Reborn not to be a beast of burden, I set the rules.

Ye Ming returned to school at 2 PM.

The sun was shining brightly, and the campus was much quieter than in the morning. Occasionally, a few students carrying books would walk by, and their footsteps were particularly clear in the tree-lined path.

He first went to the ATM downstairs in the dormitory building. He had a little over 10,000 yuan left in his card, so he withdrew 2,000 yuan, counted it, and divided it into two envelopes, putting 1,000 yuan in each.

He held the envelope for two seconds before putting it in his pocket.

Then I went to the print shop, entered the two simplified commissioned development contracts I had drafted in my notebook into the print shop, folded them and put them in my pocket, and borrowed ink from the shopkeeper.

The contract specifies the ownership of the copyright, confidentiality obligations, and upfront remuneration.

Human nature cannot withstand the test, so it's better to make things clear from the beginning.

Soon, Ye Ming arrived at the computer room.

Pushing open the door, I saw the air conditioner blowing cool air. Li Yue and Zhang Yuan were both there, discussing something in front of the desktop computer, the keyboard clattering rhythmically.

"Oh, you're back?" Li Yue looked up at him. "Did you buy the computer? Let's finish up. That interface we were working on is almost done."

Ye Ming nodded, placed the new computer on the table, and waited patiently.

Before long, Li Yue and Zhang Yuan came over.

Ye Ming took out two envelopes from his bag, then pulled out a contract and inkpad: "Senior, please sign these before we begin."

Li Yue paused for a moment, took the contract, glanced at it, and smiled: "So formal?"

But in his heart, he looked at this junior with even higher regard. He was so experienced in doing things and had a promising future.

Ye Ming's tone was gentle yet firm: "Even close brothers should keep clear accounts."

Zhang Yuan took it and looked at it, then nodded: "Okay, that's fine."

The two signed and pressed their fingerprints. Ye Ming handed over an envelope: "This is a small fee for your hard work in the early stages. Once we make money from the game, we'll give you a bigger one."

Li Yue smiled and accepted it: "Okay, then we won't stand on ceremony."

Zhang Yuan put the money away and looked up at him: "Let's begin. Let's see how you plan this word game that you value so much."

The three sat down at the computer desk. Ye Ming opened his notebook, which contained a neat architecture diagram. Different colored pens were used to clearly mark the diagrams, and each module had a functional note.

Zhang Yuan leaned over for a look and nodded approvingly: "Your drawing is quite professional. Did you draw it yourself?"

"Yes, with Teacher Zhang's guidance, I've been thinking about it for a long time."

Ye Ming turned to the first page and pointed to the core content.

Li Yue pulled over a chair and sat down, resting her elbows on the edge of the table; Zhang Yuan also focused his gaze and leaned closer to the architecture diagram.

"Senior students, I hope to finish this by National Day."

Li Yue and Zhang Yuan exchanged a glance, neither of them speaking, waiting for him to continue.

Ye Ming pointed to the most eye-catching title: "Rebirth Simulator," where each game is a new life.

Core gameplay: At the start, attribute points are allocated, and life events are randomly triggered. The results are affected by the attributes, ultimately generating a life ending.

Li Yue nodded: "The idea is quite interesting, and it's not difficult to implement. The event database can be used to randomly select events from the existing database."

Zhang Yuan shook his head: "An event database is not suitable for a data database."

Ye Ming paused, then looked up at him: "Why?"

"Your game reads far more events than it writes, reading dozens or even hundreds of events per game, but the event database itself might only be updated once a month." Zhang Yuan's voice was clear. "In scenarios with more reads than writes, using a database is actually slower. No matter how fast MySQL is, it can't compare to direct memory reads."

It turned out to be the case.

A knowing glint flashed in Ye Ming's eyes, and he quickly jotted it down in his notebook: "Then what should we use?"

"Text file." Zhang Yuan tapped the border of the architecture diagram. "Hundreds or thousands of events are stored as TXT files, which are loaded into memory all at once when the program starts. Subsequent readings are all done in memory, avoiding SQL parsing and network overhead, making it more than ten times faster than a database."

He paused, then unusually added, "When I was a sophomore running a download site, the database crashed several times. After switching to text, it never crashed again."

Li Yue suddenly realized and added, pointing to the computer screen: "We tried it when we were building a personal website. Direct memory read is much faster. Any compatible machine can be used as a server, and events can be stored in text files. It can handle 100,000 daily active users."

Ye Ming took out another notebook and quickly wrote down: "Store the event library in text format. Understood."

I've noted it down.

He turned to the next page, looked up, and asked, "So, user account passwords can also be text?"

Zhang Yuan shook his head: "This won't work."

Why?

"User data needs to be modified frequently, including logging in, registering, changing passwords, and updating profiles. Moreover, if two people operate on the same account at the same time, the text can easily be overwritten and errors can occur. In such scenarios, a database is necessary."

Ye Ming noted it down and looked up to confirm: "User data will be collected from the database."

Make a note of this too.

He pressed further, "What about friend relationships and leaderboards?"

Zhang Yuan laughed: "You've really hit the nail on the head. Friend relationships are a typical example of related data. Storing them in a database with related tables and then using LEFT JOIN to get the results is very convenient."

Ye Ming asked again, "Does the ranking list also need a database?"

Zhang Yuan nodded, walked to the desktop computer, and brought up the MySQL interface: "Yes, the leaderboard needs to be sorted and statistically analyzed, and a database is much better than text. We're using MySQL 5.1, and ORDER BY plus LIMIT can handle it. Adding an index will make it even more efficient."

Ye Ming quickly took notes, memorizing each and every technical point.

Li Yue summarized from the side: "To put it simply, it's a hybrid storage system. For event databases that are read-heavy and write-light, we use text storage. For user data, friends, and leaderboards that require frequent updates and complex queries, we use databases. We're all familiar with it, so development is fast and we encounter fewer problems."

Ye Ming listened and nodded.

Got it, I'll do it that way from now on.

He closed his notebook and let out a long sigh: "I've really learned something today."

"This is nothing," Zhang Yuan laughed. "When it comes to technology, learning by doing is much better than just talking about it on paper. If you have a weak foundation but are willing to put in the effort, you'll learn faster."

That makes sense.

Ye Ming nodded.

The three chatted about the architecture for a while longer. Seeing that the time was right, Ye Ming turned to the page on the expansion system and clicked on the card system.

"Expansion System: Talent Cards, Equipment Cards, and Character Cards are drawn using gold coins. Different combinations affect the course of events. Cards are divided into four rarity levels: Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary."

Zhang Yuan's eyes lit up, and he leaned forward slightly: "This is interesting. Cards can improve retention and also create differentiation. It's much more sophisticated than just attribute point gameplay."

Li Yue leaned closer and pointed to the word "gold coins": "The design of gold coin production needs to be reasonable, otherwise the values ​​will easily become unbalanced."

"Each game rewards you with Life Coins, sharing the ending doubles the reward, plus daily sign-in and mission rewards, and completing specific events unlocks extra coins."

Zhang Yuan had already built a database in his mind: "Card data and information about the cards held by users are all stored in the database. Card drawing uses a random number algorithm, the probability can be adjusted in the background, and an anti-cheating mechanism can also be implemented."

Ye Ming highlighted the key points and continued explaining the social system: "The friend system, the server-wide and friend leaderboards, and the personal page that displays the card combinations you've created."

Li Yue became interested and tapped the table: "This creates a social comparison point, which will definitely boost the retention rate."

Zhang Yuan frowned slightly: "Just showing it off isn't enough; there needs to be player interaction."

Ye Ming nodded.

I've actually planned this out.