Endpoint Chinese Website, the game details page, and Tenda Games’ official microblog all updated their announcements almost simultaneously, quickly drawing widespread attention from players.
“Huh? ‘Look Back to Shore’ is collaborating with a novel website?”
“Isn’t this the website serializing the official novel?”
“The activity rewards are too good! Not only is there full reading access on the website, but there’s also a reward in the game.”
“Disguise pill? Can it change the character model? Damn, nobody stop me, I must have this item!”
“And the accounts are already connected? That’s great, saves me from registering a new account.”
“I’ve been keeping an eye on this website. The books were pretty terrible at first, but recently there have been a few new ones that aren’t bad, not worse than the premium books on the Infinite Chinese Website. I can read them when I’m bored.”
“For the disguise pill, let’s go!”
Players’ reactions were quite enthusiastic.
Ultimately, it was because the rewards were well-chosen!
In “Look Back to Shore,” the character was just an ordinary male, and there was no face-customization feature yet. After all, Pei Qian had originally intended to use this point to discourage appearance-focused players.
This made the ability to change models particularly important!
There were some NPCs in the game with body types similar to the protagonist, especially some female NPCs.
When players heard they could change their model to these girls, they got excited right away!
Of course, given the game’s worldview setting, the female NPCs weren’t particularly attractive compared to those in specialized adult games—they were worlds apart.
But considering the game’s story background, after getting used to seeing various demons and monsters, any female NPC could achieve the effect of “a sow compared to Diao Chan is still beautiful.”
So a large number of players rushed to Endpoint Chinese Website to complete tasks, waiting for seven days to get the disguise pill.
Such a good item that didn’t cost money and could be obtained just by logging in for seven days—why not take it?
On the other hand, the Endpoint Chinese Website was also seeing the emergence of several excellent novels.
Under the editors’ tireless guidance, some struggling authors had breakthroughs and happened to write some decent wish-fulfillment novels.
Ma Yiqun would discover these promising talents through data analysis, use Mr. Pei’s subsidies to supplement their manuscript fees, giving them income not lower than other major websites, greatly stimulating the authors’ enthusiasm.
During the event period, many authors began releasing chapters in large batches, further enhancing reader stickiness.
Thus, with both works and readers in place, the Endpoint Chinese Website naturally entered a positive cycle!
Many players who were originally Infinite Chinese Website readers were also happy to bookmark another webpage and follow different novels on both sites.
With reader payments, the website would no longer rely on subsidies from Mr. Pei’s side and could gradually become self-sufficient.
Seeing the surge in the website’s reader numbers, Ma Yiqun felt immensely gratified.
“I should report this good news to Mr. Pei!”
Ma Yiqun proudly dialed Mr. Pei’s number.
“Hello…?”
Mr. Pei’s voice on the other end had a nasal quality.
Ma Yiqun was taken aback: “Mr. Pei, you’ve caught a cold? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t disturb you at this time.”
Every Tenda employee was very concerned about Mr. Pei’s health, as he was everyone’s guide.
Pei Qian: “…It’s nothing serious. Is the website encountering some difficulties? Tell me quickly.”
Ma Yiqun wasn’t sure if he had misheard or if it was just psychological, but he felt there was a hint of expectation in Mr. Pei’s tone.
Expecting the website to encounter difficulties?
That couldn’t be possible. It must be because Mr. Pei’s voice had changed due to his illness, creating an illusion.
Ma Yiqun couldn’t help but smile: “Mr. Pei, I have good news!”
“From next month, we won’t need as much subsidy for the website’s authors! Before the end of the month, I plan to return part of it, and in another three or four months, the Endpoint Chinese Website might be completely self-sufficient!”
After a long silence, Mr. Pei on the other end said: “What?”
Ma Yiqun continued: “Mr. Pei, your strategy of directing traffic from ‘Look Back to Shore’ to the Endpoint Chinese Website has been remarkably effective!”
“During this period, a large number of players have flooded into the Endpoint Chinese Website, bringing considerable popularity to the site.”
“So I thought about it and organized a joint activity with Li Yada. The results so far have been quite good!”
“Not only have the registered users and active users of the website increased, but the follow-up data for some novels is also clearly growing. This indicates that many players didn’t just come to look at the official novel and leave, but have stayed and become readers of our website!”
“With these paying readers, the website’s recent income will see great improvement, so we won’t need as much subsidy for the authors.”
“So I’m considering returning part of the funds to Tenda, which would allow this money to be spent on more meaningful things…”
Before Ma Yiqun could finish, Mr. Pei on the other end firmly refused.
“Not necessary!”
“Absolutely not!”
Ma Yiqun: “Huh?”
Pei Qian coughed lightly, his tone returning to calmness: “This money isn’t important.”
“With ‘Look Back to Shore’ selling so well, why would you worry about Tenda not having money?”
“On the contrary, the Endpoint Chinese Website needs the money more!”
“We’re barely at the beginning! You’ve just seen the hope of turning a loss into profit, but we’re still far from developing into a web novel giant like Infinite Chinese Website!”
“Keep this money, don’t transfer it back under any circumstances.”
