After seeing Xu Hu off, Li Shi said to Che Rong, “We need to make some corresponding changes on our end as well.”
“My idea is to change the brand name of Starbird Fitness to ‘Starbird Virtual Sports Experience Store.’ On the foundation of our existing smart fitness clothing rack and Doubt VR glasses experience zones, we’ll expand further by purchasing safe driving simulators and establishing a specialized driving zone!”
“If there’s not enough space, it doesn’t matter. We’ll open another store next door, across the street, or upstairs from each existing location, creating a twin-store or parent-subsidiary model. We’ll treat the two stores as a single entity, reorganize the equipment, and adjust the number of devices based on customer volume.”
Che Rong was stunned. “Weren’t we supposed to be collaborating with Hengyuan Driving School? Are we also doing this ourselves?”
“Besides, how do safe driving simulators relate to fitness and virtual sports concepts?”
Che Rong was clearly caught off guard.
He had originally assumed that Starbird Fitness wouldn’t be involved this time, since safe driving simulators naturally aligned with driving schools and didn’t have much overlap with Starbird Fitness’s current business.
To his surprise, Li Shi had barely seen off Hengyuan Driving School’s owner Xu Hu before he started considering acquiring some safe driving simulators for himself?
Was this appropriate?
Li Shi shook his head slightly. “Manager Che, don’t be so rigid in your thinking.”
“Who says that partnering with Hengyuan Driving School means we can’t do it ourselves?”
“Think about it carefully. Can Hengyuan Driving School satisfy all the market demand for safe driving simulators? Let’s set aside those individual customers who are willing to spend money and have space at home for simulators. What about those players who must go outside to experience them because they lack money or space?”
“Can Hengyuan Driving School capture all of those customers?”
“Hengyuan Driving School will place luxury simulator versions with G-force seats at their enrollment centers, but those are for recruitment purposes. They’ll also place simulators at their driving schools, but those are for serving their own students.”
“But what about people who don’t want to enroll in driving school? Or those who already have driver’s licenses but simply want to experience simulator equipment or continue improving their track driving skills?”
“Who can meet that demand? Of course, we have to satisfy it!”
“So, Hengyuan Driving School and our needs are different. They make money on their end, we make money on ours. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Li Shi paused, then continued, “As for the virtual sports concept, of course it’s related.”
“You probably don’t understand direct-drive steering wheels. I’ve researched them—many enthusiasts consider them exercise equipment, specifically for arm strength training.”
“Normal driving mode is fine, about as tiring as driving in real life. But once you switch to track mode, the force feedback from the steering wheel becomes extremely intense, requiring significant strength to control. If you focus intently for two hours, the amount of exercise is considerable!”
“Look at real-life race car drivers—none of them are overweight, right? Most are lean yet muscular. That’s because driving race cars in reality consumes even more energy. You’re not just fighting against the steering wheel but also against powerful G-forces.”
“Simulators indeed can’t recreate those powerful G-forces—current G-force seats only simulate the feeling. But regardless, playing this game is definitely not easy.”
“Real-life racing is considered a sport, so racing simulators can certainly be called virtual sports!”
“In short, we need to find ways to incorporate Tenda’s new products. This isn’t just market expansion but also a strategic defensive plan.”
“As long as we include safe driving simulators, we can effectively prevent other brands and stores from overtaking us through simulators. Introducing simulators ourselves isn’t primarily about how much extra money we make—the key is blocking others’ paths!”
After Li Shi’s analysis, Che Rong finally understood.
“I see now! That makes perfect sense!”
Che Rong couldn’t help but admire Mr. Li, feeling he’d received another lesson.
What did he, as a business owner, lack? Imagination and the ability to establish connections between different fields!
Who says you need luck to catch market trends? People like Mr. Li forcefully capture trends and use them to their advantage!
Thinking it through carefully, it really was appropriate.
Because the game “Safe Driving” was replayable like previous games “Animal Island” and “Fitness Showdown.” Once players got into it, they might play for hundreds of hours without stopping.
This provided objective support for Starbird Fitness’s “internet café model.”
If games were only temporarily interesting and players lost interest after a few hours, subsequent customer flow would be difficult to sustain, putting Starbird Fitness’s model at great risk.
But now, after experiments with smart fitness clothing racks and Doubt VR glasses, many people had accepted this model. Adding safe driving simulators could create a cluster effect.
Moreover, judging from the experience stores, visitors’ approval of safe driving simulators was clearly higher than for other large equipment, with high replay rates. This gave Che Rong even more confidence.
“Understood, Mr. Li. I’ll arrange it right away!”
