Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

June 17th, Friday…

At Shang Yang Games…

Once Pei Qian walked into the conference room, he sensed something amiss with the atmosphere. Everyone looked dejected! The energy was even lower than when Pei Qian had visited the last time.

He could not help but feel worried. He had to encourage his comrades!

If even all of you think that you can't win, wouldn't IOI be done for?

What's more, they had not exhausted all their options yet. The game was still being updated, and it was doing quite well overseas. What's more, although the game was not defeating GOG in local internet cafes, it was snatching a greater share of the market!

Pei Qian sat at the head of the conference table, feeling the need to say something to boost everyone's morale.

How can we fight this battle if you give up before the fight?!

Pei Qian cleared his throat. "Why do all of you look so down? Quick, perk yourselves up. The battle isn't over!"

Wang Xiaobin glanced at Ye Zhizhou… who glanced at Lin Wan.

Lin Wan sighed softly. "Boss Pei, we know that you have good intentions behind making GOG and IOI compete. You want the winner to give the loser a boost. You even gave IOI more than enough funds from the group of companies. However… this is too difficult!

"The gap between both games is not getting any smaller now. In fact, it's getting increasingly bigger. In just one week, GOG has fully caught up with our on-ground marketing strategy and overtaken us.

"We can only say that GOG is more well-prepared and close-knit than we are. We keep raising suggestions to IOI, but they refuse to accept them…"

Wang Xiaobin nodded. Indignantly, he said, "That's right. Finger Games is even blaming us, saying that our marketing strategy is too weak and that the game is doing extremely well in other countries.

"The question is… does GOG exist in those other countries? We really want to tell them to try fighting GOG if they can. We'll watch and see if they can successfully defeat GOG!"

Ye Zhizhou nodded and chimed in. "Exactly! It's bad enough having a useless teammate who slows us down, but Finger Games is even putting the blame on us and mocking us. How can we tolerate this?!"

Wang Xiaobin turned to face Pei Qian. "Boss Pei, you wanted a dog-eat-dog competition anyway. Why don't you make Tengda buy all the shares in Finger Games?! Then, we can modify IOI however we want to. Alternatively, we can completely take over IOI.

"Then, we won't have our hands bound, and we would no longer feel so helpless all the time."

Pei Qian was shocked.

Buy all the shares in Finger Games? Am I not dying quickly enough for you?!

Pei Qian was just about to speak up when Lin Wan beat him to it. "We can't. Do you think Boss Pei hasn't thought of that before?"

Pei Qian: "?"

Lin Wan continued speaking. "Do you think Finger Games is still worth as much as it was before? Boss Pei was shrewd enough to buy twenty percent of the shares with twenty million yuan. It was a great bargain.

"Do you think good things are as common as cabbage in stalls by the streets?

"IOI is picking up in momentum now. Finger Games' value is picking up day by day. We may have twenty percent of the shares now, but even if we want to obtain control of the company, we would have to spend at least a hundred million or even 150 million US dollars more.

"Tengda Corporation's cash flow is healthy, but Boss Pei wants to maximize the use of the cash he has on hand. All along, he has been investing the cash as quickly as possible.

"What's more, even if Tengda Corporation has spare cash lying around, it would not add up to a hundred million yuan."

Wang Xiaobin stopped talking because he knew that it would be difficult for Tengda Corporation to fork out a billion yuan, even if it was doing extremely well. This was not a matter of whether Boss Pei wanted to, but whether the group of companies could afford to or not.

Since it could not, there was no point saying anything more.

Pei Qian was shocked.

What the h*ll? Was Finger Games worth that much now?

Then… according to that value, the twenty percent shares that he had spent twenty million yuan on… would now be worth…

Forty million… US dollars?!

He had made more than ten times the original amount in such a short period?!

Pei Qian began to feel light-headed. At the same time, he noted Ma Yang's mistake in his heart.

If other people had been in Pei Qian's situation, they would be laughing until they cried. However, for Pei Qian, based on the conversion ratios, forty million US dollars could only be converted to forty thousand US dollars. That was about 280 thousand yuan…

Incurring losses would still be more worth the while…

In fact, if he was not careful, his profits and losses could cancel out. Then, he would surely vomit blood.

Speaking of which, that was only a valuation. Not many people would be willing to fork out that amount of money. What's more, if Tengda refused to sell the shares, there shouldn't be much of a problem…

Once again, the discussion reached a dead-end.

They could not buy Finger Games because it was too expensive now. They could not instruct Finger Games either. It wouldn't listen and would even give opposite instructions.

It was no wonder that everyone at Shang Yang Games was so dejected. After all, everyone had been used to working on their own game and running their own marketing campaign. They had been free to modify any part of the game that they had not liked.

However, while they knew where the problem lay now, the developers would not allow them to modify the game. Instead, the latter was blaming them for failing to manage and market the game well as agents. Who wouldn't be pissed?

Pei Qian cleared his throat. "Don't be too anxious, everyone. There's always a perfect solution. What's more, things are not the worst now.

"GOG started early, but IOI still managed to win a certain share of the market earlier. A minority was old customers of Gods Rising, and most were gamers of other game genres.

