More than half an hour later, Pei Qian arrived at Mingfu Family Banquet by car.

Since he had called ahead, they were arranged in a quiet private room at the back. A server had already prepared a pot of fine tea.

Pei Qian sat down and looked Eric over.

“Brother Eric, you seem much more haggard than before.”

“We have an old saying, ‘Health is the foundation of revolution.’ Work should be balanced with rest—you mustn’t ruin your health.”

What Pei Qian actually meant was: if you collapse from exhaustion, who will burn money with me?

Eric also looked up at Mr. Pei.

Although Mr. Pei’s hair was a bit messy, it didn’t make him look dejected at all. Instead, it gave him a relaxed, comfortable appearance.

It was like two armies facing each other on a battlefield—everyone in armor, standing at attention, except for one military advisor who was lightly fanning himself, yawning, with disheveled clothes, looking as if he had just woken up.

Anyone could see that this advisor was either brainless or truly formidable.

And Mr. Pei was obviously the latter.

Eric sighed: “Mr. Pei, I’m ashamed that I can’t match your mindset.”

Since resuming his position as IOI’s Greater China Regional Director, he had been exhausting himself, working day and night, spending countless weekends working until dawn with Zhao Xuming and his subordinates.

Of course, it wasn’t that Eric was particularly diligent—it was mainly because of the pressure. Even when he wanted to rest, he couldn’t relax.

But looking at Mr. Pei, who rested normally on weekends without any psychological pressure, as if nothing bothered him at all, the difference in mental state was enormous!

Although Mr. Pei’s advice to rest more carried a mocking tone, given that all their previous encounters had ended in Eric’s complete defeat, Eric naturally had no desire to argue.

Eric poured tea for both of them: “Mr. Pei, although I didn’t see you yesterday, I took the opportunity to look around Jingzhou.”

“I didn’t expect such significant changes since my last visit.”

“Tenda Group isn’t just a gaming company; it’s worthy of respect both within and beyond the gaming industry.”

“Although we’re competitors, I have to acknowledge this.”

Pei Qian drank his tea, feeling that Eric’s words carried hidden meaning.

Why did it feel like he was making veiled criticisms?

It sounded like Eric also had some grievances against his old employer, Dayark Group?

On second thought, that made sense.

As an internal employee of Dayark Group, Eric surely knew more than outsiders. Dayark Group’s reputation was already terrible externally, having done many unconscionable things, which these internal employees had probably witnessed.

When compared with Tenda, the contrast was likely stark.

Pei Qian didn’t care what Eric thought, but the key issue was… Eric’s somewhat dejected demeanor didn’t seem right!

Eric, you need to cheer up!

If you become depressed, who will happily burn money with me?

Pei Qian remained silent for a moment, then said: “Brother Eric, I think you might be under too much pressure lately. You need some rest.”

Eric shook his head: “No need for rest anymore.”

“Mr. Pei, there’s no point in hiding it anymore. Although there’s no official news yet, based on my understanding of the parent company, I think I can congratulate you in advance.”

“The MOBA game battle between GOG and IOI that began at the end of 2010, after a year and a half of long struggle, is finally about to determine a winner.”

“Mr. Pei, you’ve won.”

Eric spoke very seriously, but Pei Qian almost dropped his teacup in shock.

Please don’t say such terrifying things with such a straight face!

Do you know what you’re saying?!

Clearly, Eric had no idea what the simple words “GOG has won” meant to Mr. Pei.

If this really happened, then all the money-burning opportunities Pei Qian had been relying on through IOI would be gone!

In the future, when trying to create promotional activities for GOG, he wouldn’t be able to be as extravagant as now.

Once market share reached a certain level, GOG would continue to expand to other player groups, and its influence would only grow larger, its income only higher.

By then, for Pei Qian, the difficulty of losing money would increase by several levels…

Just thinking about that scenario was somewhat despair-inducing.

Of course, if it really came to that point, Pei Qian believed his clever self would always find a way.

But even if he found a way, it meant losing a mindless money-burning method.

How many brain cells would he have to expend to think of other ways to burn money to fill this gap?

This was absolutely terrible news!

Pei Qian quietly took a sip of tea to calm himself, then said: “I think that’s a bit premature and too absolute.”

“We’re not there yet.”

“Although GOG and IOI’s market share gap in China has become quite large, in other regions overseas, IOI’s situation is still… not bad.”

Although Pei Qian had been very careful to maintain restraint, not wanting to squeeze IOI’s market too aggressively in various overseas regions, ultimately GOG’s model involved Tenda cooperating with local companies, so it wasn’t entirely under Tenda’s control.

These local companies wanted to make money, expand market share, and increase influence, so they naturally introduced various promotional plans to seize IOI’s market share, regardless of consequences.

So, since opening overseas markets, GOG had been continuously eroding IOI’s market share, just not to the extreme degree seen in the Chinese server.

But Pei Qian felt that IOI was still profitable, so Dayark Group couldn’t possibly give up, right?

Eric shook his head slightly.

He believed that someone as smart as Mr. Pei couldn’t fail to see this point.

