“Brother-in-law, is this your company? It’s so big!” A young woman, about 22 years old, was looking around the Tengda office building, exclaiming in surprise from time to time.
“It’s alright, this is only three floors of the building!” Brother Ma said humbly.
“Hehe, I believe brother-in-law can definitely build a whole building as an office building in the future!” the young woman said loudly, instantly filling Brother Ma’s face with affection.
Brother Ma had only recently gotten married. It was quite amusing; Brother Ma, a Cantonese, ended up marrying a wife from Heilongjiang, from the two most southern and northern regions of China.
How these two met was thanks to QQ.
That’s right, Brother Ma’s wife was someone he met while impersonating customer service on QQ. Later, they agreed to meet in the capital city, and eventually, they successfully got engaged and married.
It’s possible that Brother Ma and his wife were the first couple in the country to get married through QQ online dating. Therefore, Brother Ma’s abilities were truly extraordinary. After all, not everyone could get married through online dating, and moreover, the other party was a famous talented musician.
[PS: Brother Ma protected his personal life very well; almost no information could be found online about it. Therefore, no one knows if this information is reliable. This is the most widely circulated story on the internet, and it has been adopted here without guaranteeing its authenticity.]
The one making a fuss in Brother Ma’s company at this moment was his wife’s younger sister, who was also Brother Ma’s sister-in-law. She was in her final year of university and was currently in her internship period. Under her sister’s arrangement, she came to Tengda for an internship.
After all, it was their own company, so her sister felt more at ease.
Brother Ma was naturally very good to his sister-in-law and personally took her on a tour. However, in the depths of his heart, he involuntarily began to compare his sister-in-law with Huang He’s sister-in-law.
Then he was very disappointed to find that although his sister-in-law was also very beautiful and equally talented in music, playing the guzheng to a level that was said to be of a national-level troupe, she still fell short compared to Huang He’s sister-in-law!
At the very least, someone else’s sister-in-law could create oo, but his own sister-in-law couldn’t sell shoes!
For some reason, after returning from Hangzhou, Brother Ma had started to like comparing himself with Huang He; it had become a habit for Brother Ma.
“How can I have such a silly thought!” Brother Ma patted his head and then let his sister-in-law look around herself. He then went to the technology department and met Zhang Zhidong, whose eyes had almost turned into those of Ultraman.
“Zhidong, how is our ace performing!” Brother Ma asked, patting Zhang Zhidong’s shoulder.
“In three more days, it can go live!” Zhang Zhidong said, yawning. After nearly two months of research, adjustments, and testing, Zhang Zhidong had finally finished developing what he had in hand.
This was the QQ ranking system that would make QQ dominate the competition in the future.
“You’ve worked hard, Zhidong!” Brother Ma said gratefully. Brother Ma saw how hard Zhang Zhidong had been working for the past two months. He hadn’t been home for almost two months, spending all his time at the company, only sleeping in the company lounge when he was exhausted, and then returning to work.
“How did you arrange this system in the end?” Brother Ma asked.
“Our ranking system is currently set at 30 levels. By simply staying logged in for 10 minutes, you can gain 1 experience point. From level 0 to level 1 requires 1 experience point, level 1 to level 2 requires 10 points, level 3 requires 100 points, level 4 requires 500 points, level 5 requires 1000 points, and level 30 requires 146,880 experience points, which is equivalent to 1020 days, or nearly 3 years!”
“Considering that a person cannot always stay logged into QQ, the level 30 cap should be enough for most people to spend four to five years upgrading!”
“As a reward for increasing levels, first, each person’s avatar will automatically display a corresponding symbol. For every level increase, a star will be added. Three stars will automatically turn into a moon, and three moons will automatically convert into a sun. When users reach level 32, they will have two suns.”
“What will three suns convert into?” Brother Ma couldn’t help but ask curiously.
“We haven’t thought about that yet. Three suns require level 48, which will take at least 7 years. I think having more suns will suffice then!” Zhang Zhidong said.
“No!” Brother Ma shook his head vigorously. “If you don’t allow the three suns to upgrade, users will be very angry. They will definitely be looking forward to the levels beyond three suns!”
“How about this, you can design a crown to represent the levels after the suns!” Brother Ma said.
“A crown? Shouldn’t it be a galaxy like the Milky Way after the suns?” Zhang Zhidong couldn’t help but ask.
“Galaxies are too abstract and difficult to display. A crown is more conspicuous!” Brother Ma said. “A crown represents an emperor and will definitely be recognized by many people. They will definitely like it!”
“Okay!” Zhang Zhidong nodded. He didn’t care about the icons as long as Brother Ma liked them. Zhang Zhidong continued, “Corresponding to different QQ levels, we have also designed corresponding special functions.”
“Specifically, reaching level 1 allows you to upload your own avatar. At level 3, you can use QQ voice calls, which can reduce the consumption of our server resources by many small accounts. At level 10, you can gain the privilege to recall messages. At level 20, the image function will be opened, allowing you to send images in chat. At level 30, the QQ invisibility function will be opened, allowing you to appear offline to avoid being disturbed!” Zhang Zhidong said, his eyes sparkling. These were all new features meticulously designed by Zhang Zhidong to add to QQ in the future.
However, what Zhang Zhidong never expected was that these meticulously designed functions made Brother Ma frown and say, “Why do you need so many functions? These are unnecessary. QQ levels should simply display the level; no other special functions are needed!”
“Why?” Zhang Zhidong couldn’t help but become a little anxious.
“Unnecessary is unnecessary!” Brother Ma said stubbornly. [PS: I don’t know why QQ levels are just simple levels without any additional special privileges, so I cannot explain Brother Ma’s thoughts. Everyone should figure it out for themselves!]
“Yes!” Although Zhang Zhidong was very unwilling, he couldn’t go against the boss. In the end, he could only brace himself and reluctantly give up.
“Keep up the good work!” Just as Brother Ma was about to comfort Zhang Zhidong a few words, his secretary suddenly ran in anxiously and handed a document to Brother Ma.
As a result, Brother Ma glanced at it, and his eyeballs almost fell out. Pointing at Zhang Zhidong’s nose, he said, “Traitor, we have a traitor among us!”
“Ah!” Suddenly, Brother Ma let out a scream. He actually collapsed to the ground, fainted from anger!