Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

470 Settlement

Pei Qian was stunned.

At that moment, he felt like an amateur mage that learned how to cast the pyroblast spell by reading a book for ten seconds. However, as he tried it out, he hit his opponent's shield and ended up burning his entire face.

Still, Boss Pei was a veteran of a hundred battles. He quickly regained his composure.

"A foreign distribution company…? Based on what I know, local films don't become very popular in overseas markets.

"Most of them only generate… one or two million US dollars, right?"

Pei Qian had this basic knowledge.

Many extremely popular locally-produced films had tried distributing overseas, but the cultural gap and difference in language posed a problem. Often, their results were not ideal.

Films that could easily make more than a hundred million yuan in China ended up making less than one or two million US dollars overseas. What's more, a lot of this depended on the content as well.

Pei Qian did some rough calculations. If they only made one or two million US dollars—after splitting the revenue and accounting for the exchange rate, the amount earned would not become too big of a burden.

It would just be a few million yuan. Pei Qian could easily deal with it.

Now, he was more concerned about which blind foreign distribution company had become interested in the film in the first place.

Huang Sibo smiled. "That's right.

"As influential Chinese actors retired from Hollywood, locally-produced films became less and less attractive in overseas box offices. At the same time, as the local market developed quicker, the locals' pride and confidence intensified. Thus, many film directors focused on the local market and gave up on adapting to the foreign audience's taste.

"Recently, many locally-produced films could easily earn hundreds of millions of yuan in China but only one or two million US dollars overseas. Overseas, their row piece rates are low, they're unpopular, and their influence is limited.

"However, for that exact reason, our film would be able to stand out!

"Flying Star Journey has failed all over the world. However, it's a high-budget, foreign, sci-fi film after all. Tomorrow is Beautiful could achieve similar results with a much lower budget and even exceed Flying Star Journey's reputation. That's why the foreign distribution company has so much confidence in the film!

"What's more, Tomorrow is Beautiful has a unique advantage. The entire film is in English, and it's based on a futuristic world. This blurs the lines between race and countries, thus narrowing the cultural gap. That means a foreign audience would find it more acceptable!

"Furthermore, the film explores ideas like income gap, excessive consumerism, the effect of wealth on people, and the like. These would resonate with a foreign audience!

"You don't have to worry, Boss Pei! Our film will likely be able to earn more than a million US dollars!"

"…" Pei Qian was momentarily speechless.

Zhu Xiaoce added, "That's right, Boss Pei. Don't underestimate the fact that the film is in English!

"You have to understand that foreigners hate subtitles. There's a simple reason for this. English is a very superfluous language. It's tiring to read subtitles.

"A powerful proof of this is that China has huge quantities of video websites with bullet screen comments, but such websites don't exist overseas.

"That's because our words are ideographic, and people can capture their meaning very quickly. One glance would allow viewers to understand the meaning of the entire bullet screen comment. Yet, it's different for English.

"It's the same with subtitles. Foreigners are not as used to subtitles as we are. To them, whether the film is in English or not would determine whether they go and watch it or not!

"That's why it's a huge advantage that our film is in English! Although the three main leads have Asian accents, foreigners would not be concerned. Instead, they would find it appropriate for the role and cultural background.

"All in all, everything about the film from the scriptwriting onwards has been suited to a foreign audience's taste!

"Boss Pei, you were far-sighted to make everyone speak English!"

Zhu Xiaoce held up his thumb excitedly.

Pei Qian, "…"

He really wanted to say: 'No! You're wrong! I wasn't far-sighted! In fact, I was too short-sighted! I wanted to use English to dissuade the local audience. I never thought that the film would make it overseas!'

However, Zhu Xiaoce and Huang Sibo were looking at him very respectfully. Thus, Pei Qian could not help but sigh inwardly.

Really terrible!

…

March 30th, Wednesday…

Over the past two days, players of GOG had been extremely happy.

At midnight last night, the results for the first Spring Competition of the first season had finally been locked in. Today, all the rewards had been distributed. The entire event was now at its peak!

There were posts discussing the event everywhere online.

Of course, some doubted how real the winners' skills were. After all, there was no such thing as perfectly fair competition in the world, and sour grapes made others feel jealous of the lucky winners.

Still, this noise only formed a minority of the discussions online.

The competition had been public, fair, and transparent. Although it was possible that some had cozied up to powerful people, those who placed among the first five hundred within such a short period must have had some real skills.

Given the short period, actors and workspaces could not react quickly enough. Before they could generate enough influence, the results had been locked in and the prizes had been distributed.

The players who had won prizes celebrated joyously. They shared their results and their awards and paraded their prizes around the internet. This made everything more exciting and GOG more popular.

All in all, everyone was over the moon. The players won money, GOG became more popular, and Boss Pei scattered his coins.

However, while others were unconditionally happy, Boss Pei's happiness was mixed with deep worry. That was because he realized that the game had become much more popular than he had imagined.

Pei Qian felt like he was beginning to lose control!

Thus, the intelligent Boss Pei gave Hu Xianbin an important task yesterday. He asked the latter to analyze the results of the competition and write a detailed report for him.

On the surface, it looked like he was just giving Hu Xianbin an assignment. However, in reality, Boss Pei wanted to understand what exactly had happened.

He had to admit that Hu Xianbin was extremely efficient. Pei Qian had already received the report today.

However, after reading it, his heart turned cold.

…

During the short and intense competition period, the number of active players on GOG's mobile game and client-side game kept increasing rapidly.

The temptation of earning a hundred thousand yuan with just a week's worth of effort had been hard for gamers to resist. Many people's rational minds told them that they would not be able to win a hundred thousand yuan, but their wishful thinking pushed them to try anyway.

