Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Lin Wan was a little curious. "What task did Boss Pei arrange for you?"

"Boss Pei asked me to take half of the manpower from Shang Yang Games to make new versions of old games," Wang Xiaobin said blankly.

"I don't understand. Wouldn't this task be more appropriately given to Ye Zhizhou? I'm just a systems designer. Development is not my strength!"

"Furthermore, it was decided by rock-scissors-paper, which is too…"

Lin Wan frowned and thought seriously for a short while.

"I think that this rock-scissors-paper game by Boss Pei has some profound meaning to it."

"Huh? Even that has profound meaning? Could you… be thinking too much?" Wang Xiaobin was stunned.

Lin Wan shook her head. "You are good at numerical planning while Ye Zhizhou is good at function design. Boss Pei knows it very well."

"Making you do the work you are not good at yet is obviously to further exercise your abilities."

Wang Xiaobin thought for a while. "But Boss Pei can always give the task to me directly if he wants to train me up, right? Why the rock-scissors-paper?"

Lin Wan considered a short while before replying. "I think it is to express a form of attitude.

"Boss Pei obviously feels that everyone from Tengda Games, no matter who it was, had to be polymaths. Anyone has to be able to take the task even if it was done by drawing lots.

"Moreover, we can also see Boss Pei's attitude towards Shang Yang Games through this incident.

"The outside world had always viewed Shang Yang Games as inferior to Tengda Games.

"But now, Boss Pei has given us the task of promoting GOG's international server and updating Tengda Games' downloadable content. That means to say that, in the eyes of Boss Pei, we and Tengda Games are treated equally.

"We therefore must not disappoint Boss Pei!"

Wang Xiaobin nodded. "Yes, I understand!"

Boss Pei's decision obviously had huge risks!

For the average boss, letting each employee do what they do best would obviously be the most economical and affordable approach with risk being most controlled.

Who would do something like using projects to train their employees?

Some bosses ask their employees to hold certain positions concurrently, which might be called 'learning' by were—in fact—because they were reluctant to pay more to recruit professionals.

However, Boss Pei was completely different. He had been mobilizing employees to take charge of different projects even after paying high enough salaries and benefits.

Obviously, doing so would likely lead to the failure of the project, but Boss Pei did not care about it. That was to train all employees to become versatile and as a show of great trust in them!

Wang Xiaobin felt that he must not disappoint Boss Pei's trust and do a good job in this new version to prove himself!

…

…

October 11th, Tuesday…

Lu Zhiyao was fully armed with sunglasses, masks, and a baseball cap in the taxi for fear that his enthusiastic fans would be recognized and encountered unnecessary troubles.

He had just arrived in Jingzhou and rushed straight to Fei Huang Workspace without staying in a hotel.

Lu Zhiyao had completely wiped out his notoriety for being the toxicity in the box office since Tomorrow is Beautiful became popular. He had received many offers from other dramas; most of which came with good price tags.

However, Lu Zhiyao did not take them on.

Lu Zhiyao was not at ease if there were no scripts; those with scripts felt meaningless after he finished reading them.

None of them had the special feeling that Tomorrow is Beautiful had!

There was a script that Lu Zhiyao was quite satisfied with, but the character was similar to Tomorrow is Beautiful—which was a miserable brown-noser protagonist.

Obviously, this group invited Lu Zhiyao because they saw his performance in Tomorrow is Beautiful and felt that he was very suitable for the task.

Lu Zhiyao did not reject it. He was an actor after all; he had to be professional about it.

However, Lu Zhiyao felt that there was no meaning to it since he had already acted it once in Tomorrow is Beautiful.

There would be no breakthrough.

Lu Zhiyao felt that his acting skills took a leap when filming Tomorrow is Beautiful and had been highly involved in the creation of the filming process. This feeling never happened with other teams.

Therefore, Lu Zhiyao had been hesitating.

It was so hard to get rid of the infamy of 'box office toxicity'; wouldn't it be a waste of his efforts if he were to accidentally pick a bad film?

Lu Zhiyao asked himself introspectively. He was not very good at picking scripts as an actor.

Some scripts looked good but might not amount to anything good. He had to be cautious since he was currently on the rise.

Zhu Xiaoce's call came at a great time.

Boss Pei's project could never go wrong—that was it!

Of course, he had to look at the script before shooting. It was not that he did not trust Director Zhu, but he had to know what kind of story it was in advance to prepare his emotions.

"Director Zhu!"

Lu Zhiyao saw Director Zhu Xiaoce working hard at his station as soon as he walked in.

Zhu Xiaoce was deep in thought about the script; he was startled at the sound of Lu Zhiyao's voice and hid the document at the speed of light on the computer desktop.

Lu Zhiyao was stunned for a moment, but Zhu Xiaoce had greeted him with a smile on his face before he could react.

"Here so soon? I thought it would take another hour." Zhu Xiaoce smiled to cover up his embarrassment and got someone to get drinks for them.

Lu Zhiyao nodded. "En, I have not even gone to the hotel yet. I'm really looking forward to the new movie so I wanted to come over to talk to you, Director Zhu; read the script so that I can figure out the character; and recite the lines or something after I return to the hotel."

