The spacious office area contained only about twenty workstations, arranged in an internet café layout.

Ma Yang, He Desheng, and some newly recruited miscellaneous staff were intensely tapping away at keyboards and mice, clearly in the heat of battle.

Seeing this scene, Pei Qian was moved to tears.

Look, just look!

What did I say?

Brothers are truly reliable!

If everyone had a work ethic like Old Ma, what big task couldn’t be accomplished?

Pei Qian silently came up behind Ma Yang to observe the battle.

This round of the game was already in its final stages. Pei Qian was shocked to discover that Old Ma’s battle record was 10/0/2, making him doubt whether there was something wrong with his eyes.

With Old Ma’s final normal attack, the enemy base exploded, and the giant words “Victory” appeared on the screen.

Only then did Ma Yang realize Pei Qian was standing behind him.

“Oh, Qian Bro, you’re here!”

“I was too absorbed in the game just now and didn’t notice. After all, I still had to carry my teammates.”

“Come, come, perfect timing. Let me introduce you to the new employees I’ve recruited.”

Apart from Ma Yang, the others had somewhat unnatural expressions when they saw Pei Qian.

Although many hadn’t met Pei Qian before, judging from Ma’s reaction, they realized this must be the boss of Tenda Group, someone ranked even higher than Ma.

It was equivalent to getting caught playing games during work hours by the big boss. How could their faces look good?

But seeing Mr. Pei’s smiling face and completely untroubled demeanor, many of them relaxed.

Ma Yang began introducing them one by one to Pei Qian.

“This is Xiao Zhou, ranked 1780 points in the ladder.”

“This is Old Li, ranked 1730 points in the ladder.”

“This is…”

Ma Yang introduced each of the remaining nine people from this game. Pei Qian discovered that every one of them was like He Desheng, with ladder rankings no lower than 1700 points. The highest was already at 1860 points—just a bit more and they would reach the threshold for professional play!

Pei Qian now understood how that scientifically impossible scene had occurred.

Why had Old Ma, who usually had a 0/3/0 record, suddenly dominated the field and carried the entire team?

After all, among the nine other players, everyone was on his side…

It must have been tough for these 1800-point masters.

Those on Old Ma’s team had to figure out how to reduce enemies to a sliver of health so Old Ma could get the kill.

Those on the opposing team had to kill Old Ma’s teammates just enough to keep the game balanced and interesting, while appropriately “acting” when Old Ma came to kill them, resisting a bit to let Old Ma enjoy the pleasure of taking on five opponents at once.

As for why Old Ma hadn’t died…

Obviously, who would dare kill him?

This behavior was like playing basketball with the company team and then performing a slam dunk over the CEO’s head.

Pei Qian did not doubt that even those two assists Old Ma got were due to his teammates’ “mistakes.”

After listening to Ma Yang introduce these employees’ rankings, Pei Qian expressed his deep respect for them.

“Thank you for your hard work!”

“This Saturday, all brothers will enjoy a grand meal at Mingyun Private Kitchen!”

Pei Qian couldn’t help but sigh—life is hard.

These genuine investment elites, forced by life’s circumstances, had become game companions, and game companions at a hellish difficulty level.

Nine people accompanied Old Ma to play games, and they had to make sure he enjoyed himself.

If they weren’t paid enough, how could their consciences bear it?

They needed spiritual compensation!

Old Ma’s companion team unexpectedly earned a grand meal, and their expressions were both excited and confused.

At the same time, their gazes toward Ma held even more respect.

They had long heard that Ma and Mr. Pei had a close relationship, but they never imagined it could be this close!

Ma was leading employees to play games all day, and Mr. Pei didn’t mind at all—what kind of trust was this?

Ma Yang pulled Pei Qian: “Qian Bro, why don’t you play a round too? Come on, experience what it’s like to compete with 1800-point masters.”

“Now I understand. Me being stuck at 1100 points isn’t my problem—it’s mainly because my teammates are too bad!”

“High-level matches are much more interesting than low-level ones!”

Pei Qian: “…”

Old Ma, you have no self-awareness…

If you weren’t the CEO of Dream Realization Venture Capital, playing with these people, you’d have been beaten so badly you’d smash your computer…

But seeing Ma Yang living in his world and unwilling to wake up, Pei Qian didn’t have the heart to expose him. He simply declined: “No, no, I came today for something important. Next time, definitely next time.”

“By the way, Old Ma, how about that twenty million I gave you? How much have you spent?”

“I came to remind you that in investing, you must not be stingy. When it’s time to act, you must act. Invest less, earn less; invest more to earn big money, understand?”

Ma Yang nodded excitedly: “Rest assured, Qian Bro, I’ve already spent all of that twenty million!”

Pei Qian paused, feeling quite surprised: “What? All spent? You’ve spent all twenty million?”

Ma Yang nodded: “Yes, I only play games after completing my work. Otherwise, do you think someone as dedicated as me would play games during work hours?”

Pei Qian blinked, momentarily bewildered.

Although this was his ideal scenario, Old Ma throwing away twenty million without a second thought still shocked him deeply.

And it further confirmed that Old Ma was truly his right-hand man!

Pei Qian’s expression quickly changed from confusion to ecstatic joy. At Old Ma’s rate of burning money, no matter how much the company earned, what did he have to fear?

“Quickly tell me, where did you invest this money?”

Pei Qian was a bit excited.

Ma Yang grinned and opened a research file on the computer: “This company! It’s called Finger Games, translated into Chinese as ‘Zhijian Games.'”

“When I got this money, my first thought was to buy the game ‘Divine Initiation,’ but it wasn’t possible—I couldn’t contact the game’s founder.”

“Besides, I heard they’re negotiating cooperation with major European and American game giants. With just our twenty million, they wouldn’t be interested.”

“So I had He Desheng and others look around, and fortunately they found this Finger Games that’s developing a similar game called ‘Imagine of Infinity,’ abbreviated as IOI. They’re currently short on funds and seeking financing—perfect timing!”

“They’re raising 8 million dollars in total. I calculated and directly converted the twenty million yuan into about 2.8 million dollars, buying just over 20% of the shares, along with exclusive agency rights in China.”

Although we can’t use it now, the exclusive agency rights were given for free. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take them. If we don’t use them in the future, couldn’t we transfer them?”

“Hey? Qian Bro, why has your face turned pale?”

“Quick, quick, bring a chair over.”

He Desheng swiftly pushed over a nearby office chair for Mr. Pei to sit down.

Pei Qian felt a bit dizzy.

He never expected that the first blow of the new cycle would come from a brother he trusted so much!

This sudden backstab left Mr. Pei at a loss.

Weren’t backstabs supposed to happen at the end of the settlement cycle?

This cycle had just begun!

Pei Qian still couldn’t believe it: “Foreign investment… doesn’t that require approval from relevant departments first?”

He Desheng explained: “Mr. Pei, approval is indeed required. However, those lengthy review processes are for investments exceeding 100 million dollars.”

“Our investment is only a bit over 2 million dollars. It’s not considered a major project and only needs to be registered with the Jingzhou local authorities. Fuhui Capital has previously invested in overseas projects. We’re very familiar with this business, and the approval came through quickly.”

“Moreover, this is an equity acquisition, not an asset acquisition, so it naturally takes less time.”

“Of course, there are still some subsequent procedures that might take a while.”

We’re finished.

Pei Qian turned to Ma Yang and asked weakly: “Why… why invest in this?”

Ma Yang smiled: “Qian Bro, didn’t you tell me to invest in what I like? You know I don’t like many things.”

Pei Qian: “…”

There’s a big problem here.