After returning to Jingzhou, matters regarding Fingertip Company were temporarily put on hold, as Mr. Pei had left everything for Eric to handle.

Meng Chang had to return to his primary duties and continue promoting Tenda’s various departments.

This visit to Tenda headquarters had two purposes: first, to report his work to Mr. Pei, and second, to receive new assignments from him.

Despite the fatigue from traveling, Meng Chang was still quite energetic, partly because he had traveled first class both ways and rested well, but also because he felt his current work was meaningful, naturally filling him with motivation.

Meng Chang planned to go directly to Mr. Pei’s office.

…

Meanwhile, Pei Qian was in his office, checking on the status of the Chuji Plan.

“What the hell?!”

“How are there so many donations?!”

“Didn’t I keep this strictly confidential? And there aren’t any rewards either!”

“Li Shi, Zhou Muyan, and other familiar faces are one thing, but what’s with these individual donations? And someone donated two million yuan at once?”

“Mr. Pei’s Disciple? When the hell did I take on such a wayward disciple? How do I not know about this!”

Pei Qian was shocked as he looked at the list of donors.

It was like a bolt from the blue, leaving him thoroughly stunned.

Wasn’t this just an ordinary charity activity?

So what was going on now?

The accumulated donations had already reached tens of millions!

Not only that, several companies had also proposed business cooperation, hoping to develop deep partnerships with Tenda. These collaborations would likely bring more profits to Tenda.

How could this happen?

At first, Pei Qian had considered adding just a tiny commercial element to the Chuji Plan, simply because it would help bypass system rule restrictions and burn more promotional funds. As for donations from other companies, Pei Qian hadn’t considered that at all.

This was supposed to be a highly confidential charity activity! A charity activity with absolutely no returns! Even if other companies participated, they shouldn’t have raised this much money, right?

But now, the harsh reality had slapped Pei Qian hard across the face.

Those companies that already had cooperative relationships with Tenda were one thing, but the individual donation from this “Mr. Pei’s Disciple” was the most outrageous!

Who exactly was this “Mr. Pei’s Disciple”?

It felt like a very dangerous character, but according to staff, this person wasn’t even a Tenda employee but someone with no apparent connection to Tenda.

Pei Qian was puzzled. His public image might just be the back of his head, yet that was enough to cultivate such a devoted follower? Not only had they obtained information about the Chuji Plan but had also decisively donated two million yuan in their personal capacity?

No matter how he thought about it, the situation seemed bizarre.

As he pondered this, there was a knock at the office door.

Meng Chang had arrived.

Pei Qian temporarily put away the Chuji Plan report: “You’re back? Did you finish everything over there?”

Meng Chang nodded: “Yes, basically everything is done. Eric has gone to Fingertip Company to take full control. However…”

He paused briefly, then said: “Charles and some Fingertip Company executives still refused the share transaction. Although we can fire them all, it’s difficult to recover the shares they hold.”

“They firmly believe that Fingertip Company’s stock price will definitely rise. In fact, since the news of our acquisition broke, Fingertip Company’s shares have been consistently rising.”

“Additionally, Eric has begun preparing for IOI’s first money-splashing activity as you instructed, which has further driven up the stock price.”

Pei Qian nodded slightly; these were all foreseeable developments.

Currently, the vast majority of outsiders still believed that Fingertip Company’s stock price would continue to rise.

There were many reasons for this: Tenda acquiring Fingertip Company surely meant they saw potential for future returns and wouldn’t spend money on a losing business; Tenda understood games better than Dyack Group and would surely have superior operational strategies.

Moreover, certain phenomena supported these speculations. For instance, Mr. Pei had sent Eric, who previously managed IOI’s China server, to take over and reorganize Fingertip Company rather than dispatching other capable designers. This perhaps indicated that Mr. Pei’s approach toward Fingertip Company was primarily conciliatory, without intending to completely sever ties, suggesting he still planned to utilize these executives for some time.

Another example was that after taking over IOI, Tenda’s first action was to implement large-scale money-splashing and welfare activities to give back to players, just like with GOG. This didn’t look like they were planning to quickly drain IOI.

Initially, many worried that Tenda’s acquisition of Fingertip Company was merely to make IOI a stepping stone for GOG, but now that didn’t seem to be the case.

Therefore, considering everything, Tenda appeared to be implementing steady reforms for Fingertip Company. In the short term, IOI’s active user base would rapidly increase with optimistic prospects—this was the judgment from the capital market as well as from Charles and other executives.

Of course, most of these interpretations were misreadings of the situation.

Pei Qian nodded: “I understand.”

Meng Chang asked: “So, Mr. Pei, which project should we focus on for this month’s promotional plan?”

Pei Qian considered for a moment; he hadn’t really thought about it.

