May 19th, Saturday.

Longyu Group was operating normally.

Eric and Zhao Xuming had both set an example by coming to work overtime, so naturally, other ordinary employees didn’t dare stay home to rest.

Moreover, they were still in the middle of the money-burning war with Tenda, so Longyu Group employees had high “awareness” and all came to work overtime voluntarily.

Actually, some employees originally didn’t have this awareness, but those types of employees basically couldn’t stay at the company.

In the meeting room, Zhao Xuming was animatedly reporting to Eric.

“Since our lucky draw event went live, player response has been extremely enthusiastic, and the previous IOI mobile game incident has been diluted!”

“Many players have completely forgotten about it and even feel our activity is more attractive than Tenda’s 515 Gaming Festival activities.”

“So far, the popularity of our lucky draw activity continues to rise.”

“Most importantly, not only did our lucky draw activity not burn too much money, it actually earned a bit. Even with the 70% discount, with precise calculations, there’s still some profit margin!”

Zhao Xuming was obviously very proud, as the lucky draw idea had been his.

Although lucky draws weren’t a novel mechanism, being able to accurately select lucky draws from numerous money-burning methods in that situation should be considered quite remarkable.

He had given most of the credit to Eric, but if this succeeded, Eric definitely wouldn’t shortchange him; and if it failed, the biggest blame would certainly fall on Eric.

So Zhao Xuming was more diligent than usual in his report.

Eric nodded slightly and asked, “How is the situation on Tenda’s side?”

Zhao Xuming hesitated for a moment, then answered, “Uh… as far as I know, they’re still taking their normal weekend break.”

“As for the 515 Gaming Festival activities… they don’t seem to have made any adjustments.”

Eric’s face couldn’t help but show a surprised expression.

Mr. Pei… was so composed?

Eric had thought Mr. Pei would definitely launch a new activity to counter them, whether it was a lucky draw or something else, he would certainly try to outdo them.

He never expected that Mr. Pei would do nothing and even take a normal weekend break.

Eric pondered that, given Mr. Pei’s efficient working style, Friday would have been enough time for him to come up with a countermeasure and launch it quickly over the weekend.

But Mr. Pei did nothing, which could only be due to two scenarios.

First, Mr. Pei felt nothing needed to be done.

Second, Mr. Pei was powerless to act.

Did he really feel nothing needed to be done?

Eric didn’t think so, since judging from the current online feedback, Longyu Group’s lucky draw activity had received a very enthusiastic response, clearly stealing much of the attention that should have belonged to the 515 Gaming Festival.

So it could only be the second scenario.

Mr. Pei wanted to do something but was powerless to act!

Eric couldn’t help but smile: “It’s just as I expected.”

“Burning money like Mr. Pei does might feel good, but it’s not sustainable. Unlike our approach of careful calculation and steady flow, which is more cost-effective.”

Zhao Xuming instantly understood something, his eyes widening slightly: “Are you saying…”

“Tenda has finally run out of funds?”

Eric smiled slightly: “We can’t say for certain, but it’s quite possible.”

This aligned perfectly with their previous deductions.

Tenda Group’s funds had been spread across so many projects, the previous returns from “Mission and Choice” had not yet arrived, and the Smart Fitness Clothesline Rack had a large inventory backlog.

Forcing themselves to hold the 515 Gaming Festival had probably consumed the last large sum of funds that Mr. Pei could mobilize.

Now, even if Mr. Pei tried to raise more funds, it would definitely take some time.

That’s why Mr. Pei hadn’t immediately counterattacked but instead let things take their course, allowing Longyu Group’s lucky draw activity to steal the attention that the 515 Gaming Festival had worked so hard to generate.

Only after securing funds could he launch a counterattack.

Zhao Xuming’s eyes lit up.

Analyzing it, it did seem plausible!

Of course, one should never underestimate Mr. Pei.

But one fact after another increasingly supported this bold inference.

Suddenly, Zhao Xuming remembered something.

He had just learned about it himself and thought it was a good opportunity to report it while Eric was in a good mood.

“Oh, there’s something I just found out that I should report to you.”

“It seems ‘Fitness Battle’ also has a lucky draw system. However, this lucky draw system is only unlocked after completing the first chapter, so we hadn’t noticed it before. I only discovered it after seeing discussions online.”

“This lucky draw is special in that it allows unconditional refunds.”

“Do you think this might be Mr. Pei’s next move?”

“Fitness Battle” had only been online for a couple of days, so Zhao Xuming discovering it now was relatively quick.

As a competitive product, Zhao Xuming and his team should have played it, but the problem was that “Fitness Battle” wasn’t the type of mobile game where you could just idle or tap your fingers to level up—it required spending real time exercising!

Zhao Xuming and his team were all busy with the lucky draw event, with a pile of work, so who had time to actually exercise in “Fitness Battle”?

If it weren’t for the increasing number of posts showing off “Fitness Battle” lucky draw results these past two days, Zhao Xuming might have discovered it a day or two later.

Eric was stunned: “Lucky draws with unconditional refunds?”

“Does this lucky draw only include in-game items? Are there items from other games? Are there physical prizes?”

“Besides the refund option, are there any other special features?”

Zhao Xuming answered truthfully: “It’s just an in-game lucky draw system, so naturally it only includes in-game items. There are no physical prizes, and there are no other special features. It’s a very basic lucky draw system.”

Eric fell into deep thought.

After a moment, he said, “Although the refund aspect is indeed more consumer-friendly than ours, having only in-game items probably won’t attract players much.”

