Pei Qian had now roughly confirmed that Tang Yishu’s aura effect did not randomly create bugs in perfectly functioning games.

Though she had a special kind of unlucky aura effect that was quite mystical, this mysticism occurred under specific conditions.

For instance, tripping on shoelaces was a low-probability event, but when near Tang Yishu, it became much more likely to happen.

However, if wearing shoes without laces, such an incident would be impossible.

In other words, Tang Yishu’s aura acted like an amplifier, greatly increasing the probability of certain low-likelihood misfortunes.

Game bugs worked the same way.

Many of Tenda’s old games had bugs—these bugs weren’t created out of nowhere but had always existed. The probability of their occurrence was simply too low to encounter during normal play.

But under the influence of Tang Yishu’s aura effect, these low-probability bugs would appear.

On the surface, it seemed that bugs had increased, but in reality, many deeply hidden bugs with low trigger probabilities were being exposed.

Under normal circumstances, many bugs in Ye Zhizhou’s demo were hidden and wouldn’t necessarily be encountered.

But once under the effect of Tang Yishu’s aura, the demo immediately became unplayable.

Pei Qian was very satisfied with this.

Previously, every inspection he made was met with a constant stream of good news, which was too much to bear.

Finally encountering some setbacks was truly a cause for celebration!

It would be wonderful if every day could be this joyful.

When good things happen, one’s spirit soars.

Pei Qian sent a message to his driver, Little Sun: “After lunch, come with me to check out the abandoned factory buildings in the old industrial zone.”

“I want to plan the haunted house project a bit.”

……

……

Afternoon.

Old Industrial Zone, Jingzhou City.

As Pei Qian stepped out of the car, his first thought was: this place is so damn far!

Driving from the company, it took a full hour to arrive.

The old industrial zone was in the northeast of Jingzhou, while the city had primarily expanded westward and southward.

Mingcloud Mountain Villa was in the southeast direction of Jingzhou, where one could barely argue that there might be future development potential, but for the old industrial zone… There was essentially no such possibility.

Looking around, Pei Qian realized his previous expectations of the old industrial zone were somewhat off.

Pei Qian had originally thought that at most, it would be a bit remote with inferior infrastructure.

But now seeing it, what was with all the overgrown weeds in the factory area?

All the surrounding buildings were filled with the style of the last century, a completely different world from downtown Jingzhou.

Moreover, almost all the factory buildings had already ceased operations. The few still in use were busy with relocation and final arrangements.

There weren’t many large residential buildings nearby, and even those that existed were very old, looking like they might collapse at any moment. Probably not many residents remained.

And this was during the daytime.

If it were night, Pei Qian would likely not dare to come here alone.

“Mr. Pei, watch your step.”

Little Sun led the way.

Pei Qian looked around, his gaze sweeping across the massive factory buildings.

No wonder the rent was so cheap. If this place were to be renovated for any purpose, it would be a major project, definitely requiring substantial funds.

If the investment couldn’t be recovered, that money would be essentially thrown away—no wonder nobody wanted to take it on.

Pei Qian gazed into the distance, but still couldn’t see the boundaries of the entire old industrial zone.

The entire old industrial zone was simply too vast. If he were to rent it all and convert it into a haunted house, the investment would likely be at least several hundred million yuan, which wasn’t realistic.

So Pei Qian considered selecting a few large factory buildings, renting several thousand square meters, and converting them into a haunted house, which should be about right.

Making the scale too large wouldn’t be prudent.

Many haunted houses became too famous precisely because they were too large and too frightening, attracting horror film and horror game enthusiasts from around the world.

Pei Qian only hoped to spend as much money as possible without becoming famous or attracting too many tourists.

Therefore, the scale needed to be controlled.

Not so large as to be known by everyone, but frightening enough to at least scare Ruan Guangjian into wetting himself, which would satisfy Mr. Pei’s grudge.

This place was too remote with inconvenient transportation; as long as it wasn’t too famous, not many tourists would come from all over the country.

Relying solely on local Jingzhou tourists would not support daily profitability.

Thus, this haunted house would become Mr. Pei’s little black room, arranged for enemies in his little notebook whenever they visited.

It could both lose money and exact revenge.

Achieving two goals with one stroke—simply perfect.

Pei Qian and Little Sun walked a bit further in, trying to see the conditions inside the factory buildings.

In short, it was a complete mess, with absolutely no value in continuing to look further.

“Let’s go.”

Pei Qian had only wandered around here for five minutes before calling a retreat.

Little Sun hurriedly followed, asking: “Mr. Pei, would you like to look at other places? There are many locations suitable for a haunted house.”

Pei Qian was startled: “Why go elsewhere? This place is perfect.”

Little Sun: “Uh…”

He had misunderstood.

Little Sun had originally thought that since Mr. Pei wanted to leave after just five minutes, he must be very dissatisfied with this location.

If interested, he would surely want to look around more.

So Little Sun wondered if he should drive Mr. Pei to the next haunted house location.

