Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian gently patted Ma Yiqun on the shoulder.

"I think you weren't well-received on Limitless Chinese Language Network because the editor was jealous of your talent. Your writing skills are way ahead of our times. It's not your fault that the readers cannot relate to what you write."

A realization dawned on Ma Yiqun. "Boss Pei, have you read the novels I wrote?"

"No," replied Pei Qian, shaking his head. "However, I can see your talent in your eyes.

"If we want our website to succeed, we cannot follow the exact path that Limitless Chinese Language Network traveled. Otherwise, no matter how well we do, we will always only be an imitation of Limitless Chinese Language Network. How can we talk about making tight corners and making swift progress then?"

Ma Yiqun seemed to understand.

What Boss Pei was saying seemed to make sense. Ma Yiqun did not think that his talents had been buried. After all, this was an extremely competitive industry. If the editor could not relate to him, perhaps he could say that his talents had been buried temporarily. However, if the readers could not relate to him, it was unacceptable.

Ma Yiqun always felt that his novels had failed because of the latter reason. That was why he did not have confidence in his own abilities.

Yet, something Boss Pei said was absolutely right.

For their website to succeed, they could not follow Limitless Chinese Language Network's exact path. Otherwise, the readers would always choose Limitless Chinese Language Network over them. Why would they want to visit a website that merely followed trends and imitated others?

Thus, if they wanted to make swift progress, they had to come up with new and different ideas. It was clear that Boss Pei was a far-sighted man. He had high hopes and expectations for himself!

Boss Pei wanted a website that would surpass Limitless Chinese Language Network. He would not settle for mere initial success!

Ma Yiqun nodded profusely. "Alright, Boss Pei, I will do my best to run the website well!

"Er, Boss Pei, what will the website be called?"

Pei Qian smiled and answered, "Terminal Chinese Language Network."

It meant that the website would be a graveyard for literature.

However, Ma Yiqun immediately felt deep veneration for him.

Does Boss Pei want to work hard to make this website the terminus for all online literature?

Does he want all authors to publish their works on this website?

Look at Boss Pei; he could always think of names that sounded impressive and fitting.

"Go ahead. If you run into any problems, report them to me at once."

…

Once he got rid of Ma Yiqun, Pei Qian turned to focus on Shang Yang Games.

First, he looked at the data for Bloody Battle Song that Ye Zhizhou sent to him. It was still almost too painful to look at. It was stable. One could say the game was stable. After all, they had already been very kind to the game. The old players were all engrossed now. Pei Qian guessed that the game would be in the status quo for at least the next few months.

However, the income was small indeed.

They had gotten rid of so many purchase options that the whales no longer knew where they could spend their money. The game's graphics were extremely out-of-date as well. Shang Yang Games did not spend a cent on marketing, and no new players were joining the game. Even if this group of old players remained loyal, the amount of money they spent on top-ups was almost negligible.

Now, the changes that had to be made to Bloody Battle Song were complete. The new version had stabilized as well. Pei Qian had to give them new tasks. If he allowed them to continue slacking, he might receive a warning from the System soon.

However, Pei Qian already had a plan for all of this.

Before this, he had laid down a two-step battle strategy for Shang Yang Games. The first step was to get rid of all purchase options but one in the various games. The second step was to create a new game.

Everyone was to come up with a plan for a new game and write a design manuscript. Pei Qian would look through the design manuscripts and pick one to become Shang Yang Games' new project. Then, research and development could begin.

During the settlement period, the employees of Shang Yang Games had been working on this design manuscript. By now, they were all done.

It was time for Pei Qian to pick one for Shang Yang Games to start researching and developing.

This meant that Tengda Games and Shang Yang Games would be going down completely different paths.

For Tengda Games, Pei Qian maintained full control. He wanted to set directions that he was sure would guarantee failure. As much as he could, he wanted to steer things according to the plan he had in his head.

However, for Shang Yang Games, Pei Qian wanted to maintain its original state as much as possible. He did not want to interfere unnecessarily.

From the way Pei Qian looked at things, the path that Shang Yang Games was on looked slightly more 'successful'. Of course, he wanted to persist in the same manner.

Pei Qian found a random number generator online and allocated a number to each of the twenty-odd design manuscripts. Then, he generated a random number.

"Six."

Pei Qian opened the folder labeled number six and scanned the documents inside.

