Chapter 133: A Project of Boundless Merit

During the remainder of the National Day holiday, Li Mu spent his time doing two things: eating and sleeping. Apart from the first night back home, he ate his dinners out for the rest of the break.

After one meal with Song Liang, he took Xiao Hao to a street food stall the following day. He and Zhao Kang had booked their tickets for the evening of the 6th. Since he insisted on having dinner at home on the 6th, Li Mu invited Chen Wan for lunch as a farewell.

Chen Wan had also decided to drive back to Jinling that afternoon; with Li Mu leaving, she found staying in Haizhou pointless. Li Mu urged his "cheap" elder sister to drive safely, and they exchanged reluctant goodbyes.

At 7:00 PM, Chen Wan sent a message saying she had arrived safely in Jinling. Li Mu packed his backpack and left home with Zhao Kang.

Li Mu had only stayed for four days, and they had passed in the blink of an eye. His parents were reluctant to see him go, but everyone in the family now had their own mission: Li Mu’s was to study hard in Beijing, while his parents’ was to shoulder the burden of their business and the future of their two extended families. With Li Mu gone, his parents held tickets for a train to Wencheng the following night. They would depart on the 7th and arrive on the 8th to sign the contract with Semir, leaving them little time to dwell on their feelings of separation.

For Li Mu, this was fine. He was no longer a child; he understood reality, respected it, and knew that parting from his family was unavoidable. Both he and his parents needed to focus on their respective goals.

At the junction of the sleeper car, Li Mu and Zhao Kang each lit a cigarette. Above the metallic roar of the moving train, Zhao Kang said to Li Mu, "I did a count yesterday. In the internet cafes where my 'water army' operates, people are playing *Legend of Mir*. Moreover, 90% of the players have downloaded our *Legend Overlord* plugin."

Li Mu nodded. "This game is a great way for us to make money. Wait another two months, and we’ll be able to make another haul."

Zhao Kang asked, "Do you need me to lay out a sales network in advance? I have a lot of people in my water army, and they’re spread all over the country."

Li Mu smiled. "Sure. Let the core members start first. If they can act as agents in their respective cities and help us secure internet cafes, they can earn extra income, and it will be easier for you to keep them loyal."

Zhao Kang asked, "How should we handle their commission?"

Li Mu replied, "Previously, when Sun Peng and the others did *StoneAge* plugins, they charged 15 yuan a month, with 4 yuan going to the internet cafe and 3 yuan to the provincial agent. In my opinion, we don't need provincial agents. Just use those thirty or forty core members of yours. Let them start with their own cities. Once they finish that, if neighboring cities don't have anyone, they can proactively develop them. Whoever expands the market gets the commission. As for the amount, let’s go with 3 yuan as well."

Zhao Kang asked, "Understood. Should we also use Sun Peng’s method and have the internet cafes pay us back at the end of each month?"

"That's the only way," Li Mu said. "We can't expect cafe owners to pay upfront for virtual products—even *Legend of Mir* wouldn't be so arrogant later on. They have their own recharge systems, and owners settle accounts once a month. It’s not the most secure method, but it’s the only option. However, we don't need to worry. Once the official version of *Legend Overlord* launches, it will have absolutely no rivals. When the demand in internet cafes hits, the owners won't dare to delay our payments."

Zhao Kang asked, "Didn't you say cafe owners don't make much money selling plugins? When Er Bin bought the *Abei* plugin, he only made a few hundred yuan a month."

Li Mu smiled. "The performance of *Legend of Mir* in the future will be several, if not dozens, of times that of *StoneAge*. I predict that internet cafes of the future will be dominated by *Legend of Mir*; at least half the people will be playing it."

"It's that powerful?" Zhao Kang was dumbfounded. If a game could captivate more than half the people in an internet cafe, what kind of force would that be?

Li Mu smiled slightly. "Take some time to try *Legend of Mir*. The balance between the three character classes is quite good. Most importantly, it has total freedom in PvP. On the map, only a small area in the center of the city is a safe zone where you can't kill others. But once you step outside that zone, you can attack other players as you please, and there’s a chance to loot their equipment upon killing them. This setting is highly effective at stirring up a player’s blood. Trust me, it will be a massive hit."

...

School was set to start in one day, which was also the day most students returned. When Li Mu arrived at the dormitory, he found only Liu Nian sleeping in; the others were absent. Li Mu asked if anyone else had returned, and Liu Nian, groggy with sleep, said that except for the fourth bunk mate, who hadn't left either, no one else was back.

