March 21st, Thursday.
Pei Qian once again ended his self-imposed bondage session, removing the wrist guards he had been wearing, and then stretched contentedly.
“Very good, progress is swift.”
“About half completed already!”
From the current situation, everything was going smoothly, and the progress could even be considered somewhat abundant.
If this pace could be maintained, submitting the paper by the 10th of next month would absolutely be no problem. He might even have time to make some simple revisions before submission.
But the cost was… Pei Qian felt he had completely isolated himself from the world.
To improve his efficiency in writing the thesis, Pei Qian had to force himself to disconnect from the internet and instructed Assistant Xin not to notify him unless there was an absolute emergency.
And from the current situation, it seemed there indeed hadn’t been any absolute emergencies.
Pei Qian turned off his phone’s airplane mode again, preparing to get in touch with some external information to see if any major events that required his attention had occurred during his seclusion.
“Hmm, Meng Chang’s promotional videos for GOG and IOI are out.”
“But… it seems they’re getting criticized.”
“Although this counts as taking the blame for me, no matter what, he’s certainly earned his commission, so congratulations.”
“It seems Meng Chang is understanding more and more. I’m very pleased!”
The promotional videos Meng Chang made for GOG and IOI could be described as steady and safe overall.
In the video, two players were selected as representatives for GOG and IOI.
At Slackin’ Internet Café, both were playing their games, with close-up shots of the GOG and IOI screens.
Then in the next second, something magical happened—the two players were surprised to find their game characters walking into each other’s games, beginning to fight side by side!
For the hero selection, Meng Chang chose representative heroes from both games: Modisete and Storm Swordsman.
Next, the two players actually had Modisete and Storm Swordsman’s armor appear on their bodies, and the Slackin’ Internet Café setting transformed into a battlefield scene, with many enemy heroes and minions surrounding them.
The two fought side by side, breaking through the encirclement, and finally exchanged smiles, creating an atmosphere of fighting together as close comrades.
To be fair, the promotional video was quite well made.
Especially the scene where the two players transported into the game world to fight side by side—the special effects were exceptionally well done, clearly no expense had been spared.
But players weren’t buying it.
It was still because of the previous reason: people didn’t want a merger!
Although the promotional video was well made, it further confirmed the news that “the two games will inevitably merge,” which was like dragging out those players who strongly protested the merger and flogging them again.
So, no matter how well it was made, those players who were very resistant to the merger still wouldn’t accept it.
Not only that, some players had twisted interpretations of the implications of this promotional video.
Because in the latter part of the video, the GOG and IOI players fought side by side against classic villain heroes from both games.
In terms of the video content alone, this was normal—after all, there had to be enemies, right? They couldn’t all be just minions.
Choosing a few villain heroes from the games to make cameo appearances in the promotional video was perfectly normal.
But many people interpreted it as: these villain heroes were hinting at us players who oppose the GOG and IOI merger!
Look, these two players who transformed into Modisete and Storm Swordsman were fighting side by side, representing players who support the GOG and IOI merger—nothing wrong with that, right?
So who were the forces surrounding them?
The Dayark Group and Fingertip Company? Obviously not! The Dayark Group had already sold IOI, and Fingertip Company was now completely controlled by Tenda, having nothing to do with being villains.
The biggest obstacle to the GOG and IOI merger now was these veteran players protesting the merger, wasn’t it?
So, this promotional video was sneaking in its own agenda! It was a veiled criticism!
Although most players were still in a wait-and-see attitude regarding the GOG and IOI merger and felt this interpretation of the promotional video was a bit far-fetched and overanalyzed, this voice did exist and was quite loud.
Because the players’ resentment had never been relieved.
Many players were protesting the merger of GOG and IOI, but Tenda officials hadn’t made any efforts to appease them or say much. They just treated the merger as something that had to be done and kept pushing forward, so it was normal for players to have grievances.
Pei Qian couldn’t help but admire Meng Chang—he was quite clever!
This reverse promotion was becoming more and more natural, with fewer traces of manipulation.
Now Meng Chang understood how to adapt to circumstances and conditions, targeting the characteristics of the project to create a promotional plan that looked flawless on the surface but would somehow always get criticized for inexplicable reasons.
He was becoming more and more reliable!
Pei Qian nodded slightly and looked at the current situation of various Tenda departments.
“Hmm? The grassroots activity is already underway? The department heads completed the handover quickly on Monday, quite efficient!”
“This list of acting directors…”
“Something seems off?!”
Pei Qian had initially wanted to praise Tenda’s staff for their execution, but after carefully examining the list of acting directors, he felt dizzy.
