Chapter Twenty-Six: Take Charge of Your Own Fate

Li Mu tinkered at home for a while, and finally his new laptop was connected to the Internet. Fortunately, when he bought the computer, he had someone install the essential software; otherwise, with this connection speed, downloading QQ alone would take at least half an hour.

Li Mu cared deeply about the current download numbers and reputation of Dominator of the Stone Age, so he hopped onto a few BBS forums. He found that the administrator of the first forum had deliberately pinned the thread and posted a banner advertisement announcing the birth of the forum’s first thread with over thirty thousand replies.

As for downloads, two hundred and thirty thousand—an astonishing figure. Across several websites, the total downloads exceeded four hundred thousand. Li Mu felt things were about to plateau; the surge wouldn’t continue. He had no idea about the exact daily active users of Stone Age, but considering how all internet companies liked to exaggerate their numbers, even if they claimed a peak of two hundred thousand simultaneous users, after discounting, the daily active users would probably max out at three to five hundred thousand.

He then logged into his personal QQ. Zhao Kang had left him a message: “Damn, I checked the download count at the internet café today—it broke four hundred thousand!”

Seeing Zhao Kang online, Li Mu asked, “Are you still at the internet café?”

“Yeah, where did you go?”

“I’m at home.”

“You got a computer at home?”

“I just went out and got some money.”

“Damn, you’re amazing.”

Li Mu asked, “Did you log into the forum using the proxy method I told you today?”

“I didn’t log in, just browsed the forum.”

“That’s good,” Li Mu thought for a moment, then messaged, “Come over to my place tomorrow morning.”

“Alright, I want to check out your new computer anyway.”

Thinking of how Dominator of the Stone Age was now wreaking havoc in the game’s cheat market, Li Mu logged into his alternate QQ account to see who had contacted him. As soon as he was online, countless verification requests popped up.

Just Sun Peng from Abbe Cheater sent dozens of messages, not to mention dozens of others wanting to act as regional agents for his cheat. Li Mu still ignored them, intending to let Abbe Cheater stew a little longer.

Just then, his parents came home from work. Li Mu hurried to his feet; there was another hurdle he had to cross—the laptop and the sixty thousand yuan left in his bag needed an explanation.

…

Li’s father stubbed out his third cigarette in the ashtray, his face still incredulous as he asked, “Son, you said you wrote a song and sold it for eighty thousand yuan, is that right?”

“That’s right,” Li Mu nodded, for the fifth time pointing to his laptop and sixty thousand yuan in cash, “It’s all right here.”

“I still can’t believe it…” Li’s father said, reaching for another cigarette.

Li’s mother suddenly spoke, “You don’t believe him, but I do!” She recalled, “Five years ago, when our son was in eighth grade, I took him to the department store, and he insisted on buying a guitar. At the time, I wondered if he had some musical talent. The guitar wasn’t expensive, so I bought it for him. I always felt he had a gift for music!”

Li Mu felt a bit embarrassed. Back then, he wanted a guitar because he’d just discovered rock music—Dou Wei, Ding Wu, Gao Qi, even Zhang Chu and He Yong were his idols at the time. That’s why he pestered his mother for the guitar.

Li’s father mused, “So it’s been five years, huh?”

“Yes,” Li’s mother agreed, “Look at that Flower Band on TV, they’re probably younger than our son, yet they write their own songs and became stars!”

“That’s true,” Li’s father finally came around, and quickly said, “Son, what song did you write? Sing it for us!”

Li Mu quickly waved his hand, “I sold the song for someone else to use in a competition. You’ll see it on TV soon enough.”

He didn’t have the courage to sing a song like "Li Bai" in front of his parents—in fact, with his parents watching, he couldn’t bring himself to sing most of his songs.

Li’s father, sensing his discomfort, nodded and looked up at Li Mu, “Son, you’ve got so much money; you need to spend it wisely, don’t waste it, understand?”

Li’s mother chimed in, “That’s right, I’ll deposit it in the bank for you tomorrow, save it for college!”

