June 9th, Thursday.
After arranging for the mass production of the fully automated counter-argument machine on Monday, Pei Qian had been spending his days rather leisurely.
Occasionally, he’d check on the situations at Tenda Games, Tuoguan Fitness, and Slackin’ Delivery. Everything seemed calm and peaceful.
At noon, Pei Qian finished his lunch at Slackin’ Internet Café as usual, sipping coffee while organizing mind maps for various departments.
“Ding.”
His phone rang. Pei Qian picked it up and immediately frowned.
It was a message from the loss manager at Mingyun Private Kitchen.
“Mr. Pei, there’s been a noticeable increase in foreign diners and reservations these past few days.”
A noticeable increase in foreigners?
Something seemed off!
Pei Qian was instantly on alert.
Previously, he had instructed all loss managers to report any obvious “anomalies” directly to him without waiting for the loss managers’ meeting. This would maximize the chances of avoiding “delayed backstabbing” problems.
After all, for many dangers, discovering them one day earlier versus one day later could make a world of difference.
This loss manager from Mingyun Private Kitchen was doing a good job.
“Do you know the reason?” Pei Qian replied immediately.
Loss Manager: “Not yet clear. We suspect that an influential foreigner might have dined here and promoted it to friends.”
“Recently, Manager Lin has put a lot of effort into service improvements. The dining experience for foreign guests has been greatly enhanced, especially the all-English dish explanations that incorporate our traditional food culture. It seems to be working very well.”
Pei Qian was silent for a moment, then replied: “You’ve done very well. Thank you for your hard work.”
Pei Qian was very satisfied with the loss manager’s report.
Now this is what a professional double agent looks like!
At the next loss managers’ meeting, he must give special recognition to this loss manager, so that others could learn from him!
Having obtained this important information, Pei Qian began to analyze it seriously.
Who would have thought that Lin Canrong’s initiative to have waitstaff learn English would work?
However, from the current situation, this didn’t seem to be a particularly serious matter.
Lin Canrong providing training and foreign language lessons to waitstaff had increased costs significantly, but Mingyun Private Kitchen hadn’t raised its prices, and daily reservations were already at capacity. So what if more foreigners were making reservations? It wouldn’t bring in any extra money for him anyway.
“Hmm… on the surface, the harm does seem minimal. But I can’t let my guard down. What if there are hidden possibilities I haven’t anticipated?”
Pei Qian checked the time.
“It’s almost 1 PM. Let’s stick to the original plan—first visit Shangyang Games, then investigate the situation at Mingyun Private Kitchen.”
After thinking for a long time, Pei Qian couldn’t figure out how Mingyun Private Kitchen’s increasing reputation would bring him any imminent harm, so he had to put it aside for now.
…
In the afternoon, Pei Qian arrived at Shangyang Games.
On the way, Pei Qian had taken time to search online for opinions about the “arms race” between GOG and IOI.
The situation was not optimistic!
If the battle between these two games were divided into two phases, both phases had already ended with GOG’s complete victory.
In the first phase, GOG swept up a large number of fence-sitting players in China through cross-platform play, smooth network performance, quick matchmaking, and season-end giveaways. Meanwhile, IOI belatedly launched its Chinese server after GOG’s big giveaway and didn’t release a mobile version.
In the second phase, IOI initiated the arms race first, updating with a high frequency of two heroes per month, hoping to steal GOG’s players. However, GOG countered with crowdfunded heroes and consecutively released popular heroes like Traveler Bao Xu and Wind Inkmaster Ruan. GOG’s generous “crowdfunding” rewards kept players highly interested in their new heroes.
In short, while IOI was updating quickly, it still wasn’t capturing much attention.
Although the “arms race” between these two games would continue, possibly for months or even a year, from the current situation, the outcome seemed already decided.
As long as Min Jingchao didn’t have a brain malfunction, GOG could maintain its advantage in hero quality through crowdfunding and maintain overwhelming player attention.
In summary, the entire internet was extremely pessimistic about IOI.
Pei Qian was worried.
Though he would make money whether GOG or IOI became popular, relatively speaking, Pei Qian currently sided more with IOI.
After all, he needed to get rid of Lin Wan first.
No matter how much his own game earned, it was controllable. He could alleviate the situation by giving back to players and offering benefits.
But the backstabbing from Lin Wan and her siblings was completely unpredictable and posed a much greater threat!
Just thinking about it made Pei Qian’s liver ache. “A Beautiful Tomorrow” had won awards due to Lin Chang’s award submission, extended its overseas screening, and had already raked in several million dollars at the box office, with still some time before it closed.
Which threat was greater was painfully obvious!
Pei Qian knew that everyone at Shangyang Games must be very discouraged now, and it was time for Mr. Pei to give them some encouragement.
Arriving at Shangyang Games, Pei Qian went straight to the conference room.
He had notified them in advance, so Shangyang Games’ core members were already waiting in the conference room.
“Mr. Pei.”
Everyone stood up to greet him, though all their faces showed disappointment.
Lin Wan’s expression was especially noticeable.
Pei Qian’s heart skipped a beat.
What’s with these expressions? Don’t give up!
