Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

December 7th, Wednesday…

Pei Qian sipped his coffee as he read the news on the forum in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.

"That's strange. Logically speaking, IOI's qualifiers should be starting soon. Why isn't there any news online?"

"There are a few pieces of news, but there is nothing concrete and nothing made waves at all."

Pei Qian was confused. According to Shang Yang Games' information, IOI's qualifiers should start within a week.

That was because the start of the seasonal competition for the GPL league was this weekend. Not all clubs would be participating in this seasonal competition. It would only last three weeks.

The pre-season competition was an opportunity for the club to practice and familiarize themselves so that they could adapt to the various unexpected situations in the competition in advance. The audience could watch the competition during this boring period and the prelude of the GPL league in advance.

They would rest for two weeks at the end of this month. Then, around mid-January, the GPL spring competition would officially begin.

At the moment, IOI was facing a huge threat from GOG. It was better overseas, especially domestically. It could be said that every action of IOI's local server depended on GOG.

Even the changes to IOI's new version were based on GOG.

Under these circumstances, IOI's two important competitions: the qualifiers and the world finals had to avoid GOG's competition time as much as possible.

If wouldn't IOI be waiting for its popularity to be stolen if both competitions were to take place at the same time?

Thus, Finger Games had set a time to finish the qualifiers in the country during this weekend and select three teams to play in the international competition. At the end of this month, they would start the world finals when the GPL season's pre-season competition had just ended. That way, they could avoid the popularity of the GPL and its effects.

Pei Qian agreed with this thinking wholeheartedly.

However, Pei Qian felt that it was a pity that the qualifiers for IOI were the same as the GPL's pre-season competitions: they were all starting this weekend.

"It looks like Finger Games is trying very hard to avoid the GPL competition, but there's no other way. There's not enough time."

"Time is very tight from the IOI Qualification Competition to the official start of the competition. It was impossible to move it forward and if this drags on, there will be GPL competitions for the next twenty days. There's no point in dragging it on."

"That's why they can only clash. That's a little awkward."

"However, dates clashing aside, IOI's popularity is so low. It doesn't make sense, does it? Why isn't the official platform creating much publicity?"

"There's no sound at all. Isn't this giving all the popularity to the GPL?"

"These people are too unprofessional. I have to think of a way to help them stir up popularity."

"Hmm… how can I help?"

Pei Qian could not help but worry for them when he saw how low the popularity of the IOI Qualifiers was and how no one was discussing it.

If IOI's popularity did not rise, how could it pose a threat to GOG?

If GOG's popularity continued to soar, how were they going to lose money?

Thus, Pei Qian decided to lend a helping hand to Finger Games. At the very least, he could hype up the popularity of the IOI Qualification Competition and increase the popularity of the competition.

It was just a matter of spending some money on marketing; it would not cost much.

Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation were both big companies that did not lack money. Why were they so stingy on this matter? Pei Qian was quite puzzled.

However, on further thought, he realized that they might have been too busy in preparing for the qualifiers and had not taken the time to hype it up.

Yes, that was possible.

All the more reason to give them a hand.

However, Pei Qian had not thought about how to help exactly.

It was impossible for him to pay out of his own pocket. Pei Qian only had peanuts and could only buy fake reviewers on the internet to boast a little.

What's more, the main purpose of doing all these things was to lose money and convert into more Personal Wealth. Yet, he had to spend his Personal Wealth before he lost money. Was he crazy?

Thus, he had to think of a way to make the System reimburse him.

The problem was that IOI's qualifiers wAS not organized by Tengda. How could the System reimburse him? That did not make sense.

Pei Qian rubbed his chin and thought hard for a long time. Suddenly, an idea struck him.

"Yes, didn't I just invest in an IOI club! I can do something about it!"

Pei Qian had just gone to Shanghai and invested in the FV Club at lightning speed. Only two days had passed since then.

Spending the company's money to publicize the IOI qualifiers did not make sense and the system would not approve of it. However, wouldn't it do if he were to spend money to publicize the FV Club and the IOI qualifiers?

He could spend as much money as he wanted to advertise his club. The System was very tolerant of this!

While Pei Qian had once made up his mind not to interfere with the operations of the FV Club, giving them money for advertisement should not be considered as interfering with the operations, right?

Of course, there was also a hidden danger in doing so. What if the FV Club became famous, gained more attention, and became profitable?