However, he had misinterpreted.

Mr. Pei was very satisfied with this place and had already decided to head back.

But still…

This was a project worth several million yuan at least, and yet the decision was made after just five minutes of inspection. Wasn’t that a bit too hasty?

But Little Sun quickly dismissed this thought.

What kind of person was Mr. Pei? Would he make hasty decisions?

He must have already thoroughly understood the situation before coming, so he only needed five minutes to verify his previous thoughts.

This was planning before acting, strategizing within the tent, and achieving victory a thousand miles away…

……

Back at the company, Pei Qian began to ponder how to proceed with this haunted house project.

Creating a haunted house to lose money was relatively easy.

Especially for haunted houses at fixed locations.

Because haunted houses were one-time consumptions, most visitors wouldn’t return for a second visit after experiencing it once.

Unless they had special purposes, like impressing a date, or if the haunted house was renovated with new themes and attractions.

But renovating a place like a haunted house was quite expensive, and with no business during the renovation period, the investment wouldn’t be proportional to the output.

So haunted houses followed three models:

The first model was like some ultra-large haunted houses abroad. Due to their massive scale and reputation, tourists from around the world continuously come to experience them.

With such a vast tourist base, both ticket sales and merchandise revenue would be substantial, naturally ensuring generous earnings.

The second model was mobile haunted houses, which operated in a large shopping mall in one city for a period before moving to another city, thus always ensuring a fresh customer base.

Many domestic haunted houses adopted this model.

The third model was building haunted houses within large amusement parks. As long as the park’s visitor flow was guaranteed, the haunted house’s visitor flow wouldn’t be poor.

Pei Qian considered none of these three models.

Because he never planned to make money anyway.

He would learn from the failures of most haunted houses, opening one at a fixed location, large enough to scare people into wetting themselves, but not famous nationwide.

This way, even if people from near Jingzhou came due to its reputation, making it seem successful in the short term, it would lose money in the long run.

As for what specific projects to implement, Pei Qian didn’t have very clear ideas yet.

But there was no rush; first, he needed to find someone to be in charge of the haunted house project.

Pei Qian was too busy now; he couldn’t personally handle everything.

Besides, Pei Qian didn’t want to be involved in something like a haunted house business.

On one hand, haunted houses were too frightening, and Pei Qian was timid; on the other hand, Pei Qian was concerned that a haunted house he designed might not be scary enough.

Although a non-frightening haunted house might more likely lose money, given the choice between losing money and being scary, Pei Qian would prefer the latter.

After all, this haunted house had a special mission—Mr. Pei intended to send the enemies to his notebook here, and it all depended on this haunted house.

If the haunted house wasn’t scary and Mr. Pei ended up being counter-killed by the enemies in his notebook, that would be too embarrassing.

Pei Qian thought for a moment; with a mole in the company recently, it was time to make arrangements.

Chen Kangtuo, you’re the one!

Go be responsible for the haunted house project!

This arrangement could be called killing two birds with one stone.

First, Chen Kangtuo was a workaholic; getting rid of him would help purify the company’s atmosphere.

Second, Chen Kangtuo had a conscientious work attitude; letting him be responsible for the haunted house project should ensure decent task completion.

Besides this, Pei Qian also thought of a special use for this haunted house.

The first-out elimination system could only eliminate those who were overly excellent talents, but for the generally excellent who liked to secretly work overtime, Pei Qian had no way to deal with them.

But now, they could all be thrown into the haunted house!

Since this was a project destined not to make money, no matter how hard they worked, there was no need to worry.

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more satisfied he became. One could only say, this was fate!

If Pei Qian hadn’t accidentally met Tang Yishu, he wouldn’t have realized people were secretly working overtime on weekends, and naturally wouldn’t have identified Chen Kangtuo.

Fate was wonderfully mysterious.

However, would Chen Kangtuo feel too lonely by himself?

Should he arrange some assistants for himself? Perhaps assign a few more workaholics from Shangyang Games to work together on the haunted house?

Yes, that was a good idea.

The people at Shangyang Games had been playing horror games for over a month; perhaps they had some insights into this area.

He needed to arrange some more professional personnel to make the haunted house truly frightening, at least enough to scare Ruan Guangjian into wetting himself.

With this in mind, Pei Qian sent a message to Lin Wan.

“Select the most proactive regular employee from Shangyang Games.”

“I have a new task.”

……

……

The next morning.

Bao Xu arrived at the company on time as usual and sat down at his seat.

He opened Terminal Chinese Web, then opened a document, and carefully began making revisions.

However, after just a few minutes of editing, he sensed something was off.

Bao Xu quickly scanned the entire office, trying to identify the source of this uneasy feeling.

Finally, his gaze fell on an empty seat.

Chen Kangtuo hadn’t come to work today.

Not only that, all his personal belongings on his desk were gone!

If he were sick and taking leave, would he need to take all his personal belongings with him?

Bao Xu felt a chill throughout his body.

What had happened to him?

Vanished into thin air?