Magic City, Longyu Group.

The meeting room was shrouded in gloom.

Zhao Xuming hunched his shoulders, like a chick in a slaughterhouse, desperately trying to minimize his presence.

Meanwhile, Eric’s face grew increasingly grim as he looked at the report.

Clearly, they were already aware of what had happened over the weekend.

Following Old Qiao’s video, the online sentiment had completely reversed. Players who had nearly forgotten everything because of the gacha activity suddenly became ungrateful again, feeling that Tenda’s benefits were more sincere!

Especially “Fitness Battle’s” gacha model—not only was it sincere, but it also had educational significance, instantly creating a gap in ideological level!

Eric and Zhao Xuming had assumed that since Tenda would be closed for the weekend, there wouldn’t be any counterattack, right?

So Longyu Group had also taken Sunday off without maintaining full vigilance.

By the time public opinion had formed online, it was too late to respond. They could only helplessly stare at the report on Monday.

“As expected of Mr. Pei, he had already arranged a countermeasure before confidently taking the weekend off.”

“This move completely undermined our foundation. Instead of competing with us directly, he deconstructed the motives behind our gacha activity—this is what they call a dimensional reduction strike.”

“But… how did he predict we would use a gacha activity?”

Eric unconsciously glanced at Zhao Xuming.

Zhao Xuming hastily coughed twice: “Well… I think we fell into Mr. Pei’s trap. Because our original activities and the 515 Game Festival activities had already used most of the discount and promotion methods, with only gacha not yet utilized.”

“And Mr. Pei predicted that we would inevitably adopt the gacha model, so he prepared his response in advance…”

Zhao Xuming forced an analysis with “we” as the subject throughout.

Obviously, it had been his idea, but he absolutely refused to take the blame alone. Since everyone had approved it without objection, everyone should share the responsibility.

Eric was also reasonable and didn’t pursue the matter further, instead changing the subject: “Alright, let’s not dwell on this. Mr. Pei is shrewd in his calculations; it’s inevitable that we occasionally make mistakes.”

“The key issue now is: how do we conclude this gacha activity?”

Old Qiao had already predicted in his video that the grand prize of Longyu Group’s gacha activity—the car—would definitely be won by a wealthy player who would have spent far more than 100,000 yuan.

This move was truly devastating.

Now, a large number of netizens, whether they participated in the gacha or not, were all watching to see who would win the grand prize.

If it was indeed won by someone who spent a lot of money, it would prove that everything Old Qiao said in the video was correct—this gacha used false probability, was designed to make money, and rare prizes could only be obtained by those who spent a lot. Ordinary players who recharged would just be running alongside, with no chance of winning the car.

In fact, Longyu Group’s gacha program was indeed designed this way; Old Qiao had guessed correctly.

So Longyu Group was considering whether to force the prize to go to some ordinary lucky player to prove Old Qiao wrong.

But this would make netizens suspect manipulation, and those wealthy players who had spent a lot of money on the gacha would be very unhappy: Why did I spend over a hundred thousand yuan and not get the car, while someone who spent just a few hundred yuan got it?

The situation was awkward.

It seemed that no matter how they allocated the car, they would offend someone and be criticized!

Following the original plan would make them beasts; changing it would make them worse than beasts.

Everyone bowed their heads in silence.

Eric sighed softly and continued: “What’s even more troublesome is that yesterday, Tenda seems to have secretly changed the probabilities for the 515 activities.”

“Although there’s no concrete evidence, many players suspect that the drop rates for various rare items and even cash red packets have at least doubled!”

“Tenda uses true probability, and their secret change was to increase drop rates; while ours uses false probability…”

“As a result, players’ trust in us has significantly decreased, while their trust in Tenda has reached an unprecedented high…”

Everyone continued to remain silent, their heads seeming to bow even lower.

Everyone understood the severity of the situation.

Many players online were joking: “Who would have thought that Tenda, with your sincere appearance, would also secretly change probabilities!”

