Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

For most students, money was the most attractive thing. After all, the ultimate purpose of attending university was also to make money. Rather than making money after graduation, why not make a little now, accumulate some experience, and make it easier to find a job later?

So these club promoters had seized on the soft spot in these students' hearts and lured them onto the hook. Still, it could not quite be called a lie—the Computer Club did take on some small software development projects. But the pay was generally a few thousand yuan, within ten thousand at most. Split among individuals, it came to a few hundred yuan each, and sometimes you had to work at it for a whole semester.

Still, having something was better than having nothing. Many students were already feeling stirred and had picked up pens to start filling out the forms.

"Club president, these two are both freshmen from Computer Science, and they're interested in our club," said the young man in charge of the flyers, leading Yang Ce and Zhou Yanning over to the sign-up station and addressing the fellow who was talking the most animatedly of all.

The one talking the most animatedly was Li Boliang, president of the Computer Club. Hearing that more freshmen wanted to join, Li Boliang quickly took a sip of water and looked up. When he saw Zhou Yanning, his eyes lit up at once. Although Li Boliang already had a girlfriend, at the sight of a beauty he still instinctively swallowed hard.

This was a beauty of the devastating kind. If he could recruit her into the Computer Club, he would not even need to advertise—those hot-blooded young men would come flocking, each scrambling to be first.

Li Boliang's eyes darted about as he decided to put some real effort into winning Zhou Yanning over and bringing her into the Computer Club. She was a living signboard! With Zhou Yanning standing here, she was worth more than a hundred words from his own mouth.

Sure enough, the moment Zhou Yanning stood there, the boys who had been hesitating over whether to join the Computer Club all signed their names at the lower right of the registration forms without a moment's hesitation.

Seeing the effect take hold immediately, Li Boliang was even more smitten. He made up his mind: he absolutely had to win Zhou Yanning over.

"Please, have a seat, you two." Li Boliang shot the girl a look, telling her to take care of Yang Ce and the others. She was the only girl there—no help for it; she would have to do.

The girl brought chairs for Yang Ce and Zhou Yanning and settled them in. Li Boliang cleared his throat and began: "Our Computer Club is a comprehensive club organization that integrates the development, use, and maintenance of computer software and hardware."

At this point, seeing that Zhou Yanning's expression remained normal, showing no sign of wanting to join or not join, Li Boliang knew that these ordinary selling points would not attract her. So his eyes darted and he said, "And what's more, our Computer Club is a hacker organization."

"Huh?" The students who had been about to join the Computer Club were all taken aback, looking at Li Boliang with curiosity. Hackers—in the eyes of many university students, a mysterious existence.

A hacker was like a chivalrous hero of the internet, roaming the online world righting wrongs, championing the weak against the strong, laughing proudly through the vast ocean of cyberspace. University students were people of strong justice, and especially when the nation's interests were harmed, they would step forward and cry out in indignation, burning with righteous fury.

At such times, if they saw some hacker group take down the website of hostile forces that had harmed the nation's interests and hoist the national flag upon it, their hearts would surge and their blood would boil.

So when they heard Li Boliang say that the school's Computer Club was actually a hacker organization, how could they not be interested? Every one of them stared wide-eyed, waiting for Li Boliang to go on.

Although Li Boliang knew a little hacker technique and was a peripheral member of some small hacker group, he was far from the core. Never mind attacking foreign official websites—even attacking a campus intranet was a bit beyond him.

But Li Boliang figured that girls all worshiped heroes, and a hacker was a mysterious hero. Since Zhou Yanning was a computer enthusiast, she must surely have heard of hackers.

Li Boliang glanced smugly at the students around him, dumbstruck as wooden chickens, and finally let his gaze settle on Zhou Yanning—only to find, to his disappointment, that her expression was still calm. Not giving up, Li Boliang continued, "For example, I took part in last year's Huaxia hacker group's challenge match against the American hacker group."

"Oh, is that so?" Zhou Yanning finally reacted. She looked at Li Boliang and asked.

Seeing Zhou Yanning finally speak, Li Boliang immediately saw hope and hurried on, "Of course. I competed on behalf of our SFH Phoenix hacker group."

"The SFH Phoenix hacker group—I know of it." Zhou Yanning frowned. She did know this hacker group; it was a small domestic group, but what they researched was not network protocols so much as satellite positioning systems. Moreover, Zhou Yanning did not recall the SFH Phoenix hacker group achieving anything notable in last year's hacker challenge.

"So you've heard of it?" Hearing that Zhou Yanning knew the organization, Li Boliang was overjoyed, and in his excitement his mouth began to run away with him: "I'm a member of that organization. Last year, under my leadership, our organization achieved some modest but proud results, and we even received praise from I Love Xiao Ming, the number one master in the Huaxia hacker world!"

"You know I Love Xiao Ming?" Zhou Yanning's face flushed at once. She glanced at Yang Ce out of the corner of her eye and only relaxed when she saw his expression was normal.

"That's right. This I Love Xiao Ming is the number one network master in our Huaxia hacker world—very mysterious. You must have heard of him too, right?" Li Boliang nodded and said.

"I've heard of him," Zhou Yanning said, pressing her lips together.

"Ha, I Love Xiao Ming is extremely mysterious—a dragon whose head you see but whose tail you never glimpse on the internet. He doesn't belong to any hacker organization. People call him the King of Hackers," Li Boliang rattled on.

The King of Hackers? Yang Xuantang broke out in a cold sweat. Wasn't that a match for himself? He was the King of Assassins, and this I Love Xiao Ming was actually the King of Hackers. It was just that the name was a bit ridiculous—I Love Xiao Ming, what a joke, like a sentence a grade-schooler had made up.

To be continued.

1055. The King of Hackers

At the words "King of Hackers," the students standing nearby all wore expressions of awe. The King of Hackers was an ultimate, mysterious existence; in the field of computing in Huaxia, there was no one who did not know that name.

He was a genius of the hacker world, but no one knew whether he was male or female, or how old he was. All they knew was that there was no computer problem that could stump him.

And Li Boliang, the president of the Computer Club, seemed to know him. A few club members skilled at flattery immediately asked, "President Li, don't tell us you know the King of Hackers?"

Li Boliang glanced around, then lowered his voice. "I'll tell you, but don't go spreading it around—I'm actually the King of Hackers' disciple. His personal disciple, the kind that studies under him directly."

"What?" Everyone was stunned. "That badass?"

"Just so-so," Li Boliang said, rather pleased with himself.

"So how old is the King of Hackers?" someone asked curiously.