November 14th, Monday.

In his office, Pei Qian was briefly organizing his recent work.

This cycle was relatively short, with more than two months left until settlement. From the current outlook, all projects were progressing smoothly, and there shouldn’t be any major issues.

As he was considering this, someone knocked on the door.

Pei Qian looked up to see Ma Yang pushing the door open.

“Oh? You’re back. How was the press conference?” Pei Qian asked casually.

Ma Yang sat down across from Pei Qian’s desk. “The press conference? It was so boring! I almost fell asleep listening to it.”

“But don’t worry, Qian Ge, I didn’t embarrass you. I even asked two questions.”

Pei Qian glanced at him, then lowered his head and continued browsing the web. “Oh.”

Old Ma asked questions?

Better not discuss this topic further. Just imagining the scene made him feel awkward.

Pei Qian wasn’t interested in what specific questions Old Ma had asked. Old Ma hadn’t even listened carefully to the content of the press conference, so what high-level questions could he possibly have asked? Not embarrassing, Tenda was good enough.

Of course, a little embarrassment was fine too. One of Pei Qian’s major frustrations now was that both Tenda and Dream Fulfillment Venture Capital had too good a reputation, to the point of being over-mythologized, which created significant obstacles to his efforts to lose money.

Ma Yang didn’t dwell on the matter either. Seeing that Pei Qian wasn’t interested, he dropped the subject and instead brought up something he cared more about: being an internet celebrity.

“Qian Ge, I came today to talk about the livestreaming situation.”

“I’m still fulfilling dreams on Weibo without interruption, but the frequency has decreased significantly. Now it’s about once or twice a week, giving away thirty to fifty thousand yuan each time.”

Pei Qian was taken aback. “Oh? Dream fulfillment isn’t something you should be stingy about, nor should you slack off. Since we’ve committed to doing this, we should persist.”

Ma Yang’s money-throwing on Weibo was originally a good thing, so why was the frequency decreasing? Although the amount given each time was still similar to before, with fewer instances, the total amount distributed would be less.

Ma Yang explained, “Qian Ge, it’s not that I’m not taking this seriously. The key issue is that many people needed their dreams fulfilled at first, but now there are fewer and fewer. Comments with any originality on Weibo are becoming increasingly rare. As a ‘dream investor,’ I need to be selective and can’t just give money to anyone.”

Pei Qian was a bit bewildered. “Well… dreams are quite broad in concept. You could relax the standards somewhat.”

Ma Yang waved his hand. “Hey, Qian Ge, I’ve already been very lenient, but if people aren’t even sincere about their dreams, how can they be considered dreams?”

“Some people don’t even put effort into writing their Weibo posts, which makes it hard for me to believe these are their true dreams.”

“I’ve had people record all dream fulfillment records and made a special spreadsheet. Let me tell you, Qian Ge, although I’m not exceptionally smart, just averagely intelligent, no one can fool me!”

Pei Qian fell silent.

It seemed unrealistic to expect Old Ma to throw money around without limits.

Old Ma’s money distribution on Weibo depended on whether the silly netizens’ dreams had any originality; he wasn’t giving money to just any dream. As Old Ma said, poorly written jokes indicated these people weren’t sincere about their dreams, so he wouldn’t give them money.

Theoretically, Old Ma’s thinking was quite correct.

But only once or twice a week, giving away just thirty to fifty thousand yuan, wasn’t that frequency too low?

Previously, he had distributed money quickly, and the dream fund was already depleted, so Pei Qian had been continuously providing more money. But now Old Ma was giving it away more and more slowly.

However, seeing how principled Old Ma was, Pei Qian didn’t feel he could say much.

Ma Yang continued, “Also, about my livestream sales—I’ve already done two sessions so far, with the third one coming up this week.”

“My livestreams are being recorded by staff and uploaded to the AiLiDao website. Almost all the products I promoted have been criticized badly. Several small brand shops closed the very next day, and some larger brands issued emergency notices, removing all related products for rectification.”

“I think a local TV station even reported on it, putting pressure on these merchants. Although they didn’t mention me directly, I feel I should take at least a tiny bit of credit, right?”

“But, Qian Ge, there’s one thing I still don’t quite understand—does this count as livestream sales or livestream destruction? The actual effect seems somewhat different from the initial expectation.”

Old Ma’s long face radiated pride, though with a hint of confusion beneath that pride.

Pei Qian smiled. “Ah, these are just minor details, don’t worry about it.”

Ma Yang thought for a moment, then continued, “Qian Ge, Chen Yufeng told me that what I’m doing now, though reasonable and legal, still carries a bit of risk. He said if possible, he hopes I could speak with the company about possibly assigning me a bodyguard or something.”

“I don’t think it’s necessary, but he insisted I report this, so I wanted to ask your opinion?”

Pei Qian looked at Old Ma, his eyes gleaming. “A bodyguard?”

Ma Yang nodded. “Yes. Don’t you think it’s a bit excessive, Qian Ge?”

Pei Qian raised his hand. “Not at all! Old Ma, I’m just regretful that I didn’t think of this myself!”

“While we live in a society governed by law, we should neither harbor harmful intentions nor be without caution.”