But while other companies secretly lowered probabilities to trick players, Tenda actually secretly increased probabilities, giving players doubled benefits!

If the 515 Game Festival activities required payment, this kind of secret probability change would certainly make previous consumers unhappy. But since the activities didn’t cost players money, and those who received rewards before could continue to receive them, players were all rejoicing.

After this news broke, players’ enthusiasm for Tenda’s 515 Game Festival rose even higher!

As one side gained while the other lost, although this money-burning war wasn’t completely over yet, in terms of popularity and reputation, it was already vaguely a complete victory for Tenda.

After long consideration, Eric could only answer his own question: “For the car issue, let’s stick to the original plan. There are already quite a few people who have spent tens of thousands or over a hundred thousand in this gacha activity. Giving the car to one of them would prevent mental imbalance.”

“As for public opinion online, we can only wait for this period to pass and slowly find a solution.”

Choosing the lesser of two evils, they still had to cater to the wealthy players’ mindset.

Moreover, although this gacha activity had lost popularity due to Mr. Pei’s dimensional reduction strike, it was only inferior compared to Tenda. Compared to other game companies, it was still very generous and worth it.

Therefore, players wouldn’t pursue it to the death and criticize relentlessly. As long as they avoided the spotlight and didn’t directly confront Tenda, some players would still appreciate it.

Zhao Xuming hurriedly said: “That’s right, we still shouldn’t let Mr. Pei lead us by the nose. We need to follow our own rhythm.”

Eric glanced at him, feeling a bit mentally exhausted.

Just then, Zhao Xuming received a message on his phone.

He confirmed it twice, then his face lit up with joy.

“Good news!”

“Tenda is already considering selling buildings!”

Eric immediately perked up when he heard this: “Are you sure? Is the source reliable?”

Zhao Xuming said: “It should be reliable! Tenda seems to be intending to sell Sloth Apartments buildings that they recently purchased and just finished renovating. And reportedly, they’re not asking for an exorbitant price, clearly wanting to close the deal quickly.”

“This information has been verified through multiple sources and shouldn’t be false news!”

In the meeting room, everyone’s expressions quickly improved.

Eric indeed revealed a smile: “Sure enough, our approach was correct! Tenda’s funds have finally run out, and they need to consider selling buildings for cash flow!”

“I have to admire Tenda’s abundant funding—they’ve persisted until now.”

“We need to continue burning money!”

“At least before Mr. Pei successfully sells the buildings and gets the money, Tenda should be unable to compete with us. If we launch new activities after Tenda’s 515 Game Festival ends, we can let Tenda take one-sided hits and fully regain all the popularity we lost before!”

“During this vacuum period, our money-burning will definitely yield great returns!”

Smiles bloomed on everyone’s faces in the meeting room.

After persisting for so long, they finally saw the light of victory!

Of course, Tenda had plenty of buildings. If they sold them one by one, they could still hold out for a long time, and this money-burning war would continue for an extended period—that was undoubted.

But this represented a signal.

After persistent money-burning, Tenda had finally started to run a deficit.

Previously, no matter how much money Tenda burned, they always seemed able to earn it back, like a deity that never bled. But once a deity bleeds, it means it can be defeated!

…

At 5 p.m., Pei Qian was preparing to leave work.

Planning to sell buildings, he felt refreshed, seemingly seeing the light of taking a big loss in this cycle.

However, just as he walked out of his office and glanced at the employees in the office area, he suddenly stopped, feeling that something was off.

What was wrong…

Where had all the snacks on everyone’s desks gone?

Pei Qian remembered that previously, most employees’ desks were full of snacks, eating non-stop. Only a few employees who were seriously dieting wouldn’t eat much snacks, but most would still have some low-calorie snacks or sugar-free drinks.

But today, everyone’s desks were completely empty—no snacks, no drinks!

Pei Qian was confused. What was going on?

Were they not hungry today?

He specifically went to check the refreshment area, and the snack section was still fully stocked! There was no shortage!

What was happening?