After watching the video, Pei Qian fell silent.

Philosophical questions kept swirling in his mind.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I doing?

Qiao Laoshi’s words from the video continued to echo in his ears.

A top game developer’s painstaking effort and pride?

A blessing for all domestic players?

Soul-shaking feeling?

Another brilliantly wonderful world?

Damn it!

Misunderstanding, this was a complete misunderstanding!

Viewer lords, please don’t listen to this fat guy’s misleading words, buy fewer copies of this game, I’m begging you!

However, the feedback from viewers in the danmaku comments cruelly shattered Pei Qian’s fantasy.

“That makes sense!”

“Indeed, developers wouldn’t go through such complex steps just to drive away players for no reason. Thinking about it now, it does help purify the gaming environment.”

“Though I still can’t accept it, I can understand it.”

“Sounds interesting, I want to try it now!”

“I’ve been playing this game for several days, and it’s fun when played with experts who understand the mechanics! I hope Old Qiao releases strategy videos and gameplay footage soon, so more people can experience the charm of high-level play in this game!”

“I’m going to complete the prerequisites and buy it to play right away!”

Pei Qian sighed helplessly and quietly closed the video.

…

Shangyang Games.

At this moment, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin were also watching Qiao Laoshi’s video.

After watching it, the two nodded gratefully.

“Masters are among the people. Qiao Laoshi truly deserves to be Mr. Pei’s soulmate, he has indeed interpreted Mr. Pei’s true intentions,” Wang Xiaobin sighed.

Ye Zhizhou smiled: “Indeed impressive. Even as the developers of this game, we only realized this after Mr. Pei created the ARG game, not much earlier than him.”

“And for Qiao Laoshi, as a player, to understand Mr. Pei’s intentions to this extent is truly remarkable.”

“We originally thought that once the game was developed, bug-free, and with an excellent horror experience, our job was done, but we were far from finished.”

“Because for such a game with complex gameplay, momentary popularity means nothing. How to maintain long-term operation is paramount!”

“‘BE QUIET’ requires players to remain patient while also being willing to use their brains to explore the game’s settings. Only when everyone in a match is proficient with the gameplay can everyone get the best gaming experience.”

“At the beginning of the game’s release, we were all aware of this, but perhaps because we didn’t recognize the importance of this issue, or because we felt it was an unsolvable problem, we did nothing.”

“Fortunately, Mr. Pei saw through this and helped us remedy the situation!”

Wang Xiaobin nodded: “Yes, using the innovative ARG game and eye-tracking game as purchase prerequisites did indeed do a good job of screening and training players.”

“But I’m concerned—might this screening also have some hidden risks?”

“No matter what, this screening will eliminate a large percentage of new players entering the game, and since this is an online game, over time, without a guarantee of fresh blood, it might slowly become a ghost server…”

Ye Zhizhou smiled and shook his head: “No!”

“Do you think Mr. Pei wouldn’t consider problems that you can think of?”

“Mr. Pei’s actions aren’t about screening at all. Your thinking has fallen into a misunderstanding!”

“Qiao Laoshi is just a content creator after all, not a professional game developer. He only saw the current screening effect on players, but didn’t see the more distant future!”

Wang Xiaobin was surprised: “Oh? What do you mean?”

Ye Zhizhou smiled confidently: “According to my understanding, Mr. Pei’s entire strategy should be divided into at least three stages!”

“The first stage, through preliminary screening of players, ensures that the first batch of players entering ‘BE QUIET’ are all elite players with the patience to study gameplay and high gaming intelligence.”

“Initially, of course, there will be a loss in game sales, but keeping ‘BE QUIET’ in such a ‘small but beautiful’ state is more conducive to maintaining the gaming experience of a niche group and enhancing the game’s reputation.”

“And by the second stage, as the game’s reputation continuously improves, there will be a steady influx of new players.”

“These new players will also go through this simple ‘training’ before entering, and since fewer new players are entering, they will quickly grasp the gameplay under the guidance of veteran players and rapidly integrate.”

“In this process, new players will quickly transform into veteran players, and so by the third stage, the game will attract as many players as possible while maintaining its reputation and gaming environment!”

“Conversely, if a large number of players were allowed to enter freely from the beginning, it would make the gaming environment chaotic. Novice players would not get the traditional fun experience and would quickly drop out, while expert players would also become mentally unbalanced due to novices, plunging the entire game into a state of disorder, and popularity would rapidly decline!”

“In other words, Mr. Pei isn’t merely sacrificing game sales to ensure the gaming environment, but truly achieving both! He’s simply delayed the explosive growth of early game sales, spreading it out over the following months!”

