February 15.

Thriller Hostel.

Pei Qian, whose heart was still bleeding from being backstabbed by his dear employees on Valentine’s Day, hadn’t completely recovered. He even had the idea of arranging a Thriller Hostel experience for all employees.

However, considering that this project was temporarily imperfect, this idea was put on hold.

He would let them off for now. When all three projects of the Thriller Hostel were completed, he would settle accounts with them!

At that time, all employees would be arranged without exception, letting them properly feel Mr. Pei’s love for them!

At the moment, Chen Kangtuo was briefing Pei Qian on the completion status of the second major project of the Thriller Hostel.

“Mr. Pei, all six sub-projects in the initial plan have been completed. The wheels beneath the containers can be randomly combined and moved under the control of mechanisms, preventing players from guessing which project they’ll encounter next.”

“The second major project has moderate difficulty, mainly testing players’ psychological endurance. Before entering, they must completely memorize the requirements of all projects, and still accurately complete all requirements when the order of sub-projects is scrambled. Only then will they pass and qualify for the challenge of the third major project.”

“Of course, unless players give up themselves, all players can experience the entire project without being asked to leave immediately upon failure.”

“According to your requirements, Mr. Pei, the cost for experiencing the second major project is set at 30 yuan, which means each sub-project costs only 5 yuan. I think this price might be a bit too low.”

“The plans for the first and third projects are being worked on urgently. Construction is expected to officially begin this week. However, since these two projects will have longer construction periods, optimistically speaking, they won’t be ready until May or June next year.”

“If the construction quality doesn’t meet requirements at that time, there’s a possibility of further delays.”

Pei Qian nodded: “Well done.”

“Also, don’t worry about the pricing, as the Thriller Hostel mainly profits through the third project.”

“We’ll officially start operations after all three projects are completed. No need to rush; prioritize construction quality and safety.”

It seemed the haunted house project definitely wouldn’t be completed in this settlement cycle and would have to be pushed back.

Fortunately, this settlement cycle allowed for one incomplete project, which wouldn’t affect the settlement.

Furthermore, this way, Pei Qian could invest all excess funds into the Thriller Hostel project, greatly alleviating the pressure of having surplus funds before settlement.

Of course, while this investment appeared unlimited on the surface, there were restrictions.

Delayed projects must be completed before the next settlement, meaning the scale couldn’t be too large.

Taking the Thriller Hostel project as an example, Pei Qian could dump all excess system funds into it, but the more money invested, the larger the project would become, and the completion time would extend accordingly.

If the next settlement cycle was only three months, and three months later, the Thriller Hostel still hadn’t officially begun operations, it would lead to a delayed settlement.

Therefore, when Pei Qian dumped more money into the Thriller Hostel, he still needed to consider this invisible restriction, not just focusing on the present without regard for the future.

Additionally, since the Thriller Hostel had been selected as the project not to be completed this cycle, all other projects, including mobile phones and games, had to be completed.

Pei Qian checked the time; the guinea pig should have arrived.

Sure enough, not long after, Mr. Li’s car pulled up outside the Thriller Hostel.

“Mr. Pei.” Li Shi came over to shake hands with Pei Qian, beaming.

When Pei Qian invited him to visit the Thriller Hostel yesterday, Li Shi agreed without hesitation.

He had two main objectives for this visit: first, to examine the investment environment around the haunted house; second, to probe Mr. Pei’s attitude, to see exactly what Dream Fulfillment Venture Capital’s stance was on the Genius Coming app, and whether they were planning to bail out.

Pei Qian smiled as he shook hands with Mr. Li: “Thanks for coming from afar, Mr. Li. Come, have a cup of tea first.”

Chen Kangtuo and Hao Qiong had been monitoring the construction progress here, so they had built a small office in advance. Inside, snacks, drinks, tea, and so on were all available, very much in line with the Tenda Spirit.

Mr. Li sat down in a single-seat sofa, drinking tea while marveling: “I remember Mr. Pei saying before that he would let me be the first customer of the haunted house. I didn’t expect the progress of this haunted house to be so fast, very much in line with ‘Tenda efficiency.'”

Pei Qian thought silently, well… strictly speaking, Mr. Li, you’re no longer the first customer, since Ruan Guangjian has already experienced three of the sub-projects.

However, as the first person to fully experience the second major project, Mr. Li, you are the first customer. So, calling you the first customer should be correct.

Pei Qian drank his tea, correcting Li Shi: “This is just the second major project of the Thriller Hostel. More than half of the construction has just begun, and we can’t officially start operations yet.”

“Moreover, this can’t be called ‘Tenda efficiency.’ Tenda never rushes; we just strive for excellence within the given time.”

“Strive for excellence…” Li Shi pondered for a moment before asking a very serious question, “So, are the projects inside scary?”

“Ahem.” Pei Qian coughed lightly, glancing at Chen Kangtuo, who was standing beside him. “How should I put it… It varies from person to person. You’ll know once you experience it.”

Chen Kangtuo handed a paper with the project contents to Mr. Li: “These are the actions to be completed in the project. Please review and memorize them.”