GOG's generous competition prizes attracted hoards of new gamers, who had never played this genre of games before. In addition, the game's AI made sure that even new gamers had a good gaming experience.

Thus, most people enjoyed playing the game in the beginning, and they received a lot of positive reinforcement from the game itself. That was why so many people started to feel like they were natural talents.

By the time people realized that they could not possibly win the prizes, they had already played the game intensely for two or three days. By then, they had already become used to the gameplay, and they understood how fun the game was. Thus, they were less likely to quit.

On top of that, the gamers' wishful thinking pushed them to repeatedly 'side-step the problem'. Those who were more confident with touching the screen could play the mobile game. Those who were more confident with the keyboard and mouse could play the client-side game.

Those who had been tragically beaten in the client-side game and thought that those who played the mobile game were lousier… considered switching.

Those who found touching their mobile screens difficult and using the keyboard and mouse much more convenient and accurate… they also considered switching.

The integration of data on both versions did not cause gamers to despise dual-terminal games. Instead, it prevented them from becoming bored and heightened their desire to buy skins.

After all, the skins could be used for both terminals. A single purchase could bring them twice the joy.

As they transferred here and there, gamers slowly realized that they were equally bad at the client-side game and mobile game. By then, playing the game had become a habit.

All in all, the event was stable, accurate, and ruthless. Not only had it captured all experienced players, but it had also won over a large group of new players. GOG's popularity peaked within a short time thanks to the generous prizes.

What's more, before workspaces and directors could react, the competition ended. That was how maximum fairness was guaranteed.

What followed after that part of the report was mindless praise for Boss Pei.

…

After reading the report, Pei Qian felt speechless. He finally understood why the figures had looked so abnormal.

They had incurred losses indeed, but the cost was high. It was far more than Pei Qian had expected at first.

"It doesn't matter. It'll be fine as long as I can incur losses this cycle. I'll think about how to resolve the problems in the future.

"However, GOG's current situation has exposed a huge problem in the way that I understand games.

"No way… I have to change things when I work on the next game. I cannot make any more money!

"I'll summarize my lessons and learn from my mistakes. I have to develop a game that would fail!"

After several days of secluding himself to think, Pei Qian finally thought of a good idea for a failed game.

He would brief the two gaming departments very clearly during the next cycle!

…

March 31st, Thursday…

The system screen automatically appeared in front of Pei Qian.

<Owner: Pei Qian>

At that point, Pei Qian heaved a long sigh of relief.

He was comfortable now!

Pei Qian had about 180 thousand yuan left after buying a house. Then, he had earned a hundred thousand yuan for writing the script for the movie and got tens of thousands of yuan over the Chinese New Year.

He had claimed most of his daily expenses, and so he did not spend much of his money. Instead, he had saved them all.

This time, after converting more than 580 thousand yuan, Pei Qian had about 920 thousand yuan in his Personal Wealth.

He had worked hard, but it had all been worth it!

Comparatively, it was obviously much more worth it to incur losses. Otherwise, he would have had to earn five hundred million yuan to convert the same amount of money.

What's more, the five hundred million yuan had to be lying in his company's bank account. He would not be able to convert any amount that he had invested. Yet, if he did not invest the money, how would he earn that much?!

Thus, no matter what, incurring losses would always be the best way to take advantage of the System.

After the System got upgraded to version 2.0, the ratios had been adjusted according to the Matthew effect. However, Pei Qian noticed that it was still easier to incur losses.

In the past, Pei Qian would work himself untill he was dead beat. Yet, out of three settlements, he had only successfully incurred losses once.

This time, he was incurring losses more steadily now.

On one hand, it was because Pei Qian understood the System much better after failing multiple times. He had come up with many ways to incur losses such as allowing certain subsidiaries to drink poison to quench thirst and prioritizing reputation over profits.

On the other hand, the System had implemented many facilitative terms after upgrading. For example, Pei Qian could spend a certain amount of money on charity during each cycle and work on a single project over two cycles.

He only ended up with losses this time because he had poured tens of millions of yuan into Thriller Hostel.

Based on his calculations, Pei Qian had earned about six hundred yuan in five months. That was more than a hundred thousand yuan per month!

Yes, it was worth celebrating!

Now, he could buy new appliances and furniture for the new house. He could also conduct soft renovation if he wanted to.

Of course, he still had to work harder.

On top of that, Pei Qian had discovered a medium-sized hidden threat: the fixed asset, Ming Yun Private Kitchen's villa, had appreciated by more than two hundred thousand yuan.

Buying a fixed asset and managing it under the company's name had allowed Pei Qian to spend a huge sum of money. However, Pei Qian did not dare to buy any more fixed assets for fear that they would affect settlement.

The biggest problem with having fixed assets was that 10% of its estimated worth would be converted into the System Funds. The formula for calculating loss would thus be 'starting sum in System Funds - current System Funds - 10% of the value of Fixed Assets'. That was a headache.

If they only had ten million yuan worth of System Funds in the beginning, and the company's Fixed Assets were worth a total of a hundred million yuan, then even if Pei Qian managed to spend all the System Funds, he would still not be able to incur losses overall.

Still, this was the first settlement with Version 2.0 of the System. In the future, the starting sum in the System Funds would continue to increase.

Once the starting sum became twenty, thirty, or fifty million yuan, Pei Qian could think about buying more fixed assets in the company's name and using them for manufacturing or operations.

As the System Funds increased, Pei Qian would be able to lose more money and convert more Personal Wealth.

"I hope that the System Funds would increase for the next cycle…" Pei Qian prayed in his heart.

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