However, after some thought, Pei Qian realized that the possibility of this happening was too low. It was almost negligible.

What is the current situation of FV Club?

They had some money, but not much. Pei Qian had only given him three million yuan. That amount of money was nothing compared to the investments of the rich clubs. There was no need to mention the players since only three of them were left, and they were not that strong.

What can happen even if they are to publicize such a club with all their might?

E-Sports was about results after all. Without results, no matter how much marketing one did, it would only make the audience feel disgusted and uncomfortable. On the contrary, it would speed up the loss of their audience appeal.

What's more, the chances of FV Club making it out of the qualifiers were negligible. Their popularity could not be retained even if they were to advertise like crazy now.

All in all, money-burning publicity would focus only on IOI qualifiers. It would not affect FV Club much. What's more, Pei Qian had justifiably spent a sum of money.

Perfect, simply perfect!

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more it suited him. He immediately called Wu Yue, the boss of the FV Club.

"Hello, Boss Pei?" The phone rang only a few times before being picked up. Wu Yue sounded sleepy, as if he had just woken up.

Pei Qian looked at his watch. It was almost 11 in the morning. *Is he still sleeping? That means that he wakes up even later than me?*

Good, Boss Pei admired such people.

Pei Qian asked, "Does the club have enough money to spend?"

Wu Yue was obviously stunned.

Didn't Boss Pei invest three million yuan the day before? Why is he talking about money again today?

Could it be that… Boss Pei knows that I went to buy players and is worried that I don't have enough money, so he wants to give me more money?

Wu Yue could not help but feel warm and moved. He quickly said, "Don't worry, Boss Pei. We still have enough money. You don't have to worry about that."

Pei Qian was not satisfied with this answer.

How could there be enough money? This Wu Yue was obviously not honest enough.

Pei Qian cleared his throat. "There is obviously not enough money. If you think that you have enough money, it must be because you are not doing all that you can!"

"How about this, I'll give you another three million yuan."

"However, this three million yuan will be exclusively used as a marketing budget. Use this money to publicize online. Use various channels to publicize the FV Club and the upcoming IOI qualifiers."

Wu Yue was stunned for a moment. He quickly said, "Boss Pei, three million yuan for marketing is too much! I'm afraid it won't be very effective. It would be a waste…"

"How about this, we can use five hundred thousand yuan or one million yuan for marketing while we spend the rest elsewhere…"

Pei Qian's eyes lit up when he heard the word 'waste'.

Waste was great!

It would be a real waste to use it elsewhere.

Pei Qian immediately said, "No, you have to spend all three million yuan on marketing and publicity. What's more, we have to spend it all before the weekend. We can't leave a single cent!"

"Don't ask why. Just spend it."

While Pei Qian had said that he would not interfere with the daily operations of the FV Club, Wu Yue had no reason to turn him down.

Wu Yue had been silent for a long time on the other end of the line. Finally, he replied reluctantly, "Alright, Boss Pei. Since you've thought it through, I'll take the three million yuan for marketing."

Pei Qian nodded. "Yes, don't worry and spend as much as you can. Oh yes, you must remember to promote the IOI qualifiers."

Pei Qian was afraid that Wu Yue would forget. He would be putting the cart before the horse if he were to publicize FV Club but not the IOI Qualifiers.

Pei Qian's main aim was to let more people know about the IOI Qualification Competition and create popularity for IOI after all.

Wu Yue: "Alright, Boss Pei, I understand!"

…

Wu Yue sat up in bed after hanging up.

He rushed back from Jingzhou with a few players in the middle of the night and had also arranged accommodations for his team members. They had spent almost the entire night settling down and had only just fallen asleep at six in the morning.

He did not expect to be woken up by Boss Pei's call in the afternoon and for another three million yuan to fall onto his lap.

Wu Yue was no longer sleepy. He got out of bed and washed his face. Afterwhich, he immediately called Manager Lu and explained the three million yuan marketing budget in detail.

Manager Lu had just woken up and was as confused as Wu Yue.

"Boss Pei gave us another three million yuan? What's more, he specifically said that this is only for marketing expenses? We can only spend it on marketing?" Manager Lu also felt that this was a little ridiculous.

Why was Boss Pei so good to FV Club?

Other than the possibility that Boss Pei was actually Boss Wu's long-lost father, it did not make sense.

