10: Chapter 10 Alumni Group

This time, he wasn't checking his merit points, but rather examining the edifice he had built with his own hands.

He didn't know until he looked, and once he did, he frowned.

In the [Latest Posts] section, the speed at which posts were refreshed was comparable to the bullet comments during the Double Eleven festival in his previous life.

He stared at it for five seconds and didn't manage to glean a single piece of useful information.

"Is anyone there? I'm so lonely."

"Day one, check-in."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh."

"Who made this Fate Platform? Awesome! But can you add an emoji function?"

"A fish just bumped into my boat, it scared me to death, but it knocked itself out. Does that count as me hunting it?"

"Hey, the guy above, eat it quickly and stop asking questions!"

A forum with 1.2 billion people online simultaneously, with no partitioned sections, no traffic diversion—just a giant hodgepodge.

What difference was this from cramming the entire population into a single WeChat group?

Yang Hang rubbed his temples.

He had rushed to get it online yesterday, so the architecture was indeed a bit rough.

Now that the number of users had stabilized, it was time for the first major version iteration.

He pulled up the product framework in his mind and began planning.

First, domain partitioning.

Break the existing public forum into several pieces: the Human Intelligence Realm, dedicated to practical guides and walkthroughs; the Help Realm, for posting in emergency situations; and the Bounty Realm, for buying services with karma points.

Second, echo channels.

This was the main attraction.

His experience playing online games in his previous life came in handy here.

World Echo—consume karma points to speak, avoiding spam.

In the future, he could release items like "Sound-Transmission Conches"; spending karma points would allow one to break the limits and let information reach everyone.

It would also generate revenue.

regional echo—divided by sea area, allowing nearby boat-house users to exchange information.

It would enable immediate warnings when encountering sea beast attacks.

Group chat echo—self-created group chats for acquaintances.

He had actually already done the last item yesterday; the small group he had set up for his family was the prototype.

Now, he just needed to post an announcement to inform all users.

As for the technical difficulty of regional partitioning?

Zero.

To him, the Creator, the coordinates of all users connected to the Fate Platform were as clear as if he were using a full-map hack.

Just as he was pondering this, a new post popped up in the information feed.

"Has anyone seen my grandparents, Chang Guoqiang and Lin Yufen? My family hasn't been able to contact them, and we're worried to death!!! Whoever can tell me the information and location of my grandparents, I can offer a very generous reward in merit points."

Yang Hang's brows furrowed slightly.

He knew that these elderly people had been forcibly put into a deep sleep, but the ordinary people didn't know that, did they?

It was normal for them to be worried.

However, what made him think wasn't this, but the location mentioned at the end of the message.

The information about the elderly being forcibly put into a deep sleep could be resolved by him posting a pinned comment when he found the time.

But the latter made him suddenly see the light.

He had to know that for all the survivors in Yanhuang Civilization connected to the Fate Platform, he could find their location information simply by slightly manipulating Karma whenever he wanted—it was exceptionally easy.

But for other survivors, it was incredibly difficult.

The Magic Sea did not distinguish between east, west, north, or south, and with two suns in the sky, it was completely different from the geography of Earth Star.

Even if a geographer came here, they wouldn't be able to tell the direction.

But clearly, survivors had a huge demand for information regarding the location of their loved ones.

This was perhaps—no, definitely—a way to obtain a massive amount of merit points.

Add it!

He noted this down on his to-do list, preparing to include it in this update.

Just as he was about to start, a notification suddenly popped up in his consciousness.

[Ding! Qin Feifei has invited you to join the group chat "Donghai University Class of 2018 Software Engineering Alumni Group".]

Yang Hang's hand froze in mid-air.

Immediately after, a private message followed.

"Student Yang Hang! Our major's alumni group is only missing you. Come quickly, come quickly! No lurking allowed!"

It ended with three exclamation marks.

Yang Hang was silent for two seconds.

Qin Feifei was his university counselor.

She wasn't much older than him, was petite and delicate, and had two dimples when she smiled, earning her the nickname "Sister Fei."

During his time at school, she had taken extra care of him, with the excuse: "It's not easy for you to be studying away from home all by yourself."

This enthusiasm had been a bit overwhelming for him back in university, and after graduation, he had finally enjoyed three months of peace.

