Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian took account of the current situation:

The response to the games' downloadable contents had been rather good. Although Ocean Stronghold had been scolded a little, a new patch had been speedily released these two days. An account credit system had been established, using different credit ratings to sell the epic weapons in batches.

Five hundred epic weapons were on sale monthly while there were three different credit ratings for players.

The rating assessment was done using multidimensional criteria. Gamers' activeness in playing the game, their contributions to the game, etc. were all used to create a concrete credit value that divided players into three credit ratings.

The epic weapons sale would be done in three batches.

Players with credit rating 3 would be able to purchase the first hundred weapons; credit rating 2 players would be allocated the second batch of another hundred weapons; credit rating 1 players would then be able to purchase the remaining three hundred weapons.

Within each credit rating, there were also extremely minor differences in one's odds of successfully purchasing an epic weapon. Every minor increase in one's credit value would slightly increase the chance of purchasing an epic weapon.

As the ratio of players for the three credit ratings was 1:2:10, the higher one's credit rating, the higher the chance of getting a weapon.

As for some new players with relatively low credit rating and values, it wasn't that they didn't have the chance to grab one epic weapon; the chance was just much lower.

Besides this, the game also had a credit 0 rating for scalper accounts. As they didn't play the game normally, they were not qualified to get any epic weapons.

After releasing this credit system, scalpers no longer had as high of an impact on the game.

On the other hand, it was impossible to stop people from selling their accounts. Many players would actually sell their credit rating 2 and 3 accounts at a high price. However, it was no longer possible for scalpers to get a huge haul just based on the fastest fingers anymore.

The value of accounts on trading platforms would definitely fluctuate; however, it would slowly stabilize as well.

As players' feedback and response had been rather positive—although many people were still rather upset with the quota, the unhappiness had receded.

After all—while the quota had not been increased or completely removed, this new credit rating system had made things fairer.

As for Shang Yang Games, it was still steadily making losses.

Ye Zhizhou and the others had already completed Pei Qian's tasks for them. Although the side effect had been an about-turn for its game's reputation—without the ballers topping up money, game revenue had fallen steeply; and it was not possible to generate any profits in the short-term.

The Fish-Catching Internet Cafes had started to experience an increase in sales from drinks after implementing the singer commission policy. However, this was still insufficient to cover costs of operation and all five outlets were still losing money.

Fei Huang Workspace had basically lost all their initial capital and profits. They had poured all their money into the documentary and also were in debt. Tengda had to step in to fill the hole.

Fish-Catching Take-Out was doing rather poorly; they basically functioned primarily to send meals to Tengda employees. As their orders were very little, the chefs and delivery men were basically idle most of the time; this business was also losing money continuously.

All these projects' losses had finally managed to erase Tengda's games' profits with much difficulty.

Although this cycle was only two months, it had been a frightening time for Pei Qian.

First, Chen Lei had appeared and nearly resulted in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe turning in profits. Fortunately, Pei Qian had discovered this in time and prevented this from happening. Then, Lin Wan had helped Tengda to save a huge amount in rent. This had given Pei Qian a heavy blow. Fortunately, this had still been within the acceptable range.

Also, having found the mole, this had prevented any even more serious problems from surfacing in the future.

Pei Qian took out a small notebook as he scribbled and drew on it seriously, constantly doing his calculations.

Although the System Funds was showing a state of loss, on the 28th—the last Monday before settlement; another pool of earnings from Tengda's games would be credited.

Pei Qian still couldn't have a good estimate of how much money this sum would be. After all, no one could know what might happen in the upcoming week.

Pei Qian could only come up with rough figures using statistics from the games' platforms and try to spend as much on expenses and to try his best to create more losses.

Although the current state of affairs didn't look that great, at least there wasn't a void of hope.

…

In another corner of the internet cafe.

Li Shi drank his coffee as he observed Pei Qian. "Fish-Catching Internet Cafe is actually owned by Tengda; the boss is also so young. I didn't expect this."

As a regular customer of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Li Shi frequently came here. He had also seen Pei Qian occasionally before but had not drawn the link that this youngster actually was the boss behind this internet cafe.