Wu Yue said, "I made a rough deduction based on Boss Pei's tone and recent events. Listen and let me know if you think this is possible?"

"The first thing Boss Pei asked me was if I had enough money. He must have found out about us buying players."

"If that's the case, Boss Pei must be giving us money to spend elsewhere."

"Our team's current strength is already considered very good in IOI's e-sports circle. Our results would have to depend on the team's adaptability. However, it would definitely not be a problem to compete with those strong teams."

"Since we already have a certain level of strength, what our club lacks the most at the moment is obviously popularity and fame!"

"Boss Pei specially gave us a sum of marketing funds to remind us that it was the right time to generate popularity and heat.

Manager Lu was stunned for a moment. "But Boss Wu, the IOI qualifiers have not started. We are not sure that they will be able to qualify either. Wouldn't the other clubs benefit for nothing if we are to generate heat now but not win the competition?"

Wu Yue shook his head. "There is such a risk, but we have to take it."

"What's the point of doing publicity after we've confirmed that we've made it? The competition would be almost over, and the heat would be over!"

"We have to publicize and warm up before the competition starts so that netizens will pay attention to the competition and our club. That way, we can gain more popularity after our team members achieve results."

"As for the possibility of benefiting others… I can only say that this risk must be taken."

"Boss Pei should be very clear about this as well. That's why he repeatedly instructed us to spend all the money within a week. Isn't he reminding us to create the hype before the game starts?"

Manager Lu suddenly understood. "That's true."

"Then, I'll start preparing the publicity for FV Club and IOI qualifiers!"

…

Pei Qian put the E-Sports matter aside and stopped worrying after calling Wu Yue.

Even though he had spent three million yuan to promote IOI, Pei Qian did not have high hopes for the qualifiers. It would be best if they could generate popularity and help IOI fight back, but it did not matter even if they could not generate popularity.

The worst case scenario would be that the IOI qualifiers would still not be popular. However, three million yuan was already spent in Pei Qian's eyes.

Pei Qian began to think about Beijing again.

At the moment, Pei Qian was more concerned about two projects in Beijing. The first was Qiu Hong's independent game incubation base, and the second was Meng Chang's Cold-Faced Lady.

The independent game incubation base had been officially operating for half a month. Pei Qian had not been there even once and was completely unaware of the situation there.

For some reason, he felt a little uneasy.

What if there were actually some money to be made in these independent games? What if the income from two or three games completely covered the losses of other games and the expenses of the incubation base? What if there were even profits?

Pei Qian knew his own character very well. It was not impossible, and it was very likely.

Thus, he was inexplicably worried.

However, Pei Qian could not personally go and take a look because the Destitution Plan and the incubation base had nothing to do with Tengda at the moment. Wouldn't Pei Qian be exposing himself if he went?

Once the 'Destitution Plan' project was linked to Tengda Corporation, all sorts of capable, ambitious, and independent game producers would come to seek refuge. Then, the chances of this project losing money would be greatly reduced.

The other project was the Cold-Faced Lady.

Pei Qian had invested a lot of money into this project. It was impossible for him not to be worried.

It would be fine if he made a loss on such a project, however, it was precisely this type of projects that would go on to become unicorns if they were to succeed. Pei Qian also felt uneasy since he had never been there personally.

Thus, Pei Qian decided to send someone to take a look after much thought.

That person would make a trip to Beijing and check out the incubation base for the Destitution Plan and then check out Cold-Faced Lady's shop and gather some information before reporting back to him.

It might not be useful, but at least he could feel more at ease.

However, the question was, who should he send?

The most important thing about this person was honesty. This person should not be too subjective in his or her judgment, and it would be best if he or she was not in charge of the various departments.

It was not a big deal to delay the department's work, but it would be bad if the two projects were to be linked after this.

Thus, after some consideration, Pei Qian quickly decided on the best candidate.

He would send Little Tang!

Until now, Tang Yishu had no other work to do apart from managing the students' meetings and feeding the cats. He did not need to worry about any possibility of linked effect from her journey to Beijing.

What's more, Tang Yishu's presence in Tengda Corporation was very weak. Even if she appeared in an independent game incubation base, no one would be able to guess the relationship between Tengda and the incubation base.

Apart from that, Tang Yishu was observing as a third party. She did not have any relevant professional knowledge and should be able to get rid of some subjective factors and see the actual situation of the independent incubation base and the cold-faced lady.

