Pei Qian headed directly to the service area of Thriller Lodge, where he found Chen Kangtuo and Hao Qiong busy at work.
It was Monday morning, and the number of visitors at Thriller Lodge was much lower compared to the weekend, so Chen Kangtuo and Hao Qiong were mainly busy with matters concerning the roller coaster.
Before the roller coaster officially opened for operation, the Thriller Lodge park definitely needed to make a series of preparations, including various guides and promotional materials. They also needed to emphasize numerous details of on-site management to the staff after opening, ensuring nothing would go wrong.
After all, safety was the most important aspect of such entertainment venues. Whether it was fun or not was just a zero that came after—safety was the one in front. If safety couldn’t be guaranteed, there was no point in discussing the visitor experience.
Chen Kangtuo was surprised by Boss Pei’s sudden appearance: “Oh! Mr. Pei, what brings you here!”
Chen Kangtuo even felt inexplicably excited, after all, he hadn’t seen Mr. Pei for over a year.
Since Mr. Pei had last given simple directions for Thriller Lodge’s roller coaster project, he hadn’t visited again.
Although this demonstrated complete trust in Chen Kangtuo and Hao Qiong, giving them ample freedom to develop their ideas, there was still a slight feeling of being neglected…
If it weren’t for the massive investment in this roller coaster project, Chen Kangtuo would have almost thought that his department had truly become an isolated, peripheral division.
Now that the roller coaster was completed and entering the initial promotional phase, Mr. Pei had finally come to inspect it.
Pei Qian sat down on the sofa and casually asked, “How’s the roller coaster project going? Have you encountered any difficulties?”
Chen Kangtuo immediately shook his head: “No, everything is proceeding smoothly!”
“We found a very reliable construction contractor, the progress is fast, and both quality and safety are guaranteed.”
“As for the effect of the roller coaster, I’ve already experienced it many times and made some minor adjustments.”
“In the current situation, I would say it basically meets my initial expectations.”
Chen Kangtuo didn’t dare speak too confidently—he couldn’t exactly say he was 100% satisfied with this roller coaster, could he? In front of Mr. Pei, he couldn’t be that flamboyant, making himself look like a half-empty bottle that wouldn’t stop sloshing around.
So it was better to be modest and say that the roller coaster basically met his initial expectations.
Pei Qian nodded, not surprised by Chen Kangtuo’s response.
He hadn’t expected Chen Kangtuo to actually mess up this project; that would have been too optimistic.
Chen Kangtuo had been responsible for a series of previous Thriller Lodge projects and had accumulated rich experience. Although the investment in this roller coaster project was more than the previous three projects combined, they were working with professional construction contractors, and there wasn’t much fundamental difference in difficulty.
Since Chen Kangtuo had come from the gaming department, he had some ideas of his own. If the roller coaster was built and he himself wasn’t satisfied with it, that would have been strange.
Pei Qian could only hope that the restrictions he had previously set for the roller coaster would, to some extent, reduce how fun it was, decrease visitor flow, and thus make it difficult for the entire project to recoup its costs.
“By the way, it seems Meng Chang hasn’t allocated any promotional funds for this project, right?” Pei Qian asked.
Previously, he had told Meng Chang to choose between promoting the roller coaster project or “The Successor.” After assessment, Meng Chang had chosen “The Successor.” So far, the promotional work had been completed well, completely failing to produce any good promotional effect.
Moreover, Meng Chang seemed to be flexing his muscles and gathering strength, preparing to launch a second round of promotional offensives to consolidate the results.
Since Meng Chang had poured all the promotional funds into “The Successor,” the roller coaster probably didn’t have much of a promotional budget.
Pei Qian fully approved of Meng Chang’s approach. After all, with over a hundred million invested in the roller coaster, there was definitely a baseline of quality guaranteed.
With more promotional resources, the danger of it becoming popular was much higher than “The Successor.”
Meng Chang must have seen this point too, which was why he decided not to give Thriller Lodge any promotional resources.
However, Pei Qian was slightly worried—would Chen Kangtuo feel unbalanced by the lack of promotional resources and become suspicious?
If there was any sign of this, it would be necessary to pacify him immediately and dispel such thoughts.
However, Chen Kangtuo laughed very openly: “It’s fine. I think promotional resources should go to projects that need them more, and ‘The Successor’ obviously needs these resources more than we do.”
“As for Thriller Lodge’s promotional resources… there’s no need to trouble Meng Chang. We can handle it ourselves.”
After hearing the first part, Pei Qian was quite pleased.
Chen Kangtuo was very perceptive!
If only Tenda had more employees with such awareness, then he could save a lot of effort and wouldn’t have to painstakingly explain things to employees every time.
But after hearing the second part, Pei Qian suddenly felt something was off, and a question mark slowly appeared above his head.
Handle it themselves?
How would they handle it?
Promotional expenses were not a small amount. The money previously allocated to Thriller Lodge had all been used for construction, so they probably didn’t have much disposable funds now.
Surely they weren’t planning some low-budget grassroots promotion?
