Chapter 6 Setting Sail: Starting from the Internet

Chen Fan looked at this group of youths, whose attire and fashion sense were ostentatiously non-mainstream, and immediately realized that they had not come with good intentions.

"Can I help you?"

"Damn it, I'm asking you, is your name Chen Fan?"

Chen Fan feigned confusion. "Why are you looking for him?"

The guy with the messy, bird's-nest hair spat a glob of thick phlegm onto the ground. "My subordinate is Huang Hu, got it? Did you threaten him?"

Chen Fan shook his head decisively. "It's not me. I didn't. That wasn't me."

Just then, one of the minions pointed a finger at him. "Brother Crow, that's the brat. Huang Hu showed me his photo."

Hearing this, the bird's-nest-haired guy chuckled. "Kid, you're pretty slippery."

"But no matter how cunning the hunter is, he can't outwit a good fox..."

The minion beside him couldn't help but interject, "Brother Crow, you got that saying backward."

Brother Crow immediately slapped him across the face. "Cut the crap!"

He then turned back to threaten Chen Fan. "Huang Hu is my man. I'm the one who covers this area, you understand?"

Chen Fan hurriedly asked, "And you are..."

"I'm Crow."

"Brother Crow, why don't you cover me too? I'll acknowledge you as my boss."

Crow was visibly stunned by this. Just as he was about to sneer, he saw Chen Fan suddenly brighten up and wave at someone behind them.

"Teacher Wang, are you here to eat, too?"

The group of youths was startled and instinctively turned around. Taking this chance, Guo Shuai, who had been holding a bucket of slop, dumped it directly onto Brother Crow’s head. Chen Fan lunged forward and delivered a kick that sent the man tumbling over.

"Damn it..."

Before Brother Crow could finish his curse, Chen Fan and Guo Shuai had already slipped into an alleyway and taken off.

"What the hell are you standing there for? Chase them!"

Brother Crow scrambled to his feet, a mess of rotten vegetable leaves clinging to his head while foul-smelling slop dripped down his hair.

Chen Fan and Guo Shuai dashed through several alleys before finally stopping, gasping for air.

"Can't… run anymore. Let’s rest… just a moment..." Guo Shuai said, clutching his stomach as he caught his breath.

"Tell me... who were those people?"

Chen Fan glanced back and gave a cold snort. "Who else? They were sent by Huang Hu to teach me a lesson."

"Huang Hu?" Guo Shuai sneered. "It must be because of the class monitor, right?"

Chen Fan was taken aback. "You knew he liked Su Ruochu?"

Guo Shuai laughed. "Only a fool wouldn't see it. That idiot Huang Hu thinks he's hiding it well, but I could tell at a glance that every time he looked at the class monitor, his eyes were full of malice. Damn it, daring to have designs on my sister-in-law? I'll kill him."

Chen Fan patted Guo Shuai on the shoulder. "Good brother. You're a real one."

"Alright, let's head back."

"Wait!" Guo Shuai grabbed Chen Fan. "Those guys might be waiting at the school gate. Going back now would be walking right into a trap."

Chen Fan frowned. "Then what should we do?"

"Don't worry, let them wait. Let's go hang out at Birch Woods."

"Birch Woods?"

Chen Fan suddenly remembered. Birch Woods was an internet cafe near the school. Back when they were students, he and Guo Shuai had snuck in there to play games plenty of times after school. Chen Fan thought about it, realized Guo Shuai made sense, and nodded.

"Let's go!"

The two quietly emerged from the alley, checked that no one was around, and took a long detour straight to Birch Woods.

As soon as they entered the internet cafe, Guo Shuai greeted the girl at the counter with practiced ease. "Hey beauty, open two terminals for two hours."

The girl at the front desk looked them over. "Register your IDs."

Guo Shuai didn't even blink. "Didn't bring them. Just give us temporary cards."

Chen Fan was speechless. *Dude, you're still wearing your school uniform.*

To his surprise, the girl actually produced two slips of paper with strings of numbers written on them and tossed them onto the desk.

"Let's go!" Guo Shuai pulled Chen Fan into the main hall.

Pushing through the heavy door curtain, it was dark as a bunker inside, thick with smoke that made it hard to breathe. A cacophony of sounds flooded Chen Fan’s ears.

"Damn it! My mine was stolen!"

"The enemy infantry is already here, where are the tanks? Why didn't you buy Apocalypse tanks?"

"Use the ultimate move, hurry up and pull off the ultimate move... Dammit, the way you're playing Iori is absolute trash..."

"Boohoo, Brother Xiaoyao and Zhao Ling'er are just so touching..."

Listening to the sounds, the corners of Chen Fan's mouth curled up slightly. He missed this so much. In this era, students didn't have short videos or streaming sites; a simple little game could keep them excited for the whole day.

Guo Shuai dragged Chen Fan to a corner seat. "Hurry, hurry, turn it on. Today I'll show you my Red Alert infinite-spam technique."

Chen Fan sat down with a smile and pressed the power button; the familiar Windows 98 startup music played.

"You play by yourself today. I have something else to do."

Guo Shuai stared at him. "Damn it. Coming to an internet cafe and not playing games? Are you here to watch the evening news?"

"Cut the crap. I have serious business."

Guo Shuai grumbled as he went over to start his game of Red Alert, and before long, he was shouting with excitement.

In reality, Microsoft had already released the Windows 2000 operating system back in February, but the internet cafe in this small town hadn't updated yet. Besides, their generation was most familiar with the '98 version. Gazing at the classic desktop with its blue sky, white clouds, and green grass, Chen Fan gave a knowing smile. He truly missed it.

In this era, the first wave of pioneers had already emerged on the domestic internet. Chen Fan remembered that Sina had successfully listed on NASDAQ in April, enjoying unprecedented popularity. But soon, NetEase would list at the end of this month, and Sohu, the last of the three, would list on the 12th of next month. Once that happened, the three major portals would stand in a triumvirate, dominating the spotlight.

As for the giants of the future, BAT—Tencent was currently enduring the "internet winter," and Pony Ma had once even tried to sell QQ for one million yuan. Jack Ma of Alibaba was struggling to build his sales team. Baidu was doing slightly better; they had just launched their Chinese search engine last month and were beginning to fully enter the field of Chinese internet technology. Then there was another big player, Richard Liu, who was still selling CD burners at a tiny storefront in Zhongguancun called JD Multimedia; it would be another three years before he fully transitioned to an online retail model.

However, none of this mattered to Chen Fan, who was still just a student. Even as a time-traveler, he had no standing yet to sit down with these titans and discuss the future of the empire.

He clicked the mouse to open the Sina page and browsed through a few current news stories.

"US stocks volatile, NASDAQ index continues to slide..."

Seeing this headline, Chen Fan thought to himself that probably few people in the country knew that before long, the wave of the dot-com bubble would sweep through the domestic market. At that time, a large number of domestic companies would perish in this internet winter. Only those prepared for the crisis would survive and embrace a new explosion of growth.

But that was all too far away for the current Chen Fan. What he needed was to find an opportunity to earn his first pot of gold. He pondered where he should start.

His gaze accidentally swept over the top of the page, and a thought flashed in his mind, making his eyes light up instantly.

"Domain names, domain names... That's it! I can trade domain names."