It was just that Chinese traditional virtue emphasized modesty—even when victorious, one should say “you’re too kind.”

Just like Mr. Pei now: although victory was assured, he still had to exchange pleasantries, saying “you still have a chance.”

Eric drank his tea, no longer caring about these formalities, and continued expressing his thoughts.

“Mr. Pei, your previous tactics had already surprised me, but I didn’t expect your moves during the summer promotion would reach another level.”

“At the beginning of the summer promotion, you first released a plan that didn’t seem particularly outrageous, inducing us to follow.”

“If we had gritted our teeth and followed, you would have immediately released an even more preferential plan, forcing us to continue matching it.”

“I thought I had seen through your thinking and decided not to follow after discussing with the parent company executives, but I didn’t expect this wasn’t the end.”

“I didn’t anticipate that our previous communication would have such a profound impact.”

“You used this summer promotion to plant a nail in the hearts of the parent company’s executives.”

“Although the summer promotion didn’t burn more money, Tenda’s effortless deployment of various offensives throughout the period left a deep impression on the parent company’s executives, making them realize the enormous gap that now exists between GOG and IOI.”

“There’s also a huge gap in determination between the parent company and Tenda.”

“I mentioned before that the parent company burns money expecting clear returns. If investing substantial resources shows no effect, with market share growing slowly or even stagnating, abandoning the effort isn’t impossible.”

“After all, for the parent company, although they have a lot of money, there are many other places to invest. There’s no need to stubbornly continue down a path with such poor cost-effectiveness.”

“I previously estimated the parent company would burn around 100 million dollars, but the money directly spent and indirectly foregone to promote IOI over the past year has far exceeded this figure.”

Hearing this, Pei Qian felt somewhat dazed.

They’ve already… burned so much money?

Why didn’t I feel it at all?

But thinking about it, since the money-burning war between GOG and IOI began, whether through competitions or activities, the overt and covert battles had never stopped, making it difficult to calculate the total spent.

Additionally, Pei Qian noticed Eric’s wording—Dayark Group had obviously included “indirectly foregone money” in their calculations.

For example, a skin that could originally sell for 50 but was discounted to 20 might have increased sales, but the actual expected revenue could have decreased.

Discounts fall into two categories: one is “small profit, high volume,” where despite discounts, more profit is made; the other is “loss leader,” where less is earned but gains are made in reputation, market share, and player loyalty.

In the money-burning war between GOG and IOI, the latter was clearly the predominant situation.

Once a money-burning war started, the specific discount was determined by whichever side offered the lower price. Even if Dayark Group and Finger Games knew such discounts would reduce revenue, they had no choice but to reluctantly follow.

Originally, IOI’s skin prices were very high, selling for several dozen or over a hundred yuan domestically, but GOG repeatedly drove them down to bargain prices of just over ten yuan during sales, surely causing revenue to plummet.

If Dayark Group included this part in their calculations, the figure would be enormous.

For Pei Qian, he never considered this portion of concessions and foregone money, only thinking about what he actually spent, so he felt he hadn’t spent much.

But for Dayark Group, what they could have earned but didn’t was naturally counted as a loss.

Eric continued: “Most importantly, the parent company’s executives have clearly recognized a fact: that for a long time in the future, perhaps three, five years or even longer, making IOI defeat GOG and unify the global MOBA game market is almost impossible.”

“And as long as Tenda continues to exist, the money-burning war won’t stop, and this revenue loss will continue.”

“This is unacceptable.”

“As for defeating Tenda through burning money… previous attempts have failed, and the parent company’s executives lack the determination and confidence to make further investments in something with such slim chances of success.”

Pei Qian: “…”

He understood and realized the dangerous situation he was in.

Dayark Group wasn’t planning to abandon Finger Games—they had no reason to.

After all, Finger Games was still profitable.

But Dayark Group didn’t want to continue burning money for Finger Games because it was meaningless. They couldn’t burn their way to results for the foreseeable future, and Dayark Group didn’t have that kind of patience.

A well-known industry company was drained and dismembered nine months after being acquired by Dayark Group, yet Dayark Group had only just started having such thoughts a year and a half after acquiring Finger Games—that was already generous enough to be considered miraculous.

Dayark Group wasn’t abandoning Finger Games but reclaiming the money they should have received in the first place.

In other words, Dayark Group would no longer engage in any money-burning activities with Tenda to compete for market share. Instead, they would use their already diminishing market share to launch various pay-to-win consumption activities, squeezing IOI’s potential at all costs to recoup their investment as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, once IOI’s market share truly dropped to a very low level, it would be impossible to profit from it even by squeezing it dry.

Did Finger Games’ executives agree? That didn’t matter.

Finger Games was now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dayark Group and had no say whatsoever. If any executives disagreed, their only option would be to resign.

Pei Qian was getting uncomfortable.

It’s over!

Before coming, he had been quite optimistic, thinking Eric might just want to catch up with him. Even if there were small setbacks, they could be quickly overcome, and afterward, everyone would happily continue burning money together.

However, after hearing Eric’s words, Pei Qian recognized the seriousness of the problem.

His good brother couldn’t play with him at all anymore!