Pei Qian flipped through his notebook. The company matters had been arranged more or less.

Things were complicated, but basically all had been delegated. In the coming period, the heads of various departments would certainly be busy, but Mr. Pei could take it a bit easier.

After resting briefly in his office chair, Pei Qian decided to look online for suitable houses.

It was 2010, and housing prices had already started to rise, but in Pei Qian’s eyes, they weren’t high.

The average housing prices in the Capital and Magic City were only around 25,000 yuan per square meter, with school district houses in the Capital reaching about 38,000.

Most people considered these sky-high prices, but Pei Qian knew they weren’t high.

Jingzhou City was a provincial capital, considered quite good among second-tier cities, with an average price of about 13,000 yuan per square meter.

In better areas of the city center, prices were roughly 15,000 to 16,000 yuan, but Pei Qian saw no need to buy a house in the city center.

Currently, high-speed railway stations are under construction nationwide. By mid-next year, a large batch of high-speed railway stations will be completed and put into operation.

The house Pei Qian intended to buy was for his parents. Currently, the social connections of his parents were mainly in a small county to the south of Jingzhou. Coincidentally, Jingzhou’s high-speed railway station, Jingzhou South Station, was also in the south, not far from the small county.

Pei Qian figured he would buy the house directly near Jingzhou South Station, which wasn’t far from where his parents worked and also not far from their original colleagues.

Once the high-speed railway station opens, it will also be convenient to take the high-speed train to other cities.

Moreover, according to established experience, the economy around Jingzhou South Station would develop sooner or later, and supporting facilities would catch up eventually.

Plus, housing prices hadn’t risen yet.

Pei Qian checked and found that several housing developments near the South Station were only about 11,000 to 12,000 yuan per square meter.

At this price, 1.8 million would be enough to buy a house of over 150 square meters in full payment.

For his parents, this would certainly be more than adequate.

For the house, Pei Qian mainly valued its residential attributes.

Because the changes in this world were too great, Pei Qian couldn’t be 100% certain that housing price trends would be the same as in his memory.

Pei Qian had also considered investing this 1.8 million in areas that might make money, but the changes in this world were too significant, completely different from his memory.

If something unexpected happened and all the capital was lost, who could Pei Qian reason with? The system? That would probably be self-humiliation.

So, after thinking it over, he decided against those complicated schemes and chose to steadily take advantage of the system.

Taking advantage of the system and improving the basic living conditions for himself and his parents seemed quite good.

Pei Qian spent half a day looking online, saving information about new housing developments, but didn’t immediately make a decision.

He didn’t trouble Assistant Xin with this, nor any other employees, as this was his private matter and unrelated to company business.

Having employees help with personal tasks would be quite inconsiderate.

Besides, Pei Qian himself wasn’t that busy, working only three or four hours a day. If not doing this, he would at most be watching a TV series.

For buying a house, it felt more reassuring to look for himself.

Pei Qian had no plans to buy a house for himself at the moment.

Mainly, he was still looking forward to finding ways to take advantage of some system benefits.

As the company’s scale grew larger, the benefits Pei Qian was allowed to provide to employees also increased.

For instance, previously, he had to raise employee salaries in waves, and various subsidies and mandatory reimbursements all had limited restrictions.

As Tenda’s efficiency improved and its scale increased, the limits for various subsidies gradually rose.

As early as June this year, Pei Qian had already arranged a 1,000 yuan housing subsidy for each employee. With the employees adding a bit more themselves, they could rent very nice houses in Jingzhou.

But Pei Qian certainly wouldn’t stop there.

As Tenda continued to develop, these benefits would surely increase further, and sooner or later, there would be employee dormitories.

Many large companies had employee dormitories; this wasn’t an excessive benefit.

Although for the current Tenda, building employee dormitories seemed slightly unnecessary, what about in a year or two?

As soon as the system gave the go-ahead, Pei Qian would implement it.

At that time, he would happily arrange for all employees to move in.

And then Mr. Pei would keep the largest and most spacious room for himself. How nice.

Thinking of this, Pei Qian felt a bit melancholic.

It was unclear whether the employees were taking advantage of his benefits or he was taking advantage of employee benefits.

Or perhaps employees and Mr. Pei were mutually taking advantage, forming a perpetual motion?

In any case, buying a house for himself wasn’t urgent.

Pei Qian was quite comfortable in his current two-bedroom apartment, and it was convenient for him to go to school, the company, and Slackin’ Internet Café. This place was purely for living, and there was no need for a mansion.

As Pei Qian was considering this, he received a message on his phone from Ye Zhizhou.

“Mr. Pei, we have a general direction for the horror game. When would you have time to briefly finalize it?”

Pei Qian checked the time—it was getting late today, almost 5 PM, time to get off work.

He was about to say tomorrow, but then realized tomorrow was Saturday.

After some thought, he replied: “Monday morning.”

…

Over the weekend, Pei Qian took a good rest, healing his heart that had been severely hurt by Old Ma.

He also went to look at houses, more or less setting his sights on two or three communities near Jingzhou South Station, but still needed to select more, researching details like geographical location, layout, and whether the developers were reliable.

…

Monday morning, Pei Qian arrived at Shangyang Games.

Just as he walked in, he felt something was off with the atmosphere.

Why were the curtains drawn in broad daylight?

The entire office area was pitch black, with only the dim light from each display screen. In front of each screen was a motionless head wearing headphones.

This scene was indescribably eerie.

Pei Qian almost thought he had walked into the wrong place, arriving at the scene of a large, mysterious ritual.