Li Mu woke Liu Nian up and took him out for breakfast. While eating, Li Mu was curious about where Hu Zhengdao had gone so early. Liu Nian said that during the holiday, Hu Zhengdao had been leaving early and returning late every day, claiming he was working a part-time job, though Liu Nian didn't know the specifics.

Liu Nian mentioned that he also wanted to work, but a cold front had hit Beijing on the 3rd. Being from Guangxi, he couldn't handle the Beijing climate; plus, being thin and frail, he had fallen ill for four days and still hadn't fully recovered.

Li Mu looked at Liu Nian, feeling a pang of sympathy for the kid. He was barely over 1.6 meters tall, dark and skinny, looking as if a breeze could knock him over. To travel thousands of miles to Beijing to study, only to fall ill and have to take care of himself, was truly difficult.

Li Mu asked, "Liu Nian, what kind of work are you looking for?"

"I don't know," Liu Nian scratched his head. "I can only do part-time work once classes start. There are too many top universities around Zhongguancun. Even for us students at Renmin University, it’s not easy to find tutoring jobs. Most parents are used to hiring teachers to tutor their kids, and I don't have the connections to reach parents. As for manual labor, they don't want me either. It's frustrating..."

Li Mu nodded and asked, "Have you tried tutoring? Are you sure it won't work?"

Liu Nian said, "I haven't tried yet. I've been sick the past few days. I was going to write some flyers, but I asked a senior from my third year during lunch, and he said it's hard to do because the good opportunities get snatched up by students from Peking University and Tsinghua."

Li Mu countered, "I don't think so. Peking University and Tsinghua certainly have their advantages, but in terms of reputation, Renmin University isn't far behind. They probably just haven't chosen the right direction."

Li Mu then asked, "If you had the chance to tutor, what age group would you want to teach?"

"Middle school, I guess," Liu Nian said uncertainly. "I've never tutored before, so I have no experience. First or second year would be easier. If it were the third year, that's a graduation year, and I'm afraid I wouldn't teach well and ruin their future."

"Idiot!" Li Mu scolded, slapping the table. "Your positioning is all wrong! Why teach first or second year? Think about it, what is your greatest advantage?"

Liu Nian, feeling somewhat wronged by the insult, said, "Brother Mu, I have no looks, no height, and no background. I don't even know what my advantage is..."

Li Mu shook his head helplessly. "Your advantage is your college entrance exam score! You pig-headed fool! Think about it—you got into Renmin University, which proves your score was extremely high and that you were among the absolute elite of high school graduates. Furthermore, the exam was only three months ago for you; your memory of the three years of high school knowledge is at its sharpest and most reliable. If you tutor high school seniors now, you could absolutely leverage your full strength! If you wait until you're a sophomore, that advantage will disappear!"

Liu Nian’s eyes lit up. "Brother Mu, you mean I should specifically look for this year's high school seniors? I never dared to think about that. I'm just a freshman; I'm only one year older than them. Would parents trust me?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Li Mu retorted, a thought suddenly flashing through his mind.

With so many universities in Beijing—countless 985 and 211 institutions—there must be plenty of students like Liu Nian looking for work-study opportunities. If he built a tutoring website to showcase their basic information, subjects, entrance exam scores, university, and major, and then targeted high schools across Beijing—especially seniors and their parents—telling them that elite students who had just aced the exam were available, wouldn't they be interested?

Currently, high school seniors usually hired teachers for tutoring, but few teachers could claim to be experts in all subjects. Only these top-tier students who had just taken the exam had the confidence to do so. They had been admitted to Beijing's elite universities; that was proof enough that they were the ultimate, unparalleled "exam machines."

The parents probably hadn't realized this yet. If he could connect the two sides of the market, whether he made money was secondary—the key was providing these working students with a suitable path to resolve their financial struggles. It would be a virtuous deed.

Thinking this, Li Mu could hardly sit still. He told Liu Nian, "Take care of your health these next few days. It won't be long before I help you solve your part-time tutoring problem."

With that, Li Mu rushed out of the cafeteria, sprinted to the apartment he had rented in Yucheng Garden, turned on his computer, and registered a domain name: 3321. There was no special meaning; it was just easy to remember and catchy. Besides, the double-pinyin for "tutoring" had already been registered, and he didn't want to limit the website’s scope too narrowly.

Li Mu’s preliminary plan for 3321 was to first consolidate the resources of university students willing to tutor, then categorize them by their scores. As for how to categorize them, for someone who had worked in the internet industry for years, it was simple: a weighted scoring system! (To be continued.)