After all, this cycle had just begun, and many projects had not yet officially started or had only just begun. It would take at least a few months to see results, so there weren’t really any good promotional plans to give Meng Chang at the moment.

But then Pei Qian realized that the IOI situation would be perfect for a promotional plan.

With this in mind, Pei Qian said: “This month, create a promotional plan for IOI. But before that, we need to make some changes to Fingertip Company.”

“I’ll explain briefly, and you take notes to relay to Eric later.”

Pei Qian had initially thought about calling Eric to listen in, but then realized it was the middle of the night in America. Waking Eric up just to hear a few sentences before going back to sleep seemed rather inhumane.

So, Meng Chang would have to find a time that overlapped with both Chinese and American working hours to relay the message.

This approach wasn’t particularly confidential content anyway; Pei Qian would rather have the whole world know about it as soon as possible.

Meng Chang took it seriously and quickly nodded: “Please go ahead, Mr. Pei.”

Pei Qian gathered his thoughts briefly and then said: “First, dismiss all of Fingertip Company’s executives without exception!”

“For executives with design or art backgrounds like Christian, they can be selectively retained, but only with their compensation, not their authority. They can no longer interfere with company operations and should be transferred to positions like Design Director or Art Director.”

“Keep the designers, artists, and other core business personnel at Fingertip Company, and restructure it back to a studio format.”

“From now on, Fingertip Company will only be responsible for hero and skin design, as well as numerical balancing. They will no longer be responsible for anything else.”

“And then…”

“All GOG project team members will temporarily set aside development work for upcoming versions and focus fully on researching the merger between GOG and IOI. Fingertip Company must cooperate unconditionally!”

“The merger will still be based on GOG’s gameplay, with minor adjustments to IOI’s hero mechanics and numerical balance to better adapt to GOG’s game mechanisms. Of course, if some of IOI’s mechanisms are excellent and worth keeping, and GOG can be slightly modified without affecting core enjoyment to make them compatible, then making small changes to GOG’s mechanisms is also acceptable.”

“In short, the GOG project team has only one goal moving forward: to promote the complete merger of GOG and IOI—from the games themselves to all regional servers and all leagues!”

“This matter can’t drag on too long. A clear timeline must be established. We can first import some IOI heroes and gradually import more later.”

“Strive to complete the goal of merging the two games before the end of this year!”

“After the merger, the GOG project team will primarily be responsible for updating game mechanics and balance, developing heroes with Eastern cultural backgrounds, and operating activities in Asian servers. Fingertip Company will mainly be responsible for developing heroes with Western cultural backgrounds and operating activities for European, North American, and other servers.”

“Have Eric announce this news publicly without concealment, and make sure all players see Tenda’s determination!”

Pei Qian spoke casually, but Meng Chang listened with trepidation.

He finally understood why Mr. Pei had said Fingertip Company’s stock price would soon plummet—clearly, this was the reason!

With such a plan, how could Fingertip Company’s stock price not crash? The capital market’s confidence would probably shatter into pieces!

But the question was… just to strike a blow at the capital market’s confidence and cause Fingertip Company’s shares to plummet dramatically, did they really need to go to such extremes?

It was too devastating and counterproductive!

If the sole purpose was to prevent Charles and others from benefiting from the stock price, there were many options available. For instance, they could release negative news like Charles had done. Of course, they shouldn’t create too much chaos at once but rather engage in smaller disturbances with sustainability—it would be a test of patience.

But Mr. Pei’s current approach was like swinging a large cleaver directly downward—too dangerous!

The key point was that this wasn’t just cutting down IOI; it was also putting GOG at risk!

GOG was currently developing well. Even if they completely ignored IOI, it could still develop into a dominant presence in the global MOBA market. Was it necessary to forcibly swallow IOI through a merger?

There were very few precedents of two games being forcibly merged together. Even those who didn’t understand games knew the enormous risks involved.

Games were delicate ecosystems where pulling one thread affected the whole cloth. Game operations prioritized stability—don’t change if you don’t have to, make small changes when possible. The smaller the change, the safer it was.

When some games decided to implement major changes, it was usually because the game was nearly defunct. It was a desperate gamble—success meant resurrection, failure meant a timely end.

But neither GOG nor IOI had reached that point yet!

One could only say that Mr. Pei’s courage was unmatched.

As for how the capital market would react once this signal was released?

Without a doubt, Fingertip Company’s shares would definitely plummet, because those who had confidence in Mr. Pei were players, while those in the capital market would certainly lack that confidence.

Meng Chang nodded: “Understood, Mr. Pei. I’ll relay this to Eric.”

“So, will this month’s promotional plan revolve around the GOG and IOI merger? Should I arrange it myself?”

Pei Qian nodded: “Yes, arrange it as you see fit. You can go now!”