Chen Xu recalled the last time he met Guan Yi's father. It seemed that Guan Yi was quite afraid of her father, but it was her family matter and he couldn't bring himself to speak about it. It also seemed that Guan Yi didn't want to talk about it either.
At this moment, Gao Xiaojie came out, shaking the water pipe in his hand: "What were you doing just now?"
"Oh," Chen Xu quickly replied, "Guan Yi isn't going home for the New Year. I just called home and said I'm not going back either. What about you?"
Guan Yi quickly added, "Xiaojie, if you don't have to go back, why don't you stay? Let's do what we did last year and make some good plans for the New Year, okay?"
Same as last year...
That's a very ambiguous statement.
Last year, Chen Xu, Guan Yi, and Gao Xiaojie spent the New Year together. On the first night, there weren't enough beds, so the three of them ended up sleeping in one bed. The scene was quite romantic, and just thinking about it makes me... Moreover, before Guan Yi arrived, it was Chen Xu and Gao Xiaojie's first intimate encounter, which slowly began to change their originally pure classmate relationship.
Although Guan Yi blurted it out, she quickly thought of the scene from last year's Spring Festival. She couldn't help but feel a mix of sweetness and panic in her heart, so she quickly changed the subject and said, "Xiaojie, why don't you make a call and ask?"
Gao Xiaojie shook her head and said, "I'm afraid that won't work. Last year, my parents went to visit a relative I didn't like, but that's not necessary now. Besides, I haven't been back for over a year, and it wouldn't be right if I didn't go back for the Spring Festival this year. Also, I miss home."
Then she smiled and pushed Guan Yi toward Chen Xu, saying, "You two should just enjoy your time together. Nobody's going to be a third wheel right now!"
This sentence made both of them extremely embarrassed!
If it were just a regular friend, there would be no problem with making such a joke, and Chen Xu would definitely retaliate without hesitation.
But are he and Guan Yi just ordinary friends now?
Not only that, but the person who said that and made that joke also had a special relationship with Chen Xu.
How could Chen Xu not feel embarrassed?
Even Guan Yi, a very shrewd woman, couldn't stand it, because everyone present knew... that this was no joke at all.
The atmosphere became slightly awkward. Gao Xiaojie smirked and quickly changed the subject. A little teasing was fine; she couldn't keep bringing up the awkwardness. But she secretly gave Chen Xu a knowing look, and Chen Xu understood what she meant... Look, now that we're alone together, you're in charge of winning her over this time!
Chen Xu knew how much he had to compromise and how much he had to suffer to get a girl who loved him deeply to encourage him to pursue other girls. In this respect, he really felt guilty towards Gao Xiaojie and Guan Yi... and Zhan Jing.
Chen Xu felt that he had no way to repay their feelings and sacrifices except by marrying them. He had already decided that all that talk about predestined relationships across lifetimes was nonsense. Why worry about things like past and future lives now? The only thing he could worry about was this life.
With only a few decades left in his life, he wanted to use all his strength to meet all their needs, not only materially but also spiritually.
This was the only way Chen Xu could make amends.
So now, Chen Xu needs to find a way to make money, or at least make himself stronger. Only when he becomes stronger can he fulfill this promise.
Chapter 332 Online Games, Dominating the World
How do I make money?
No, I should say, how to rob money?
The value had already been estimated at one hundred billion US dollars. Of course, Chen Xu felt that if he went all out, earning one hundred billion within three years was definitely not a problem... The simplest way is to sell technology!
If he were willing to sell many of the high-tech products from Xiaomin's supercomputer, especially military-related items, let alone a hundred billion US dollars, even a trillion... well, a trillion is a bit of an exaggeration, but basically a hundred billion is definitely not a problem.
But the question is, can Chen Xu actually produce these things?
