Li Mu had mapped his business strategy long before coding Stone Age Overlord.
With The Legend of Mir poised to dominate China's online gaming market by year's end, he knew Stone Age Online's twilight was near. Even if his cheat tool thrived, its profit window would slam shut within months. Realistically, he'd be lucky to clear a million yuan—peanuts compared to Abei Plugins' ten-million-yuan empire.
The bottleneck? Payment infrastructure.
In 2001, online transactions barely existed. Alibaba's Jack Ma hadn't launched Taobao, let alone Alipay. Gamers bought prepaid cards at cybercafés; cheat tools sold the same way. Without distribution networks, Li Mu's options narrowed.
His solution: two-pronged disruption.
Phase One: Free Domination
Stone Age Overlord's trial version launched with a 15-day free period—functionality dwarfing Abei's paid product. Smoother, faster, packed with features like auto-questing and resource farming, it was a nuke dropped on the paid-cheat ecosystem.
Li Mu's playbook mirrored 360 Antivirus' later strategy: obliterate competitors by giving superior products free. Let Abei bleed until they crawled to negotiate.
Phase Two: Scorched Earth
If Abei resisted, Li Mu and Zhao Kang would hit the streets—hawking activation codes at cybercafés nationwide. Grueling, but feasible for pocket change.
July 11, 1:00 AM
Zhao Kang's forum alias "StandingPig" updated his viral post:
[Original Post]
Title: Broke Student Pleads for Free Cheat Tools!
Content: Can't afford plugins. Any veterans got freebies? Kneeling in gratitude!
[Update]
Title: HOLY CRAP! FREE GOD-TIER CHEAT FOUND!
Content: "Stone Age Overlord" annihilates paid tools! Download links below!
Attachments came in six .rar files—forum size limits forced splitting. Screenshots showcased sleek UI and in-game advantages: auto-battle, instant teleportation, loot filters.
Gamers bit fast.
By 2:00 AM:
Downloads: 638
Comments: 56
"Trying now. If legit, OP's my hero!"
"Runs smoother than my paid tool?? What sorcery?!"
Zhao Kang switched to in-game spam:
[World Chat]
StandingPig: FREE OP CHEAT! Forum link: bbs.stoneagelegends.com
Alt accounts chimed in:
"Verified! This thing's cracked!"
"Abei who? Overlord rules!"
Li Mu leaned back, watching the digital wildfire spread.
Abei's inbox would soon burn.