Che Rong was once again filled with motivation. Following Mr. Li was indeed beneficial—sticking with Tenda meant he didn’t have to rack his brain thinking about business models.
Mature business models would naturally come knocking on their door!
…
Meanwhile, at Tenda’s Gaming Department.
After watching the recently sent video, Yu Fei worriedly asked Meng Chang, “Will this really work?”
Meng Chang replied with absolute certainty, “It will!”
On Yu Fei’s computer screen was a gameplay video of “Ghost General 2.”
The video featured a renowned Chinese fighting game player named Cai Hong.
When the “Ghost General 2” demo was first released, Tenda’s game project team had already contacted several fighting game experts in China to experience “Ghost General 2” together.
The project team carefully considered and seriously modified the game based on these experts’ suggestions. When they encountered inappropriate changes, they would organize online meetings between the fighting game experts and designers to fully exchange opinions before finalizing modification plans.
This was an unavoidable step to ensure “Ghost General 2” could become an excellent fighting game.
This group of fighting game experts, including Cai Hong, all adapted quickly.
Because during the development of “Ghost General 2,” Bao Xu had mentioned that currently, fighting games worldwide basically followed a set of unwritten rules. Following these rules while innovating in certain details would create an “excellent fighting game,” while not following these unwritten rules would result in a “failed fighting game.”
This was partly because the fighting game genre had existed for such a long time that gameplay and mechanics had become very mature, with core players fully adapted to them. Additionally, core players invested thousands of hours in fighting games to develop muscle memory. If a new game didn’t match their muscle memory and usual habits, they simply wouldn’t play it.
Since “Ghost General 2” was developed according to these veteran players’ preferences, they naturally picked it up quickly.
In the video, Cai Hong was playing a boss battle in the game’s “Battle of Red Cliff” level.
In “Ghost General 2,” the “Battle of Red Cliff” was an entire chapter divided into many smaller levels. Within these levels were different sections like “Chain Strategy,” “Borrowing the East Wind,” “Self-Torture Scheme,” and “Huarong Road.”
Yu Fei had adapted the story background of “Ghost General” based on both historical events and novels.
For example, Phoenix Orphan Pang Tong, after boarding Cao Wei’s fleet, presented the Chain Strategy, using Phoenix bloodline to activate the magical warships’ performance, giving the fleet damage-sharing effects. However, he deliberately didn’t mention that this would reduce fire resistance, and that flames would trigger the latent fire power hidden in the Phoenix bloodline.
In the game, players control Pang Tong, completing operations at designated locations while repelling enemies from Cao Wei’s warship exercises, proving to Cao Cao that this would indeed enhance Cao Wei’s fleet power.
For Borrowing the East Wind, Zhuge Liang ascends the Seven Stars Platform and summons massive missile barrages through combo moves, causing devastating damage to Cao Wei’s fleet. During this process, players must not only perform Zhuge Liang’s combo moves to launch missiles but also deal with Cao Wei troops coming to interfere.
In the Self-Torture Scheme, players control Huang Gai to protect warships filled with high-explosive fuel as they ram into Cao Wei’s fleet.
In short, all these segments contained combat content—whether cutting down soldiers, battling enemy generals, or completing specific combo moves within a time limit to fulfill story requirements.
The boss battle that Cai Hong was playing occurred after Huang Gai’s high-explosive fuel-filled warships had rammed Cao Wei’s magical fleet, while Zhuge Liang borrowed the East Wind, causing massive missile barrages that triggered the Phoenix bloodline in Cao Wei’s warships, resulting in spreading fires.
Lone Shadow Swordsman Zhou Yu charged onto a burning warship and encountered Iron Guard Tiger Xu Chu, triggering a boss battle.
According to the storyline, after Black Lion King Hua Xiong was slain by Azure Dragon Martial Saint Guan Yu, the Centaur clan and White Tiger clan fought for control of Xiliang. Eventually, Ma Chao of the Centaur clan emerged victorious. The White Tiger clan chief’s son, Xu Chu, led his people to join Cao Cao. Cao Cao then used magical technology combined with White Tiger clan gene samples to create an elite bio-engineered army called the Tiger Leopard Cavalry, with Xu Chu being the strongest among them.
Although the fleet was engulfed in flames, Xu Chu gained bloodline enhancement through Cao Wei’s unique magical technology on home ground. His body expanded and his strength became immense. He not only had to cover Cao Cao’s retreat but also intended to kill Zhou Yu who came in pursuit.
Cai Hong had to defeat Xu Chu within the time limit. Whether by death or timeout, failure to do so would result in mission failure.