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

October 16th, 10:00 AM.

Everyone was present in the computer room of the Computer Association.

There was a thick, quiet air, like the clouds hanging low before a storm.

The low hum of the host fan was the only background noise.

Ye Ming stood in front of the whiteboard, his gaze sweeping over every familiar face.

Li Yue, Zhang Yuan, Lin Ting, Chen Mo, Zhao Kai, Zhang Jian, Chen Yu, Sun Cheng, Ma Teng, Lin Zhixia, and Xu Wei and Ruan Xing.

Everyone has arrived.

"A few last things," Ye Ming said, his voice low but clear, "After that, we'll wait until 7 PM."

He picked up a brown paper envelope from the table and walked over to the group of people in the "Content Assault Team." His gaze lingered on Xu Wei and Ruan Xing's faces for a moment.

"The final payment for the previous batch of manuscripts." Ye Ming pulled out several stacks of loose banknotes from the envelope, mostly in denominations of fifty and twenty.

He handed them over one by one, according to the numbers he had calculated beforehand.

Chen Mo, Zhao Kai, Sun Cheng, Zhang Jian, Chen Yu, Ma Teng, and Lin Zhixia each received about one hundred yuan.

Finally, he looked at Xu Wei and Ruan Xing and handed them two equally thin sheets of money.

"You two are here too."

Xu Wei took it, didn't look at it, and put it directly into her pocket.

Ruan Xing gripped the few banknotes tightly, her fingers tightening slightly.

Ye Ming waited until they had all taken their things before speaking again, his voice deep and resonant.

"This is the last sum of money I can take out immediately. After that, here's what I have in my pocket," he paused, reached into his pocket, pulled out a few neatly folded hundred-yuan bills, and gently placed them on the table, "This is all I have left."

Those few banknotes lay on the dark tabletop, thin and conspicuous.

"I need you. Starting today, keep writing. At least ten articles a day, and the quality can't be compromised." He paused, then spoke clearly, "The payment will be increased to one yuan per article."

His gaze swept over everyone again, especially Xu Wei and Ruan Xing.

Ruan Xing's eyes widened slightly. Chen Mo adjusted his glasses. Xu Wei looked at him but didn't say anything.

"But the money won't be settled until next month, after the game generates GG revenue."

"The game will launch at 7 PM. If it succeeds, we'll make money together." Ye Ming's voice was calm, without any sob story, simply stating a fact. "If we fail, I, Ye Ming, will personally take responsibility for this. Even if I have to work odd jobs from now on, I will repay everyone in full."

Ye Ming continued, "If it succeeds," he looked at everyone earnestly, "this won't be the end. The value of what we've done together is far more than this."

He looked at Xu Wei and said in that familiar, teasing tone, tinged with entrustment, "As for the quality, you're in charge, my dear. Anything that doesn't pass must be sent back immediately."

Xu Wei looked at him and nodded slightly: "Okay."

"Okay! I'll write it!" Ruan Xing responded immediately.

Chen Mo spoke on behalf of the others: "Ten articles a day, we'll try our best to maintain quality. Money isn't a rush."

A consensus based on trust is reached in silence.

The division of labor was quickly clarified.

Zhang Yuan and Li Yue conducted the final end-to-end stress test and monitoring calibration.

Xu Wei led Chen Mo and Zhao Kai to conduct a final verification of the 500 selected first-release events, while also sorting out the remaining 1600 events and preparing for additional events at any time.

Ruan Xing reviewed the copy and images for all promotional platforms.

Lin Ting did a final check on the UI's display at different resolutions.

Ye Ming himself sat in front of the computer, opened the backend management interface, and checked all the configurations one last time: GG bit codes, statistics scripts, and firewall rules.

Then, he closed those interfaces, created a new blank document, and began writing his first event framework. He also had to work on the content himself.

The sporadic sounds of keyboards filled the silence of the computer room.

The sunlight outside the window slowly crept across the windowsill, casting diamond-shaped patches of light on the concrete floor.

Around 1 p.m., Xu Wei sent Ye Ming a preliminary "Content Update Plan".

She walked over and whispered, "Once players come in, the rate at which events are consumed is unpredictable. We'll start with 500 items, and if players are enthusiastic, the novelty might wear off within a few days. We need to have contingency plans in place so we can add new content at any time."

Ye Ming looked at the rough scheduling ideas on the screen, then glanced at the event outlines in his document, which were only up to the twentieth item. "Prepare for the worst first."

The afternoon stretched out exceptionally long.

The repetitive checking process became the only way to relieve anxiety.

Li Yue refreshed the backend of Qiandu Union for the third time, even though she knew the data wouldn't be available until tomorrow.

Zhang Yuan checked the server monitoring for the fifth time, and all the curves were lying flat at the bottom of the coordinate axis.

