Pei Qian was taken aback for a moment, then slowly nodded. That made sense! Although sending Chen Kangtuo to assist Min Jingchao in earning commissions was important, the new haunted house project at Thrilling Lodge was even more crucial.
Seeing the blazing fury in Chen Kangtuo’s eyes, Pei Qian knew that the haunted house project would be in good hands with him!
Currently, the haunted house project design was being jointly completed by Ruan Guangjian, Ma Yiqun, and Liang Qingfan. However, after completing the initial construction of the design plan, these people could essentially be withdrawn. The subsequent ongoing construction work would still need to be handed over to Chen Kangtuo to coordinate with the construction team.
Having made up his mind, Pei Qian said to Chen Kangtuo: “Since you’re so determined, then go back to Thrilling Lodge and work with Ruan Guangjian to complete the haunted house project!”
“However, with you gone, Min Jingchao will be short an assistant. Who do you think would be suitable to join him in building this Tenda Cooperation Department?”
Min Jingchao rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, and quickly identified a suitable candidate: “How about having Wu Bin come with me?”
Wu Bin was responsible for Tenda’s recruitment exams in the Human Resources Department but wasn’t the department head. Moreover, in Pei Qian’s eyes, the Human Resources Department wasn’t a key department, so it wasn’t included in the plan for department heads to go to the grassroots.
In short, Wu Bin was definitely available. Furthermore, he was a professional in human resource management, making him very suitable as Min Jingchao’s assistant.
Pei Qian was also satisfied with this arrangement: “Good, then send Wu Bin with you.”
“This matter can’t be rushed. You two go back and rest first, and I’ll release the news about Tenda Cooperation Department collaborating with other companies to see which companies are interested.”
“After confirming the shortlist, you can then choose the company you’re most satisfied with.”
“Also…” Pei Qian looked at Chen Kangtuo: “You are the head of Thrilling Lodge. When you go back, if you feel the project isn’t bold enough, always remember these four words: intensify the efforts!”
Pei Qian gave Chen Kangtuo his utmost trust, just like he had once given Bao Xu high trust. Pei Qian firmly believed that as long as he could continuously stoke the fires on both sides, these two sleeping dragons and phoenixes would continue to advance on the path of mutual torment, shining brightly!
Chen Kangtuo was deeply moved: “Rest assured, Mr. Pei, I will not fail my mission!”
…
May 7th, Tuesday.
Chen Kangtuo returned to Thrilling Lodge with a sense of warmth like coming home. No, more accurately, he wasn’t returning to his own home but to his position and main battlefield!
From this moment on, Chen Kangtuo had finally taken up arms and was about to fire the first shot against Bao Xu’s suffering travel!
Chen Kangtuo arrived at Thrilling Lodge’s office area and saw Ruan Guangjian and Ma Yiqun studying plans for Thrilling Lodge. Currently, ground had already been broken on Thrilling Lodge and the major framework had been established, but some details still needed repeated research and discussion.
For example, how should the textual clues in Thrilling Lodge be arranged? What should the specific content be? How should the specific rules for gameplay in Thrilling Lodge be set? These still needed repeated discussion!
Chen Kangtuo coughed lightly, and the two people immersed in studying the plans finally turned around to see him, travel-worn and dusty.
Ma Yiqun looked at the newcomer, was stunned for a moment, and immediately smiled: “Chen Kangtuo, you must have suffered!”
Chen Kangtuo had lost weight and gotten darker, suggesting he had endured many hardships. Ma Yiqun and Ruan Guangjian had both been on suffering trips and knew that Chen Kangtuo’s condition was likely due to “special treatment” from Bao Xu.
Chen Kangtuo smiled with feigned ease: “It’s nothing, what’s past is past, the focus is on the future!”
With that, he casually pulled up a chair and joined the discussion on the new haunted house project.
Ma Yiqun and Ruan Guangjian briefly introduced the current design concept for the haunted house. Chen Kangtuo grasped it quickly because this design concept was developed according to his original ideas.
Simply put, it was about turning Thrilling Lodge into a real lodge!
The overall style of this new haunted house project would continue the style of the Haunted Mansion Nightmare, using some common everyday elements to achieve better psychological attack effects.
In the most extreme case, adventurers could even be required to stay in this new haunted house project for a week or a month, eating and sleeping inside!
The scenes in the new haunted house were all interconnected with Tenda’s projects. For example, the dining area was similar to Slackin’ Takeout, equipped with facilities like Slackin’ Internet Café and Tuoguan Fitness, only in a terrifying and horrific style. Random ghost appearances and such were absolutely commonplace!
Besides this, there were also some areas that would be more thrilling and stimulating, recreating the suffering experiences from the suffering trips. For instance, a certain Hungry Ghost Abyss would require rock climbing from the very bottom. There was also the Yellow Springs Crossing, where one had to swim across a small lake—under the lighting, the water surface would appear strangely colored, and one could see ghosts and monsters underwater.
Additionally, there were interactive segments outside the venue where department heads could dress up as ghosts and frighten adventurers in various ways.
To quickly leave this place, one would need to solve puzzles, go to various dangerous locations to complete specified tasks, and obtain textual information guides. These textual clues were all meticulously arranged by Ma Yiqun and wouldn’t directly reveal the answers—they would require further decoding and interpretation.