Zhu Xiaoce coughed lightly. "Erm… I thought I said that the script is not yet ready."

Lu Zhiyao didn't think much of it. "It's alright. I'll read whatever there is."

Zhu Xiaoce was a little embarrassed and quickly used his wits. "Actually… I can't show you the script yet."

Lu Zhiyao was taken aback. "Huh? Why?"

"Because this time, we are going to adopt a new shooting method. Each script will be given separately. That way you can avoid the interference caused by spoilers," Zhu Xiaoce replied.

Lu Zhiyao was a little surprised. "Really? That sounds pretty professional. It seems like the blockbusters in the United States are filmed this way.

"Not bad.

"Then, Director Zhu, can you show me the script for the first scene?"

Zhu Xiaoce was a little speechless.

He felt like a school kid who lied that he had yet to finish his homework, but the teacher pushed on to say: "It's okay if you have not finished it; show me whatever you have."

In fact, he had yet to write a single word!

Fortunately, Director Zhu was a person who had seen the world. He was able to hold this scene.

"The matter is like this… I've prepared another way for you to figure out the protagonist's psychology before reading the script," Zhu Xiaoce said solemnly after Lu Zhiyao took a sip of his tea.

"Come, bring this with you."

Zhu Xiaoce gave Lu Zhiyao a high-end Alienware gaming laptop.

Lu Zhiyao was lost. "?"

"There is Starcraft 2 in it. Your next task is to continue playing Starcraft 2 without going out of the hotel and with ordering takeaways for all your meals," Zhu Xiaoce explained.

"Just fight the battles. It doesn't matter if you win or lose, but there is a requirement. You have to work hard to imagine that every soldier in this game is a real, living person.

"Play for three days first and try to figure it out. Please write every realization you have down and share with me matter how reliable or unreliable."

Lu Zhiyao took the Alienware in confusion. "But… the script…"

Zhu Xiaoce looked serious. "You cannot read the script yet. Your experience would be different after reading the script, understand? Trust me, just do as I say."

Lu Zhiyao felt that this matter was a little strange, but he would try it out first since Director Zhu was so sure about it.

Perhaps the role this time was very demanding and could only better understand through this way?

Lu Zhiyao did not think much. He hugged the heavy Alienware gaming laptop and planned to go back to rest before following Director Zhu Xiaoce's instructions to figure out the role.

"By the way, Director Zhu, what is the role I'm supposed to play? Which direction should I work hard on?

"I have to know these to better figure out the character's psychology, right?"

Zhu Xiaoce thought for a while. It seemed to be right. "Well… what you are going to play this time is a space figure with a stern mentality.

"If possible, there should be no emotional fluctuations and no additional expressions.

"No matter what happens, your emotions should not fluctuate too much."

Lu Zhiyao was shocked.

"Huh?

"Emotions should not fluctuate too much?

"Then, I won't need to use any acting skills?"

Zhu Xiaoce patted Lu Zhiyao's shoulder. "This is where you need your acting skills!

"Try to figure out the character and think about how you can show your superb acting skills without expressions!

"I believe you can definitely do it!"

Lu Zhiyao was speechless.

Lu Zhiyao looked at the serious Director Zhu and then at the heavy gaming laptop in his hand, suddenly feeling as though he was deceived.

…

Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Handong University branch…

Pei Qian was browsing the web while drinking coffee.

The popularity of 'Struggle' had declined, but the sales volume did not follow that trend.

Pei Qian looked at the bootlicking of Struggle on the internet and sighed.

Originally, he wanted to see what the players liked about this game so that future games could avoid it, but it turned out that players seemed to like everything.

What a waste of time.

This was disastrous.

"Forget it, let's follow the guiding lantern, Teacher He. These players cannot be counted upon."

Pei Qian was about to close the webpage when his eyes lit up suddenly upon seeing a player's comment.

"Sigh, I don't know why I feel sad, seeing how Struggle is so successful.

"There are so many games companies in China. How many of them made online games, and how many of them made standalone games?

"How many companies could afford a small amount of money for a standalone computer; how many companies dare to and are willing to spend so much on a standalone game?

"How many companies could do a good job of standalone games?

"There are very few who have been down-to-earth, righteous, earnestly making standalone games, and investing good money in it after much deliberation."

"Struggle being successful might be a good thing, but we only have this seedling. So many people make standalone games and produce indie games. They don't make much news so no one would know.

"Tengda is the luck of domestically-produced games, but sadly, that there is only Tengda."

Pei Qian inexplicably remembered what Qiu Hong said before after seeing this comment.

Pei Qian felt that the environment for domestically-produced standalone games was pretty good already but was still filled with problems.

To the domestic producers, large-scale standalone games required more investments and had a higher failure rate than online games. That was an objective fact.

Therefore, the domestic producers were not willing to make standalone games since it was not worth the effort.

It would be impossible to accumulate this way, which would become a never-ending loop.

Standalone games made by Tengda were successful.

However, the failure rate of the other game companies making standalone games was very high!

Pei Qian suddenly thought of a good idea.

Since domestic standalone games failed so easily, wouldn't they become easy losses if I were to invest in these failed projects without interfering with their designs?