Wang Xiaobin suddenly understood: “I see! Sacrificing this month’s income, but allowing subsequent income to continuously increase—a perfect ‘delayed gratification’!”

Ye Zhizhou turned to look out the window, sighing: “Although Mr. Pei doesn’t personally participate in game development, he casually made an ARG game in just a few days and achieved a Midas touch effect. This level of skill is truly beyond reach…”

“We still need to follow behind Mr. Pei and continue to work hard!”

…

March 17th, Thursday.

Pei Qian slept until noon before getting up.

Because last night, his OTTO E1 phone had arrived.

It had to be said that Chang You was very considerate; as soon as a new batch arrived, he had someone quickly deliver one to Mr. Pei.

As a result, Pei Qian played GOG until 2 AM before going to sleep.

When he woke up in the morning, Pei Qian had only one feeling.

Games are bad for your health!

Especially damaging to the liver!

MOBA games are even worse.

However, using a phone he made to play a game he created, playing a hero modeled after himself with his exclusive skin—this feeling was quite addictive…

Pei Qian could now understand why certain designers nerfed Irelia N times in a month, and why some producers were so fond of the hammer. When designers themselves play certain professions or heroes in the game, it’s difficult to design without any subjective bias…

Of course, Pei Qian had no intention of strengthening the Modist hero.

Because once strengthened, probably all four teammates would fight over it, or it would be instantly banned in ranked games, making it impossible to play…

So, maintaining the current state was fine.

It had to be said that the effect of throwing around money was very good. Pei Qian could even directly feel the player base growing.

Yesterday, it often took four or five minutes to queue, but today, when playing again, the queue time had already shortened to one or two minutes, sometimes even just twenty or thirty seconds to get in.

Of course, this was just for normal matchmaking. For high-ranking competitive play, one would probably still have to wait patiently to be matched.

Even Pei Qian himself was tempted by that 100,000 yuan prize.

But he also knew it was impossible. On one hand, Mr. Pei was self-aware and didn’t think he could reach Master rank. On the other hand, if he spent all his time playing ranked games, the company would be left unmanaged and might start making uncontrollable profits.

So after careful consideration, Pei Qian felt that losing money was more important!

After all, playing games could only be considered a hobby, while losing money was his main job.

Speaking of losing money…

Pei Qian opened the backend and checked the data for “BE QUIET.” He found that after Qiao Laoshi’s video was released, although the game’s sales were increasing, the growth was still within an acceptable range and wasn’t particularly exaggerated.

Instead, the game’s rating on the TPDb website kept rising, approaching 9 points…

Pei Qian had been considering implementing some remedial measures, but seeing that sales hadn’t surged, it didn’t seem necessary.

As for the reputation, let it rise. It wouldn’t bring an additional burden anyway.

Pei Qian strolled to the Slackin’ Internet Café’s Handong University branch, calculating while having lunch. It seemed time for some feasting—no, celebration banquets.

By his count, the employees of these successful projects could eat at Manager Li’s Ming Fu Family Banquet every day for at least a week without repeating dishes.

Because there were so many successful projects, each day’s feast could find a new reason…

On the 20th of this month, Sunday, they could also have another feast at Ming Yun Private Kitchen.

Thinking about this, Pei Qian felt a bit melancholic.

Although his employees were good eaters, they were even better at making money!

Expecting them to eat away all the money earned by their respective projects through food—that would take until the year of the monkey…

It was truly desperate.

After finishing his meal, the waiter came to clean up all the tableware. Pei Qian sipped his coffee while looking up at the sky dejectedly.

He increasingly felt that his shallow mathematical knowledge couldn’t meet his growing need to calculate losses.

Suddenly, someone sat down across from him.

It was Manager Li.

The two often met at this shop, so Pei Qian didn’t find it strange.

However, Mr. Pei had been having a streak of bad luck lately, so his mood was rather down. He merely nodded casually without saying anything.

But Manager Li’s first words made Pei Qian freeze.

“Mr. Pei, Dream Realization Venture Capital’s combination punch is truly brilliant. All other investors and I who invested in the Scholar Quickcome project bow in admiration and feel inferior!”

“So, I’ve decided that although I still don’t see any possibility of the Thriller Lodge making a profit, I’m going to invest some money around the Thriller Lodge! If nothing unexpected happens, others will probably follow suit.”

“You don’t mind, do you, Mr. Pei?”

Pei Qian’s hand holding the coffee cup stopped midair, his entire person instantly falling into a state of bewilderment.

“Huh?”