Chapter 68: Voodoo

The pirates are actually me?

As soon as Chen Ming said this, Tang Wen knew what was going on.

But thinking about it carefully, it was normal. The South Sea wasn't some 'Somalia', so the appearance of "pirates" was inherently unusual.

Not to mention that compared to the 'black uncles' who only had AKs and RPGs, Tang Wen's 152mm cannons immediately made him the elite of pirates.

The Dongsha water police not only failed to catch anyone but also lost a small boat. When they turned back, the base commander was scolded bloody.

It was just that information transmission was really too underdeveloped now; otherwise, armed pirates would have long become international big news.

The furious Dongsha water police increased their garrison force several times, shaking around the surrounding waters all day, just waiting to catch the "pirates" to take revenge.

The duty-free merchants who were originally going to pass through the nearby waters were also affected, and they were forced to cut off a southeast landing channel, having to turn to fight in Xiangjiang.

All kinds of heroes and heroes gathered in Xiangjiang, and the Anti-Smuggling Bureau's head was about to explode.

Tang Wen could already imagine that the current Anti-Smuggling Bureau was like a mess suffering from a DDoS attack, and it had reached the point where they had to strike hard to curb this arrogant momentum.

More than 100,000 USD wasn't a small amount, but it might not be a very large number for them.

You know, the ordinary materials seized by the Anti-Smuggling Bureau were generally auctioned off or used by themselves; just picking a little bit out was more than this number.

Tang Wen, who knew he was the culprit, felt a mix of emotions and stammered:

"The situation is indeed... serious."

"Yeah, I wanted to buy those four boats last time to enhance the pursuit power, who knew... sigh."

"But it's also our fault for needing to keep our identities. I hope Boss Tang understands."

The more Chen Ming felt embarrassed, the more guilty Tang Wen felt, and he could only nod vaguely.

Fortunately, the boats and equipment used at that time had been completely destroyed; otherwise, he wouldn't even be able to sleep peacefully.

With the sins he committed, plus the million in huge funds, Tang Wen agreed:

"Then we will take this business, but it will take at least a month for the goods to arrive. I hope you understand."

"No problem, no problem."

"Boss Tang supporting our cause is already a great help. If our identities weren't sensitive, we would definitely publicly commend you."

"Commendation is unnecessary!"

Tang Wen hurriedly refused, fearing his blushing would be seen.

However, Chen Ming kept talking about the pirates' information:

"Dongsha also notified us, saying that the fundamental crisis of these pirates is provocation. Considering the size of their boats, it is very likely that they have hiding places around here."

"With cannons and machine guns, we suspect that a potential super-large comprehensive criminal group exists. This provocation is very likely to cover up something."

"To make them use such great effort, it might be a super-large flour case or even weapons."

"Boss Tang, you must not go to sea casually recently. Safety first."

Tang Wen nodded numbly; as long as he didn't go to sea, the sea area was still very safe.

After eating the fried noodles, he hurriedly found an excuse to slip away; otherwise, he really couldn't hold it together.

"Tang Feng, we didn't leave any traces, right?"

In the car, Tang Wen couldn't help but ask.

"Definitely not. We were all masked, and the boat is gone. Even if there was a recording, they wouldn't find anyone."

In fact, his worry was also superfluous. Digital recorders weren't popular at this time. Unless prepared in advance, where would there be any real-time recording? And even if there was, it would be very blurry.

Although he had things on his mind, Tang Wen didn't forget his purpose and found the legendary "internet cafe."

The result disappointed him greatly. Although there were computers placed one by one, the internet cafe now might be more appropriately called a game hall.

When he went, he saw the internet cafe manager copying games from one computer to another, without even a server.

But even so, the fee was 2 yuan per hour, which was quite expensive in this era.

However, the internet cafe was always full, and many people waiting in line gathered to watch others play games.

Tang Wen watched for a few moments and had no interest in the current games, mainly observing the current computer hardware level. This internet cafe was still dominated by Texas Instruments 486DX2 board machines.

Intel's Pentium Pro had appeared, but hadn't opened up the market.

Tang Wen also saw some bare chassis waiting to be installed, and a board card inside caught his attention.

Voodoo 3D accelerator card.

This ancient motherboard had two graphics cards inserted, one of which was specifically labeled "3D" with a label.

Currently, the market was generally still using 2D graphics cards, but 3Dfx had developed a 3D accelerator card to cooperate with 2D graphics cards, thereby providing support for 3D game graphics.

Tang Wen knew that before long, graphics cards that fused 2D and 3D rendering would appear, and the graphics era was about to arrive.

3Dfx was in the limelight these few years, and its unique 3D acceleration technology even catalyzed the success of the huge IP *Tomb Raider*.

The future dominant NVIDIA was now just a small one in the free market, and ATI, S3 Graphics, and even Intel were joining the graphics card market; it was the time when competition was most intense.

Taking advantage of the fact that the processor hadn't entered the nanometer era and the 'Hanxin' incident hadn't happened, and several giants hadn't grown up yet, should he take the opportunity to enter the game?

One million USD might be enough to become a shareholder in S3 Graphics or ATI who couldn't be ignored, and ten million USD might be enough to control a giant.

NVIDIA acquired 3Dfx in 2000, and it only cost 100 million USD.

It's only 1996 now. Even if he couldn't fully acquire it, controlling one of them to transfer technical patents would be excellent.

"What are you looking at, buddy? Go line up over there to get on the machine."

The busy assembler impatiently drove Tang Wen away and then carefully began to assemble the computer.

Tang Wen wasn't angry, just asked:

"Is your computer not connected to the internet?"

"It is, but we just opened it, and now we can only play games."

"Brother, do you also surf the internet?"

The assembler sized Tang Wen up, thinking he was a college student.

"Know a little."

The phrase 'surf the internet' directly made Tang Wen feel trance-like. Did this term appear so early?

Tang Wen didn't know much about the development of the internet at this time and asked tentatively:

"Do you go to chat rooms?"

"Yo, you've also been to Yahoo, but my English isn't very good. If only there were domestic chat rooms."

"Classmate, which school are you from? You must have gone to the computer room a lot."

Tang Wen: "Understood a little. Why don't you use Pentium?"

"Pentium is so expensive. 486D is enough. But I've played with Pentium P75. That CPU seems to be overclockable, but I didn't learn how."

Listening to the little brother's affirmative answer, Tang Wen breathed a sigh of relief. Pentium P75 had entered the market, Intel's glorious era was about to begin, and the familiar history was about to arrive.

Tang Wen thought for a moment and said to the assembler:

"Let's be friends. I want to configure some computers to use, and I might ask you for help then."

"Some?"

The assembler looked up, watching the student-looking Tang Wen with wide eyes.

"Computers are good things. They are convenient for making tables and documents. Embrace paperless office, right?"

Tang Wen asked again:

"Which unit did you find to pull the network cable?" ===== CHAPTER 69 =====