If scientists worldwide knew that Chen Xu possessed a computer filled with cutting-edge data from the future, and that he was hiding it and refusing to show it to anyone, they would probably drown him in their spittle! There's a saying that science knows no borders, and there are two types of people who believe in this. The first type consists of politicians from superpowers or researchers from developing countries who are capable but lack awareness. They use this saying to deceive others and themselves into abandoning their homelands and going to developed countries to "contribute to humanity." The second type consists of true, master-level scientists.
However, there is another saying: scientists have national borders.
When many groundbreaking things appear in this world, especially when they are acquired by already unbalanced developed powers, no one knows what the consequences will be.
Advancing human progress? Maintaining world peace?
Hey, Chen Xu is no longer that silly little bird he used to be. Judging from his current status and how he interacts with many people, yes, from the American perspective, their statement is completely correct. As the world's number one power, their strength is there, and their leaders and citizens are fully entitled to this kind of pride.
In their view, the existence of many countries in the world hinders human progress, and if all of humanity were united, human development would enter a new stage.
Actually, this idea is correct, absolutely correct!
Just like the Warring States period, which was characterized by conflict and turmoil among the seven states, it was necessary to first unify the world into a single sovereign power before it could continue to develop. Although the world is currently at peace, the competition and monopolistic practices among various forces are too intense. If the world could be integrated into a unified whole and developed together towards a common goal, then the world's technological development would definitely advance by leaps and bounds.
However, while the idea is good, who should be in charge?
No one wants their country and civilization to become subordinate to or even perish under someone else's control. At least Chen Xu absolutely does not want that, so he will not bring these things out.
Chen Xu is quite frustrated right now because he has a lot of money-making opportunities on his computer, but he can only use a small amount of them.
To make quick money without complicated manufacturing processes, something that could be produced right now... Chen Xu set his sights on one thing first... online games!
Among Xiaomin's information is a game called "Conquer the World", a PC online game released in 2031. It was created by several companies and is of the highest quality in terms of graphics, operation and game content. After its release, it became popular all over the world and set a glorious record of a peak of 1.8 billion registered users, a peak of 150 million concurrent online users, and 40 million stable users worldwide!
This game enjoyed a glorious decade... which is almost the limit for a game. What's most commendable is that, unlike other online games, "Conquer the World" doesn't open new servers or regions all the time to attract players, which leads to a significant dispersion of players.
This game runs on only one large server from start to finish!
Can't believe it?
The reason why many online games keep opening new servers is because there's no other way... There's only so much game content, and once a game is released, players will have explored it all within a few months or a year at most... And that only applies to masterpieces! So now many popular online games upgrade through expansion packs and patches, giving veteran players more unknowns to explore. This is because players will inevitably lose interest once they've fully mastered the game in the later stages, so game companies must provide new content to stimulate players.
However, "The World of Conquerors" set a terrifying record!
It wasn't until the release of Virtual Reality and the replacement of the PC platform by the BC platform that players had discovered 90% of the game content of "Conquer the World".
Just imagine how terrifying it would be to have a game with 1.8 billion registered users? Normally, an online game is considered a hit if it has a few thousand concurrent players, but this game, "Conquer the World," has only one large global server capable of supporting hundreds of millions of players simultaneously… Not only is the game server incredibly powerful, but you can also imagine how much content the game contains!
Even in today's online games, like World of Warcraft, which dominates half of the global online gaming market, how many people can a single server map hold? If hundreds of millions of people flood in at the same time, the map would be so crowded that you couldn't even walk on the densely packed paths, let alone fight monsters.
The reason why "Conquer the World" has not been fully explored in ten years is because the game map is simply too large!
The entire game world is set on the continent of Earth, and it includes all the legendary skills from both the East and the West... immortal arts, magic, divine arts, and so on. Otherwise, how could it support hundreds of millions of players playing on a single server at the same time? The game's maximum capacity is said to be able to support five billion players simultaneously, which gives you an idea of how grand this game is.
Ten years of honing a sword!
According to the report, the game design for "Conquer the World" began in 2021 and took a full ten years to complete. It even used a supercomputer to perform calculations and simulations day and night before it was finally made.