There were a total of four pages to the document. This was supposed to be a strategy game, but the rules were obviously incomplete.

Of all the design work that the game required in reality, this document only covered about 20%.

It only briefly explained the gameplay in one or two lines, without offering any details about the practical design of the game.

"…En, this person's attitude is not bad, but I cannot make use of this document."

On the surface, the document fully matched Pei Qian's requirements for a 'lousy game'. However, the problem was that it was lacking in too many details.

Pei Qian could not possibly fill in the gaps in the plan by himself.

Once Pei Qian decided on a game, he would distribute the design manuscript to everyone in the office. Then, everyone would see the crazy content in this document and elaborate on the rules. By the time they were done, the game would surely become unrecognizable.

That was why he could not choose this manuscript.

Pei Qian could not imagine what the final version of the game would look like. That posed too much of a risk to him.

It would be best if he could find a design manuscript that had a clear picture of the game's rules but was clearly mediocre. Only then would he be relieved.

Pei Qian canceled out the number six and generated another.

"Thirteen."

Pei Qian opened the folder labeled 'thirteen' and found a relatively good idea for a standalone game. What's more, the manuscript contained pretty good concepts for the various levels. On closer inspection, he discovered that Wang Xiaobin had been the one who wrote it.

"…I didn't expect that you—a systems designer—would dream about revitalizing the domestically-produced games industry. En… it's not impossible for me to spend some money to help you realize your dreams.

"However, the problem is that your design manuscript looks quite conservative. If I follow your proposal, we might not be able to incur losses."

Pei Qian flipped through the manuscript and decided to temporarily shelve it.

Although it would not be a bad decision to make Shang Yang Games pursue standalone games, Pei Qian had two main worries.

First, standalone games had quite low bottom lines. Since the required investment would be relatively fixed—even if the game did not become popular, they would be able to make minimal sales. It was most likely that they would incur a little loss. If they did slightly better, they would be able to cover their expenses.

Second, Wang Xiaobin's plan was almost complete. There was not much risk involved. One could say that it was a plan that had mostly been proven by foreign publishers of standalone games.

Pei Qian's judgment was ahead of his times. With one look, he could tell that although the plan was not considered reliable, it could not be considered ridiculous either.

To Pei Qian, it was merely slightly below average.

"I'll pick one more. If there is a better one, I'll use it. Otherwise, I will make Wang Xiaobin's dreams come true."

He had initially said that he would draw lots only once, but Pei Qian changed his mind. At the last moment, he decided to make minor adjustments.

After all, the last time that he folded his arms and decided not to do anything, Bao Xu and Huang Sibo created Ocean Stronghold. Until now, he had not finished spending the income that the game made.

"It's a 'two' this time. Oh? A sequel to Bloody Battle Song? Written by Ye Zhizhou?"

Pei Qian opened the design manuscript and took a good look.

"There's not much of a difference in the gameplay, but he added a few more details to advance the storyline. He will keep the same purchase options as the prequel, too.

"En? That's not bad."

Pei Qian felt that Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin's plans were both not bad, but they each had their shortcomings.

Design Manuscript Six was sufficiently unreliable. However, it was so unreliable and had too few details that Pei Qian could not pursue it with peace of mind.

He was afraid that Shang Yang Games' employees would add so many details to it that the game would improve significantly.

On the flip side, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin's plans were quite complete. At the same time, this meant that there was a low chance that Shang Yang Games would deviate from them later.

"I'll choose Ye Zhizhou's plan.

"Wang Xiaobin's plan is also worthy of praise, but it's a bit too stable for my liking. There are no risks involved. If your dreams were more bold and imaginative, perhaps I would be won over."

Finally, Pei Qian saved Ye Zhizhou's design manuscript. However, Ye Zhizhou himself had not thought about what he would call this sequel.

Pei Qian quickly typed on his keyboard to add the name of the game.

Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version!

En, since it was going to be a tacky game, he needed to make it tacky through and through.

Pei Qian had even thought about the marketing strategy for this game, which was most likely going to fail. He had to burn as much money and garner as much criticism as possible!

Once he made the edits, Pei Qian sent the design manuscript back to Ye Zhizhou.

"We'll go with this."

After pondering for a moment, he added, "Tell Wang Xiaobin that his plan was quite good, but it was too conservative. While researching and developing the game, ask him to make appropriate edits to his design manuscript. There's a chance we might use it in the future."