Coincidentally, Hao Qiong’s workstation was not far from the door. Pei Qian noticed this somewhat naive young man was also intently staring at the screen, shoulders slightly hunched, carefully moving the joystick.

Pei Qian gently tapped his shoulder: “Excuse me, Ye…”

He wanted to ask where Ye Zhizhou was.

However, before he could finish, Hao Qiong had already jumped up from his seat with a “whoosh.”

“Ah!!!”

“Ah!!”

“Ahhhhhhh!”

The office area was instantly filled with howls and screams, rising and falling, radiating outward from Hao Qiong.

Pei Qian was stunned.

He almost thought his employees had met with some misfortune.

Soon, a few curses came from nearby.

“Damn, who’s screaming again!”

“Didn’t we agree whoever screams again is a dog?”

“You guys, calm down. If you keep shouting, I won’t be able to continue playing…”

Hao Qiong was also aggrieved: “It’s not my fault! I was playing and suddenly someone tapped my shoulder, so I… Ah? Mr. Pei! Hello, Mr. Pei!”

All the others simultaneously removed their headphones and looked over.

Pei Qian initially just thought it was a bit strange, but now, seeing this scene, his spine went cold.

In the pitch-black room, dozens of display screens were lit, emitting a pale blue light.

In front of each monitor was a dark silhouette. Originally, these silhouettes were facing the screens, but upon hearing “Mr. Pei,” they all turned in unison…

It was too creepy!

Pei Qian quickly fumbled to turn on the nearby lights.

Once the lights came on, this eerie atmosphere finally dissipated.

“What are you all doing… drawing curtains in broad daylight…” Pei Qian was utterly speechless.

Hao Qiong, realizing he had scared Mr. Pei, felt a bit embarrassed and quickly explained: “Sorry, Mr. Pei. Director Lin told us to turn off the lights and play horror games to get a feel for it.”

Pei Qian: “…You don’t need to go to such extremes.”

Hao Qiong scratched his head, smiling somewhat innocently: “Can’t help it. None of us has experience making horror games. Director Lin said this task cannot fail, and we must make every effort.”

Pei Qian felt oddly sympathetic toward these people.

Making a horror game, and scaring themselves badly in the process—what would happen?

Hao Qiong continued: “Director Lin also said we should learn from Mr. Pei’s spirit of ‘to torture others, first torture yourself.’ Mr. Pei persisted in completing ‘Turning Back is the Shore,’ setting a great example for us!”

Pei Qian: “…”

Please don’t mention “Turning Back is the Shore” again. I don’t want to recall the experience of beating that thing at all!

Director Lin’s words are a complete misreading of me! All misreading!

But speaking of this, Pei Qian sympathized with everyone even more.

“Thank you all for your hard work. Everyone will receive an extra 1,000 yuan this month as psychological damage compensation…”

Amid a chorus of “Thank you, Mr. Pei,” Pei Qian arrived at the meeting room.

There was no projector, only a printed design draft.

Two weeks had passed since Pei Qian decided to have Shangyang Games make a horror game, which was more than enough time for writing a draft.

However, considering that the people at Shangyang Games had no experience making horror games, they had likely spent most of these two weeks playing horror games and seeking inspiration, with little time spent writing gameplay and game storylines.

This draft was very brief, but Pei Qian glanced at it and saw that the general direction was quite correct.

If they were to follow this general direction, the game might not be a hit, but making a small profit would be no problem.

Mr. Pei came precisely to change this situation.

Ye Zhizhou was quite confident in this draft: “Mr. Pei, let me briefly explain the approach we’ve settled on!”

“First, we plan to create a single-player game with a certain storyline.”

“The main theme of the game will draw from Eastern ghosts and monsters, as such themes create the best sense of horror.”

“Finally, we’re considering not giving players any weapons. In this state of complete defenselessness, players’ fear can be maximized.”

Pei Qian fell into a brief silence.

These ideas sounded a bit too reliable.

Pei Qian could even envision several relatively successful horror games in his mind.

Although horror games were relatively niche, if they became too popular and broke out of their circle, they would certainly earn a large sum.

Add to that the 30 million budget invested in Shangyang Games this time, and with this money invested, the horror effects would be top-notch.

It would make money.

This wouldn’t do!

Pei Qian thought for a moment and shook his head slightly: “Too mediocre.”

Lin Wan, who had been listening quietly to the side, revealed an “I knew it” expression.

How could someone as innovative as Mr. Pei accept such a mediocre idea?

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin quickly took out paper and pen, ready to take notes.

Pei Qian looked at the few general directions on the draft and directly reversed them.

“What storyline does a horror game need? No storyline.”

“There are too many single-player horror games. Make it networked.”

“What ghosts and monsters? We should believe in science. This game shouldn’t have ghosts or monsters, at most just maniacs.”

“And no mutated creatures, vengeful spirits, or similar settings.”

“As for the weapon system…”

At this point, Pei Qian hesitated.

This was truly difficult to handle.

Without a weapon system, it might become like “Outlast.”

With a weapon system, it might be like “Resident Evil.”

The former had strong horror and immersion; the latter, although easily played as a speedrun or monster-killing game, also had a large following.

Neither approach could be called wrong. If done well, both could make money.

So he could only choose a third path.

“Include a weapon system, but with few types and weak power.”

“The most powerful weapon should just be a small handgun.”

“Alright, proceed with this general direction.”

Pei Qian directly created a compromise, giving it a somewhat neither-here-nor-there feeling—there was a weapon system, but it was terrible.

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin finished writing and looked at each other.

Great, not a single thing previously agreed upon remained; everything had been overturned…