Li Shi, Qiao Liang, Ruan Guangjian, Yao Bo, Chen Lei… all were old acquaintances!
“Why are you all coming to be acting directors when you have nothing better to do? Don’t you have your own companies?”
Pei Qian was speechless.
His original idea was to have these department heads randomly find people on the street, or find relatives or friends to replace themselves.
Just like when Pei Qian had pulled in Tian Mo from the street to build the sales department.
But he never expected that they would bring in all of Pei Qian’s adversaries from outside the company!
Pei Qian hadn’t considered this possibility because these people were all so busy!
Looking at the people on this list, apart from Qiao Liang the chronic no-show who might be a bit freer, weren’t all the others running their own companies? Weren’t they all extremely busy normally?
Li Shi had Fuhui Capital, Ruan Guangjian had Halo Studio, Yao Bo was the young master of Jindian Group, Xue Zhebin was set to inherit his father’s mine, Chen Lei had just released a new album and was reportedly preparing for a concert in a few months…
Yet these people had pushed aside their main occupations to come to Tenda as acting directors?
This world had gone mad!
Pei Qian had thought that by removing this batch of department heads and sending them to the grassroots to languish for two or three months, he could at least give the Anti-Tenda Alliance some breathing room, allowing them to attack freely and seize some market position.
But… this batch of replacements also looked extremely capable!
So what was the point of going to the grassroots? Just to give Mr. Pei a different way to die?
“Stay calm, stay calm, always look on the bright side.”
“Although these acting directors are all capable, they might not be familiar with Tenda’s work model, and they have their own companies, making it difficult to manage both.”
“If there are real problems with their own companies, they’ll definitely put Tenda’s affairs aside and prioritize their own businesses.”
“In short, although going to the grassroots and replacing department heads hasn’t achieved the optimal effect I planned, it’s not unacceptable.”
“Overall, the benefits should outweigh the drawbacks.”
“At least, I should observe before making a final judgment.”
“There’s an event at Rabbit Tail Livestreaming, so I’ll first observe how Qiao Laoshi is doing as an acting director.”
“If he’s very successful, then it means this grassroots idea was a complete mistake, and I’ll need to find a way to remedy it.”
“If he’s not too successful, then my plan is fine and can continue.”
Each acting director had their own work plan. Some were more aggressive and proposed new plans, while others were more conservative, just continuing the previous work content.
Among them, Qiao Liang’s situation at Rabbit Tail Livestreaming was special because a livestreamed competition for “Safe and Civilized Driving” planned earlier by Hu Xianbin was about to take place as scheduled. So Qiao Liang, taking over midway, became the first department to make a big splash after the “going to the grassroots” activity.
Pei Qian felt he could use this opportunity to observe carefully.
……
Meanwhile, in Shanghai, in the reception room of Wolf Fang Livestreaming headquarters.
Zhu Yan, the vice president of Wolf Fang Livestreaming, was discussing plans for the upcoming period with Nie Yunsheng from Shengrun Group.
Tenda’s sudden replacement of everyone had indeed left these executives somewhat bewildered, unable to comprehend what Mr. Pei was thinking.
But bewildered as they were, they dared not underestimate the situation.
Nie Yunsheng smiled and said, “President Zhu, Yayi Livestreaming has also reached a preliminary cooperation intention with us. With the two largest livestreaming platforms on the market joining forces, we will surely be invincible! For this cooperation, you shouldn’t have any more concerns, right?”
Zhu Yan took a sip of tea and said, “President Nie has considerable influence. I never expected that after fighting with Yayi Livestreaming for so long, we could unite because of Rabbit Tail Livestreaming.”
Nie Yunsheng smiled and said, “This is perfectly normal. Although Rabbit Tail Livestreaming’s current market share isn’t very high, it relies on Tenda Group, and sooner or later, they’ll reveal their true intentions! Rabbit Tail Livestreaming’s recent new features are all aimed at integrating with Tenda games, clearly showing Mr. Pei’s ambition in this industry.”
“President Zhu, your ability to see through Mr. Pei’s scheme early, along with Yayi Livestreaming, and to respond in advance, absolutely demonstrates your far-sighted vision!”
“Yayi Livestreaming has already said that as soon as Wolf Fang Livestreaming takes action, they will immediately follow!”
“Many people boast that Rabbit Tail Livestreaming has the highest user stickiness among livestreaming platforms, but in the livestreaming industry, what real stickiness is there? As long as two livestreaming platforms together seize Rabbit Tail Livestreaming’s resources and poach their streamers, even if Mr. Pei is a god, he won’t be able to maintain it!”
Zhu Yan was silent for a moment, then said, “Yayi Livestreaming is quite clever, but… why should we be the first to act?”