear down our posters and even threatened to team up with internet cafes in Jilin and Liaoning to mess with our competition online."

"Tear down the poster?" Bai Yuhang sneered, got up and walked to the sink, turning on the faucet.

The icy tap water splashed on his face, the biting chill instantly dispelling the fatigue of staying up all night. He casually grabbed a tissue and wiped his face. The eyes in the mirror showed no emotion, but rather a chilling calmness.

"Let's go see how these money-grubbers are causing trouble."

Bai Yuhang pulled a stack of documents that had been printed overnight from his backpack and strode ahead.

The lobby of the New Century Internet Cafe was now filled with smoke and fumes. Seven or eight middle-aged men in leather jackets and carrying briefcases were gathered around the front desk, spitting as they spoke.

The leader was a short man with a burly face and a thick gold chain around his neck. He was pointing his finger at the internet cafe manager, Wang Jun, and yelling, "Go and call your manager out here! He ran off in the blink of an eye! What kind of lousy Harbin Dragons is this? I had to sit on the bench all night! Believe me or not, I'll go back and curse this lousy competition to death!"

"Who are you going to insult?"

A steady voice pierced through the noisy crowd.

Bai Yuhang parted the students who were watching the commotion online and walked straight up to the short, muscular man.

He sized up the student in the military overcoat, then scoffed, "Who are you? You're barely out of school, and you dare to act all high and mighty with us?"

"Snapped!"

A stack of documents was slammed heavily onto the marble countertop.

"I'm Bai Yuhang from Qihang Campus Network. If you want to tear down the posters, the wall is over there. Be quick, and when you're done, turn left and don't bother coming back." Bai Yuhang leaned on the table, his gaze sweeping over everyone present. Beneath the skin of a freshman, his aura was as hard as a steel plate. "If you want to make money, shut your mouths and sit down to talk about how to divide the cake."

The hall fell silent for a few seconds.

The short man's face twitched slightly, clearly not expecting to be intimidated by a student: "Kid, what are you so arrogant about? Without our out-of-town internet cafes, this competition is just something Harbin people do by themselves! We can organize it ourselves, do you expect us to?!"

"Do it yourself?" Bai Yuhang waved to Zhang Jian, who had followed him out.

Zhang Jian, sporting a messy hairstyle, turned a monitor around, revealing a national map covered with countless bright dots on the screen.

"Look closely." Bai Yuhang pointed to several glowing dots in Changchun and Shenyang. "These are the real-time online data from Qihang Campus Network last night. If I'm not mistaken, these IP ranges near Changchun Cultural Square belong to your store, right? Last night, 420 computers in your internet cafe were logging into my website. They must have wanted to register for our competition."

Bai Yuhang stared directly into the bald, fat man's eyes, a mocking smile playing on his lips: "Right now, college students all over Northeast China, even the whole country, are looking for classmates and forming teams on Qihang. If you tear down the posters, I won't play with you, and you won't be able to play either. Your competitors will plaster the entire street with posters. Then, your customers will flow to the neighboring shop like water. Can you afford to compensate for that loss?"

The short, muscular man stared at the terrifying data on the screen, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. He was a businessman, and he knew all too well what this meant—this wasn't just a game competition, something his internet cafe's entire tournament couldn't compare to; this was traffic, this was the purpose of their trip to Harbin, this was real money flowing in.

The arrogance they had displayed just moments before was instantly extinguished by this set of cold, hard data.

"This..." The short, burly man changed his tune, rubbing his hands together and putting on a greasy smile. "Brother Bai, you're being too polite. We've come all this way just for this. It was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding."

"Since it's a misunderstanding, let's get down to business." Bai Yuhang pointed to the document on the table. "This is the 'Qihang Campus Network Northeast Regional City Esports League Franchise Agreement.' The franchise fee is five thousand, not a penny less. By using my system and website, you will become the 'official designated venue' in your area, and we will share the traffic benefits. You have three minutes to consider whether to sign or not."

Three minutes? It didn't even take thirty seconds.

Just moments ago, a group of seasoned veterans were shouting for a boycott, but now they were scrambling to pull out their pens, afraid that if they were a step too late, the title of "officially designated" would fall to someone else.

After seeing off the group of out-of-town business owners who were holding agreements and beaming with joy, Bai Yuhang felt as if his spine had been removed. He slumped into a chair at the front desk and let out a long sigh.

"Xiaoyu, you're awesome!" Zhao Jianjun gave a thumbs up from the side. "These old foxes give me a headache normally, and you managed to win them over with just a few words?"

"They're the type who won't act until they see the benefits," Bai Yuhang said, waving his hand with his eyes closed. "Give them the meat, and even a wolf can turn into a dog."

Just then, Zhang Jian, who had been staring at the backend data, suddenly let out a strange cry and almost jumped off his chair.

"Holy crap! Sixth brother! Something's wrong!"

"What's wrong now? Someone else wants to tear down the poster?" Bai Yuhang didn't even lift his eyelids.

"Not posters! People! All people!" Zhang Jian pointed at the screen, his fingers trembling. "Just now, our registered user count surpassed 500,000! And... look at these IP sources!"

Bai Yuhang suddenly opened his eyes and leaned over to take a look. On the map, which had previously only shown the Northeast region, the Beijing area suddenly burst into a blinding red light, and a dense flood of IP requests poured in like a tide.

"The university circles in Beijing... are in an uproar," Zhang Jian muttered to himself. "The data is surging even faster than when we were attacked last night!"