Chapter 51: OO Farm

“Brother, I’m heading home!” The young man, unable to find answers from his brother, decided to leave.

“Changhe, install this program in our main computer and make sure all the terminals have it installed!” Just as the boy was about to leave, the internet café owner returned and handed a disc to his brother.

“Is this the latest game?” his brother asked curiously.

“No, it’s a communication software called OO. For every computer we install it on, we earn one yuan. With 120 computers, that’s 120 yuan—free money, really. If we don’t take it, someone else will!” The owner grinned.

“OO? That sounds a lot like QQ!” his brother joked.

“It’s not just similar—it’s a knockoff. Some unknown local boss made this software, thinking he could buy his way into the market. He doesn’t understand the internet at all. QQ’s dominance is already established, impossible to defeat. Getting in now is just throwing money away; it’s pointless!” The owner was shrewd and had a broad perspective.

“Got it. We’ll install the program for now, collect the money, and then uninstall it after a few days to save our hard disks,” his brother said.

“No, who told you to uninstall it after a few days?” The owner glared at him.

“Then what should we…”

“You can leave work now, but it’s not a day off. Go home and spend a few days writing a program for me—one that makes OO launch automatically on every computer when it starts up, so every user sees OO as soon as they log in, and registers as an OO member!” the owner ordered.

“But boss, didn’t you just say that OO is a waste of money and no one will use it?” his brother asked, puzzled.

“Yes, but the money they waste ends up in my pocket!” The owner chuckled. “I don’t care about QQ or OO. As long as I can make money, what do I care for your pointless questions?”

“Understood. I’ll take care of it!” his brother replied quickly, and together with his brother, they left the café—one headed back to the dormitory, the other home.

“Brother, is there really no chance for 00 to beat QQ?” the boy asked curiously on their way home.

“Let me ask you: if you were told to give up your QQ number and switch to 00, would you be willing?” his brother asked.

“No!” The boy shook his head vigorously.

“Exactly. If 00 survives more than three months, I’ll call it impressive!” his brother grinned, then went off to write the auto-login program for 00.

Meanwhile, the boy raced home, eager to log into what he believed was “QQ.” But QQ began an automatic update, and the update was substantial—it took more than ten minutes before he could log in.

Once logged in, he received a system message: “Hello, OO Farm is now online! You can now create your own idyllic paradise in OO Farm!”

“OO Farm? What is this nonsense?” The boy shook his head, uninterested in farming, and ignored it. He immediately searched for Summer Snow, delighted to find her still online.

But soon, his joy turned to disappointment. No matter how many messages he sent, she didn’t reply, though her status was online.

“Does she not want to chat with me anymore?” His heart began to ache, but about ten minutes later, Summer Snow finally replied.

“Have you started your farm?”

“No…” he instinctively typed, but he deleted it and retyped, “I have!”

After replying, he searched the UI for the farm, and luckily the OO Farm button was in the most conspicuous spot. He easily found it and clicked to enter.

Anyone who’s played farm games knows they’re usually browser-based flash games, but OO Farm was different. It didn’t use a browser—it launched a separate program, essentially a game.

This was much more troublesome than a browser game, but there was no choice. In 2001, flash existed, but browsers consumed too much system resources, making them slow and unusable for most computers.

So Huang He had his team develop a small standalone game, which ran much smoother than browser games.

Entering the farm, the boy saw several plots of land, all in a cleared state except for three, which had crops growing.

Three golden apple trees, with a harvest button beside them, indicating he could pick the apples.

Just as he was about to harvest, Summer Snow messaged him: “Did you pick your golden apples?”

“No!” he replied quickly, abandoning the harvest.

“Great! Let me steal three apples before you pick them, okay?” she pleaded. How could he refuse? He agreed, and immediately saw a message in OO Farm’s mailbox: “Your friend Summer Snow has stolen three golden apples from you. Would you like to retaliate in her farm?”

Naturally, he clicked to enter, and the game screen switched to another farm. It was similar to his, except Summer Snow’s farm had an adorable dog, looking somewhat like a wolf.

Her farm had six plots ready for planting, but nothing could be stolen—she’d planted six tender seedlings, with a note saying they’d mature in 52 minutes.

“Damn!” he cursed, then returned to his own farm and quickly harvested all his golden apples, totaling twenty-seven. He realized he could’ve had thirty, if not for the theft.

After harvesting, the system prompted him to sell the apples. Confirming, he sold them at ten thousand coins each, earning 270,000 coins.

The system then suggested he clear three more plots. Knowing that the beginner’s guide usually offered optimal choices, he followed the advice.

The first plot cost ten thousand coins to clear, the second fifty thousand, the third one hundred fifty thousand—his 270,000 coins dwindled to just sixty thousand in the blink of an eye.

The fourth plot required five hundred thousand coins to clear.

Next, the system suggested he buy seeds from the shop and start planting.

Opening the shop, he found his current level was three (thanks to harvesting apples), allowing him to buy cabbage, potatoes, lettuce, radishes, garlic, and peanuts—six different plants, each with its own growth time. The most profitable, peanuts, took six hours to grow and earned just two thousand coins per plot!

He checked the locked seeds. The most expensive was dragon fruit at level twenty, which took forty-eight hours to mature and sold for twenty thousand coins each—still not as profitable as golden apple seeds.

He finally realized how valuable those golden apples had been—one golden apple was worth thirty hours of peanuts.

Besides the seed shop, there were pet, house, decoration, weather, and friend shops. When he opened the pet shop, the first thing he saw was Summer Snow’s dog.

“Pet: Husky—chases away thieves, reduces stolen crops by one. Price: 100,000 coins.”

“So Summer Snow used my golden apples to buy a dog!” The boy felt like coughing blood in frustration.

But thinking his goddess had stolen from him, he felt at least a bit comforted.

He browsed through each shop, and finally discovered in the special shop that golden apple seeds were for sale. They had no level restrictions—anyone could plant them.

But buying golden apple seeds required something special.

The shop panel read: “Enter the account of a friend who invited you to open an OO Farm. Both of you will receive a golden apple seed. Each user can only enter one friend’s account. When your friend’s farm reaches level ten, you’ll receive ten golden apple seeds in one go.”