Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

September 1st, Thursday…

Pei Qian came to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe early in the morning, sipping his coffee while sorting out the mind map of the various departments.

There was still one month before the settlement cycle. As the saying goes, the closer one was to completing a task, the tougher it got. The success or failure of this cycle would depend on this last mile!

Pei Qian carefully considered his current industry. There was still hope of loss.

Of course, that was not because Pei Qian's various industries were not making profits, but because Pei Qian was getting more aggressive at spending money.

As the stores of various industries became larger, there were more places where Pei Qian could spend money on. Especially after these departments became profitable. The system seemed to relax on the restrictions of spending money in these industries. It would allow freer use of money in opening and expansion of branches, giving customers discounts, and the like.

At present, Pei Qian's biggest source of income in this cycle was from the movie Tomorrow is Beautiful and IOI's 70 million US dollars. The former was used to buy a building to make Sloth Apartments while the latter was used to directly burn money to promote GOG's world invitation. It should be spent before settlement.

Others, for example, the sudden explosion of internet cafes, food delivery, and other industries which were much lesser than the other aforementioned two sources. These industries were a long term industry after all. It would be impossible to accumulate so much profits to break even in a month or two even if it had operational profits.

Pei Qian adhered to the principle of 'whoever made the money would be responsible for spending it'. If these entities continue to open branches and expand, they would definitely be able to spend all the money they make.

Of course, no branches could be opened in the last week before settlement, but the money left by then should not be too much.

Otto Technologies did not need to settle anything for this settlement cycle. The extra money could be spent on software laboratory and image laboratory there… as long as the next cycle produced results.

To Pei Qian, the key was to maintain the present situation and try not to make more money. Earning extra money every day would make it more difficult to make a loss during settlement.

Pei Qian felt that it seemed to be okay after scoring the current situation of the various industries with his mind map.

It might be a cycle with twists and turns—Fish-Catching Take-Out became profitable, Thriller Hostel became a little popular, the DGE Club also became popular, and Dayak Corporation also strangely gave him something. However, but he was always strong enough to survive.

"Struggle will be released soon. This game should not be able to make much money. Yes, even if it is a little profitable, it would not do much damage to this cycle. The chances of making big profits are very low, considering all aspects.

"The investment in Struggle is too high, and it is a very disgusting game. Such a game is more suited for Cloud Clearance, so there should not be too many people buying them. The poor and rich versions were sold separately and could reduce some income.

"The most important thing is that the sale of standalone games would take a very long time. I need to worry only about the sales volume for the first month. Future sales would be a matter for the future…

"Taking 10,000 steps back… even if it did make a little profit, I can still throw the money at Otto Technologies.

"Moreover, I have a special task this cycle that can be used to reduce the system fund limit for the final settlement, but I don't know whether the system will recognize my learning results or not…"

There was a special rule for the settlement of this cycle. Pei Qian could spend up to 1.6 million yuan to invest in himself. If the system approved of his progress, he could shave off up to eight times this value, which would be 12.8 million yuan excluded from the final settlement.

If the System Funds at settlement was 22 million yuan at the time of settlement, then he would only be able to get 2,000 yuan based on the original conversion ratio of 2 million yuan x 0.001.

However, if this special rule were to pass, then Pei Qian would be able to obtain (22 million yuan - 12.8 million yuan - 20 million yuan x (-0.1)) = 1.08 million yuan!

That was worlds apart.

Of course, that was the most ideal situation. Moreover, Pei Qian was not sure whether the things he learned would be recognized by the system or not.

Moreover, both He An and Qiu Hong were gurus in the industry. They were recognized in their ability; the value of this tuition was also recognized by the system. Would the system recognize that Boss Pei learned enough useful knowledge? That had to remain to be seen.

Pei Qian was not sure whether he could successfully reduce the system funds to about 20 million yuan during settlement or not.

If he could, then it would be the first success in history! He might have also worked the hardest this time, but it was all worth it!

Pei Qian indeed felt more grounded after straightening out his current thoughts.

At that moment, his cell phone rang.

Ding.

Pei Qian picked it up. It turned out to be a message from the Manage Loss Trainee from Fei Huang Workspace.

"Senior, Director Zhu is collaborating with Sloth Apartments to expose the problem of formaldehyde in the rental homes from Home Corporation."

Pei Qian was stunned.

Fei Huang Workspace really had a strong sense of existence! They made two videos consecutively after an entire month of shock therapy?

They were giving up on their livers?