“This month, whatever method you use, you must spend it all!”
“New readers have arrived, shouldn’t we give them some benefits?”
“Authors work so hard writing books, previously working purely out of passion, shouldn’t we give them some compensation?”
“Employees are so tired from overtime, shouldn’t we organize a team-building activity to increase cohesion?”
“Or, you could find more programmers to improve the website, optimize the mobile app. With so many readers suddenly pouring in, are the original servers and bandwidth still sufficient? If not, hurry and buy more.”
“There are so many ways to spend money, why are you thinking about being frugal and saving costs? It’s not your money you’re spending, so why be so stingy?”
“Hurry up and spend it. When it’s gone, ask me for more!”
After hearing Mr. Pei’s speech, Ma Yiqun felt somewhat ashamed.
He had completely misunderstood!
Ma Yiqun had been thinking about making the website profitable as quickly as possible to save Mr. Pei money.
After all, the website was continuously burning money, including editors’ salaries, website operation costs, authors’ full-time pay, and subsidies, and so on.
This made Ma Yiqun feel very uneasy, constantly thinking about how to help Mr. Pei earn this money back.
But Mr. Pei’s words today had enlightened him.
Although profitability was important, what was more crucial was the website’s development!
The Endpoint Chinese Website was part of Mr. Pei’s overall strategic layout, currently still at a very small scale. Even if it turned profitable, it would only earn a small amount of money, incomparable to giants like Infinite Chinese Website.
From this perspective, Tenda Games was already ahead, while Endpoint Chinese Website was like a younger brother following in the elder brother’s footsteps, matching stride for stride.
At this point, there was no need to think about lessening the burden on the elder brother; focusing on growth was most important.
Ma Yiqun was deeply moved, not just because Mr. Pei had already planned a bright future for Endpoint Chinese Website, but also because of the trust Mr. Pei placed in him!
“Alright, Mr. Pei, I’ll spend this money on website construction, don’t worry!”
…
After hanging up, Pei Qian silently opened his computer to check on the Endpoint Chinese Website.
Although he couldn’t see the website’s backend data, there were still ways to indirectly gauge its popularity.
He randomly clicked on a book from the homepage and looked at its review section.
Previously, the review sections of these books were either deserted or filled with criticism, looking quite miserable.
But now, when opening several books from the homepage, the review sections have become normal!
People were asking for updates, writing serious reviews, and discussing the plot.
These books’ various website metrics, such as recommendation tickets and bookmarks, have also shown significant growth.
This wasn’t just for one or two books, but generally for all the books on the homepage!
Pei Qian knew very well that there was no fake data on the Endpoint Chinese Website at present. Any books discovered to be artificially inflating numbers would be removed from recommendation positions and couldn’t be so openly displayed on the homepage.
This meant that all these books on the homepage had real data, and the readers were genuinely increasing!
That wasn’t even the worst part.
Pei Qian was surprised to find that compared to before, these novels on the homepage seemed to have made considerable progress in terms of themes, pacing, and writing style!
Pei Qian had read a few novels on the Endpoint Chinese Website before, and they were the worst of the flops, the entire text making no sense, the kind that would be decisively abandoned after reading just a chapter or two.
But now, at least the books on the homepage looked legitimate!
The titles and synopses were more attractive, the pacing was notably faster, and the exciting points were much better handled.
In short, they had the flavor of web novels!
No wonder these books’ metrics had improved.
The influx of readers was just one factor; the more fundamental reason was that the quality of these books had improved, allowing readers to stay.
Of course, the quality of these books couldn’t be considered very high—at best, they might reach the premium level on the Infinite Chinese Website—but they were at least readable.
“What’s going on here?”
Pei Qian frowned, discovering the source of the problem.
Ma Yiqun shouldn’t understand web novels, right?
After all, he was an old struggling author whose books always flopped, clearly indicating a huge gap in his understanding of web novels.
If Ma Yiqun didn’t understand web novels, then the editors he trained certainly wouldn’t understand either.
The entire editorial team didn’t understand web novels…
So, how did these seemingly decent web novels get screened to the website’s homepage?
Could it be based on data?
Yes, that was possible…
Pei Qian had started to wonder if he had misjudged Ma Yiqun’s true ability.
But on second thought, readers were the greatest filter. Although the Endpoint Chinese Website didn’t have many readers at present, the filtering effect would remain the same.
Ma Yiqun didn’t need to read every book; he could just pick books with better metrics and continuously recommend them.
“Forget it, forget it, I won’t think about these things anymore.”
“The settlement is approaching. Endpoint Chinese Website just needs to dutifully spend all the money, there’s no time to worry about these minor details.”
Pei Qian tossed his phone onto the bedside table, planning to enter ostrich mode.
In short, now he just hoped no one would bother him, and that each department would quickly find ways to spend the extra money they earned, not creating burdens for Mr. Pei.
Just as he was about to take a nap, his phone rang again.
Picking up the phone, he saw it was Assistant Xin calling.
“Mr. Pei, officials would like to do a special interview with you about your journey in creating these games.”
After a moment of silence, Pei Qian replied: “…I’m very busy, can I not go?”