September 3rd, Monday.
Pei Qian spent a carefree weekend, playing games at home for two days straight, completely absorbed.
It was the weekend, after all. The entire Tenda was on holiday, so as the boss, Pei Qian naturally needed to rest well too.
What? Some businesses might have problems on the weekend?
So what?
All departments were off on weekends, so even if he knew about issues, he would be powerless to help. It would only add unnecessary worry and make him uneasy even on weekends.
Therefore, weekends were meant for disconnecting from the internet and resting properly, without thinking about company matters at all.
No matter how big the issue, it could wait until Monday.
Pei Qian felt that since he now had the system under control, collecting quite a bit of wool during each settlement period, why should he remain so anxious?
Today was Monday, and as usual, Pei Qian leisurely arrived at the company after having lunch at home, ready to go through the motions.
First, check the reports from each department, then wrap himself in a small blanket and watch some shows; he could leave when it was time.
Next time he’d come back… probably on Friday.
Of course, this didn’t mean that Mr. Pei’s work was leisurely.
He didn’t need to be in the office every day, but it was mentally taxing!
If a department had issues on a normal day, he had to personally go there, rack his brains to plan the future development path for each department, think about how to lose money, and remain constantly vigilant for dangerous information… how many brain cells were wasted!
If he didn’t rest more and sleep well, how could he recover?
He first got a cup of coffee, then checked the work reports from each department while drinking it.
Overall, everything seemed to be going smoothly.
From these department reports, there were only two matters worth noting.
The first was from Headwind Logistics, where the air freight business had gradually gotten on track. However, due to many shipping restrictions, these flights were mostly not filled to capacity most of the time. Combined with prices that weren’t set very high, the air freight business was currently operating at a loss.
Not only that, to better complement the air freight business and improve coverage, Lü Mingliang was still continuing to expand Headwind Stations in important locations around Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other key areas, further increasing the coverage of Headwind Logistics in the three core regions outside the Beijing-Tianjin area.
So, during the period of the air freight business expansion, losses had actually increased further.
Pei Qian was very satisfied with this. Indeed, Lü Mingliang was reliable and saved him worry!
The second matter concerned the development progress of “Eternal Cycle.”
Pei Qian hadn’t expected that when Little Tang took Li Yada from the gaming platform, there would be an unexpected joy.
Because when Hu Xianbin left, he handed the work of “Eternal Cycle” to Li Yada, and when Li Yada left, she passed the work to the original novelist, Yu Fei.
How did they come up with such a brilliant idea as making someone who knew nothing about games the lead designer?
It was simply perfect!
So, when Li Yada called to ask for instructions, Pei Qian agreed without hesitation, even hoping that Yu Fei, this temporary lead designer, could continue working forever.
But even so, the development progress of “Eternal Cycle” was still faster than imagined.
At the current pace, it would likely be officially launched and available to players by the end of this month.
“Eternal Cycle” was just a DLC, extensively using scenes and monsters from “Turn Back To Shore,” though with some detail adjustments.
In the plot of “Turn Back To Shore,” the protagonist was an ordinary person who fought his way through the Six Realms of Reincarnation and the Avici Hell, an extremely difficult journey.
In “Eternal Cycle,” the protagonist was a martial god who, with his superb skills, entered the Avici Hell to become the first Prison Keeper.
“Eternal Cycle” was like a prequel story, with the same scenes as “Turn Back To Shore,” except the prequel’s world would appear more orderly, with the protagonist being the disruptor of this order; while the main story of “Turn Back To Shore” would appear more sinister, chaotic, and desperate, with the protagonist being a struggling seeker of the Way.
This meant that all art resources could be highly reused.
For instance, scenes from the original work could be slightly modified, changing the style and adjusting the routes, to be used in the prequel.
Monsters from the original work could have their textures changed, with a few new skills and actions added, to become monsters or NPCs in the prequel.
In other games, this behavior could be summed up in one word: reskinning.
In fact, many games had this phenomenon—you’d just fought a green goblin, then a red goblin would appear, except the red goblin’s skills would be much stronger.
After all, game capacity and resources were limited; using a monster type only once would be wasteful. Using them multiple times was acceptable as long as it was done well and didn’t give players too much of a sense of repetition.
When it came to game design, could this be called laziness? No, it was called project resource management.
The level of resource reuse in “Eternal Cycle” DLC was evidently very high, with almost all actual development time spent on the combat system.
Additionally, even before formal development began, Hu Xianbin and others had already spent two months on “inspiration accumulation” and “preliminary planning,” with all content fully finalized and everyone clear about their work tasks, making development even smoother.
Pei Qian figured that since development was progressing so quickly, it was about time to arrange preliminary promotion work.
Conveniently, Meng Chang had mastered the art of reverse promotion, so the “Eternal Cycle” project could be confidently entrusted to him.
