Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Reflecting on his painful experience, Pei Qian decided to take his lessons to heart and look to the future.

To get the 'mysterious surprise within the System's regulations', Pei Qian had to work hard to make a loss in the next cycle.

However, as one learned from experience, Pei Qian had already grown much.

This time, he definitely would be able to learn from experiences; he would definitely not make the same mistakes again!

First, he definitely could not put all his hopes of making money into wealth conversion!

Previously, Pei Qian had always looked down on income of ten or twenty thousand; he had always thought that as long as he made a slight loss, he could convert and make hundreds of thousands at one go. This way of thinking evidently had issues.

After the previous two rounds of settlement, he had only made thirty-odd thousand and twenty-odd thousand; that was only ten thousand-odd on average monthly.

It was too little!

Pei Qian decided to think of other ways to make money.

He had immediately made thirty-odd thousand when he acted in Boss Pei's Daily Life; wasn't that already much more reliable than the System?

Evidently, he couldn't eke out a living for himself by relying on his main job; he ultimately still had to do something on the side.

As for what exactly he could do, Pei Qian had not thought it through yet. However, he already had a rough idea.

All in all, as long as the System permitted it, he was going to use labor to exchange for remuneration; he just had to make sure he didn't go overboard. He still had to test the System before he could firm up his plans.

Second, he had to know how to properly generate losses. Pei Qian now knew how the System worked more or less. The System actually had many restrictions. Products couldn't be inferior ones masquerading as quality ones while rubbish goods could not be forcibly sold at a high price; high-value goods could also not be sold cheaply. Basically, while all product prices could fluctuate, they had to be within a reasonable range.

This restriction had basically prohibited Pei Qian from intentionally creating losses.

If he invested little, he could only sell the products at a low price; only the poor would be interested in them. If he invested much, he could only sell it at a high price; when the reputation of his products grew, the ballers would be attracted.

Hence, Pei Qian had not managed to do anything unscrupulous; the System had prevented him from such.

However, Pei Qian had discovered a phenomenon: when the System evaluated a product's quality, it would consider it from the 'income' and 'reputation' points of view.

That meant that if he burned money to build up a good reputation, that was doable. If he wanted to make less money, he had to try his best to increase the product's reputation.

This was an insight he gained from the Coming Out of the Cocoon as a Butterfly documentary!

As long as there was a huge and wide response—even if the documentary couldn't be monetized and couldn't generate any profits, the System would not bother.

Of course, the documentary had resulted in Li Zhengwei promoting Ocean Stronghold and led to its players and income rising; this could be considered to be a minor flaw.

However, this one flaw did not outweigh the benefits; filming documentaries was still a good idea.

Furthermore, this experience had not been limited to just filming documentaries; he could apply this thinking to making games as well. If he invested enough money and made a game with niche appeal that everyone praised and lauded, but no one spent money on it.

Wouldn't that be perfect?

Pei Qian thought that this should be the next objective of Tengda Games.

In the previous cycle, Tengda Games had only created new downloadable content for all its existing games. If Tengda did not start developing new games and everyone was left in limbo every day, that would not be very acceptable.

Fortunately, although Pei Qian had been rather confused and unsure previously, he had now found a new direction.

If this was successful, it would not be a problem making a game that created millions in losses!

As for Shang Yang Games…

It had continuously made losses; this proved that Pei Qian's plan was still rather successful, and he didn't need to bother too much with it now. If he encountered such loss-making treasures in the future, Pei Qian also wouldn't mind taking over a few more companies.

Besides all these, he also wanted to break through into a new industry.

Fish-Catching Take-Out had also been a rather positive experiment; however, it wasn't losing enough money.

As for the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe…

Strictly speaking, the flagship store growing popular because of Chen Lei was indeed something a little preposterous; Pei Qian still couldn't accept this fact to date.

However, only the flagship store had become a tourist spot while the other branches were still making minor losses. As such, the general idea of opening physical stores seemed to be feasible. Only some minor problems had surfaced in operations; Boss Pei's luck was also not very good.

He could still continue with this idea.

Besides already planning to open a high-end restaurant to splurge on, Pei Qian also intended to dabble in logistics and storage—express delivery.

If he could really generate losses like JD.com had done for years, Pei Qian would definitely even laugh out loud in his dreams. Furthermore, if he focused his energies on labor-intensive industries and operations—if every employee had more benefits, he would be in a much better position at splurging.

…

Pei Qian reorganized his thoughts, and he thought that generating some losses in the next cycle wasn't going to be that hard!

First things first: finding a side job!

It was a proven fact that he couldn't rely on the System entirely to make money. If Pei Qian didn't go overboard in using his own labor to exchange for remuneration, the System would not stop him.

As for how much wages he could draw from the System Funds…

He still had to ask the System.

Pei Qian asked quietly in his heart: "If I invested, opened a company, and used labor to exchange for reasonable compensation, how much salary could I give myself?"

<This depends on the host's operating abilities as well as the number of hours worked.>

Pei Qian was speechless. "…"

This didn't sound very optimistic.

Pei Qian didn't have any operating abilities at all. Although Pei Qian felt that being a boss was rather easy, if he had to really hold an actual role and position, he might not be able to do so.

This was equivalent to Pei Qian letting go of his current position and status and going for an interview. That would be the highest wages he could draw.

Furthermore, he had to work on this job as per normal working hours before he could earn that amount of money.

For example, if Pei Qian went to wash dishes at a restaurant now, he could at most earn two to three thousand monthly; he had to work eight hours a day at that.

"This is not feasible! It was precisely because I did not have technical and professional skills. That's why I placed my hopes on the System!"

It was evident that the System could not be reasoned with at all regarding this.

However, Pei Qian's mind churned as he thought: there seemed to be a loophole here. It was easier for some simpler jobs for the job scope to be properly defined. Dishwashing, waiting, etc. were jobs that had fixed salary levels.

However, what if it was something more abstract and complicated?

Like… being an actor.

The difference in remuneration for a movie actor and an actor in an opera was vast. Furthermore, even if two actors were of the same standard, if they were hired to act in different movies; the pay difference would be huge as well.

How could the System calculate this?

The System screen soon surfaced <Host can earn at most 1,500 daily now. As host's acting skills, reputation, and other positive attributes rise; this would increase.>

<If a company that had no relation to System Funds hired the host—as long as this does not raise suspicion, the System would not restrict this.>

Pei Qian was confused.

This was treated differently as well?

After thinking about this, Pei Qian understood.

This was a rule that the System had set to prevent Pei Qian from using the System Funds for his own purposes.

For example, if Pei Qian bought a filming company and spent a million to pay himself to shoot a movie, that would not be allowed. It would be considered as maliciously using System Funds.

If he put his own money in, he could at most earn one thousand five hundred daily. When Pei Qian had acted in Boss Pei's Daily Life, he had earned a thousand a day. As this was within the System's range, the System had not prevented it.

Based on this calculation—if Pei Qian spent ten days a month shooting, he could earn fifteen thousand a month.

This was rather significant considering how much Pei Qian was earning now. However… it didn't seem that much either.

However, if it was an unrelated company that wanted to hire Pei Qian to act in movies, however much that company gave Pei Qian; the System would not care.

After all, there would be no misappropriating System Funds this way.