Pei Qian coughed lightly and said, “The promotion of IOI’s Chinese server doesn’t seem to be going very well? It’s alright, don’t be so downhearted. If you have anything to say, please speak freely.”
Everyone looked at each other, but eventually, Lin Wan spoke first.
“Now I understand how Tenda’s competitors feel.”
“It’s unavoidable—the most formidable opponents are always your people, especially when we’re stuck with a liability.”
Pei Qian’s heart sank. “A liability?”
Is she talking about me?
Could they have discovered that I’m behind Wind Inkmaster?
Pei Qian felt an inexplicable uneasiness.
Wang Xiaobin explained, “We mean the parent company, Mr. Pei. We’ve long realized we can’t beat GOG this way, so we wrote several emails to the parent company with suggestions, but their responses were all similar—they won’t accept them.”
“Moreover, they seemed to blame us.”
“Their tone suggested that IOI is doing fine in all other regions globally with good responses, so why isn’t it working here? They think our operational strategy is the problem.”
Pei Qian breathed a sigh of relief. Oh, it’s not about me. That’s fine then.
They scared me! I thought I’d been exposed.
Lin Wan spread her hands. “We can’t blame them either. After all, those who haven’t truly faced Tenda can’t understand how frightening it is.”
“I’ve learned my lesson this time.”
She sighed softly, “Besides… Mr. Pei only needs to offer a couple of hints to turn the tide.”
“Uh…” Pei Qian coughed lightly. “Not at all, I’m very objective and fair.”
Ye Zhizhou said meaningfully, “Wasn’t it you, Mr. Pei, who rejected Min Jingchao’s request to hire more people and speed up new hero development? If not for your hint, how would he have thought of the idea to crowdfund heroes from players?”
Pei Qian: “…This is completely a misunderstanding.”
Everyone immediately put on an “I understand” expression.
Pei Qian was speechless. This is a misunderstanding!
My heart is truly on your side!
Besides, even if I secretly helped them, it wasn’t with the crowdfunding heroes idea…
There was no way to explain it clearly.
Pei Qian decided not to dwell on this topic anymore. After all, he was already used to their attitude.
Now that the parent company was refusing to make changes to IOI, Shangyang Games could only think of other solutions.
“So, does anyone have good ideas for the next operational strategy?” Pei Qian asked.
Everyone looked at each other again, but no one spoke.
Lin Wan sighed, “Mr. Pei, we’re still trying to think of something.”
Pei Qian thought, this isn’t good.
It was clear that everyone had lost some fighting spirit, probably feeling that GOG’s lead was already too great. With the parent company unwilling to cooperate on game modifications, how could they win with marketing alone?
Since this was a task assigned by Mr. Pei, no one could say discouraging words like “we can’t win,” but they also didn’t have better solutions.
Pei Qian felt that Lin Wan was about to say something like “I feel my abilities are insufficient and need to continue learning at Tenda.”
Quick, think of a way to help Shangyang Games.
Pei Qian pondered for a moment, then suddenly had an inspiration. Got it!
When in doubt, just throw money at it!
Wasn’t that how GOG initially became popular? By throwing money around?
Then do the same for IOI!
Since the game couldn’t be modified, the only option was to overwhelm GOG with extensive marketing.
Pei Qian coughed lightly, “According to the last regulation, 50% of all department profits can be freely allocated for various departmental expenses. Take out this money, and I’ll also allocate a special fund for you.”
“This fund will be used for two main aspects: streamer promotion and internet café ground marketing!”
“Find streamers and content creators, sponsor them to continuously produce content about IOI, including new hero introductions, tutorial videos, etc., especially creating the impression that this game is very popular overseas.”
“Then cooperate with various internet cafés—offer free use of most skins when playing IOI, provide internet fee discounts for playing IOI, and so on.”
“Forcibly take back the attention!”
In Pei Qian’s memory, LOL seemed to have been promoted this way, and it would work.
Copying someone else’s homework shouldn’t go wrong, right?
During the first loss managers’ meeting, the management trainees had reported important information to Pei Qian—each department was formulating large-scale spending plans, including salary completions, office supplies purchases, and more.
Pei Qian judged that all departments had understood the meaning of the Tenda Cornerstone Award. While envying Headwind Logistics, they were also initiating extensive spending plans.
Since that was the case, he should help them!
So, Pei Qian decided that 50% of all department profits could be freely allocated to various departmental expenses, improving each department’s spending efficiency.
Of course, for his beloved loss-making departments like Headwind Logistics and Slackin’ Delivery, Pei Qian would also provide additional funds to accelerate their losses.
As for Shangyang Games, they still had income from games like “Hot-Blooded War Song,” “BE QUIET,” and the IOI Chinese server. Taking 50% of this money and adding Mr. Pei’s special fund, they could use the money to pave the way and force through the promotion!
Ye Zhizhou thought carefully, then suddenly understood.
“I see, I’ve learned another trick from Mr. Pei.”
“When there’s no special approach, sometimes brute force is the way!”
“Is this winning without a move?”
Pei Qian: “…Something like that.”
Although his thinking wasn’t that complicated, Ye Zhizhou’s flattery didn’t seem too far off.
However, Lin Wan frowned slightly and asked, “Then… Mr. Pei, what if GOG mindlessly follows suit and burns money alongside us? What then?”