After Tenda Games released their update, it caused quite a stir online.

While players of “Sea Fortress” were busy cursing Tenda’s boss and hoping for the immediate removal of purchase restrictions on the Barrett-Destruction weapon, all other players were overwhelmed with gratitude and joy.

Various gaming media outlets were quick to report on this, and many gaming influencers jumped on the bandwagon to capitalize on the trending topic.

Take Qiao Laoshi, for example.

After the success of his “Masterpiece Games” segment, Qiao Liang received an offer from AiLiDao and left Banana Potato Network to join them.

Although he had only signed the most basic content creation incentive agreement, earning around 30 true yuan per 10,000 views, Qiao Laoshi already had a stable fan base. With the website promoting him as a star content creator in the gaming section, each of his videos consistently garnered several hundred thousand views.

As a result, Qiao Laoshi no longer had to live the hand-to-mouth existence of his past, and his income had become relatively stable.

By producing just two videos each month—one to maintain his popularity and one for sponsorship money—he could achieve around 1.5 million views in total. Between the platform’s incentive plan and advertising revenue, his monthly income steadily remained at five to six thousand yuan, which was a tremendous improvement over his previous situation.

However, up to this point, the “Masterpiece Games” segment that had propelled Qiao Laoshi to newfound heights of popularity had yet to release its second episode.

People urged him daily for updates, but Qiao Laoshi’s response remained firm: “I’m sorry, but there currently aren’t any domestic games that can compare intellectually with ‘Game Producer.’ If there were, this segment would update at lightning speed. If there aren’t, I can’t force an update and damage my reputation.”

Qiao Liang’s statement was three parts truth and seven parts lies. In reality, if he wanted to update, he could easily make videos about classic foreign games or legendary series.

But now he could comfortably earn five to six thousand yuan monthly just from his “Trashing Garbage Games,” “Monthly New Game Recommendations,” and various other miscellaneous videos. He simply couldn’t be bothered to put in the tremendous effort required to meticulously craft another episode of “Masterpiece Games.”

After Tenda released what was being called “the most generous DLC update in history,” Qiao Laoshi could no longer contain his excitement and published an article in his column.

“I’ve been closely following Tenda Games’ recent generous updates.”

“I had anticipated updates for ‘Ghost General’ and ‘Sea Fortress,’ but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that even ‘Lonely Desert Highway’ would receive an update!”

“Speaking of this game, many people might misunderstand it.”

“It was Tenda’s first game, and I even criticized it before. From all perspectives, it appeared to be a shoddily made, rather thoughtless game, and many consider it Tenda Games’ dark history.”

“I used to believe this might have been a hastily produced game due to budget and other constraints during Tenda’s early days.”

“But now I understand—I was wrong! Everyone who thought this was a garbage game was wrong!”

“If Tenda truly viewed this game as its dark history, they should have stopped updating it and let it fade away.”

“Yet, quite the contrary, even though Tenda knew this game’s popularity had completely waned with few players remaining, they still arranged an extremely generous version update. Not only did they update with five times more scenes than the original, but they also added the endless mode and online functionality I had suggested in my previous video!”

“What does this tell us?”

“It means Tenda doesn’t see it as their dark history at all. Instead, they treat it with the same seriousness as their other games, showing the utmost sincerity and enthusiasm to reward all players who supported this game!”

“Even with the clear knowledge that this DLC couldn’t possibly recover its costs, they proceeded without hesitation. The pricing remains consistently generous—five times the content for the same price—truly exceptional value!”

“This proves that ‘Lonely Desert Highway’ equally embodies Tenda’s blood and sweat. Like ‘Game Producer,’ it’s a satirical work of dark humor and part of Tenda’s performance art!”

“Looking back now, the game’s description and the text that appears on the black screen at the end carry profound meaning!”

“Moreover, Tenda is truly a company that highly values player feedback. Allow me to boast a little here: They implemented features I casually mentioned in my video. Seems I do have a bit of influence after all, hiahiahia~”

Qiao Laoshi’s column was widely shared and liked, quickly resonating with players across the board!

“So well said! So ‘Lonely Desert Highway’ had this deep meaning from the beginning!”

“Damn, was this all part of Tenda’s grand plan? What an elaborate scheme!”

“I’m growing increasingly curious about Tenda’s mysterious boss!”

“Looking at it this way, we can blindly buy Tenda’s games and DLCs from now on. If they’re even updating such a trashy game and willing to take losses to do so, what is there to worry about?”

…

Pei Qian sat in his office reading Qiao Laoshi’s column, deep in thought.

“System, do you reimburse for hiring hitmen?”

After receiving a negative response and a mild warning, Pei Qian felt quite melancholic.

What would it take to shut this Qiao Laoshi up…

You’re like a persistent ghost!

You praise me every time I make a new game, making me nervous whenever I develop something new. That’s annoying enough, but now you can even spin praise from a DLC update?

“Can I get this Qiao Laoshi banned… no, I can’t.”

“But I must make him shut up.”

Pei Qian felt a headache coming on.

His hatred for Qiao Laoshi hadn’t developed overnight.

It all started with that criticism video that made “Lonely Desert Highway” popular, ruining Pei Qian’s goal of losing all fifty thousand yuan.

Last time, “Game Producer” was just one step away from success and had even successfully invented “Qiao Studies,” which should have been a successful revenge, but Qiao Laoshi managed an extreme comeback.

This time, although praising these DLCs didn’t cause Pei Qian much actual loss, at most increasing some sales, as the saying goes, once or twice might be tolerated, but not a third or fourth time.

This was too much!

Pei Qian vaguely sensed that this Qiao Laoshi might become a major obstacle in the future and needed to be dealt with.

But how exactly to handle it…

A tough approach was definitely out of the question, so he could only try a soft one.

Pay him a sum of money to never mention anything related to Tenda again?

No, that would be too unreasonable.

If news of that got out, everyone would once again say that Mr. Pei was indifferent to fame and fortune.

Unable to think of a good solution for the moment, Pei Qian could only call in Assistant Xin.

“Arrange for two people to investigate Qiao Laoshi for me. I want his detailed information.”

As the saying goes, know your enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles without defeat.

Pei Qian planned to study this sworn enemy who had repeatedly thwarted his plans, to understand what kind of person he was and if he had any character weaknesses that could be exploited.

If he turned out to be greedy and could be defeated by material temptations, that would make things much easier.