After reading Qiao Liang’s reply, Meng Chang felt extremely surprised, but somewhere deep down, he also had a feeling of “so that’s how it is.”

Earlier, he had only reached out to Qiao Liang out of desperation, giving him a simple account of what had happened. He hadn’t really expected there to be any hidden truths behind it all.

Unexpectedly, Qiao Liang had actually analyzed and discovered something!

“Perhaps this is what they call ‘those in the situation are confused, while bystanders see clearly’?”

“It’s precisely because I’m in the middle of it, constantly thinking about commissions, that I can’t think rationally and objectively, which prevented me from understanding the deeper meaning behind this matter.”

“While Qiao Liang, as an observer, can use his understanding of Mr. Pei and his analysis of the game to see possibilities that I couldn’t discover.”

Meng Chang would certainly never admit that he was less intelligent than Qiao Liang, or rather, he wouldn’t acknowledge being less intelligent than anyone in the world.

Except for the unfathomably profound Mr. Pei, of course.

But when it came to matters involving himself, he had to admit that Qiao Laoshi, as an observer, could see things more clearly.

Truly intelligent people shouldn’t arrogantly refuse to listen to others’ advice. On the contrary, they should understand that everyone’s abilities have limits, and sometimes in certain specific fields, one should seek help from professionals in that area.

Freaks of nature like Mr. Pei who excelled in all fields, orchestrated everything perfectly, and planned with incredible foresight simply couldn’t be used as models to emulate.

Having realized this, Meng Chang felt much better.

Qiao Liang’s words were like a lifeline, giving Meng Chang, a drowning man, renewed confidence in the Pei-style Promotion Method he had summarized.

Perhaps it wasn’t that the Pei-style Promotion Method had problems, but rather that the version he had summarized wasn’t comprehensive enough?

“So… what exactly are the two aspects of Mr. Pei’s deeper meaning? Could you briefly reveal them?” Meng Chang could hardly contain his curiosity.

After a while, Qiao Liang finally replied.

“I can’t explain it too clearly right now. I still need to go back and think it through properly.”

“But I can briefly mention the general direction: one is the personal experience the game process brings to players, and the other is the relationship between product and marketing. However, these two points might ultimately be the same thing.”

Meng Chang carefully pondered Qiao Laoshi’s words.

Although he still didn’t have much of a clue, it was very clear that in Qiao Laoshi’s view, Mr. Pei’s crude intervention in the promotion plan was obviously directly related to Meng Chang.

“Alright, thank you very much.”

“Then I’ll be waiting for your new video.”

Meng Chang was sincerely grateful to Qiao Liang.

Without realizing it, Meng Chang’s attitude toward Qiao Liang had been gradually changing.

At the beginning, Meng Chang saw Qiao Liang as a stumbling block, because Qiao Liang was always able to interpret the deeper meaning of Mr. Pei’s projects through videos or other means, making the projects quickly become popular and causing Meng Chang’s carefully prepared reverse promotion plans to go down the drain.

For this reason, Meng Chang tried everything to divert Qiao Liang’s attention, but the results were always contrary to his wishes.

Now, Meng Chang had unwittingly found himself on the same side as Qiao Liang, and realized that what Qiao Liang was doing was actually beneficial to him.

True to his name, Qiao Liang was like a bridge, building a pathway to understanding Mr. Pei.

Through Qiao Liang’s analysis, Mr. Pei was no longer an indescribable, elusive, and irresistibly terrifying presence in Meng Chang’s mind, but rather became someone who, although unparalleled in intelligence, could be attempted to be understood and analyzed.

As Meng Chang’s understanding of Mr. Pei deepened, he began to gradually grasp the patterns of Mr. Pei’s actions and the deeper implications behind some seemingly bizarre behaviors, which in turn helped with his promotion plans, resulting in the summary of the “Pei-style Promotion Method.”

When Meng Chang began to doubt the Pei-style Promotion Method, through Qiao Liang, he could complete and correct it.

Now was a process of completion and correction. Although the outcome was yet unknown, it at least gave Meng Chang some hope.

Anyway, the commission for this month was already gone, so Meng Chang could calm down and wait for Qiao Laoshi’s video while also sorting through and reflecting on the Pei-style Promotion Method.

Perhaps a more correct interpretation of the Pei-style Promotion Method was developing within this process.

……

……

September 17th, Monday.

Pei Qian was in his office, sipping coffee while reviewing work reports sent from various departments.

After seeing the report sent by Yu Fei from the Tenda Games department, Pei Qian’s brow first relaxed, then furrowed again.

“Damn…”

He couldn’t find particularly suitable words to describe his feelings at the moment.

Last Friday, “Eternal Cycle” had its second update.

According to Pei Qian’s requirements, “Eternal Cycle” had released the combat system update earlier than the originally scheduled end-of-month release.

He had thought this difficulty would make players furious, but the feedback after the update was quite positive, with many players expressing that this combat system was innovative and completely exceeded their expectations.

“Ah, plans can’t keep up with changes.”

“But looking on the bright side, at least the worst-case scenario wasn’t triggered.”

Actually, the combat system in “Eternal Cycle” shouldn’t have received good reviews so quickly; at least initially, it should have been criticized for a while.