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. He gave Tang Yishu a call.

"Hello? Senior." Tang Yishu lowered her voice. "I'm in the study room. Give me a moment, I'll head outside."

A moment later, Tang Yishu's voice returned to normal. "Senior, I'm out. What's the matter?"

Pei Qian went straight to the point. "I want you to make a trip to Beijing over the next two days to help me with something. Our company has some business in Beijing at the moment. You can go take a look and report to me when you return."

Tang Yishu sounded shocked. "Huh? S-Senior, I don't think I can do it. I'm afraid of traveling…"

Pei Qian had already expected this. "It's alright. This time, I'll get Little Sun, who has the best driving skills in the company and another driver to accompany you. Before you set off, they'll carefully inspect the car from beginning to end to ensure that nothing goes wrong on the way."

"When Qiu Hong receives you, you don't have to worry about anything. You just have to inspect it for me and then reflect on what you saw."

Pei Qian knew very well that Tang Yishu's luck was a little strange. However, her bad luck only appeared on small matters such as accidentally tripping on her way out or bugs appearing in the program.

Tang Yishu had never encountered life-threatening danger before. She was not a local in Jingzhou and had never met with a train derailment even though she traveled all the way here to study. Thus, there was nothing much to worry about.

It would be alright as long as Little Sun was extra careful.

Tang Yishu was still a little reluctant. "But Senior, it's almost exam week. I still have to revise…"

Pei Qian smiled slightly. "It's alright, it's only for two days. Two days without revision would not affect you much with your calibre. It wouldn't affect your scholarship."

Every time he mentioned this, Pei Qian would be especially envious of these super geniuses.

Why did Tang Yishu score very well every time while he had to work so hard to pass?

This world was so unfair!

Tang Yishu hesitated for a moment but finally agreed. "I'll make a trip then. However, I don't know anything and I might not be able to see any problems…"

Pei Qian smiled. "It doesn't matter. Only people like you who don't know anything can see some details. You don't have to study on purpose or care about what others say. Just observe and then tell me what you have observed based on your first impression."

"Oh right. Take note of the situation at the incubation base. Overtime is strictly not allowed."

"If they don't work overtime, take a look at their working conditions. If they are doing well, force them to play games. They must play for at least ten hours a week!"

Pei Qian had learnt to be smart now. He realized that he could no longer control these people by limiting their working hours. While many departments only had a short working time, their efficiency was very high. Their progress had not fallen behind at all!

Therefore, apart from working hours, he had to pay attention to the working conditions of the independent game designers in the incubation base. If their working conditions were off the charts, he had to take some measures.

Tang Yishu answered, "Alright, Senior."

…

…

December 8th, Thursday…

At the headquarters of the Long Yu Corporation, the person-in-charge of IOI's operations and cooperation department, Zhao Xuming, the person-in-charge of IOI's local server, Chrétien, and the relevant staff were having a meeting.

Chrétien introduced Finger Games' headquarters to everyone.

"The headquarters are currently preparing for the IOI World Finals. The finals will be held in Los Angeles this time and the venue is still being prepared. It should be completed by the end of this month."

"The qualifiers from all over the world should be launched very soon to determine the participants of the international competition. The competition time for the international competition is temporarily set to be on the 24th of this month. The competition will officially begin on Saturday, which is the day of Christmas Eve. It will end on January 15th."

"This competition basically does not coincide with the GPL competition. This is also my suggestion to the headquarters."

"Our global finals will definitely not be any less popular than the GPL league in any way, however, there is indeed no need for us to go head to head with them considering the special circumstances of our local server. A lapse in timing could ensure that the popularity of the finals would be maximized."

"On top of that, deep innovations in IOI's gameplay are still underway. The next goal of the headquarters is to further absorb the advantages of the gameplay in GOG. I will fight against the public opinion and request to use the modified version in the finals to compete. I want to show the world's players, especially the Chinese players, our determination."

"Boss Zhao, how's Long Yu Corporation doing?"

Zhao Xuming replied, "Everything is going smoothly at Long Yu Corporation. The progress is perfect!"

"Domestic players have accumulated a lot of resentment some time ago, because of the low-priced region and the changes to the game. However, we are beginning to see the effect of dragging it out."

"Targeted compensation given to old gamers temporarily appeased their anger. As for the new version, while there were some changes to the gameplay, many old gamers did not resist it after adapting for a period of time."

