Ma Yang scratched his head: “Fresh air system? What’s that?”

“Look it up on Baidu,” Pei Qian didn’t explain further, and opened a computer to download and play “Sea Fortress.”

Fresh air systems had appeared very early on. Around the year 2000, Europe had already established detailed standards and gradually implemented them on a large scale in homes and businesses.

In China, fresh air systems and air purifiers only became popular after the smog situation reached critical levels. Around 2014, most people finally learned about these systems.

Currently, most fresh air systems are foreign brands and extremely expensive.

But in Pei Qian’s view, being expensive wasn’t their disadvantage—it was an advantage!

After downloading “Sea Fortress,” Pei Qian played it briefly.

As expected from a high-end computer, the gaming experience was outstanding!

After entering the game, he set all settings to maximum without hesitation, ensuring the ultimate visual experience!

This computer was excellent in every way, with only one drawback.

When you lost a game, you couldn’t blame the equipment!

No more “my mouse was stuttering,” “my keyboard key got stuck,” “my computer lagged,” “my monitor went black,” “my headphones shocked me”…

None of these would happen.

If you played poorly, you couldn’t blame the computer—you could only blame yourself for being unskilled!

For some people, this should also be considered a disadvantage, right?

After playing two matches in battle mode and getting utterly destroyed, Pei Qian tried two rounds of zombie mode and was still completely demolished.

He had no choice but to play story mode.

“Indeed, intelligent people like me aren’t suited for these reflex-based games. Story mode is much more enjoyable.”

Pei Qian played story mode while sighing to himself.

Damn, this is a game I created!

Who knows what Huang Sibo and Bao Xu had gone through to make this?

As Pei Qian was playing, Zhang Yuan brought him a glass of alcohol.

The glass wasn’t large, but the liquid inside was particularly vibrant—deep red at the bottom, apple green at the top, with the two colors gradually blending in the transparent glass, looking quite spectacular.

Pei Qian’s first impression was that it looked mysterious!

Taking a sip, the taste was special, difficult to describe, but memorable.

“What’s this drink called?” Pei Qian asked.

Zhang Yuan answered honestly: “Mr. Pei, this is a type of Aurora cocktail. The regular Aurora cocktail has a fluorescent effect in the dark. This one has a slightly modified recipe to make the colors appear more natural.”

“Not bad. How much is it?” Pei Qian asked again.

Zhang Yuan: “Fifty yuan per glass.”

Fearing that Pei Qian might find it expensive, Zhang Yuan quickly added: “It contains Grabba liquor, which costs 400 yuan for a 700ml bottle. This glass uses about 30ml.”

“There’s also a cheaper version that substitutes vodka for Grabba.”

“I see.” Pei Qian nodded. “So, what’s the cheapest cocktail on the menu?”

Zhang Yuan thought for a moment: “The cheapest… 25 yuan, which is the standard price at most bars.”

This was based on 2010 prices, which weren’t cheap.

One glass of alcohol costs as much as two meals for many college students.

Moreover, internet cafes and bars targeted different customer groups.

“How is it, Mr. Pei? Is this pricing acceptable? If you think it’s too expensive, we can lower it.”

Lower?

Or raise?

If they lowered the price, they’d make less profit per drink. But what if people came specifically for the cheap drinks? What then?

Wouldn’t that just be thin profits but high volume?

They couldn’t lower the prices!

Although the current drink prices weren’t cheap, Pei Qian thought there was still room to increase them!

Pei Qian made up his mind: “Add ten yuan to each drink! Our customers are high-quality clientele. If our prices are too low, it’s disrespectful to them!”

“Huh?” Zhang Yuan was a bit confused.

“It’s decided. Add ten yuan to each drink.”

Pei Qian happily sipped his cocktail and continued playing.

Zhang Yuan naturally didn’t ask any further questions and continued with his work.

After playing for a while longer, Pei Qian was satisfied.

Not with the environment, but with the cost!

He calculated that after playing for two hours and having one cocktail, he had spent a total of 80 yuan.

This amount would be enough for a week of overnight gaming at an ordinary internet cafe!

This effectively kept the mainstream internet cafe customer base away.

Of course, Pei Qian knew that this high-end internet cafe model would gradually become mainstream in six or seven years.

But that didn’t matter—it wasn’t mainstream now, was it?

Besides, even internet cafes six or seven years later wouldn’t sell cocktails for 60 yuan a glass!

Losing money! Let’s lose money for four or five years first.

How wonderful!

Pei Qian stood up, preparing to leave.

Ma Yang came over and asked: “Brother Qian, we’re planning to open the day after tomorrow. What about an opening ceremony, grand opening specials, and such? I was thinking half-price for computer usage and drinks for the first three days. How does that discount sound?”

Half-price for computer usage for the first three days?

Half-price for drinks?

No, no, no, absolutely not!

If they became popular overnight, then what?

Pei Qian shook his head vigorously: “No, that’s vulgar! We’re a high-status internet cafe, understand?”

“We’ll open normally, without those gimmicky activities. Good wine needs no bush. With such a nice environment, are we worried about not having customers?”

“Half-price, making such a commotion… what for? We can’t give people the impression that we’re a marketplace!”

“Alright, then we won’t do it…” Ma Yang didn’t quite understand the reasoning, but he knew that following Pei Qian’s lead was never wrong.

Pei Qian left the Slack Internet Cafe contentedly, planning to return on opening day.

He could only truly relax after personally witnessing the cafe’s cold reception on opening day!

…

…

March 9th.

Slacking Internet Cafe officially opened!

No grand opening specials, no fireworks, no banners, nothing at all!

Everything was normal.

The cafe’s facade had no Chinese characters, just a large logo. The status level was indeed high, but it also made it difficult for people to recognize it as a place for internet access.

Fortunately, the two-story building had many glass curtain walls, allowing people to see the coffee area and gaming area inside during the day.

But even so, it was still excessively low-key.

Zhang Yuan waited at the counter, hoping to demonstrate some fancy bartending skills when customers arrived.

But after waiting for a long time, several groups of passersby had gone by, and at most, they just peeked inside, without even considering entering.

The cold exterior atmosphere was extremely effective at deterring potential customers.

Pei Qian sat in the coffee area, happily drinking coffee, watching the empty internet cafe. The smile on his face gradually intensified before he deliberately tried to suppress it.

Ma Yang wasn’t as calm as he was, visibly feeling restless.

“Brother Qian, can we at least let them go out and distribute some flyers…”

“Them” referred to the newly hired cafe attendants.

They were called cafe attendants, but had multiple roles, including serving as waiters.

All the grand opening special activities that Ma Yang had planned were rejected by Pei Qian.

Pei Qian’s reason was that they needed to maintain an ordinary mindset!

For a place with their level of status, those vulgar grand opening specials were meaningless!

The result was an opening that went unnoticed and unattended…

Pei Qian calmly took a sip of coffee: “What flyers? Where’s the status in that? The point is to let customers discover us unexpectedly—that’s what creates a pleasant surprise!”

“Let customers discover us unexpectedly…?”

Ma Yang vaguely felt something was off about this statement, but he couldn’t quite refute it at the moment…