Now, this game will become Chen Xu's most important tool for making money.
Some might ask, besides gameplay, what's so important about games these days is graphics?
For many players, the game's graphics are the primary factor they consider when choosing a game!
When World of Warcraft was popular all over the world, a large part of its success was due to its exquisite graphics. Of course, many people also felt that while World of Warcraft's graphics were indeed good, the character and monster models were too Western in style and did not suit the tastes of Easterners.
Even so, World of Warcraft still boasts a large player base. Perhaps the biggest impact of World of Warcraft's popularity on the Chinese online gaming industry is that it forced internet cafes to upgrade their outdated computers, replacing them with higher-end configurations, especially graphics cards… Otherwise, using a machine that used to crash even for a simple game like Legend of Mir to play World of Warcraft would be suicidal.
The graphics of this 2031 game are so stunning, how can current graphics cards possibly handle them? And how can today's mainstream RAM be sufficient? Keep in mind that XP 32-bit systems only support a maximum of 325GB of RAM, and while 4GB of RAM is enough for most games, is it really enough for this game from the future?
However, none of these are problems.
Do you remember "The Martial Artist"?
This is also a game from the future, but it has now become a global phenomenon. Some people have even tested the limits of the minimum hardware configuration... Using the legendary 586 processor with 128MB of RAM and an integrated graphics card, the game can still run. However, the game will lag a bit under these hardware conditions, and the graphics are much worse than those of a high-end computer!
A program with a double helix chain structure!
The double helix chain structure is hailed as a major milestone since the invention of the computer, and this is no exaggeration.
The biggest advantage of this structure is that it is more efficient, more systematic, and can maximize the hardware's capabilities compared to the current single-program model!
The current level of programming skill is uneven, and many programs fail to utilize the capabilities of computer hardware, instead wasting system resources immensely. To give a simple example, consider the Korean game "Aion" and Blizzard's "World of Warcraft." Of course, in the minds of many players, "Aion" is a trashy, low-quality game, inferior to "World of Warcraft" in every aspect... This issue is not worth discussing; it's a matter of opinion. What I want to talk about here is the programming of the two games.
In terms of programming, the Koreans are clearly much worse than Blizzard.
The two games should theoretically require similar hardware, but on the same computer, World of Warcraft runs much more smoothly and uses far fewer system resources than Aion. This is a problem with the game programming.
A good program can maximize the potential of hardware, but many software and game developers don't pay attention to this because computer hardware is generally quite advanced now, so wasting a little more resources isn't unacceptable.
The double helix structure, however, can automatically adjust the output and utilization of resources, striving to maximize the hardware's level and effect.
To give a simple example, World of Warcraft has very high requirements for graphics cards. Although the system configuration only requires a graphics card with 32MB of video memory, try playing it with a 32MB graphics card? Forget about turning on the effects, it's questionable whether you can even run it!
However, even with Blizzard's capabilities, their technology in this area is far from comparable to the double helix structure. If the double helix chain structure were used to write World of Warcraft, then a graphics card with 32MB of video memory would be able to run the World of Warcraft client smoothly at medium settings!
Therefore, major hardware manufacturers are gradually focusing their attention on the game "Martial Artist".
Many gaming enthusiasts are eager to know the limits of the graphics in the game "Martial Artist"! Players are constantly posting on the "Martial Artist" forums, showing off screenshots of their computers running the game. This game has created a miracle: almost every computer can run it, yet no one seems to have reached its full graphical potential!
Even some professional gamers who specialize in game animation and 3D modeling used their high-end graphics cards to run "Martial Artists." A single screenshot was over 30MB, and when zoomed in, a character's eye was as big as a desktop background, yet it was still incredibly detailed! These players initially thought this was the limit, since no game company would waste effort on such futuristic system configurations. However, after upgrading their hardware, they found that "Martial Artists" screenshots were even larger and clearer. That's when they realized that current hardware was far from the game's limit!
