Chapter 43: The Great Emperor of Computers

"Ceiling height 3.2 meters, bay width 8.5 meters, depth 12 meters." Lin Jingyi, her finger stained with wall dust, scribbled in her notebook, then suddenly looked up at the man studying the circuit breaker box. "General Manager Jiang, after renovation, the actual usable area on the first floor will be about 102 square meters. We can basically fit all the functional zones we need."

"What about the price? Calculate the rent, renovation, and furniture together and see." Jiang Ming cared more about the cost.

No choice; it's a small business, and now every penny must be used where it counts most.

Ding-dong!

Lin Jingyi's phone received a QQ notification.

"They sent the blueprints over there."

"So fast?"

"Not really fast; I had already chatted with a few friends at the design institute before. They probably drew the base map while bored."

"Let me see. The training area is in the largest partition on the west side, occupying 46 square meters. Each computer needs about 1.5 square meters of operating space... it can be narrower. If eight units are arranged in a U-shape, this saves a lot." Lin Jingyi suddenly squatted down and drew several squares on the ground with chalk, looking exactly like the positions for defense towers in a game.

In the design drawing, the living area is partitioned off at the east end with 24 square meters. The white ceramic stove left by the original owner was covered in years of grease. The labor tools brought by Aunt Deng were temporarily piled in the corner; she was scrubbing the tiled wall printed with the character "Double Happiness" with a steel wool ball.

"This row of hanging cabinets can hold fifty jin of rice," she said, tapping the loose cabinet door while standing on a stool. "It's just that the sewer needs someone to unclog it; I saw a cockroach nest when I tested the water just now," said Master Zhou, who was helping nearby.

After finalizing the lease on this three-story small building, Jiang Ming did not delay; he immediately called the two of them to clear the areas that did not need extra renovation in advance.

The two had no complaints, after all, the boss was paying them wages; doing some cleaning work didn't count for much.

"Put the dining area in the middle; just leave some aisle space."

Hearing this, Lin Jingyi's calculator clicked loudly: "A ten-person table takes up 8 square meters, plus the aisle..."

"The rent is calculated monthly at three thousand, but since we are renting the whole year directly, the boss gave us a month's discount off. So the rent expense is done; the renovation part..."

"Water and electricity modification, materials and labor are 30 to 50 yuan per square meter. We also have to count the plugs and faucets; online shopping will be cheaper."

"The walls and floor also need treatment. It's best to repaint the walls with latex paint; luckily the area isn't large. For the floor, just replacing some tiles is enough. On the contrary, the bathroom area, because it hasn't been used for a long time, needs the toilet, washbasin, and showerhead replaced."

"1000... 5000... 10000..."

As an excellent financial officer, Lin Jingyi perfectly demonstrated what it means to kill the boss without a knife.

Listening to the renovation costs climbing step by step, Jiang Ming's eyelids couldn't stop twitching up and down.

He wanted to snatch the pen from the other person's hand and shout, Stop!

Granddaughter, we still have the most critical computer peripherals to update, and the network needs to be pulled again; it's better to keep the renovation simple.

In the end, the total calculation showed that the three-story small building for the NXG team base needed simple modification over an area of 150 square meters, with costs around 20,000 to 40,000 yuan.

Even this budget included the result of Master Zhou finding temporary workers from the labor market, with them assembling things themselves and compressing it to the extreme.

"Alright, leave this side to Master Zhou and Aunt Deng; we'll go back to the school for a bit."

After saying goodbye to the two busy with cleaning, Jiang Ming took Lin Jingyi and rushed urgently toward the school.

This time, it concerned the club's esports equipment and network setup issues.

Since they were getting started, they definitely couldn't do like before in the basement, buying a few simple machines from a bankrupt internet cafe to make do.

(The envisioned effect diagram, but S3 definitely can't be built yet; we'll have to wait until S4 to find an investor before considering it.)

Jin Ling University, Student Dormitory 103!

Jiang Ming and Lin Jingyi stood on the left and right in front of the door.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Senior Sister Lin, who was responsible for leading the way, actively knocked on the door.

"..."

"So, what you mean is, you want smooth match-level performance, high refresh rate, low latency, then the mouse and keyboard should try not to have key conflict issues, and also guarantee that during live streaming, the game and background programs run without lag."

"Mm!"

"And the budget is limited?"

"Mm, mm!"

Facing the person in front of him with a head of nest-like hair, who looked like a supreme expert of the Emperor Realm in the Computer Science department, Jiang Ming's eyes showed expectation.

Buying a few high-spec competitive computers; he wasn't unable to afford the money.

Mainly, the machines at the 2013 LPL competition venue were just average. If the team made things too good, an adaptation gap during the match would end up hurting themselves.

Anyway, esports peripherals update and iterate at flying speeds; just wait until next year when we make some small money to replace them.

"..."

"Uh, it's not impossible."

However, just as the two thought the other party would find it difficult due to excessive requirements, this Computer Science Emperor merely said lightly, "Wait."

"Wait for me; I'll write a configuration for you. It's for playing LoL, after all; this thing optimizes well and doesn't eat up specs."

"The processor doesn't need to be too good; for critical components, I'll keep the minimum performance requirements for professional esports for you."

"Mm, for LoL, we must guarantee stable game frame rates. Non-essential high-end peripherals, storage, and monitor configurations can be cut; some hardware can be chosen as second-hand or industrial packaging..."

Jiang Ming slightly tugged at the corner of his mouth and looked toward Lin Jingyi. "This senior brother is truly... unconventional."

Good heavens, saying right in front of a guest that hardware configurations can be chosen as second-hand, is that really okay?

A few minutes later, the Computer Science Emperor stopped writing with a flourish.

"Done!"

The other party handed over a sheet of A4 paper. "Go get it according to my configuration; the cost per unit will be around 3,600 to 4,500 yuan. You can do the network better to bring down the latency; if conditions allow, get a backup network line. No fluctuation is stronger than anything else."

"Wait for me to send you the location for picking up the goods. Don't go to the places recommended by those idiots at the entrepreneurship park's print shop; you'll definitely get scammed."

"Processor i5-2400, Graphics Card NVIDIA GTX650Ti, Monitor AOC I2369V..." Jiang Ming scanned the dense list of peripheral names on the paper.

Lin Jingyi took the A4 paper filled with computer configurations and put it in her bag. "Trouble you, senior brother. I'll transfer the configuration fee to you via Alipay later."

"OK, then you two make yourselves at home; I'll continue playing games for a bit." The Computer Science Emperor waved his hand, acting as if he was about to return to his divine throne.

Seeing this, Jiang Ming actively invited, "Senior brother, are you interested in a part-time job for esports equipment maintenance and management?"

"The NXG E-Sports Club you set up?"

Clearly, as a Computer Emperor who roams the battlefield of the internet, he was no stranger to Jiang Ming's recent actions.

"Yes, I mainly want to ask you to provide some technical support and security."

"Let's talk about it later. General maintenance isn't difficult; anyone can do it."

"If there are problems, you can come find me. I charge per session."

The Computer Emperor didn't even look up, busily reopening his computer. Only while he bent down did Jiang Ming finally see the name on the student ID hanging on the other person's desk.