What’s more terrifying was that once the decoding failed, it meant everything would reset, and one would have to start all over again!
This perfectly recreated the scene where Bao Xu had just returned from a trip and hadn’t even had time to unpack before being notified that he had to set out again.
In short, everything was designed to give adventurers (especially Bao Xu himself) the maximum degree of fright!
That’s right! The visitors to this haunted house could no longer be called visitors; they were veritable adventurers!
After reviewing this plan, Chen Kangtuo already felt a cold sweat breaking out on his back!
He was someone who had completed the Ultimate Horror countless times and knew every ghost and scare point in the current most horrifying project like the back of his hand. But even so, when he mentally visualized this new haunted house project, he still felt his hair stand on end and a chill run down his spine!
It was too intense! Truly too intense!
But that’s what made it interesting!
On one hand, the haunted house project was prepared for those seeking extreme challenges—a haunted house that didn’t scare people had no reason to exist. People afraid of ghosts wouldn’t enter a haunted house in the first place, and those who did enter wanted to challenge themselves!
Moreover, if this haunted house project wasn’t scary, how could it subdue Bao Xu?
Bao Xu had previously visited the Foggy Mountain State Mental Hospital, that horror house, with a mind as solid as steel—among the department heads, he was a very tough enemy.
If this costly haunted house had no effect on Bao Xu, wouldn’t the money be wasted?
In short, only by making the haunted house as scary as possible would it fulfill its mission and not waste Mr. Pei’s money!
However, based on this plan, Chen Kangtuo had some new ideas: “You two, I think we need to refine the specific rules further.”
“I must say, this haunted house’s level of terror is completely sufficient!”
“But I feel it lacks a bit of flexibility.”
“Brother Bao is a battle-hardened veteran; this level of difficulty might be just right for him!”
“But for ordinary visitors, this might be too cruel—few people would have the courage to enter.”
“Although my original intention in designing this haunted house was to teach Brother Bao a lesson, I still hope this project can make money.”
“It wouldn’t be professional to spend Tenda’s money to vent my own anger without considering cost recovery. That would be too disappointing to Mr. Pei’s cultivation and expectations!”
Ruan Guangjian nodded: “The current version is indeed too frightening. After it’s built, people like me with less courage absolutely wouldn’t dare to go in and play.”
Ma Yiqun pondered for a moment: “From a gaming perspective, perhaps we could offer visitors different difficulty options.”
“But this is a real-life scenario, not a game. How should the difficulty be adjusted?”
Chen Kangtuo spoke confidently: “It’s simple, mainly in two dimensions: time and number of people!”
“First, we require visitors to go through the Haunted Mansion Nightmare’s training before entering this new project.”
“At the beginning, they definitely can’t experience it for a long time—one to three hours is enough for visitors.”
“If visitors feel scared, they can call for help and leave at any time.”
“If visitors feel unsatisfied and even want to come again, then we can extend the time!”
“Besides that, visitors can also choose to enter in groups.”
“Because this place is very large, if only one person is playing, it would seem too wasteful. They might not even find those clues or solve the puzzles, just staying in the same place!”
“In that case, wouldn’t visitors completely miss out on the content we’ve painstakingly prepared? That definitely won’t work.”
“As long as several visitors enter together, they’ll become braver and will spontaneously explore the puzzle-solving content in the haunted house.”
“Although this is somewhat like turning the haunted house into an escape room, it further expands the visitor base, which I think is a setting where benefits outweigh drawbacks!”
This point received unanimous approval from Ruan Guangjian and Ma Yiqun: “Exactly! This way we can attract more visitors to experience the haunted house. We agree!”
The initial design direction was aimed at making it as terrifying as possible. Because if there were any reservations at the beginning, the final product would definitely be disappointing.
But after the design was completed, they realized it might have been excessive!
If they completed construction according to this design plan now, it would likely deter most visitors, with only a very small number of horror house enthusiasts having the courage to experience the entire process!
This actually didn’t align with everyone’s original intent for the horror house design. Only by allowing visitors to experience as much of the horror house content as possible would the horror house not be a waste!
Like Foggy Mountain Mental Hospital, where most visitors were frightened away after experiencing just 5% of the content—wouldn’t all the remaining content be wasted?
By adjusting time and number of people on demand, this new haunted house project could offer different sessions. There would be both single-person sessions and multi-person sessions. There would be both short-time sessions and long-time sessions. It would be like movie theaters arranging regular screenings and IMAX screenings alternately.
Visitors could choose sessions they preferred based on their tolerance levels. The Thrilling Lodge officials could also dynamically adjust session arrangements based on the number of registrants for different sessions, maximizing the efficiency of this new project venue.
Every so often, Thrilling Lodge could close to the public and create special sessions for Tenda department heads to “experience in depth”!
Of course, this department head specifically referred to Bao Xu and his suffering travel!
Thinking of this, Chen Kangtuo was very excited. He could already envision personally escorting Bao Xu into the haunted house project!
Just imagining this scene made him eager to invest one hundred and twenty percent enthusiasm into the haunted house project, to see it officially open for business as soon as possible!