Encouragement

When Zhao Kang saw Chen Wan, his chin dropped in shock.

These days, the fashion in Haizhou was very bad. There weren't many specialty stores on the street so when people were in Haizhou, most young people would have to buy clothes from various small stores and shops. This meant that a unique beauty like Chen Wan was very rare.

Nowadays, people only had a few opportunities to get expensive clothing. Only in the future were brands like Metersbonwe popular and widespread.

Zhao Kang, who was always loud and rambunctious, suddenly became silent like a stubborn mule in front of Chen Wan. Except besides greeting her, he couldn't utter a complete sentence.

Because Li Mu brought Chen Wan, he was a bit embarrassed of allowing Zhao Kang to treat them, so Li Mu paid for them in the end.

After they ate, the three of them got ice cream walked to the Big Spiderweb cafe not far from the city's center.

The Big Spiderweb cafe was the one Li Mu and Zhao Kang visited most often. The boss was a fat man called River by the Lakes. He was either 26 or 27 years old and was quite generous. After people got familiar with him, they would be able to enjoy a discounted price there. Occasionally, he wouldn't charge them money, and it became almost like a second home to many.

The price of the internet cafes in Haizhou ranged from three to five yuan for each hour, but the average price in the Big Spiderweb cafe was two yuan. More than fifty of the machines on the first floor charged the average two yuan.

There were two floors, but the first floor was divided into four sections. There was nothing special happening, but when Li Mu entered the cafe, he saw dozens of men of all ages staring at Chen Wan. When he stopped, he directly asked the owner, "Brother Erbin, is there a three-person private room upstairs?"

"Yo, Xiamu, Kanzi." Erbin greeted the two familiarly, looked at Chen Wan who was standing nest to Li Mu, and then said, "You can go directly upstairs to room 3-3."

When they arrived at their private room, Li Mu let Chen Wan sit in the innermost of the room, he sat in the middle, and Chen Kang sat in the outermost seat.

Zhao Kang had been itching to play CS, and the computer hadn't been turned on yet when he turned and said, "Little Mu, let's go into CS and find a local server we can play on."

"It's a bit boring now. You can play by yourself, I need to check something first."

Li Mu wasn't here to play games today, but he was here to study the Abe's plug-in in Stone Age.

As the most popular online game, Stone Age had been active for a quite a while and already had a large user base. Because Abe Plug-ins could create a ten million yuan industry in the future, there were still sufficient demands for more plug-ins.

Li Mu had a very simple plan. He was going to study the Abe plug-in, then create a new plug-in that was better than theirs in all aspects. The market for plug-ins was a technical thing. But with his ability, he was confident that he could make a better plug-in than Abe's.

"But why?" Zhao Kang asked with some disappointment. "I don't like to play alone, it gets boring."

Chen Wan chimed in,"I'll play with you."

"Really? Sister Wan..."

Zhao Kang immediately forgot about Li Mu, and joyfully began to play with Chen Wan.

After the computer turned on, Li Mu clicked on the Stone Age icon and searched fro the Abe plug-in.

From his research, the Abe plug-in had already reached a considerable scale. Many people discussed the plug-in on BBS, and conversation about it was very good.

In this era, there were no large-scale water armies, but having a good reputation in the industry couldn't be ignored.

Li Mu had never played Stone Age in his previous life. Before his third year of high school, he didn't dare to indulge in any online games besides CS, Red Police, and Interstellar. Because of that, he had to explore Stone Age for the first time.

Li Mu concentrated on researching about the game and the Abe plug-in. During that time, Chen Wan and Zhao Kang played CS for a while. After an hour, Chen Wan got a phone called and had to excuse herself.

Li Mu sent her out of the cafe and watched her until she got onto a taxi. Then he returned to the private room upstairs and continued to study the game.

After he returned, Zhao Kang was curious and asked, "Where did you recognize such a beautiful woman as your sister? She's not worse than your crush Su Yingxue, and even looks a bit foreign!"