Ruan Xing was getting restless and finally couldn't help but lean closer to Ye Ming, whispering, "Classmate, what if... no one comes?"

Ye Ming looked up from the screen and glanced at her. The girl's face showed undisguised nervousness and anticipation.

"That means we haven't done a good enough job," Ye Ming said calmly.

But after a pause, he added with a strange certainty: "But I think everyone's curiosity about 'what if life could be lived again' is the same."

Ruan Xing blinked, seemingly comforted by those words, and sat back down in her seat, continuing to stare blankly at the customer service script she had prepared.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon, Ye Ming's phone vibrated.

It was a text message from Shen Zhiyi, containing only one line: "Busy in the lab. Is the game going online tonight?"

Ye Ming could almost picture her in the lab, typing this message in a spare moment while looking at a circuit board or screen. He replied, "Everything will be ready by 7 PM."

After a while, a single word came back from the other end: "Okay, keep it up."

Xu Wei got up to pour water, and when she came back, she gently placed a bottle of mineral water with the cap unscrewed next to Ye Ming.

Ye Ming turned to look at her.

"Your lips are a little dry," Xu Wei said naturally.

She walked back to her seat and continued looking at the event text on the screen.

Ye Ming picked up the water bottle, took a sip, and felt his mood become increasingly calm.

6:50 p.m.

The only sounds in the computer room were the occasional clicks of keyboards and mice, and suppressed breathing.

The sky outside the window had completely darkened, and the lights in the dormitory buildings in the distance began to illuminate one by one.

Ye Ming stood behind Zhang Yuan, his gaze fixed on the monitor screen.

All the curves lay dormant, like the excessively calm surface of the sea before a storm.

"Traffic links for all platforms are set up." Li Yue's voice was soft. On the screen in front of her, more than a dozen browser tabs were open, with the cursor hovering over the publish button.

"End-to-end health." Zhang Yuan typed Enter, and the last line of green "OK" scrolled across the command line window. He took off his headphones, rubbed his temples, and said, "Access permissions are now open; just waiting for you to click."

Ye Ming didn't speak, but nodded.

He walked back to his seat.

On the desktop, the browser is open with the homepage of "Rebirth Simulator". The UI, designed by Lin Ting, has the feel of a hand-drawn book, and in the center is the "Start a New Life" button.

Xu Wei sat diagonally behind him, with the official QQ group chat window in front of her, where only a few internal test members were chatting idly.

Her back was ramrod straight, her fingertips hovering above the keyboard.

Ruan Xing sat next to her, her eyes shining brightly as she kept refreshing the Renren.com page she had prepared.

The second hand of the wall clock ticked away, one tick at a time.

Six fifty-eight.

6:59.

Ye Ming raised his hand, and the mouse cursor landed on the red "Go Online" button in the background.

Click.

The page refreshed very slightly.

"It's online." Ye Ming's voice was steady.

Almost simultaneously, Li Yue's fingers on the mouse moved. She swiped through tabs at an astonishing speed, clicking, posting, then swiping again, then clicking again. The sound of keyboard tapping blended into a rapid drumbeat.

"Traffic generation begins. Status update posted on Renren.com with tags. Weibo topic posted, promotional content (images and text) posted. Main post on Tieba posted. Technical forum sharing post posted..."

On Zhang Yuan's monitoring screen, the green line representing the access request suddenly jerked upwards at a sharp angle from its bottom, which was close to the zero axis, within a few seconds.

"Entryway traffic is climbing. 20, 50, 100... the growth rate is stable."

Ruan Xing refreshed her Renren page. At the bottom of the page, the first like appeared, followed by a share, and then a comment.

"Someone shared it!" she exclaimed in a low voice, with suppressed excitement. "It's a classmate from the school next door. They said, 'This looks interesting, let's give it a try.'"

A new message notification popped up in the QQ group window in front of Xu Wei.

[User "Past Events Drift with the Wind" has joined the group chat.]

User "Tomorrow's End" has joined the group chat.

She immediately typed: "Welcome to the official 'Rebirth Simulator' group. The game is now online. Official website link: xxxx. For beginner's guide, please see the group files..."

His fingers flew across the keyboard, and his replies were methodical and organized.

Ye Ming's gaze was fixed on Zhang Yuan's monitoring screen.

The yellow curve, representing the number of people online at the same time, has started to move.

From 0, it jumps to 5, to 15, to 30... The growth is not explosive, but stable and continuous.

"Number of online users: 80," Zhang Yuan reported. "Server response time: average 110 milliseconds, within the normal range."

"GG ​​request has come in." Li Yue stared at another window. "Qiandu has started matching... The first result is displayed."

Time ticked by. At 7:20, the number of online users exceeded 300. At 7:40, it reached 500.

The growth rate is accelerating.