"I believe that as time passes, they will slowly accept it."

"Of course, we cannot be blindly optimistic about the current situation. There are still some old gamers who are less active. However, this is not a big deal. As long as the global finals are done and IOI's popularity rises, these old gamers will definitely return."

"The local clubs are already foolproof. Long Yu Corporation has collaborated with three veteran clubs to help strengthen their team."

"These three veteran clubs are famous clubs in the country. They are currently the strongest, and there is no problem for them to fight their way out of the qualifiers. The other clubs have also gotten quite a good transfer fee by buying players. They can also play a supporting role when they participate in the qualifiers."

"This can be considered a win-win situation for the small clubs, big clubs, and us, the organizers.

"All in all, we are ready for the IOI World Finals!"

Chrétien nodded. "Yes. Is there a FV club among the three clubs you mentioned?"

Zhao Xuming was stunned. "Huh? No."

"FV Club is a small club. It's not famous. Even if they were to participate in the qualifiers, they could only be a sidekick. Their skills are very far from the pros."

Chrétien could not help but frown, slightly stunned.

Obviously, both parties had deviations on their information.

"Then why is this FV Club spending their own money to advertise for the qualifiers? I thought this was an idea from Long Yu Corporation." Chrétien said.

Zhao Xuming was confused. "When did this happen? Why didn't I know about it?"

Chrétien was a little unhappy. "Since yesterday, Boss Zhao doesn't seem to be very well-informed."

Zhao Xuming quickly explained, "I've been busy for the past two days and didn't pay much attention to this."

He turned to his subordinate. "Do you know about this?"

The subordinate nodded. "I know. Actually, the publicity only appeared yesterday afternoon and evening. I've already sorted out the relevant content. I wanted to report to you later today."

The subordinate quickly took the initiative to take the blame seeing that the atmosphere was not right.

Zhao Xuming said coldly, "Give it to me now!"

The subordinate quickly stood up and left. A moment later, he returned with a set of documents and handed them to Zhao Xuming.

Zhao Xuming took it and quickly scanned through it.

From the report, the FV Club had done publicity in many places, including live-stream platforms, video websites, forums, and so on. Apart from buying hot searches and advertisements, there were also signs of fake reviewers under these topics.

It had indeed greatly increased its popularity, but all of these marketing activities were limited to the domestic IOI qualifiers and FV Club.

What's more, since the FV Club itself was not very famous, they had to use the IOI World Finals for marketing. Therefore, FV Club was not the most important part of the publicity.

It was no wonder that Chrétien thought that Long Yu Corporation had instructed the FV Club to do these marketing activities.

Zhao Xuming was confused. What was happening?

The emperor was not anxious, but the eunuch was?

Long Yu Corporation did not deliberately publicize IOI's qualifiers in the country mainly because there was no need to waste money on it.

There were only a few teams participating in the domestic qualifiers. Other than the three veteran clubs like SUG, the other teams were just there to accompany the players. They had already been confirmed when the teams chose their players.

What's more, the qualifiers would not attract much attention in the country. There would not be many people watching the competition either. The Long Yu Corporation did not plan to spend too much money on the field. They had only found a recording studio to make do with it and thought that it would be over after a walk.

Why spend so much money on marketing under such circumstances?

The audience would come in to take a look when the game became popular. That was it for the stage? That was the standard of the game? It was too far from GPL!

It might not have a good effect even if he were to spend money.

Thus, Zhao Xuming did not forget to publicize the game, he deliberately did not want to publicize it too widely. He just had to go through the motions and send the three veteran teams to the international competition. Then, he would do his best to publicize and generate popularity during the international competition.

Money had to be spent wisely.

However, FV Club paid for the publicity unexpectedly!

Zhao Xuming was confused. The qualifiers had nothing to do with them.

It would have been fine if the clubs like SUG were to pay for publicity. After all, they would be able to obtain real popularity and traffic. However, the FV Club was just there to accompany them. Wouldn't it be a waste of money to advertise?

Chrétien became unhappy when he saw Zhao Xuming's confused expression.

He gently knocked on the table and said, "Boss Zhao, the situation with FV Club is not of very good influence."

"We don't have enough publicity on our own. Many players actually obtained information from the FV Club, since there's no news from the official platform. That makes us look unprofessional!"

"I originally thought that you were the one who instigated the publicity of the FV Club. I thought that you were not professional in this matter. However, I did not expect you to not know about this at all. This is even more unprofessional!"

