“Mr. Pei, this way please.”

Chang You led Mr. Pei and Meng Chang to Outuo Technology’s recreation room.

Meng Chang immediately spotted the special machine in the corner of the recreation room.

The design was unique, but he could immediately tell it was some kind of fitness equipment.

Chang You explained: “This is the sample sent over by the manufacturing contractor a few days ago. Honestly, it’s a bit more complicated to assemble than ordinary fitness equipment, given its complex structure and heavy components. So we definitely need to include door-to-door installation. It would be too difficult for customers to install themselves.”

Pei Qian nodded: “Of course we need to include installation. Isn’t that self-evident?”

Actually, including installation wasn’t difficult. Many fitness equipment manufacturers adopted a similar model: finding specialized distributors to cooperate with across the country, giving them money to have their workers learn how to disassemble and assemble the equipment, perform simple troubleshooting and repairs, and after the goods were delivered, local workers would come for installation.

Of course, in cities with Headwind Logistics, it would be even simpler—these tasks could be completely delegated to Headwind Logistics delivery personnel.

Pei Qian thought for a moment and added: “We’re not only including installation but also relocation. After purchasing the ‘Smart Clothes Rack,’ if customers need to move, they can have one free relocation opportunity each year: our after-sales personnel will come to disassemble the product, pack it, and transport it to their new home within the same city.”

“Of course, if the number of relocations exceeds the limit, or involves intercity transport, that would be charged separately.”

Pei Qian’s idea was to provide as many benefits as possible—once this promise was made, wouldn’t each relocation mean more losses?

Chang You pondered for a moment: “Uh… that’s not difficult to implement, but it would further increase our maintenance costs.”

“Our product itself won’t make much money to begin with, and if we add free relocation, these costs will accumulate and become terrifying!”

“However… this is great news for customers. After all, a large portion of fitness equipment buyers are young people who don’t own homes and frequently need to move when renting. Such a large piece of equipment would be too heavy for them to move themselves, and moving companies don’t know how to disassemble it and might charge extra. If we can solve this problem, those who rent would be very happy.”

Pei Qian said: “That’s great then. Making customers happy has always been our principle.”

“As for costs, those are minor issues. We can always find ways to compensate in other areas.”

Chang You nodded: “Yes, Mr. Pei makes a good point.”

Having spontaneously increased expenditure, Pei Qian was very pleased.

He and Meng Chang continued examining the “Smart Fitness Clothes Rack” from top to bottom.

The actual product looked quite different from what Pei Qian had imagined. Clearly, the product manager at Outuo Technology had repeatedly communicated with the manufacturing contractor, considering factors such as safety, practicality, and portability after disassembly, and had revised the design many times.

Chang You explained: “This machine can perform nine different exercises: butterfly chest press, straight back chest press, reverse arm extension, lat pulldown, seated row, pull-up, cable curl, bench press, and weighted squat. It targets core muscle groups throughout the body including chest, back, waist, arms, and legs. However, you need to adjust the machine when performing different exercises…”

While explaining, Chang You adjusted the machine’s configuration.

Worth mentioning is that although many functions of this machine were identical to those in gyms, they looked quite different in appearance.

For example, with squats, gyms use a power rack with a barbell, hooks, and weight plates.

But this approach to squats has two problems. First, using shoulders and neck to support the metal barbell is uncomfortable unless you have highly developed trapezius muscles. Many people use yoga mats under their necks when squatting, which is inconvenient. Second, changing weights requires manually replacing weight plates, which is also troublesome.

The Smart Fitness Clothes Rack optimized these issues. First, it added a protective soft pad in the middle of the barbell. Second, besides adding basic weight modules on both sides of the barbell to maintain balance, it shared weights with other exercises like butterfly chest press and lat pulldown. This eliminated the hassle of changing weight plates—you just needed to adjust the weight position.

Moreover, this design further saved space.

The only issue was that all parts used on the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack couldn’t be used with other fitness equipment.

But this wasn’t a major problem, since in most use cases, it would be the customer’s only piece of fitness equipment.

After hearing Chang You’s introduction, Pei Qian’s expression became serious.

It seemed… quite reliable?

But the more reliable it was, the more outrageous!

This “Smart Fitness Clothes Rack” was completely an idea Pei Qian had come up with on a whim. At the time, he thought it would definitely be a pile of steel garbage that no one would buy.