“Here’s what we’ll do—you’re putting yourself out there for the company, making sacrifices. To ensure your safety, I’ll hire you a personal bodyguard at a rate of 100,000 yuan per month. You’ll be thoroughly protected!”

Ma Yang was stunned. “Qian Ge, isn’t that level of treatment a bit too high? Even you don’t have that.”

Pei Qian shook his head. “Ah, don’t say that. Assigning you a bodyguard is a work necessity, so don’t decline.”

Although Ma Yang verbally declined, seeing Pei Qian’s insistence, his face lit up with joy. “Alright, Qian Ge, then I accept the company’s arrangement!”

“By the way, Qian Ge, several of my buddies have been asking me for GPL league tickets recently. I told them the company has regulations, that tickets must be handled in a proper official manner, but they didn’t believe me. So I had to come and ask for your instructions.”

Pei Qian nodded. “Hmm… tickets. I can give you some allocation, but not too many.”

“I’ll speak with Shangyang Games about setting aside a portion of tickets specifically for internal employees. However, the quantity and seat locations must be strictly controlled, not given out carelessly.”

Ma Yang had become quite a notable figure at the university.

Since Pei Qian had been deliberately concealing his identity, the vast majority of people at the university only saw him as a minor internet celebrity, as Mr. Pei’s actor, or at most as a high-level employee within Tenda.

In any case, no one thought he was Mr. Pei himself.

But Ma Yang had never thought of hiding his identity—everyone knew Ma Yang was a high-level executive at Tenda. Especially recently, with Ma Yang both distributing money on Weibo and livestreaming, more and more people recognized him.

Now, Ma Yang rarely showed his face at the university, fearing the hassle.

But while university troubles could be avoided, long-time friends couldn’t be escaped.

Fortunately, most friends understood boundaries and, since graduation and job hunting weren’t imminent, they didn’t feel comfortable making excessive requests to Ma Yang.

Asking for two GPL match tickets wasn’t considered excessive.

Moreover, internal employees likely had similar needs, so it was better to establish rules early rather than having internal employees competing with the general public for tickets once the GPL league officially began—that wouldn’t look good.

Ma Yang was pleased. “Great, Qian Ge. I don’t have anything else, so I’ll head back to prepare for the next sales session.”

After seeing Ma Yang off, Pei Qian thought for a moment. It had been some time since he’d visited Shangyang Games, so he got up to go there, planning to check on their recent work.

…

Shangyang Games, conference room.

Several core members had arrived, and Lin Wan began reporting on the recent work situation.

“Mr. Pei, currently, Shangyang Games is still following the previous work plan, mainly responsible for two aspects of work. The first aspect is GOG’s overseas operations, and the other is the development of new versions of old games, led by Wang Xiaobin.”

“At present, GOG’s overseas operations are developing well. Although we’ve scaled back our promotional campaigns, due to GOG’s inherent advantages in gameplay, PC-mobile cross-platform capability, and early-stage operations, the current popularity and market share continue to grow.”

“For us, achieving this growth rate while spending less money is a very cost-effective and worthwhile endeavor.”

Currently, the main work for GOG’s overseas operations, apart from regular promotion and operation, includes developing existing characters from Hurricane Comics. The response has been good, and they seem to suit the tastes of European and American players.”

“The new version development is also proceeding smoothly, though due to limited manpower and resources, and a tight schedule, the changes are mostly conventional.”

Pei Qian nodded.

Yes, this would do.

It was no longer realistic to expect to spend big money without results.

Small-scale operations, gradually promoting GOG, and making conventional changes to the new version, even if they made profits, as long as they weren’t excessive, would be fine.

Lin Wan continued, “Also, Mr. Pei, there’s some news you might not be aware of. I noticed it by chance earlier and thought I’d mention it.”

“Eric has been replaced. Dayark Company has assigned someone else to handle IOI’s domestic server promotion.”

Pei Qian was startled. “Eric? Oh, that, that… the person in charge of IOI’s domestic server, right?”

Lin Wan nodded. “Yes, it seems to have happened just a few days ago. If I’m not mistaken, he’s probably quietly flown away by now.”

Pei Qian fell silent.

Eric came and went in a hurry.

Wasn’t he supposed to build a career here? Wasn’t he supposed to lead IOI’s domestic server to properly compete with GOG?

But just as Pei Qian had prepared himself, before anything could happen, Eric was already gone?

This was truly… life’s unpredictability.

For some reason, Pei Qian felt a strange sense of regret and emotion.

Had he known, he would have gone to say goodbye. What a pity.

“By the way, Mr. Pei,” Lin Wan remembered something else.

“About the GPL league tickets you mentioned earlier, arrangements have been made. We still need to study where exactly these tickets should be located and how internal employees can obtain them.”

The GPL league venue has been mostly renovated. We’re still using the previous venue from the GOG Global Finals, but we’ve rearranged the decorations based on the confirmed teams, hanging up each team’s battle flag.”

“Of course, various details of the venue have also been optimized according to suggestions from the audience at the previous Global Finals.”

“Why don’t we take some time this afternoon to go and have a look?”

Pei Qian nodded. “Sure, let’s go take a look.”