"We have never asked about the domestic qualifiers due to our trust in Longyu Corporation. However, the current situation seems to be letting us down, right?"

The corners of Zhao Xuming's mouth twitched. He was speechless.

How unlucky!

According to the original plan, they would just casually organize the domestic qualifiers. It would be fine as long as the scene was passable. The teams were all internally decided, and no one would watch them. Why would they create such a huge scene?

It would not be too late to save the money and wait for the international competition to kickstart.

The official platform was in a difficult position now that FV Club was doing this. Players would think that IOI's official publicity was worse than a club's. They would definitely think that Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation were unprofessional.

For example, the Long Yu Corporation was like a department leader. Initially, they had brought all their members along to slack off. Others could not tell, but they could feel that this department was not very impressive.

In the end, someone in the department suddenly worked hard as if they were on steroids and worked overtime every day. Everyone else in the department was exposed and became a bunch of useless people waiting to die.

The person-in-charge of the department would definitely be scolded the most.

Zhao Xuming quickly said, "Don't worry, there's still time to salvage the situation!"

"The competition will only start on Saturday. There are still two days left. We will invest some resources into promoting IOI's qualifiers. That way, players will think that FV Club has only obtained insider information in advance. They will not think that we are unprofessional."

"What's more, we should be able to achieve a good effect by doing publicity now with FV Club's publicity."

Only then did Chrétien nod in satisfaction. "It would be best if you can salvage the situation. I believe in your professional abilities."

On the surface, Zhao Xuming looked calm and relaxed. However, he was cursing in his heart.

Why was this FV looking for trouble? They were harming others without benefiting themselves!

This time, Long Yu Corporation would have to fork out another huge sum of money to invest in the qualifiers.

Not only did they have to spend money on advertising and marketing, but they also had to hurry up with the construction of the competition venue and make it more gaudy, right?

With more attention on the game, there would definitely be more players who would nitpick. If the venue was not good enough, it would definitely lower the level of the competition and be more embarrassing.

Of course, the game would start in two days. Time was of the essence, and it would be too late to change the venue. He could only purchase some decorations to improve the venue's effect as much as possible.

Zhao Xuming still could not understand why FV Club had nothing better to do than to spend money to promote themselves, but he did not have the time to think about it.

After all, time was of the essence. The competition would begin in two days. Zhao Xuming had to focus all his energy on preparing for the qualifiers.

…

At the same time, in Beijing…

Tang Yishu alighted from the car and stepped carefully into the capital.

This was her first time here. Nothing had happened to her even though she had been frightened on the way.

However, that did not make Tang Yishu feel at ease. Instead, she felt more dangerous.

Perhaps it was because the safety measures had been done so well that bad luck had not found an opportunity to take advantage of. She did not know which breakthrough point bad luck would find that would suddenly explode with the accumulation.

Little Sun drove the car directly to the hotel parking lot. Qiu Hong had already helped to book a room and was waiting in the lobby.

According to the schedule, they would eat something at noon and rest for a while. In the afternoon, he would bring her to the independent game incubation base. They would visit the Cold-Faced Lady the next day and return to Jingzhou in the afternoon.

Qiu Hong looked at the mechanical watch in his hand and guessed that it was about time.

Two minutes later, he looked up and saw Tang Yishu at the hotel entrance.

The two drivers were like bodyguards, one on the left and one on the right, carefully protecting her safety. However, the automatic revolving door at the entrance of the hotel suddenly stopped for some unknown reason. The three of them froze on the spot.

Qiu Hong quickly opened the side door. "Little Tang, right? Come here!"

Tang Yishu and the two drivers had no choice but to walk through the side door. However, as soon as they entered the lobby, the revolving door at the entrance of the hotel returned to normal.

Qiu Hong did not pay much attention to it. He thought that it was just an accident and shook hands with Tang Yishu.

"You've had a long journey, the three of you must be tired from it. Here's the itinerary: We'll have a simple meal nearby, and then the three of you can go back to the hotel to rest at noon. We'll gather in the lobby at two in the afternoon. I'll bring everyone to the incubation base to take a look."

"The time now is… Eh?"

Qiu Hong subconsciously raised his wrist to look at the time. However, he realized that the mechanical watch that had been working just now was no longer moving.