But after seeing the sample now, Pei Qian suddenly felt that this thing might actually appeal to average consumers?

Dangerous, very dangerous!

Chang You had finished introducing all the basic uses of this equipment. He looked at Pei Qian: “Mr. Pei, the companion game ‘Fitness Battle’ for the ‘Smart Fitness Clothes Rack’ is also almost complete. We have the demo here—would you like to experience it yourself?”

Pei Qian was silent for a moment, then looked at Meng Chang: “Go ahead!”

Meng Chang was completely bewildered.

Chang You was talking to you!

Seeing Meng Chang’s confused expression, Pei Qian coughed lightly: “You’re responsible for creating the promotional strategy, so how can you not experience it yourself? I’m giving you this opportunity for an early experience, go ahead.”

Meng Chang was cursing internally but had no choice. He sat down.

Chang You brought over a tablet from nearby, then pulled down a retractable folding bracket from the top of the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack. The tablet fit perfectly on it.

Chang You explained: “We designed this bracket according to tablet dimensions, though it supports phones too.”

“For particularly wealthy customers, they can skip this bracket and place a TV directly across from the equipment.”

“After ‘Fitness Battle’ connects to the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack via Bluetooth, it will sense the current state through internal sensors in the equipment. When customers want to perform a certain exercise, it will guide them to make corresponding adjustments to the equipment.”

As Chang You explained, Meng Chang tried it out.

He decided to start with a basic exercise: butterfly chest press.

For male beginners, the chest is clearly one of the most worthwhile areas to train. Compared to back, abdomen, and other areas, the chest muscles are larger, show results faster, and also train the arms incidentally.

Once the arm and chest muscles are developed, they notably “fill out clothes,” and the person’s overall appearance improves significantly.

Moreover, with large enough pectoral muscles, a small belly becomes less noticeable. Conversely, intensively training abs doesn’t actually reduce belly fat.

Since this was a demo, many of the introductory functions were temporarily missing. After clicking the screen and selecting a character, Meng Chang began the workout.

He chose a cute, appealing female character. The girl first guided him in adjusting the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack, then explained the key points and target muscles of the butterfly chest press, and finally performed the exercise with him.

This cute girl had a slightly chubby build.

For young women, a body fat percentage of 20% is considered quite good, at 25% abdominal fat is generally not visible, at 30% it’s not noticeable when clothed but a small belly is visible when the waist is exposed, and at around 35% the “swimming ring” around the stomach becomes clearly visible.

This character’s body fat was nearly 35%, and her developmental goal was to reduce body fat to below 20%.

During the exercise, the cute girl on the screen continuously cheered Meng Chang on.

Pei Qian suddenly thought of a question and asked: “The characters, outfits, props, scenes… these should all be premium services, right? Are they obtained through gacha or direct purchase?”

Chang You replied: “We previously only determined the profit model of free game plus premium services, but the specific method hasn’t been decided yet.”

“Direct purchase might be slightly more consumer-friendly and better for reputation; gacha might make more money, but could also face criticism.”

“Of course, unless we implement gacha like ‘Ghost General.’ But ‘Fitness Battle’ requires much more investment than ‘Ghost General,’ and honestly, if we’re that generous, we won’t recover costs at all.”

“As for how to proceed, that’s for you to decide, Mr. Pei.”

Pei Qian fell into deep thought.

His first reaction was direct purchase, with clear pricing for all outfits, props, and scenes. Setting prices low, perhaps enabling players to buy a complete set for one or two hundred yuan, would likely make less money than gacha.

But on second thought, something felt wrong.

Wasn’t this exactly why “Ghost General” had become popular?

At that time, Pei Qian had wanted to create a non-pay-to-win pay-to-win online game, but unexpectedly players praised its generosity and mindlessly poured money in, earning a lot through high-volume, low-margin sales.

“Fitness Battle” was the same—what if the pricing was too generous and players enthusiastically bought everything? What then?

Mistakes already made should never be repeated.

If they implemented gacha, they could set low drop rates, which would definitely attract criticism. But the problem was that some people would continue to pull while complaining, and the more difficult it was to get items, the more determined wealthy players became.

In the end, both being criticized and making money would be very uncomfortable.

Could he think of some other in-app consumption model?