Li’s father quickly objected, “Why are you interfering? He earned it himself, let him manage it. He’s grown up; as long as he doesn’t do anything immoral or wasteful, he can make his own decisions.”

He was always the more open-minded parent, making Li’s mother a little embarrassed.

“You’re right, the money’s his to manage,” she said.

Li Mu grinned, “So I get to decide, right? All right then.” He picked up ten thousand yuan in cash and said, “The remaining fifty thousand is yours to use as you see fit, I’ll keep this ten thousand for myself.”

“You still need money for college, save it for your tuition!”

“No worries, I’ll earn more for college later.”

His parents stared at him as if he were a strange creature, wondering how their son suddenly became so confident. Yet the sixty thousand yuan on the table was a stark reality, visually overwhelming.

His parents exchanged a glance, and his mother said, “Fine, I’ll hold onto it.”

…

The next morning, Zhao Kang came to Li Mu’s house, specifically to check out the new computer, his expression tinged with envy, though he didn’t ask how Li Mu got the money for it.

Li Mu, not wanting him to think he’d started making money from Dominator of the Stone Age, said, “When Dominator of the Stone Age is sold, I’ll buy you one too.”

Zhao Kang quickly waved his hand, “That’s way too expensive, I can’t accept that.”

Then, Zhao Kang said seriously, “Dominator of the Stone Age is your achievement. I only helped post a few threads online. For what I did, not only is a laptop too much, even a tenth of it isn’t deserved.”

Li Mu patted his shoulder and said earnestly, “I won’t sell Dominator of the Stone Age for less than half a million. No matter how much I get, I won’t let you take less than fifty thousand. You’ll make fifty thousand on this deal, guaranteed.”

“Fifty thousand…” Zhao Kang stared at Li Mu in shock.

Li Mu watched him closely, wanting to know if Zhao Kang’s astonishment was from delight or dissatisfaction. The former was no issue; if it was the latter, things would be tricky.

Li Mu truly regarded Zhao Kang as a brother. Still, he hoped to keep Zhao Kang by his side as a trusted right-hand man, so he had to make sure that when faced with significant sums, Zhao Kang wouldn’t change in ways he didn’t want to see.

Fifty thousand was a lot, but in terms of their shares, it was a lopsided nine to one, maybe even more. If Zhao Kang wasn’t satisfied, Li Mu planned to treat the fifty thousand as covering his three years of tuition, so he wouldn’t repeat the mistake from his previous life. But if that was the case, there’d be no future collaboration.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Kang’s expression did show some dissatisfaction, but his reason was—

“Li Mu, what’s your intention? Pitying me?”

Li Mu frowned, “Where did you get that idea?”

Zhao Kang said, disgruntled, “I know exactly what I did. For that trivial work, you could hire plenty of people for twenty yuan a day. Why should I get fifty thousand?”

Li Mu laughed, “I told you, I want you to earn enough for your tuition.”

“You said a year’s tuition—I think it’s six or seven thousand at most.” Zhao Kang looked a bit embarrassed. “Besides, I thought you meant I’d spend the whole summer working day and night, but it only took a few days…”

Li Mu smiled faintly. This brother from his previous life’s youth seemed trustworthy after all.

“You didn’t do much this time, but next time you will,” Li Mu said. “After we sell Dominator of the Stone Age, before the next cheat is developed, I’ll give you two tasks.”

“Which two?”

“Handle publicity and expand distribution channels.”

“Distribution?” Zhao Kang recalled Li Mu’s analogy of cheats as party pills and asked curiously, “You’ve decided to sell them yourself?”

Li Mu nodded, “Stone Age doesn’t have much life left, and we don’t have startup capital to expand channels. But after we sell Dominator of the Stone Age, we’ll have money to begin.”

“Won’t the clubs—no, the game companies—come after us?”

“They will,” Li Mu smiled, “That’s why I always said this business would last no more than two years. As long as we pull out smoothly before they act, we’ll be fine.”