That meeting with the man from the government made a huge impression on me. You feel uncomfortable when you understand the thickness of “your file” that just sits on someone’s desk. Honestly? I got a bit scared. Actually, not a bit, I really started to fear. Gradually I started to notice people following me, my cell phone being bugged, etc. Perhaps I was just being paranoid and perhaps not. I kept remembering his phrase about the chessboard. How I got to be there I just did not understand. I had a quiet life, never stuck my nose out, kept peacefully stealing my pennies and, here you are. A messenger of fate.
Gradually, the thought that I am being watched drove me crazy. And I decided to quit. Yes, I really decided to quit carding. I had enough money — it was time to know my limit.
That’s how the Che-Media Group company was born.
I brought together a team of guys I knew and got into Internet PR and marketing. I’ll be honest; it’s hard to open a biz from zero in a huge city where the advertisement market has been divided a long time ago. But we tried. Even though it did not bring us to income or even gave us the possibility to break even but it was something that ex-hackers could occupy themselves. We would promote sites practically for nothing, and we did it legally. We could do all the work in a week and make a site permanently appear in the first lines of Yandex. I will never forget one order from some Armenians. They opened their own real estate agency and asked me to promote their site. Experienced SEO-players will easily tell the cost and the pain of promoting “real estate” and stuff like that. However, we signed up for just under a thousand dollars for everything. And, you are not going to believe it, in a month the site was on the fifth position in Google and thirteenth in Yandex. Here’s the funniest part. The Armenians thought they are smarter than us and sent us far away after the site moved up. Result: the site was in the gutter. I was especially entertained by one of them who thought he was the smartest. He constantly tried to get into our business, always said that he knows everything better than us, praised himself as a programmer, SEO-professional and designer. However, he turned out to be a complete zero.
If he ever reads this book, I hope he knows — you can’t be an ace in everything. Do one thing and be a professional, otherwise you are going to jump from one thing to another until you are old and never find your true calling.
This low-income undertaking took up a year of my life. In spring of 2008, money started to run out. The whole team, whose faithfulness I never doubted, started to gradually step away from the project. Actually, no. Not like that. They just moved it to the background, coming back to their old ways. Anyone who wishes can still connect with us by e-mail on our site but the phones are no longer available. Che-Media Group ceased its active function.
And in that moment when I had the last three grand evergreens remaining, I decided to come back. But fate had different plans.
May 2008. Saint Petersburg.
I was sitting in a caf?, waiting for you and drinking coffee. Perhaps you remember my preoccupied face when you came in. I had a very good reason for that, about which I can only tell you now. I came to “ILI” one hour before we planned to meet. I already took care of all my business, I just wanted to sit on the summer deck and, overlooking the Nevskiy Prospekt, think about the forthcoming return to the world of carding. Looking at different faces and trying to read people’s emotions, I saw a familiar one. Yes, yes, that was that very same man from the government and he was heading my way with a smile on his face.
— Hi Izya. Bored?
— Not really — I answered, — I’m just resting and relaxing.
— You’re right to do that. Rest is always good for you — in small amounts.
— And how come you are here? — I inquired.
— Well, if I am sitting at the same table as you, that means I came to you. — he smiled.
— And? How can I help you? — I said with sarcasm.
— You got it right about help. You can help me a lot right now. Do you remember our conversation?
— Uh huh. Can’t complain about my memory.
— Well, before you come back to carding, you and I are going to continue our reflections.
— Why do you think I decided to come back to carding? — I asked, but I already felt the answer in my head.
— Wellll… You are definitely underestimating us. Many people don’t even have to think about something and we are already awaiting the results of their actions
— So what are you waiting for from me now?
— Nothing. Nothing special. You can come back to carding, we are not going to touch you…
— Why so generous?
— …Under one condition. You have to find a team of unusual people within two months.
— Ha-ha. Looks like you didn’t get enough money from the budget, so you decided to make extra income with carding?
— No. We have absolutely no problems with financing. We are just looking for gifted people like yourself.
— Oh yeah? And what is it that I am gifted with? The ability to steal money from Americans without any particular feeling of guilt or shame?
— No. It’s much more complicated. Have you ever thought about how you learned all that? How easy it is for you to absorb information?
— Well, if you consider that when I was absorbing all of this I was eating old peas and smoked Primas, then no, I haven’t.
— That’s not the point. Most people can’t even do that. Everything goes easy for you. Have you ever noticed that it’s as if someone uploads knowledge into your brain, as if the solution to many questions comes to you by itself and is predefined? As if someone’s hand leads you to the goal and picks the right way by itself?
He hit the bull’s-eye here. I was myself surprised by this. By the fact how easily I can apprehend information. I can have absolutely no idea about a subject, but with time I have better information about it than if I had a PhD. I always attributed it to excellent schooling but later I admitted to myself — they don’t teach that in schools. I had a feeling that someone inputs knowledge into my head on purpose, in my dreams and sometimes during the day, by way of logical arguments. I understood Mendeleev, who dreamt of the periodic table before writing it down.
But the most unexplainable thing in my life is the trembling. Not trembling from cold or moisture, I am talking about pleasant trembling. As if a stream of energy is passing through you or someone invisible is touching you. The most amazing part, I often woke up in the middle of the night. A few hours of normal sleep, then suddenly I open my eyes. Not because of nightmares or some physical reasons — I just open my eyes for no reason. I look at the clock and it’s perfectly at the hour. Two, three, four A.M. at night — unimportant. What’s important is that it’s even. As if someone woke me up on purpose for something significant. And after three to five minutes the trembling starts. Pleasant trembling. With time I tried to communicate with someone or something invisible, tried to ask questions, but instead I only got stronger trembling.
— And trembling? — he asked as if he was reading my thoughts.
— What trembling?
— Yours. I am sure you feel it.
— What is this trembling you are talking about? — I decided to play stupid.
— Don’t pretend that you don’t understand me, Izya. I am just like you in this way. I’ll tell you a secret, we are almost the same age.
— I can see that anyway.
— Yes. But we are the same in yet another way. You and I are a kind of a structure, one type of people.
— You mean we are Slavic? — I uttered ironically.
— I mean we are children of the new WEB. — answered he and was dead right.
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