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

His gaze swept over every familiar face: "What's the most interesting thing about this game? Isn't it that every time you click the mouse, you might encounter a bizarre life that makes you laugh out loud or leave you speechless? Isn't it that you're always thinking 'Let's try again,' to see how you'll fare next time?"

These words struck a chord with everyone.

"That's so right!" Ruan Xing's eyes lit up. "I played out the ending where the rich girl eloped to Paris to become a painter, and it both bothered me for a long time, but it was also incredibly exciting!"

"That was truly amazing," Chen Mo pushed up his glasses, "I was reborn as a cafeteria auntie, made a 'Stargazing Durian Stew' dish, got featured on a food show, and eventually opened a chain of stores called 'Hell's Kitchen'..."

Laughter and exclamations of "Holy crap!" filled the server room, livening up the atmosphere.

"So," Ye Ming said, placing his hands on the table, "we'll do one thing. Take screenshots of the funniest and most unexpected life outcomes you guys encountered during the closed beta! Add a simple caption, and share them! Post them on Baidu Tieba, QQ groups, Renren, campus BBS—wherever you're most familiar with them!"

He said with absolute certainty: "Chen Mo, Zhao Kai, Sun Cheng, Zhang Jian, you're familiar with the groups and forums of various colleges at Southeast University, as well as the forums of other universities in Nanjing. Just post there: 'I played a super addictive text game, I was reborn as XXX, and the ending left me speechless…' or 'Look at me this time, I had a perfect start, but ended up begging for food, is this game even fair?' Post the ending image, and at the end, add: 'The game is called "Rebirth Simulator," it will be available tomorrow night at 7 PM, just click to play.'"

"Got it!" Zhao Kai rubbed his hands together, eager to try.

"Ruan Xing, Ma Teng, you two are familiar with Renren and QQ Space. Share stories with a compelling ending, along with your genuine feelings."

"Okay! I understand!"

"Senior Li Yue, you're familiar with technical communities and player forums. Share some hidden endings or extreme skill builds to showcase the game's freedom and unpredictable twists, and entice hardcore players who like to explore."

Li Yue gave an OK sign.

"Lin Ting, Ma Teng, Chen Yu, you guys work together. Make the images look better and add a uniform watermark. When you see relevant group chats, just 'casually' throw in any funny ending images, make it look natural."

The division of labor is extremely simple: each person goes to their most familiar territory and shares their most memorable gaming experience.

Xu Wei listened quietly before speaking, "Everyone, send the pictures and messages you want to post to the core group first. We'll quickly glance at them, but don't leak any key information." She looked at Ye Ming, "Should we use a unified hashtag? Like #IfLifeCouldBeStartedAgain#, or maybe add #Tragic#?"

Ye Ming's eyes lit up: "Great! Let's use both #IfLifeCouldBeRelived# and #Tragic#! We're not just saying goodbye, we're starting a fun topic. People who see this will think, 'Wow, there are so many strange and wonderful 'rebirth' experiences!'"

"Understood!"

"I'll go find my screenshots right now!"

"Haha, my picture of 'Reborn in the Apocalypse with Only a Dog at the Start' can finally be seen!"

With the task clear, the computer room was instantly filled with the excitement of "discovering a treasure and eager to share it." Everyone searched through the save files, arguing about whose ending was more "outrageous," the sounds of keyboards clicking, discussions, and laughter mingling together.

Looking at his companions, Ye Ming felt a slight relaxation. Yes, they had been working tirelessly for months, all to create a game that would make people want to share and discuss "what ifs."

With the promotion strategy finalized, everyone got to work. Ye Ming, Zhang Yuan, and Li Yue moved to a corner of the server room for final technical confirmation.

"Let's go through it one last time," Ye Ming said calmly. "Have you covered all the optimization techniques that Teacher Zhang taught us?"

Zhang Yuan brought up the monitoring interface and nodded: "The server running southbound data is stable. The connection pool, indexes, hotspot cache, and static leaderboard are all working fine, and the session data has been moved to Redis. The load test data is normal. According to Professor Zhang's estimate, our machine should be able to withstand the first wave without any problems."