After doing some digging these few days, Li Shi now knew about Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's relationship with Tengda. He had also ascertained from the way Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan interacted with Pei Qian that he was Tengda's mysterious big boss.

Li Shi had been a little concerned whether Pei Qian was a rich second-generation heir or not or if he had some special background. However, after doing some investigation, he did not find anything of the sorts.

Based on the information he had on hand, Li Shi conjectured that Pei Qian must have made it big from his games, had nowhere to spend his money, and hence had abruptly entered the internet cafe business.

Li Shi was even more confident now.

Youngsters would often easily neglect some things.

Boss Pei might be a professional at making games and was good at it. However, he might not be good at running a physical business. Furthermore, Boss Pei was now holding onto his small notebook and unprofessionally scribbling and drawing in it.

What was he doing?

En, he was probably calculating the internet cafe's losses.

From his serious expression, he must be very unhappy with the continuous state of losses for his internet cafes. Furthermore, he didn't seem to have come up with any good ideas.

Perhaps, Li Shi could bring forward his plan at a partnership with Boss Pei?

Li Shi sipped his coffee again as he altered his plans slightly.

He long had the intention to invest in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. However, he had been worried that the big boss behind this business would not accept him; Li Shi had then decided to wait for Fish-Catching Internet Cafe to make more losses first before making his offer.

Originally, Li Shi had thought that he had to wait for another couple of weeks or months. However, from the looks of it now, he actually didn't have to wait that long.

Since this big boss was already facing a predicament, now might actually be the best time to test waters.

If he continued to wait, he might miss the golden opportunity. If this big boss suddenly decided to sell the internet cafe to someone else, wouldn't that be Li Shi's loss?

Thinking of this, Li Shi arranged his collar as he stood up to head outside and make a phone call.

As an investment firm's boss, Li Shi couldn't approach Pei Qian directly. This might seem hasty and a little childish.

He was going to ask his subordinates to initiate a commercial arrangement, to express his desire to invest in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Next, he would choose an appropriate venue for discussions. This would be more appropriate and logical.

In fact, most of Li Shi's investment projects had come knocking at his door.

Entrepreneurs of all types of companies would bring detailed stacks of information and find Li Shi, requesting for him to invest in their projects. However, Li Shi would skim through them and get rid of most proposals, only keeping a small number he was really satisfied with.

Businesses like Fish-Catching Internet Cafe were considered exceptions.

Li Shi lit a cigarette quietly outside Fish-Catching Internet Cafe as he waited for his subordinate's good news.

….

Pei Qian saw his scrawly handwriting in his notebook as he did a rough calculation. It seemed as if creating a loss of two to three hundred thousand was still feasible. The premise was there couldn't be anyone pulling any stunts last minute. If yet another unexpected source of funds entered his accounts, that would be very bad.

After calculating, Pei Qian breathed easy. He hadn't been so busy this period for nothing; he could see victory in sight!

He had just relaxed when his phone rang.

Pei Qian took a look. It was from Assistant Xin. "Boss Pei, Fu Hui Investments had just approached us. They were hoping to invest…"

Pei Qian, "Reject them."

Assistant Xin, "They aren't thinking of investing in Tengda but in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Although, Fu Hui Investments is considered a rather good venture capital firm…"

Pei Qian, "Reject them."

Assistant Xin, "Alright."

Pei Qian hung up the phone call briskly.

Invest in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe?

Don't mess around at this time; I only have this one steady loss-making business. If you invest in me, aren't you trying to mess with me?

Really, at such a crucial period before settlement, who is trying to cause unnecessary trouble?!

…

At the door of the internet cafe, Li Shi smoked his cigarette, very relaxed. He was waiting for his people to get back to him.

Normally, the other party would definitely gladly agree to the investment. Both sides would then arrange for a time to meet and discuss, with Li Shi banking on his wealth of investing experience to speedily convince the other party to accept the injection of funds.

He had not even finished his cigarette when his phone rang.

"Boss Li, the other party has rejected us."

Li Shi was flummoxed. He didn't know what to say all of a sudden.

They aren't even planning on giving me a chance to meet with them? They had rejected so directly?

I haven't even finished my cigarette!

This is not right; this is not how things are supposed to turn out!