Chen Xu regretted it!
The reason "Martial Artist" was created was just for fun, but it ended up earning a billion dollars from the X organization... That sounds like a lot, but in reality, it's probably much less than the value of the game itself... However, this is a difficult question to answer, because single-player games are different from online games, and getting players to spend money is not an easy task.
But online games... well, then you can openly sell game cards!
Chen Xu did a rough calculation. He didn't dare to hope that the game would have hundreds of millions of online players, but if ten million people in the world were willing to spend money, and each person spent one hundred, he would have earned one billion.
What could be a faster way to make money?
Of course, preparations are essential for the release of an online game. Chen Xu also knows the saying "too much of a good thing," so he will definitely have to invest money in the short term. But so be it, he still has some money on hand. If all else fails, he will ask Yi Shuihan to borrow from the bank!
Given S Company's current creditworthiness, guaranteeing several billion shouldn't be a problem, right? That amount of money should be enough to support the monetization of "Conquer the World".
Chen Xu naturally handed over the money-making tools to Yi Shuihan. It was better for him to find professional staff than for an outsider like himself to figure it out on his own.
As for how to distribute the money earned, Chen Xu completely entrusted it to him... Although Chen Xu urgently needed money, he also knew that he couldn't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Yi Shuihan was indeed loyal to him, but he couldn't just give him nothing at all, could he?
The game needs to be released, and server setup, advertising, operation, maintenance... all of these cost money. Chen Xu entrusted all of these things to Yi Shuihan, letting him handle the calculations. After all, Chen Xu would never mistreat those who worked for him. He also knew that once the game was successfully launched, the money earned would be substantial. Only by giving the staff sufficient compensation would they work hard for him... Moreover, the money allocated to them would only be a drop in the ocean.
Of course, Chen Xu, being the greedy guy he is, didn't think that a game could solve his current financial crisis. He continued to search for ways to make money on Xiao Min's computer. Although Xiao Min's profile contained other online games, Chen Xu felt that one game of the same type was enough. Having too many would only scatter his funds.
Just as Chen Xu was aimlessly searching for information, a message popped up by Xiao Min shocked him.
In early 2008, just before the Spring Festival, heavy snow fell...
Chapter 333 Blizzard and the Future
In early 2008, an unprecedented blizzard struck from January 10 to February 2, lasting for more than 20 days and affecting most of China's cities. Coinciding with the Lunar New Year, hundreds of thousands of workers were stranded at train stations and unable to return home.
If it were just reports about heavy snow, Chen Xu wouldn't be shocked, because the snow has already started falling and the government has introduced corresponding policies. Although Chen Xu knew in advance that the heavy snow would end on February 2nd, he assumed that meteorological experts had already reached their conclusions, which has sparked another round of reflection on the current state of the Earth... The greenhouse effect is severe, global warming is occurring, and humanity is facing a severe survival crisis.
Just like in the American sci-fi blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow," global warming does not necessarily lead to rising temperatures. Many people have a misconception about this, thinking that global warming is not a big deal, and that the melting of glaciers is something that will happen in tens of thousands of years. There is no need to worry about such things.
But this idea is wrong. Global warming will not necessarily bring heat, but it can bring "extreme" climate!
The movie "The Day After Tomorrow" uses the exaggerated style typical of Americans to reveal the terrible consequences of the "greenhouse effect." The title "The Day After Tomorrow" implies that this disaster may happen the day after tomorrow, perhaps even before our children grow up or are born.
Chen Xu quite likes movies, especially Hollywood blockbusters. Although watching Americans save the world time and time again is sometimes a bit funny, he still likes the individual heroism in these films. Of course, what he likes even more are the bizarre disasters they create to threaten humanity's survival, from comets hitting Earth to a future water world, from changes in the Earth's core to the greenhouse effect, and even aliens... The Earth in the hands of Hollywood directors is truly full of disasters!