He was a little confused. He had been wearing this watch for a few years, and there had not been any major problems. He had just received a message on it a few minutes ago.

Why did it stop all of a sudden?

Tang Yishu looked up at the sky in embarrassment, pretending that nothing had happened.

…

At noon, at the independent game incubation base…

Wu Zhicheng was having a meal with a few new independent game designers in the resting area.

"See, I told you that Fish-Catching Take-Out's tomato eggs are very delicious, right? They're different from the ones made in restaurants outside, right? Fish-Catching Take-Out's food is absolutely healthy."

"…Huh? Work plan? Don't worry about that. It's not necessary to complete by the dateline. It can be adjusted. If you feel like you have anything new to add, feel free to look for Xi Hao."

"…Don't be afraid of him. Don't treat Xi Hao as your boss or manager. He's just the boss of the service department. He won't interfere with the project. He'll only plan the work according to your ideas. How the project is done depends on you."

"Come, eat more."

Wu Zhicheng was like an old veteran, showing meticulous care for the new independent game designers, even though he had only been here for less than a month.

At first, Wu Zhicheng thought that he would not be able to adapt to this kind of collective work. However, after coming here, he realized that it was completely different!

After coming here, the development of Black Ink and Clouds could only be described as progressing by leaps and bounds.

Wu Zhicheng also thought deeply about the difference.

Now that he recalled, thinking that he was efficient developing games at home previously was all an illusion.

That was because he would often be distracted by trivial matters when working at home. For example, what to do with the art resources in a certain part of the game, and what to do if he suddenly realized that the entire framework was unclear when he was halfway through the checkpoint. He would have to redo everything.

Similar situations often happened because Wu Zhicheng did not plan the entire project meticulously and comprehensively. Moreover, these trivial matters would indeed distract him.

However, after coming to this incubation base, everyone else was in charge of these small matters. Wu Zhicheng himself only needed to seriously think about creativity and design. Naturally, his efficiency increased a lot.

Many independent game designers could not make it because of this problem.

There were specializations in the industry. Even within the planning department, there were different types of work such as designing and modifying the gameplay, raising the art requirements, and planning and development progress. It was very difficult for anyone to be well-versed in all of them.

If he was not good at a certain part, he would have to spend a lot of energy to fill that shortcoming.

However, with the help of the incubation base, independent game designers like Wu Zhicheng only had to be in charge of creating creativity and game design. The other jobs had professionals helping them. With such a detailed division of labor, the efficiency was naturally greatly improved.

Initially, Wu Zhicheng was a little afraid of socializing and worried that he might run into problems in the workplace. However, after spending some time together, he realized that he was worrying for nothing!

As the person-in-charge of the administrative department, Xi Hao was very clear about the positioning of his own department: this was just a service department.

Thus, there was no issue of who was in charge of whom. Naturally, there were no twists and turns in the workplace.

On the contrary, these independent game designers had been screened by Qiu Hong previously. They varied in capabilities but their personalities were rather simple. Thus, they did not do much mutual deception and were naturally closer to each other.

Wu Zhicheng realized that there were very few people in the world who were completely autistic and did not want to communicate with others. Many people looked so autistic and socially fearful because they were in a circle that was not suitable for them.

Wu Zhicheng was now in a circle that suited him very well. Thus, he was very happy every day and his personality became much more cheerful.

Everyone was having lunch happily when Xi Hao walked in.

"Boss Qiu might be bringing people over to take a look in the afternoon. I'm letting you know in advance, consider it an inspection." Xi Hao said.

Wu Zhicheng was stunned. "Is there anything that we need to prepare in advance?"

Wu Zhicheng might have very little official work experience in companies but he had seen the inspection by leaders before. Usually, they had to make preparations in advance to leave a good impression on the leaders.

To be honest, Wu Zhicheng had always been very curious about who the boss behind the incubation base was, but he had never gotten a definite answer.

On the surface, Qiu Hong was in charge of everything. However, there were rumors that Qiu Hong was not the real boss. There was someone else behind the entire plan.

He wondered if the person who came to inspect this time was the real boss?

Xi Hao shook his head. "There's no need to prepare anything in advance. We just have to show our true colors."

"We are strictly following Boss Qiu's instructions. The eight-hour work schedule might not be long, but everyone's work is very serious and fulfilling. In fact, it is even better than 996 for many companies."

"I think it should be enough as long as everyone shows this serious and responsible working attitude as usual."