Pei Qian was a little speechless. I did not manage to come to the aid of the publicity video of Sloth Apartments previously. What now?

Formaldehyde from Home Corporation…? What was this?

Pei Qian frowned and replied. "Elaborate."

The Manage Loss Trainee replied swiftly:

"It's like this, Boss Pei. Home Corporation has been discrediting Sloth Apartments on the internet for its inferior price-quality ratio. However, in fact, the Safe House launched by Home Corporation always had serious problems with excessive formaldehyde.

"The person-in-charge of Sloth Apartments, Director Zhu, and Teacher Qiao had decided to expose this problem together…"

Pei Qian fell silent looking at the detailed information sent by the Manage Loss Trainee. There was a good saying. There was nothing fresh being exposed to the sun.

Pei Qian had never taken the matter of Home Corporation criticizing Sloth Apartments to heart.

It did not matter whether they said that Sloth Apartments was inferior in price-quality ratio or unlivable. Pei Qian's original intention was for tenants not to rent the units anyway.

Pei Qian was very clear that if this video against Home Corporation were to go out, it could become an attack and would probably make Sloth Apartments popular as well.

He could only say that the world was just that magical.

In some industries, one might be law-abiding and honest. One would have already exceeded 99% of one's peers if one had even fulfilled the minimum requirements.

That was because 99% of these peers had no morals.

Pei Qian stayed silent for a while before he replied to them. "Tell them that they did well!"

Pei Qian hated such trash. He hated them even more than the scalpers!

The scalpers disturbed the market order. They were a group of worms, but they only wanted someone's money. This formaldehyde company not only wanted money but also toyed with people's lives!

All decorations were made with environmentally-friendly paints. The smell would dissipate after the renovation was done. How much more could it cost?

Hm? How much more could it cost?

If a room was rented out after renovations, it could be rented out for three years or five years—or even ten years without refurbishing. During this period, even if the Home Corporation only earned 500 yuan a month. They could earn more than 100,000 yuan right?

Obviously, maintaining the health of the consumer could make money, just less!

Just to save the cost of several thousand yuan per room, they completely disregarded the health of consumers. Were they going to kill humans?

Especially the Home Corporation which was a national chain intermediary, how many houses could they have on hand? How many people would become sick, be hospitalized, get cancer, or even die because they were living in a formaldehyde room?

Pei Qian did not know anything much before, but he thought that Home Corporation and Sloth Apartments were normal business competitors.

Okay, that was alright. You could even criticize me. I would not care and would even be happy.

However, if you were such a kind of garbage company like Home Corporation, then I'm sorry. I would definitely kill you even if I risked losing money!

Pei Qian was still a little angry after he replied to the Manage Loss Trainee.

Maybe he would never understand why some companies would make more marginal profits, a mere few dozen yuan per month, while disregarding human life?

As a normal and humane person, he could not understand.

His phone rang again while he was still pissed off.

Ding.

Pei Qian picked it up. It was a message from Zhang Yuan.

"Boss Pei, the other esports club delegations have come to Jingzhou to discuss buying players! Will you come here in person? It is alright if you don't come as well. I'll just need to sign contracts with them."

Pei Qian: "F*ck?"

The other esports clubs?

Delegations?

That meant more than one?

That wanted to buy DGE's players?

Why?! The other players were not the kind of live-streamers like Huang Wang! You would lose money!

Pei Qian was speechless; what he was worried about still happened in the end. The sale of Huang Wang was not the end… but the beginning!

Pei Qian hurriedly replied: "I'll be there soon!"

He did not trust Zhang Yuan. Wouldn't that be the end if Zhang Yuan were to raise the price to sell the nine members for 30 million yuan?

At this point in time, an additional 30 million yuan would make me very passive!

Pei Qian immediately called Little Sun and took the car to the DGE Club.

…

In the DGE Club…

Several team managers gathered in the conference room, drinking tea and chatting while waiting for Boss Pei to arrive. These managers had their own intentions.

In fact, they all contacted Zhang Yuan separately. There were seven teams in total; every team wanted to buy players from the DGE Club to reinforce them, and their needs were different.

However, Zhang Yuan thought about it. If the manager of the seven teams came to talk one by one, how long would it take to talk about it? It was much better for them to all come together.

They made a bid directly; whoever showed the highest bids counted and had nothing to say.

As to why the other clubs suddenly wanted to figure out that they wanted to buy these people from the DGE Club? It was very simple: they were all abused by the H4 Club!

The H4 Club had mock competitions with the other clubs after Huang Wang was bought over.

They beat the other clubs hands down!