Seeing Chen Kangtuo’s confident appearance, it was clear that he hadn’t compromised on promotion and even seemed quite satisfied with it?
Chen Kangtuo said, “Mr. Pei, shall I show you our current promotional situation?”
Pei Qian nodded: “Yes.”
Chen Kangtuo immediately stood up and led Pei Qian out of the service area of Thriller Lodge. He called for a tour car within the park and headed toward the roller coaster.
Thriller Lodge’s park was getting bigger and bigger. It was already quite tiring to walk through the entire park on foot, so Chen Kangtuo was actively planning various transportation facilities within the park, such as tour cars and single-person balance vehicles.
In addition, rail tour cars surrounding Thriller Lodge were also in the planning stage, although they hadn’t been put on the construction schedule yet.
Pei Qian sat in the tour car, looking around at the surroundings.
First, he saw some billboards inside Thriller Lodge providing directions to the roller coaster.
However, the content of these billboards was quite modest and didn’t show the specific shape of the roller coaster. They only provided directional guidance, and the advertising slogans were concise, such as “One-of-a-kind indoor roller coaster,” “Original IP, interactive storyline for a unique experience,” “Trust me, you won’t come just once,” and so on.
There was also a black silhouette of the roller coaster track, which looked somewhat intricate, making it difficult to guess the exact route.
Chen Kangtuo introduced with a hint of pride: “Mr. Pei, these are the billboards that Hao Qiong and I designed for the roller coaster project.”
“Indoor roller coasters have several advantages compared to traditional roller coasters.”
“For example, they’re not affected by weather—they can operate normally regardless of strong winds or snow, and temperature variations don’t have much impact.”
“They’re good for storytelling and theming. Indoor roller coasters make it easier to create a relatively realistic scene, giving people a sense of immersion.”
“Another important point is preventing spoilers.”
“With outdoor roller coasters, you can see the entire track as soon as you enter the amusement park. But indoor roller coasters are completely hidden—even after you’ve boarded, you can’t guess the upcoming route, preserving the maximum sense of mystery.”
“So these billboards don’t contain any spoilers, allowing visitors to experience the project for themselves.”
Pei Qian nodded slightly. On this point, he could barely accept it.
After all, he had set a very high budget and restricted the roller coaster’s height from being too high. It wasn’t surprising that Chen Kangtuo and his team had used divergent thinking and come up with the idea of an indoor roller coaster.
But what exactly was this “original IP” they were talking about?
He’d have to see it in person to know.
The tour car continued forward and soon arrived at the external scene of the indoor roller coaster project.
It was a bit far from the main park of Thriller Lodge, with a large space left in between, providing good potential for future expansion.
If the roller coaster and Thriller Lodge’s park were right next to each other, it would be very difficult to insert other small attractions or shops in between, and it would also look cramped and less grand.
Thriller Lodge was located in the old industrial district and was considered a key project supported by Jingzhou, so space wasn’t an issue.
Of course, this was just the ostensible reason.
In fact, the main reason Pei Qian had specifically required the roller coaster to be as far away as possible from Thriller Lodge’s original attractions during the planning stage was because he was afraid that Thriller Lodge’s visitor flow would make the roller coaster popular too, so distance had to be maintained.
Although Thriller Lodge had tour cars, balance vehicles, and various other means of transportation, when visitor flow was high, some people might still need to walk over.
In other parks, attractions were more compact, or there were other shops and venues interspersed between them, so visitors could stroll and explore, creating a nice experience.
But here, there was just a lonely roller coaster, with nothing between it and Thriller Lodge’s original attractions, which would definitely be torturous for visitors.
Pei Qian felt this strategy should still have some effect.
But after the tour car had traveled some distance, Pei Qian suddenly felt something was off.
Why were there shops along this route?
These shops were diverse—restaurants, cafés, and various retail stores. However, their style was quite uniform, matching the overall style of Thriller Lodge without looking out of place. It was as if they had always belonged there.
At the midpoint of the route from Thriller Lodge to the roller coaster project, there was a relatively large store, also renovated from a former factory building. He could vaguely see VR equipment inside.
These shops were still undergoing tense renovation and transformation. Although they utilized the original buildings of the old industrial district, they inevitably needed major renovations.
Judging by the current progress, opening together with the roller coaster project at the end of the month shouldn’t be a problem.
Pei Qian’s face was filled with confusion.
Something wasn’t right.
The situation seemed a bit different from what he had imagined.
Pei Qian had originally thought that these buildings wouldn’t be utilized in the short term, and that Chen Kangtuo would probably set up a relatively simple wall along both sides of the road to guide visitors to the roller coaster.
After all, Tenda didn’t have extra funds to renovate these buildings and construct shops.
But now, along the road to the roller coaster, large and small buildings were all undergoing intensive construction, presenting a scene of bustling activity.
Pei Qian suddenly had a bad feeling.
“Don’t tell me it’s…”
Pei Qian’s suspicion was quickly confirmed, as he spotted Li Shi at the entrance of the largest store, the one where he could see VR equipment inside.