“My previous approach wasn’t quite right. I shouldn’t limit my thinking to just pricing.”

“I can’t bear to raise prices, and my good brother can’t bear to lower them, so the pricing aspect is an unsolvable knot.”

“Starting from price will never solve the problem.”

“So looking at it from another angle, the key now is how to make GOG players flow back to ioi.”

“Even if these players don’t abandon GOG, as long as they can bring some traffic and revenue to ioi, wouldn’t that help my good brother hold on?”

“Besides, this wouldn’t count as breaking the rules, it would just be normal business cooperation, and the system should be able to overlook it.”

Pei Qian had been struggling for a long time without coming up with a good solution, but now he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and found another approach.

Perhaps this was what they called “wisdom born from urgency”?

Seeing that his good brother was almost at his limit, and previous remedies had failed to work, he suddenly thought of a new treatment.

It seemed his good brother might be saved after all!

Pei Qian immediately opened his computer and recorded his general idea.

In simple terms, it was to promote cooperation between GOG and ioi, with GOG organizing some official activities to direct their players toward ioi.

Of course, players would definitely be reluctant to move, so some rewards and incentives would be needed, such as earning a skin for playing ioi for a period of time.

If only GOG were doing this, it would definitely seem very strange and easily arouse suspicion about motives.

So, he would need to communicate with Finger Company and Longyu Group, asking them to cooperate and symbolically organize similar activities.

But during the negotiation process, Pei Qian would make the greatest possible concessions.

For example, in this activity, GOG would offer excellent rewards to drive players to play ioi for rewards, while ioi would offer rather ordinary, somewhat useless rewards. This way, ioi players wouldn’t be moved, creating a one-way flow from GOG to ioi.

On the surface, it would look like the two games had established a cooperative relationship to grow the pie together, but in reality, it would be GOG providing one-sided support to ioi.

“Hmm, this approach shouldn’t have any major issues. If we can achieve the goal, then ioi will definitely be able to hold on for a while longer.”

“It seems that similar games haven’t done this kind of collaboration before, but for Tenda, it’s about daring to be the first!”

In Pei Qian’s impression, collaborations between games often only existed between games from the same company or between games without direct conflicts of interest.

For example, some single-player AAA titles would collaborate with each other, because AAA titles don’t have such strong competitive relationships—players spend dozens of hours completing one, then go looking for the next.

But MOBA games were different. They competed fiercely with each other, and there was no concept of “completion” for these games. Each MOBA game wanted to keep players bound to the game 24 hours a day.

So, as far as Pei Qian knew, two MOBA games had never collaborated before.

Guest appearances of heroes from one game in another, or jointly creating themed skins—these things had never happened.

But this clearly couldn’t stop Pei Qian; it even accelerated his steps.

“The only question is whether Finger Company and Longyu Group will accept my proposal.”

“Hmm… if ioi were still in its heyday, they would definitely refuse, no doubt about it.”

“But now GOG’s market share, especially the domestic server market share, far exceeds ioi’s. As long as I make enough concessions, it’s equivalent to GOG unilaterally supporting ioi. Faced with such practical benefit, Finger Company’s higher-ups should accept.”

“Alright, let’s do this.”

“Although it might not save my good brother, we have to try.”

When it came to attempts that would lose money, Pei Qian was a man of strong action. He immediately decided to call Eric.

……

Fifteen minutes later, Pei Qian hung up the phone.

“Sure enough, Eric is still full of suspicion about my motives…”

“But the good thing is that he can’t make this decision alone; he needs to consult with higher management.”

“This way, there’s still hope.”

After Pei Qian called to explain his intentions and briefly proposed several cooperation ideas, Eric fell into silence for more than a minute.

Obviously, Eric maintained extreme vigilance toward Pei Qian.

Mr. Pei had proposed a plan—an in-game collaboration to direct players between games—very generously offering rich reward conditions on GOG’s side, and specifically emphasizing that ioi didn’t need to offer equivalent rewards, just something passable.

How to attract players was precisely the problem that had been troubling Eric and the entire Finger Company.

For MOBA games, active players were everything, because the number of active players directly affected the gaming experience.

Fewer players meant fewer newcomers, which also meant the matching system would have a harder time matching opponents of similar skill levels.

Once the foundation of the matching system collapsed, mid-tier players would fall to the bottom tier. Previously able to carry whole games, they would now constantly be matched against obviously stronger opponents and get crushed, and this mental imbalance would further accelerate player loss.

Conversely, an increase in active players could improve the gaming experience, entering a virtuous cycle.

That’s why MOBA games were winner-takes-all games. In the same field, only a few giants could make it to the end, and latecomers would find it difficult to shake the rulers’ positions.