Yet, even after Transmigration, he hadn't escaped it.

"Only missing you" — did he believe that?

He casually glanced at the group member list.

Forty-seven people.

The entire Class of 2018 Software Engineering major at Donghai University had over a hundred people across three classes, yet here, only forty-seven had been gathered.

Sister Qin's white lies were as consistent as ever.

Yang Hang shook his head and clicked accept.

The moment the group chat interface unfolded, a flood of messages slammed into him.

"Brothers, have you all sorted out your dinner?"

"I braced myself and swallowed a few small crabs raw. They were prickly, but at least there was meat!"

"Swallowed them raw, bro? That's truly brave."

"I fished up some sea grapes. I heard they have high nutritional value, but they taste like snot..."

"I opened a sunken sea treasure chest and got three energy bars. They're quite filling; if I ration them, I should be able to last two days."

"How come you all opened good stuff? I only got a roll of broken fishing net, it's full of holes!"

"I tried rinsing my mouth with seawater earlier; now my throat hurts like hell. Don't learn from me."

Yang Hang silently scrolled up and scanned through the chat history.

Everyone was having a pretty miserable time.

The guy who swallowed the crabs raw, he remembered, was from the next dorm—a sports student with a big appetite and a lot of guts.

The person eating sea grapes was probably a girl; her ID had a little flower.

The person with the energy bars was lucky; at least they had ready-made food.

As for the broken fishing net... brother, my condolences.

Oh, someone even posted a photo of fishing net stockings. The legs were really fair—it was a female classmate—but unfortunately, it was immediately warned and retracted by the group owner, Qin Feifei.

He looked around and decided to make an appearance.

Not for any other reason, purely because he felt it was a bit awkward not to speak, and if Sister Qin were to seek him out for a "heart-to-heart" again, it would be even more troublesome.

Yang Hang typed a line of text in the input box, accompanied by a photo.

"Ate a grilled fish. Silver-scaled flying fish, tastes pretty good."

Sent.

The group was silent for a second.

Then it exploded.

"Grilled fish??? Did you say grilled fish???"

"Student Yang Hang, may I ask what kind of experience it is to eat grilled fish in the Trial Grounds?"

Yang Hang looked at this reply, and his mouth twitched.

The way they asked that, it was as if they hadn't eaten fish in their previous life.

Oh, wait, in the Trial Grounds, they really hadn't.

He thought for a moment and gave a precise three-part reply.

"Very good."

"Very fragrant."

"Very fresh."

The group was silent for two seconds again.

Then— "..." "..."

The person who opened the energy bars: "The energy bar in my hand suddenly doesn't taste good anymore."

The sports student who swallowed the crabs raw: "I haven't even finished spitting out the crab shells in my mouth, and you're telling me about grilled fish?"

Qin Feifei popped up: "Student Yang Hang! Do you have any extra? Share a bit! We're all alumni~"

Yang Hang decisively played dead.

Where there are people cheering, there are naturally those who are unhappy.

Before long, a clearly disparaging comment was posted.

"Actually, there's nothing to crave. Fish meat has a heavy fishy smell and really isn't that good. Think about it: Squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish relies on sweet and sour sauce to enhance flavor, chopped chili fish head relies entirely on chili to suppress the fishy smell, and boiled fish is even heavier on oil and spice—if you ask me, the fish itself really has no merit; it's all supported by seasonings."

The group was silent for two seconds.

A long-time lurker suddenly surfaced: "I didn't have much of a feeling before, but after hearing your explanation... now my head is full of fish."

Immediately followed by another one: "To that person saying fish meat isn't good, I'll ask you one practical question—in your bowl, is there any meat right now?"

The air in the group suddenly went quiet.

Yang Hang leaned against the wall of the boat-house and smiled silently.

Wherever there are people, there is Jianghu, but the vast majority of the classmates he knew were still very friendly, and chatting was also quite fun.

The atmosphere in the group, apart from the occasional person pouring cold water who was quickly retracted and muted by Qin Feifei, was overall very good and quite interesting.

Messages from the alumni group were still popping up from time to time, but Yang Hang wasn't looking anymore; he switched into the family group.

Group name: "Yang Family Courtyard".