Li Yue added, "The front-end and monitoring are also set up. Now we're just waiting to see how the actual number of people who come is at 7 PM tomorrow."

Ye Ming looked at the steady curve on the monitor screen, then glanced at his companions who were enthusiastically discussing the screenshot effect not far away.

"Okay," he finally said, his tone carrying a sense of resignation. "We've done everything we could. The rest depends on whether everyone likes what we've made tomorrow night."

There were no complicated contingency plans, no unnecessary worries. For a team at this stage with these resources, doing everything they could control to the best of their ability and then letting the market test it was the only and correct path.

Night fell. The server room reeked of instant noodles, mingled with the tacit understanding and excitement of "pre-battle preparations." On the computer screens, screenshots of bizarre endings and accompanying captions scrolled rapidly through the core group chat. Xu Wei reviewed them efficiently, occasionally offering adjustments.

During a break from his busy schedule, Ye Ming saw his phone light up. A text message from that familiar number.

Congratulations. Successful launch.

The message was sent in the afternoon. He could almost picture her pursed lips and thoughtful consideration as she sent those words. He remembered her flushed face and frantic retreat when Li Yue pulled her to him in the lecture hall that afternoon.

He thought for a moment, then lightly tapped his fingertips on the keyboard:

"Thank you. Did I...scare you today?"

He clicked send. He put his phone back in his pocket, but his mind was still on the unread reply. A few minutes later, his phone vibrated again.

He took it out to look at it.

"no."

After a few seconds of pause, it was as if you could see her organizing her thoughts on the other side of the screen.

"Well said. Remember Professor Chen's words."

Ye Ming looked at the words and a slight smile appeared on his lips. She was still the same; after her initial shyness, she could always quickly return to her most familiar and reliable rational channel, reminding him of the important matters he needed to pay attention to.

He replied:

"I know. The big exam is tomorrow night, and the real challenge is yet to come."

This reply came quickly and concisely, yet carried her unique quiet strength:

"Yes. So, don't let your guard down."

Looking at those five words, Ye Ming could almost see her pursing her lips, earnestly giving those words of advice. The flustered and shy woman from that afternoon and the concise and professional woman she was now strangely overlapped, stirring a slight feeling in his heart.

"Okay. Let's see the results together tomorrow night." He sent the last message, then put away his phone, suppressing the growing warmth and determination in his heart, and focused on the unfinished preparations in front of him.

It was past 11 p.m. when the last batch of materials was finalized. The security guard came to urge us to finish all the backups. Only then did everyone's tense nerves relax a little.

"That's all for tonight." Ye Ming stood up, his voice hoarse. "Everything that needs to be prepared is ready. Go back and get a good night's sleep. We'll meet one last time during the day tomorrow, and then... wait until 7 p.m. tomorrow night."

The words "7 PM tomorrow night" were like a reassurance, like the preparatory bell before the starting gun. The group encouraged each other and left one after another. The continuous high-intensity work had left everyone looking tired, but a fire burned deep within their eyes.

Finally, only Ye Ming, Zhang Yuan, and Li Yue remained in the computer room.

"You two hurry back too," Ye Ming said to the two men. "We'll meet here again at 10 a.m. tomorrow for a full-chain check. After that, stay in communication and be on standby. By 7 p.m. tomorrow, I need you to be at your most alert."

Zhang Yuan nodded and saved the document. Li Yue rubbed her eyes and didn't say anything. The real test would come nearly twenty hours later.

After the two left, the server room became completely quiet. Only the 1U server hummed softly in the corner, and the hard drive light blinked rhythmically.

After completing the final checks, Ye Ming turned off the headlights. He stood at the doorway, looking back one last time.

July 15, 23:58.

The day's glory, tension, and busyness fall silent at this moment.

There are 10 hours left until the launch date, 7 p.m. on October 16th.