Li Shi took the paper, his eyes scanning the content, his eyebrows raising involuntarily.

There were a few simple lines of explanation text:

[Visitors can request to terminate the challenge at any time if they feel physically unwell.]

[Memorize all steps and execute them accurately during the challenge. After completing the entire course, you will qualify for challenging the third project of the Thriller Hostel.]

[If willing, you can still experience the entire process even if you make step errors.]

[No time limit for memorizing steps.]

[Special note: The order of the following six projects will be randomly scrambled during the challenge. Please don’t memorize mechanically.]

Below were the names of six projects and the challenge items that needed to be accomplished in each project.

These challenge items were generally around 5-7 in number and had some correlation, making them not too difficult to remember.

For example, the bathroom project:

1. Lock the bathroom door.

2. Pick up the red candle on the floor and light it.

3. Place the candle in front of the mirror, cover your eyes for three seconds, and then look at the mirror.

4. Turn on the faucet and wash your hands.

5. Lie in the bathtub, press the timer, and cover your eyes with both hands until the timer stops.

The challenge items were mainly concentrated in three locations: the entrance, the bathroom mirror, and the bathtub. The order was from outside to inside, and with a clear mind, one could get a general idea in just two or three minutes.

Of course, considering that the order of all sub-projects would be scrambled, to thoroughly memorize all projects would take at least half an hour.

Li Shi quickly browsed through the requirements of all sub-projects and fell silent.

It seemed… not as scary as imagined.

When Li Shi came, he had a prepared-to-die attitude.

Because he knew that with Mr. Pei’s character of striving for perfection in everything he did, the haunted house project would be made extremely terrifying!

But after seeing this paper, it was somewhat different from his expectations.

Currently, the scariest haunted houses generally had two characteristics: one was a long process, and the other was a lot of interaction between staff and visitors.

But the Thriller Hostel’s project was exactly the opposite.

From the projects on this paper, it was clear that each challenge wouldn’t take long, perhaps five to eight minutes to end, and all together would be about thirty to forty minutes.

Moreover, there didn’t seem to be any “staff dressed as ghosts grabbing people” gameplay.

This reassured Mr. Li considerably.

It seemed this project was mainly for qualifying for the challenge of the third project, so the level of horror was moderate.

With this in mind, Li Shi felt a bit more confident.

Originally, he had thought that if this project was too scary, he wouldn’t experience it and would find other ways to extract information from Mr. Pei.

But now that this project didn’t seem so scary, he could use it to make a bit of a play.

“Mr. Pei, if I persist through the entire process, can I get a different reward? ‘Qualification for challenging the third project’ is completely meaningless to me,” Li Shi asked.

Pei Qian nodded: “Of course. What reward would you like, Mr. Li? How about a Thriller Hostel lifetime VIP, allowing you to come and experience for free anytime?”

Li Shi’s face darkened: “What would I do with that! Do I want a shorter life?”

“Ahem, how about this: if I can fortunately persevere through this project, Mr. Pei, can you tell me the truth about the Genius Coming project? Is Dream Fulfillment Venture Capital really cashing out and running away?”

Pei Qian laughed inwardly; Mr. Li’s request was exactly what he wanted.

Even if Mr. Li hadn’t asked proactively, Pei Qian had originally planned to drop him a hint.

“No problem,” Pei Qian agreed promptly.

Li Shi gave a thumbs up: “Great! Mr. Pei is indeed straightforward! I’ll go in and experience it now. Mr. Pei, please don’t go back on your word.”

Both harboring ulterior motives, Li Shi seriously memorized the requirements written on the paper. After about a quarter of an hour, he recited them to himself several times, considering them all memorized.

“I’m ready,” Li Shi said, standing up.

Pei Qian nodded: “Please proceed, Mr. Li.”

Li Shi walked confidently towards the entrance of the second project, entering with an air of assurance.

“Despite saying he’s afraid, his steps are very firm… Could Mr. Li be like Ruan Guangjian, pretending to be weak but strong?”

Pei Qian suddenly began to lack confidence in the Thriller Hostel’s projects.

However, just as he walked to the monitoring screen, he heard an agonizing scream from inside.

“Ahhhhh!!!”

Looking at the monitoring screen, Mr. Li, who had been inside for less than a minute, had fallen to the ground, desperately wiping the back of his neck with both hands.

Pei Qian noticed that the first project Mr. Li had randomly encountered was the “Ceiling.”

When entering the room, visitors had to bend down to pick up a torn notebook under the table, and at this moment, a drop of water would fall from the ceiling, landing on the visitor’s neck.

Visitors would instinctively look up, seeing a board removed from the ceiling, revealing a head with wide-open eyes and bloody tears.

Li Shi had seen this head when he looked up, so he screamed while retreating, and after falling to the ground, instinctively tried to wipe off the “blood” dripping on the back of his neck.

Seeing this, Pei Qian was relieved.

“It seems the horror level of the Thriller Hostel is fine; the problem was with Ruan Guangjian…”