"Huh?"
Luo Botao racked his brains for a moment before saying, "Xiao Mo, it seems you've been talking more and more nonsense these last couple of days."
Chen Mo chuckled. "Just focus on your game, and don't try to tackle problems that exceed your brain capacity. Trying to grow a bigger brain doesn't work that way."
Actually, there was nothing wrong with Luo Botao's intelligence—otherwise, he wouldn't have been accepted into a 211 Project university in Jingdu—it was just that his emotional intelligence left a bit to be desired.
Just as the two of them were getting ready for another match, the internet cafe door suddenly pushed open, and a middle-aged man with a worried expression walked in.
Chen Mo recognized him immediately. It was the exact person he was waiting for: Luo Botao's uncle, Qin Xiaojun.
In his previous life, Chen Mo had learned that when Qin Xiaojun was young, he saved up some money doing small business. Later, feeling that the internet cafe industry looked promising, he used connections with a friend working at the county culture bureau to invest and open an internet cafe of moderate size.
Back in 2005, internet cafes were truly a booming sunrise industry. As long as you didn't offend anyone, your equipment wasn't too outdated, and you didn't violate too many regulations, you could generally make money.
However, when Qin Xiaojun initially invested, he knew nothing about computer equipment and such. Listening to someone's sales pitch, he bought a batch of refurbished computers with old configurations at high prices.
At first, everything was fine; most games and software ran quite well.
But as the resource packages for online games like *Westward Journey*, *Fantasy Westward Journey*, and *Legend* grew larger and larger—especially after *World of Warcraft* entered open beta in Xia Country at the end of April this year and became a massive hit—the drawbacks of lagging hardware gradually began to show.
Because of this, business at Qin Xiaojun's internet cafe steadily went downhill, getting worse day by day.
Chen Mo remembered that in his previous life, during his lowest point, Luo Botao came back during the National Day holiday and invited him to play games to clear his mind, mentioning that his uncle's internet cafe had replaced all their computers with new ones.
Later on, not long after Chen Mo went south to Yangcheng, he heard from Luo Botao that Qin Xiaojun had ultimately run the internet cafe into the ground.
Regardless of what the ultimate fate of this internet cafe would turn out to be, judging by the memories of his past life, this was precisely the time when Qin Xiaojun would be upgrading his computer configurations.
"Uncle."
Seeing Qin Xiaojun, Luo Botao took the initiative to greet him, stopped playing his game, and walked over.
Seeing this, Chen Mo immediately followed behind him.
"When did you get here, Botao?" Qin Xiaojun greeted him, and upon seeing Chen Mo behind him, added, "Xiao Mo's here too."
"Hello, Uncle," Chen Mo politely replied.
"Where were you just now, Uncle?" Luo Botao asked.
"I went out to take care of some business. You two go play for now, and we'll grab a meal together around noon."
Qin Xiaojun looked distracted and had no heart for idle chatter with Luo Botao.
Luo Botao didn't mind either. He likewise failed to notice the worry plastered all across Qin Xiaojun's face, as his mind was still set on how to continue trashing Chen Mo at the game.
Therefore, upon hearing Qin Xiaojun's words, he turned around and dragged Chen Mo back to continue their battle.
Chen Mo's mind was definitely not on the game, however. He called out to Qin Xiaojun, who was just about to head upstairs, "Uncle, has business at the internet cafe been a bit slow lately?"
Actually, Chen Mo didn't even need to ask; one only had to look at the number of people online inside to know.
Chen Mo saying this was nothing more than casting a brick to attract jade.
"Yeah, the computer configurations are falling further and further behind, and a lot of large games can't run smoothly anymore," Qin Xiaojun said casually, and made to continue walking upstairs.
Chen Mo was not about to let this opportunity slip away so easily, and hurriedly followed.
"Uncle, are you thinking about replacing your computers in bulk?"
Hearing this, Qin Xiaojun immediately stopped in his tracks and asked with a puzzled look, "How did you know?"
"I guessed," Chen Mo hedged evasively.
Qin Xiaojun let out a sigh and said, "Sigh, there's really no other choice. Business was already affected recently because of Trojan horse account thefts, and coupled with the aging machine configurations, fewer and fewer people come to play every day. If I don't upgrade the computer setups soon, I reckon I'll be shutting down for good before long."
Just as Qin Xiaojun finished speaking and before Chen Mo could reply, Luo Botao suddenly chimed in with a look of delight: "Huh? Uncle, you're getting new computers? That's awesome! Your useless, outdated machines can only run standalone games like *CS*, *Red Alert*, and *Warcraft*; any slightly larger online game lags like crazy. Oh, right, when are you actually changing them? Remember to tell me in advance so I can come and try out the newly released *World of Warcraft*, hehe."
Luo Botao's remark almost made Qin Xiaojun cough up blood, and even Chen Mo rolled his eyes.
*Talk about being a truly magnificent nephew to your uncle.*
The internet cafe was practically on the verge of going out of business, yet this guy's primary concern was that the computer hardware couldn't handle the newest games.
Qin Xiaojun shot Luo Botao a sideways glance and didn't say anything else.
"All right, go play for now. At noon, I'll take you two out for a bite."
"Awesome, thanks, Uncle!"
Luo Botao was thrilled; not only could he play for free, but he got a free meal too.
However, Chen Mo was not about to let go of this hard-won opportunity to make money, and asked, "Uncle, do you already have a plan for the new computer configurations?"
Faced with Chen Mo's relentless questioning, Qin Xiaojun seemed a bit impatient, but out of a sense of saving face, he still replied, "I do. I just went to a friend's computer shop, and he recommended a batch of affordable computers with decent specs."
At this, a flash of pain seemed to cross Qin Xiaojun's heart. When he first opened the internet cafe, he had trusted a friend he thought he was quite close with, only to get scammed miserably.
It hadn't even been two years before he needed to update his hardware again, and the prices of new computers weren't low—it was going to be another hefty investment, making his heart ache just to think about it.
"Can I take a look at the specification list, Uncle?"
Hearing Chen Mo ask for the spec sheet, Qin Xiaojun didn't think much of it.
He was just a kid, after all; what could he possibly understand about any of that technical jargon?
Still, he took the computer configuration sheet written by his friend out of his pocket and handed it to Chen Mo with a lingering look of puzzlement.
Taking the sheet, Chen Mo began to carefully examine the models and brands of the CPU, motherboard, memory, and other hardware components.
In his previous life, when he ventured out to Yangcheng on his own, his very first job was selling computers. Therefore, his memory of all the computer hardware configurations and developments from that era was exceptionally deep.
Seeing Chen Mo examine the spec sheet with extreme concentration, Luo Botao, who was eager to get back to crushing him, said, "Xiao Mo, I've never heard of you having any interest in this kind of stuff. Do you even know what you're looking at? If you don't understand, stop wasting time and hurry up and come play games with me."
Qin Xiaojun also felt that Chen Mo was just wasting time. Even he couldn't fully make sense of all those numbers and English letters on the sheet.
What kind of profound understanding or insight could a kid who had just graduated from high school possibly have about computers?
Thinking this, he reached out to take the spec sheet back from Chen Mo's hands.
"Chen Mo, you should just go play with Botao."
Yet before his hand even touched the paper, Chen Mo snatched the sheet away and said, "Uncle, there are obvious problems with the configurations on this sheet—and they're not small ones either!"