On the surface, Mr. Pei’s proposal was obviously very tempting, as it could bring both active players and revenue to ioi.

But Eric knew Mr. Pei too well. He always felt that behind Mr. Pei’s actions must be some hidden conspiracy. On the surface, it looked like providing timely help and mutual assistance, but who knew if it was actually a Trojan horse or a plot to crush them?

If Eric had the final say, he would definitely refuse Mr. Pei’s proposal immediately.

But now he was just a tool.

To better enable ioi to fulfill its responsibilities and make profits, Dayark Group had imperceptibly tightened its control over Finger Company’s headquarters and regional branches.

Now, Eric had to report this matter truthfully, and whether to cooperate or not would depend on the decision of Dayark Group’s top management.

This would inevitably involve struggles between different factions of top management, and might eventually result in a somewhat compromised or distorted plan. But no matter what, this was not something Eric could participate in.

Although he was deeply misunderstood by his good brother Eric, Pei Qian didn’t mind.

After all, he was just doing what he could and leaving the rest to fate. If the other party didn’t appreciate his help, there was nothing more he could do.

With the efficiency of Dayark Group’s top management, it would probably take some time to finalize this matter.

But Pei Qian wasn’t in a hurry. After all, although ioi’s situation wasn’t optimistic, it wouldn’t collapse so easily either.

Pei Qian took another couple of sips of coffee and continued to check on the situation of other departments.

Just then, there was a knock on the office door.

Pei Qian looked up to see it was Liang Qingfan.

This head of Sloth Apartments had not been selected for the special training list of the Suffering Journey, so he had been able to work with the Tardiness Studio during the past period, providing housing-related data support for the game “Real Estate Agent Simulator.”

Pei Qian hadn’t chosen him for special training, mainly for two reasons.

On one hand, although Sloth Apartments was very popular, it didn’t make much money, and recovering the money spent on fixed assets was still a distant goal. On the other hand, Liang Qingfan was shouldering the important task of site selection and design for the Tenda Building, a job that couldn’t be delayed.

“Mr. Pei, regarding the site selection and design of the headquarters building, after a period of research, I have some preliminary ideas to report to you,” Liang Qingfan said, handing over the proposal he was holding.

Pei Qian reached out to take it.

Liang Qingfan said, “First, regarding the site selection issue.”

“From the current situation, there aren’t many large plots of land in Jingzhou that can actually be used for headquarters building construction, so our choices are naturally limited.”

“Jingzhou is generally expanding to the west and south, but these popular areas either already have construction underway or have been auctioned off and are waiting for development. Even though we are major taxpayers in Jingzhou and can enjoy certain conveniences on some issues, we still can’t bypass these procedural matters.”

“If it were just one building, it would be fine, but since you require the site area to be as large as possible, regular small plots naturally don’t meet the standard.”

“So, I’m considering a location in the northeast of Jingzhou City, near the old industrial zone.”

“This area already has related industries like the Snack Market and Terror Inn, and subway lines have already been planned. All things considered, it’s a relatively suitable location.”

Pei Qian fell into deep thought without saying anything.

He wasn’t very satisfied with this location.

Because it was too close to Terror Inn and the Snack Market.

As is well known, Tenda’s industries seem to easily experience inexplicable chemical reactions with each other, especially when they’re geographically close, which more easily leads to unpredictable changes.

But as Liang Qingfan said, there weren’t many options available.

Urban planning was a long-term matter, and the purpose of a particular piece of land might have been decided years ago. And now, during a period of rapid economic development and thriving real estate enterprises, various urban land uses were being snatched up intensely.

Finding a small plot might not be difficult, but finding one large enough to accommodate the entire Tenda Group would not be easy.

Because Pei Qian’s goal was to spend more money, the bigger the operation, the better. Just one building obviously couldn’t satisfy Mr. Pei’s need to spend money.

Pei Qian even had an idea to take the opportunity of building the headquarters to clear some of his fixed asset shares.

So many fixed assets had already affected the settlement, so if there wasn’t enough funding during the construction of the headquarters, Pei Qian could naturally sell off some of these buildings, reducing the burden on the settlement.

All things considered, this location really was the most suitable.

As for the problem of being too close to Terror Inn and the Snack Market…

It probably wouldn’t be a big problem. After all, the Tenda headquarters building couldn’t make a profit; at most, it would just become an internet-famous building. As long as it didn’t make too much money, there wouldn’t be a problem.

Liang Qingfan continued, “As for the design of the building… I’ve also quickly designed a few.”

“Mr. Pei, please take a look and see which one you prefer?”

“Or if there are some specific design elements you’d like to add, that can be done as well.”