Because the combat in “Eternal Cycle” was difficult in terms of both values and mechanics. Not only were the monsters’ strength values increased, but the new complex mechanics also had extremely high learning costs for players, not something that could be mastered with just a day or two of suffering.

But the bad thing was that the magic sword’s automatic parry mechanism, which Mr. Pei had intended to use to skip classes, was prematurely exposed due to an incorrect update!

This was really troublesome.

According to Pei Qian’s original plan, players would definitely turn the game upside down looking for a weapon similar to “Purification,” and in this process, no matter how hard they tried, they wouldn’t be able to find it. Combined with unfamiliarity with the new combat system and suffering caused by powerful monsters, they would gradually become emotionally agitated, even cursing loudly.

But now, with the magic sword’s automatic parry mechanism as a safety net, players had essentially been given a reassurance pill. They knew that even if they kept dying, as long as they persisted in suffering and pushing forward, the magic sword would eventually lead them to completion.

The mindset became completely different!

In other words, Meng Chang’s damned split plan and the oversights in the splitting process caused Pei Qian’s plan to make players suffer to partially fail. What was originally a good plan had been shattered.

But looking on the bright side, at least the worst-case scenario hadn’t been triggered.

If they had followed Meng Chang’s original plan, the result would have been predictable: first update the scenes and monsters in “Eternal Cycle” without updating the combat system. Players would suffer tremendously and accumulate negative emotions, and online discussions about “Eternal Cycle” would become very heated, accumulating a large amount of negative attention.

Finally, when the combat system for “Eternal Cycle” was updated, the entire game experience would suddenly undergo an earth-shattering change. This novel combat experience would have the effect of turning decay into miracle, transforming all the previously accumulated negative emotions into positive attention, with players declaring “it’s actually good”…

That would have been a major problem.

It would probably have been like the Morning Dew Gaming Platform situation again: everything looking great before Meng Chang got his commission, then immediately collapsing when Meng Chang got his commission.

Wait, why say “again”? These two promotional plans were fundamentally different.

Anyway, this time they had escaped disaster.

With Pei Qian’s forceful intervention, he had managed to prematurely ignite the heat that was originally supposed to explode at the beginning of next month, spreading it to the second half of this month.

The same explosion, but the latter would be much less harmful.

This way, Pei Qian’s bottom-line goal, which was to use “Eternal Cycle” to make “Turn Back to Shore” sales decline and achieve the free goal, should still be achievable.

This could also be considered a blessing in disguise.

For “Eternal Cycle,” Pei Qian had no more demands. The reason he frowned was mainly because he saw the part of the report that Min Jingchao was responsible for reporting.

Over the weekend, GOG’s new hero, the Warden, had also been released and was well-received.

This shouldn’t have been a big problem in theory, but the key issue was that it seriously affected the situation between GOG and ioi!

That was a bit unacceptable.

Every time ioi lost some players, Pei Qian felt like he was being cut to the bone, unbearably painful!

Ever since Eric returned from Dayark Group headquarters, things had started to seem a bit off. ioi had begun to frequently launch cash-grab activities, clearly no longer intending to play along with GOG, but instead focusing on making money from their existing player base.

Pei Qian had been thinking about how to help his brother, but after much consideration, he couldn’t come up with any ideas.

If they raised prices together, the brothers could indeed face criticism together, but how much more money would Tenda make? Pei Qian had already worked hard to keep GOG’s skin profits very low, but with any price increase, the income would roll upward dramatically.

But if they didn’t raise prices together, he could only watch as his good brother disappeared without return.

Pei Qian was in a dilemma, unable to think of a good solution. He could only hope that the Dayark Group, being such a large corporation, could hold on for at least a few more months.

As long as he could come up with a countermeasure in these few months, his good brother could still be saved.

But the release of the Warden further exacerbated the conflict.

GOG had no pressure at all. Min Jingchao spent his days browsing forums, looking for interesting hero designs, arranging game content updates methodically, and focusing entirely on developing the game’s mechanics.

With more and more players, an increasing reserve of hero designs on the forums, and the GPL league becoming increasingly popular, all these factors formed a positive feedback loop. As long as Min Jingchao steered carefully, the great ship of GOG could sail forth with the wind.

ioi was completely different. Eric had to meet the performance targets set from above, and the R&D team at Finger Company had also invested a lot of effort in designing new skins and cash-grab activities. Even within Dayark Group, there were certain disagreements.

Under these circumstances, how could they concentrate on creating better content?

Additionally, ioi’s player base was already thin, lacking GOG’s player crowdfunding design mechanism and various other problems. With these factors combined, even if Eric paddled desperately, the great ship would only spin in place.

The release of the new hero, the Warden, wasn’t a big deal in itself, but it became a marker, a snapshot of the two games’ contrasting fortunes, with the power gap growing increasingly wider.

GOG had reached a new high in online numbers due to the new version, which meant that things were definitely getting increasingly difficult for ioi.

“What should I do? I can’t delay any longer. If I keep delaying, my good brother might not be able to hold on at any moment.”

“Once it collapses, there will truly be no way to salvage it.”

“I need to think of a solution quickly…”

Pei Qian frowned deeply, sinking into deep thought.