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

After finishing breakfast, Xu Wei, Ruan Xing, and Lin Zhixia walked together towards the computer room.

Only Li Yue and Zhang Yuan were in the computer room.

Li Yue sat in front of the computer typing code, while Zhang Yuan, wearing headphones, didn't even look up.

Xu Wei glanced around her seat; Ye Ming wasn't there.

The empty lemon tea cup on the table was still there; she picked it up and threw it into the trash can.

"Where's Ye Ming?" she asked.

Li Yue didn't even turn her head: "My junior went out early this morning, saying he was going to visit Professor Zhang Bingwen."

Xu Wei was taken aback: "Junior?"

Li Yue explained with a smile: "The girl who came to sign the agreement and try out the game yesterday is a sophomore from the School of Information Science and Technology, and she's a year younger than Ye Ming."

It turns out he's a sophomore, and she's a freshman. Isn't that basically a junior?

Ruan Xing followed behind, distributing steamed buns to Li Yue and Zhang Yuan, then leaned close to Li Yue and asked, "Sister Li Yue, who gave you the nickname 'Old Junior'?"

"I named it," Li Yue said with a smile. "What, is it not suitable?"

"Perfect! Perfect!" Ruan Xing said with a grin, running to her corner to sit down.

Li Yue then turned to Xu Wei, lowered her voice, and said with a hint of gossipy excitement, "That girl's name is Shen Zhiyi, from the School of Information Science and Technology."

Ye Ming had saved her on Zhujiang Road before; he described it as a classic case of a hero saving a damsel in distress.

You may not know that Shen Zhiyi's grades were the best in the School of Information Science and Technology, and she consistently got full marks in her major courses.

Moreover, she was Professor Shih Hsing-lung's prized student, and she entered the laboratory in her sophomore year.

And the best part is, she's good-looking too. Isn't that a coincidence?

Xu Wei didn't reply, but instead looked down and turned on her computer.

She remembered what the old policeman said to Ye Ming at the police station that day: "It's you again? Wasn't it you who saved that little girl on Zhujiang Road?"

It was her.

It turns out that the girl in the white dress I brushed past in the corridor yesterday was the same girl from Zhujiang Road.

She stared at the screen, her fingers resting on the keyboard, motionless for a long time. A strange, indescribable feeling welled up inside her.

Why does this person like saving people so much?

When you pulled her away from the front of the bicycle, did you not think about whether you would get hurt?

Now you've rescued that little girl from the alley, didn't you think about that?

She bit her lip, feeling a mix of emotions she couldn't quite describe—a bittersweet feeling.

So that's what he's always been.

This is how I protected her back then, and it's the same way I protect others.

It's not because she's special, it's just that he's always been like this.

Seeing that no one spoke, Li Yue smiled and turned back to continue coding.

The sound of keyboards clicking filled the computer room.

Ye Ming carried his laptop, the tea he had bought yesterday, and a bag of oranges and a bag of pomegranates from the fruit shop before heading towards the Computer Science Institute's office building.

Sunlight filtered through the treetops and fell on his shoulders as he walked quickly.

He has a copy of "Rebirth Simulator" that he has run successfully on his laptop, and the event library was just updated by Zhang Yuan.

When I got to the office door, it was open.

Zhang Bingwen was sitting at his desk reading a paper when he looked up and saw Ye Ming carrying some things. He smiled and said, "You came all this way, and you even brought things."

Ye Ming placed the tea and fruit on the corner of the table: "I haven't had a chance to thank you for helping me introduce the server last time."

Teacher Zhang waved his hand, gesturing for him to sit down, and glanced at the notebook in his hand: "I heard from Li Yue that you're very methodical now, even signing confidentiality agreements before making games?"

Ye Ming laughed: "Nothing can be hidden from you." He pulled the agreement out of his bag. "Teacher Zhang, according to the rules, you have to sign it too."

Teacher Zhang took it, glanced at it, and smiled: "Okay, I can't be an exception either." He picked up the pen, signed his name, and handed the agreement back.

Ye Ming carefully put the agreement away and turned on his computer: "Teacher Zhang, I got the whole process working last night, and I'd like to ask you to take a look."

Teacher Zhang didn't rush to look at the code; instead, he opened the game and played a round first.

He chose a male character, randomly assigned a few attributes, and started clicking through them.

In the eighteenth year of the game, an event pops up on the screen:

[Incident] You are walking down the street, and a girl in front of you isn't paying attention when a bicycle rushes straight towards her.

[Options] A. Rush up and grab her. B. Stand still and shout "Watch out!" C. Pretend you didn't see her.

Teacher Zhang selected A.

[Result] You rushed forward and pulled the girl away. The bicycle grazed your arm, scraping your skin. The girl turned pale with fright and thanked you several times. You waved your hand and said it was nothing. (Constitution -1, Happiness +5, gained the tag "Heroic Act")

Ye Ming stared at the screen, his fingers twitching slightly.

This story must have been written by Xu Wei.

She never told him about it, and he never asked.

There are some things they never say to each other.

But this story lies here now, every word telling of her fear that night.

Teacher Zhang didn't notice his distraction and continued playing.

After the game ended, he leaned back in his chair, looked at the summary, and nodded.

"There are several interesting designs in your game."

He counted on his fingers, "Sharing the ending gives double coins, which lets players spread the word themselves. 'Lend Me Life' and 'Win-Win Life' let players invite their friends to play together. You're not making a game, you're building a platform for users to play on their own."

Ye Ming snapped out of his reverie: "Teacher Zhang, do you think this direction is correct?"

"That's right." Teacher Zhang nodded. "You can't just focus on code when you're doing technical work."

You need to think clearly about why users will use what you create, why they will stay, and why they will invite their friends to use it.

Once you understand these things, how to write the code is just an execution-level issue.

He paused, then his tone became more serious: "I've been working in technology for over a decade and have seen too many people who write beautiful code and build solid architectures, but whose products are never used."

Why? Because they lack a user-centric mindset.

You're different. Before you even launch, you're already figuring out how to get users to help you attract more users.

This awareness is far more important than how well you write your code.

Some people spend their whole lives in technology, and no matter how high their skill level is, they are only senior technicians.

Poorly written code can be fixed, and flawed architecture can be adjusted, but a way of thinking isn't something you learn; it grows naturally.

He added, "If your game is promoted properly, it has a chance to become a minor hit."

Once the social sharing effect kicks in, traffic will naturally accumulate.

Whether it becomes a huge hit or not depends on fate.

No one can predict what will happen in the market.

All you can do is make a good product and serve your users well.

The rest is up to luck.

Ye Ming kept these words in mind.

Teacher Zhang stood up and walked to the whiteboard: "However, we still need to optimize what needs to be optimized. Come on, let me tell you how much your server can handle."

Ye Ming opened his notebook, pen in hand.

Teacher Zhang drew an architecture diagram, marking the locations of the database, cache, and connection pool. "In your current solution, event data is stored in text files, and user data is stored in MySQL. Who came up with this hybrid storage idea to you?"

"Senior Zhang Yuan."

Teacher Zhang nodded: "That's good. The event database is read-heavy and write-light, so storing it as a text file and loading it into memory all at startup is indeed faster than querying a database. User data needs to be frequently modified, so MySQL is fine. This division of labor is very clear."

He marked a number on the graph: "But under high concurrency, the database connection count will be the first to be overwhelmed."

Without optimization, the database will overflow when around 2,000 people are online simultaneously.

Ye Ming pressed further, "How do you optimize it?"