This time, Pei Qian didn’t have much to worry about, since from the beginning, “Eternal Cycle” wasn’t expected to lose money.
With the prior success of “Turn Back To Shore,” no matter how poorly “Eternal Cycle” was made, this DLC would likely still sell well.
Its main purposes were actually twofold: First, to place the DLC before the main story, requiring players to buy the DLC before the main game, thus significantly reducing the sales of “Turn Back To Shore” to reach the system’s free threshold, preventing “Turn Back To Shore” from continuing to make money; second, to keep the authors in the Inspiration Class with the intangible concept of copyright adaptation, preventing them from returning to write profitable books.
So, even if Meng Chang’s plan failed this time and “Eternal Cycle” gained a small following, as long as it wasn’t too popular, that would be completely acceptable.
Having received his commission last month, Meng Chang’s mindset should have stabilized. Whether this attempt succeeded or failed, Meng Chang probably wouldn’t leave.
All in all, this month’s work seemed relatively relaxed, with the overall situation being comparatively optimistic.
As for the Morning Dew gaming platform… since it wasn’t officially a Tenda subsidiary, it wouldn’t send work reports here for now.
Pei Qian planned to call later to ask about their situation.
…
Just as he was thinking, there was a knock at the door.
Pei Qian looked up to see He Desheng from Dream Realization Venture Capital.
“Hmm? Something up?”
Pei Qian was slightly surprised, as He Desheng hadn’t visited for a while.
Theoretically, Dream Realization Venture Capital could now operate on its own. He Desheng only needed to screen the queued projects according to the corresponding rules, with profits and losses left to fate, no need to come for instructions.
He Desheng was clearly aware of this and said, “Mr. Pei, there’s nothing major on Dream Realization Venture Capital’s side. I came mainly because I felt it had been a long time since I reported on our work, and I’d also like to make an investment application.”
Pei Qian nodded, “Alright.”
It was true that he hadn’t paid much attention to Dream Realization Venture Capital for a while, so it was good to hear an update.
He Desheng first briefly reported on the current work situation, emphasizing recent projects that had been more profitable.
He particularly emphasized several projects that had been failing for a long time, but Dream Realization Venture Capital kept investing until they finally succeeded in turning losses into profits, making a substantial gain.
He also emphasized the status of Star Bird Fitness, which was rapidly expanding in Jingzhou and neighboring areas, with its valuation growing rapidly.
Of course, some projects had incurred significant losses, but the funds earned from other projects by Dream Realization Venture Capital were sufficient to cover these losses, and they continued to invest.
In addition, Dream Realization Venture Capital’s behavior of investing in times of crisis and withdrawing after situations improved had earned the friendship of many companies, winning a good reputation for Tenda Group. Many companies considered it an honor to cooperate with Tenda.
Pei Qian listened and silently sighed.
Ah, when would Dream Realization Venture Capital’s losses exceed its profits? That would be great!
“Alright, I understand the situation now.”
As soon as Pei Qian heard that Dream Realization Venture Capital was still making money, he completely lost interest in these details and didn’t want to hear more.
He Desheng nodded; he hadn’t planned to say much anyway.
After all, these matters were all within Mr. Pei’s plan, so a brief mention was sufficient. Saying too much would be wasting Mr. Pei’s valuable time.
“Also, Mr. Pei, I’d like to apply for additional investment in a project.”
Pei Qian wasn’t very interested and casually asked, “Oh, which project?”
Although He Desheng was now the head of Dream Realization Venture Capital, due to the company’s special regulations, he could only screen, not actively invest.
This meant that other companies had to submit investment plans, and only after waiting their turn could He Desheng decide whether to invest.
This created a problem: for companies like Star Bird Fitness, which had submitted investment plans long ago but hadn’t gotten their turn, or companies that hadn’t submitted investment plans at all, He Desheng couldn’t invest.
To invest, he first needed Mr. Pei’s consent.
And for projects that had already been invested in, if additional investment was needed outside the rules, Mr. Pei’s consent was definitely required.
This time, he probably had his eye on a project, so he came to seek Mr. Pei’s opinion.
For this reason, Pei Qian lacked enthusiasm.
A project that caught He Desheng’s eye would definitely be profitable! It probably shouldn’t receive additional investment.
But it wouldn’t be appropriate to reject without even asking.
So, he would just listen casually, go through the motions, and then find some excuse to reject it.
He Desheng said, “Mr. Pei, I want to make an additional investment in the Morning Dew gaming platform!”
“From the current situation, your early layout and arrangements for the Morning Dew gaming platform have been hugely successful, and the exploration of the platform model has been validated!”
“Now, the soul-searching questions for players have taken effect, with large numbers of players and game developers flocking to join, which also proves that the platform’s model has extremely high compatibility with the Tenda model!”
“Next, we should further increase our investment to allow it to develop and grow rapidly!”
Pei Qian was stunned, with a question mark slowly floating above his head.
?