"This means that, while GOG and IOI are competing, more new gamers are being drawn into the pit. That's a good sign. As long as we can maintain a stable footing, there's a possibility of turning the situation around.

"There are a few things we cannot change, like GOG's initial advantage and the game's mechanisms. However, compared to GOG, IOI's local server is lacking in something else that we have not tried to fill—that is esports.

"In the next stage, I will allocate more funds for you to organize a large-scale competition for IOI. We will maximize the marketing funds to correct the misconception that Tengda does not care for IOI in esports!"

After Pei Qian finished speaking, there was no lighting up of eyes or applause as there would have been before.

After some consideration, Wang Xiaobin said, "Boss Pei, for an esports event to be popular, we need a good foundation. Players aside, where are we going to find the competing teams?

"We can't possibly pick random people from the ranked list and make them form a team at the last minute, can we?"

The others nodded their heads as well.

Pei Qian: "…"

Things were slightly awkward now.

Just as Pei Qian was considering this problem, Lin Wan spoke up.

"No, none of you understood what Boss Pei meant. It is entirely possible for us to contact the bigger esports clubs in the country now and get them to form IOI teams."

Wang Xiaobin was stunned. "That's unlikely, right? Given IOI's current market share, the clubs would much rather form a GOG team if they really wanted to.

"We could offer them money, but the clubs would focus on long-term benefits. If we offer too little money, they might not be interested in complying, but if we offer too much, we would lose out."

If we offer too much, we would lose out?

That was perfect, wasn't it?!

Pei Qian's eyes lit up. He was just about to speak up when Lin Wan did.

"We don't have to give them too much money."

Pei Qian: "…"

Lin Wan continued speaking. "I understand Boss Pei now. We might have entered the esports arena late, but IOI would have some advantage over GOG. That's because IOI is much more popular overseas!

"It's true that the clubs would focus on long-term benefits when forming teams. For those clubs, being able to take part in international competitions would obviously be one of the long-term benefits!

"An esports event has to be popular all around the world for there to be enough attention to it. Although IOI is not as popular as GOG in the country at the moment, it could become a large-scale international competition in the future.

"Forming an IOI team now could be a very promising option for E-Sports clubs. We could make a big deal out of this to persuade local esports clubs!

"I guess that's Boss Pei's deeper intention, right?"

Pei Qian cleared his throat. "Er… that's about right."

A realization dawned on everyone else. That's right! That's a great advantage!

Ye Zhizhou was deeply inspired as well. "That's right. We could even invite one or two average teams from overseas as a gimmick and provide accommodation and return tickets for them. Then, we could call the competition an international invitational tournament and make more people pay attention to us!"

Upon hearing the words 'provide accommodation and return tickets', Pei Qian became elated.

Everyone else noticed how comforted Boss Pei looked as he gazed at Ye Zhizhou. At once, they knew that this was what Boss Pei had been thinking.

"Alright, let's do as Boss Pei says and get started immediately!"

"I'll contact the local clubs"

"I'll invite the foreign clubs."

"Remember to pick the weaker teams. Otherwise, if our local teams get miserably defeated, our plan would fall through!"

"I'll inspect possible venues and come up with the competition schedule."

Everyone split the tasks quickly, and the once-lifeless meeting room instantly burst with vitality. Pei Qian was pleased.

Everyone had read too much into what I said again, but it seemed like a positive thing this time!

Alright, the meeting was a success!

…

…

June 18th, Saturday…

At the Management Trainees' regular meeting…

After settling Shang Yang Games yesterday, Pei Qian felt like a great weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Today, on the way to the meeting, his footsteps felt lighter.

"Everyone, let's start reporting," said Tang Yishu once she saw that everyone was present. She gestured for the meeting to start and prepared to take notes in her little notebook. After the meeting, she would convert the meeting minutes into a report.

One by one, the Management Trainees spoke.

"Deposit Fitness's members are already using the new application, and feedback has been pretty good. The opening ceremony of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's Live Esports Museum has greatly improved Deposit Fitness's reputation. Recently, a good number of customers approached us with questions. The new fitness meals have also arrived…"

"Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's Live Esports Museum has been a great success ever since its opening ceremony. Although its charges are higher than the previous two versions of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, it is still as popular. More and more people are forming teams. I guess that we can organize the first competition in the internet cafe soon…"

"DGE Esports Club has resumed training as per normal. However, the feeling of being sought-after by fans at the opening ceremony has greatly motivated the team members and ignited their fighting spirit. Everyone's training harder now…"

Pei Qian was speechless as he listened to the Manage Loss Trainees' reports. His good mood had completely dissipated by now.

Wasn't this supposed to be a Secret Service meeting?

How did it turn into a funeral?

It's bad enough that everyone's telling me things that I already know, but they're just repeating all the bad news! I went to great lengths to organize Management Trainee meetings, and yet they're just serving to double the back-stabbing effect!

After getting stabbed in the back at the scene, I have to endure another stab at Management Trainee meetings?

Pei Qian was furious, but he had no choice but to pay attention.

That was because he did not know if there was useful information hidden in those reports. Moreover, the Management Trainees had no way of filtering what Boss Pei already knew from what he did not know yet.

Thus, they could only report indiscriminately.

Pei Qian fell into deep thought, wondering if something had gone wrong somewhere…