"Nonsense, how old is Su Yingxue? How could an eighteen year old girl be the same as a twenty-one year old girl?" Li Mu glanced at him, wondering about Zhao Kang's unknown fate and asked tentatively, "Anyways, how do you feel about your college entrance exam?"

Zhao Kang stared at his screen and replied, "I think I did okay. My grades have always been average, and there shouldn't be any problems passing the undergraduate required score."

Li Mu frowned.

"You haven't gotten your score yet, how are you so sure?"

"I'm 80% confident." Zhao Kang smiled slightly. "I'm going to apply to one of the Mechanical and Electrical Colleges under the Provincial Institute of Technology, and then apply to a provincial vocational college as my backup. How about you?"

Li Mu didn't answer the question immediately, but wondered in his heart. In his last life, he knew how Zhao Kang lived after running away from home, and hoped that it didn't happen again.

However, Zhao Kang's parents were known for being strict on Zhao Kang, to the point where it could be considered as discipline. According to Zhao Kang, he wasn't able to buy his own clothes before the college entrance exam as his mother bought all of his clothes for him.

In Li Mu's memories, Zhao Kang had a pair of cropped pants that he liked. He bought them and wore them secretly to prevent his parents from confiscating it.

After the college entrance exams, his parents forced him to repeat the exam, which led him to run away from home. Li Mu decided that he would find a way to prevent that situation from happening again.

Immediately, Li Mu asked, "If you don't pass the undergraduate line, would Uncle Zhao and Aunt Liu want you to go to college?"

"I do, but they don't want me to." Zhao Kang blurted out, "My parents said a long time ago that if I don't pass the undergraduate course, then I would have to repeat the exam until I pass."

"How do you feel about it?"

"What?" Zhao Kang shrugged. "It doesn't matter because I have to retake it again even if I failed."

Li Mu slightly nodded and didn't speak again.

Zhao Kang's problem could only be unresolved for the time being. If his score doesn't pass the undergraduate score, then he will have to repeat his last life. Even if he wants to go to college, there would still be drama and Zhao Kang would be forced to retake the exam.

Li Mu thought for a while. If Zhao Kang was able to pay for his college education, his parents might not be able to stop him. Rather then letting him repeat his last life, Li Mu would rather let Zhao Kang find a way to go to college, even if it causes some conflict between Zhao Kang and his parents.

After making up his mind, Li Mu felt heavier under the responsibility he held. He didn't only have to earn enough for his tuition and computer, but also had to find a way to help Zhao Kang earn his tuition.

During this summer vacation, it seems like I have to rely on you, Stone Age!

Relying on his five years of saving of more than 500 yuan, Li Mu went to the owner and rented out the private room for three days so no one could enter.

This was to allow Li Mu to be able to code a plug-in in a closed environment because he was still lacking a computer. Fortunately, the plug-in was easy to make and Li Mu was confident in being able to make in three days.

Zhao Kang didn't know why Li Mu rented the room for three days. Although his parents had eased their restrictions on Zhao Kang, he wouldn't be able to stay in the private room for three days and three nights.

However, Li Mu said, "I've been studying programming and I want to try and make a plug-in myself."

"Plug-in? What plug-in? What's a plug-in?" Zhao Kang had only been exposed to stand-alone games and hadn't yet started playing any online games.

Li Mu, in simple words, said, "A plug-in is something that adds extra features in a game. I want to make a plug-in for Stone Age that allows players to have an omniscient view. Players can see the whole map, see through the devices that block vision, and it would also let players be able to move their troops and allow them to attack faster. This would allow them to dig ordinary gold mines, but get the profits of a diamond mine."

"What..." Zhao Kang was stunned for a while, and uttered, "Everyone is connected to one network in the cafe. Aren't you afraid of people doxxing you if they find out you're cheating?"

Li Mu is dumbfounded. It seemed like Zhao Knag only understood that plug-ins are cheats to some extent, but he doesn't understand the economic value of them. This iwasn't only for the internet cafe, but for the whole game.

However, Li Mu was too lazy to explain that to him, but with an encouraging tone said, "If this ends out doing well, you could earn yourself your first year of college tuition!"