Server crash

Of course, this aggressive leveling strategy initially had no substantial impact on 5173.

But slowly, as 5173 began to widen the gap between himself and his competitors, maintaining the top position, the influence of this strategy began to burst forth.

"Who on earth is this 5173? He's so fierce."

"Yeah, he's already three levels ahead of the second place. How did he level up like that?"

"I've been following this guy for a while. How did he come up with such a number for an ID?"

"I don't know..."

Curiosity naturally led to investigation.

With a single inquiry, they quickly figured it out.

"Guys, I get it now. 5173 is an account for a website."

"A website account? What kind of website?"

"It's a game equipment trading website called 5173.com."

"Game trading? Wow, is there such a website? I'm going to check it out."

While 5173.com had gained some recognition by processing hundreds of transaction orders daily, this recognition primarily came from gaming workshops.

For the general public, for ordinary players, 5173 wasn't particularly well-known.

But now, with 5173 positioned as the top-level player in the region, it had suddenly entered the field of vision for ordinary gamers.

"Wow, this is literally living advertisement."

"Yeah, I heard 5173 used to advertise in the game, but his account got banned by the GMs. In response, the game's official forum issued a statement, saying that excessive and frequent spamming of ads was not allowed. But who would have thought that even after his account was banned, 5173 still has this trick up his sleeve."

"I can only say that 5173 is incredible. I'm now the top-level player; come on, are you going to ban my account too?"

Learning about 5173, and how 5173 used leveling to advertise, everyone couldn't help but be full of admiration.

By using this method, not only did 5173 prove his strength, but he also demonstrated their powerful operational skills.

Just as players were saying now, "Hey, GMs, come on, ban me. I'm advertising here; come on."

Naturally, in a completely compliant way like this, no game officials would ban them.

Not only could they not ban them, they had to keep displaying his name at the top of the leaderboard according to their game rules.

"Hehe, guys, I recently got a few decent items while playing. I was planning to store them, but now I'm thinking of selling them on 5173."

"Come on, your equipment can only sell for a few bucks. It's not worth it."

"A few bucks are still money. I've never sold equipment before."

In-game equipment trading wasn't limited to workshops.

In fact, any player had a need to sell equipment.

Especially for those ordinary players.

Why wouldn't they want to become experts? Why wouldn't they want to get valuable equipment to sell for money?

But due to their limited skills, they generally couldn't obtain such items.

Even if they did, what they got was usually low-value equipment.

But this low-value equipment couldn't fetch much money. And even if it could, it was only worth a few dollars.

A few dollars, in the past, would have been exchanged for in-game currency, and no one had thought of converting it into real money.

But with the presence of 5173, even if your equipment sold for just 1 yuan, you could list it there.

"I'm listing a piece of clothing for 10 RMB."

"I'm selling a piece of jewelry for 5 RMB."

"I'm selling a pair of shoes for 3 RMB."

"I'm selling a rare material for 9 RMB."

Selling the items you had obtained and receiving real currency was an incredibly exhilarating experience. Even if it was just a few yuan, countless ordinary players were immensely satisfied.

You offer 5, I offer 10.

The sales orders for 5173 continued to grow steadily.

And this was just in one game.

When it came to games like Heroes of Jin Yong, Thousand Years, Stone Age, and countless other new game servers, it could even be said that in all the online games in the entire country, 5173 had reached the top position.

5173 suddenly became a sensation...

This brought along terrifying sales orders and an ever-increasing stream of IP traffic.

...

"Wang Chang, it's a small world, running into you even in the computer lab."

In the computer lab at WHU, Wang Chang was involved in the technical maintenance of 5173.com along with several classmates.

But unexpectedly, she ran into Lin Qifeng in the computer lab.

"Don't get me wrong; I didn't follow you intentionally. I'm here to give some benefits to my fellow students."

Lin Qifeng looked pleased with himself and walked over to section A of the computer lab.

Section A of WHU was a computer room, essentially a net cafe open to students. Because in 2001, most students couldn't afford their own computers, Section A was quite popular.

"Dear students, I'm Lin Qifeng from the Computer Science Department in my fourth year. Recently, we've developed an instant messaging tool. Are there any students who'd like a nice user ID?"

"Brother Lin is amazing, he's actually developed an instant messenger."

"It's not a big deal; you guys can do it too in the future."

"By the way, Brother Lin, what's the name of your instant messenger?"

"It's called 'UC'."

"Wow, it's called 'UC'? Brother Lin, you're incredible."

As soon as the name "UC" was mentioned, a student in the computer lab couldn't help but exclaim. But evidently, the others didn't know the fame of "U".

"Uh, buddy, is UC famous?"

"Of course it's famous."

"Why haven't I heard of it? I use QQ."

"It's normal if you haven't heard of it because UC was just launched today. Go to sina.com and check it out; UC's ads are all over the front page of Sina."

"I'll take a look."

Many people quickly entered Xinlang's portal.

When they saw "UC" occupying the top banner ad space on Xinlang's website, the entire computer lab erupted in excitement.

"Brother Lin, you're amazing!"

"Brother Lin, is this UC of yours invested in by Sina?"

"Brother Lin, I want to download it now. Can you give me a nice UC username?"

The students were extremely excited.

They hadn't expected this senior in his fourth year to be so amazing.

Not only did he create an instant messaging app, but he also received investment from the internet giant Xinlang.

This astonishing achievement reminded everyone of WHU's famous Lei Jun.

Could Lin Qifeng be the next Lei Jun?

"Hehe, no problem, no problem. I came here to give you guys some usernames."

After a flurry of activity, Lin Qifeng gave out all 100 six-digit usernames he had brought to his fellow students.

"Wang Chang, how do you like it? I'm sure you've seen our capabilities."

"Today, our 'UC' is officially launched and we've received full investment from Sina."

"Just this morning, we've had 10,000 downloads of our UC, and it's expected to reach 30,000 by the end of the day. We estimate that in half a year, we'll be on par with QQ."

Back in the computer lab, Lin Qifeng spoke to Wang Chang again.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in your instant messaging app."

"Wang Chang, don't be stubborn. Your 5173.com doesn't seem to have much future. I heard your current IP traffic is less than 30,000. Look at us; we might reach 30,000 in one day."

"You don't need to worry about that, Lin."

"I'm not really concerned. I'm just thinking that there are two more months left in our competition. By then..."

Lin Qifeng smiled at Wang Chang.

Clearly, he was referring to their earlier bet.

However, just at that moment, a computer lab administrator suddenly said, "Strange, why has our server suddenly experienced such a massive surge in traffic?"

After the administrator spoke, messages from Section A of the computer lab kept coming in: "Why is the internet so slow?"

"Me too, the requests are taking forever."

"I can't even log into QQ."

Many students were reporting the issue.

The computer lab administrator couldn't afford to be complacent and began investigating the cause.

Unfortunately, the administrator was a step too slow.

Just as he was about to investigate, the entire server of WHU's computer lab suddenly crashed, no longer accepting any data requests.