“Our lucky draw activity can recoup costs, but ‘Fitness Battle’s’ lucky draw activity will greatly reduce the game’s revenue.”

“Moreover, ‘Fitness Battle’ was completed long ago, and this lucky draw system was probably developed earlier than ours. It’s most likely a coincidence, nothing to worry about.”

Zhao Xuming immediately nodded: “Right, that’s what I think too.”

“I’ve looked into it carefully. Although ‘Fitness Battle’s’ lucky draw system has generated some discussion online, the current public opinion doesn’t pose any threat to our lucky draw or steal any attention.”

Eric was in a good mood. He organized his work and then said, “Alright, after today’s overtime, everyone doesn’t need to come in tomorrow!”

“Since Mr. Pei is taking a break, we’ll take a break too!”

Tenda had clearly already given up, with employees not working. Even if Mr. Pei wanted to do something, he had no one to support him.

That being the case, they could just keep an eye on things starting Monday.

After all, the 515 Gaming Festival would end at midnight next Tuesday. If the current level of attention continued, Finger Company and Longyu Group would clearly have a slight victory.

Thinking about this, Eric smiled.

This emotion obviously infected the employees below him.

After working so hard for so long, they were finally seeing the light!

Although no one dared to guarantee it, most people firmly believed that Tenda’s funds might indeed have some problems, and Mr. Pei not immediately counterattacking was proof!

Even if the situation wasn’t critically urgent, it was still a morale-boosting event.

Under this optimistic mood, the news naturally gradually spread…

…

Meanwhile, Pei Qian had just gotten out of bed.

On Thursday, he had bought a AAA game that was quite enjoyable, so all day Friday, including last night, he had been holed up at home playing it.

Yesterday he had stayed up late to finish the game, so today he didn’t get up until noon.

After washing up, Pei Qian reluctantly took out his phone and glanced at it.

No new messages.

Especially no messages from Assistant Xin, which deeply disappointed him.

Because this meant that Tenda’s funds hadn’t encountered any problems, and he didn’t need to prepare to sell property.

That was a bit frustrating.

The 515 Gaming Festival had been spending money aggressively, so in theory, shouldn’t they be burning through money quickly?

He continued scrolling through his phone, checking the news from the past two days.

“Hmm?”

“Longyu Group launched a lucky draw event?”

“The grand prize is a car? This is allowed?”

“Why the hell didn’t I think of this?”

Pei Qian was stunned.

He had been playing games day and night for the past two days, barely paying attention to online news.

He didn’t need to constantly monitor the company because if anything important happened, someone would naturally call him. No phone calls meant everything was fine.

But he never expected that in just one day of not paying attention, Longyu Group would launch such an event!

Normally, Pei Qian wouldn’t give ordinary lucky draw activities a second glance, but drawing a car… that was indeed eye-catching!

“Wait, aren’t these activities restricted?”

Pei Qian suddenly realized something wasn’t right.

From his memory, only certain company annual parties offered cars as prizes. He had never seen consumer activities with cars as prizes.

The most valuable prizes he had seen in lucky draw activities were things like laptops.

It seemed there was a clear regulation stating that for sales activities with prizes, the maximum value of prizes could not exceed 50,000 yuan.

Annual parties could offer cars as prizes because they weren’t classified as consumer activities.

Pei Qian quickly searched and found that due to changes in the world, the relevant regulations had become much more relaxed, increasing from the original 50,000 to 400,000 yuan.

In other words, Longyu Group’s grand prize was right at the 400,000 yuan threshold, not breaking any rules.

“Damn! I should have done a lucky draw too!”

“If they offer one car, I could offer ten cars and be done with it!”

“System, you see this? They started it first. It wouldn’t be excessive for me to strike back harder, right?”

“What a shame. Today isn’t a workday, so even if I wanted to do a lucky draw event, I’d have to wait until Monday. By the time it’s developed, the 515 Gaming Festival will be over.”

Pei Qian couldn’t help but feel regretful.

Making employees come in on weekends to develop features was absolutely impossible—that was a matter of principle.

But on second thought, letting Longyu Group create a stir for the weekend wasn’t so bad.

The more attention they took, the more reason Pei Qian would have to burn money more aggressively, otherwise the system wouldn’t approve.

Eric always mistakenly thought attention was important to Mr. Pei, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Mr. Pei didn’t care about attention; he only cared about how to burn more money.

Next, he checked the news about “Fitness Battle.”

Seeing players one after another requesting refunds, including those bizarre players who spent tens of thousands of yuan only to keep one ten-draw result, Pei Qian was absolutely delighted.

“The young ones can be taught!”

“These players are so considerate, they don’t even need instruction and have very accurately grasped my intention!”

“Why are some individual players too lazy to request refunds? Is the refund mechanism I designed not convenient enough?”

“Put in some effort! You don’t even have the energy to fleece us, yet you dare call yourself a free rider?”

Looking at the refunds one by one, Pei Qian’s mood improved.

Currently, everything seemed to be going smoothly. After next Tuesday, when the 515 Gaming Festival ended, he would think of ways to spend money aggressively and definitely achieve something significant.

However, just then, Pei Qian’s phone received a notification from the AiLiDao website app.

A specially followed content creator had updated a video!

Pei Qian’s expression instantly changed.

The video was from Qiao Laoshi, and the title was “Gaming Discussion: All About Lucky Draws”!

But after seeing the game title clearly, Pei Qian relaxed a bit.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a video from the “Masterpiece Series.”

Judging from the title, it seemed to be an educational video.

It probably wouldn’t cause any damage… right?