Pei Qian roughly sorted out the current situation:

The feedback for several game DLCs was quite good. Although Sea Fortress faced some criticism, they had already rushed out a patch in the past two days, establishing an account credit system that allowed players to purchase new epic weapons in batches according to different credit levels.

Each month, 500 new epic weapons would be released, and players’ credit ratings were divided into 3 levels.

The rating standard was multi-dimensional; simply put, it quantified factors such as player activity level and contribution to the game into a specific credit value, thereby categorizing players into 3 levels.

The monthly epic weapons would be available for purchase in three batches.

Level 3 players would have the first chance to purchase, limited to 100 units; Level 2 players would have the second chance, also limited to 100 units; Level 1 players would get the final chance for the remaining 300 units.

Players of the same level would have very slight differences in purchase probability, with each increase in credit value slightly improving the chance of a successful purchase.

The ratio of players in the three levels was roughly 1:2:10, with higher levels having a greater probability of securing a weapon.

For some new players with very low credit ratings, they weren’t completely without a chance, just with much lower weight.

Besides these, there were also Level 0 accounts in the game, such as scalpers who created accounts solely to grab weapons but barely played, and they had no qualification to purchase at all.

After implementing this credit system, the impact of scalpers was greatly reduced.

It was impossible to eliminate account reselling. Many players might even sell their Level 2 or Level 3 accounts at high prices, but it was no longer possible for scalpers to make a fortune just relying on speed.

The value of accounts on trading platforms would fluctuate but would gradually stabilize.

Player response was quite positive. Although many still expressed dissatisfaction with the limited quantity, the complaints had significantly decreased.

After all, given that purchase limitations couldn’t be changed, this purchase method was at least relatively fair.

At Shangyang Games, they continued to generate stable losses.

Ye Zhizhou and his team had completed the tasks Pei Qian requested. Although the side effect was improving the game’s reputation, without wealthy players’ spending, the game’s revenue had plummeted, and it wouldn’t be profitable in the short term.

On the Slackin’ Internet Café side, although the commission model for singers had increased beverage sales, it still couldn’t cover operating costs, so all five cafés were losing money together.

Fei Huang Studio had lost everything, spending all their earned money and even owing some, with Tenda filling the gap.

Slackin’ Takeout was also very quiet now, mainly delivering work meals to Tenda employees. With so few orders, the chefs and delivery personnel were mostly idle, continuously generating losses.

All these loss-making projects had just barely offset the profits from several games.

Although this cycle was only two months long, it had been somewhat thrilling for Pei Qian.

First, Chen Lei’s appearance almost turned Slackin’ Internet Café from a loss to a profit, but fortunately, Pei Qian discovered and stopped the loss in time;

Lin Wan exempted Tenda from a large amount of rent, delivering a heavy blow to Pei Qian, but fortunately, this loss was still within an acceptable range.

And they caught the mole, preventing more serious situations in the future.

Pei Qian took out his notebook and wrote and sketched on it with a serious expression, constantly calculating.

Although the system funds currently showed a loss, on the 28th, the last Monday before settlement, several games would have another sum of money incoming.

Pei Qian couldn’t accurately estimate how much this money would be, since nobody could predict what might happen in the coming week.

Based on rough estimates from the game’s backend data, he would maximize expenses as much as possible to generate losses.

Although the situation was still not too optimistic, at least it wasn’t completely hopeless.

…

In another corner of the internet café.

Li Shi sipped his coffee while observing Pei Qian.

“I can’t believe Slackin’ Internet Café is Tenda’s property, and the boss is so young.”

“What a surprise.”

As an old customer of Slackin’ Internet Café, Li Shi frequently visited and had occasionally seen Pei Qian before, but never realized this young man was the owner behind the café.

But after some investigation these past few days, Li Shi had learned about the relationship between Slackin’ Internet Café and Tenda, and confirmed from Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan’s attitudes toward Pei Qian that this was the mysterious Tenda boss.

Li Shi had been concerned that Pei Qian might be a rich second-generation heir with a special background, but after some investigation, he found no such indications.

Based on the information he now had, Li Shi deduced that Pei Qian had probably built his fortune through games, and having too much money with nowhere to spend it, had become somewhat overconfident and rashly entered the internet café business.

This gave Li Shi more confidence.

Young people, after all, were easier to persuade.

This Mr. Pei might be professional and skilled at making games, but running a brick-and-mortar business was a different matter entirely.

And now, this Mr. Pei was holding a small notebook, very unprofessionally scribbling.

What was he doing?

Hmm, most likely calculating the café’s profits and losses.

From his grave expression, he was dissatisfied with the café’s continuous losses and hadn’t come up with a good solution.

Perhaps it was time to try discussing cooperation with him?

Li Shi took another sip of coffee. His previous plan had undergone some changes.

He had long intended to invest in Slackin’ Internet Café, but was concerned the owner behind it wouldn’t accept, so he wanted to wait until the café lost more money.

Originally, Li Shi thought this process might take several weeks or a month or two, but now it seemed it might not take that long.

Since this owner was already in trouble, perhaps it was time to tentatively make a move.

Continuing to wait might risk missing a good opportunity.

What if this owner impulsively sold the café to someone else? That would be a huge loss!

Thinking of this, Li Shi straightened his collar slightly, got up, and went outside to make a phone call.

As the owner of an investment company, Li Shi couldn’t approach Pei Qian directly as it would seem too hasty and frivolous.

It would be more appropriate to have his subordinates establish business contact, express interest in investing in Slackin’ Internet Café, and then arrange a formal meeting later.

Most of Li Shi’s investment projects came to him.

Various company founders would approach Li Shi with detailed materials, begging him to invest in their projects, and Li Shi would quickly browse through them, filtering out most and keeping only a small portion that truly satisfied him.

Slackin’ Internet Café was an exceptional case.

Li Shi quietly lit a cigarette outside the café, waiting for good news from his subordinate.

…

Pei Qian looked at the doodles in his notebook, roughly calculating that generating a loss of two to three hundred thousand was quite feasible.

Provided nothing unexpected happened.

If there were another unexpected inflow of funds, things would get very awkward.

After finishing the calculations, Pei Qian breathed a slight sigh of relief. All the effort these days hadn’t been in vain—he could see the dawn of victory!

Just as he relaxed, his phone rang.

Pei Qian saw it was Assistant Xin calling.

“Mr. Pei, Fuhui Capital has contacted us, saying they hope to invest…”

Pei Qian: “Reject.”

Assistant Xin: “They’re not investing in Tenda, but in Slackin’ Internet Café, and Fuhui Capital is quite a respectable venture capital firm…”

Pei Qian: “Reject.”

Assistant Xin: “Understood.”

Pei Qian ended the call cleanly and decisively.

Invest in Slackin’ Internet Café?

Don’t be ridiculous—this was his one stable loss-making business, and now they wanted to invest more money? Wasn’t that sabotage?

Really, at this critical moment of settlement, who was causing trouble for him?

…

Outside the café, Li Shi leisurely smoked his cigarette, waiting for news from his subordinate.

According to the usual script, the other party would gladly agree, they would set a meeting time, and at the negotiation table, Li Shi would quickly convince the other party to accept the investment with his rich investment experience…

Before he finished his cigarette, the phone rang.

“Mr. Li, they rejected us.”

Li Shi was stunned, momentarily not knowing what to say.

They wouldn’t even give him a chance to meet?

Such a straightforward rejection?

I haven’t even finished my cigarette!

This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go!